How Trump Is Trying to Tip the Scales for the Midterms, and Why Grocery Stores Are Scrambling

0:00Nick Corasaniti:This podcast is supported by BetterHelp. Have you ever had so many tabs open that your computer starts slowing down? Life can feel like that too. BetterHelp's 2026 State of Stigma Report found that 74 % of Americans believe society still discourages asking for help. Therapy can help you sort through what's taking up space and quietly affecting you. With BetterHelp, connect with a licensed therapist online and switch anytime. Maybe it's time to close a few tabs. Visit BetterHelp.com slash New York Times to get started.

0:34Julie Creswell:From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Friday, July 10th. Here's what we're covering.

0:47David M. Halbfinger:$47 for five cans of vegetables, a roast, and one onion.

0:52Julie Creswell:Across the country, Americans are feeling the pain at the grocery store. So look, you see what they say? $1.25 for corn each? Rising food prices aren't new, but they've been exacerbated the last few months by higher fuel costs from the war with Iran. It's feeding into a situation where prices are going up and how much people buy is going down. Recent polling shows that 61 percent of Americans say they've had to cut back on what goes in the cart. That's left grocery stores scrambling after what's already been a pretty rough year and a half, but not just higher prices, but also the reduction in food stamp programs under the Trump administration and the rise of weight loss medications.

1:37Julie Creswell:People are just buying less. In response, stores are now racing to lower prices on some key products as they compete for cash-strapped customers. Walmart, the biggest retailer in the country, said this week it's lowering price tags for ground beef, corn, potato chips, and Coca-Cola. It's the latest retailer to try this. Costco said recently it was dropping prices on eggs and beef. And Kroger, which owns chains like Fred Meyer and King Soopers, told investors it was experimenting to see which products it could lower prices on to attract customers. Despite the discounts, people's overall grocery bills are still unlikely to go down.

2:19Julie Creswell:Beef prices continue to hit record levels, and the USDA predicts that prices for pork, poultry, fresh vegetables, and fresh fruit will all increase this year.

2:37Charlie Smart:The midterm elections are about four months away, And my colleagues and I have been looking at all of the ways that agencies across the Trump administration have been trying to change or influence how American elections are run.

2:53Julie Creswell:Nick Corson-Eady covers politics for The Times. He says his team has traced dozens of Trump administration actions that seem to be designed to tip the scales of the midterm elections in favor of Republicans. One of the most significant has been Trump's push to have the federal government, quote, take over the elections process.

3:12Charlie Smart:Now, it's important to remember the Constitution grants no authority to the executive branch over elections. But that hasn't stopped the Trump administration from leaning on their agencies to try and enact policies that would change the way we vote by getting private voter data through the Department of Justice or investigating the specter of non-citizens voting through the Department of Homeland Security when there is little to no evidence of widespread non-citizens voting. They've also sought to change congressional maps. And this is perhaps the most direct way they're looking to influence the midterm elections in their favor.

3:48Charlie Smart:Leaning on Republicans in state legislatures, they've redrawn congressional maps in a host of states, creating newly safe Republican districts intended to give them an advantage heading into a midterm election that, based on polling, looks to be fairly difficult. for Republicans.

4:06Julie Creswell:Nick says that beyond the push to nationalize elections and change voting maps, Trump has also tried to tighten voting restrictions, cut back on election security efforts, and continue to actively spread election-related conspiracy theories. While some of the administration's actions have been blocked by the courts, taken together, all the efforts could impact how people vote and who can vote on election day. And experts say they could also help sow widespread doubt about the results of the midterms and lay the groundwork for potential legal challenges if Republican candidates lose.

4:51Julie Creswell:A photo has been going around on social media recently showing a blindfolded man lying on a cot with his hands zip-tied behind his back. He's only in his underwear, and he is lashed to the cot, face down. The caption says, good morning, in Hebrew. It's not clear who the man is, but the image was shared by a Palestinian activist who said it was first posted by an Israeli soldier who has since deleted his account. Human rights groups say it's evidence of a war crime. The Israeli military has now confirmed the authenticity of the photo and said it is investigating. It did not say where the prisoner was from, where the photo was taken, or how many Israeli soldiers were believed to be involved.

5:33Julie Creswell:In the past few years, Israel has detained thousands of Palestinians, often without bringing any charges, and has denied the International Red Cross access to visit them. Many of the prisoners have described being stripped or otherwise humiliated, beaten, and deprived of adequate food or medical care. The Times extensively documented the abuse of prisoners at one military base in southern Israel, where most Gazans detained during the war were brought for interrogation. Israeli soldiers have frequently posted what appear to be incriminating photographs or videos of themselves during the war. Rights groups say the fact that they feel comfortable doing that reflects a cultural shift in the military, even as military officials insist such incidents are against its rules.

6:20Julie Creswell:In a statement issued last night, the Israeli military said it continues to identify cases that, quote, deviate from what is expected of IDF soldiers, and that actions would be taken against those involved.

6:38Julie Creswell:And finally...

6:40Karen Yourish:I got my first try at flying, just pure flying, by flying my Superman cape off my daddy's barn when I was about five years old.

6:50Julie Creswell:Wally Funk, who once broke the record for the oldest person to go to space, died this week at age 87. Born Mary Wallace Funk. As a kid, she wanted to be an astronaut. And in the early 1960s, it seemed like maybe there was a chance. She was among a group of women known as the Mercury 13 who were put through rigorous tests to determine how women might fare in space.

7:15Karen Yourish:They were testing us to our extremes, to how much can we take of 10-degree water being injected into our ears, and how fast is our eye going to stare at a particular object?

7:29Julie Creswell:Funk passed all the tests, but NASA continued to only send men into space until the 1980s. Instead, Funk leaned into her love of flying. She worked as a commercial pilot, owned a flying school, and became the first woman to work as an inspector for the FAA, overseeing investigations into plane crashes. But she never gave up on her dream. And in 2021, at age 82, two, one. She boarded a rocket built by Jeff Bezos' company, Blue Origin. That earned her the record for oldest person to go to space, a title she held for a few months until a then 90-year-old William Shatner of Star Trek fame unseated her.

8:13Julie Creswell:Wally, what was it like? I can't tell you. At a news conference after her big flight, Funk said the only problem with her trip to space was that it was too short. I loved it. We had a great time. It was wonderful. I want to go again fast. Those are the headlines. If you'd like to play the Friday News Quiz, stick around. It's just after these credits. The show is made by Will Jarvis, Margaret Kadifa, Jake Lucas, Jan Stewart, and me, Tracy Mumford. Original theme by Dan Powell. Special thanks to Isabella Anderson, Sam Dolnik, Miles McKinley, Zoe Murphy, and Chris Wood.

8:53Julie Creswell:Now, time for the quiz. Every week, we ask you a few questions about stories The Times has been covering. Can you get them all? First question.

9:03Richard Goldstein:Yowza, this is the cost of a one-bed, one-bath apartment in San Francisco. $5 ,000.

9:09Julie Creswell:The housing market in San Francisco is wild.

9:13Richard Goldstein:So now we are paying just under$8K. I think it's like 70, a little over$7 ,800.

9:19Julie Creswell:Fueled by tech money, the city's average rent has recently passed New York City's to become the most expensive in the country. Buying is not any better. And thanks to the AI boom, it seems to be getting much, much worse. And much more, are you kidding me? Now, some sellers are not just asking for cash, but also for what?

9:49The answer?

9:51Julie Creswell:Stock. Basically, with AI giants like Anthropic and OpenAI about to go public, sellers are trying to get those companies' employees, who want to buy their house, to hand over some of their stock. Stock, which will likely go up, up, up in value when those IPOs happen. On top of the stock requests, houses in the Bay Area are now regularly going for a million dollars over asking. And that might just be the start of things, since, according to one estimate, the flurry of new AI-related IPOs could create more than 16 ,000 new millionaires.

10:34Julie Creswell:All right, next question. A new national poll from Gallup published this week found that more Americans than ever are taking weight loss drugs. Just two years ago, 3 % of people in the U.S. said they were taking one of the obesity drugs, like Ozempic or Wagovi. Since then, that number has surged as prices for the medications have dropped and they've been cleared to treat other conditions like liver disease and sleep apnea. Your question, what percent of Americans now say they are currently on one of these drugs?

11:11The answer?

11:13Julie Creswell:The number of people who say they use them has almost quadrupled to 11%. Data also shows that the obesity rate in the U.S. is falling, dropping to just over 36 % of adults from a peak of almost 40 % a few years ago. Beyond that, rates of diabetes diagnoses, which had been climbing for over a decade, are now holding steady. And last question.

11:40Kim Bhasin:Good morning, everyone. And thank you for joining us for the 78th Emmy Awards nominations announcement.

11:46Julie Creswell:The Emmy nominations are now out, the Oscars of television. And there are a lot of powerhouses in the mix who have won before, like the medical drama The Pit, which has the most nods this year at a whopping 25. But I'm going to ask you about some nominees who have never won. This year, there are two people up for Best Actor in a Comedy Series who have been in the industry for decades but have never won this prize. Let's see if you can name them. First.

12:16Karen Yourish:People say I am the best boss.

12:18Julie Creswell:An actor best known for playing the manager you do not want to have.

12:22Karen Yourish:They go, God, we've never worked in a place like this before. You're hilarious.

12:29Julie Creswell:The answer? Steve Carell. And despite his huge run on The Office, he has never gotten an acting Emmy. But he is up for it now for the college campus comedy Rooster. And next one.

12:42David M. Halbfinger:You know, I spent all day looking for some cash to make this podcast special. You would not call him tall. No one wants a murder podcast about real estate.

12:55Julie Creswell:That is Martin Short. SNL helped launch him to fame all the way back in the 80s, but it is his role on Only Murders in the Building that could get him his first acting Emmy. The winners will be announced in September. That's it for the news quiz. One little bonus question for you. Do you know why they're called the Emmy Awards? If you think you know the answer, send us an email at theheadlines at nytimes.com. I'm Tracy Mumford. The show will be back on Monday.