MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A breakdown in negotiations over a tax cut and other spending measures in Wisconsin threatens to put the 2026 race for governor on hold, with the Democratic incumbent saying he won't announce his decision on seeking a third term in the swing state until after a budget deal is done.
Gov. Tony Evers and Republicans who control the Legislature have been meeting in private since April trying to hammer out a deal ahead of the July 1 deadline. But those talks broke down late Wednesday when Republicans walked away, both sides said.
The routine budget-writing process comes as Wisconsin is poised to be in the national political spotlight again next year with the race for governor and a fight over control of the Legislature. Evers has drawn the ire of President Donald Trump's administration and winning back the governor's office is a priority for Republicans.
New legislative district maps enacted in February 2024 are more favorable for Democrats, leading them to pick up seats in the November election. They are optimistic that they can swing at least one house of the Legislature in 2026, making it easier for a Democratic governor to enact their agenda.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court is also considering a pair of lawsuits that seek to redraw the state's congressional boundaries where Republicans hold six of eight seats. Two of those six seats are targets for national Democrats in 2026 and new maps would only increase their chances of victory as they try to take control of the House away from Republicans.
Evers is midway through his second term as governor and has repeatedly said he won't make a decision about whether to run for a third one in 2026 until after the budget is done. That has essentially frozen the field on the Democratic side, while one Republican has already launched his candidacy and others are expected to get in.
The governor's spokesman, Sam Roecker, declined to comment on whether the stalled talks will affect the timing of Evers' decision.
There was optimism that the frosty relationship between Evers and Republican legislative leaders was thawing a bit as they met in secret for more than two months to work on the budget. But hopes of a quick deal seemed to evaporate late Wednesday with both sides announcing a stalemate after meeting three days straight.
Evers said he supported proposals to cut income taxes for the middle class and eliminate income taxes for some retirees, but Republicans could not get behind Democratic priorities, including lowering child care costs and increasing funding for K-12 schools and the University of Wisconsin.
Evers said it was Republicans who decided to stop negotiating, even though he supported tax cuts similar to ones he has vetoed in the past.
“I was ready to make that concession in order to get important things done for Wisconsin's kids,” he said in a statement.
Assembly Republican leaders said they remained open to more talks with Evers, but in the meantime the Legislature's budget committee would continue its work "with the goal of finishing on time.” The committee was scheduled to resume its work on Thursday. It has already gutted many of Evers' priorities, including legalizing marijuana.
Senate GOP leaders said they were confident the Legislature would pass a budget that Evers will sign into law.
Unlike in many states, the July 1 budget deadline in Wisconsin is soft because if a new plan isn’t in place by then current spending levels continue. And once the Legislature passes a budget, Evers can put his mark on it through his broad veto powers that allow him to make dramatic changes in spending.
Ending talks and potentially delaying budget enactment will only hurt Republicans and give Democrats leverage in the 2026 election on issues like education and child care funding, said Melissa Baldauff, a Democratic strategist and former deputy chief of staff to Evers.
FILE - Gov. Tony Evers, D-Wis., speaks before Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris arrives at a campaign event, Oct. 30, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles in a large-scale overnight attack, officials said Friday, killing at least four people in the capital. For only the second time in the nearly 4-year-old war, it used a powerful, new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in a clear warning to Kyiv’s NATO allies.
The intense barrage and the launch of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile came days after Ukraine and its allies reported major progress toward agreeing on how to defend the country from further Moscow aggression if a U.S.-led peace deal is struck.
Europe’s leaders condemned the attack as “escalatory and unacceptable,” and the European Union's top foreign policy envoy said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s reply to diplomacy was “more missiles and destruction.”
The attack also coincides with a new chill in relations between Moscow and Washington after Russia condemned the U.S. seizure of an oil tanker in the North Atlantic. It comes as U.S. President Donald Trump signaled he is on board with a hard-hitting sanctions package meant to economically cripple Moscow, which has given no public signal it is willing to budge from its maximalist demands on Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials said four people were killed and at least 25 wounded in Kyiv as apartment buildings were struck overnight.
Those killed included an emergency medical aid worker, according to Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko. Four doctors and one police officer were injured while responding to the attacks, authorities said.
About half of snowy Kyiv’s apartment buildings — nearly 6,000 — were left without heat amid daytime temperatures of about minus 8 degrees Celsius (17.6 Fahrenheit), Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Water supplies also were disrupted.
Municipal services restored power and heat to public facilities, including hospitals and maternity wards, using portable boiler units, he said.
The attack damaged the Qatari Embassy in Kyiv, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who noted that Qatar has played a key role in mediating the exchange of prisoners of war.
He called for a “clear response” from the international community, particularly from the U.S., which he said Russia takes seriously.
Ukraine’s Security Service said it identified debris from the Oreshnik missile in the Lviv region in the country's west. It was fired from Russia’s Kapustin Yar test range near the Caspian Sea in southwestern Russia and targeted civilian infrastructure, investigators said.
“I heard a loud, shocking explosion, and it’s normal at this time of the war to hear these things here," said Lviv resident Kristofer Chokhovich, who said he was an American. "I just want everyone in the world to know that Ukraine is strong and we don’t care how many missiles you send.”
Another resident, Ulyana Fedun, described the attack as “very unpleasant” but not scary because “we’ve been living in this state for four years.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry said the attack was a retaliation to what Moscow claimed was a Ukrainian drone strike on one of Putin’s residences last month. Both Trump and Ukraine rejected the Russian claim.
Moscow didn’t say where the Oreshnik hit, but Russian media and military bloggers said it targeted an underground natural gas storage facility in the Lviv region. Western military aid flows to Ukraine from a supply hub in Poland just across the border.
Putin has previously said the Oreshnik streaks to its target at Mach 10, “like a meteorite,” and is immune to any missile defense system. Several of them used in a conventional strike could be as devastating as a nuclear attack, according to Putin, who has warned the West that Russia could use it against allies of Kyiv that allow it to strike inside Russia with longer-range missiles.
Ukrainian intelligence says the missile has six warheads, each carrying six submunitions.
Russia first used the Oreshnik missile on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro in November 2024. Analysts say it gives Russia a new element of psychological warfare, unnerving Ukrainians and intimidating Western countries that aid Ukraine.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Ukraine would be initiating international action in response to the use of the missile, including an urgent meeting of the U.N. Security Council and a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council.
The Security Council scheduled a Monday afternoon meeting on Ukraine.
“Such a strike close to EU and NATO border is a grave threat to the security on the European continent and a test for the transatlantic community. We demand strong responses to Russia’s reckless actions,” he said in a post on X.
Ukraine’s request for an emergency meeting of the Security Council has been conveyed to the council, and six of the 15 members have called for a meeting on Monday, but no date has been set yet, a U.N. diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity because discussions have been private.
Pope Leo XIV, speaking at the Vatican, urged the international community to keep pushing for peace and end the suffering in Ukraine.
“Faced with this tragic situation, the Holy See strongly reiterates the pressing need for an immediate ceasefire, and for dialogue motivated by a sincere search for ways leading to peace,” the pontiff told ambassadors to the Vatican from around the world.
The leaders of Britain, France and Germany said they spoke about the attack and deemed it “escalatory and unacceptable.”
EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said the Oreshnik launch was “meant as a warning to Europe and to the U.S.”
“Putin doesn’t want peace, Russia’s reply to diplomacy is more missiles and destruction,” Kallas wrote on social media.
Several districts in Kyiv were hit in the overnight attack, according to Tkachenko, the city's military administration chief. In the Desnyanskyi district, a drone crashed onto the roof of a multistory building and the first two floors of another residential building were damaged.
In the Dnipro district, parts of a drone damaged a multistory building and a fire broke out.
Dmytro Karpenko's windows were shattered in the attack on Kyiv. When he saw that his neighbor's house was burning, he rushed to help him.
“What Russia is doing, of course, shows that they do not want peace. But people really want peace, people are suffering, people are dying," the 45-year old said.
Vasilisa Stepanenko in Kyiv, Ukraine, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
The body of a paramedic lies on the ground in the snow outside a residential building damaged by a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A residential building is damaged after a Russian air strike during a heavy snow storm in Kyiv, Ukraine, early Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, and British Defense Secretary John Healey talk in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)
This photo provided by the Ukrainian Security Service on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, shows a fragment believed to be a part of a Russian Oreshnik intermediate range hypersonic ballistic missile that hit the Lviv region. (Ukrainian Security Service via AP)
This photo provided by the Ukrainian Security Service on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, shows a fragment believed to be a part of a Russian Oreshnik intermediate range hypersonic ballistic missile that hit the Lviv region. (Ukrainian Security Service via AP)
A rescue worker tries to put out a fire at a residential building damaged after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A residential building is seen damaged after a Russian strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
The dead body of a paramedic lies on the ground in front of a residential building damaged by a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A residential building burns after a Russian strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
A residential building is seen damaged after a Russian strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Rescue workers put out a fire at a residential building damaged by a Russian strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Rescue workers put out a fire at a residential building damaged by a Russian strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
A residential building burns after a Russian strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
