In fairness to Dream and Valkyries, scheduling dilemma shouldn't overshadow Game 6 of WNBA Finals

Something amazing is going to happen on Thursday. Either the Golden State Valkyries will win a WNBA championship in just their second year of existence, or the Atlanta Dream will force the first Game 7 in league history.

This should be a moment for the WNBA to savor.

Instead, it's already been tainted — or even worse.

It is, at best, unfortunate that Game 6 of the WNBA Finals between the Valkyries and Dream will tip off at 12:30 p.m. local time in Atlanta on Thursday — 9:30 a.m. in San Francisco, Golden State's home. Many kids will be in school. Many adults will be at work. It's not ideal.

The NBA, the WNBA and the teams involved all spent days trying to find a better way. There evidently wasn't one.

“I’d like to see it be a national holiday for all WNBA championship games,” Atlanta coach Karl Smesko said. “I hope everybody gets to see it, somehow. I know for some people, it's not realistic. They have jobs. They won't be able to make it. I'm disappointed for that, but I'm really hopeful that as many people can see the game as possible.”

At issue: Atlanta and Cleveland play an NBA game at State Farm Arena on Thursday night. The Dream want to play there to accommodate a bigger crowd, after playing their home games for most of the season in a 3,500-seat facility. It would have required moving the Hawks-Cavaliers game to another day (which almost certainly would have sparked a domino effect of other games needing to be moved) or changing the WNBA Finals schedule (which wouldn't have been ideal, either).

Nothing was simple:

— Just move Game 6 to Friday? USA Network had other broadcast responsibilities such as the Breeders' Cup and WWE that night, and then there also would have been an issue about what to do with a Game 7, if necessary, on Saturday.

— Push the Hawks-Cavs game to another day? That could lead to one of those teams playing another back-to-back or even a stretch of four games in five nights, which neither would want. There have been many examples of the NBA changing the date of a game because of severe weather or other issues — those are rarely ideal, and certainly not voluntary.

— Let the Hawks and Cavs play the matinee game Thursday? Both have home games starting at 7 p.m. Wednesday. Cleveland would play that game, then fly to Atlanta, get to its hotel after midnight and have to play a game no more than 12 hours later, which wouldn't be allowed by current NBA rules.

— Play on Atlanta's “usual” home court on Thursday night? It would have been a great atmosphere, sure, but nobody wanted the tiny crowd. In the future, State Farm will be the full-time home of the Dream, which means potential WNBA Finals dates won't be in conflict with Hawks games. (Such is already the case with other arenas that play host to both WNBA and NBA teams.)

So, the solution: The Cavs-Hawks game got moved back to 8 p.m., and Game 6 of the WNBA Finals precedes it in the same arena at 12:30.

“It’s better than, you know, having it at the YMCA that night in front of 75 people," Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “They're doing what they've got to do.”

The Valkyries, for their part, have some ideas on how fans can manage the early start time.

“Call in sick,” guard Veronica Burton said. “I recommend it.”

Added forward Kiah Stokes: “Don’t y’all know how to fake a cough?”

They're handling it with a sense of humor. So, too, is Smesko, with his tongue-in-cheek plea for a national holiday to be declared.

It's going to be either the last game, or the next-to-last game, in a season that the WNBA can point to as a sign of continued growth. There were more games than ever, which meant more people showed up than ever — around 3.8 million this season and counting, including playoffs. But it wasn't just a record total: The average number of fans per game will end up around 11,500, another record and up about 4.5% over last year.

Las Vegas star A'ja Wilson won her record fifth MVP award. The league set records for points and 3-pointers per game. A new star was born, with Minnesota's Olivia Miles the unanimous pick as rookie of the year. Atlanta's Angel Reese was defensive player of the year, cementing her status as someone who absolutely moves the WNBA needle. In Indiana, Kelsey Mitchell and Caitlin Clark scored more points than any WNBA backcourt ever in a season.

And the playoffs were unpredictable, plus will end with a new champion.

Those should be the things to remember when this season ends — not a 12:30 p.m. start time. And while it makes sense to ask if a weekday afternoon game is fair to the teams or the league, it would be even more unfair to let the angst about it overshadow the game itself.

On Basketball analyzes the biggest topics in the NBA and WNBA during the season.

See AP’s full WNBA coverage here

Atlanta Dream guard Rhyne Howard (10) celebrates scoring during the first half of Game 3 of the WNBA basketball finals against the Golden State Valkyries on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Atlanta Dream forward Brionna Jones (24) and Atlanta Dream guard Rhyne Howard (10) react after a foul during the second half of Game 3 of the WNBA basketball finals against the Golden State Valkyries on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Golden State Valkyries guard Veronica Burton, foregound middle, celebrates with forward Cecilia Zandalasini (24), forward Gabby Williams, second from left, center Kiah Stokes, middle rear, and guard Tiffany Hayes (15) during the second half of Game 5 of the WNBA basketball finals against the Atlanta Dream, Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Golden State Valkyries guard Tiffany Hayes (15) celebrates after scoring next to Atlanta Dream forward Angel Reese (5) during the second half of Game 5 of the WNBA basketball finals, Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

President Donald Trump takes his midterm campaign blitz to Texas, where Senate candidate Ken Paxton is locked in a tight race against Democrat James Talarico. And Secretary of State Marco Rubio will join Trump to show off a newly arrived oil tanker filled with Venezuelan crude to be processed in Texas refineries, according to a congressional aide and two U.S. officials.

Meanwhile, the Iran war, which Trump often describes as a “little detour,” has emerged as an unforced liability for a president who promised to keep the U.S. out of foreign wars. Republican strategists privately acknowledge it’s severely damaging party efforts to retain control of Congress as gasoline price hikes drive up costs across the economy and new hostilities emerge.

And two former FBI officials charged with lying to Congress about investigations involving Hunter Biden have a preliminary hearing Tuesday. Lawyers for Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides call the charges baseless and politically motivated, the latest in a series of splashy investigative actions by the Justice Department as Americans go to vote.

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Iran’s U.N. deputy Ambassador Gholamhossein Darzi responded with an attack on the council for its silence after the attacks, and on the U.S. and Israel for their “wars of aggression against Iran.” He kept repeating that Iran’s nuclear program and facilities are peaceful.

Darzi accused the council of blaming the victim not the aggressor, saying: “Israel possesses nuclear weapons, yet your concern is the absence of inspectors in Iran.” Israel has never confirmed that it possesses nuclear weapons.

U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz then asked for the floor, calling Iran a “brutal dictatorship” that “shamelessly massacred 40,000 of its own citizens just this year.”

“We’ve heard tireless allegations against the United States,” he said. “What we have not heard today is an explanation for Iran’s continued failure to satisfy its safeguard obligations.”

Darzi asked for the floor, accusing the U.S. of “blatant” acts of aggression and war crimes against the Iranian people – but never mentioning Iran’s unanswered nuclear questions or the demand to return IAEA inspectors.idate for Senate from Iowa faces criticism for new ad on transgender issues

Josh Turek, a Democratic state representative seeking Iowa’s U.S. Senate seat, recently released a television advertisement outlining his positions on transgender issues that has drawn swift backlash from LGBTQ+ advocates.

In the video, Turek is talking directly to the camera and says he opposes “males competing in female sports” and “taxpayers paying for sex changes.”

“It’s time to stop the nonsense from both extremes and focus on lowering costs for Iowans,” Turek says.

Turek is up against Republican Ashley Hinson. The new advertisement is among several his campaign is running in the final week and follows Republican attacks on the issue, including from a political group backed by billionaire Elon Musk.

Turek is among a set of Democratic midterm candidates who are demonstrating the party’s evolution on policies targeting transgender people, including other Iowa Democrats such as Rob Sand and Sarah Trone Garriott. It’s an approach that’s frustrating progressive groups.

An Iowa-based LGBTQ+ rights group denounced Turek’s ad on Monday. Max Mowitz, executive director of One Iowa Action, said in a statement that it buys into the “harmful and immoral” characterization of transgender women “as dangerous or unworthy of medically necessary care.”

The effort will support voters who historically have faced obstacles to casting their ballot.

The roughly 250 volunteers will watch for delays in opening polling stations or early closures, internet outages or malfunctioning voting equipment. They will be in eight states, including Alaska and Michigan, both of which have competitive U.S. House and Senate races.

“Native Americans are poised to be incredibly powerful this upcoming election,” said Jacqueline De León, the senior staff attorney at the Native American Rights Fund, which has filed several lawsuits over the years to increase Native American voter access.

De León also notes that mail ballots from remote areas might take longer to reach election offices, but that doesn’t mean those voters should be suspected of voter fraud.

“Native votes are not suspicious just because they take longer to arrive,” De León said. “Those are systemic failures.”

The U.S. military attacked a boat accused of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, killing five people, as the Trump administration continues its campaign against alleged traffickers in Latin America.

The latest attack brings the number of people who have been killed in boat strikes by the U.S. military to at least 240 during more than 70 strikes. The Trump administration began targeting those it calls “narcoterrorists” in early September 2025.

As with most of the military’s statements on strikes in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, U.S. Southern Command said it targeted the alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes and that “intelligence revealed the vessel’s active involvement in narco-trafficking.”

The military did not provide evidence that the vessel was ferrying drugs. A video posted on X showed a small boat in the water before it was enveloped by an explosion.

A federal district judge in Los Angeles will hear arguments Tuesday about whether California officials should count roughly 20,000 ballots that the Department of Justice alleges likely belong to noncitizens illegally registered to vote.

The federal government sued California in mid-October, after the state refused to separate the flagged ballots, saying local officials were knowingly counting potentially illegal votes. The state disputed the accuracy of the federal government’s list and argued that to separate ballots while voting was underway could potentially disenfranchise citizens.

Hundreds of thousands of California’s 23 million voters have already cast mail-in ballots.

The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index rose 7.5 points to 91.7 in October, up from 84.2 in September, and Trump seemed pleased with that report coming exactly one week before the Nov. 3 midterm elections.

September’s reading was the lowest in the board’s survey since April 2014, and below the lowest level reached during the pandemic.

Trump commented at Joint Base Andrews before a flight to Texas.

“It’s up at a record number, a record increase, 7.5%,” he told reporters accompanying him on the trip. “So that’s a great, that’s a great number. You don’t see that happen very often. Not to that extent.”

Confidence in the U.S. economy rebounded somewhat in October as gas prices fell modestly, though it still costs more to fill up a tank than last year at this time, according to the Conference Board.

“I will if they are honest,” Trump said before departing for Texas to campaign for Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton.

The Trump administration has repeatedly raised concern about the vote in the run-up to Election Day.

The administration on Monday asked Washington state to set aside any ballots received from more than 400 people it alleges registered to vote without U.S. citizenship, less than two weeks after making a similar demand in California.

Last month, the Supreme Court blocked the administration effort to have the U.S. Postal Service screen mail ballots.

Markwayne Mullin, the homeland security secretary, has asked the Justice Department to examine whether a commonly used voting machine can be trusted to create a verifiable record.

The president confirmed while on his way to Texas for a campaign rally Tuesday that he’ll make a stop to welcome the arrival of a Venezuelan oil tanker to the United States.

“We’re going to accept a million barrels of oil, and I’m going to give it to you people to use it the way you want,” Trump said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to join Trump. The Venezuelan crude is expected to be processed at Texas refineries. Trump said the oil was given to the U.S. by the Venezuelan government as a “gift.”

The U.S. president ordered a military operation in January that led to the arrest of President Nicolás Maduro, now held in New York on federal charges including drug trafficking.

The report from the Democratic leadership of the Joint Economic Committee released Tuesday made clear how hard it is for cyberscam victims to get their money back, despite the quickening pace of announced seizures. Americans reported nearly $18 billion in cyberfraud losses to the FBI last year, far exceeding reported recoveries.

Citing findings from a yearlong investigation into global scams by The Associated Press and FRONTLINE, the report urges a coordinated federal strategy, centralized victim support and stronger partnerships with private industry. It also raises concern about the impact of cuts to overseas aid on the global fight against scams.

“Transnational criminal organizations run massive compounds that exploit U.S. technology, including AI, to carry out scams against Americans with devastating consequences,” Sen. Maggie Hassan said in an email.

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Ahead of the UN’s annual vote condemning the U.S. embargo on Cuba, representatives from Washington and Havana exchanged barbs on the floor of the General Assembly.

In a stunning break from diplomatic decorum, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez walked up to the podium while U.S. ambassador Mike Waltz was speaking about what he called the communist government’s corruption.

“You are a liar!” Rodríguez yelled.

Waltz responded, “You understand who you’re dealing with? This is America. Back up.”

Federal prosecutors said Edwin Brant Frost IV, 69, ran a Ponzi scheme that defrauded more than 300 victims of more than $76 million. He pleaded guilty to wire fraud after First Liberty Building and Loan collapsed.

“I have messed up a lot of good people’s lives,” Frost said at his sentencing on Monday, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Investing in First Liberty was often pitched on talk shows hosted by conservatives, including Erick Erickson, Hugh Hewitt and Charlie Kirk. Frost, an evangelical powerbroker, promised returns of up to 16% while skimming $17 million for himself, his relatives and their affiliated companies, and loaned millions more that borrowers never repaid, a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit said.

The firm’s collapse rocked the religious and political networks that fed cash to the business. Investigators said Frost spent $570,000 from investor funds on political contributions as he and his family favored far-right candidates in Georgia.

Texans gave Libertarian Ted Brown only 2.3% of the vote in 2024, when Republican Sen. Ted Cruz easily glided to another term. But this year’s Democratic nominee James Talarico is in a tight face off against Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

And Wayne Hamilton, a former executive director of the Texas Republican Party, said Paxton’s history of legal and ethical problems could have some conservatives looking to the Libertarian this time as they cast a protest vote.

With a budget of about $30,000, Brown is under no illusions he can compete with Paxton and Talarico in a race drawing a combined advertising total of roughly $390 million since the May 26 primary, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact. But he dismisses the criticism that he’s merely a spoiler.

“They could avoid that problem by nominating a better candidate,” he said.

In Ohio, former Libertarian Party national chairman Bill Redpath could potentially pull enough votes from Republican Sen. Jon Husted to enable Democratic former Sen. Sherrod Brown to win.

An organization with Republican ties is trying to counter that possibility by distributing fliers promoting a socialist candidate in an apparent effort to pull support from Brown.

Enough Promises Ohio PAC, which sent out the fliers, received $2.5 million from Conservative Americans PAC, according to federal disclosure reports.

Republicans are particularly concerned in Texas, Ohio, Kansas and Iowa, where even a few percentage points for a third party could swing the outcome.

Some GOP strategists fear more conservatives could cast protest ballots over the unpopular war with Iran and Trump’s expansion of executive power. Both issues grate on an anti-establishment slice of the American right and could fuel the Libertarian Party’s message of nonintervention and limited centralized authority.

“Libertarians, we believe, could draw enough votes to affect the outcome in a number of these races,” said Republican former Ohio state lawmaker Gene Krebs, who is working on a project to diminish the impact of spoiler candidates.

Trump just appeared in Kansas and is scheduled to hold rallies in Texas on Tuesday, Ohio on Wednesday and Iowa on Sunday.

Keeping the U.S. out of “forever wars” was a central tenet of the Republican leader’s “America First” campaign pledge.

Sean O’Brien, 21, a student at Auburn University in Alabama, said Trump’s decision to wage war against Iran left him “very disillusioned.”

O’Brien even attended the Conservative Political Action Conference, a major gathering for the political right, earlier this year. Now, he’s rethinking his allegiances.

“At the moment, I expect to vote Democratic,” said O’Brien, who considers himself an independent.

Early in the summer, five Republican strategists involved in key races or advising campaign leadership told The Associated Press they’d begun seeing warning signs that the war could hurt their candidates if it didn’t wind down soon.

Trump appeared more confident in June after forging an interim ceasefire agreement with Tehran, but the deal quickly unraveled.

At that point, campaign officials in some battleground races became more forceful during internal conversations about how House districts Trump won easily were becoming competitive, said the Republican strategists, who were not authorized to comment publicly on the internal party data and spoke on condition of anonymity.

By Labor Day, they said internal campaign polling showed voters were more frequently tying the war to higher prices for groceries and travel, and that while Trump dismisses the affordability crisis as a hoax, his argument has not resonated with voters.

Diesel prices continue to hover near all-time highs in the U.S., yet Trump has consistently downplayed the conflict’s economic impact. For months, he’s been insisting that the war’s end is near, only to threaten now that a new round of bombing could very well be in the offing once the election passes.

And he dismisses elevated gas prices as a temporary inconvenience, worth paying to defang Iran. At a weekend rally in Michigan, Trump said he has no regrets.

“Somebody said, ‘If you had it to do again ... ,’” Trump told the friendly audience. “I said, ‘Are you kidding?’ I thought gas would be double or triple. And it’s a small price to pay for taking a nuclear weapon away from maniacs.”

Nearly eight months into a war that Trump predicted would last a matter of weeks, high energy costs and voter fatigue are weighing heavily on Republican candidates.

Regardless of the outcome of the Nov. 3 elections, an AP-NORC poll published last week found that voters from both major political parties want the next Congress to focus on making life more affordable and ending the Iran war, which has had enormous ramifications for the global economy.

The situation has only become more complicated as Republicans make their case to voters. The conflict has spread, with Iran-backed Houthi rebels carrying out attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure and airports. Now the State Department is reducing staffing at four U.S. embassies in the Middle East after receiving intelligence that Iran has stepped up efforts to target Americans.

GOP strategists privately acknowledge that the Iran war is severely damaging their push to retain control of Congress for the final two years of Trump’s presidency.

They point to voters like Noor Dubow, who says he’s regularly voted for Republicans who align with his economic views, even though he’s never been a fan of Donald Trump or the president’s dehumanizing rhetoric toward immigrants. Not this year — Dubow says his early midterm election ballot tipped more toward Democrats because of his frustration over Trump’s war with Iran.

“Where are the Republicans in Congress?” asked Dubow, 44, a dispatcher at a trucking logistics firm in Columbus, Ohio, where he has a bird’s eye view of the surging fuel prices disrupting the economy. “Why aren’t the Republicans holding Trump accountable?”

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The billionaire Democrat, who is on the cusp of reelection and considering a 2028 presidential bid, is directing some last-minute campaign spending on Senate Democratic nominees in traditionally Republican states.

Pritzker’s Ready for the Fight PAC is making a $1 million ad buy for Scott Colom against Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi and spending $500,000 for Adam Hamilton against GOP incumbent Roger Marshall in Kansas.

Shared first with The Associated Press, the plan also includes money for voter turnout in Mississippi and South Carolina, where Democrat Annie Andrews wants to unseat Sen. Darline Graham. All three would be upsets as Democrats seek to flip the Senate.

Meanwhile, Illinois first lady MK Pritzker said she donated $500,000 to Democrat Amy Acton’s gubernatorial campaign in Ohio because of her opponent’s controversial ad featuring her estranged mother.

With spending on campaign ads now reaching $11.21 billion, the 2025-2026 midterms have become the most expensive ever, according to AdImpact, which tracks media spending.

A week out from Election Day, total spending and reservations have topped the $11.20 billion spent in the 2023-2024 period, which included the presidential contest.

The latest figure has not been adjusted for inflation.

The president says he’ll appeal a federal judge’s order putting a temporary hold on his plans to renovate a Washington golf course.

“The Development of this World Championship Public Facility must begin, immediately, if it is to be completed in a timely and seasonal manner,” he posted on social media.

Trump said the East Potomac Golf Course could hold major events once renovated and would remain public with reduced rates for residents of the nation’s capital.

Judge Ana Reyes’ preliminary injunction temporarily bars the removal or damage of any more trees on the course, ordering the administration to give 10 days’ notice in writing before making any “irreparable modification” to any of the course’s “forms or features.”

“The Court earlier stated, ‘I am not the Lorax. I do not speak for the trees.’ The Court still does not speak for the trees. It speaks only for the rule of law,” Reyes wrote.

President Donald Trump speaks with media before boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

President Donald Trump waves while boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

A truck drives past a fuel price board for gasoline and diesel at a gas station on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

FILE - Clouds form over pumpjacks and power transmission towers on Lake Maracaibo in Cabimas, Venezuela, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)

FILE - At left, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks in McKinney, Texas, May 19, 2026, and at right, Texas state Rep. James Talarico, after voting, in Austin, Texas, Feb. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/LM Otero and Eric Gay,File)

President Donald Trump yells after speaking at a campaign rally at Crossroads Arena, in Corinth, Miss., Monday, Oct. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)