Through earning a Lilly fellowship, Master of Science in AI grad clears a path for influencing technology ethics - Purdue University

As the midterms approach, the Iran war is challenging the adage that foreign policy is only a secondary thought as voters weigh the factors influencing their decisions. In most elections, a slogan that former President Bill Clinton often used – “It’s the economy, stupid” – reigns supreme in voters’ priorities. Surveys show that this midterm election is no different. But this year, the unique way the Iran war is affecting the economy and voters’ personal finances – from the cost of filling the gas tank and grocery cart to farmers’ access to fertilizers – means that international events and issues are having an outsize impact on electoral choices. “It’s true that foreign policy is traditionally well down the list of what’s motivating voters, but these midterms are different,” says Dina Smeltz, managing director of public opinion and foreign policy at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. “Uncharacteristically, international issues are taking more of a front-of-mind position with voters as they consider how they’ve been hit by high energy costs,” she adds.

Here’s your NYT Strands hint for today, plus the spangram and all of today’s Strands answers for puzzle No. 959 on Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. Today’s Strands theme was tricky. It helps to be a runner. Read on for all the answers.

A supply-chain attack involving ConnectWise’s cloud services has exposed Microsoft 365 customers to unauthorized application access, with researchers reporting successful sign-ins across 173 partner and customer tenants. The incident centres on credentials associated with ConnectWise Cloud Backup, formerly SkyKick, and raises concerns about attackers exploiting permissions already entrusted to business software. ConnectWise has confirmed unauthorized access to application identities within its Cloud Backup environment. In an October 17 update on its service-status page, the company said it was shutting off application access, interrupting customer backups while investigation and remediation continued.