The Daily Brief — May 27, 2026
Paxton beats Cornyn in Senate runoff, Ebola-exposed Americans to be sent to Kenya, US denies Iran war deal
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Paxton Beats Cornyn in Texas Senate Runoff
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton defeated four-term US senator John Cornyn in a Republican primary runoff yesterday.
Paxton, a Trump-endorsed state official who was impeached by the Republican-led Texas House in 2023 over allegations of bribery and abuse of office, trounced Cornyn 64% to 36% after the two were forced into a runoff in March. Trump endorsed Paxton last week, calling him a “true MAGA warrior.”
Paxton will face Democratic state representative James Talarico in November’s general election. Talarico, a Texas House representative and Presbyterian seminarian, won the Democratic Senate primary on March 3.
In the other key runoff, state senator Mayes Middleton, an oil and gas executive, defeated US Rep. Chip Roy for the GOP attorney general nomination. In a Houston-area Democratic House runoff, US Rep. Christian Menefee defeated longtime US Rep. Al Green in the newly redrawn 18th congressional district. The redrawn map, approved by Texas Republicans last year, pitted the two sitting Democrats against each other.
Midterms Won’t Push Trump on Iran Deal
President Trump has said that the midterm elections will have no bearing on negotiations to end the war with Iran, accusing Tehran of trying to wait him out.
“I don’t care about the midterms,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House today. He also warned that if no deal with Iran is reached, “we’ll have to just finish the job.”
Earlier today, Iranian state television reported it had obtained a draft memorandum of understanding that is being negotiated between the US and Iran through mediators and would convert the current ceasefire into a permanent agreement. Under the terms reported by Iranian media, US forces would withdraw from Iran’s vicinity and lift the naval blockade of Iranian ports, while Iran would restore commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz to pre-war levels within 30 days.
The White House called the report a “complete fabrication,” and the two sides dispute what is on the table.
Federal Judge Blocks West Point Faculty Speech Restrictions
A federal judge yesterday blocked the US Military Academy at West Point from enforcing policies that required civilian faculty to get permission before speaking publicly or sharing personal opinions in class.
The policies were imposed by the Trump administration in 2025, along with directives for the military academies to stop promoting “un-American, divisive, discriminatory, radical, extremist, and irrational theories” — language his administration has used to target diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
Longtime civilian law professor Tim Bakken filed a class action lawsuit arguing that the restrictions violated his First Amendment rights. New York–based federal judge Cathy Seibel issued a preliminary injunction that blocks West Point from enforcing the policy against any civilian faculty member and bars the school from restricting Bakken from sharing his views with students on the subjects he teaches.
In her 85-page opinion, Seibel called the restrictions a “broad and standardless” intrusion on faculty speech. The judge wrote that West Point cadets “are not snowflakes” and can handle controversial topics or competing viewpoints.
Newsbreak
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US to Send Ebola-Exposed Americans to Kenya, Not Home
The Trump administration plans to send US citizens exposed to the Ebola virus to a new facility in Kenya for monitoring and treatment rather than bringing them back to the US, an administration official said today.
The quarantine and treatment center, being set up by the US government, is designed for patients who need to be evacuated quickly from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where an outbreak is spreading, the official said. While Kenya’s health minister confirmed his country was in talks with the US, he did not provide details of the talks or say whether the Kenyan government has agreed to setting up the new facility. The location of the facility is also unknown.
Earlier this month, the administration flew an American doctor who had developed symptoms while working in the DRC to a hospital in Germany and sent six other Americans for monitoring in Germany and the Czech Republic.
Last week, the CDC barred entry for the next 30 days to immigrants and legal permanent residents who have visited Ebola-affected areas in the DRC, Uganda, or South Sudan within the previous 21 days.
The DRC’s health ministry said yesterday that suspected cases are nearing 1,000, with at least 220 suspected deaths and 101 confirmed cases. In neighboring Uganda, the health ministry reports seven confirmed cases and one confirmed death, plus five additional suspected cases.
Biden Sues DOJ to Block Release of Ghostwriter Recordings
President Joe Biden sued the Justice Department yesterday to block the release of audio recordings and transcripts from interviews he gave to the ghostwriter of his memoir.
The materials include roughly 70 hours of recordings and transcripts of conversations Biden had in 2016 and 2017 with writer Mark Zwonitzer — who worked on Biden’s 2017 memoir Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose, with some redactions. The Justice Department obtained the recordings and transcripts through special counsel Robert Hur’s investigation — from January 2023 to February 2024 — into Biden’s handling of classified documents.
The Justice Department has said it intends to release the recordings and transcripts to both the House Judiciary Committee and the Heritage Foundation, which filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain them.
The Heritage Foundation has said the recordings are a matter of public interest given questions Hur’s report raised about Biden’s memory and his handling of classified material while vice president. House Judiciary Committee Republicans have sought the files as part of their oversight of the Hur investigation.
Biden’s lawyers argued the disclosure would “constitute an unwarranted invasion of President Biden’s privacy” and that the conversations were personal, including extensive discussion of his son Beau’s death and how that loss influenced his decision not to run for president in 2016.
Israel Kills New Hamas Military Leader in Gaza
An Israeli airstrike in Gaza yesterday killed Mohammed Odeh, the new commander of Hamas’s military wing, less than two weeks after his predecessor was killed.
Hamas said today that Odeh was killed along with his wife and two sons in an Israeli strike on a residential building in Gaza City. Odeh had recently replaced Izz al-Din al-Haddad, who was killed in an Israeli strike on May 16.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Odeh was “one of the architects” of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that triggered the war in Gaza. Those attacks killed about 1,200 people in Israel and saw more than 250 taken hostage. Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed more than 72,700 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
Separately, Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon yesterday killed at least 31 people, including several children.
A US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon has been in place since mid-April, but Israel has continued striking what it says are Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah has also fired on Israel on multiple occasions.