Sunday was supposed to be the day when two onetime rivals in the Democratic race to represent Michigan in the US Senate finally buried the hatchet. The party had scheduled a “unity rally”, where primary challenger and Congresswoman Haley Stevens would appear alongside Abdul El-Sayed and endorse him in the final days before the midterm elections.
To say things didn’t go to plan would be the understatement of the century. Instead, what happened has given Donald Trump and his Republican colleagues a glimmer of hope after months of depressing polls and headlines.
In the days before the Democrat rally, relations between Stevens’ camp and El-Sayed’s team publicly soured.
Five teenagers stabbed at Halloween party – what we know
Five teenagers have been seriously injured after being stabbed at a Halloween party in Hampshire, police have said.
The force has appealed for witnesses and anyone with information to come forward.
What we know so far
- Officers were called to Park Road in Chandler’s Ford, near Eastleigh, shortly after 10.30pm on Saturday.
- Hampshire Police said it believes an unknown group gained entry to a party before the stabbings.
- An eyewitness told the BBC they saw someone running out of the house shouting he had been stabbed, and that he was being chased by two people.
- The injured teens – three boys aged 16 and two aged 17 – were taken to hospital.
- Another eyewitness said ambulances and an air ambulance had attended.
- A police cordon remained in place on Sunday while officers continued their investigation.
My thoughts are with the parents of the boys, the boys and the whole community.
Senior investigating officer Det Ch Insp Elizabeth Pirie acknowledged the impact on local residents.
Eastleigh MP Liz Jarvis told the BBC: “The community is in shock this morning that such an awful thing could have occurred.”
A closer look at the detail
- Two churches in the area have opened their doors to offer support.
- Jarvis urged people to not “share information online” and “let the police do their job”.
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Virgin Media O2 plans major job cuts – what we know
Virgin Media O2 is set to cull thousands of jobs as the telecoms giant attempts to plug billions of pounds of debt and navigate a market with increasingly cheaper rivals.
Here is everything we know so far.
Mounting debt and competition
Virgin Media O2’s total debt stands at £27.2bn, according to its latest accounts.
The broadband provider is also tackling competition from smaller, cheaper providers like Hyperoptic, Community Fibre, Gigaclear and YouFibre, as well as behemoths like BT.
BT recently inked a deal to buy rival TalkTalk, which Virgin Media O2 has firmly opposed.
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Senior leadership changes under way
Virgin Media O2 has not finalised the number of roles to be cut, but it is likely to be a large chunk of its 16,000-strong workforce, the BBC reported.
The majority of the affected roles are not customer-facing and a number of senior leadership changes are already under way.
Virgin Media O2 is also expected to review its use of contractors and suppliers alongside the job cuts.
Union working to ‘mitigate number of redundancies’
Disappointing and very unsettling.
Virgin Media O2 declined to comment. The Prospect union, which represents staff, called the cuts “disappointing and very unsettling”.
Prospect’s Noel McClean said the union was “working with employers to explore ways to mitigate the number of redundancies”.
How varying your bedtime could be bad for your heart
Varying your bedtime – including staying up late on weekends or doing shift work – could be bad for your heart and increase the risk of strokes, according to new research.
Sleep experts also found that varying the length of sleep too much – like having a long lie-in or pulling an all-nighter, may also have poor health outcomes.
Increased risk of heart problems
The study looked at several factors: how many hours a person slept each night, how much of the night was spent in light, deep and REM sleep, as well as how long a person was awake after first falling asleep.
- Researchers also looked at whether sleep duration, bedtime and wake-up time changed from night to night over roughly six months, as well as the usual times a person fell asleep and woke up.
- The number of “sleep cycles” completed each night were also examined.
- The results showed changes in sleep timing from night to night were linked to a 20 to 23 per cent higher risk of a heart attack, stroke and heart failure.
While we often focus on getting a full eight hours of sleep every night, having a regular sleep schedule – consistent , wake times, and sleep duration from night to night – is a practical, actionable step anyone can take that may help protect their heart and blood vessels.
Dr Nguyen Minh Tuan Viet, a neuroscientist and Lead researcher ON THE STUDY
A closer look at the study
Researchers analysed sleep data from more than 10,000 adults as part of the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us research programme in the US.
Participants, who had an average age of 53 and had no signs of a heart or metabolic disease, wore sleep tracking devices for around six months.
They were then followed for almost four years to see if they suffered heart issues.
The effects
- 1Every 29-minute increase in sleep from night to night was also linked with a 29 per cent higher risk of having a disease of the heart muscle, which leaves the heart unable to pump enough blood through the body, and a 20 per cent higher risk of heart failure.
- 2Meanwhile, having a greater number of complete “sleep cycles” each night led to a 28 per cent lower risk of atrial arrhythmia, a common type of irregular heartbeat.
- 3In contrast, sleeping longer than usual was linked to a 55 per cent higher risk of heart attack or stroke.
Could the UK see a serious bird flu outbreak?
In the western US state, mink raised for their fur are dying from bird flu.
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Pandemic potential
While scientists have long recognised the pandemic potential of bird flu, the presence in minks takes the threat status to the next level, says Professor Wendy Barclay, a virologist at Imperial College London.
“This creates an even higher risk to humans than before,” she said.
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How the virus could evolve
Minks’ nose and lungs are similar to humans’ – so much so that closely related ferrets are used in research instead of people.
While for most people, flu is relatively mild, the infection causes a surge of deaths every winter.
And every so often, the virus undergoes some major genetic changes leading to a higher toll, which gets called a pandemic flu.
Not easily spread
Bird flu has occasionally spread to poultry farms, as well as some dairy farms in the US. So far, there have been a small number of farm workers who have caught bird flu from animals and died.
Because the virus is adapted to birds, this strain of flu does not seem to spread easily from person to person. But previous research suggests that one genetic change to strains found on US dairy farms could improve transmission to humans.
Autumn outbreak is a red flag
Another worry is that the mink could be perfect incubators, allowing different flu strains to swap genes. Called reassortment, this process is known to have triggered previous human pandemics, including the one in 2009.
Mink can harbour both human and bird flu strains. The fact this mink outbreak is happening in autumn, when human seasonal flu rises, is also a red flag, says Dr Simon Williams, a public health researcher at Swansea University.
He said: “It increases the risk of a virus with pandemic potential reassorting in somebody working on that farm who has seasonal flu.”
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Flu pandemic preparations
- The UK Health Security Agency declined to comment on whether it had taken any specific measures in response to the mink outbreak when asked by The i Paper.
- But the agency’s Dr Richard Puleston said it “stands ready to initiate an appropriate public health response” if needed.
- As of 2025, the NHS fortunately had £25m worth of PPE stockpiled following the Covid-19 pandemic. Rapid diagnostic tests also shouldn’t be overlooked in terms of the UK’s ability to combat an outbreak.
Stevens had attacked El-Sayed during the primary over his friendship with controversial leftist influencer Hasan Piker, as well as their differing views over Israel. And just when Democrats were looking for a last push to win a crucial Senate seat – which could be vital for control of the chamber – Stevens reignited those issues, demanding that El-Sayed condemn a TV advert run by a group supporting him. Stevens was disinvited from the unity rally.
On Sunday morning, she went further, being pictured attending church alongside Mike Rogers, the Republican running against El-Sayed, who she then endorsed – a move that visibly stunned her own party and even her own staff.
Stevens was immediately denounced for what was seen as a spectacular betrayal. Her longtime chief of staff and communications directors both resigned on the spot, issuing a statement declaring themselves “shocked and heartbroken” by her decision to endorse Rogers, a Maga Republican who has promised to further Trump’s agenda.
Stevens remains a member of the House of Representatives until January, having been elected as a Democrat in 2024. She has ensured her last months in office will be tumultuous, and that the last days of the current election campaign are chaotic.
For Democrats, they have one chance to take control of the House and the Senate from Republicans during Trump’s remaining term in office, and with just 48 hours left to go, one of their own switched sides in the most public way imaginable.
Curtis Hertel, the chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, posted shortly after Stevens’ endorsement that “Congresswoman Stevens is not a current member of the Michigan Democratic Party, nor will she be in the future”.
For her part, Stevens recorded a short video explaining her endorsement of Rogers, saying that she could not tolerate the “hate” of El-Sayed’s campaign, owing to his refusal to disavow Piker, a pro-Palestine influencer who has said Israel has no right to exist “in its current formation”.
This might have been consistent with Stevens declining to endorse El-Sayed, but it leaves some awkward questions as to why she has instead chosen to endorse a pro-Trump Republican.
In the last week alone, the President has repeatedly attacked El-Sayed, making racial insinuations about his Islamic faith and outright calling him a “Jihadist”. El-Sayed would “have to go through a metal detector before he’s allowed to go into the Senate”, Trump said at one rally.
Similarly, Trump has attacked Somali-Americans, calling Somalia a “shithouse” and collectively suggesting its people are “low IQ”. He has suggested Congresswoman Ilhan Omar isn’t a real American and claimed she was biologically related to her husband.
If that wasn’t enough, Trump’s friend and ally Vivek Ramaswamy, who is running for governor of Ohio, spent the last weeks of his campaign running ads featuring his opponent’s estranged mother, who claims she was lying about sexual abuse received as a child. The move disgusted even many Republicans.
Stevens says she cannot tolerate “hate”, and yet she has lined herself up with and seemed to endorse just that – a decision she struggled to explain in a rambling and confused interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Sunday night.
At least one person was delighted, however: Trump referred to Stevens as “a Highly Respected Democrat” in a post on Truth Social. He went on to claim: “Her following is huge, and the level of respect from the People of Michigan, especially our African American and Jewish populations, is virtually unparalleled.”
Trump later suggested that Stevens should defect to the Republican Party – something she may find herself having to do, as her prospects with the Democrats look dim indeed.
As for the election, Stevens might find she has less influence than she had hoped. The final New York Times-Sienna poll before votes are cast suggests that El-Sayed has a commanding 11-point lead over Rogers, though other polls show a tighter race.
More significantly, 96 per cent of voters who backed Stevens in the primary said they planned to vote for El-Sayed.
Trump is evidently delighted by the turn of events, but it’s likely too little, too late. Still, it has given the President one good day where he can try to ignore the fact that so much else seems to be going against him.
US commentators like to talk about “October surprises” – last-minute events that change the course of elections. Stevens has managed the rare November surprise, in its very last minutes. But whether she’s done anything more than torch her own credibility and career won’t be clear for another few days.