Six minutes of news from around the nation.

Trump announces an energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, record diesel prices could ramp up the EV truck transition, and a so-called "tax bomb" awaits Americans with income-driven student loans.

TRANSCRIPT

The Public News Service Daily Newscast for October 12, 2026.

I'm Mary Sherman.

President Donald Trump announced an energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine on Sunday, claiming both countries had agreed to the arrangement.

The news comes as a bipartisan group of six senators is calling for Trump to back away from a plan to purchase diesel from Russia.

Trump claims the deal will lower fuel prices, but there are concerns it would provide revenue for Russia's war in Ukraine.

The average price for diesel in the U.S. is $6.19 per gallon.

The skyrocketing cost, driven largely by Trump's inability to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz after attacking Iran, is prompting many freight operators to consider adding electric vehicles to their fleets.

Eric Galatas has more.

Guillermo Ortiz with the Natural Resources Defense Council says electrifying the nation's freight system would not only reduce harmful air pollution, it would boost the economy.

The opportunity to clean those up and invest in new technology provides new opportunities for jobs, new opportunities for growth.

Because nearly everything Americans buy travels by truck at some point, rising freight costs are not limited to truckers.

According to a Rocky Mountain Institute analysis, switching from diesel to electric heavy-duty vehicles would lower operating costs by up to 50 percent.

Researchers say the affordability crisis in the U.S. is real and widespread.

According to the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality's Family Economic Wellbeing Index, 70 percent of Americans are struggling to afford at least one of four basic needs.

Executive Director Leelaine Bigelow says the affordability problem is much bigger than policy debates often acknowledge.

For a long time, we have tended to think of affordability as a problem for people with the lowest incomes.

But increasingly, we are hearing stories from people at all income levels who are feeling squeezed by the cost of everyday essentials.

Up to 3 million Americans who've paid student loans based on their income are facing a one-time massive tax bomb.

Roz Brown has the story from New Mexico.

Some people spent 20 or 25 years paying down income-driven student loans, called IDRs, and still owe money.

Until recently, loans could be forgiven at that point and the balance due exempted from federal taxes.

But that provision was not renewed in the GOP's 2025 Reconciliation Bill.

Now, a new report by Jennifer Zhang with Protect Borrowers shows in the next decade, New Mexico students with loans technically forgiven could be on the hook for $6,000 to $10,000 in federal taxes.

As of 2022, most borrowers who qualified for cancellation under IDR made less than $50,000 a year.

So folks from lower income backgrounds are actually going to be hit the hardest.

She notes the state ranks sixth for how much taxing canceled student debt can raise a family's federal taxes.

The top states are Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas.

This is Public News Service.

Food security groups are calling for harsher consequences for the country's top egg producers for price gouging the cost of eggs.

As Isobel Charle reports, a Department of Justice investigation found CalMain, the largest egg producer in the U.S., and others allegedly worked together to artificially increase prices in 2023 while blaming the increase on the bird flu.

CalMain's profits increased tenfold to over a billion dollars in a year in 2022 during the first major wave of bird flu.

Sarah Cardin with Farm Action says the company is settling with the DOJ instead of going to court.

But the settlement is not nearly high enough to protect consumers from future misdeeds.

The financial penalties are just not severe enough.

The fine is about 0.23 percent of the profits they made in one year.

So instead of being disincentivizing, it's really more of like a cost of doing business.

Cardin explains while the DOJ and the plaintiffs have agreed to the terms of the settlement, a federal court still has to approve them.

The November election is 22 days away.

And as Texas voters go to the polls, they're most concerned about reducing health care costs, electricity bills and homeowners insurance.

A recent poll by the nonpartisan Texas 2036 also shows many Texans have concerns about the direction the state is going.

Social worker Samantha Lott says she started delivering groceries just to make ends meet, and she's encouraging everyone to vote.

Our power to vote does mean something.

If it didn't, they wouldn't be closing polling places no matter what side of the aisle you're on.

This is a really important election.

About half of those polled say they're not affiliated with the political party and will split their ballot in November.

And now to South Dakota, where two issues are on the November ballot that have already been voted on in the past.

Laura Hatch explains.

Both initiatives are proposed constitutional amendments the state legislature added to the ballot.

Amendment I would repeal expanded Medicaid coverage if federal funding drops below 90 percent.

Chase Jensen with Dakota Rural Action says if it passes and federal funding is cut, more than 30,000 South Dakotans could lose their insurance.

South Dakotans have pretty clearly spoken that this is not an area where they're willing to let their neighbors not have access to basic health care.

Jensen says in addition to people losing coverage, rural hospitals and clinics couldn't keep operating without that funding.

In 2022, South Dakota voters approved a constitutional amendment to expand Medicaid eligibility to people making up to 138 percent of the poverty level.

Supporters of the proposed amendment say it would let South Dakota voters and legislators decide whether Medicaid expansion is worth the cost if federal funding drops.

I'm Mary Sherman for Public News Service, member and listener supported.

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