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Why vote count spikes are a normal part of elections
Early voting in the U.S. midterm elections is underway. Voters are deciding which party will control Congress, as well as numerous state legislatures and governors’ offices. Snopes’ fact-checkers are flagging rumors surrounding the election, debunking false statements by candidates and suspicious voter fraud claims with nonpartisan research and expert sources. Join our effort to keep this election fact-focused by becoming a Snopes member.
A persistent theory about “ballot drops,” meaning when a large number of votes suddenly changes the outcome of an election, has circulated online since at least 2020, when U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to blame late spikes in votes for Democrats for losses in states where Republicans had been leading.

Though Trump and other public figures have tried to frame “ballot drops” or vote spikes as election fraud, there are usually specific and legitimate reasons behind them.

According to the Election Integrity Partnership, vote spikes can happen for a number of legitimate reasons. These include: large areas that vote heavily Democratic or Republican reporting at once, delays in counting in high-population areas that vote heavily for one party, longer processing times for mail-in ballots or clerical errors.

Though it can appear that a lot of votes suddenly “enter” a count when a vote spike happens, it’s important to remember that those votes have been processed and counted by elections officials to verify they came from real, registered voters.

A large batch of votes being submitted to a count all at once reflects normal election procedures and is not in itself a sign of fraud, even if those votes lean heavily Democrat or Republican.
As the 2026 midterm elections near, misinformation from election cycles past lies poised to reappear online.

For example, Snopes has previously reported on so-called “ballot drops,” which is when a large number of votes suddenly changes the outcome of an election.

Though “ballot drops” generally have specific and legitimate explanations that we will cover below, prominent figures such as U.S. President Donald Trump have attempted to frame them as examples of election fraud.

During the vote count for the 2020 presidential election that former President Joe Biden won, Trump suggested (archived) on X that “ballot dumps” lost him several states where Republicans had been leading:

Last night I was leading, often solidly, in many key States, in almost all instances Democrat run & controlled. Then, one by one, they started to magically disappear as surprise ballot dumps were counted. VERY STRANGE, and the “pollsters” got it completely & historically wrong!

Two years later, after the 2022 midterm elections, PolitiFact reported that the businessman Mike Lindell, then a highly visible Trump supporter, spread a number of graphs he claimed showed election fraud in the form of “ballot drops” that helped Democrats overtake Republicans in a number of races.

Despite the persistence of the “ballot drop” election fraud theory, sudden spikes in votes during ongoing counts usually have specific, legitimate explanations. Though it can appear that a lot of votes suddenly “enter” a count when a vote spike happens, it’s important to remember that those votes have been processed and counted by elections officials to verify they came from real, registered voters.

The fact that a batch of votes is submitted to a count all at once reflects normal election procedures and is not in itself a sign of fraud, even if those votes lean heavily toward one party or the other.

Why do vote spikes happen?

In the 2020 presidential election and the 2022 midterm elections, clerical errors caused some vote spikes that officials later corrected. Other spikes were the result of election officials in an area that leaned heavily Democratic or Republican registering a large batch of counted votes all at once.

The timing of vote spikes sometimes has to do with what types of ballots are in a given batch. For example, according to a report by the MIT Election Data + Science Lab (Page 10), Democratic voters were historically more likely than Republican voters to use mail-in ballots, meaning vote spikes that benefit Democratic candidates can happen when election officials start to count and report those ballots.

The Election Integrity Partnership, a nonpartisan coalition that reported on topics it found “demonstrably harmful to the democratic process” during the 2020 and 2022 elections, wrote about “ballot drops” in 2022 after Lindell shared graphs he claimed showed the alleged fraud in action.

The group wrote that vote spikes were “commonplace” but that people often misinterpreted graphs showing the spikes. It gave four main reasons for vote spikes:
Vote counts are reported in batches and varying intervals.

There can be delays in counting and tabulating in-person votes.

Some states legally allow absentee and mail-in ballots to be counted prior to polls being closed, and thus those vote counts may be reported en masse.

Voting “spikes” can also be caused due to clerical errors and are not limited to any particular political party or individual.
This article will discuss these four reasons in turn.

The law and policy institute the Brennan Center for Justice and the legal organization Campaign Legal Center also wrote about the spread of the “ballot drop” theory after the 2020 presidential election. Both organizations pointed to similar legitimate explanations for vote spikes during a count.

Batch reports and count delays

Snopes previously investigated one instance where officials reporting a large batch of counted votes created a “vote spike” that favored a Democratic candidate. On Nov. 18, 2020, we reported that the claim (archived), also shared by Trump, that Biden received a fraudulent “ballot dump” to eventually win Wisconsin was false.

Rather than a fraudulent “ballot dump,” local media reported that Biden took the lead in Wisconsin when Milwaukee, the most-populous city in the state, reported its “overwhelmingly Democratic” 170,000 absentee votes around 3:30 a.m. Nov. 4.

Wisconsin is one of a few states in the U.S. where, by law, elections officials cannot begin to process mail-in ballots before Election Day, meaning they must verify and count mail-in ballots after polls open. Because counting mail-in ballots requires more verification than ballots filled out in person, this process can take longer, meaning those votes may be reported later in the count.

PolitiFact reported that a vote spike (archived) that appeared to favor Georgia’s Democratic candidate for Senate, Raphael Warnock, in the 2022 general election actually reflected Fulton County, which includes Atlanta, reporting a large batch of votes that skewed Democrat.

Robert Sinners, a spokesperson for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, reportedly told PolitiFact, “In Georgia, we call a 9 p.m. upload toward one candidate ‘the Atlanta metro has reported.’” Sinners’ statement suggested that if votes from the Atlanta metro area created a vote spike, that was merely due to the city’s large population.

Elections officials in Georgia can process but cannot count any votes before polls close, meaning counts from races in the state can take longer to complete.

PolitiFact reported in 2022 that some — mainly Democrat-voting — cities lagged behind their states in how quickly they finished their counts meaning that in some places, large batches of “blue” (Democratic) votes came in comparably late in the count, which could also cause a legitimate vote spike.

The outlet wrote:

Because large cities are almost uniformly Democratic these days and small-population rural counties are almost always Republican, it’s easy to cast blame for slow counting on partisan factors. But the reality is that a lot depends on simple math.

Along the same lines, as examples from Wisconsin and Georgia show, vote spikes can often be attributed to demographics and math rather than conspiracy.

Mail-in ballots

As seen in Snopes’ report on the election results in Wisconsin in 2020, large batches of mail-in votes can change an election result late in the count. However, the Election Integrity Partnership wrote that mail-in ballots can also appear to give candidates a head start.

For example, 33 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico allow elections officials to scan, meaning count, mail-in ballots before Election Day, though the results cannot be released before polls close. States that may have already counted some mail-in ballots will be able to release some results very quickly after the close of polls.

In states that allow early scanning of mail-in ballots, early election-night results could skew Democratic because these voters are more likely to have used mail-in voting. Though this might look like a vote spike, the difference between the candidates will likely narrow as counts come in from areas with more in-person or Republican voters. In this scenario, no candidate is “finding” or “losing” votes. Rather, the early results reflect how an individual state has decided to count its votes.

Clerical errors

If vote spikes aren’t caused by the ballots themselves, they also can be caused by human error.

For example, in the 2020 presidential election, a county clerk in Shiawassee County, Michigan, accidentally added a zero to Biden’s vote tally, reporting 153,710 votes for the Democrat instead of 15,371.

The clerk in question, Caroline Wilson, reportedly told Agence France-Presse that officials corrected the mistake shortly after, suggesting that existing systems to catch such incidents were working. Trump went on to win the county after officials corrected the vote tally.

Likewise, in 2022, Rob Farbman, the executive vice president of Edison Research, which provides polling data to media outlets, reportedly told AFP a roughly million-vote spike for incumbent Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois happened because someone at Edison Research “added a 9 at the beginning of Duckworth’s number in Rock Island.”

The mistake happened after the race had been called for Duckworth, the AFP reported, and Edison Research fixed the mistake shortly after it occurred.

Neither of these mistakes materially affected the result of the races, and both suggested that elections officials and companies such as Edison have systems in place that work to catch and correct vote-tally errors introduced by humans.

The bottom line

If readers encounter “ballot drop” theories as votes roll in during these midterm elections, they should stop and consider whether any of the above reasons might provide a specific, legitimate explanation for an apparent vote spike.

It is also worth remembering that the results reported on election night are never the final, certified results. In most races, media outlets are able to mathematically eliminate one candidate using the information from the counts provided and “call” the race. These media estimates are not, however, final results.

Rather, elections officials will canvass and audit the counts from election night before certifying the result. This process allows officials another chance to review vote spikes and ensure that they happen for legitimate reasons.
Sources

BAUDOIN-LAARMAN, Louis. ‘Human Error in Michigan County Vote Tally Sparks Claims of Election Fraud’. AFP, 4 Nov. 2020, https://factcheck.afp.com/human-error-michigan-county-vote-tally-sparks-claims-election-fraud.

BRUMBACK, KATE. ‘Here We Go Again: What to Expect as Georgia Counts Votes’. Associated Press, 4 Jan. 2021, https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-johnny-isakson-georgia-general-elections-elections-eea3b662d4470c6f02ffd500d8aaaff8#:~:text=No%20ballots%2C%20including,to%20be%20processed.

Cercone, Jeff. Graphs Showing Vote Spikes Don’t Mean Elections Are Stolen. 11 Nov. 2022, https://politifact.com/article/2022/nov/11/why-vote-spikes-graphs-shared-mike-lindell-are-not/.

‘Common Questions and Answers About the 2020 Election Results’. Campaign Legal Center, https://campaignlegal.org/common-questions-and-answers-about-2020-election-results#:~:text=Was%20the%20Fact%20that%20Biden%20Overtook%20Trump%20in%20Key%20States%20in%20the%20Days%20following%20the%20Election%20the%20Result%20of%20a%C2%A0Nefarious%20Plot%3F%20Or%20When%20States%20Counted%20Ballots%3F.

Edlin, Ruby. ‘Five False Election Rumors to Watch For | Brennan Center for Justice’. Brennan Center For Justice, 5 Oct. 2026, https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/five-false-election-rumors-watch.

Election Results, Canvass, and Certification | U.S. Election Assistance Commission. https://www.eac.gov/election-officials/election-results-canvass-and-certification#Certification:~:text=The%20election%20results%20reported%20on%20election%20night%20are%20never%20the%20final%2C%20certified%20results. Accessed 6 Oct. 2026.

‘How Real-Time Visualizations of Vote Count “Spikes” Can Lead to Unfounded Allegations of Election Fraud’. Election Integrity Partnership, https://www.eipartnership.net/blog/potentially-misleading-data-visualizations-lindell. Accessed 6 Oct. 2026.

Marley, Craig Gilbert and Patrick. ‘Biden Declared Winner in Wisconsin with 20,000 Vote Margin; Trump Campaign Vows Request for Recount’. Journal Sentinel, https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/11/04/wisconsin-results-down-wire-again-milwaukee-ballot-count/6123344002/. Accessed 6 Oct. 2026.

MCCARTHY, Bill. ‘Mike Lindell Revives Baseless “vote Spike” Claims after 2022 Midterms’. AFP, 11 Nov. 2022, https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.32N92ML#:~:text=The%20chart%20appears,fixed%20minutes%20later.%22.

‘Presidential Election in Wisconsin, 2020’. Ballotpedia, https://ballotpedia.org/Presidential_election_in_Wisconsin,_2020. Accessed 6 Oct. 2026.

‘Raphael Warnock’. Ballotpedia, https://ballotpedia.org/Raphael_Warnock. Accessed 6 Oct. 2026.

Sherman, Amy, and Louis Jacobson. Ted Cruz’s Misleading Claim on Election Night Counts. 28 Oct. 2022, https://politifact.com/factchecks/2022/oct/28/ted-cruz/ted-cruzs-misleading-claim-that-only-democratic-ci/.

Stewart III, Charles. ‘HOW WE VOTED IN 2024 ‘. MIT Election Data and Science Lab, https://electionlab.mit.edu/sites/default/files/2025-07/HowWeVotedIn2024.pdf.

‘Table 16: When Absentee/Mail Ballot Processing and Counting Can Begin’. National Conference of State Legislatures, 15 Sept. 2026, https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/table-16-when-absentee-mail-ballot-processing-and-counting-can-begin#toggleContent-12088.
October 9, 2026
Final moments of death row inmate executed with same drug that Christa Pike survived

It took just 30 seconds for a US inmate to stop moving after being given the lethal injection, using the same drug given to Christa Pike last month.

Last night, the US state of Texas executed Jamaal Howard, a 46-year-old man who’d been given the death sentence for fatally shooting convenience store clerk Vickie Swartout in 2000.

According to a report from AP News, Howard was given a dose of pentobarbital, the medication given to Christa Pike twice during her botched execution on 30 September.

Reports from those in attendance at the Huntsville prison stated that Howard had taken a couple of breaths and gasped as the high dose of the sedative drug began taking effect.

He then began to make snoring sounds, which became quieter and quieter as time passed.

Jamaal Howard was executed yesterday (Texas Department of Criminal Justice)

It took just 30 seconds for Howard to stop moving. He was officially pronounced dead 19 minutes later at 8:03pm, local time.

His final statement has since been released to the media, with Howard apologising to the family of Swartout.

Howard was the first person to be put to death after Pike’s failed execution, which has since led to the state of Tennessee halting further executions, pending an investigation.

According to The Tennesseean reporters who attended Pike’s attempted execution, the 50-year-old had complained of pain in her arm following the first dose of pentobarbital, telling officers: “The vein in my arm feels like it’s about to bust.”

LADbible

It was later revealed that it had taken over an hour and seven needles before prison officers could establish an IV line in her arm, while witnesses waiting behind the curtain could hear crying and whimpering.

Pike’s attorney Randy Spivy would later claim that one of the needles appeared to be bent after being removed.

The blinds were first opened at around 7:26pm, allowing reporters and witnesses a view of Pike strapped to a gurney and covered by a sheet.

Christa Pike is the first person in history to survive two lethal injections (Tennessee Department of Corrections)

By 7:41pm, it was signalled to witnesses that a round of pentobarbital had been administered. However, those in attendance noted that Pike was still conscious, with one reporter remarking that she was still talking.

When it became apparent that Pike had survived the first dose of pentobarbital, a second one was administered. The curtains were closed again at 8:05pm, with people still able to hear the sound of Pike’s breathing, signalling that the drugs had again failed to take effect.

After nearly an hour of waiting, the chamber was cleared by officials and Pike was transferred to hospital.

It is not currently clear exactly how Pike was able to survive the execution, with some medical experts suggesting the IV line may have been incorrectly placed.

Pike remains in hospital after the failed execution, with recent reports revealing that she is conscious, able to communicate and move.

October 8, 2026
Amazon devices are still on offer after Big Deal Days, and you don’t need Prime for a £19.99 Fire Stick offer

Amazon Prime Big Deal Days might have ended yesterday (October 7), but not many shoppers know about the ‘secret’ deals that are still live after the event.

A handful of discounts are currently on offer, and they’re not to be ignored. Fire Sticks, Ring Doorbells and Kindles are all sitting at their sale prices, giving anyone who missed Big Deal Days a second chance to grab a bargain without waiting for the next event.

Regular shoppers will know that Prime Day usually acts as a warm‑up for Black Friday, but these lingering offers are definitely worth snapping up now before they’re gone.

Especially since some of the biggest surprise discounts are half-price or more, including 50 percent off the newest Echo Dot Max (£59.99) and almost 70 percent off the Fire TV Stick HD (£19.99).

With that in mind, here are some of the best deals on devices that are still live after Prime Big Deal Days has finished.

But, if you’re wanting to upgrade your setup for less, then don’t wait long. These last-minute deals won’t be sticking around.

Amazon Fire TV Stick

This ridiculously good deal on the Amazon Fire TV Stick means you’ll be able to stream all of your favourite shows in one place.

The Fire Stick includes apps such as BBC iPlayer, Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube, Disney+, Apple TV, and HBO Max, NOW, Paramount+ and loads more.

With a voice controlled remote and streamlined design, you’ll be able to navigate menus with ease, getting you to your entertainment fast.

Now just £19.99 and reduced at 67 percent, this standout deal is definitely worth snapping up while it’s still live.

Amazon Echo Dot Max

The newest generation of the Echo Dot Max comes in at 50 percent off, even after Prime Big Deal Days has ended.

Upgrade your space with this cool bit of kit that allows you to listen to streaming services such as Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify and more.

It features smart home control and is compatible with a variety of Echo and Fire TV devices, bringing a rich symphony of sound to your home.

This deal won’t be around forever, so be sure to add it to your basket while you still can.

Amazon Kindle Scribe

Selling fast, the Amazon Kindle Scribe combines a notebook and a Kindle all in one and it’s proving to be a popular deal.

Now 35 percent off, the genius device works as an organisational tool for to-do lists, journaling and annotating texts.

As well as being the perfect work companion, it allows you to catch up on your reading, too.

Ring Battery Video Doorbell

This Ring Video Doorbell deal comes in at 50 percent off, allowing you a bit more peace of mind at home.

It records in clear 2K resolution with a 6x zoom, and the added night vision means you can still see what’s going on after dark.

With Live View and Two‑Way Talk, you can answer the door from your phone, and you’ll get alerts whenever motion or people are detected.

Amazon Kindle (2024)

If you’re looking for a distraction-free, digital reading experience, the Amazon Kindle gives you access to thousands of books to tick off your reading list.

With a battery life of up to six weeks and 16GB storage, it’s a great starting point if it’s your first Kindle.

It’s one of the most budget-friendly on the market, and even more so now that it’s still on offer at 37 percent off.

Amazon Fire TV Soundbar

The Amazon Fire TV Soundbar makes everyday viewing feel more immersive with full surround sound, clearer dialogue, and deeper bass.

It really adds to those home cinema moments when you’re curling up on the couch binge-watching your favourite shows.

Including easy Bluetooth pairing to allow you to connect your phone or tablet, it allows you to fill the room with your favourite music.

At 27 percent off, you’ll want to get this deal locked in if you’re looking to upgrade your space.

Blink Outdoor 4 Cameras with Video Doorbell

This bundle features four Blink outdoor cameras and a video doorbell for a whopping 70 percent off.

Its long-lasting battery life, 2K+ view and camera visibility in low lighting allow you to see who’s at your door at any time of day.

Two-way audio allows you to greet visitors, take deliveries and keep tabs on your home security for less.

If you’ve been looking for a video doorbell, you’ll want to make the most of this great discount at Amazon.

Amazon Fire TV Cube

Compatible with a wide range of Amazon Fire devices, the Fire TV Cube is designed to make your downtime feel effortless.

It acts as a central entertainment hub, allowing you to move smoothly between devices while enjoying access to your favourite apps.

With built‑in voice control and seamless navigation across your TV, soundbar and receivers, you’ll be able to take charge of your setup with ease.

It comes in at 45 percent off with this limited time deal.

When is Amazon’s next sale event?

Amazon’s next sale event is likely to be Black Friday, which takes place on the last Friday in November.

This year, it will land on Friday 27 November, 2026.

There will be loads of discounts to look forward to leading up to Christmas, so you’ll be able to get all of your shopping in without breaking the bank.

In the meantime, it’s worth making the most of these last-minute Big Deal Days discounts while they’re still on offer.

October 8, 2026
SEC and CFTC Crypto Rules ‘Fall Short’ of Clarity, Says Rep. French Hill
In brief

Rep. French Hill, who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, told Fox Business that the SEC and CFTC’s crypto rulemaking “fall[s] short” of what’s needed: a legislative solution.

He credited SEC Chair Paul Atkins and CFTC acting Chair Mike Selig for using exemptive relief to define digital assets, but argued agency rules are fragile compared with a durable statute.

His stance cuts against the post-collapse narrative of crypto leaning on regulators rather than Congress.
The regulators may be busy on crypto, but they can’t finish the job. That was the message from Rep. French Hill, who argued this week that the flurry of crypto rulemaking from the SEC and CFTC is no substitute for the market-structure law that stalled in the Senate.

Speaking in an interview with Fox Business on Wednesday, Hill, the Arkansas Republican who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, credited the two agencies for stepping into the vacuum.

Myriad: Who wins the midterm elections? Click to make your prediction.

Hill noted that SEC Chairman Paul Atkins and CFTC Chairman Mike Selig “have taken steps to use their regulatory power, their exemptive relief, to give definition to digital assets and digital commodities, so we can have a functional system here in the U.S. for this innovative form of finance.”

But he was blunt about the limits of that approach. “In my judgement, these regulatory policies fall short of what we have to do, which is have a legislative solution,” Hill said, pointing to his own authorship of FIT21 in the previous Congress and the Clarity Act in this one.

He said he still holds out hope the bill can pass during the lame-duck session, arguing, “We need that permanent law change to make sure America is number one in digital assets and blockchain technology.”

Hill’s comments cut against a narrative that has taken hold since the Clarity Act’s collapse. The bill would have set the rules of the road for the majority of cryptocurrency activity in the United States, and cleared up the jurisdictional lines between the CFTC and the SEC on digital assets.

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But the Senate failed to advance the bill in a 49-50 vote last month, prompting the SEC and CFTC to press ahead with their own initiatives and leading many in the industry to conclude that crypto had stopped waiting on Congress and learned to lean on the regulators instead.

Those agency moves have come fast. The SEC rolled out an “innovation exemption” for tokenized stocks and proposed new rules for how investment advisers and funds can custody crypto, while the CFTC sent crypto-markets rulemakings to the White House and floated a plan to bring crypto exchanges under federal oversight. Together, the steps amount to the only form of “clarity” that regulators can offer crypto in Congress’s absence.

Hill’s point is that such relief is inherently fragile. Exemptions and guidance can be challenged in court or unwound by a future administration, whereas a statute is durable.

A longtime crypto advocate tapped to lead the committee precisely because of his digital-asset focus, Hill has consistently framed legislation as the industry’s only path to lasting certainty.

The lame-duck window he’s banking on is narrow. Whether a bill that couldn’t clear the Senate weeks ago can be revived before year’s end remains an open question, but Hill, for now, isn’t ready to hand the job to the regulators.

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October 8, 2026
Former executioner reveals harrowing reality behind what it was like to carry out firing squad execution

A man who was once tasked with taking the life of a death row inmate described it as just ‘another day at the office’.

The former executioner, who remained anonymous, was a part of the five-strong firing squad who put child killer John Albert Taylor to death three decades ago.

He revealed his motivations for volunteering for the macabre job, described what unfolded in the execution chamber and explained how he felt in the aftermath in a sobering interview.

Taylor, 36, faced the ultimate punishment in January 1996 after being found guilty of the rape and murder of 11-year-old Charla King in Utah.

He was given the death sentence for his horrific crime and spent seven years at Utah State Prison before facing his fate.

The 36-year-old child killer said he opted for the controversial method to ‘inconvenience’ the state of Utah (Utah State Department of Corrections)

The murderer penned a letter in 1992 explaining why he opted for the firing squad to end his life, according to Deseret News, while insisting he was innocent.

“To be strapped to a table and injected full of drugs leaves me with a feeling of helplessness; because I am innocent of the crime for which I was convicted of,” Taylor wrote.

“Anyway, if my execution is carried out, it will be a murder. Granted, it may be legally sanctioned, but, nonetheless, murder it will be, and the firing squad is my way of showing that point; and because of the cost and the inconvenience it will cause the state because they are not really prepared for an execution by firing squad.”

After eating pizza and sipping Coke with a relative, Taylor was taken into the execution chamber at the Utah prison, where five marksmen were waiting for him.

‘Anti-climatic’

His victim’s mother, Sherron King, sobbed and said of him being put to death: “It broke my heart to know that another human being had to die…I know what his mom’s going through.

“So many people had to die in this. But I know we can’t allow him to live; it just hurts so much.”

One of the men firing the fatal shots at Taylor had a lost less emotion about the execution – dubbing it ‘anti-climatic’ and ‘another day at the office’.

In an interview with CNN that took place 14 years after Taylor’s death, he dispelled some misconceptions around what facing the firing squad is like.

The unidentified executioner, who at the time was still a law enforcement officer in Utah, said that the process was quick, proficient and professional rather than the bloodbaths often depicted in movies.

One of Taylor’s executioners shared a matter-of-fact account of the process (Utah State Department of Corrections)

He showed CNN photos of Taylor’s autopsy, with one depicting how the murderer’s heart had been obliterated into three pieces, but barely flinched at the graphic photograph.

“It was anti-climactic,” he said. “Another day at the office. I’ve shot squirrels I’ve felt worse about.”

The former executioner volunteered to participate in taking the death row inmate’s life and said of his motivation to do so: “How often does this come along? [Delivering] 100 percent justice.

“There’s just some people we need to kick off the planet.” He said he would not mind doing it again, either, adding: “I haven’t lost three seconds of sleep over it. It’s true justice.”

The man explained he psyched himself up for the job by reciting the words ‘don’t f**k this up’ to himself.

What the rest of the firing squad said

Along with four other gunmen, he was given a month to prepare for Taylor’s execution. The firing squad practiced their shooting skills in the execution chamber.

One of the guns was loaded with ‘ineffective’ rounds rather than live ones, although as this produced the same recoil, no one was aware of who had the dud gun.

The fivesome fired simultaneously, with the ex-executioner explaining that Utah officials ‘don’t want to hear five shots’, but instead one in unison.

One of his colleagues who also took part in Taylor’s execution told the Salt Lake Tribune it was, in their eyes, an ‘assignment’, adding: “Nothing more than getting an order to do something like kicking in a door to serve a warrant.”

Another described it as ‘returning a defective product to the manufacture’, although there was one who wasn’t as steely.

An executioners view through a canvas screen that shielded the firing squad during an execution in Utah in 1977

A third member of the firing squad admitted that he had ‘issues about shooting a guy strapped in a seat’, who was ‘helpless’.

“But the state had ordered us to do this and we had a job to do,” he added. “I don’t regret doing it, but I would never do it again.”

Death by firing squad is still an execution method that is on the table in five US states – South Carolina, Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Utah.

Earlier this week, the Pentagon announced that President Donald Trump has approved the execution of former US Army major Nidal Malik Hasan by firing squad.

It will mark the first military execution since April 1961. Hasan killed 13 soldiers and left another 30 injured after opening fire at the Texas military base, Fort Hood, in November 2009.

October 8, 2026
‘Owning Manhattan’ Star Ryan Serhant Links With AI Startup HeyGen to Generate Social Media Avatar for Content (EXCLUSIVE)

Ryan Serhant, the star realtor captured in Netflix’s “Owning Manhattan,” claims his company produces about 2,200 social posts a month. It’s a hefty amount for a man who oversees a sprawling real estate empire across 19 U.S. regions, an in-house production studio that employs roughly 100 people and millions of followers across YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.

Producing so much content, however, is a tough ask for someone trying to do their day job: managing a brokerage. Enter AI.

Serhant has partnered with HeyGen, a company that lets users create personalized AI avatars, to build a new social media presence featuring an AI persona modeled after his likeness. The avatar will appear across Instagram, TikTok and X under the handle @HeySerhant, an extension of his main presence that will share lessons learned from decades in real estate.

“I’ve accumulated years of lessons that I don’t always have time to turn into content,” he tells Variety. “I do my best, but I don’t always have time anymore. As I run the businesses and I still sell and we still do the TV shows, this gives us a way to make more of that accessible to the people that want to watch it.”

Serhant’s decision follows a wave of high-profile figures opting to license their images to AI companies, allowing for new forms of content featuring their likeness while potentially creating a new revenue stream for those who opt in. “The View” host Sunny Hostin licensed her image to the AI studio Fountain 0 to appear in movies based on her books, while Higgsfield paid a coterie of streaming and sports stars to use their likenesses in a recent AI-generated film.

The relationship with HeyGen came about “organically,” Serhant says, after witnessing the types of content the company was creating. His content arm — of the 100 people, roughly 30 are based with Serhant in New York — has tried to figure out ways to balance building content around the broker’s image as he’s traveling the country for showings.

“I get very, very interested in how we can add accelerant to what we do and how to scale the one asset that is really, really hard to scale, which is ourselves,” he says. “It’s an age-old problem: If you have a brand built around a face, if you have a brand built around a voice, how do you scale that?”

“With his HeyGen avatar, his audience can now hear from him every day without Ryan having to be on camera every day,” Andrew Mok, HeyGen’s chief marketing officer, said in a statement. “We believe in a future where everyone can scale their presence — sharing what they know and showing up wherever their audience is, without being limited by their own time.”

What the @HeySerhant account won’t produce is some of the personalized content Serhant is known for, including “day in the life of a CEO” videos and clips featuring his daughter Zena. “The connection to me and my brand and my life, and people along the ride on my journey — none of that changes,” he says. “This is in addition to, which is awesome and highly helpful.”

The account will produce at least one video a day for at least 12 months (though Serhant expects the arrangement to extend well beyond that), with Serhant and members of his team working on each one to make sure they accurately reflect his sentiments and image. Those videos will exclusively feature the avatar, though Serhant expects clips to pop up where his actual persona will engage with it.

“Ny wife always told me, ‘You just need to replicate yourself, you’re the only one who can understand what you say,” he jokes. “Well, look, guess what? Welcome to the future.”

October 8, 2026
NEAR Protocol Hits Top 20 on First-Ever Post-Quantum Asset Launch

The connecting link was the $NEAR Intents architecture: the Confidential Intents feature enabled direct and confidential swaps of QTC for more than 180 assets across 30 different blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana, in a single click directly from wallets, bypassing vulnerable traditional bridges.

$NEAR token rose for two straight months while everyone was watching Bitcoin

This historic launch capped a broad-based $NEAR uptrend that had been developing over the past two months. According to weekly TradingView charts, the asset had been steadily breaking out of a prolonged accumulation phase around $1.50–$1.80 since late August.

Weekly price chart showing $NEAR Protocol’s breakout and entry into the top 20 cryptocurrencies, Source: TradingView

Beyond the quantum catalyst, the long-term rally was driven by a combination of fundamental factors: integration with Robinhood Crypto Chain, which simplified operations with the USDG stablecoin and Ethereum, as well as capital inflows from institutional funds, including Digital Commodities, diversifying their portfolios toward AI infrastructure and Chain Abstraction technologies.

For $NEAR Protocol itself, which already supports quantum-safe account signatures on mainnet and plans to upgrade its consensus by the end of 2027, the QTC integration became a practical demonstration of the network’s readiness for the next generation of technology, cementing the project’s position in the top tier of the crypto market.

October 8, 2026
Anthropic Launches Haiku 5.5: Its Cheapest and Fastest Claude Model Yet
In brief

Anthropic released Claude Haiku 5.5 at $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.50 per million output tokens for prompts up to 100,000 tokens, down from $1 and $5 for Haiku 4.5.

Haiku 5.5 scored 72.4% on the OSWorld 2.1 offline subset and 39.2% on Terminal-Bench 4.0, ahead of OpenAI’s GPT-6 Luna on both but well behind Sonnet 5.5’s 70.6% on the coding test.

Anthropic also halved Sonnet 5.5’s cache-read price to $0.10 per million tokens and is adding monthly API credits for Max and Team subscribers this week.
Anthropic released Claude Haiku 5.5 on Wednesday, calling it the cheapest, fastest and most capable small model it has made. It targets high-volume chores such as summarizing documents and querying databases, plus speed-sensitive jobs like live customer support and operating a web browser for the user.

Developers who plug Claude into their own products pay $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.50 per million output tokens for prompts up to 100,000 tokens. Tokens are the small chunks of text, roughly three-quarters of a word, that AI models read and write—and they’re what big AI companies bill by. That matches the rate OpenAI set for GPT-6 Luna, its rival small model, when it launched on September 22.

Myriad: How high will Nvidia go? Click to make your prediction.

Haiku 4.5 charged $1 and $5, so the new rate is 90% lower, while prompts above 100,000 tokens get a 50% cut. Since about 90% of requests to the old model fell under that line, and Haiku 5.5 splits text into slightly more tokens, Anthropic puts the average saving near 75%.

Customer-support chats and long-email summaries are the jobs Anthropic built Haiku for. So essentially repetitive, easy, non creative tasks are the best fit for this model.

That said, benchmarks show this is not a dumb model by any means. For example, on OSWorld 2.1, a test of whether an AI can operate a real computer through long, multi-step tasks, scored as a partial-credit percentage, Haiku 5.5 beats OpenAI’s GPT Luna scoring 72.4% success rate vs 48.9%.

Terminal-Bench 4.0 hands AI agents professional tasks to finish by typing commands on their own, and scores the share completed correctly on the first attempt. Haiku 5.5 landed at 39.2%, against 16.4% for OpenAI’s Luna and 0% for Haiku 4.5

For comparison, Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 5.5 scored 70.6%.

We tried the model on a simple logic question and it was extremely fast to respond, almost instantly. It also gave the wrong answer, which is not what you want from a model, so be careful about blindly trusting it.

On GDPval-AA v2.1, which rates models on real professional work across 44 occupations using an Elo scale, the head-to-head rating system borrowed from chess, Haiku 5.5 scored 1620. Luna got 1437 and Haiku 4.5 got 735.

This is also the first Haiku model with an adjustable effort setting, a dial that lets users trade cost for smarter answers. Anthropic also halved Sonnet 5.5’s cache-read price to $0.10 per million tokens, the discounted rate for text a model has already processed.

BitcoinBTC · USD

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Haiku 5.5 comes 15 days after Opus 5.5 on September 22 and nine days after Sonnet 5.5 on September 28, the last of the three Claude 5.5 models Anthropic had promised. Opus 5.5 was the first release since CEO Dario Amodei published an essay urging the industry to slow gains in AI capabilities.

Haiku 5.5 is available now on the Claude website, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure under the name claude-haiku-5-5. Anthropic is also rolling out monthly API credits this week: $100 for subscribers on the Max 5x plan, $200 for Max 20x, and up to $500, pooled across users, for Team plans.

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October 8, 2026
Xbox Sets New Division for Film and TV, Consumer Products and Experiences Led by ‘Minecraft’ Studio Chief Kayleen Walters
Xbox is launching a new division that will house its film and television, consumer products, strategic partnerships and live experiences businesses.

Named XP (a play on “experience points” in gamer lingo), the entertainment division will be led by Kayleen Walters, the current president of Xbox’s “Minecraft” studio Mojang and executive producer of “A Minecraft Movie,” who will now shift into the role of president of XP.

Per Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, at XP, Walters will lead a team focused on building out entertainment and experiences based on Xbox’s video game franchises, including “Minecraft,” “Call of Duty,” “Fallout,” “Warcraft,” “Gears of War,” “Candy Crush,” “Diablo,” “Forza,” “The Elder Scrolls” and “Halo.”

According to Xbox chief strategy officer Matthew Ball, the new vision “brings together capabilities that have existed across various teams at Xbox for years and aligns them behind a shared mission: helping our franchises reach more people, create deeper connections with players and new fans, and unlock new opportunities for these fandoms to grow around the world.”

As outlined by Ball in a memo to staff Thursday, XP’s four investment areas include:
XBOX PICTURES: Bringing our worlds and characters to new audiences through film, television, and other forms of linear storytelling.

XBOX PRODUCTS: Creating products that are authentic to the fandom that allow fans to celebrate and express the franchises they love.

XBOX PLACES: Bringing communities together through live events, immersive experiences, attractions, broadcasts, and destinations.

XBOX PARTNERSHIPS: Working with creators, brands, and communities to develop new experiences, sponsorships, and brand partnerships.
“XP was created from a simple but powerful belief: the world’s most beloved gaming franchises have an opportunity to reach people far beyond the boundaries of the game itself. Fans don’t just play our franchises,” Walters said in a memo Thursday. “They watch them, wear them, attend them, celebrate them, and connect with them in countless ways. XP brings together the teams responsible for helping Xbox franchises show up in the world in bigger, more meaningful ways.”

A 13 year veteran of Lucasfilm, Walters helped grow and relaunch one of the most influential franchises in history. During her time at Mojang, “Minecraft” has grown from 350 million units sold to over 425 million and Warner Bros.’ “A Minecraft Movie” had the biggest opening weekend ever for a video game adaptation and hit No. 1 at the domestic box offices. On the heels of that success, Walters’ team at Mojang secured a deal for the first of several planned Minecraft theme parks.

As Walters moves into her new role as president of Xbox’s XP division, Sharma has named Meta alum Maria Angelidou-Smith as Walters successor as CEO of “Minecraft” studio Mojang. Angelidou-Smith most recently served as chief product officer at Reddit.

“Minecraft is one of the largest communities in entertainment,” Sharma said. “Hundreds of millions of people play, build, create, teach, watch, mod, run servers, and build businesses around ‘Minecraft.’ The community doesn’t just consume the product. It helps shape what the product becomes. That was central to our search. Mojang already has an exceptional game development team that knows Minecraft and its players deeply. We wanted someone who has built products for communities at enormous scale, who is deeply technical, and who understands how creators, product, technology and monetization come together.”

Along with Xbox’s TV and film adaptations like “A Minecraft Movie” and Amazon’s “Fallout” TV series, and upcoming projects including the “Diablo” animated series, the “Call of Duty” movie in the works at Paramount, and the film and TV rights for Hideo Kojima’s next game, “Physint,” Sharma says Xbox is focused on expanding its entertainment business beyond the capabilities of a traditional Hollywood studio into off-screen entertainment.

Xbox recently hosted an expanded version of BlizzCon (a longtime Blizzard Entertainment fan convention), marking the return of that event after three years off, and launched a WWE takeover themed around new game “Gears of War: E-Day.”

See below for Sharma’s full memo announcing the XP division to Xbox staff, which was published on the Xbox Wire Thursday.

Team,

At Town Hall on Tuesday, I talked about the four Cs and the choices we are making to put them into practice. You’ve seen a lot of our work on Core and Content. Today I want to share two leadership appointments supporting Creator and Connection. Kayleen Walters will transition from her role as President of Mojang to President of XP, a new XBOX division focused on how people experience our franchises beyond the games themselves, and Maria Angelidou-Smith will join XBOX as CEO of Mojang and Minecraft.

Kayleen has spent her career building entertainment franchises. Before XBOX, she spent 13 years at Lucasfilm helping guide Star Wars across films, products, and partnerships. At Minecraft, she helped grow consumer products into a multibillion-dollar business with more than 250 licensees and was Executive Producer of A Minecraft Movie, the biggest film in the U.S. last year and a top-five release worldwide. She is also a producer of the sequel.

XP is a play on “Experience Points” and formalizes four investment areas for us: XBOX PICTURES for film and television adaptations; XBOX PRODUCTS for licensing and merchandise; XBOX PARTNERSHIPS for sponsors and brand partners; and XBOX PLACES for our marquee broadcast and in-person events, theme parks, and other location-based experiences. Our franchises can mean more to people than the time they spend playing them, and Kayleen knows how to build those experiences with the industry without losing what made people care about the franchise in the first place.

Kayleen’s move also gave us time to think carefully about what Mojang needs in its next leader.

Minecraft is one of the largest communities in entertainment. Hundreds of millions of people play, build, create, teach, watch, mod, run servers, and build businesses around Minecraft. The community doesn’t just consume the product. It helps shape what the product becomes. That was central to our search. Mojang already has an exceptional game development team that knows Minecraft and its players deeply. We wanted someone who has built products for communities at enormous scale, who is deeply technical, and who understands how creators, product, technology and monetization come together.

Maria brings a rare combination of those experiences. She spent nearly a decade at Meta, where she led Facebook Groups used by more than 1.8 billion people each month, as well as Events, Creators, Search, Profile, and Monetization. She later led product and technology at Personio and served as Chief Product Officer at Reddit, another of the world’s largest community platforms. She has built products used by billions of people and led product and engineering organizations through significant growth and change.

She will bring that experience to Mojang while learning from the people who know Minecraft best. Her first order of business is for her to learn from the teams and communities that make Minecraft so special.

I’ll be in Stockholm next week to spend time with the team and talk through the transition in person. Maria starts Monday, October 19, at the Bear Creek office.

Please join me in congratulating Kayleen and welcoming Maria to XBOX!

Asha
October 8, 2026
Bitcoin and ether holders urged to enter ‘bunker mode’ against possible AI attacks

That would theoretically put a large share of crypto within reach. Millions of bitcoin sit in addresses whose public keys are already visible onchain, as CoinDesk has previously reported. On Ethereum, any account that has ever sent a transaction has revealed its key, and the stablecoins and tokenized funds issued on the network are controlled through that signature system as well.

No practical attack on bitcoin or Ethereum’s wallet keys has been demonstrated, and none appeared in the research reviewed by CoinDesk.

AI already a crypto threat

The warning followed OpenAI’s release on Tuesday of 722 mathematical manuscripts produced by an unreleased model tested on approximately 4,000 research problems. Some findings have computer-checkable proofs, while others remain unverified and could contain errors, the company said.

The manuscripts came from the model OpenAI said last month had solved the Navier–Stokes problem, one of seven Millennium Prize challenges in mathematics. Each result used, on average, computing power equal to roughly three hours of ChatGPT Pro reasoning, the company said.

Within a day, an outside researcher reran the computer check on one result, a new limit on how fast computers can multiply large grids of numbers, a question mathematicians have worked on since 1969, and found it held.

October 8, 2026