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The Morning

Asked and Answered

Today we take on more reader questions about the news.

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Voting in Austin, Texas.

Credit...

Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times

By

Sam Sifton

I am the host of The Morning.

April 6, 2026,

6:46 a.m. ET

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Last week we took a bunch of your questions about the news and gave them to our expert reporters to answer. That led readers to send us hundreds more questions — about politics, tech, culture and more. So we’re back with answers.

Keep those questions coming

!

I’ve read that Trump can declare a state of emergency and cancel the midterm elections. Is that true? | Carmen Rodriguez-Visek | Las Vegas, Nevada

Nick Corasaniti

, who covers voting and elections, writes:

Stop doomscrolling, dear readers! No, the president has zero authority to cancel elections. Federal law dictates Election Day, and elections are run by individual states. In fact, the Constitution grants the president no explicit authority over any facet of elections.

So if the president muses about canceling elections, or even makes a declaration attempting to do so, it is effectively meaningless (though it would certainly cause chaos and confusion). Remember, federal elections have occurred on the current timeline for more than 150 years, including during two world wars, events that probably qualify as national emergencies.

What is going on in Venezuela? After Nicolás Maduro was captured, Trump started the Iran war and Venezuela vanished from the headlines. | Lynn Hartfield | Denver, Colorado

Anatoly Kurmanaev

, who covers Venezuela, writes:

It’s hard for Venezuela to compete for attention these days. The Middle East upheaval has made the shock-and-awe operation to snatch Venezuela’s president in January look almost quaint in retrospect. Since then, Venezuela’s new rulers, under Trump’s tutelage, have barreled ahead with opening up the country’s immense natural wealth to Western investment. But the uptake has been rather tepid. Venezuela, after all, remains under American sanctions, and investors are wary that Trump’s Venezuela policies will come under scrutiny if Republicans lose in the midterms. Meanwhile, life remains hard for most Venezuelans. The country now sells more oil for higher prices, but the proceeds are going to a clique of local banks and corporations. Little is trickling down.

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