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Dazed and Confused and Bigly Kingly For A Day
As our decrepit despot traipsed across Asia, he was fêted by leaders anxious to dodge his peevish trade wars by assiduously plying him, as one would for any dangerous, demented child, with adoration and treats: burgers, golf clubs, trinkets, ketchup and, in South Korea, even a crown for the wounded boy who would be king. Still, he couldn't keep up. In Japan, he wandered off mid-glitzy-ceremony like a nursing-home gramps looking for pudding, to be steered back in place. Nothing to see here.
The decline, of course, is ongoing. Monday, Trump told reporters he'd gone to Walter Reed Medical Center and gotten an MRI as part of a "routine yearly checkup,” except he'd just had one six months ago and an MRI is decisively not part of a routine test, but not to worry: He said it was "perfect," except that doesn't exist. For those inexplicably wondering about his cognitive state, he said he also aced a "very hard" sort of "aptitude test," except it's a very basic dementia screening that requires the patient to solve elementary-school level problems like remembering five words, identifying a giraffe or lion, and drawing a clock; he added that the test "took a while" and "was difficult,” two key factors doctors consider when assessing cognitive skills
Then, days before the expiration of federal food benefits that could leave tens of millions of Americans facing hunger along with soaring health insurance costs, and as the House GOP remains MIA during what could be the longest shutdown in history, he left for a six-day, gold-plated tour of Asia, because fuck you all. In Malaysia, he cringe "danced" with "zero class"; in Japan, he got a red carpet, golf clubs, and lost. On Wednesday, heading to fraught trade talks with both South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and then Chinese President Xi Jinping, he landed in South Korea to a hero's welcome: a brass band playing YMCA - gay hookups! - a red carpet adorned with multi-hued flags - "That was a very good red carpet" - and President Lee in a custom-made gold tie.
Leaning into the theme of peace to honor Trump's famed, fictional role as a "global peacemaker" - and clearly eager to get Trump's vengeful, randomly spiked 25% tariffs back down to a manageable 15% - Lee was just getting started on his campaign for Sycophant of the Week Award. An official lunch, bedecked with peace lilies, featured “mini beef patties with ketchup” and Thousand Island Dressing in a nod to Trump’s “success story in his hometown of New York." The menu also included a "Korean Platter of Sincerity" - U.S. beef and local rice - grilled fish with a glaze of ketchup and gochujang chili paste, and a "Peacemaker’s Dessert” of a brownie adorned with gold. After the ketchup and gold brownie came the shiny, kingly baubles
Days after almost eight million furious Americans protested Trump's abuses under the mantra No Kings, in a lavish ceremony at Gyeongju National Museum, Lee presented Trump with...a crown. Specifically, a replica of one of several 1,000-year-old crowns excavated from the ancient, golden Silla Kingdom that ruled much of the Korean Peninsula until the 10th century, and fell due to corruption and oppression. Hmm. The crown represents a time of peace and unity, an official said, as the first dynasty to unify the Peninsula's three kingdoms; it "symbolizes the divine connection between the authority of the heavens and the sovereignty on Earth," as well as the authority of a strong leader. Trump, wooed and dazzled, stared raptly, a kid at a humongous candy store.
Lee also awarded him the Grand Order of Mugunghwa, their highest civil honor, a medal hung from a golden collar. Trump happily burbled over his swag; then they talked trade. Ultimately, they "pretty much finalized" a deal for South Korea to pump $350 billion into the U.S.economy in exchange for returning tariffs to 15%, including on cars; Trump also said they'd cooperate on shipbuilding, with the Koreans allegedly building a nuclear sub at a former Philly shipyard experts say will be equipped to do it, like, never. But he got a crown! Other details on the deal's "structure" are unresolved - like the Gaza "truce?" - nor are tensions on security costs. Polls show most South Koreans don't trust Trump, but feel they need the U.S. economically to fend off China, a bigger threat, so good luck on that.
Like everywhere else, the talks were met by protests that echoed ours; signs read, “No Kings," "Trump Not Welcome," "This Is Robbery Not Negotiation." Said one protester, “It seems the U.S. (is) treating South Korea as its cash cow." Before leaving, Trump also met with China's Xi Jinping in Busan. Trump later called the meeting "amazing" and "12 out of 10," with agreements on "many important points," including soybeans, rare earths and much lower tariffs than the 100% Trump at some point wildly threatened in one of his hissy fits. He also said, “Ukraine came up very strongly," because he never learned to speak English. There have been no statements about the meeting from the Chinese, so God knows what actually, really happened there.
As a befuddled, newly crowned king returns to his fractured country, he may be mulling where to put his new bling in a space packed with Tim Apple's plaque, his Olympic medals, the World Cup he stole and other ill-begotten gains. Others are wondering what happened to the Constitution's Foreign Emoluments Clause that bars officeholders from accepting personal gifts "from any king, prince or foreign state" worth more than about $480. Asked about the issue, a White House spokesperson asserted that Trump is "working night and day on behalf of the American people." He could be. Or maybe, amidst the fog and lies and phantasms he inhabits, he's trying to remember what just happened during his recent "Weekend at Donnie's territory."
Whatever he may have accomplished by way of reversing the catastrophic effects of his own economic idiocy, for many the enduring image of his trip will be viewed through the twisted prism of his Tuesday misadventures in Japan, when, Monty Python-style, he lost the thread during a welcoming ceremony in Tokyo. Now-viral videos show Japan's new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi gently guiding Trump as they somberly walk through a palatial room filled with dignitaries; a stunned Trump abruptly halts, stares at an Honor Guard, shuffles past US/Japanese flags where he should stop, aimlessly lumbers on, randomly salutes, lurches ahead and gapes at the band as, behind him, an aghast Takaichi bows as expected before rushing to drag him back to earth.
The spectacle of a U.S.president with mush for brains stumbling around a palace like a toddler lost at the mall before marching up to shake hands with his own entourage was too much for many. "Bro has no idea what is going on," said one. Also, "Is this real life? This guy has control of our nukes." It was noted, if it's any consolation, he probably has no idea how to launch them; it was also noted Stephen Miller would happily do it for him. It was suggested "this is that 'high energy' we always hear about," that "his handlers should put a shock-collar on him (so) when he wanders off they can just zap him back to coherence," that "it's great, totally cool knowing this guy gets to do whatever he wants these days." One thing to look forward to: "Can't wait for this guy to ask what happened to the East Wing." What a time to be alive, for now.
'The Stuff of Nightmares': Hurricane Melissa Makes Catastrophic Landfall in Jamaica
Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica on Tuesday as a monstrous Category 5 storm as the island country braced for devastating impacts, humanitarian operations urgently mobilized, and experts voiced horror at the latest climate-fueled weather disaster.
"This is an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation," the National Hurricane Center said in an update after the storm made landfall.
Early video footage posted to social media shows the storm—the most powerful to ever strike the island and the third-strongest to ever form in the Atlantic—wreaking havoc and destruction.
🇯🇲 | Video que muestra los daños y las inundaciones en el área de Black River, Jamaica, por el huracán Melissa. pic.twitter.com/k6RZDE9jdB
— Entredostv (@Entredostv1) October 28, 2025
Anne-Claire Fontan, the World Meteorological Organization's tropical cyclone specialist, told reporters that "a catastrophic situation is expected in Jamaica" and described the hurricane as "the storm of the century" for the island. Melissa's landfall is expected to bring extreme flooding, landslides, and other life-threatening impacts.
Tens of thousands of Jamaicans lost power as the slow-moving storm approached the island, bringing torrential rain and maximum sustained winds of 185 mph, with gusts over 220 mph. Storms like Melissa are the reason scientists are pushing to formally add a Category 6 for hurricanes.
"Unimaginable violence is hiding in the very small and compact eyewall of Melissa," said Greg Postel, hurricane specialist at The Weather Channel. "Nearly continuous lightning will accompany the tornadic wind speeds."
The International Federation of the Red Cross said up to 1.5 million people in Jamaica—roughly half the island's population—are expected to be directly affected by Hurricane Melissa, the strongest storm on Earth this year.
"We are okay at the moment but bracing ourselves for the worst," Jamaican climate activist Tracey Edwards said Tuesday. "I've grown weary of these threats, and I do not want to face the next hurricane."
The International Organization for Migration warned that "the risk of flooding, landslides, and widespread damage is extremely high," meaning that "many people are likely to be displaced from their homes and in urgent need of shelter and relief."
Melissa's landfall came on the same day that United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said the international community has failed to prevent planetary warming from surpassing the key 1.5°C threshold "in the next few years."
Meteorologist Eric Holthaus wrote on social media that "this is the news I've dreaded all my life."
"Humanity has failed to avoid dangerous climate change," he wrote. "We have now entered the overshoot era. Our new goal is to prevent as many irreversible tipping points from taking hold as we can."
Hurricane Melissa will make landfall in Jamaica in a few hours as one of the two strongest hurricanes ever to make landfall anywhere in the Atlantic Basin -- on par with the 1935 Labor Day hurricane in south Florida.Just horrific. The stuff of nightmares.
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— Eric Holthaus (@ericholthaus.com) Oct 28, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Climate experts said Hurricane Melissa bears unmistakable fingerprints of the planetary crisis, which is driven primarily by the burning of fossil fuels.
The warming climate is "clearly making this horrific disaster for Jamaica, Cuba, and the Bahamas even worse," Jennifer Francis, a senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, told the New York Times.
Akshay Deoras, a meteorologist at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, told the Associated Press that the Atlantic "is extremely warm right now."
"And it's not just the surface," said Deoras. "The deeper layers of the ocean are also unusually warm, providing a vast reservoir of energy for the storm."
Amira Odeh, Caribbean campaigner at 350.org, warned in a statement Tuesday that "what is happening in Jamaica is what climate injustice looks like."
"Every home without electricity, every flooded hospital, every family cut off by the storm is a consequence of political inaction," said Odeh. "We cannot continue losing Caribbean lives because of the fossil fuel industry's greed."
"As world leaders head to COP30, they must understand that every delay, every new fossil fuel project, means more lives lost," Odeh added. "Jamaica is the latest warning, and Belém must be where we finally see a steer to change courses. The Caribbean is sounding the alarm once again. This time, the world must listen."
This story was updated after Hurricane Melissa made landfall.
Senators Accuse Trump Admin of Hiding Info on 'Biggest Premium Hike in History'
More than half of the Democratic Party caucus in the US Senate on Monday accused the Trump administration of covering up massive planned premium increases that are going to hit Americans who buy their health insurance through Affordable Care Act exchanges.
In a letter to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) administrator Mehmet Oz, the senators charged that his agency has "failed to open early window-shopping" the week before the start of open enrollment, which they said has left "millions of Americans who buy their own insurance on Healthcare.gov... unaware of the catastrophic premium hikes barreling towards them."
The senators emphasized that the early window-shopping period is crucial because "the 24 million people who buy insurance on the ACA Marketplace need as much time and information as possible to understand and prepare for these significant premium increases."
The letter also argued that CMS has reduced enrollees' ability to access this crucial information by issuing guidance last summer that "allowed insurance companies to omit premium numbers and tax credit information from the notices they are required to send to enrollees ahead of open enrollment," while also "allowing insurance plans to delay sending information to their enrollees."
As a result of this, the letter continued, "millions of Americans have still not received any information from their insurance plan, or from CMS, about the biggest premium hike in history."
The senators' letter concluded with a demand for CMS to "launch window-shopping immediately and deliver the transparency American families deserve ahead of open enrollment on November 1."
The fight over health insurance premiums is at the heart of the current shutdown of the federal government, as Democrats say they will not vote to fund the government without an extension of enhanced ACA tax credits that were first passed into law under the American Rescue Plan in 2021.
The Washington Post last week reported on leaked documents showing that the most popular healthcare plans purchased on the ACA exchanges are expected to see a 30% hike next year, which would mark the "largest annual premium increases by far in recent years."
Were the enhanced tax credits for these plans allowed to expire, the Post added, this would likely result in millions of Americans seeing their insurance premiums double or triple next year.
The expiring subsidies aren’t the only threat to Americans’ healthcare, as Republicans over the summer passed a massive budget law that cut spending on Medicaid by nearly $1 trillion over the next decade, which the Congressional Budget Office estimated would result in more than 10 million people, among the nation’s poorest, losing their coverage. Congressional Democrats have also demanded undoing some Medicaid cuts in government shutdown negotiations.
DOJ Suspends Prosecutors Who Accurately Described January 6 as a ‘Riot’ by a ‘Mob’
In the Trump administration's latest attempt to rewrite the history of the January 6, 2021 insurrection attempt at the US Capitol, the Department of Justice has suspended a pair of federal prosecutors who referred to the attack as a "riot" carried out by a "mob."
The Washington Post reported that assistant US attorneys Carlos Valdivia and Samuel White were told they were suspended on Wednesday, "hours" after filing a sentencing recommendation against Taylor Taranto, a Washington state man accused of participating in the attack on the Capitol in an effort to stop the certification of President Donald Trump's loss in the 2020 election.
Taranto allegedly entered the building and fought with Metro police officers as they tried to control the crowd, as well as other riot participants.
The case was not related to Taranto's actions at the Capitol in 2021—the charges against him were dropped after Trump issued blanket pardons to more than 1,500 people who took part in the riot.
Taranto was instead being sentenced for a "hoax" he perpetrated when he returned to Washington, DC two years later: He livestreamed himself making threats to several high-profile individuals, including former President Barack Obama, whose address he'd driven to after Trump had posted it to social media. He claimed—falsely, it turned out—that he'd outfitted his van with a car bomb that he planned to detonate outside the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
The sentencing document recommended that Taranto serve a 27-month sentence. However, what appears to have drawn the ire of the DOJ and led to the suspension of the prosecutors is how the document referred to the events at the Capitol, which it mentioned in passing as part of the case's factual background:
On January 6, 2021, thousands of people comprising a mob of rioters attacked the U.S. Capitol while a joint session of Congress met to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election. Taranto was accused of participating in the riot in Washington, DC, by entering the US Capitol Building. After the riot, Taranto returned to his home in the state of Washington, where he promoted conspiracy theories about the events of January 6, 2021.
As Politico reporter Kyle Cheney noted on social media, this description of the events of January 6 is "flatly accurate." Numerous pieces of video evidence show rioters using physical force and violence in an attempt to occupy the Capitol building.
As the New York Times described at the time, it was "perhaps the most widely documented act of political violence in history." Participants were recorded bashing through doors and windows. They were shown beating police officers with objects from flagpoles to fire extinguishers and attacking them with chemical irritants. They were also heard chanting for the execution of members of Congress and then-Vice President Mike Pence, who'd refused to take part in Trump's effort to stop the peaceful transfer of power.
A report by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office released in 2023 found that the attack resulted in the injury of 174 law enforcement officers, while DOJ and Capitol administrators say it required over $3 million worth of cleanup and repairs.
According to two people familiar with the matter, who spoke to the Post on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, White and Valdivia's description of these events as a "riot" and its participants as a "mob" resulted in their near immediate punishment.
They were told they were being furloughed due to the government shutdown and would be placed on administrative leave once it ended. According to ABC News, the pair of prosecutors was also locked out of their government-issued devices.
Notably, Trump's own handpicked US Attorney, Jeanine Pirro—a former Fox News host renowned for her undying loyalty to the president—also signed off on the document. However, unlike White and Valdivia, she has not reportedly received any punishment.
The DOJ has not issued a public comment on the decision, and it remains unclear whether the suspension of White and Valdivia will affect Taranto's sentencing. But it's not the first time the DOJ, headed by Attorney General Pam Bondi, has sought to punish those who prosecuted January 6 insurrectionists.
Dozens of the top prosecutors and FBI investigators who worked on cases against January 6 defendants and against Trump for inciting them have been fired.
Early in Trump's second term, the DOJ also demanded that the FBI turn over the identities of the more than 6,000 agents and other employees involved in investigating the attack. After Brian Driscoll, then the acting FBI director, attempted to resist the order, he was pushed out, and the identifying info was handed over.
Trump, meanwhile, has openly embraced the insurrectionists, describing them as "patriots," and attempted to push false theories attesting to their innocence—including that hundreds of agents placed by the "Biden FBI" started the insurrection, a claim that his own FBI director, Kash Patel, would refute.
On Wednesday, just hours before news broke of White and Valdivia's suspensions, Trump wrote on Truth Social that the "thugs" at the FBI who investigated Republican lawmakers over their roles in allegedly supporting the insurrection "should all be investigated and put in jail" and called Jack Smith, the special prosecutor who investigated the case against him for inciting the mob, "deranged" and "a criminal."
"The Trump administration is explicitly pro-January 6," wrote Matthew Gertz, a senior fellow at Media Matters for America, on social media. "You can get suspended from your job as a federal prosecutor for even acknowledging that there was a riot at the Capitol."
Chicago Judge Demands Answers From Border Patrol Chief Over Tear Gas at Kids' Halloween Parade
A Chicago judge rebuked US Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino on Tuesday after several of his agents over the weekend deployed tear gas in a neighborhood where local children were preparing for a Halloween parade—in violation of a previous court order barring the use of the chemical unless federal officers are in immediate danger.
During a court appearance, Bovine was dressed down by US District Court Judge Sara Ellis, who said Border Patrol agents had violated her earlier restraining order that barred US Department of Homeland Security officials from using riot control weapons “on members of the press, protestors, or religious practitioners who are not posing an immediate threat to the safety of a law enforcement officer or others."
As reported by Heather Cherone, a politics reporter at local Chicago news station WTTW, Ellis grilled Bovine about multiple uses of force by federal immigration agents in recent weeks.
First, Ellis asked Bovine to comment on allegations filed in her court last week about federal immigration agents pointing a gun at a man who was peacefully protesting against their actions while standing on the side of a public street.
Bovine replied that he did not know the specific details of that incident, which Ellis said violated her earlier restraining order "on its face."
Next, Ellis described video footage taken last weekend in the neighborhood of Old Irving Park showing federal immigration agents placing a US citizen in a chokehold after he had approached agents and asked them what they were doing. In this case, Bovino acknowledged that this action as described would not be an appropriate use of force.
Finally, Ellis asked Bovino about the tear gas deployed in Old Irving Park as families were preparing for an annual children’s Halloween parade. The Border Patrol agents' use of the chemical appeared impossible to justify, said Elliis, given all known facts.
"These kids, you can imagine, their sense of safety was shattered," Ellis said, referring to children in the neighborhood. "It is going to take a long time to come back, if ever."
According to Chicago Tribune reporter Jason Meisner, Ellis also told Bovino that kids should feel they're able to go to local Halloween events without having to "worry about getting tear-gassed."
"That’s not how any of us want to live," Ellis emphasized. "I know you wouldn’t want to live that way."
The federal immigration operation in Old Irving Park on Saturday targeted a man named Luis Villegas, an undocumented immigrant who was working in the area and who, according to his brother, was brought to the US when he was four years old.
Agents detained two other people in the neighborhood in addition to Villegas, and deployed tear gas after several neighbors came out of their homes to yell at the officers, film them, and demand that they leave the neighborhood. A former Cook County prosecutor who lives in Old Irving Park and witnessed Villegas' arrest told reporters that the agents were never under any threat.
Ellis ordered Bovino to appear in her courtroom every single day going forward to recap his agents’ actions in the district, according to Cherone.
She also demanded that Bovino ensure that every one of his officers is equipped with a body camera, and to submit all reports on use of force incidents and corresponding body camera footage by Friday.
A hearing on whether to make permanent Ellis' restraining order which strictly limits the use of riot control munitions has been set for November 5, according to Cherone.
'Unlawful and Un-American': Trump Claims He Can Send 'Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines' Into US Cities
President Donald Trump alarmed many critics this week when he once again mused about deploying the military on the streets of US cities.
As reported by The New York Times, Trump told a group of American troops stationed in Japan on Tuesday that he could send the military into US cities under the pretense of fighting crime.
"We have cities that are troubled, we can’t have cities that are troubled," Trump said. "And we’re sending in our National Guard, and if we need more than the National Guard, we’ll send more than the National Guard, because we’re going to have safe cities."
Trump has deployed the National Guard to cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, Memphis, and Portland in recent months, but local and state officials have opposed the deployment in most cases and have filed legal challenges. Most recently, a federal appeals court voted on Tuesday to rehear the administration's case pushing to send the National Guard to Portland—vacating an earlier decision that allowed Trump to federalize Oregon's troops.
On Wednesday, Trump was asked by a New York Times reporter to specify what he meant when he said he could send "more than the National Guard" into American cities, and he replied that he could send any branch of the military he wanted without any oversight from courts or from Congress.
"If I want to enact a certain act, I'm allowed to do it," Trump said. "I'd be allowed to do whatever I want. The courts wouldn't get involved. Nobody would get involved. And I could send the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines—I could send anybody I wanted."
Q: What did you mean last night when you said you were prepared to send 'more than the National Guard' into American cities?
TRUMP: Sure, I'd do that. As you know I'm allowed to do that
Q: Do you mean other branches of the military you'd send in?
TRUMP: If it were -- who are… pic.twitter.com/5O733Mas5V
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 29, 2025
The president threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act earlier this month, falsely claiming the law gives him "unquestioned power." The Insurrection Act allows presidents to deploy federal troops to enforce US laws in cases of extreme emergency, such as violent rebellions—but local officials in the cities Trump has targeted so far have categorically denied that anti-Trump protests there meet the high threshold for invoking the law.
The co-chairs of the Not Above the Law Coalition—Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen; Praveen Fernandes, vice president of the Constitutional Accountability Center; Kelsey Herbert, campaign director at MoveOn; and Brett Edkins, managing director for policy and political affairs at Stand Up America—condemned Trump's threats on Tuesday as "unlawful and un-American."
"Our military exists to defend the nation and protect our freedoms, not to be weaponized against American cities," they said. "In his remarks today, Trump claimed that he and his administration cronies 'can do as we want to do.' That is as dangerous as it is unlawful and un-American."
Trump's use of the American military for domestic law enforcement purposes was also condemned by Ret. Maj. Gen. Randy Manner, a former top official at the National Guard.
Writing in the Home of the Brave newsletter, Manner condemned Trump's National Guard deployments to US cities as "un-American and wrong."
Manner noted that the National Guard has traditionally existed to augment US forces overseas during times of war, and also to serve at the request of state governors during times of emergencies. Using the National Guard to do standard police work, Manner added, is simply unprecedented.
"Our military is not trained in law enforcement," he argued. "There are absolutely zero situations where our National Guard should be on the streets of America as a status quo measure, absent some acute short-term crisis. We would never send our sheriff’s deputies to Afghanistan for a special operation; it’s just as illogical to send highly trained combat soldiers and put them into civilian law enforcement roles."
Trump first began musing about deploying the US military on American soil during the 2024 election campaign, when he said he could use it to take down a group of US citizens whom he described as "the enemy from within." Trump ratcheted up his threats last month when he told a group of assembled US generals that "we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military."
Even During Shutdown, Senate GOP Does Big Oil's Bidding With Vote to Gut Arctic Protections
"This vote will authorize the fossil fuel industry's continued destruction of habitat and landscapes that are critical for wildlife to survive."
The Republican-controlled US Senate voted Thursday to scrap a Biden-era policy that protected millions of acres in the Alaskan Arctic from fossil fuel drilling, even as the government shutdown continued with no end in sight.
The final vote on the resolution, led by Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), was 52-45, almost entirely along party lines. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) was the only Democrat to join Republicans in voting for the measure, which aims to use the Congressional Review Act to revoke a 2022 Biden administration decision protecting swaths of the Western Arctic.
The resolution still must pass the House, which is also controlled by Republicans.
Athan Manuel, director of the Sierra Club's Lands Protection Program, said the vote shows that President Donald Trump and his Republican allies are "exploiting" the prolonged shutdown to "hand over our public lands and wild places to corporate polluters."
"Donald Trump's government shutdown has dragged on for nearly five weeks, and what is the top priority for Congressional Republicans? Opening up the western Arctic to oil and gas drilling, not funding services or making sure our military is paid?" said Manuel. "It's shameful."
Robert Dewey, vice president of government relations at Defenders of Wildlife, warned that "this vote will authorize the fossil fuel industry's continued destruction of habitat and landscapes that are critical for wildlife to survive."
"The Trump administration and its allies in Congress are prioritizing profits for oil executives and billionaires over the basic needs of hardworking Americans."
The Senate vote comes days after Trump's Interior Department, led by billionaire drilling enthusiast Doug Burgum, wrenched open all 1.56 million acres of the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas leasing.
Trump campaigned on a pledge to accelerate climate-destroying fossil fuel drilling and openly promised oil and gas executives that he would move swiftly to gut regulations in exchange for their financial support in the election.
One estimate released in the wake of the election found that oil and gas interests spent nearly $450 million to boost Trump and Republican candidates and bolster their legislative priorities on Capitol Hill.
Andy Moderow, senior director of policy at the Alaska Wilderness League, said in a statement that Thursday's vote "is yet another reminder that the Trump administration and its allies in Congress are prioritizing profits for oil executives and billionaires over the basic needs of hardworking Americans."
Poll Shows 25-Point Mamdani Lead Over Cuomo as Frantic GOP Fearmongers Over ‘Socialist Uprising’
"Unless there's a historically unprecedented poll miss, some Cuomo fans are living in a fantasy world when it comes to the NYC mayoral race," said one polling analyst.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson on Thursday delivered a frantic warning about progressive New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani as new polls showed him with a big lead over top rival Andrew Cuomo.
During a news conference at the US Capitol, Johnson attacked Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries for giving a lukewarm endorsement of Mamdani last week and accused the entire Democratic Party of embracing "Marxism."
"By endorsing Mamdani, Hakeem Jeffries has endorsed and co-owned his positions, his past statements, his Marxist playbook, and everything else that guy espouses," Johnson said. "So too does every single House Democrat who will be inviting their leader, Jeffries, to their campaigns."
Johnson also said that Mamdani's candidacy was part of a "socialist uprising," and that "we have the responsibility to call out and sound the alarms" about his rise to power.
🚨Speaker Johnson says Republicans have "a responsibility to call out" the "socialist uprising," pointing to NYC mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani. pic.twitter.com/X3StkxT4mU
— Off The Press (@OffThePress1) October 30, 2025
The "socialist uprising" that Johnson suggested people across the country should fear includes policy proposals like an expansion of a fare-free public bus pilot program, a network of city-owned grocery stores, and a rent freeze on rent-stabilized apartments—which has already been enacted at least three times in New York City.
During a Wednesday interview with Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, Cuomo accused Mamdani of being "totally out of sync with how New Yorkers feel," and then pointed to the fact that Mamdani has "dual citizenship" between the US and Uganda.
"His parents own a mansion in Uganda, he spent a lot of time there," Cuomo said. "He just doesn't understand the New York culture, the New York values, what 9/11 meant, what entrepreneurial growth means, what opportunity means, why people came here."
Two polls released on Thursday, however, indicated that fear-mongering about Mamdani appears to be falling on deaf ears.
As reported by Spectrum News, an Emerson College poll showed Mamdani hitting the 50% threshold among likely voters, with Cuomo trailing by 25 percentage points. A poll from Marist, meanwhile, showed Mamdani winning 48% of likely voters, with Cuomo receiving 32%.
Although the Marist poll was better for Cuomo than the Emerson poll, it also showed that Mamdani would likely win the election even if Republican Curtis Sliwa dropped out of the race at the last minute, as Mamdani in a theoretical head-to-head matchup with Cuomo still maintained a lead of seven percentage points.
Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, told Spectrum News that Mamdani's voter coalition appears to be strong heading into next week's election, as he has improved his standing among Black voters while maintaining significant advantages among young voters.
In fact, noted Kimball, Mamdani even has a plurality of voters over the age of 50, whose support Cuomo needs to pull off an upset victory.
CNN polling expert Harry Enten argued on Thursday that the latest polls show Mamdani is the overwhelming favorite to win the election.
"Unless there's a historically unprecedented poll miss, some Cuomo fans are living in a fantasy world when it comes to the NYC mayoral race," he wrote on X. "Mamdani has, if anything, widened his big lead since September. Also, early voting stats are consistent with polls showing a Mamdani win."
Dutch Voters Have 'Turned the Page,' Center-Left Leader Says as Far Right Rebuked in Elections
"We’ve shown not only to the Netherlands, but also to the world that it is possible to beat populist and extreme-right movements," said Rob Jetten.
The leader of the Netherlands' center-left Democrats 66 Party hailed the results of Wednesday's snap parliamentary elections as proof that "millions of Dutch people have turned a page and said goodbye to the politics of negativity," with the far-right Party for Freedom set to lose 11 seats and its vehemently anti-migration leader, Geerts Wilders, appearing to have no path to a majority.
"We’ve shown not only to the Netherlands, but also to the world that it is possible to beat populist and extreme-right movements," D66 Leader Rob Jetten, who is now likely to become the Netherlands' youngest and first openly gay prime minister.
Full election results may not be known for weeks, but the Dutch news outlet NOS reported Thursday morning that the D66 was in the lead by 15,122 votes, putting Jetten in a likely position to lead talks on forming a new coalition government.
Both D66 and the Party for Freedom (PVV) were projected to win 26 seats in Parliament's 150-seat lower house.
The results represented a precipitous fall from power for PVV, which stunned observers in 2023 with its first-place finish in that year's elections, capturing 37 seats.
Wilders has led the far-right party for nearly two decades, and his surprise victory two years ago earned him the nickname the "Dutch Donald Trump" as he promoted his virulently Islamophobic rhetoric and pushed to eliminate all migration from Muslim-majority countries, end asylum, and revoke Dutch citizenship from people with dual passports.
He also called to revoke climate regulations and pull the Netherlands out of the European Union, but as the New York Times reported in an analysis of the election, Wilders "could not rally the support to turn those extreme stances into reality."
In June, Wilders—whose chants against Moroccan immigrants at a rally in The Hague led to him being convicted of inciting discrimination in 2016—withdrew his party from the governing coalition after failing to get support for his extreme anti-migration proposals.
The PVV's campaign ahead of the parliamentary elections promised those same policies and led other major parties to pledge that they would refuse to form a new coalition with Wilders.
René Hendriks, an election volunteer in the Hague, told the Times that "the Netherlands is a bit fed up" with PVV's leadership.
Jetten's party focused heavily on affordable housing, proposing the construction of 10 new cities to help solve the country's chronic housing shortage. D66 also called for "making smart use of [artificial intelligence] and digital progress" to pave the way for a four-day workweek, ending fossil fuel subsidies, the passage of an Anti-Discrimination Act, and “well-thought-out and effective policies, rather than using strong language" on migration.
D66 did shift to the right on some migration policies, however, backing a proposal requiring refugees to submit their asylum applications outside of Europe.
But Kristof Jacobs, a political scientist at Radboud University, told the Times that the election results suggest the far right in Europe may not be poised to seize power as it campaigns on anti-migration policies.
"We thought it was almost a deterministic thing, that the radical right was always going to become bigger—that they were bulletproof," Jacobs said. “Not so bulletproof after all.”
Far-right movements have recently gained favor with the public in Germany, the United Kingdom, and France, although have largely failed at actually achieving power within governments.
Jetten said as the election results came in that "the positive forces have won!"
"I want to get to work for all Dutch people," he said, "because this is the land of us all!”
Meetings to start the process of forming a new coalition government are expected to begin next week.