LIVE COVERAGE
Being There: Are These People In the Room With Us?
These truly-through-the-looking-glass days, it seems the drunk great-uncle you really didn't wanna ask to dinner is somehow getting worse. Scarily and no longer mirthfully, the befuddled "head" of a GOP blitzed on projection daily spirals deeper into phantasmagoria - slurring words, crafting fictions, renaming oceans, rekindling grievances, losing it over trifles and consorting with imaginary friends as the world burns. An Orange-Stain plea from No Kings for the coming election: "Clean Up On Aisle USA," please.
To be clear, Trump was a lying fabulist from way back. In the glitzy 1980s and 1990s, he regularly posed as a successful businessman, savvy dealmaker and cad-about-town who'd infamously call reporters or publicists as "John Barron" to boast about his money or conquests - a ploy he admitted in later court depositions he learned from his Nazi father. In power, like "a pre-teen with a girlfriend in Canada nobody's met," he's long invented "friends," fans, sources who praise him and his dreadful policies, from cultists invariably with tears in their eyes who "thank me for saving the country" to U.S. CEOs and "one of the great people of China, from the highest echelons" who inexplicably extol his disastrous tariffs.
Lately, though, the GOP is reportedly freaking out, watching the line between fact and fiction increasingly blur in Dear Leader's mashed-potato mind as the economy keeps tumbling and vital mid-terms approach. They want him to celebrate (albeit largely imaginary) tax cuts, trade deals, safe borders, winning fights against drag shows and "transgender for everyone" (sigh). Instead, he raves about livestreamed executions, the hotness of GOP candidates, often in the wrong state - "His ass, shit, it's like a pile of muscle" - his bestie Putin who's been "fine on Ukraine," how "not a single" undocumented immigrant has entered America since he took office, how soaring gas and diesel costs are "a small price to pay," though it's unclear for what.
He garbles words or makes them up - "When we had the hurricane...We call it a watercane" - prompting excited patriots to up their expectations: "OK, cancel the Blue Wave, we want a Blue Watercane." Wearily, he jokes about creating a robot lookalike on the campaign trail- "Nobody would know the difference" - so he can stay home and watch TV, his true, small vocation. Weirdly, he fantasizes about trashing other countries: He boasts about "polling higher than anyone has ever polled in Venezuela," which is why "after I finish with this" he'll to go Venezuela, "learn Spanish quickly, it won't take long, I'm good at languages" and run for president there, and yes we are here for it.
Hopefully, Venezuela won't have pesky reporters asking him questions that drive him to melt down in "dementia anger-flare." Because he lacks both impulse control and any trace of decency, he's also lauded Vivek Ramaswamy's grotesque ad against rape survivor and Dem opponent Amy Acton, wherein her estranged, unhinged mother calls her a liar, charging the Fake News "is trying to convince everyone this Ad is bad because it’s so good!...It's called 'hitting pay dirt.’” He adds that if his "legendary" mother "said anything bad about me, (it) would go down as the Ad of the Decade — Maybe the Century!" Vivek should keep the ad up, he says, so people know Acton is "a DISASTER who, uncontrollably, lies, cheats, and steals!” Killer pot/kettle.
There are more. The racist fraudsters who got rich on corruption - and turned Minneapolis into Fallujah - want us to rat on our neighbors for...fraud under Trump's stammered "Fraud Whistle...Blower Incentive...Program" whereby "Americans (can) report theft of taxpayer dollars," with DOGE "skunk-works" stragglers helping. Turn in someone with $1 billion, you get 1%: "That's a lot of money.” Except the cap is $30K, you probs won't see it, and it's queasily akin to Nazi bounties on Jews. Stephen Goebbels was even there to smear phantom Somalis who get $30 million for a fake daycare, buy BMWs or mansions, fly their kids "first class all over the world...living the high life." What a sick fuck. Meanwhile, America urges, "Call in fraud at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue."
Alas, the more loopy he gets, the more openly he flies his violent, racist, crassly unfettered flag. There are more curses and more bellicose AI slop like the video of a macho white guy put in prison with three scary black guys, by one scary black cop, who takes them all down: "Bullies Can’t Break a Strong Man." (So many pots/kettles!) The rallies grow more pugnacious too: In the second assault this month, a South Carolina sheriff's office is investigating an attack on a protester - punched in the head, neck and chest - that Trump cheered on, praising the thugs' "courage." "Who's the guy that threw that punch?" he excitedly asked. "I love that." He also mocked the victim as "a very unattractive guy," for a rare combo sick fuck and pot/kettle.
That was at a rally, in a reported “livestock arena” say what, for Darlene Graham, who’s “gonna have a big win.” If so, no thanks to his shambolic speech, which roamed from renaming the Atlantic Ocean - “I was always high end” - to insisting he doesn’t ramble while rambling - “I got - I know everything I’m doing. I got aptitude they dream about” - to again whining about the prizes he didn’t win: The Pulitzer for writing - “The people that got it shouldn’t have gotten it” - and the usual Nobel, despite being “one person who deserves it more than any yuman being." ”Not that I want it - it’s just ridiculous,“ he babbled. ”How the hell do you not get the Nobel Prize? i settled like 8 wars. The woman that got it, I don’t know where the hell she comes from.“ Losingest loser ever.
Finally, amidst all the lame, foul, daft fails, there are his deeply undignified transfers: The careening burlesque of a walk to his helicopter in Alaska. The ambling approach to his beloved, million-year helipad when he suddenly stops to acknowledge, salute and wave to a crowd of supporters, aka thin air. Eventually, the camera zooms out to show...empty space. A few seconds later, aides walk out from a different direction; other angles - here and here - show the same abyss, for which Fox would've run Biden out of town. Same for last week's event, ostensibly to honor first responders where, amidst a losing war, crumbling economy, burning planet and hungry children, Nero nattered and raved about his house projects. Nothing to see here.
“You're seeing this for the first time. This used to be grass. So if we did this, you couldn't do it. It was unusable. You know, this is built on a wetland. So the grass was always wet. Even if you were in a drought, the grass was soaking wet. And especially women with the high heels, they'd be holding their shoes. They go out and buy beautiful new high heels that go into the White House and they come back and their shoes are destroyed. But we did a job with the same stone that matches the White House stone and hasn't been totally finished. We're going with the black over here, too, because the limestone doesn't hold up well. Never, never did. Never will. But what we've done here is really amazing. We put a brand new coat over the White House, brand new coat. We fixed up the walls. They were all broken, chopped, terrible shape. A lot of the ornamentation, like around the windows, was broken. And many years ago, 30, 40, 50 years ago, probably a lot during Biden three years ago because he had no idea what the hell he was doing. But you'd look at a window and you'd see ornament on the right side. And on the left side, you'd see it was it had fallen off. Some people think that's OK, but I don't think it's OK. So we had molds made of the right side. We put it on the left side. It's all perfect now. So we re-skinned. Basically, it's a re-skinning. And that building is good to go for another 100 years or at least actually. But even this, the you see the the top sections where it was so bad, I didn't even like standing under it. The thing was all cracked and broken all over the place. We put the sign up, solid brass, half inch thick, as opposed to laminate. You ever see these laminate? They they don't want to spend the money on the brass. So they have a piece of brass laminated. It's about a hundredth of an inch thick. And they put it on a piece of wood to save a lot of money. And then in about two years, it decomposes and it's laying all over the floor. We don't do that. But up there is the Rose Garden. And then we, as you know, that wall has sat for 150 years empty. And I said, something has to be on that wall. And I just had the the notion I've often thought of it because I've never seen it before. A presidential walk of fame. So we went from George Washington to Trump. And that will be extended on this wall right up here because somebody said, oh, but you have no room for anybody else. I said, no, it extends this way. And but I'm going to have to leave that because whoever it is, maybe they won't be able to figure that out. And if they don't figure it out, I don't know what they're going to do. You know, but we have we have at least one hundred and twenty five years of extension going this way. So it's fun. But everybody loves the presidential walk of fame. Nobody knows if there is any. And we have a very generic, very good description of every president from Washington all the way down. And we get a little bit more personal as we get closer to my my year. Talk a little bit about in more detail about what we've had to put up with....All I do is write the truth.” - Donald J. Trump
Ladies and gentlemen, the President (sic) of the United StatesGetty Image
As Biodiversity Summit Begins, 'Systems That Sustain Life on Earth Are Under Threat'
Four years after world leaders agreed to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, representatives from nearly 200 nations gathered in the Armenian capital on Monday for a summit to review progress on the agreement and discuss future actions to protect nature.
In the lead-up to the 17th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17) in Yerevan, the United Nations Environment Program released a "State of Biodiversity Action" report. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that the framework "has inspired action across the globe," with nearly 90% of parties establishing national targets, but "progress is uneven, and far too slow."
The framework—sometimes called the "Paris Agreement for Nature"—features 23 targets for 2030 and four for 2050. The world isn't on track to meet any of them, including its key goal to protect 30% of all land and water by the end of this decade. Guterres noted that "even if current national commitments are met, only 26% of terrestrial and 12% of marine ecosystems would be protected" on that timeline.
The Guardian pointed out that "the last biodiversity summit, COP16 in Cali, Colombia, ended in disarray with no clear agreement on key topics after negotiations ran out of time. Another round of talks were needed in Rome to finish the meeting."
Agence France-Presse reported Monday that "only a handful of world leaders, including UN chief Antonio Guterres but mostly heads of state from nearby Central Asian nations, turned up for a high-level session on Friday ahead of the formal negotiations."
Armenian Environment Minister Hambardzum Matevosyan, who is presiding over the summit, told AFP that success "will not be measured simply by the number of participants, high-level statements, or decisions adopted," but whether nations actually take action. He added at the opening session that "over the next two weeks, our task will be to bridge the differences, build consensus, and ensure that COP17... deliver[s] results commensurate with the urgency of the challenges before us."
Those who are participating in the summit and parties to the convention face pressure from conservation leaders, including Jeffrey Parrish, the Nature Conservancy's global managing director for nature protection, who declared that "our planet is in peril. The biodiversity that sustains us is being lost faster than ever, and ecosystems that fuel our health and economies are fraying."
Parrish called on those in Yerevan to turn the review process "into an acceleration agenda" to boost progress on the 2030 goals, "transform our financial systems" to mobilize investment at the necessary scale, "integrate biodiversity into infrastructure and development decision-making," and "strengthen policy frameworks to deliver durable, area-based conservation outcomes."
Nature COP17 starts today, with governments gathering to assess progress towards restoring nature The target to protect 30% of land for nature by 2030 seems within reach, but ‘paper parks’ won’t cut it - eg just 7% of England is *properly* protected for naturewww.theguardian.com/environment/...
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— Guy Shrubsole (@guyshrubsole.bsky.social) October 19, 2026 at 3:34 AM
An Lambrechts, head of advocacy group Greenpeace's delegation to the summit, said in a statement that "we're halfway to 2030 and the evidence is clear: We are far off track to reach the 30×30 targets. The systems that sustain life on Earth are under threat, and decisions made at COP17 must deliver a clear course correction to protect our planet's ecosystems."
"This COP can't become a mere entry in a vast log of destruction," she argued. "Governments need to agree on concrete actions that tackle the drivers of biodiversity loss, increase finance, and redirect money flows to where they are needed. But decisions in Yerevan will only matter if governments follow through at home. They cannot continue promising to protect nature while supporting its destruction through harmful subsidies and incoherent policies. Any more delay is a threat to our survival on the planet."
Nichanan Tanthanawit, global project lead for Greenpeace's Ocean Justice Campaign, stressed that "protecting 30% of the planet by 2030 is not just a numerical target. Our ambition must be centered around justice, equity, and those who protect nature. Indigenous Peoples and local communities have cared for these lands and waters for generations, yet their knowledge, rights, and leadership are still too often overlooked."
Camila Jardim, an international political expert at Greenpeace Brazil, highlighted how biodiversity concerns connect to the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis—which world leaders have also failed to adequately address, despite scientists' warnings.
"The world is moving towards a looming 1.5ºC overshoot and the sixth mass extinction, with the human-caused climate and biodiversity crises already severely impacting people all over the world," Jardim said, referring to the Paris Agreement's temperature rise target for this century. "Those are not separate issues, but pieces of the same puzzle, and action is more urgent than ever."
"Governments can make the most impact with aligned policies to address both crises... together, with clear actions for the short, medium and long term," she continued. "This is especially critical for primary forests, which are essential for both climate stability and biodiversity protection, and the Brazil-led roadmap to halt and reverse deforestation and forest degradation by 2030 offers a real opportunity for strengthening synergies between conventions. Protection means tackling not only deforestation but also degradation, and ensuring that climate and biodiversity commitments reinforce each other rather than pull in different directions."
Europe can’t lead on nature at COP17 while cutting biodiversity cash at home
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— euobserver — EU news that matters (@euobserver.com) October 18, 2026 at 3:08 PM
Also attentive to the talks in Armenia on Monday, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) released recommendations and guidance on how to incorporate ecological integrity—or "how closely an ecosystem’s species, structure, functions, and ecological processes remain within their natural range of variation"—into relevant policies and practices.
"The world has made ambitious commitments to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, but success cannot be measured by simply counting the number of conservation areas established, the species protected, or the amount of land and water conserved," said John G. Robinson, a Wildlife Conservation Society scientist who co-chairs the IUCN Task Force on Ecological Integrity.
"The real test is whether natural ecosystems—forests, grasslands, freshwater systems, and oceans—are maintaining or recovering the ecological integrity needed to sustain life," Robinson explained. "Do these places continue to support healthy wildlife populations, functioning ecosystems, and the natural processes that make life possible? By focusing on ecological integrity, we can make conservation more effective, and governments can be more accountable for results."
While Waging War and Wrecking Economy, Trump's Focused On... Renaming New Mexico
As Americans suffer from an affordability crisis exacerbated by President Donald Trump's policies, both foreign and domestic, critics on Monday excoriated him for his inane pursuit of changing the name of yet another geographical place—this time, one of the nation's most culturally distinct states.
"New Mexico should immediately change its name to New America," Trump wrote on his Truth Social network. "We are not Mexico, we are the United States of America! The name would add great value and prestige to the State!"
"Home Values and Incomes would rise," the president baselessly contended, "and you would be even prouder while saluting our beautiful American Flag! Maybe even the Crooked Elections, that New Mexico is known for, would become honest again!"
Americas: Please do literally anything about affordability. I can't afford groceries. Trump: WE SHOULD RENAME NEW MEXICO TO NEW AMERICA!!
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— Mike Nellis (@mikenellis.bsky.social) October 19, 2026 at 12:57 PM
New Mexico has no such reputation, despite Republican electors signing a certificate purporting to cast the state's electoral votes for Trump in 2020—former President Joe Biden won there by double digits—and GOP commissioners in Otero County refusing to certify the June 2022 primary results over unfounded concerns about voting machines.
Trump's desire to rename New Mexico "New America" is curious, given that both old and New Mexico—as well as everywhere from Greenland to Tierra del Fuego—are part of the Americas.
The president has already renamed the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario—though the new names aren't recognized internationally—and has also floated changing the name of the Strait of Hormuz to the Trump Strait, even as the military under his command has been unable to gain control of the vital waterway amid the increasingly protracted US-Israeli war of choice against Iran.
"It's like we're living in a never-ending 'South Park' episode," Zeteo media columnist Justin Baragona said Monday on Bluesky, referring to the long-running Comedy Central adult animation show, whose upcoming season will be renamed "South America" in a satirical send-up of not only Trump's rechristening spree, but also the complicity of tech titans like Google and Apple that all too readily comply with the president's whims.
Your President of the United States, folks. Laser-focused on the issues that matter to Americans and on the myriad major problems around the globe.
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— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) October 19, 2026 at 12:15 PM
US Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM)—who recently led New Mexico's congressional delegation in calling on Apple and Google to keep the state's current name on their maps—said Monday on social media that "New Mexico’s name dates back hundreds of years, long before the United States even existed."
"It carries generations of history, culture, and rich traditions that continue to shape who we are," he added. "We are New Mexicans. We’re proud of our name, proud of our home, and we’re keeping both. Long after Donald Trump is out of office, we’ll still be New Mexico."
Critics of Trump's policies skewered the president's priorities amid a cost-of-living crisis he said he'd fix upon returning to office and a war of choice he promised never to wage.
"People are struggling to afford housing, to pay their electric bills, to fill their tank with gas, and to buy groceries. The Mad King’s solution: Rename New Mexico as New America and your income will magically go up," California state Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat running to fill retiring Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) House seat, said on social media.
Former US Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a Democrat running for governor of New Mexico, said, "New Mexico is New Mexico, and you lost here three times because you're corrupt and don't care about working people."
"You should be focused on ending this war, stopping these tariffs, and making things less expensive," she added, "not renaming our state."
'Grifter Got Grifted': RFK Jr. Adviser Calley Means Quits as Trump 'Hemorrhaging' MAHA Support
In perhaps another signal that the "Make America Healthy Again" movement is feeling betrayed by US President Donald Trump, The Wall Street Journal revealed Thursday that Calley Means is exiting his role as an adviser to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
"I leave with tremendous respect for President Trump and RFK—two historic figures who are committed to confronting a corrupt DC bureaucracy that is doing everything possible to protect the status quo," Means said in a statement. "The past two years have seen historic policy and cultural change to confront the chronic disease crisis and healthcare incentives that profit from us being sick. This movement is in the first inning and just getting started."
White House spokesperson Allison Schuster told the Journal that "we are grateful for Calley Means' time in the Trump administration," and "he has done a fantastic job for the MAHA movement."
While the spokesperson applauded Means, the brother of the president's withdrawn surgeon general nominee, and the departing adviser praised Trump and Kennedy—whose partnership he has been credited with fostering—unnamed sources who spoke to various media outlets cited internal conflicts.
According to the Journal's sources, Means "was greatly frustrated by White House delays of some of Kennedy's most popular policy ideas and blamed others in the administration for allowing food companies and special interests to have too much sway," with one person describing him as "disillusioned."
CNN similarly reported:
Means, who had championed Trump as a candidate willing to overhaul the government's approach to food and health regulation, grew increasingly frustrated over delays in advancing a series of policies at the center of the MAHA agenda, three people familiar with the matter said.
Trump health officials had initially hoped that policies, including an effort to create a definition for ultraprocessed foods, would be finalized well before the midterm elections. Instead, they've faced continued delays in the White House and sharp pushback from major agriculture industry groups.
Means decided to quit primarily because of those delays, the people familiar with his thinking said.
Following those and other reports, Shaughnessy Naughton, president of 314 Action, which works to elect Democrats with a background in science to public office, said in a statement that "Calley Means has called it quits because the grifter got grifted."
"It's clear that top MAHA figures are distancing themselves from the administration because Trump and RFK Jr. have betrayed the promises that built their movement," Naughton continued. "Instead of taking on Big Food and Big Pharma, this administration has repeatedly sided with special interests, using Trump's signature Sharpie to boost the production of pesticides by executive order, loosen restrictions on peptides, and promote fruit-flavored vapes to children."
"The MAHA agenda is a failed experiment—RFK Jr. was the first to fold on the food industry, and we have a president who lives on a steady diet of cheeseburgers and Diet Coke—Trump was never going to be an ambassador for MAHA's food agenda," she added. "Nearly 50% of independents and swing voters say MAHA has failed to deliver on its promises, and Calley Means' departure confirms it. This administration has sold out the very people it claimed it would fight for. More heads will roll, and we expect RFK Jr. will be next in Trump's firing line."
Brad Woodhouse, president of Protect Our Care, declared that "Donald Trump is hemorrhaging MAHA support even from within his administration."
"Again and again, RFK Jr. helped Donald Trump sell out MAHA priorities to protect profits of the GOP's big chemical, food, and tobacco donors," he said. "Patience has already run dry for many MAHA supporters. Now Kennedy's right-hand man can't stomach staying in the administration after all the rug pulls, phony excuses, and corporate surrender."
"Means' exit is a clear sign that Donald Trump has no intention of mending MAHA fences," Woodhouse warned, "and activists should brace for even more deregulation of cancer-causing pesticides, forever chemicals in water, and flavored vapes aimed at kids."
The RFK Jr. adviser's departure followed the Monday publication of an analysis from the watchdog group Public Citizen titled "How Trump Conned MAHA," which lays out how far the administration has "strayed" from its own "warnings about hazardous chemicals in the environment and ignored its own advice about corporate influence and corrupted science."
'Nothing and No One Is Off the Table for NSPM-7,' Warns Analysis of Trump Crackdown on Dissent
The Trump administration is using a sweeping "national security" framework to investigate and potentially prosecute political opponents, civil society groups, and people engaged in constitutionally protected activities, according to an analysis published Wednesday warning that the crackdown on dissent could intensify ahead of next month's midterm elections.
The report, “Enemies of the State: NSPM-7 and the Trump Plan to Crush Dissent,” was co-authored by Shilpa Jindia and Nora Benavidez at the advocacy group Free Press. The publication examines the yearlong implementation of President Donald Trump’s National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7), which ostensibly targets domestic terrorism and organized political violence.
Over 28 pages, the analysis examines how the administration is coordinating federal agencies to target people whose political beliefs or activism conflict with Trump’s agenda. Activities potentially caught up in the crackdown include protesting immigration enforcement, distributing information about constitutional rights, monitoring immigration officials, and supporting election integrity.
“The NSPM-7 blueprint enables efficient coordination across federal agencies to disrupt our democracy and go after the greatest number of people through surveillance, investigation, and prosecution,” said Jindia, who is Free Press' policy counsel. “The aim is to levy the heaviest penalties across agencies to achieve the harshest sentences."
"While the methods, severity, and application of the blueprint are explicit, the framework sets no standards for application—whether physical, geographic, thematic, or constitutional," she added. "As a result, nothing and no one is off the table for NSPM-7 to sweep up and target.”
Although NSPM-7 by itself does not grant the government new legal powers, the report contends that the framework enables more aggressive coordination among existing agencies, empowering prosecutors and investigators to work together against perceived political adversaries.
Benavidez, Free Press' senior counsel, warned that the approaching midterm elections—whose integrity Trump has baselessly attacked in a similar manner to his "Big Lie" that Democrats "stole" the 2020 presidential contest—offer particularly dangerous opening for the administration to intensify its crackdown on dissent.
“The midterm elections are at our doorstep; the president is eagerly pursuing election-fraud narratives, telling voters he will pay them off if they vote for Republicans—and leveraging his executive power to sway election results if he can,” she said. “Already [Department of] Homeland Security officials have investigated more than 150 nonprofit organizations under the guise of ‘election integrity.’"
"It’s by no means outside the realm of possibility that NSPM-7 becomes the vehicle to shut down civic engagement and political expression in the weeks and months to come," Benavidez added.
The analysis urges Congress and civil society groups to take action to defend constitutional freedoms and prevent further expansion of the crackdown.
Earlier this year, dozens of Democrats in the House of Representatives launched an inquiry into the US State Department's "ideologically driven visa restriction policy" and the Treasury Department's "pledged financial enforcement mechanisms directed against civil society."
"Trump has made clear his intentions to interfere in the November midterm elections," Jindia and Benavidez wrote. "Losing control of Congress could subject the administration to investigations and hearings, including potential impeachment hearings of Trump and his Cabinet officials."
'Monstrous': Netanyahu Casts Doubt on Filmed Israeli Settler Attack of American Journalist
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced blistering criticism Friday after his office published a statement casting doubt on the circumstances surrounding a brutal attack earlier in the day by settlers in the illegally occupied West Bank that left an American journalist hospitalized.
"The facts surrounding the confrontation near Abu Falah, during which Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine was allegedly assaulted, remain unclear and are under investigation," Netanyahu's office said on social media.
As Common Dreams reported, Levine—a 63-year-old Jewish American by birth who has reported from war zones including Afghanistan, Kosovo, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, and Syria—was covering Palestinian farmers desperately trying to harvest their olives when around 80 masked settler colonists descended upon them.
Armed with rocks, clubs, sticks, assault rifles, and the self-assured belief that their deity figure promised them all the land that was once ruled by Jewish kings millennia ago, the settlers set fire to the olive trees that are the backbone of Palestine's rural economy and a literal symbol of Palestinians' rootedness in their homeland.
The assailants fired guns and threw rocks at the olive harvesters, reportedly wounding at least two Palestinians. While documenting the attack, Levine—who, like other journalists killed or wounded by Israel, was clad in a helmet and a blue vest clearly marked "PRESS"—was set upon by settlers, knocked to the ground, and kicked dozens of times while her equipment was stolen.
"Israel unequivocally condemns violence against anyone—Jews, Arabs, Christians, or journalists," Netanyahu's office claimed. "Those responsible will be held accountable."
"But serious questions remain," the statement continued. "Reports indicate some 200 Arabs and far-left activists confronted approximately 40 Israeli youths. Footage shows masked individuals on both sides hurling objects, amid reports of fireworks fired at Jewish youths. Other footage appears to show Levine knocked down and immediately helped to her feet by the same unidentified individual."
"The investigation must establish the facts, including who initiated the violence," the office added. "We will not allow disputed incidents to be exploited to demonize the hundreds of thousands of law-abiding Jewish residents."
The colonization of the occupied Palestinian territories by Jewish settlers—many of them non-Israelis who are availing themselves of the ethnosupremacist and apartheid policy of allowing any Jew to live in a land whose Palestinian inhabitants have been ethnically cleansed from it for nearly 80 years—is inherently illegal under international law.
Washington Post executive editor Matt Murray pushed back on Netanyahu's statement on social media, saying: "To be clear: Some facts are neither in dispute nor unclear. Our photographer was clearly marked as press. She was clearly beaten. These are not partisan or risible statements, but indisputable. We urge a thorough investigation and accountability."
International observers also criticized Netanyahu's statement.
"They are actually trying to justify an American WaPo journalist being severely beaten by a mob of settler terrorists," US commentator Krystal Ball said on social media, using the syllabic abbreviation for the Post.
Irish journalist Barry Malone responded to Netanyahu's post on X, saying: "Hi. There's video. It's clear."
US physician Amira Dalton said, "Israel lies and then calls you an antisemite for calling out their lies."
The X account Israel Exposed, which has more than 400,000 followers, sardonically asked, "You mean the footage of the Israeli terrorists beating her up isn't clear enough?"
The Israeli veterans' group Breaking the Silence said that "you can see the settlers who attacked Heidi Levine, a journalist for The Washington Post. But what you can’t see is the state behind them: a state that funds them, arms them, and, above all, grants them near-total impunity for their actions. This violence does not happen in a vacuum. Israel enables it."
While Lt. Col. Ariella Mazor, chief international spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces, claimed the military had sent battalions to the West Bank to contain the outbreak of violence, eyewitnesses said the IDF was involved in the attack on Abu Falah.
“The army did nothing to stop the settlers," Israeli journalist Oren Ziv, who was present during the attack, told The Washington Post.
That's because Israel's far-right government is unapologetically seeking to "finish the job of 1948," as Netanyahu once put it—a reference to the ethnic cleansing of more than 750,000 Palestinians during the creation of the modern Israeli state—and take all of Palestine.
"The entire land is ours," Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said earlier this month, in the lead-up to Israel's October 27 elections."This is our country."
Last month, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich vowed to do in the West Bank "what we did in Gaza," where three years of genocidal annihilation have left more than 250,000 Palestinians dead or wounded, nearly 2 million people forcibly displaced, and an estimated 70% of the territory under Israeli control.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, at least 1,138 Palestinians—at least 250 of them children—have been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank since October 2023.
At least nine Americans have been killed by Israeli settlers and security forces in the West Bank since January 2022, including journalists, human rights activists, and Palestinian Americans visiting relatives.
Despite claims by Israel that perpetrators of such attacks will be held accountable, impunity is the general rule.
“Sadly, none of them will be prosecuted,” Levine said of her attackers. “I am sure of it.”
Multiple US senators demanded that Israel bring Levin's assailants to justice.
"The continued lack of accountability for settler violence in the West Bank has allowed attacks on innocent people, including multiple Americans, to go unanswered, and it is eroding what should be a strong alliance between the US and Israel," Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) said on social media. "Prime Minister Netanyahu isn't doing nearly enough to stop the violence."
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) also took to social media after Friday's attack, writing, "Today, another American citizen and journalist was brutalized by Israeli settlers attacking Palestinians in the West Bank."
"This repeated violence and brazen impunity for attacks against Americans and Palestinians alike are unacceptable," he added. "When will [President Donald] Trump and [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio DO SOMETHING?"
Jayapal, Sanders Question Zuckerberg Over Alleged Meta Interference in Brazilian Election
"It is unacceptable for any social media platform to favor one political candidate or party over another, whether deliberately or inadvertently."
Over a dozen US lawmakers, led by Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Sen. Bernie Sanders, wrote to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday to demand answers about the social media giant's alleged interference in Brazil's presidential runoff election.
Leftist Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is facing far-right Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, in Sunday's election. Lula has asked the Superior Electoral Court to probe his challenger over "improper use" of a social network and disqualify him, and Bolsonaro—an ally of US President Donald Trump—has similarly sought Lula's disqualification.
Meanwhile, US-based Meta—which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp—claimed to the Brazilian court that it has adopted measures to ensure equal treatment of the candidates. But the members of Congress remain alarmed, and research released by the corporate accountability group Ekō on Friday, after their letter was sent, bolsters their concerns, showing that "Instagram's algorithm aggressively promoted pro-Bolsonaro and right-leaning content to a brand-new, politically neutral account."
Sanders, Jayapal, and 11 other Democrats in the House of Representatives stressed to Zuckerberg that "in democratic elections, it is incumbent upon social media companies to ensure that candidates receive equitable treatment and access with regards to distribution, moderation, and recommendation of campaign-related content across their platforms."
"We are, therefore, deeply concerned about credible reports of Meta platforms restricting or suppressing content associated with the Lula campaign while amplifying or recommending content associated with the Bolsonaro campaign, thereby creating starkly unequal conditions in the digital environment," they continued. "Given the critical role social media plays in political communication, it is unacceptable for any social media platform to favor one political candidate or party over another, whether deliberately or inadvertently."
"As US lawmakers who support free and fair elections at home and abroad, it is our responsibility to conduct oversight to ensure that US social media platforms are not influencing the outcomes of elections abroad," the lawmakers said. "We urge you to take immediate action to ensure that, going forward, candidates and their campaigns in democratic elections receive equal treatment and access on your platforms."
The lawmakers—including Democratic Reps. Greg Casar (Texas), Maxwell Alejandro Frost (Calif.), Jonathan Jackson (Ill.), Jesús "Chuy" García (Ill.), Summer Lee (Pa.), Mark Pocan (Wis.), Mike Quigley (Ill.), Delia Ramirez (Ill.), Jan Schakowsky (Ill.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), and Nydia Velázquez (NY)—laid out a series of "alarming reports" from late September to mid-October.
They also noted recent events at the Superior Electoral Court, and requested "an immediate briefing on Friday, October 23" from Meta about its measures to comply with a recent order from the tribunal, "including 17 different initiatives and a human review system for presidential campaign ad accounts."
The 13 US lawmakers also requested written responses to a series of detailed questions by November 4, and urged "additional action to ensure that, going forward, candidates in democratic elections at home and abroad benefit from an even playing field on Meta’s platforms."
Separately, on Friday, with the US midterm elections less than two weeks away, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) demanded answers from not only Meta, but also Google, TikTok, and X about their efforts to stop election misinformation from spreading on their platforms to American voters.
'Act of Collective Punishment': Netanyahu Condemned Over 'Full Lockdown' of Occupied West Bank
The reaction to a shooting incident in Hebron, said one Palestinian critic, "represents an alarming escalation in Israel’s policies of forced displacement and a flagrant violation of international law and the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that he has ordered the Israel Defense Force to "immediately impose a lockdown on Hebron and prepare for a full lockdown of the entire" illegally occupied West Bank following a gun battle that reportedly left two Palestinians dead and at least five Israeli soldiers wounded.
Following an emergency meeting with Israel's security cabinet and his top military advisors, Netanyahu posted a statement to social media in which he blamed Hamas for the incident and accused the group of “planning a major attack aimed at murdering innocent civilians.”
Netanyahu claimed that “large quantities of weapons and ammunition" had been discovered, but did not offer details about the nature of attack or its alleged planning.
Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who was on the scene of the shooting incident soon after it occurred, warned that “comprehensive military operation” in the occupied West Bank would soon be underway to handle those termed "terrorists."
Smotrich also said that the Palestinian Authority, which governs the illegally occupied territories, should be "dismantled," called for large-scale military operations like those executed in Gaza and Lebanon, and for the increased demolition of Palestinian homes.
"There is no alternative to a comprehensive military operation in Judea and Samaria that will lead to the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority, the confiscation of weapons and the elimination of terrorists," Smotrich said. "Just as in Gaza and Lebanon."
The order to demolish homes near where Friday's incident took place, he added, "will begin to be implemented within the next hour, and the demolitions will continue throughout the afternoon."
Mustafa Barghouti, founder and leader of the Palestinian National Initiative (PNI), was among those warning that what comes next will not be good for the Palestinian people, calling the complete closure of the West Bank "an act of collective punishment."
Netanyahu, Barghouti said, "declared today that he is planning to carry out the ethnic cleansing of entire neighborhoods in Hebron."
Such a declaration, he continued, "represents an alarming escalation in Israel’s policies of forced displacement and a flagrant violation of international law and the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people. It must be unequivocally condemned, and the international community must act immediately to prevent the forcible displacement of Palestinian residents and hold those responsible accountable."
Yariv Oppenheimer, former director of Peace Now and a project director at the Geneva Institute, told Al-Jazeera in a Friday interview that Israeli leaders would now leverage the incident to further tighten their grip on the occupied West Bank, already rife with violence from Israeli settlers and IDF operations in Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).
“The Israeli army is getting into the Palestinian cities, the settlers are attacking Palestinians, and the situation is impossible" in the OPT, Oppenheimer explained.
Oppenheimer added that he expected Netanyahu and his cabinet to take advantage of this attack on Israeli soldiers in order to push “more propaganda” to justify the likely violence that is coming from the Israeli government and violent settler factions.
"There will be house demolitions. We will see [a] curfew. We will see more soldiers [...] making arrests, and definitely we might see the settlers trying to target Palestinians in revenge for this attack, and trying to take advantage of this situation in order to escalate the situation even more,” Oppenheimer warned.
Days Before Midterms, US Supreme Court Lets New Hampshire Bar Student IDs for Voting
"The Supreme Court thinks corporations can buy our elections but a college kid can’t use a student ID to vote."
The US Supreme Court ruled Thursday, less than two weeks before the midterm elections, that New Hampshire officials can bar students from using their school ID cards as a form of identification when voting.
Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the lone dissenter, expressing support for a lower-court decision ordering New Hampshire election officials to consider student IDs as evidence of a prospective voter's identity. Jackson wrote that "when an election is looming," she "would not disturb a clearly justifiable federal-court order issued to ensure that the public receives accurate information about a state’s electoral processes."
Josh Orton, president of the advocacy group Demand Justice, condemned the high court's decision as "absurd," saying that "the Supreme Court thinks corporations can buy our elections but a college kid can’t use a student ID to vote."
“This November we vote in numbers they can’t ignore," said Orton. "Long term, we must expand the Court and end this corrupt majority for good.”
The Supreme Court's brief decision came after New Hampshire officials, with the support of national Republicans, filed an emergency request urging the justices to block the lower-court order allowing election officials to take student IDs into consideration when a voter is trying to prove their identity. The lower-court order limited an April directive from New Hampshire's Republican secretary of state, David Scanlon, who said that "student IDs cannot be used as proof" under a recently enacted state voter ID law.
Retiring Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), whose seat is up for grabs in a competitive race on November 3, wrote in a social media post that she "strongly" disagrees with the Supreme Court's decision and is "troubled by any efforts to limit access at the ballot box."
"With midterm elections days away," Shaheen added, "the Supreme Court just made it harder for our Granite State students to vote."
The counsel for the Coalition for Open Democracy, which sued over the New Hampshire voter ID law, said in a statement that the Supreme Court's decision was "wrong," arguing it injects "confusion into the election" and authorizes "an unconstitutional policy that will deprive young voters of their right to vote."
"We applaud Justice Jackson for her dissent," the statement continued. "We will continue to vigorously litigate this case in the defense of the fundamental right to vote of young voters across New Hampshire."
'Grifter Got Grifted': RFK Jr. Adviser Calley Means Quits as Trump 'Hemorrhaging' MAHA Support
One campaigner said that "activists should brace for even more deregulation of cancer-causing pesticides, forever chemicals in water, and flavored vapes aimed at kids."
In perhaps another signal that the "Make America Healthy Again" movement is feeling betrayed by US President Donald Trump, The Wall Street Journal revealed Thursday that Calley Means is exiting his role as an adviser to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
"I leave with tremendous respect for President Trump and RFK—two historic figures who are committed to confronting a corrupt DC bureaucracy that is doing everything possible to protect the status quo," Means said in a statement. "The past two years have seen historic policy and cultural change to confront the chronic disease crisis and healthcare incentives that profit from us being sick. This movement is in the first inning and just getting started."
White House spokesperson Allison Schuster told the Journal that "we are grateful for Calley Means' time in the Trump administration," and "he has done a fantastic job for the MAHA movement."
While the spokesperson applauded Means, the brother of the president's withdrawn surgeon general nominee, and the departing adviser praised Trump and Kennedy—whose partnership he has been credited with fostering—unnamed sources who spoke to various media outlets cited internal conflicts.
According to the Journal's sources, Means "was greatly frustrated by White House delays of some of Kennedy's most popular policy ideas and blamed others in the administration for allowing food companies and special interests to have too much sway," with one person describing him as "disillusioned."
CNN similarly reported:
Means, who had championed Trump as a candidate willing to overhaul the government's approach to food and health regulation, grew increasingly frustrated over delays in advancing a series of policies at the center of the MAHA agenda, three people familiar with the matter said.
Trump health officials had initially hoped that policies, including an effort to create a definition for ultraprocessed foods, would be finalized well before the midterm elections. Instead, they've faced continued delays in the White House and sharp pushback from major agriculture industry groups.
Means decided to quit primarily because of those delays, the people familiar with his thinking said.
Following those and other reports, Shaughnessy Naughton, president of 314 Action, which works to elect Democrats with a background in science to public office, said in a statement that "Calley Means has called it quits because the grifter got grifted."
"It's clear that top MAHA figures are distancing themselves from the administration because Trump and RFK Jr. have betrayed the promises that built their movement," Naughton continued. "Instead of taking on Big Food and Big Pharma, this administration has repeatedly sided with special interests, using Trump's signature Sharpie to boost the production of pesticides by executive order, loosen restrictions on peptides, and promote fruit-flavored vapes to children."
"The MAHA agenda is a failed experiment—RFK Jr. was the first to fold on the food industry, and we have a president who lives on a steady diet of cheeseburgers and Diet Coke—Trump was never going to be an ambassador for MAHA's food agenda," she added. "Nearly 50% of independents and swing voters say MAHA has failed to deliver on its promises, and Calley Means' departure confirms it. This administration has sold out the very people it claimed it would fight for. More heads will roll, and we expect RFK Jr. will be next in Trump's firing line."
Brad Woodhouse, president of Protect Our Care, declared that "Donald Trump is hemorrhaging MAHA support even from within his administration."
"Again and again, RFK Jr. helped Donald Trump sell out MAHA priorities to protect profits of the GOP's big chemical, food, and tobacco donors," he said. "Patience has already run dry for many MAHA supporters. Now Kennedy's right-hand man can't stomach staying in the administration after all the rug pulls, phony excuses, and corporate surrender."
"Means' exit is a clear sign that Donald Trump has no intention of mending MAHA fences," Woodhouse warned, "and activists should brace for even more deregulation of cancer-causing pesticides, forever chemicals in water, and flavored vapes aimed at kids."
The RFK Jr. adviser's departure followed the Monday publication of an analysis from the watchdog group Public Citizen titled "How Trump Conned MAHA," which lays out how far the administration has "strayed" from its own "warnings about hazardous chemicals in the environment and ignored its own advice about corporate influence and corrupted science."
'Pause AI Now!' Sanders Says as US Banks Let Agents Operate in Customer Accounts
“Left unchecked, AI could endanger the entire global financial system—including your bank account.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday renewed calls to pause development of artificial intelligence following reporting that unauthorized AI agents are operating inside the systems of major US banks.
Axios' Madison Mills revealed that Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and other financial institutions are "racing to contain agent risks," including "situations when an agent or AI assistant accesses a human's account with the user's permission and login credentials," which "goes against the guidelines of most banks requiring that humans log in to their own accounts."
In AI, an agent is a system that can take actions to complete an assigned task, rather than simply responding to queries or generating text.
According to Mills' reporting—which cites people familiar with the matter—some agents have contacted bank call centers or appeared to take actions independently of users' instructions.
Banking executives interviewed by Mills described the problem as “horrifying," with one official warning of potentially serious consequences for customers' finances.
The stakes are particularly high, the executives said, when AI agents have permission to make purchases or transfer funds. Banks are also struggling to determine whether activity is actually authorized by customers or whether an agent has gone rogue.
"This is insane," Sanders (I-Vt.) posted on social media in response to Mills' report. "We cannot allow AI agents to go into your bank account and act independently without your authorization."
"But that is what’s happening right now," he continued. "Left unchecked, AI could endanger the entire global financial system—including your bank account."
The senator added, "Pause AI NOW!"
Sanders has repeatedly warned that the race to create increasingly powerful AI systems is outpacing efforts to ensure their safety. Such concerns are mounting as profit- and ego-driven tech oligarchs race toward the "holy grail" of artificial general intelligence (AGI)—an advanced AI that can understand, learn, and apply knowledge of any subject as well as or better than a typical human.
Earlier this month, Sanders renewed his call for a congressional ban on the development of advanced AI, citing Big Tech oligarchs’ secret preparations for a “catastrophic AI event.”
The senator has repeatedly cited pioneers like Geoffrey Hinton who have warned that superintelligent AI—a development that experts believe could come after AGI—might wipe out humanity, as well as less existential but still potentially devastating outcomes like xAI CEO Elon Musk's prediction that AI and robots could “replace all jobs."
Last month, Sanders and Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar (D-Texas) introduced legislation to pause advanced AI development and ban the creation or deployment of artificial superintelligence. Sanders also wants a moratorium on the construction of new AI data centers.
The banking story underscores the growing challenge of deploying autonomous AI systems in consequential settings before their behavior can be reliably controlled or monitored.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon last week announced a ban on outside AI agents from accessing customer accounts.
Sanders wasn't the only elected official who responded with alarm to the new Axios report.
"This is the exact thing we’ve been warning about for years," Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said on social media. "AI agents with unrestrained access to your bank account and protected information. When consumer AI agents are accessing YOUR bank account or using YOUR credit card, they must be subject to fiduciary-like duties of care."
"We need to pass my AI AGENT Act to get some basic guardrails in place," Warner added, referring to legislation that would establish federal rules for artificial intelligence agents that act on people's behalf.
Congressman Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) also weighed in on the report, writing on social media that "the Trump administration and GOP leadership made the deliberate decision to let the AI industry run wild."
"That was a bad political decision," he added. "And now it’s become a potentially catastrophic policy decision."
On the other side of the political aisle, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis—who has opposed the Trump administration's efforts to prevent states from regulating AI—said on X, "Imagine a rogue AI agent liquidating your bank account and investment portfolio."
"If you are the only victim, I suppose you could get made whole by the AI company responsible," he added. "If rogue agents liquidate hundreds of billions across millions of accounts, the AI company would go bankrupt and you wouldn’t get made whole."
The new Axios report comes two days after nationwide “Freeze AI Now” walkout protests by students, workers, academics, and others demanding an immediate halt to further AI development until the public has a meaningful say in how the technology is built and regulated.
Bombshell Book Alleges Jared Kushner Had Access to Secret—And Possibly Illegal—Foreign Bank Accounts
An upcoming book by journalist Matthew Cole claims the Trump son-in-law had access to foreign bank accounts with combined deposits of roughly $2 billion.
Jared Kushner, son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, for years allegedly had access to at least two secret foreign bank accounts in Israel and the United Arab Emirates whose deposits totaled roughly $2 billion, according to an excerpt of an explosive upcoming book published on Thursday by Vanity Fair.
The excerpt of the book—titled Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed’s Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East by journalist Matthew Cole—reveals that UAE leader Mohamed bin Zayed and future Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman "put at least $2 billion into at least two bank accounts for Kushner" at the start of Trump's first term.
The first account, which Cole described as the "Alpha" account, was opened in First Abu Dhabi Bank and served as a "foreign policy fund" partially managed by Kushner and bin Zayed.
The "Beta" account, meanwhile, moved money from a bank account in Azerbaijan to what appeared to be a government bank account in the Israeli Central Bank.
Unlike the Alpha account, which was used to further specific foreign policy goals, the Beta account was set up "for Kushner’s personal benefit," one source told Cole.
Neither of these bank accounts was ever disclosed, Cole wrote.
"Although Kushner’s position as senior adviser to the president was unpaid, he was an official government employee," the journalist explained. "Not only did his position require financial disclosures for ethics regulations, but each year he worked in the White House, he had to file both a public and confidential financial form known as the Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial Disclosure Report."
"Because he had access to classified government secrets," Cole added, "Kushner was required to disclose any bank account to which he had signatory—or beneficiary—access."
And even if Kushner had properly disclosed the accounts, Cole continued, he would still have likely had to register as an agent of a foreign government given that UAE and the Saudis were "paying for his influence within the US government."
A prosecutor who worked on former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election told Cole that Kushner "may have violated federal bribery laws" if he told Saudi or UAE officials that he'd do any favors for them after setting up the accounts, even if it was "just speaking to his father-in-law."
The Trump son-in-law lashed out at Cole in a social media post shortly after the book excerpt was published.
"The allegations made by this author are completely insane, categorically false, and never happened," Kushner wrote. "We denied every one of these claims on the record, yet the author failed to provide a single shred of evidence to substantiate any of them. No bank statements, wire transfer records, account numbers, transaction dates, or other verifiable details were provided to support these extraordinary accusations."
"These are outrageous fabrications being presented as investigative journalism," Kushner continued. "This is not journalism. It is a mixture of fantasy, fiction, and advocacy, written by someone who is either deeply disturbed or acting with sinister intent."
Kushner today serves as a "special envoy for peace" under the second Trump administration, where he has been tasked with several vital foreign policy initiatives, including negotiating an end to the war between Russian and Ukraine, as well as an end to the illegal war with Iran started by his father-in-law in February.
The government watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington last week filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia intended to block Kushner from serving as a foreign policy official without Senate confirmation.
‘Unconscionable’: US Called to Stop Shipping Taser Weapons to Israel After Horrific Abuses of Palestinian Detainees Reported
The Council on American-Islamic Relations called for action by not only the manufacturer but also the Trump administration to "block the transfer of technologies to governments implicated in systemic human rights violations.”
America's largest Muslim civil rights organization is calling for the US-based manufacturer of Tasers to stop supplying them to Israel following the publication of a harrowing investigation into their use to torture Palestinian prisoners.
On Thursday, The Guardian and Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism reported on allegations from four Palestinian detainees who said they were restrained and tortured using electroshock weapons made by Axon Enterprise, formerly Taser International.
One man identified as Essa, who had both his feet amputated after being injured in an Israeli missile attack on his home, said that while in custody at Israel’s Ofer military prison in the occupied West Bank, soldiers shot him with rubber bullets, tied him up, and blasted him with the stun gun, leaving marks that are still visible a year after his release.
Another detainee said his body was doused with water to intensify the shock before he was hit with a Taser in 2024. He said he still suffers from visual impairment, spasms, and fainting spells.
These new accounts are not the first allegations of electroshock devices being used to torture Palestinian prisoners. The United Nations Human Rights Office has documented other cases, while Amnesty International has called for restrictions on their use in Israeli prisons.
Israel's military found that soldiers accused of sexually assaulting a Palestinian prisoner at Sde Teiman detention camp in 2024 had used electric shocks to torture him during the attack. The military dropped the charges against the five soldiers in March 2026.
That month, UN experts identified five more accounts of detainees being shocked by electric batons or similar devices.
In November 2025, the UN Committee Against Torture reported that torture, including the use of electric shocks, had "escalated sharply since October 7, 2023," when Israel launched its genocidal war in Gaza following Hamas' attack. The committee noted that electric shock devices were frequently used in "sexualized forms of torture."
Despite concerns raised by human rights organizations, The Guardian found that Axon likely continues to supply Israeli authorities with electric shock devices and has been documented showcasing its latest models to the nation's security agencies.
“It is unconscionable that equipment manufactured by an American corporation is reportedly being used to carry out acts of torture and abuse against detained Palestinians," said the Council on American-Islamic Relations on Thursday in response to the report.
"Axon must immediately halt all current and future contracts, shipments, and servicing of electroshock weapons to Israeli authorities," the organization said. "Furthermore, the US Department of Commerce must rigorously enforce export oversight criteria to block the transfer of technologies to governments implicated in systemic human rights violations.”
Analysis Warns Bipartisan Senate Permitting Bill Would Lock In Trump-Era Data Center, Fossil Fuel Approvals
“Any permitting deal passed under this administration must strengthen the guardrails that keep Burgum and Trump in check, not hand them a blank check," said one advocate.
An analysis out this week warns that should the US Senate pass the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026 after the midterm elections, communities across the country can expect to live with the consequences for decades to come, as the permitting bill would allow the Trump administration to swiftly approve data centers, nuclear facilities, and fossil fuel infrastructure—and "then make those approvals nearly impossible to reverse" after President Donald Trump is out of office.
As Common Dreams reported last month, the bipartisan bill could significantly weaken the Endangered Species Act in the interest of speeding up infrastructure projects.
Aaron Weiss, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities, said Wednesday in an analysis at the group's blog, Westwise, that the bill also contains three provisions that would be "disastrous for America’s public lands."
Section 1401 of the legislation would "lock in" development of data centers, nuclear energy facilities, and other projects "the minute" they were greenlit by the federal government.
It states that agencies "shall not take any new action that would revoke, rescind, withdraw, terminate, suspend, amend, or alter” any federal permit in effect on or after September 16, 2026, with few exceptions.
Section 1401 also weakens a court's authority to pause a construction project if it finds an agency did not complete a thorough or accurate environmental review of the project—essentially turning a court-ordered review into "an empty paperwork exercise," according to Justin Pidot, a University of Arizona law professor who served as general counsel of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
"A judge can send the review back for a redo, but construction continues in the meantime, and Section 1401 bars the agency from changing the permit based on what the new review finds," wrote Weiss. "Challengers also get just 150 days to sue."
Finally, Weiss pointed to Section 1402 of the bill, which says that if an agency changes a previously approved permit and a court finds they cannot move forward with the project, "taxpayers would owe the developer 25% to 50% of everything it has spent."
"If a future administration slows a whole category of projects, such as gas plants or nuclear fuel facilities, developers can collect 50% to 100% of a project’s expected construction cost," wrote Weiss.
"This disastrous bill would permanently scar our natural heritage and sacrifice clean water, wildlife, and the health of our communities just to make the wealthiest people on Earth even richer.”
Should the bill pass, any permit in effect on or after September 16, 2026 would be protected under the provisions, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum would have 27 months, until Trump's term is over, to approve more projects that would also be shielded from actions by future presidents.
But the bill "spares everything the Trump administration has done to mess with clean energy permits,” wrote Matthew Littleton, a former Justice Department lawyer—meaning it does nothing to lift Trump's actions blocking wind and solar energy projects.
Weiss called on the bill's sponsors, including longtime public lands advocate Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM), to salvage the bill by engaging "with the tribes, the communities, and the millions of Americans who have made clear they don’t want data centers and nuclear waste forced onto their public lands or into their backyards."
According to a poll released in August by Embold Research, 75% of Americans now oppose building data centers in their area.
Heinrich, said Weiss in a statement, has claimed that the bill "will age very well over time."
"As it’s currently written, it will indeed age, locking in data centers and a new nuclear legacy on our public lands for generations—after all, the half-life of plutonium-239 is about 24,000 years," continued Weiss. “Any permitting deal passed under this administration must strengthen the guardrails that keep Burgum and Trump in check, not hand them a blank check. Sen. Heinrich should pump the brakes on this bill during the lame duck session and work with leaders in the next Congress to get it right.”
The analysis came as more than 100 groups called on Congress to oppose the bipartisan bill, which is also sponsored by Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), and Mike Lee (R-Utah).
“Here in Utah, where 73% of voters oppose fast-tracking oil, gas, and mining projects on public land, we say America’s worst ideas come from the desk of Sen. Mike Lee,” said Olivia Juarez, GreenLatinos public land program director. “This bill exemplifies what we mean. Its only guarantee is blocked public land access, dangerous air quality, and reckless exclusion of public input on how we treat the places we should pass on to future generations in a better condition than we received them. It’s a handout to the fossil fuel and AI industries, and a rubber stamp on wildlife extinction and climate disaster.”
Ashley C. Nunes, a public lands policy specialist at the Center for Biological Diversity, said that "handing our public lands over to corporate polluters and tech billionaires is a staggering betrayal of all Americans."
"It will put irreplaceable public lands at the mercy of industries bent on exploiting them," she said. "This disastrous bill would permanently scar our natural heritage and sacrifice clean water, wildlife, and the health of our communities just to make the wealthiest people on Earth even richer.”
Largest US Corporations Paid Lowest-Ever Tax Rate in 2025 Thanks to Trump and GOP: Study
"At a time when lawmakers claim the country cannot afford investments in families and communities, some of the most profitable corporations in American history are paying little or nothing in federal income taxes."
Some of the biggest US corporations paid an effective federal income tax rate of just 10.4% last year as Republican legislation passed by President Donald Trump disproportionately benefited businesses and the superrich while eviscerating key social programs, a study published Thursday revealed.
The 706 corporations examined by the Washington, DC-based Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) reported a combined $1.88 trillion in US profits in 2025, yet paid less than half the statutory federal corporate income tax rate of 21%. Of those companies, the study found that 114 paid no federal income taxes at all.
Those 706 companies collectively paid current federal corporate income taxes equal to just 10.4% of that $1.88 trillion, "the lowest effective rate that ITEP has uncovered in over 40 years of analyzing corporate income taxes," according to the analysis.
The study attributes this to two major tax laws enacted under Trump: The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act—derided at the time as the "GOP Tax Scam"—slashed the statutory corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%, while the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed by the Republican-controlled Congress and signed by the president last year expanded and made permanent the 2017 cuts.
NEW: U.S. corporations are paying the lowest tax rate seen in decades.706 major corporations collectively paid a federal income tax rate of just 10.4%, less than half the statutory rate.114 corporations paid zero.itep.org/corporate-ta...
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— ITEP (@itep.org) October 22, 2026 at 8:30 AM
"These findings show just how dramatically the corporate tax system has been tilted in favor of the nation’s wealthiest and most powerful companies,” ITEP senior fellow Matt Gardner, who co-authored the report, said in a statement.
“At a time when lawmakers claim the country cannot afford investments in families and communities, some of the most profitable corporations in American history are paying little or nothing in federal income taxes," he added. "This is not an accident. It is the predictable outcome of deliberate policy choices that have steadily eroded the corporate tax base."
Among the report's key findings:
- The 114 companies that paid no current federal income tax last year include Tesla, Walt Disney, CVS, Citigroup, United Airlines, and DoorDash;
- 258 corporations paid effective tax rates below 7%, or less than one-third of the statutory rate;
- Those 258 companies reported $683 billion in US profits but paid an effective federal income tax rate of just 1.7%;
- The 706 corporations studied received $198 billion in federal tax subsidies by paying less than the statutory 21% rate;
- They also benefited from an additional $263 billion in tax savings attributable to the 2017 reduction of the statutory rate from 35% to 21%; and
- Just 25 corporations accounted for more than half of the 2025 tax subsidies, with Alphabet ($18.9 billion), Microsoft ($18.7 billion), Amazon ($17.4 billion), and Meta ($13.9 billion) among the largest beneficiaries.
“Congress has repeatedly chosen to expand tax breaks for corporations that are already extraordinarily profitable,” said Steve Wamhoff, ITEP's federal policy director and co-author of the report. “Rather than continuing to subsidize corporate investments and reward aggressive tax avoidance, lawmakers should close these loopholes and ensure that large corporations pay a meaningful share of their profits in taxes.”
Meet the Corporations Funding Ramaswamy's Vicious Attack Ad on Acton
Corporate PACs for Bank of America, Deloitte, Kroger, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and others have donated to the campaign fund running the ad, which has been criticized for exploiting Acton's history of sexual abuse.
Republican Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign is spending millions in the final weeks of his bid for Ohio governor to run an attack ad that has been criticized for exploiting his opponent Amy Acton's history of sexual abuse. The campaign is being funded by some of Ohio's and the nation's most powerful corporations and executives.
The ad, which emerged earlier this week, features Acton's estranged mother, Donna Arthur, accusing her daughter of lying about her experiences of homelessness as a child, including living in a tent. Acton, now 60, said she hasn't spoken to Arthur since 1978, when she was removed from the household after accusing her stepfather of sexually abusing her from ages 10 to 12.
Acton's brother has backed up her account, noting that their mother skipped town with Acton's stepfather after he was arrested and charged, and stayed with him until the day he died.
Acton, the former head of the Ohio Department of Health, had described her history of abuse and poverty for years before running for governor. Court records from the time have corroborated many aspects of the siblings' account, showing that she lived in a tent with her family near Youngstown. Her stepfather was also charged with incest in 1974 for allegedly raping his eldest daughter.
Observers have panned the ad as "disgusting." On Thursday, Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine called the ad "just wrong" and said it should be taken down. With support from President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, however, Ramaswamy's campaign is doubling down on the message and is spending $4 million to blast the ad across the airwaves in the Buckeye State.
The ad is being funded by Vivek for Ohio, a campaign fund backed in part by dozens of major corporate political action committees (PACs) and executives, according to a review of campaign finance documents published Thursday by Popular Information.
Vivek for Ohio is funded by corporate PACs for Bank of America, Deloitte, Kroger, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Duke Energy, Charter Communications, Centene, Giant Eagle, PNC, US Bank, and BakerHostetler.
The corporate PACs for Huntington Bank, Nationwide, and NetJets also contributed to the campaign, along with their CEOs, Steve Steinour, Kirt Walker, and Adam Johnson, respectively.
Several individual executives and sports owners also contributed to Ramaswamy's campaign: DraftKings CEO Jason Robins; Rocket Companies founder Dan Gilbert; Cincinnati Bengals owner Mike Brown; Cincinnati Reds owner Bob Castellini; Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam; and Haslam Sports Group president Dave Jenkins.
Popular Information said it contacted the companies to ask whether they believed the ad was acceptable. DraftKings declined to comment, and the others did not respond.