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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.
Billionaires Spend Big to Tank Mamdani, Who Vows to 'Tax the Rich' in NYC
A week away from Election Day in New York City, a national economic justice group on Tuesday released a report detailing how billionaires "outraged at the prospect of the rich and corporations paying higher taxes" have spent millions of dollars to defeat Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani.
"Just 62 billionaires and descendants of billionaire families ('billionaire spenders') as of October 14th have contributed over one-third—37%, or $18.7 million—of all the donations collected by so-called outside expenditure groups involved in the race," according to the Americans for Tax Fairness Action Fund (ATFAF) report, Billionaires Buying Gracie Mansion.
The publication notes that "almost all of that money has backed former New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo," who is running as an Indepedent after losing the Democratic primary to Mamdani, a democratic socialist in the state Assembly who has campaigned on promises to make the metropolis more affordable for everyday people and "tax the rich!"
Specifically, 58 of the 62 billionaire spenders gave "a total of $18.4 million to Cuomo-aligned super political action committees (super PACs), ATFAF found. "Mamdani has received the support of just two billionaire spenders, who together have contributed $270,000 to outside PACs pushing his candidacy."
The report highlights that billionaire former NYC mayor and media mogul Michael Bloomberg, who has a net worth of roughly $109 billion, "is leading the anti-Mamdani charge, having personally donated $8.3 million to the main super PAC backing Cuomo."
Bloomberg and the dozens of other billionaires trying to sway the race "have spent nearly twice the amount 60,000 individual contributors have made directly to the three general election candidates (including Republican Curtis Sliwa)," the document details. "This is because unlike direct donations to candidates, there is no limit on contributions to outside spending groups."
New York is not only the nation's most populous city, it's also a billionaire hotspot. The report points out that "as of October 1st, New York City is the primary residence to 111 billionaires, according to Forbes, with lots more owning second homes or business property in the Big Apple. Collectively, these 111 billionaires are worth $717 billion, over six times the city's annual budget."
While Cuomo is backed by billionaires, Mamdani is endorsed by national progressive leaders, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), whose district spans parts of the Bronx and Queens. The pair joined New York state leaders, including Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, for a massive Sunday night rally in support of Mamdani.
In addition to taxing corporations and the 1%, Mamdani's platform includes a rent freeze, constructing more affordable housing, city-owned grocery stores, fare-free buses, no-cost childcare, building out renewable energy on public lands, raising the minimum wage to $30 by 2030, and more.
The progressive candidate has also promised to stand up to Republican President Donald Trump, a former longtime New Yorker who has threatened to arrest Mamadani and to cut all federal funds to New York City if he is victorious next week. Recent polling suggests Mamdani is well-positioned to win the contest.
"Billionaires feel threatened by a modest proposal to raise taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers to help make life more affordable for ordinary city residents. That’s why they’re spending millions to drown out the effort with their money," Americans for Tax Fairness executive director David Kass said in a Tuesday statement.
"Politicians and policymakers around the country should take note of how popular a progressive tax agenda can be with Americans across the political spectrum," Kass added. "Zohran Mamdani is showing the way for politicians who still haven't figured out that fairer taxes on the rich and corporations are both good policy and good politics."
Dutch Voters Have 'Turned the Page,' Center-Left Leader Says as Far Right Rebuked in Elections
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.
Trump Ripped for 'Absurdly Low' and 'Racist' Refugee Cap Prioritizing White South Africans
After months of reporting, President Donald Trump's administration on Thursday officially announced that it is restricting the number of refugees for this fiscal year to 7,500, with most spots going to white South Africans—a policy swiftly denounced by human rights advocates and Democrats in Congress.
"This decision doesn't just lower the refugee admissions ceiling. It lowers our moral standing," said Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge. "For more than four decades, the US refugee program has been a lifeline for families fleeing war, persecution, and repression. At a time of crisis in countries ranging from Afghanistan to Venezuela to Sudan and beyond, concentrating the vast majority of admissions on one group undermines the program's purpose as well as its credibility."
The Trump administration's notice in the Federal Register doesn't mention any groups besides Afrikaners, white descendants of Europeans who subjected South Africa's majority Black population to a system of apartheid for decades. Multiple rich Trump backers—including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, venture capitalist David Sacks, and Palantir founder Peter Thiel—spent time in the country during those years.
The 7,500 cap, initially reported earlier this month, is a significant drop from both the 40,000 limit that was previously reported as under consideration by the Republican administration, and the more than 100,000 allowed under former Democratic President Joe Biden.
Four congressional Democrats who serve as ranking members on related committees—Reps. Jamie Raskin (Md.) and Pramila Jayapal (Wash.), along with Sens. Dick Durbin (Ill.) and Alex Padilla (Calif.)—issued a joint statement condemning the new cap, which they noted is "an astonishing 94% cut over last year and the lowest level in our nation's history."
"To add insult to injury, the administration is skipping over the tens of thousands of refugees who have been waiting in line for years in dire circumstances to come to the United States, and it is instead prioritizing a single privileged racial group—white South African Afrikaners—for these severely limited slots," they said. "This bizarre presidential determination is not only morally indefensible, it is illegal and invalid."
The four lawmakers continued:
The administration has brazenly ignored the statutory requirement to consult with the House and Senate Judiciary Committees before setting the annual refugee admissions ceiling. That process exists to ensure that decisions of such great consequence reflect our nation's values, our humanitarian commitments, and the rule of law, not the racial preferences or political whims of any one president.
The reason for this evasion is evident: The administration knows it cannot defend its egregious policy before Congress or the American people. While nearly 130,000 vetted, approved refugees—men, women, and children fleeing persecution and violence—wait in limbo after being promised a chance at safety, Donald Trump is looking to turn refugee admissions into another political giveaway for his pet projects and infatuations.
We reject this announcement as both unlawful and contrary to America's longstanding commitment to offer refuge to the persecuted. To twist our refugee policy into a partisan straightjacket is to betray both our legal obligations and our moral identity as a nation.
"Let's call this what it is—white supremacy disguised as refugee policy," declared Guerline Jozef, executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance. "At a time when Black refugees from Haiti, Sudan, the Congo, and Cameroon are drowning at sea, languishing in detention, or being deported to death, the US government has decided to open its arms to those who already enjoy global privilege. This is not just immoral—it's anti-Blackness codified into federal policy."
This week alone, Hurricane Melissa killed more than 20 people in Haiti, and health officials said that the Rapid Support Forces, which are fighting against Sudan's government, killed over 1,500 people—including more than 460 systematically slaughtered at a maternity hospital—in the city of el-Fasher.
"We reject the idea that whiteness equates to worthiness," Jozef said of Trump's new refugee plan. She also took aim at the president's broader anti-immigrant policy, which has included deporting hundreds of people to El Salvador's so-called Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT).
"From Del Rio to Lampedusa, Black migrants and other immigrants of color have been criminalized, beaten, caged, and disappeared in CECOT camp in El Salvador—while their humanity is debated like a policy variable," she said. "This moment demands our humanity, our resistance, not silence."
Amy Fischer, Amnesty International USA's director for refugee and migrant rights, also tied Thursday's announcement to the broader agenda of the president—who, during his first term, faced global condemnation for policies including the forcible separation of families at the southern border.
"Setting this cap at such an absurdly low number and prioritizing white Afrikaners is a racist move that will turn the US's back on tens of thousands of people around the world who are fleeing persecution, violence, and human rights abuses," said Fischer. "Refugees have a human right to protection, and the international community—including the United States—has a responsibility to uphold that right."
"This announcement is yet another attack by the Trump administration on refugees and immigrants, showing disregard for international systems meant to protect human rights," she added. "The Trump administration must reverse course and ensure a fair, humane, and rights-based refugee admissions determination."
The announcement came just days after Trump's nominee to be ambassador to South Africa, far-right media critic Brent Bozell, faced intense criticism for refusing to say whether he would support or oppose repealing laws allowing Black Americans to vote during his Senate confirmation hearing.
After Horrific Massacres in Sudan, Lawmakers Call for US to Stop Funding 'Arms Dealers' in UAE
After Sudan's Rapid Support Forces overran the city of el-Fasher this week, committing a series of horrific war crimes, lawmakers are calling for the US to pull its financial support for the United Arab Emirates, which is accused of providing extensive financial, military, and political support to the paramilitary group.
The Sudan Doctors Network (SDN), a medical organization monitoring the country's brutal civil war, said Wednesday that RSF militants, who are fighting against Sudan's government, killed more than 1,500 people over just three days after capturing the city, where more than 1 million people have languished under siege for more than 17 months. Sudan's armed forces say the death toll is as high as 2,000.
Among those killed, according to the World Health Organization, are more than 460 people systematically slaughtered at el-Fasher's Saudi Maternity Hospital. In what the SDN called "a heinous crime that violates all humanitarian laws and divine principles," they said RSF members "cold-bloodedly killed everyone they found inside the Saudi Hospital, including patients, their companions, and anyone else present in the wards."
One gruesome video, filmed by an RSF militant and obtained by Al Jazeera, shows a fighter walking across a floor strewn with dead bodies. When a living patient rises up from the pile, the soldier immediately guns them down.
The bloodshed in el-Fasher is so widespread and severe that Yale's Humanitarian Research Lab has been able to identify patches of bloodstained sand from space using satellite imagery.
The SDN has described the massacres as part of a “deliberate and systematic campaign of killing and extermination,” which began over a year and a half ago, when more than 14,000 civilians were killed in the region through “bombing, starvation, and extrajudicial executions.”
Death estimates for Sudan's civil war, which began in 2023, vary widely. But one former US envoy has estimated that over 150,000 people have been killed, while 12 million people have been displaced, and 30.4 million people, over half of Sudan’s total population, are in need of humanitarian support.
International human rights groups from Human Rights Watch to Amnesty International have agreed that the RSF’s actions throughout the conflict have amounted to an ethnic cleansing campaign against Sudan’s non-Arab ethnic groups, most notably the Masalit, who have historically called Darfur home and who were victims of a previous extermination campaign during the 2000s at the hands of RSF’s predecessor, the Janjaweed.
In January 2025—in the waning days of the Biden administration—then-US Secretary of State Antony Blinken joined the world consensus after months of reported hesitation. He stated that the RSF "committed genocide in Sudan," citing the fact that they "targeted fleeing civilians, [murdered] innocent people escaping conflict, and prevented remaining civilians from accessing lifesaving supplies."
The State Department also sanctioned seven companies in the UAE, which has been the RSF's primary overseas supporter and funder, but notably declined to sanction its government, which a New York Times investigation had revealed the previous year was "funneling money, weapons and, now, powerful drones to the RSF."
As Jon Rainwater, the executive director of Peace Action, noted in Common Dreams this past May: "What makes this all the more alarming is that the UAE is one of America's closest military partners—and a major recipient of US arms. Despite repeated assurances to Washington that it would not arm Sudan's belligerents, the UAE has continued these transfers, as confirmed by the Biden administration in one of its last acts as well as by members of Congress."
He also noted that US President Donald Trump and his family have personally cultivated "deep financial ties" to the UAE, which "has invested $2 billion in a Trump family crypto venture." Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) pointed out that the investment has singlehandedly catapulted Trump's currency to "one of the five largest stablecoins in the world, massively inflating the president's wealth."
Over the past month—while negotiating a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas—Trump has had friendly meetings with the UAE’s leaders where he has openly boasted about their financial entanglements. As he grasped the hand of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE's deputy prime minister, Trump joked about how the oil-rich nation has "unlimited cash."
Even as warnings have piled up about an impending slaughter if the RSF took el-Fasher, journalist Oscar Rickett wrote in Middle East Eye that the dangers "were ignored as the UAE's 'unlimited cash' spoke louder."
While the Trump administration has continued the Biden-era sanctions on UAE-based companies and Secretary of State Marco Rubio has maintained the position that RSF is committing a genocide, the administration has only strengthened its economic and military relationship with the Gulf state's government.
Over objections from some Democrats, Trump's State Department in May authorized the sale of $1.4 billion in military aircraft to the UAE, which it rushed through without subjecting it to congressional review.
A group of Democrats—including Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the Africa Subcommittee—said in a joint resolution that the "end-run around Congress is irresponsible and will further embolden the UAE to... continue its support for the RSF and the killing of innocent civilians."
After news broke of the RSF's latest series of atrocities in el-Fasher, Murphy renewed his criticism of US arms sales under both the Trump and Biden administrations.
"Why is the US allowing the UAE—which we fund militarily—[to] help the brutal RSF engage in mass atrocity?" he asked on social media. "This isn't just about Trump—the Biden administration was letting this happen too."
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) urged Congress to pass a bill he introduced in March, which would halt US weapons shipments to the UAE until it stops materially supporting the militia group.
Among the strongest critics are congresspeople who have also called for the US to cease its military and financial support for Israel amid its genocide in Gaza.
"Sudan is facing the world's worst humanitarian crisis and a genocide," said Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). "The UAE and other arms dealers to the RSF and RSF-aligned militias must be held accountable."
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) added: "We must do everything in our power to stop this genocide, including cutting off all weapons sales to the United Arab Emirates, who are arming and funding this ethnic cleansing."
‘It Does Not Have to Be This Way’: Child Hunger Set to Surge as Trump Withholds SNAP Funds
Two federal courts ruled Friday that the White House must release contingency food assistance funds, but officials have suggested they will not comply with the orders.
Though two federal judges ruled on Friday that the Trump administration must use contingency funds to continue providing food assistance that 42 million Americans rely on, White House officials have signaled they won't comply with the court orders even as advocates warn the lapse in nutrition aid funding will cause an unprecedented child hunger crisis that families are unprepared to withstand.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is planning to freeze payments to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program on Saturday as the government shutdown reaches the one-month mark, claiming it can no longer fund SNAP and cannot tap $5 billion in contingency funds that would allow recipients to collect at least partial benefits in November.
President Donald Trump said Thursday that his administration is "going to get it done," regarding the funding of SNAP, but offered no details on his plans to keep the nation's largest anti-hunger program funded, and his agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, would not commit on Friday to release the funds if ordered to do so.
"We're looking at all the options," Rollins told CNN before federal judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island ordered the administration to fund the program.
The White House and Republicans in Congress have claimed the only way to fund SNAP is for Democratic lawmakers to vote for a continuing resolution proposed by the GOP to keep government funding at current levels; Democrats have refused to sign on to the resolution because it would allow healthcare subsidies under the Affordable Care Act to expire.
The administration previously said it would use the SNAP contingency funds before reversing course last week. A document detailing the contingency plan disappeared from the USDA's website this week. The White House's claims prompted two lawsuits filed by Democrat-led states and cities as well as nonprofit groups that demanded the funding be released.
On Thursday evening, US Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) addressed her followers on the social media platform X about the impending hunger emergency, emphasizing that the loss of SNAP benefits for 42 million Americans—39% of whom are children—is compounding a child poverty crisis that has grown since 2021 due to Republicans' refusal to extend pandemic-era programs like the enhanced child tax credit.
"One in eight kids in America lives in poverty in 2024," said Jayapal. "Sixty-one percent of these kids—that's about 6 million kids— have at least one parent who is employed. So it's not that people are not working, they're working, but they're not earning enough."
"I just want to be really clear that it is a policy choice to have people who are hungry, to have people who are poor," she said.
Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, an economist at Georgetown University, told The Washington Post that the loss of benefits for millions of children, elderly, and disabled people all at once is "unprecedented."
“We’ve never seen the elderly and children removed from the program in this sort of way,” Schanzenbach told the Post. “It really is hard to predict something of this magnitude."
A Thursday report by the economic justice group Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) emphasized that the impending child hunger crisis comes four months after Republicans passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which slashed food assistance by shifting some of the cost of SNAP to the states from the federal government, expanding work requirements, and ending adjustments to benefits to keep pace with food inflation.
Meanwhile, the law is projected to increase the incomes of the wealthiest 20% of US households by 3.7% while reducing the incomes of the poorest 20% of Americans by an average of 3.8%.
Now, said ATF, "they're gonna let hard-working Americans go hungry so billionaires can get richer."
At Time on Thursday, Stephanie Land, author of Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education, wrote that "the cruelty is the point" of the Trump administration's refusal to ensure the 61-year-old program, established by Democratic former President Lyndon B. Johnson, doesn't lapse for the first time in its history.
"Once, when we lost most of our food stamp benefit, I mentally catalogued every can and box of food in the cupboards, and how long the milk we had would last," wrote Land. "They’d kicked me, the mother of a recently-turned 6-year-old, off of food stamps because I didn’t meet the work requirement of 20 hours a week. I hadn’t known that my daughter’s age had qualified me to not have to meet that requirement, and without warning, the funds I carefully budgeted for food were gone."
"It didn’t matter that I was a full-time student and worked 10-15 hours a week," she continued. "This letter from my local government office said it wasn’t sufficient to meet their stamp of approval. In their opinion, I wasn’t working enough to deserve to eat. My value, my dignity as a human being, was completely dependent on my ability to work, as if nothing else about me awarded me the ability to feel satiated by food."
"Whether the current administration decides to continue to fund SNAP in November or not, the intended damage has already been done. The fear of losing means for food, shelter, and healthcare is the point," Land added. "Programs referred to as a 'safety net' are anything but when they can be removed with a thoughtless, vague message, or scribble from a permanent marker. It’s about control to gain compliance, and our most vulnerable populations will struggle to keep up."
On Thursday, the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) expressed hope that the president's recent statement saying the White House will ensure people obtain their benefits will "trigger the administration to use its authority and precedent to prevent disruptions in food assistance."
"The issue at hand is not political. It is about ensuring that parents can put food on the table, older adults on fixed incomes can meet their nutritional needs, and children continue to receive the meals they rely on. SNAP is one of the most effective tools for reducing hunger and supporting local economies," said the group.
"Swift and transparent action is needed," FRAC added, "to restore stability, maintain public confidence, and ensure that our state partners, local economies and grocers, and the millions of children, older adults, people with disabilities, and veterans who participate in SNAP are not left bearing the consequences of federal inaction."
Report Offers Easy Path for States to Make Tax Code Fairer by Targeting the Rich
"For too long, our tax systems have favored wealth over work," said the report's co-author. "State wealth proceeds taxes would take a major step toward correcting that imbalance.”
Taxing the passive proceeds of extreme wealth—including capital gains and stock dividends—is an easy way for states to generate billions of dollars in revenue, reduce inequality, and boost fairness in tax systems, according to a report published Thursday.
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) report shows how state-level wealth proceeds taxes of just 4% on profits generated by means including capital gains, dividends, and passive business income could raise more than $45 billion a year in revenue nationwide, while an enhanced version of such a levy would generate $57 billion annually.
According to the report, approximately three-quarters of such revenue would come from households with annual incomes exceeding $1 million—and only 4.4% of US taxpayers would owe anything at all.
Wealth inequality gets worse when working households pay more in taxes than wealthy owners.States have a simple way to address this problem and raise much-needed revenue.It's well past time for a Wealth Proceeds Tax.
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— ITEP (@itep.org) October 30, 2025 at 10:44 AM
Other key findings of the report include:
- A state wealth proceeds tax would help correct an imbalance in which most of the income generated by passive wealth currently faces effective federal tax rates roughly 40% lower than wages and salaries;
- A wealth proceeds tax is easy to implement—states can piggyback on federal filings, minimizing administrative costs for both taxpayers and state revenue agencies; and
- For a successful example of a wealth proceeds tax, look to Minnesota.
In 2023, Minnesota became the first state to enact a law piggybacking a wealth proceeds tax on the federal net investment income tax (NIIT), a levy on certain earnings from high-income individuals, estates, and trusts. Minnesota's 1% tax only applies to such wealth exceeding $1 million and is expected to raise more than $60 million in revenue in 2026.
Other states, while not having a wealth proceeds tax, apply higher levies on certain types of proceeds. Massachusetts, for example, imposes a short-term capital gains that is 3.5% higher than the ordinary state income tax rate, while Maryland enacted a 2% levy on short- and long-term capital gains for households earning more than $350,000 annually.
“States have an untapped opportunity to tax extremely wealthy families," ITEP senior analyst and report co-author Sarah Austin said in a statement. “The federal government already defines what counts as wealth-derived income, so states can easily adapt that framework to make their tax codes fairer and more robust.”
The report's other author, ITEP research director Carl Davis, said: "For too long, our tax systems have favored wealth over work. State wealth proceeds taxes would take a major step toward correcting that imbalance.”
'No Question' More People Will End Up With Fake Insurance If ACA Subsidies Expire: Expert
"This is what happens when we design systems for insurance companies instead of humans."
Time on Thursday published reporting about "how fake health insurance is luring people in," and along with sharing stories of Americans tricked into paying for plans that aren't compliant with the Affordable Care Act, the article features an expert's warning that more could be fooled if Congress lets ACA subsidies expire.
The ongoing federal government shutdown stems from congressional Democrats' efforts to reverse recent GOP cuts to Medicaid and extend the ACA tax credits, which set to expire at the end of the year. Open enrollment for 2026 plans sold on ACA marketplaces starts Saturday, and Americans who buy insurance through these platforms now face the looming end of subsidies and substantial monthly premium hikes.
"Confusion about navigating insurance writ large and the Affordable Care Act marketplace in particular has led many people to end up with plans that they think are health insurance which in fact are not health insurance," Time reported. "They mistakenly click away from healthcare.gov, the website where people are supposed to sign up for ACA-compliant plans, and end up on a site with a misleading name."
ACA plans are required to cover 10 essential benefits, the outlet detailed, but consumers who leave the official website may instead sign up for short-term plans that don't span the full year, fixed indemnity plans that pay a small amount for certain services, or "healthcare sharing ministries, in which people pitch in for other peoples' medical costs, but which sometimes do not cover preexisting conditions."
Claire Heyison, senior policy analyst for health insurance and marketplace policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, told Time that "there's no question that more people will end up with these kinds of plans if the premium tax credits are not extended."
According to the outlet:
These non-insurance products "have increasingly been marketed in ways that make them look similar to health insurance," Heyison says. To stir further confusion, some even deploy common insurance terms like PPO (preferred provider organization) or co-pay in their terms and conditions. But people will pay a price for using them, Heyison says, because they can charge higher premiums than ACA-compliant plans, deny coverage based on preexisting conditions, impose annual or lifetime limits on coverage, and exclude benefits like prescription drug coverage or maternity care.
Often, the websites where people end up buying non-ACA compliant insurance have the names and logos of insurers on them. Sometimes, they are lead-generation sites... that ask for a person's name and phone number and then share that information with brokers who get a commission for signing up people for plans, whether they are health insurance or not.
To avoid paying for misleading plans, Heyison advised spending a few days researching before buying anything, steering clear of companies that offer a gift for signing up, and asking for documents detailing coverage to review before payment.
On the heels of Time's reporting and the eve of open enrollment, Data for Progress and Groundwork Collaborative published polling that makes clear Americans across the political spectrum are worried about skyrocketing health insurance premiums.
The pollsters found that 75% of voters are "somewhat" or "very" concerned about the spikes, including 83% of Democrats, 78% of Independents, and 66% of Republicans. While the overall figure was the same as last week, the share who said they were very concerned rose from 45% to 47%.
As the second-longest shutdown ever drags on, 57% of respondents said they don't believe that President Donald Trump and Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress are focused on lowering healthcare costs for people like them and their families. More broadly, 52% also did not agree that Trump and GOP lawmakers "are fighting on behalf of" people like them.
A plurality of voters (42%) said that Trump and congressional Republicans deserve most of the blame for rising premiums, while 27% blamed both parties equally, and just a quarter put most of the responsibility on elected Democrats.
"While President Trump focuses on the moodboard for his gilded ballroom and House Republicans refuse to show up for work in Washington, a ticking time bomb is strapped to working families’ pocketbooks," said Elizabeth Pancotti, Groundwork Collaborative's managing director of policy and advocacy, in a Friday statement.
Pointing to the Trump administration's legally dubious decision not to keep funding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program during the shutdown, she added that "healthcare premiums are set to double and food assistance benefits are on the brink of collapse in a matter of hours, and voters know exactly who's to blame."