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Well Done, America
Well that was a night. The glad spectacle of a newly sentient America tottering back to its capacious ideals was dubbed Orange Crush, Bluenami, a political earthquake, a wily tweak to Hegseth's coveted public execution and "one of the great acts of defiance in American history." It was both landslide too big to rig or stop and "extinction-level" rout. Above all, it was a thunderous rejection of fear, greed, lies, cruelty, war-mongering, authoritarianism. Tell your kids, urged Abdul El-Sayed, "The bad guys lost."
Who knew, pundits marveled: Turns out if you keep lying, stealing, abusing children, terrorizing, kidnapping, assaulting neighbors, shooting people in the street, making it impossible to get food, gas, health care or education while gloating about it and lining your fat pockets, everyone hates you. So it was that a "Trump Reckoning" and GOP "Armageddon" beyond even their worst doomsday scenarios arrived wherein Democrats swept "nearly every race that matters” as Americans en masse embraced all the shithole, lunatic, transgender, anti-Semitic, dog-eating, Medicare-wanting Muslim Brotherhood communists they'd been so helpfully warned about, alas, in vain.
This, of course, despite MAGA's best/worst efforts to re-draw districts, shutter polling places, strong-arm election officials, browbeat brown and black voters, pre-litigate election results they couldn't buy, and launch 1,000 DOJ "polling monitors" into all 50 states in hopes of targeting vulnerable minority districts. And yet, noted Garrett Graff, nothing untoward happened. Instead, voters "gave America another chance." Millions stood up, showed up, voted early, refused to bend the knee or be silenced. Graff said a friend wrote from deep-red Mississippi, where Democrat Scott Colom still had a stunning, razor-thin lead. "My flabbers are gasted,” she wrote. “Be on the lookout for pigs in the sky."
"So much history was made last night," Graff added, much of it shaped by both the 250 years and then Trump's dark reign of white supremacist politics. The startling result: The most diverse set of newly elected lawmakers the country has ever seen, with one historian writing Dems are winning races "they haven’t won since they were the white supremacist party.” An Atlanta Journal-Constitution story begins, "In 1860, an enslaved man named Sheppard Peek was listed among the possessions of William Peek, a white man in Crawfordville"; Sheppard's value was placed at $1,400. In Georgia on Tuesday, his great-great-granddaughter, Keisha Lance Bottoms, was elected the first Black female governor in the country.
Bottoms is just one of many historic firsts. Xavier Becerra, the son of Mexican immigrants, became California's first elected Latino governor. Deb Haaland became New Mexico’s first Native governor. Wisconsin and Nevada elected their first Black governors. There are three other first women governors. New Hampshire's Chris Pappas will become the first out gay man in the Senate. A trans woman won a House seat in...Alabama. Colorado elected its first Gen Z woman; she will be one of a record 100 women to serve simultaneously in the House. Democrats gained full control of a record six state governments, Southern voters swung 20 points to Dems, Jon Ossoff was easily re-elected on a platform, essentially, of "I don't like Nazis." Virginia ended Jim Crow after 124 years, and enshrined abortion in its constitution. Nancy LaCore, a former Navy admiral fired by Hegseth, flipped Nancy Mace's seat in South Carolina. The GOP lost all four of its gerrymandered districts in Florida. Egyptian-born Adam Hamaway, 57, will be the first Muslim elected to the House from New Jersey. A Rutgers-educated doctor, he served 8 years as a combat surgeon in the US Army before starting private practice in Princeton; he also volunteered in Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, Sudan, Jordan.
Beating back a grotesquely Islamophobic campaign, Michigan's Dr. Abdul El-Sayed will become the first Muslim in the Senate.In his victory speech, he thanked "everyone who sent a dollar, made a call, posted a story and most importantly gave us your stake in democracy. You took a chance on the unlikeliest of candidates." Summoning "all the kids who watched and the parents who struggled to explain why the president openly mocked someone for their name or how they pray, let them (know) the bad guys lost...We deserve an America big enough for all our kids - let's go build it." He also cited the "delicious irony" that JD, whose "view of America is small, like him," is constitutionally obligated to swear him in come January.
In another sweet spot and longtime pipe dream, Talarico took back Texas from the scandal-smeared Paxton in "not just a tsunami, but a bloodbath." Adding to the schadenfreude was the upset win by Gina Hinojosa, the state's first Latina governor-elect, over monstrous Greg Abbott. In a stunning twist, Dems also won every statewide office down to railroad commissioner, along with four Supreme Court seats; the wins prompted an explosion of noisy joy in Austin that "sounded like an Eastern European city that just overthrew a dictator.” The cherry on top: Texas' new Dem Attorney General, who campaigned on investigating Elon Musk after he moved his business there to escape California woke, can now prosecute him for state level crimes without any DOJ interference.
Musk, who spent half a billion dollars nationwide and lost every race he tried to buy, is among MAGA fat cats, tech bros and grifters who'll likely be targeted by California's (easily reelected) Robert Garcia, set to chair the House Oversight Committee. His blunt message: "Lawyer up." Many others also feel "the only way we want Dems to reach across the aisle is with a subpoena." With an "accountability bill" ready, Dean Blundell argues, "A LOT of people need to go to jail" - Hegseth, the Trump family crypto empire, the DOJ hacks who covered up Epstein crimes, the Rapist-In-Chief, the sadists of ICE once it's been "torn down to the studs." Scores of voters also demanded justice for their victims Renee Good, Alex Pretti and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by putting "I Voted" stickers on their memorials: "They were on the ballot."
Over at the presumably ketchup-encrusted White House, Trump remains in his own daft fantasy world, the "lamest of lame ducks." He burbles he "looks forward to working with" the trans jihadists he says are destroying America, but he'll veto everything. He's awash in his "magnificent" ballroom. He insists if he was on the ballot "we'd have won IN A LANDSLIDE," but of course he was and CNN's John King is happy to name all the places he told voters to pretend he was: "They did. They'd had enough." Even his cultists - and ex-cultists - blame him: "The reason isn't them, it's you. You fucked us. We chose Hitler with Down Syndrome, and we lost." Online, meanwhile, the White House posted a desperate "PSA: Trump Is Still Your President." Like we could forget.
Still, the seismic shift tentatively feels like a new dawn, a path toward redemption, a sliver of hope, the long-ago thing with feathers we can barely remember. Candidates, volunteers, organizers, lawyers stepped up, and vast numbers of Americans showed up to support them. The mood was buoyant. Some said they wished Mitch McConnell was alive to see the Senate results. The Borowitz Report said Mike Johnson begged God to "rapture him up" immediately; tearfully, he said that as a loyal Republican he couldn't bear to be in a "minority" because he hates 'em all. Another report said a bitter Elon Musk put Ken Paxton on eBay; no buyers yet. Also, tragically, two sources say cracks and peeling have again emerged in the Reflecting Pool, but MAGA is on it. Said an Interior spokesperson, "The Reflecting Pool has never looked this beautiful, and it's all thanks to President Donald J. Trump."
Update: Can you say learned nothing, knows nothing, never will, truly astoundingly losing it? On Thursday, our lame-duck loser displayed his stellar grasp on political priorities - what election? - by signing an entirely meaningless order proclaiming nobody can de-Cheesecake Factory his tacky abomination of a golden whorehouse of an Oval Office, 'cause then he'd be some pissed and don't forget we won World War One. Beyond the surreal looking-glass,
- YouTube www.youtube.com
- YouTube www.youtube.com
Nov 05, 2026
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'Another Year, Another New Record': UN Highlights Rising Greenhouse Gas Levels Ahead of COP31
With the next United Nations Climate Change Conference less than two weeks away, a UN agency confirmed Tuesday that levels of three key greenhouse gases in the atmosphere "reached unprecedented highs in 2025, locking in more long-term temperature increase for the planet."
“Another year, another new record," World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Deputy Secretary-General Ko Barrett said in a statement. "The past 11 years have been the warmest on record, and this trend is set to continue."
"The big three are carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. Since the 1960s, growth rates of CO2 have tripled," Barrett told journalists during a press briefing about the "Greenhouse Gas Bulletin of 2025," which is published annually.
Global greenhouse gas concentrations reach record highs in 2025. The unprecedented atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide and methane lock in severe climate impacts and temperature increases for centuries ahead of the upcoming United Nations climate summit in Turkey.www.france24.com/en/live-news...
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— Flingjore (@flingjore.com) October 27, 2026 at 11:12 AM
"When the bulletin was first published in 2004, the annual level of carbon dioxide was 377.5 parts per million. In 2025, it was 426.8 parts per million," Barrett noted. Methane, or CH4, hit 1,948 parts per billion, while nitrous oxide, or N2O, was 339.1 ppb.
"Every additional part per million matters because it traps additional heat," she stressed. "In effect, we are supercharging the ocean and the atmosphere. That means that heatwaves, tropical cyclones, and rainstorms are intensifying faster than our historical baselines prepared us for."
While carbon dioxide is "the most abundant long-lived gas," Barrett also addressed "gases which are present in much lower concentrations but are of potential concern," such as sulfur hexafluoride, or SF6—which "is closely related to electricity production and distribution, and has been rising over the past three decades because of the switch to global electrification."
"Sulfur hexafluoride concentration in 2025 have increased by 249% relative to 1995 levels. They are measured in parts per trillion—not million. So why should we be concerned?" she said. "Because SF6 has an atmospheric lifetime of up to 3,200 years. Its global warming potential is more than 24,000 times that of CO2."
"The energy transition is essential and welcome," Barrett added. "But as with every transition, it has to be done in a smart way and informed by environmental observations."
The WMO bulletin follows a series of recent UN reports showing the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting global temperature rise this century to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels is no longer possible without an overshoot, but getting back to that level is, with ambitious action to phase out fossil fuels.
Additionally, before the ongoing biodiversity summit in Yerevan, Armenia, the UN warned that the world is not on track to meet any of the targets from the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, or the "Paris Agreement for Nature."
While that event on the global biodiversity crisis—which is linked to the worsening climate emergency—is set to conclude in a few days, world leaders are scheduled to convene again on November 9 in Antalya, Türkiye for the next climate conference, or COP31.
Although the United States is the world's biggest historical climate polluter, and one of the recently released UN reports repeatedly calls out US emissions, Big Oil-backed President Donald Trump has ditched the Paris Agreement, again, and is not expected to send a delegation to Antalya.
"The rest of the world is exhausted when it comes to counting the damage that the US is willingly doing to allies, multilateral structures, economic cooperation, disaster relief," Australian climate scientist Malte Meinshausen told The Associated Press earlier this month. "The rest of the world should probably continue to focus even less on the US."
There is hope in the elections taking place around the world and how they may usher in new leadership in many countries. Even with those changes, we all are in for a warm ride filled with climate shocks until we stabilize the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
— Dana R. Fisher (aka the Apocalyptic Optimist) (@fisherdanar.bsky.social) October 27, 2026 at 6:37 AM
In the United States, University of Pennsylvania professor Michael Mann said Tuesday that "there is a lot of support among the public for a clean energy transition. The problem is that the fossil fuel industry currently owns our government. But there are reasons for optimism that we might begin to turn the corner, with the midterm elections" on November 3.
"If they return one or both houses of Congress to the Democrats, there will be the possibility of Congress acting as a check on the destructive policies of the Trump administration and in a couple of years, with new leadership at the presidential level, the US could once again reassert leadership on climate," the climatologist told writer Brian McHugh.
"We have to transition rapidly away from fossil fuel burning," Mann emphasized. "There's simply no other way. Without regulating them and imposing an incentive structure that leads them to move toward clean energy, nothing else is really going to matter."
Oct 27, 2026
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Sanders: Billionaires Fighting Prop 40 Would 'Rather Poor Kids With Cancer Die Than Pay a Little More in Taxes'
As one Golden State tech billionaire suggested he wouldn't move away even if voters passed the California Billionaire Tax Act that he opposes, progressive US Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday took aim at the wealthy taxpayers working to defeat Proposition 40.
"Billionaires in California are spending $333 million to wage a war," Sanders (I-Vt.) wrote on social media. "Against what? Homelessness? No. Cancer? No. Child poverty? No. They're waging war against a 5% billionaire wealth tax. They'd rather poor kids with cancer die than pay a little more in taxes. That is obscene."
Sanders, a former Democratic presidential candidate who has campaigned in California for the ballot measure that would impose a one-time 5% tax on the state's billionaires to offset healthcare funding cuts, was citing contributions to Building a Better California, a group created in January.
"Eighty or so donors have provided more than $333 million to Building a Better California, state records show, making it among the best-funded political efforts in California history," The New York Times reported Tuesday. "The donor list is a who's who of tech celebrities: the Google co-founder Sergey Brin; the former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt; the Stripe chief executive Patrick Collison; the legendary investor John Doerr."
Abby Lunardini, a spokesperson for the group, told the Times that "our supporters have created companies, entirely new industries, and hundreds of thousands of jobs here in California, and they want our state to remain the place where the future is built and where people can still afford to live, dream big, and succeed."
Lunardini claimed the wealth tax would "permanently damage the state's budget, tax base, and economy," though dozens of multimillionaire Californians have signed an open letter supporting the one-time wealth tax, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg—one of the richest men in the world—is preparing to potentially pay it, and Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey said Monday that he won't leave the state.
TechCrunch reported on his latest comments, in which Luckey—whose defense company won key US military contracts after he was announced as one of the leaders of a new Pentagon project on the "future of warfare"—made clear that he opposes Prop 40:
"I think that this tax act, if you can call it a tax, is going to cause a lot of problems. It’s causing a lot of people to run who I don’t want to be running. It’s going to cause companies that I work with to leave the state, which is a problem for me. As of right now, though, I’m not running. I am staying. I think California is something special. I want to fight for California," Luckey said during an invite-only press conference on Monday.
He added that he's felt pressure from other billionaires to declare his intention to leave.
"This has been a point of friction between me and some of my other billionaire friends," he said. "They've said things like: 'Palmer, you have to have solidarity for us. You can't enable these really bad policies. If you stay and if you don't leave, it's going to show them that there's no consequences.' I empathize with that argument, but it's not one that I'm going to participate in right now because I still believe that we can fix things."
Luckey has publicly sparred with US Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.)—who, like Sanders, supports Prop 40. Leading political opponents in the state include term-limited Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who's expected to run for president in 2028, and former US Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, a Democrat running to replace the governor.
Estimates vary on how much the tax—which would apply to any billionaire residing in the state as of January 1, 2026—could cost the richest Californians, if approved by voters in next week's midterm elections.
Forbes pointed to one of them on Tuesday: "$104 billion. That's how much economists Jasper Boll, Emmanuel Saez, and Gabriel Zucman estimate California's billionaires would owe if Proposition 40 is enacted, according to an analysis by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Saez and Zucman helped draft the tax proposal."
Ramesh Ponnuru, National Review editor and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, noted in a Tuesday column at The Washington Post—owned by Jeff Bezos, another one of the world's richest men—that "a new study by Benjamin Jaros and Joshua Rauh, two economists affiliated with the Hoover Institution, challenges that projection."
After trying to "account for the uncertainty over whether taxes can be collected from other billionaires, such as the ones who have left since the beginning of the year and may thus have a legal case for escaping the tax," Ponnuru summarized, those economists estimated Prop 40 would generate around $30 billion. The columnist also acknowledged that Zucman "has issued a barrage of attacks on that paper."
Specifically, Zucman called it "spectacularly misleading" and explained "its crucial flaw," which is that "they assume that billionaires will leave permanently, frightened by the prospects of an annual wealth tax."
"Let's be clear: This is a highly inappropriate way to model the effect of Prop 40 on taxpayer behavior. For one, it's a basic violation of rational expectations, a cornerstone of modern economics," Zucman said.
In Jaros and Rauh's world, "the billionaires act irrationally: They respond to a policy that does not exist and will never exist," he added. "Economics students around the world are taught this is not an appropriate way to model behavior—but apparently in this context (fighting Prop 40) it's OK."
Oct 27, 2026
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If 'Trump Wants to Be Mr. Veto, Let's Test That Out,' Warren Says of New Red Hat
One of the easiest ways to spot a supporter of US President Donald Trump is a red hat declaring "Make America Great Again," but after a Democratic "tsunami" in the midterms earlier this week, the Republican leader unveiled a new cap that says "VETO."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), an incoming committee chair who's long sparred with Trump, responded Thursday by making clear that Democrats are determined to pass far-reaching legislation after securing significant—but not veto-proof—majorities in both chambers of Congress.
"If Donald Trump wants to be Mr. Veto, let's test that out," she wrote on social media, replying to a White House photo of the hat placed next to the president as he signed an executive order declaring the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room national monuments. "The new Democratic majority in Congress should pass bills to make life more affordable and our government less corrupt."
Warren's X post echoed her Thursday op-ed about "why Democrats won the midterms"—as of Friday, they have at least 54 senators and 253 seats in the House of Representatives—and how they now "must deliver... even with Donald Trump in the White House."
"Trump says he welcomes the nickname 'Mr. Veto.' Well, let's test that out by passing legislation the American people support," she wrote for Time, urging Democrats to stop the Iran War, reverse GOP healthcare cuts while expanding coverage, fund universal childcare, and cancel "the tax breaks Trump and the Republicans handed out to corporations, ultramillionaires, and billionaires."
Other priorities for the progressive—who is set to lead the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs—include "bills to ban stock trading by federal officials or crack down on Trump's corruption in plain sight," as well as efforts to make "Big Tech CEOs, Wall Street executives, and giant corporations... answer tough questions" about "ripping off the American people."
Warren isn't alone in urging the party to call Trump's bluff once Democrats have enough votes to pass bills without GOP support in January. Also responding to the White House's hat post, Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) declared Friday, "Let's do it."
"Let's dare him to veto" legislation on the following, Duckworth said:
- Ending the Iran War;
- Canceling $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts;
- Restoring Affordable Care Act tax credits;
- Raising the federal minimum wage;
- Terminating tariffs and issuing refunds to consumers;
- Forcing data centers to pay for their own energy and water; and
- Banning presidential and congressional stock trading.
Democratic victories on Tuesday also generated fresh hope about eventually replacing the US for-profit healthcare system with Medicare for All—a hallmark issue for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is expected to chair the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and has been credited with making the party's policies more progressive via his presidential runs and engagement with voters across the country on his Fighting Oligarchy Tour..
As political observers asserted that "Bernie made the path" for progressive candidates who campaigned on economic populism to win key elections this week, Sanders has said in multiple interviews that the incoming Democrat-controlled Congress should pass Medicare for All—which would save over 114,000 lives and $1 trillion annually—and see if Trump vetoes it.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), a possible 2028 presidential contender who previously led Senate Democrats' campaign arm, similarly argued that despite Trump's threats this week, the new majorities should fight to improve affordability and tax the rich.
"It is essential that we show the American people where we stand," Van Hollen told Politico. "If Trump vetoes it, it will just show people that he's on the side of billionaires."
While he is reportedly not going to challenge Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to be Senate majority leader post, Van Hollen has also suggested that Democrats should not back the current minority leader without securing his support for a "bold agenda."
Nov 06, 2026
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Groups Seek Emergency Restraining Order Against Trump DOJ 'Voter Intimidation Effort' at Polls
With midterm Election Day rapidly approaching, a coalition of rights groups on Sunday sought an eleventh-hour judicial intervention to stop the Trump administration from deploying federal law enforcement personnel to polling places across the country, warning that the Department of Justice's unprecedented election monitoring operation threatens to intimidate voters and interfere with the democratic process.
The NAACP, Advancement Project, and the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) asked Judge Reggie Walton—the senior judge at the US District Court for the District of Columbia and an appointee of former Republican President George W. Bush—to prohibit the DOJ from assigning federal officers as election monitors on Tuesday via an emergency temporary restraining order.
Alternatively, the groups asked the court to prohibit those personnel from carrying firearms, badges, or cameras, or from engaging in law enforcement activities while monitoring polling locations.
"In less than 36 hours, Americans will head to the polls to cast ballots for the 2026 general election, and for the first time ever, they face the risk of encountering federal law enforcement agents and criminal prosecutors at polling places," the groups' filing states.
The DOJ’s veiled attempt at fearmongering is voter intimidation. Advancement Project is working across the country to observe the polls and protect the right to vote. We’re not backing down from the fight for free and fair elections, and encourage communities to vote with confidence.
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— Advancement Project (@advancementproject.org) November 2, 2026 at 7:10 AM
"Simply put, defendants' plans to deploy any federal law enforcement agent, investigator, or personnel for the November 3, 2026 general election constitute unlawful voter intimidation," the document adds.
The filing follows the DOJ's initial affirmation that it would deploy personnel from several federal law enforcement agencies—including the Bureau of Prisons; Drug Enforcement Administration; and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives—to polling sites nationwide, and its subsequent about-face on the plan.
Historically, the DOJ has sent civil rights attorneys and professional support personnel to monitor elections—usually in coordination with state and local election officials and with advance public notice—in order to ensure compliance with federal voting rights laws and to spot any potential discrimination.
The Trump administration, however, has increasingly substituted criminal prosecutors and sworn law enforcement personnel for those traditional monitors.
Amid the administration's deadly US Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdown, rights groups have also called for the establishment of “No ICE” zones around polling places, early voting locations, and ballot drop boxes, warning that the presence of federal agents could deter eligible Americans from exercising their right to vote.
The unprecedented interference has alarmed even Republican officials in deeply conservative states. Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon, for example, decried what he called "aggressive" and "disruptive" conduct by DOJ monitors, including demands to interview voters and attempts to access voting machines.
Advancement Project executive director Carmen Daugherty said in a statement, "Let’s call the DOJ’s veiled attempt at fearmongering what it is, it’s voter intimidation, and we know that the Voting Rights Act clearly states that any attempts to intimidate voters from practicing their right to vote are illegal."
NAACP general counsel Kristen Clarke stressed that “the law is clear—law enforcement agents can have an intimidating effect on voters, especially Black voters, and they have no role and no right to be inside our polling places."
"We are taking action to ensure that the path to the ballot box remains free from harassment and intimidation for all voters on Election Day," Clarke added. "This Justice Department may want us to be afraid, but that’s only because they are afraid of us and the power of our votes. The NAACP urges every voter to cast a ballot if they have not already done so.”
LDF senior counsel Kathryn Sadasivan said that “the Justice Department must not be permitted to subvert its foundational responsibility of protecting voters’ right to elections free from fear."
“The continued threats of law enforcement deployment to the polls are clearly deliberate attempts to dissuade voter participation," she continued. "This is immoral, this is illegal, and this is absolutely shameful behavior from what’s supposed to be the nation’s highest legal authority."
"We will continue to fight to protect every eligible voters’ ability to cast a ballot without the threat of violence hanging over their head at the ballot box," Sadasivan added.
Nov 02, 2026
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'Kafkaesque': London Cops Allow 'I Support Genocide' Sign, Arrest 320 Palestine Action Protesters
British police on Saturday arrested 325 people outside the US Embassy in London—almost all of them supporters of the banned peace group Palestine Action—while allowing at least one demonstrator to hold a sign reading "I support genocide."
Metropolitan Police said 320 of the people arrested at the demonstration organized by the group Defend Our Juries were apprehended for showing support for a proscribed group under the Terrorism Act. Many of those taken into custody were holding placards reading, "I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action."
Meanwhile, video posted to social media showed a Met officer allowing a woman to hold a sign with the deliberately provocative message, "I support genocide, I oppose Palestine Action."
It was the largest mass arrest of Palestine Action supporters since Prime Minister Andy Burnham took office following the resignation of former Prime Minister Keir Starmer—both members of the Labour Party.
"The Kafkaesque UK laws adopted under the Starmer [government] to appease Israel are such that you'll get arrested for terrorism if you hold a sign saying, 'I support Palestine Action.' But if you hold a sign saying 'I support genocide, I oppose Palestine Action,' then you'll be fine," said Trita Parsi, the executive vice president of the US-based Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.
The arrested protesters are charged under Section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which carries a punishment of six months' imprisonment for carrying the signs.
Among those arrested Saturday were 94-year-old human rights lawyer Margaret Owen, who was also apprehended outside September's Labour Party conference in Liverpool for holding a sign supporting Palestine Action. According to reporting, Owen is Jewish.
"This is truly dystopian," UK Green Party Leader Zack Polanski said in response to Owen's arrest Saturday. "Not in our name."
"Israel killed eight people, including a child, in Gaza this weekend as they continue their genocide," Polanski noted in a separate social media post on Monday. "After a weekend of arresting pensioners for protesting against this horror, Labour has [put] Israel far above serving our local communities."
More than 250,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded by Israeli forces since the Hamas-led attack of October 2023. That figure includes over 74,000 Palestinians killed, including upward of 21,500 children.
Undaunted, Owen was reportedly arrested again on Monday along with other members and supporters of the peace group No More Bloody Wars, who blocked an entrance to Royal Air Force-Lakenheath, a military base used by the US Air Force.
Rev. Bill White, 72—who also held a sign at Saturday's protest reading, "I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action"—told The Guardian that he had "hoped for better" from Burnham's government.
“This is the right thing to do," White said of the protest. "There’s a bad law, and it is wrong to criminalize people that are trying to prevent genocide,” he added. “How can I not be here?”
A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries said Saturday that the "overzealous response outside the US Embassy today only serves to further expose how far authorities in the UK will go to appease American interests."
"Israel’s war crimes that have caused death and injury to thousands could not happen without the US’ approval," the spokesperson added.
Saturday's crackdown came as Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori prepared to challenge the ban before the UK Supreme Court starting on Wednesday. The lower High Court found the proscription unlawful in February, finding violations involving the government's own policy and free expression protections. The Court of Appeal overturned that decision in June, prompting Ammori's appeal.
The Palestine Action ban took effect in July 2025 after members of the group damaged warplanes on the Royal Air Force base at Brize Norton.
On Monday, members of another UK direct action group, People Against Genocide, broke into a factory in Tring, Hertfordshire owned by the Texas-based arms manufacturer Ultra Intelligence and Communications—which reportedly supplies UAV Tactical Systems, a subsidiary of Israeli weapons-maker Elbit Systems—and smashed equipment with hammers. Three people were reportedly arrested.
According to Novara Media, Monday's action "was timed to coincide with the 109th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, a statement issued by the British government in 1917 that is widely seen as laying the foundation for the colonization and ethnic cleansing of Palestine."
Nov 02, 2026
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After Blue Tsunami, Progressives Don't Trust Schumer and Jeffries to Lead Congress
"Schumer is bad at his job," said one organizer. "Jeffries is not ready for this moment."
Nov 06, 2026
After a Democratic "tsunami" in this week's midterm elections that has been widely seen as "a mandate to deliver big change," progressives within and beyond Congress have cast doubt on whether the New York Democrats likely to lead both chambers are actually up for facing Republican President Donald Trump's veto threats and fighting for the "bold agenda" sought by US voters.
As critics of artificial intelligence data centers prepared for a Friday protest outside the Brooklyn home of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer over a "dirty" bill that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is suddenly speaking out about, political organizer Corbin Trent argued that "Schumer is bad at his job" and "Jeffries is not ready for this moment."
Although some races haven't yet been called, "Democratic voters, independent voters, and even some Republican voters spoke loudly and clearly: They want this country to go in a different direction," wrote Trent, a former communications director for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and two-time presidential campaign staffer for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
Trent, who also co-founded Justice Democrats and now runs the super political action committee A Fight Worth Having, stressed that "this is an amazing, unprecedented moment in my lifetime. I'm 46 years old, and this is the most hopeful political moment I've ever experienced."
"Democrats have spoken loudly and clearly that they want new leadership. Unfortunately, too many of the people in Washington aren't listening," he added. While Trent and his group are far from alone in calling for new Democratic leadership when the party takes over Congress in January, Schumer and Jeffries are expected to become majority leader and speaker, respectively.
"Do you expect to face any kind of challenge in the election for Senate majority leader?" Michael Barbaro, who hosts The New York Times' podcast The Daily asked Chuck Schumer on Friday. He simply responded, "No."
Schumer ultimately added that "our caucus is focused on moving forward. Everyone's very happy with what we all did. But this is just the beginning. As I said before, and I'll say it again and again to my caucus, to the country, to everybody: If we don't deliver, all this will go away. This is just the first step. But I think we're united together to do that."
He delivered a similar message of unity during a Thursday night appearance on MS NOW, telling host Lawrence O'Donnell that the victorious Democrats—so far the party has 54 seats in the Senate and 253 in the House of Representatives, but those numbers could rise—were "all running on the same basic themes: costs, chaos, corruption."
As both majority and minority leader in recent years, Schumer has faced criticism from the party's left flank—and, as Al Jazeera noted Thursday, at least seven Democratic senators-elect have signaled or outright said they will not support him: Abdul El-Sayed (Mich.), Peggy Flanagan (Minn.), Adam Hamilton (Kan.), Chris Pappas (NH), Juliana Stratton (Ill.), and James Talarico (Texas).
However, as Fox News chief congressional correspondent Chad Pergram explained Friday, basic math and a lack of clear challengers suggest Schumer will win: "The selection of Senate majority leader is not a vote which plays out on the floor. The concept of 'Senate majority leader' has only been around since the early 20th Century and is not mentioned in the Constitution."
"Let's say Democrats do win Mississippi and Alaska, giving them 56 senators who caucus with the Democrats. All Schumer needs is 29 Democrats to support him in caucus, and he's the next majority leader," Pergram wrote on social media.
He noted that other possible contenders are Democratic Sens. Brian Schatz (Hawaii) and Chris Van Hollen (Md.), but the former is running to succeed retiring Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and the latter reportedly isn't seeking the post—though Van Hollen has said publicly that Democrats should demand an ambitious progressive agenda before backing Schumer or anyone else.
"Progressives are flipping Republican seats and winning critical battlegrounds where pundits told us our politics could never compete. Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan. Troy Jackson in Maine. James Talarico in Texas. Sam Forstag in Montana. Randy Villegas in California. Bob Brooks in Pennsylvania," said Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution, which grew out of Sanders' 2016 presidential run. "We gave people something to vote FOR, and they showed up."
"The progressive movement drove this victory. We spent a decade building the infrastructure, developing leaders, and making the argument that brought us here... This is a vindication of our politics and our theory of change: Organized people can beat organized money when we advance an anti-corporate, working-class agenda," he stressed, recalling when "the talking heads, academics, and party establishment scoffed at Bernie Sanders and our movement for talking about oligarchy."
The organizer said that "this was the corruption election. Affordability was central, but people were also asking why life keeps getting more expensive and who keeps cashing in. From AI and data centers to healthcare, Big Pharma, crypto, oil, and the war industry, people want a say over decisions being made at their expense. Corporate control of government is making their lives harder."
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)—which notably congratulated Jeffries and Schumer, who wasn't even on the ballot this cycle, by name on Wednesday—along with GOP megadonor Elon Musk "and other billionaires and corporate interests have poured money into shaping our politics," Geevarghese continued. "Our victories show that their money does not make their agenda inevitable. People can organize, fight back, and win."
In the wake of these victories "powered by a progressive wave," Geevarghese called on Democrats to "use every committee, hearing, and budget negotiation. Follow the contracts and conflicts of interest. Put executives and administration officials under oath. Fight for concrete gains and make Trump answer for what he blocks."
"People need to see Democrats using every bit of power they have to fight for them," he said. "That requires leadership ready to meet the moment. Chuck Schumer should step aside. Bernie Sanders has provided the clarity and urgency a real opposition party needs. Leadership must match that ambition, including by investing in candidates and communities too often written off."
Aru Shiney-Ajay, executive director of the youth-led climate group Sunrise Movement, similarly said in a statement after the midterms that "young people voted for change. We deserve a Senate majority leader who will end the filibuster so we can stop the Iran Oil War, end corporate control of our government, and create good green jobs, not more data centers."
"Young people won't get that with the same old Democratic leadership. Schumer, it's time to put the American people first–commit to ending the filibuster or step aside," Shiney-Ajay added, referring to controversial chamber rules that effectively block legislation unless at least 60 of the 100 senators support advancing it to a final vote.
As for Jeffries, he got "the majority of his dreams," as Axios put it earlier this week. The outlet reported:
The left's strategy is "going to look different from what it would have been with a smaller margin," one incoming House progressive told Axios, noting that "leaders have more flexibility when they have big majorities.
Progressives "can't really extract much now [with this] colossal majority," a progressive strategist acknowledged, adding that "we don't have to do this high-stakes Jeffries fight."
Although Jeffries is on track to secure the role, there are calls for him to not be the next speaker. Nearly 900,000 people have signed a related Change.org petition, Nicole Whitted, an author and social media creator who receives compensation in connection with the effort.
"After historic wins on Tuesday, I believe the Democratic Party and our country as a whole is at a crossroads," Whitted told Newsweek. "My opposition to Hakeem Jeffries is about more than any single policy disagreement. It's about real leadership that aligns with today's Democratic voter, real accountability, and whether the party is genuinely listening to the voters demanding change."
In anticipation of Jeffries serving as speaker, the outlet Sludge examined his "financial backing from executives at Anduril and Palantir, cryptocurrency industry interests, and major Wall Street investors—business interests with a stake in how aggressively the new majority pursues corporate beneficiaries of Trump's presidency."
In response to that reporting, Melanie D'Arrigo, executive director of the pro-single-payer Campaign for New York Health, said that "you can't lead the opposition party while being bankrolled by the opposition. This should not be a controversial take."
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Outrage Over 'Depraved' Idaho Program Paying Hunters Thousands of Dollars to Kill Wolf Pups
“Let’s call this what it is,” said one conservationist. “It’s a goddamned bounty.”
Nov 06, 2026
Idaho lofficials paid hunters $24,000 to kill a dozen newborn wolf pups this spring, including what appears to have been at least one entire litter massacred in or near its den, according to Friday reporting that has sparked outrage among conservationists and wildlife advocates.
The killings—which were first reported by the investigative news site Public Domain—took place in late April in Idaho's northern panhandle. Three hunters received reimbursements of $2,000 per wolf through a state-backed program intended to reduce the Idaho's wolf population in service of the livestock industry and big game hunters.
“It's an abomination,” said Brooks Fahy, executive director of the conservation group Predator Defense. "Let's call this what it is—it's a goddamned bounty."
"What kind of receipts are you going to show for 12 pups who weigh 12 pounds?" she asked. "It's ridiculous on its face, and the state of Idaho should be ashamed.”
The records obtained by Public Domain describe the killings as “still stalk,” suggesting hunters spotted and approached the animals before shooting them. But wolf experts questioned that account, suggesting the hunters may instead have located dens and removed the pups.
In one instance, a full litter was apparently massacred in or near its den. Doug Smith, a biologist who formerly oversaw Yellowstone National Park's wolf program, warned in an interview with The Guardian that killing entire litters can fracture or dissolve packs.
Contrary to popular belief, wolves typically do not protect their young; they usually flee about 50 yards and bark.
“It’s easy to do,” Smith said of taking a whole litter of pups. “If you can’t reach them, you dig them out with a shovel.”
“Wolves breed once a year, so the birth of the pups is a very important thing,” Smith said. “The pack’s life hinges on those pups. They’re the glue that holds the pack together.”
The killings were made possible by Idaho's increasingly permissive wolf management regime. In 2021, Republican lawmakers passed Senate Bill 1211, which established year-round wolf trapping on private property, eliminated limits on the number of wolf tags an individual could purchase, expanded permissible killing methods, and authorized private contractors to kill wolves.
That same year, Idaho wildlife officials signed an agreement with the Foundation for Wildlife Management, which reimburses hunters and trappers for expenses associated with killing wolves. Covered costs include fuel, ammunition, vehicle payments, and outdoor clothing. The program is financed through a combination of public money, hunting license revenue, and private contributions.
The state's 2023 wolf management plan called for reducing the population to approximately 650 animals during the spring, when wolf numbers typically peak. Idaho's estimated population nevertheless remained above 1,100 this year, down from a peak of approximately 1,600 in 2019.
The Idaho controversy comes amid broader concerns about the future of gray wolves in the United States. In September, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the Interior Department to consider removing federal Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves across the continental United States.
Wolves remain federally protected in most of the Lower 48 states, while Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming have authority over their populations.
Those are the only three states that received the nation's lowest grade—a "D"—on the conservationist group Team Wolf's "State Wolf Management Report Card."
Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Wisconsin all scored a D on humane treatment of wolves.All four are among the worst in the country on animal protection law, Idaho at 48th of fifty.teamwolf.org/report-card
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— wombar.bsky.social (@wombar.bsky.social) November 6, 2026 at 12:27 PM
"Trump says you can go out and kill wolves now—how many people took him at his word?” Fahy told Public Domain. “These are sentient creatures. They’re basically dogs. They form family bonds. They mate for life, pretty much. They have a pack structure that is very similar to our social structure. How could we be so wantonly cruel to something that is so similar to us?”
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Most Jewish Voters Backed El-Sayed Despite Relentless 'Antisemitism' Smear by Israel Apologists
Meanwhile, a new poll revealed that a supermajority of Jewish Americans believe that the actions of Israel and AIPAC fuel antisemitism.
Nov 06, 2026
Despite an expensive campaign to distort his vocal criticism of Israeli crimes in Palestine as "antisemitic," progressive Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed won his US Senate race with the support of a majority of the state's early Jewish voters, while a survey published Thursday revealed that 8 in 10 Jewish Americans believe Israel's actions and lobbying increase antisemitism.
An analysis of Michigan voting data published by the Jewish newspaper The Forward found that El-Sayed, who will be the first Muslim senator in US history, received approximately 60% of the vote among Jewish early voters.
The survey's results imply a rebuke of the efforts by groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which spent nearly $30 million on opposing El-Sayed and supporting his primary opponent, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.).
"The media spent October obsessing over Abdul El-Sayed's 'problem' with Jewish voters," writer and labor organizer Joe Wrote said on social media, noting that corporate outlets including The Washington Post, New York Times, Associated Press, and NPR "ran constant articles."
"In the end, El-Sayed got 60% of the Michigan Jewish vote, 1.3% less than Elissa Slotkin did in 2024," he added, referring to Michigan's Democratic junior US senator, who is Jewish. "The mainstream media is a joke."
While AIPAC's enormous spending helped make the contest one of the most expensive Senate primaries in US history, El-Sayed's focus on issues affecting working families—the affordability crisis, fixing the nation's broken healthcare system via Medicare for All—in addition to broader topics like getting money out of politics and ending US militarism and aid to Israel, led to his Tuesday victory.
AIPAC—whose super political action committee, United Democracy Project (UDP), only started financially supporting congressional candidates in 2021—has flexed its electoral muscles in recent years. In 2024, it helped defeat progressive Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.). However, Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) survived a UDP spending blitz during the previous midterms in 2022, and El-Sayed's victories in both the Michigan primary and general election demonstrate the limits of its largesse.
El-Sayed's victory coincided with the release of a new GBAO survey commissioned by the liberal Jewish lobby group J Street showing that overwhelming majorities of Jewish Americans believe the actions of Israel and AIPAC contribute to antisemitism in the United States.
According to the survey, 80% of respondents believe that Israel's actions in Gaza and the West Bank increase hatred of Jews, while 66% said that AIPAC funding advertisements against candidates who criticize Israel worsens antisemitism, and 60% agree that "Jewish organizations that condemn harsh criticism of Israel as antisemitic are exploiting concerns about antisemitism to defend unpopular Israeli government policies."
Tellingly, more respondents believe that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza (31%) than that Israel deserves unconditional support (30%).
A United Nations Commission of Inquiry, as well as many experts, including Israeli and other Jewish scholars, say that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. A genocide case against Israel filed by South Africa and formally backed by nearly 20 nations is proceeding through the International Court of Justice.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity in Gaza, including murder and forced starvation, committed during a war that has left more than 250,000 Palestinians dead or wounded and nearly 2 million people forcibly displaced.
In the illegally occupied West Bank, Israel has been accelerating its decadeslong campaign of apartheid, settler colonization, land theft, and ethnic cleansing, expanding illegal settlements and outposts while systematically dispossessing Palestinians of their homes, farms, and ancestral lands.
The far-right Netanyahu government has openly embraced annexation, with ministers pushing to formally absorb Palestinian territory into Israel and explicitly declaring their intention to prevent the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Armed Israeli settler-colonists, frequently operating with the protection, participation, or complicity of Israeli occupation forces, have unleashed increasingly brazen pogroms against Palestinian communities, burning homes, mosques, and vehicles, destroying olive groves, stealing livestock, beating residents, and killing Palestinians.
Appearing Thursday on MS NOW's "Morning Joe," El-Sayed was asked by host Willie Geist what message he had for Jewish voters who had been concerned about his positions and how he would protect them against antisemitism.
"I was really privileged to grow up in a community where about 40% of my high school class was Jewish," he said. "I grew up going to synagogue, going to Seder, going to bar and bat mitzvahs growing up. I have so much respect for the Jewish faith and Jewish contributions to American life."
"I also know what it's like to be discriminated against for how I pray," the senator-elect continued. "And I want an America where nobody is discriminated against under our Constitution."
"I know what it's like to drop off my kids to a mosque and wonder if they're going to be safe, and am I going to be able to pick them up safely afterwards," El-Sayed continued. "I'm committed to the safety of Jewish children like I'm committed to the safety of my own children."
"But I want to ask us this," he said. "We spend billions of dollars subsidizing a foreign government unconditionally buying bombs and tanks that have been used to do genocide and apartheid and make war we have no business fighting."
"And we're told that if you want to stand up against the murder of innocent Palestinian children, that that's somehow about hate for anybody. It's not about hate for anybody," El-Sayed stressed. "It's about equal love for those Palestinian children, as you would have for a Jewish child growing up in the Holy Land."
"So if I stand up and say, hey, maybe we shouldn't be sending our money to do the worst things to other people, people are like, well, it must be because you hate the people who are doing the worst things," he said. "I'm like, that's insane."
"We have to separate between Judaism and the Jewish people and Israel and its actions," the senator-elect asserted. "And by the way, I apply the same approach to the government of Egypt where my family came from. And I would hate that somebody would assume that I would be OK with the human rights abuses of the government of Egypt simply because I share the ethnicity of the majority of people who are in Egypt."
El-Sayed concluded by saying he wants to see a world in which "a Palestinian child and a Jewish Israeli child growing up in the Holy Land can look forward at their life and say, my life is not going to be curtailed by somebody's violence."
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El-Sayed Pledges to Probe RFK Jr. Over Summer’s ‘Crap Lettuce' Outbreak That Hit Michigan Hard
The senator-elect said he aims to probe "the decision-making that's gone on and what we need to do to solve the problem in its depth. And that takes understanding the nature of the problem."
Nov 06, 2026
Michigan was the epicenter of the cyclosporiasis outbreak that hit the United States last summer, and the state's new Democratic senator-elect plans to find out why after taking office in January.
Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed, who faced virulently racist attacks from members of the Trump administration, including Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., during his campaign, told CNN Thursday that he plans to investigate Kennedy's handling of the outbreak of the illness caused by the Cyclospora parasite, which sickened more than 15,000 Michiganders, hospitalized more than 370, and killed two people in the state.
El-Sayed emphasized that he is not out for "retribution for something past," but said an investigation into staffing cuts at HHS would be focused on "understanding what happened, holding people accountable for what they did, and then solving the problem moving forward."
"People need to feel it in their back pockets and in their homes," said El-Sayed.
The former public health official said the Trump administration had "DOGE-ed out the part of the Food and Drug Administration and the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] that was intended both to protect you from eating lettuce that had been defiled by somebody else, and counting the number of cases," referring to the Department of Government Efficiency.
Under the leadership of GOP megadonor Elon Musk, DOGE cut staffing at a CDC lab tasked with responding to Cyclospora and other parasitic outbreaks from 11 people to just three.
The US Department of Agriculture shut down three key research projects regarding the parasite, which can cause explosive diarrhea and other gastrointestinal symptoms when it contaminates food. Two of the projects were defunded by the Republican-controlled Congress, while a third was moved from Maryland to Iowa as part of a reorganization of the agency, and the scientists working on the research declined to relocate, jeopardizing the study.
The CDC also removed Cyclospora from its Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network, or FoodNet, in 2025 as part of Kennedy's changes to the agency.
Kennedy said the outbreak was "under control" on July 21, when 1,600 people were sick across the country. Dozens of people in Michigan continued to become ill over the following month. The outbreak was ultimately linked to lettuce that was grown in central Mexico by Taylor Farms de Mexico.
The HHS secretary claimed that the allegations that his cuts had reduced the government's ability to respond to the outbreak were "invalid," saying there were "no cuts in the surveillance program."
“We did cuts in the FoodNet program, but they were redundant surveillance," said Kennedy.
El-Sayed said Thursday that he aims "to understand why he's... done this, the decision-making that's gone on, and what we need to do to solve the problem in its depth. And that takes understanding the nature of the problem."
He added that legislation could come out of an investigation.
"There's no reason that we couldn't have one clean bill, right? The Crap Lettuce Elimination Act, whatever we want to call it, to just make sure that we have a FDA that's functioning," said El-Sayed. "It's not just lettuce. We're talking—seeing recalls in blueberries. We're seeing recalls in blackberries. We're seeing recalls in meat. And that's because the FDA's not working."
The senator-elect also said the ascent of Kennedy, who has publicly questioned the safety of vaccines and halted immunization research, is among the Trump administration appointments that raise questions about how President Donald Trump is selecting his nominees for top government positions.
“I think this administration has shown that the decisions that they make about who is engaged in government, leading government, that that's more about backroom deals and who curries favor than it is about their capacity to do the job," said El-Sayed. "When you nominate somebody like RFK Jr., who is anti-science, to run HHS, what you get is a bunch of nasty crap lettuce in the state of Michigan."
When considering Trump's nominees as a senator, El-Sayed added, "I'm going to assume I'm not going to support you until proven otherwise. So the bar is going to be extremely high. I want to know that this person was chosen on their merit and the capacity to serve the American public."
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If 'Trump Wants to Be Mr. Veto, Let's Test That Out,' Warren Says of New Red Hat
"The new Democratic majority in Congress should pass bills to make life more affordable and our government less corrupt."
Nov 06, 2026
One of the easiest ways to spot a supporter of US President Donald Trump is a red hat declaring "Make America Great Again," but after a Democratic "tsunami" in the midterms earlier this week, the Republican leader unveiled a new cap that says "VETO."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), an incoming committee chair who's long sparred with Trump, responded Thursday by making clear that Democrats are determined to pass far-reaching legislation after securing significant—but not veto-proof—majorities in both chambers of Congress.
"If Donald Trump wants to be Mr. Veto, let's test that out," she wrote on social media, replying to a White House photo of the hat placed next to the president as he signed an executive order declaring the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room national monuments. "The new Democratic majority in Congress should pass bills to make life more affordable and our government less corrupt."
Warren's X post echoed her Thursday op-ed about "why Democrats won the midterms"—as of Friday, they have at least 54 senators and 253 seats in the House of Representatives—and how they now "must deliver... even with Donald Trump in the White House."
"Trump says he welcomes the nickname 'Mr. Veto.' Well, let's test that out by passing legislation the American people support," she wrote for Time, urging Democrats to stop the Iran War, reverse GOP healthcare cuts while expanding coverage, fund universal childcare, and cancel "the tax breaks Trump and the Republicans handed out to corporations, ultramillionaires, and billionaires."
Other priorities for the progressive—who is set to lead the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs—include "bills to ban stock trading by federal officials or crack down on Trump's corruption in plain sight," as well as efforts to make "Big Tech CEOs, Wall Street executives, and giant corporations... answer tough questions" about "ripping off the American people."
Warren isn't alone in urging the party to call Trump's bluff once Democrats have enough votes to pass bills without GOP support in January. Also responding to the White House's hat post, Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) declared Friday, "Let's do it."
"Let's dare him to veto" legislation on the following, Duckworth said:
- Ending the Iran War;
- Canceling $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts;
- Restoring Affordable Care Act tax credits;
- Raising the federal minimum wage;
- Terminating tariffs and issuing refunds to consumers;
- Forcing data centers to pay for their own energy and water; and
- Banning presidential and congressional stock trading.
Democratic victories on Tuesday also generated fresh hope about eventually replacing the US for-profit healthcare system with Medicare for All—a hallmark issue for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is expected to chair the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and has been credited with making the party's policies more progressive via his presidential runs and engagement with voters across the country on his Fighting Oligarchy Tour..
As political observers asserted that "Bernie made the path" for progressive candidates who campaigned on economic populism to win key elections this week, Sanders has said in multiple interviews that the incoming Democrat-controlled Congress should pass Medicare for All—which would save over 114,000 lives and $1 trillion annually—and see if Trump vetoes it.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), a possible 2028 presidential contender who previously led Senate Democrats' campaign arm, similarly argued that despite Trump's threats this week, the new majorities should fight to improve affordability and tax the rich.
"It is essential that we show the American people where we stand," Van Hollen told Politico. "If Trump vetoes it, it will just show people that he's on the side of billionaires."
While he is reportedly not going to challenge Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to be Senate majority leader post, Van Hollen has also suggested that Democrats should not back the current minority leader without securing his support for a "bold agenda."
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'RIP Salon': After 31 Years, Independent News Outlet Goes Dark
"Salon was born in a time when the internet felt like a frontier, full of possibility that didn't fit neatly anywhere else."
Nov 06, 2026
The independent news, politics, and culture website Salon.com announced Thursday that it was ceasing publication after 31 years, a decision it said stemmed from the struggle of "business realities" and profound changes in the digital journalism landscape.
"It’s difficult to find the right words for the end of something that has meant so much to so many people," the outlet said in a public statement. "Salon was never just a website. It was an idea about what journalism could be, born at a moment when the internet was still a largely unexplored frontier."
After its launch in 1995, Salon became a hub for liberal and progressive readers seeking the latest news and opinion on politics, domestic affairs, civil liberties, arts, and culture.
Word of the publication's closing prompted an outpouring of reaction from journalists and former readers.
"RIP Salon.com," declared podcaster Casey Newton. "It was once among the best things on the web, and I learned so much from reading all the great writers there."
"This is very sad," said Michael Hiltzik, the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Los Angeles Times. "I feel like part of my own past—as a reader—is disappearing."
As the New York Times reports:
Salon was started in 1995 by the journalist David Talbot as a digital magazine covering books, culture and ideas at a time before blogging and online news had taken off. It was financially backed by Apple, Adobe and the now-defunct bookstore chain Borders.
Over the years, it became known for its politically progressive views and expanded to cover politics and tech. It employed a number of well-known journalists, including Glenn Greenwald, Joan Walsh and Michelle Goldberg. Steve Kornacki, the beloved data nerd at NBC News, was at one point Salon’s politics editor, while CNN’s Jake Tapper also worked for the site as a Washington correspondent early in his career.
The publication, which had weathered financial ups and downs over the decades, was sold in August 2019 for $5 million to the entrepreneurs Chris Richmond and Drew Schoentrup. It was then bought in November 2023 by Find.co, a Malta-based company that describes itself online as a “performance marketing ecosystem” for crypto brands, for an undisclosed sum.
The outlet told The Associated Press that it had no immediate plans to take down its online archives, leaving three decades of Salon content available for review.
"Salon was the first media outlet that ever employed me," wrote Glenn Greenwald, who started his public writing career at Salon, following the news. "They gave me full editorial independence—the right to upload my articles and columns with no editorial interference—and, unlike others, always honored it. I won't comment on what they became, but David Talbot's creation was one of the pioneers of what became independent online media. RIP."
Trevor Timm, executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, also mourned the loss:
While right-wing voices celebrated its demise—"Another one bites the dust," declared fascist Trump loyalist Laura Loomer with joy—others simply noted that Salon.com, whether or not you embraced its editorial lines or business model over the years, is the latest indication of just how difficult it is to maintain an online publication outlet in the age of corporate media consolidation, rapacious private equity gobbling up news outlets, and the encroachment of artificial intelligence.
"Sad fucking news," said television producer Trace Crutchfield. "Salon was born in a time when the internet felt like a frontier, full of possibility that didn't fit neatly anywhere else. That spirit is pretty much extinct, strangled by crypto whiz kids and private equity asset-catchers determined to strip-mine everything."
In its announcement, Salon said, "Thirty-one years is a remarkable run, but what matters most is what happened during those years: the journalism, the ideas, the voices, the conversations and the community that grew around them. Salon helped demonstrate what digital journalism could be and could become. We hope that legacy will continue to matter long after today."
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Post-Midterms Report Stresses Economic Populism Propelled Democrats to Victory
"Americans are hungry for leadership that challenges the status quo, ends America’s forever wars, and takes on entrenched wealth and corporate power," said Data for Progress' executive director.
Nov 05, 2026
Progressive Democrats' midterm victories from Maine to Michigan to Texas signaled that US voters are fed up with GOP officials bought by billionaires and want lawmakers in Congress who fight for the needs of everyday people—and a Data for Progress report released Thursday, two days after the election, supports that conclusion.
The think tank and polling firm's "2026 Post-Election Report: How Democrats Rode Economic Populism to Landslide Victory" lays out "where the election was won," how Democratic candidates attracted voters as "the GOP playbook flopped," the issues that defined this cycle, and what the 2028 contests may look like. It highlights various pieces of polling.
"When swing voters were asked which issue they consider most when deciding whom to vote for, a clear plurality (41%) said the economy, jobs, and the cost of living," the publication says, citing surveys conducted in September and October. "Among that plurality of swing voters, about 3 in 4 (76%) said 'inflation or the cost of living' best explained why the economy was their top issue."
"When asked which political party they trust more to handle inflation and the cost of living, 34% of swing voters said the Democratic Party, while 19% said the Republican Party... A plurality (47%) said they don't know which party they trust more," the report notes. "Democrats also carried a large trust advantage on healthcare (+29) and programs like Social Security and Medicare (+23)," but "at least 40% of swing voters said they didn't know which party they trust more on nearly every issue tested."
Reiterating that lack of trust in both major parties, large majorities of swing voters also said they don't think that either Democrats or Republicans "have a solution for the cost of living." However, over 70% specifically said they don't think GOP President Donald Trump, who returned to power last year after losing reelection in 2020, has a solution.
Since Trump's second inauguration, he has been intensely criticized for enriching his family and wealthy allies while driving up costs for the public with his key policies, including sweeping tariffs, a deadly crackdown on immigrants, and the ongoing illegal war on Iran. Faced with soaring prices for everything from gasoline and groceries to healthcare and housing, voters on Tuesday ousted enough of Trump's fellow Republicans to give Democrats majorities in both chambers of Congress.
Key wins that helped Democrats secure the US Senate occurred in Maine, Michigan, and Texas, which elected Troy Jackson, Abdul El-Sayed, and James Talarico, respectively. Data for Progress surveyed likely voters in all three states in the weeks before the election and found that the economy and cost of living were most important to them, followed by government corruption.
Voters in these three states trusted Democrats over Republicans on cost of living, and also expressed significant support for a range of progressive policies, including higher taxes on millionaires, a $15 minimum wage, a pause on construction of artificial intelligence data centers, making fossil fuel giants pay for climate disasters, creating a Medicare for All healthcare system, and ending military aid to Israel.
While some Democratic leaders and consultants have argued that the party's candidates need to embrace "moderate" platforms to get elected—particularly in districts or states previously won by Trump—Data for Progress found that this cycle, voters "associated Democrats with an economic populist platform" and "the more centrist messages registered far less."
As for Republicans, likely voters believed congressional candidates would "mostly support" the president's agenda if elected, and residents of Maine, Michigan, and Texas similarly thought the party's Senate candidates "would mostly follow Trump's lead." Majorities said that the president hasn't kept key campaign promises, including gasoline below $2, no more wars, ending inflation, cutting electricity prices in half, eradicating veteran homelessness, and capping credit card interest rates.
During Republicans' federal trifecta over the past nearly two years, their biggest legislative "accomplishment" was passing the 2025 budget package they dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). The Data for Progress report points out that with Trump's popularity tanking, some GOP candidates tried to focus on that law—but "the argument wasn't convincing."
"When asked if Republican claims that their tax cuts had helped working families were mostly true or false, a majority (61%) said false," the document details. "In the days ahead of the election, a majority of voters (54%), including 61% of independents, also said wealthy people and large corporations benefited most from the bill's tax cuts."
When voters were asked which Trump administration policies concerned them most, passage of the OBBBA ranked second, only behind the Iran War. Other top issues included directing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to conduct mass deportations, the tariff regime, Trump promoting his family's cryptocurrency and enriching properties like Mar-a-Lago, and the Department of Justice withholding files about his dead former friend, sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, while probing the president's political enemies.
Political advertisements attacking Democrats that caught the attention of voters this round often focused on socialism, immigration, and transgender girls and women participating in sports. The report says that the GOP's "focus on culture war issues—and on attacking transgender people specifically—was misaligned with what voters wanted to hear from their candidates."
A majority of all voters told Data for Progress that they wanted candidates to talk more about food prices, fuel prices, healthcare costs, and political corruption—topics that have long been key focuses of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who caucuses with Democrats and ran for the party's presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020. In the wake of the "blue tsunami," as some have described Tuesday's results, Sanders has been widely recognized for his impact on the Democratic Party and its priorities over the past decade.
"The Bernie Sanders economic playbook is now mainstream in the Democratic Party—the data is clear that economic populism was central to these historic election results," Data for Progress executive director Ryan O'Donnell said in a statement about the group's new report.
"Candidates across the country made fighting billionaires, elites, and corporations the centerpiece of their campaigns, successfully connecting affordability and anti-corruption," he continued. "But while swing voters strongly rejected Trump and the Republican Party's handling of the cost of living, our data underscores that they are not yet convinced Democrats have a solution either. This gap presents both a risk and an opportunity."
"Data for Progress has found that voters' trust in the Democratic Party increases after hearing it supports anti-corruption and economic populist policies," he added. "Americans are hungry for leadership that challenges the status quo, ends America's forever wars, and takes on entrenched wealth and corporate power."
Sanders himself argued after the midterms that the job of the new Democratic majorities in Congress "is to represent where working families are." Citing a poll that found "well over 60% of the American people want Medicare for All," the senator proposed passing his longtime healthcare policy—and said that "if Trump wants to veto it, that's his constitutional right."
Medicare for All is just part of what many progressive lawmakers and advocacy groups want Democrats to take on in the next two years, whether or not the White House fights back. Other priorities include a federal wealth tax, ending the Iran War, and possibly even impeaching Trump a third time.
While the New York Democrats who currently lead the party in the Senate and House of Representatives, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, may become majority leader and speaker in January, progressives have emphasized that "we need commitments" from them, as Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) put it, because "it's not a time for incrementalism. It's a time to move forward a very bold kitchen table agenda."
US Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D-Mass.) similarly stressed in a post-election op-ed that "now, Democrats must deliver," and the party should force Trump "to do that on the affordability and corruption issues that drove this election—or call his bluff."
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'Should Terrify All of Us': Google Sued After AI Chatbot Allegedly Helped Teen Plan Suicide
As Google faces allegations that its Gemini chatbot helped a 13-year-old girl plan how to kill herself, the company, plus Meta and TikTok, sued to block a California law meant to safeguard minors from social media addiction.
Nov 05, 2026
The parents of a 13-year-old girl who allegedly used Google's Gemini artificial intelligence chatbot to plan her suicide sued the tech titan Wednesday on the child's behalf, a move that came as Google, Meta, and TikTok filed lawsuits to block California from enforcing a new law designed to protect children from the addictive features of social media platforms.
Parents of a girl identified as "Emma" in a lawsuit filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court in California alleged that Google effectively turned a school-issued Chromebook laptop computer into a tool allowing a dangerous psychological relationship between their daughter and Gemini.
Although Emma ultimately did not attempt to kill herself, the lawsuit states that she "told her mother that she had thought about wanting to be dead."
"Over several months, [Google's] Gemini chatbot diagnosed a previously active, well-adjusted 13-year-old girl with a battery of severe psychological disorders, helped her plan her suicide and funeral, and coached her to conceal her distress and self-harm from her family—all without providing a single alert to school personnel or her parents," EdTech Law Center, which is representing the plaintiffs along with the firm Quereshi Law, said in a statement.
According to the lawsuit, at one point, Emma reportedly pleaded with the chatbot, "How do i stop my addiction of asking AI random questions and yappi[n]g with AI?"
"Emma never sought out Gemini—it just showed up in [a] Google search one day—but by March 2026, she was exchanging thousands of messages a month, unable to free herself from the chatbot’s grip," EdTech said.
"The complaint alleges that Google executives knew that the Gemini model it released in December 2025 was the most dangerous yet but rushed it out anyway to gain ground on its competitors," the firm explained. "Emma brings claims for defective design, failure to warn, negligence, fraudulent concealment, and infliction of emotional distress, as well as a claim under California’s Companion Chatbot Law (Cal. Bus. & Prof. § 22601), which took effect in 2026."
Google spokesperson José Castañeda said Thursday in a statement that “for years, we’ve shown hotline information directly in search when someone may be experiencing a mental health crisis."
"We’ve built those same protections into search AI features, connecting people with real-world support," he added.
Brendan Bouffard, associate general counsel for AI and privacy at the children's advocacy group Fairplay, said Thursday: "The idea of an untested AI chatbot helping a 13-year-old girl plan her own suicide should terrify all of us, but this is the sick new reality Google has created by forcing its AI products onto school-issued devices."
"Google claims its Chromebooks are there to help students learn, but in reality, the company was experimenting on kids like Emma by pushing them to use Gemini, a product the company knew was dangerous but rushed out anyway," Bouffard continued.
“As this lawsuit shows, AI chatbots are not safe for kids," he added. "They also undermine students’ ability to learn and think critically. Yet just this week, Google announced it would turn off 'search' for schools that refuse to use its AI products. It’s clear this massive corporation does not care about children’s safety—it only cares about profits."
There has been an increasing number of lawsuits targeting AI companies whose chatbots have allegedly helped users plan to kill themselves or others.
Emma's suit was filed on the same day that Google, TikTok, and Meta—which operates platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and Threads—launched separate lawsuits seeking to stop California from enforcing AB 1709, a law signed by outgoing Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in September prohibiting social media platforms from providing children under 16 with features deemed psychologically exploitative and addictive.
The tech titans argue that the restrictions violate their First Amendment rights and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which generally shields online platforms from liability for content posted by third parties.
Meta's lawyers asserted that California's attempt to “appoint the state as the editor, curator, and controller of online speech” and “override Meta’s editorial judgment about how to curate and display these billions of posts of third-party speech" runs afoul of the Constitution.
In 2023, Democratic California Attorney General Rob Bonta joined dozens of other states in suing Meta, alleging that the company deliberately designed Facebook and Instagram to addict children and teenagers through features such as infinite scrolling, personalized recommendations, and constant notifications, while concealing evidence of the platforms' mental health harms.
A proposed $17 billion settlement was announced in August, under which Meta agreed to changes including restrictions on nighttime use, notifications, and certain features available to minors.
A Los Angeles jury found in March that Meta and Google acted negligently by harming a child user with their social media platforms’ addictive design features in a landmark verdict that came on the heels of a $375 million fine imposed on Meta by a New Mexico jury, which found that the company violated the state’s Unfair Practices Act by misleading users and exposing children to harm.
The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline—which offers 24/7, free, and confidential support—can be reached by calling or texting 988, or through chat at 988lifeline.org.
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Setting 'Powerful Example' for Other States, Newsom Works to Clear Country's Largest Death Row
"The death penalty is a flawed, expensive, and error-filled practice that fails us all," said Equal Justice Initiative's Bryan Stevenson, urging other elected officials to follow the California governor's lead.
Nov 05, 2026
Opponents of capital punishment applauded on Thursday after Gov. Gavin Newsom moved to commute all of California's death sentences, sparing up to 548 lives as the term-limited Democrat prepares to leave office with eyes on the White House.
The New York Times had reported last month that Newsom was mulling the move, which he addressed in a Thursday letter initially obtained by The Sacramento Bee: "After nearly 30 years in public office, I have come to understand the limits of what government can justly accomplish. I take this action because I firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California's values, undermines the foundations of our legal system, and diminishes each of us."
The Bee explained that "Newsom can commute single-felony sentences, but must receive the California Supreme Court’s approval to commute sentences for people with multiple convictions. Four of the seven justices must approve those requests, though there is no time limit for them to do so. If they do not approve before Newsom leaves office on January 3, 2027, the requests lapse and do not roll over to the next governor, according to attorney Natasha Minsker, an anti-death penalty advocate."
However, Democratic Gov.-elect Xavier Becerra has pledged to maintain the death penalty moratorium that Newsom issued in 2019, and could keep pushing to make all 548 sentences life without parole if the state's high court doesn't initially sign off. In his letter, Newsom cited his decades of publicly opposing state-sanctioned killings and his executive order seven years ago, which "formalized the de facto moratorium on executions in place since 2006, the last year California executed anyone."
"The people sentenced to death in California caused indescribable suffering to victims, their families, communities, and our state as a whole," but "I have concluded the state cannot morally kill them," Newsom wrote. "Because the death penalty is inherently incompatible with our legal system's commitment to justice, I have determined that this clemency decision, while difficult in many respects, will ultimately affirm the strength and integrity of our state and its justice system."
The outgoing governor called the decision "among the most difficult" of his career, but also "a righteous action." He said it follows "the moral leadership of past presidents, including our Founding Fathers, and governors across America," and is informed by what he has heard from "crime victims and survivors, public safety experts, and religious, civil rights, and other community leaders."
Coalitions of civil rights groups, business executives, faith leaders, victims' family members, former corrections professionals, and ex-prosecutors have recently urged Newsom to take this action before leaving office. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, he is now among a dozen state and federal leaders who have made sweeping clemency grants to death row inmates since capital punishment was reinstated in the United States in 1976.
It is arguably the most significant of those actions because of its scope. California has the largest death row in not only the United States, but the Western Hemisphere, according to the governor's letter. The Times reported that "Newsom's action cancels approximately one-fourth of all death sentences nationwide."
The national ACLU and its three affiliates in the state were among the groups pressuring the governor to act. The organization's executive director, Anthony Romero, declared Thursday that Newsom "made history" and "honored his commitment to end a system that conflicts with human dignity, fairness, and the values enshrined in our Constitution."
"These commutations reflect what justice demands: an end to a racist, error-prone, and inhumane punishment that has burdened California for far too long," Romero continued. "By taking this step, Gov. Newsom has affirmed that the death penalty has no place in California, and he showed real courage by confronting racialized injustice head-on."
US Campaign to End the Death Penalty's executive director, Laura Porter, also offered praise: "We are grateful that Gov. Newsom, like other Republican and Democratic leaders across the country, has decided to grant clemency to individuals on death row. The historic number of commuted sentences would set a new record and offer an acknowledgment that the death penalty process is flawed."
Bryan Stevenson, Equal Justice Initiative's founder and executive director and the author of the award-winning memoir Just Mercy, similarly welcomed the development, saying: "The death penalty is a flawed, expensive, and error-filled practice that fails us all. I commend Gov. Newsom for this historic act and hope that other state elected officials follow his lead... Now more than ever, Americans need leaders who act on our beliefs, protect the vulnerable, and stand up for human rights and human dignity."
As the Times noted:
Death penalty opponents have planned a national ad campaign praising him for the move. The minute-long commercial casts the governor’s decision as an act of courage and leadership inspired by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Dolores Huerta, and Robert F. Kennedy. It will air on dozens of news and political shows nationwide, said Dan Newman, a Democratic strategist who advises both Mr. Newsom and the anti-death penalty groups sponsoring the ad.
Mr. Newman said that the governor had been motivated by personal conviction. But the ad could also help Mr. Newsom in a 2028 presidential campaign.
Among the Californians cheering Newsom's move is Jeanne Woodford, who presided over four executions as warden of San Quentin State Prison, signed a recent letter to Newsom, and shared that "as someone who has carried out executions in California, I am haunted by the fear that we will execute an innocent person."
"Innocent people have been sentenced to death in California," she stressed. "Since 1973, more than 200 individuals nationwide, including eight in California, have been freed from death row after they were found to have been innocent. Gov. Newsom will ensure that California will never execute an innocent person."
Newsom's move may save some innocent prisoners, but it is also set to spare some notorious ones. The Times pointed out that the state's death row includes "Richard Allen Davis, who murdered Polly Klaas, a 12-year-old, after kidnapping her from her home in 1993," as well as "Cary Stayner, who killed four women near Yosemite in 1999, and the 1980s serial killer Charles Ng."
Relatives of the 12-year-old are divided: Her father, Marc Klaas, has criticized Newsom for the 2019 moratorium, but her stepsister, Jess Nichol, recently met with the governor and encouraged his action. She said in a statement that "I won't pretend I've always opposed the death penalty. I used to think the man who killed my sister deserved execution. But over time I've realized that whether he's executed has absolutely nothing to do with my recovery or with real public safety."
"The system tells survivors that execution matters to our healing," Nichol added. "It doesn't. It's a distraction from what we actually need."
While President Donald Trump—whose Republican Party just lost its majorities in Congress—is infamously pro-death penalty, fresh calls for ending capital punishment nationwide have mounted since late September, when Christa Pike survived two injections of pentobarbital from a doctor involved with an earlier botched execution at the maximum security prison in Tennessee.
"There hasn't been a moment since that night when I haven't been in pain," Pike said last week. "My body hurts. My arms hurt. My hands hurt. My throat hurts. I still struggle to speak. And the pain isn't just physical. There is pain in my mind and in my soul. I had not contemplated life beyond that night, and I'm deeply hurt by the incompetence that has put so many people in this terrible position. I continue to think about my victim's family and the terrible pain and loss they have endured. I am recovering, and I know that I am getting stronger. But healing is not the same as being okay."
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Santiago Peña, Trump's Ally in Paraguay, Resigns After Digital Bank Collapse
“Santiago Peña and the Colorado Party have stolen all our savings,” said one protester in the streets of Asuncíon. “We are fed up with 70 years of plunder.”
Nov 05, 2026
Paraguayan President Santiago Peña, a close ally of US President Donald Trump, on Thursday announced his resignation after a major digital bank with close ties to his government collapsed, freezing millions of customers' savings, sparking mass protests, and spurring the lower house of the South American country's Congress to unanimously impeach him.
“I have made the decision to submit my resignation as president of the republic,” Peña declared in a video posted on social media. “I do so thinking of the stability of our country, social peace, and the need to preserve our democratic institutions.”
"I wish to apologize to the people," he said. “It was never my intention to betray the trust they placed in me.”
Minutes after Peña's announcement, lawmakers in the Chamber of Deputies—the lower house of Paraguay's Congress—voted 78-0 to impeach the president. Charges were then sent to the Senate, which must now decide whether to try him, given the evidence and considering his resignation. Conviction would require the votes of 30 of 45 upper chamber's lawmakers.
Paraguay's crisis centers on Ueno Bank, a fast-growing digital lender whose operations were suspended after the country's Central Bank intervened over a severe capital shortfall. The bank had approximately 2.9 million customers in a country of just over 6 million people, leaving much of the population adversely affected by the collapse.
In the streets of the capital Asunción, furious residents demanded their money back and accountability for the officials responsible for the collapse. Police responded by firing rubber-coated steel bullets and pepper spray in a bid to disperse demonstrators.
“Santiago Peña and the Colorado Party have stolen all our savings,” protester Luis Pineda told The Associated Press. “We are fed up with 70 years of plunder.”
Peña's departure marks a dramatic setback for the right-wing Colorado Party, which has governed the country for most of the past seven decades, including during the genocidal, US-backed military dictatorship of Gen. Alfredo Stroessner.
Another protester decried what he called “yet another assault on honest, hard-working citizens; people whose small savings are the fruit of years of labor."
The outrage in Paraguay is massive, 60% of people have lost all their money because the National Bank collapsed due to the corrupt Right Wing Government who were robbing it.There are even people in wheelchairs confronting riot police.Take back Paraguay from the thieves.
[image or embed]
— BladeoftheSun (@bladeofthes.bsky.social) November 5, 2026 at 5:43 AM
Ueno Bank reportedly held approximately $800 million in public deposits, including money belonging to the country's social security and health funds and operators of major hydroelectric dams. Peña's previously had financial connections to the Ueno-linked Grupo Vázquez. He also appointed Carlos Carvallo, the former head of Ueno's predecessor company, to lead the Central Bank of Paraguay, which was responsible for supervising Ueno.
Prosecutors have charged 27 Ueno Bank officials and associates with alleged crimes including breach of trust and attempted fraud. Six executives, including founder Miguel Vázquez and bank president Juan Manuel Gustale, were ordered jailed pending trial, while two others were placed under house arrest.
Peña was among Trump's closest allies in Latin America, enthusiastically embracing two of the US president's signature but highly controversial international initiatives. In January 2026, he became a founding member of Trump's so-called Board of Peace, initially established to oversee Gaza's postwar reconstruction.
In March, Peña joined fellow right-wing regional presidents, including Javier Milei of Argentina, Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, and Daniel Noboa of Ecuador ,at the inaugural Shield of the Americas summit at Trump's Doral resort in Florida.
"Peña’s rapid fall from power comes on the heels of the Democratic Party’s massive victory in Tuesday’s US midterms elections, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s surprise reelection in Brazil the week before, and plummeting approval ratings of recently elected Trump-aligned presidents across South America," observed Lee Schlenker, a researcher at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.
"These trends all point toward a shift in the regional balance of power that has produced unprecedented levels of ideological alignment across the Western Hemisphere," he added.
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