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6 in 7 Journalist Murders Worldwide Go Unpunished as 'Press Freedom Predators' Run Rampant
UNESCO reports setbacks in the fight against impunity as Reporters Without Borders names 33 governments, organizations, and powerful figures—including Donald Trump—as "press freedom predators."
Nov 02, 2026
The vast majority of journalist killings around the world go unpunished, according to a United Nations analysis published Monday, the same day that the advocacy group Reporters Without Borders released a report naming dozens of powerful actors—including US President Donald Trump—as "press freedom predators" who are repressing independent journalism.
In a report published on International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) noted that 189 journalists were killed in 2024 and 2025, a 20% increase over the previous two-year period. In 6 out of every 7 of those killings, the perpetrators were not brought to justice.
"Journalists are increasingly paying with their lives for reporting from the frontlines of war, and far too often those responsible for their killings are not held accountable," UNESCO Director-General Khaled El-Enany said, calling on governments to respect a 2015 UN Security Council resolution affirming that journalists and other media workers must be protected as civilians during armed conflicts.
To mark the day, UN Secretary-General António Guterres acknowledged that "across the world, journalists continue to pay an outrageous price for telling the truth."
"Over the past year, at least 34 journalists paid the ultimate price," he continued, adding that in conflict zones, the impunity rate is "close to 100%."
"This is a heinous affront to the victims and their loved ones, as well as all of us who depend on journalists to remain informed and engaged," Guterres asserted. "This scandal must end."
As UNESCO noted:
Killings were recorded across all regions of the world during the 2024-25 biennium, representing “a global scourge," the report said.
The highest number of verified cases were in the Arab states (97), followed by Latin America and the Caribbean (37), Asia-Pacific (34), Central and Eastern Europe (14), Africa (6), and Western Europe and North America (1).
The state of Palestine had the highest number of killings in both years, at 30 and 32, respectively.
The journalists killed in Palestine were almost all slain by Israeli forces.
UNESCO's findings underscore concerns raised by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which documented a record 129 journalists and media workers killed worldwide in 2025 alone. Israel was responsible for approximately two-thirds of those deaths, according to the organization, with the vast majority of those killed by Israeli forces being Palestinians in Gaza. Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza has become the deadliest conflict for journalists in CPJ's records.
Since 1992, more than 1 in 4 of all targeted killings with no justice were committed by a country’s government or military. That means no one was held accountable for these murders.cpj.org/issue/impuni... #EndImpunity #IDEI
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— Committee to Protect Journalists (@pressfreedom.bsky.social) November 2, 2026 at 11:04 AM
The Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) observed International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists by publishing its 2026 Press Freedom Predators List, an annual review of powerful actors it says are working to silence critical reporting.
RSF described methods ranging from assassination and imprisonment to employing internet trolls and bots, "to silence independent voices and trample on the right to information."
Trump made his first appearance on RSF's list after narrowly avoiding inclusion last year. The group cited what it called his "appalling record of attacks on the press" during his second term, accusing his administration of attempting to reduce journalism to political propaganda and physically restrict reporters.
The United States currently ranks 64th on RSF's World Press Freedom Index. It ranked 17th the first time the group published the index in 2002, but plummeted to 33rd the following year amid the George W. Bush administration's War on Terror crackdown, and 53rd in 2006. The country climbed to 20th during the early years of the Obama administration but fell back down to 49th in 2015 amid then-President Barack Obama's war on whistleblowers.
The US never ranked as poorly as it did under Obama during Trump's first term, and fell as low as 55th during the Biden administration's attempts to quash reporting on the Gaza genocide. But the country has never sunk as low in the rankings as it has during Trump's second tenure.
Other prominent press freedom predators, according to RSF, include Russian President Vladimir Putin, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, tech giants Alphabet and Meta, tech titan Elon Musk, the Israel Defense Forces, Chinese Communist Party, and Mexican drug cartels.
"The Press Freedom Predators List builds on RSF’s World Press Freedom Index—which highlights how press freedom has evolved in every country each year—and turns the spotlight around to identify the actors responsible for declining press freedom," RSF director-general Thibaut Bruttin said in a statement.
"Behind the statistics, the setbacks, and the obstacles lie clear lines of responsibility. Whether they resort to physical or verbal violence, legal abuses, intimidation, digital manipulation of the facts, or economic pressure, these predators share the same goal: to prevent journalists from doing their jobs and deprive citizens of information from independent sources," he continued.
"RSF makes nothing up—each predator has their own profile, presented as a sort of hall of shame, that shows their background, rhetoric, and weapon of choice," Bruttin added. "Identifying press freedom predators, exposing their methods, and documenting their abuses means refusing to let their attacks become normalized. In the face of those who seek to impose silence, RSF will continue to name those who kill journalism."
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To Avoid 'Unconscionable Horror,' Trump Called to 'Unequivocally Rule Out' Nuclear Attack on Iran
"Congress must urgently intervene to prevent further escalation and bring an end to this devastating war before an already horrific conflict becomes an irreversible catastrophe."
Nov 02, 2026
US President Donald Trump, who has long sought the Nobel Peace Prize while bombing various countries, is under pressure to rule out launching a nuclear attack on Iran after former Fox News host Tucker Carlson reported Sunday night that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing for one.
"The target would be Pickaxe Mountain in central Iran, where Israeli intelligence claims the Iranian government has restarted its nuclear enrichment program," Carlson wrote on social media. "No conventional weapon in the American arsenal can penetrate 300 feet of solid granite to destroy the tunnels where enrichment is supposedly taking place. The only military option is a nuclear strike."
The US midterm election is on Tuesday, and according to Carlson, "close observers say Trump is likely to decide by next weekend whether or not to use nuclear weapons. That would be November 7... To his credit, he's hesitating. At the moment, Trump is listening to his vice president, JD Vance, and to his envoy and friend Steve Witkoff, both of whom argue a deal with Iran can be made."
However, Netanyahu "is cornered and desperate," Carlson noted. "After last week's election results, he can't form a government unless Trump intervenes directly in Israeli politics and brokers a deal with other parties that gives Netanyahu 61 seats in the Knesset. Otherwise, he is out as prime minister and on his way to ignominy, investigations, and possibly jail. Netanyahu must stay close to Trump. He needs this war."
Responding to Carlson's post, the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) said that "whether these allegations reflect serious military planning or reckless posturing, the very possibility of a US nuclear attack on Iran is an unconscionable horror. After eight months of devastating war, Iranian Americans are once again being forced to wait in terror as the Trump administration reportedly weighs another catastrophic escalation at the urging of Benjamin Netanyahu."
"NIAC demands that President Trump immediately and unequivocally rule out any use of nuclear weapons against Iran," the group asserted. "Congress must urgently intervene to prevent further escalation and bring an end to this devastating war before an already horrific conflict becomes an irreversible catastrophe."
The group's policy director, Ryan Costello, stressed that such an attack "would be an unimaginable catastrophe in its own right, and the radioactive plume of a blast could extend hundreds of miles and reach major population centers, depending on yield and wind direction. Isfahan province alone, where Pickaxe is, is home to more than 5 million Iranians."
"The Trump administration would also have to consider the ramifications of breaking the nuclear taboo in a war of aggression," he continued, suggesting that the US and Israel using such weapons could spur similar action by the other nuclear-armed nations: China, France, India, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia and the United Kingdom.
Would Russian President Vladimir "abstain from using nuclear weapons in Ukraine if Trump had dropped a nuclear weapon in Iran?" Costello wondered. "It would be a new, far more dangerous world."
While people across the ideological spectrum expressed alarm, some dismissed Carlson's lengthy post.
However, Drop Site News co-founder Ryan Grim highlighted that "Tucker is extremely well sourced in the Trump administration and shouldn't be ignored if this is what he's being told," and fellow journalist Pablo Manríquez agreed.
Pushing back against one skeptic, Andrew Day, senior editor at The American Conservative, pointed out that recently "Trump threatened to 'annihilate' Iranian civilization and unleash 'military terror' not seen since World War II. Those statements are plausibly implicit nuclear threats. Now Trump is finding that conventional weapons don't force Iran's capitulation. Concern is warranted."
Iran's government was already preparing its people for a possible US nuclear attack, and last Friday, more than 200 global civil society groups implored Congress to stop Trump from using such weapons in a bid to end the illegal war that he and Netanyahu launched at the end of February.
"In recent weeks, President Trump has threatened to ‘hit Iran hard’ after the US midterm elections next week," wrote members of the Back From the Brink Coalition. "On October 15, President Trump stated that he would not use nuclear weapons against Iran. But frequent, abrupt changes of policy have become a staple feature of his presidency, and the single statement that he will not use nuclear weapons stands against a string of threats to do just that."
Even if Trump opts not to use nuclear weapons, there are mounting global concerns about his next steps. After being briefed on the administration's military schemes behind closed doors, US Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) declared last week that "their plan is insane."
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that "America's Gulf allies are steeling themselves for a heavy US bombardment of Iran that they expect to trigger a vicious cycle of retaliation against their own economic and civilian infrastructure as early as this week."
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Not Counting on Blue Tsunami Predictions, Progressives Go Big for Final 'Get Out the Vote' Push
One progressive organizer said that with a strong showing on Tuesday, “we’re going to be the center of gravity."
Nov 02, 2026
New polling data out Monday suggests a "blue tsunami" could be coming in this week's midterms, with Democrats holding leads in seven competitive US Senate races.
The polling, from The New York Times/Siena, showed Democratic candidates with solid leads in marquee races in Michigan, Maine, and Texas, ahead in states once thought to be unreachably red, including Ohio and Kansas, and narrowly ahead in Alaska and Iowa, with those advantages falling within the margin of error.
Astonishingly, this data may actually understate Democratic support—as the Times' chief political analyst, Nate Cohn, explained Monday, the paper changed its methodology to correct for undercounting Trump voters in presidential elections, potentially overcorrecting in a midterm when those voters are less likely to turn out.
If that’s the case, it may point to a clobbering of epic proportions, with states like Florida and Nebraska, and potentially even Louisiana and Mississippi, within reach, and the Democrats potentially coming away with large majorities in both chambers of Congress.
The sky may be the limit for Democrats on Tuesday. But the candidates, organizers, and leaders from the nation's progressive movement are taking nothing for granted.
"I was elected mayor of [Burlington, Vermont] after a recount by 10 votes," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a video message Monday. "My point: Every vote counts."
"We can win this election," said Sanders, who has appeared at events alongside Democratic nominees Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, Angie Nixon in Florida, and Troy Jackson in Maine, among others, over the final weeks of the campaign. "But the only way we win it is if millions of people come out and vote; we bring our friends, our uncles, our aunts, our neighbors."
The progressive advocacy group Our Revolution, initially formed following Sanders’ 2016 presidential run, says it has sought to reach 5 million voters in battleground states as it works to counter unprecedented spending by superrich donors.
“Big money can buy ads, but it can’t knock on a door, make a call, or have a conversation,” the group said in an email to volunteers last week.
The AFL-CIO said it had reached more than 16 million union voters as of October 30 and had tens of thousands of volunteers conducting doorstep, phone, and workplace conversations with voters as part of its largest ever midterm operation. The labor federation cited internal polling showing 83% of union members are “extremely motivated” about voting in the election—10 percentage points higher than in 2022.
“For months, workers have been talking to their fellow workers and families. And in every community, we hear the same thing: Shit is too expensive, and working people are sick and tired of the failed economic status quo that prioritizes billionaires over the people who make this country run,” AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler said.
This weekend, nearly 100 union members took part in a Halloween canvass in Des Moines, Iowa, where they said they exceeded their door-knocking goal for the election cycle.
“Every door we knock between now and Tuesday counts and will make the difference,” said Iowa Federation of Labor president Charlie Wishman.
With President Donald Trump now at new lows in public approval, Democratic candidates have focused their closing message on accountability and blocking his agenda.
"This is for... control of the United States Senate, to put a check on Trump and this ridiculous war, whether it's a war with Canada over tariffs, or a war in Iran that's raising our gas prices and our groceries," El-Sayed said in a get-out-the-vote video Monday. "But it's also for the Supreme Court, because if we don't win this race, Donald Trump is going to have another two Supreme Court nominations."
El-Sayed also looked toward a future in which Democrats are back in power and can use their sizable majority to advance a progressive agenda.
“This movement,” he said, “is about getting money out of politics, putting money in your pocket, passing ‘Medicare for All,’ standing up for union rights, standing up for the right to choose, standing up for healthcare for everybody.”
Joseph Geevarghese, the executive director of Our Revolution, said Tuesday could be a make-or-break moment for a progressive movement that has won the hearts of the Democratic base but faced pushback from the party establishment.
“There are centrists who don’t want to see us win, and who will lay any setbacks on Election Day at the feet of progressives,” Geevarghese told The Wall Street Journal on Monday.
He said a strong showing on the left could set the tone for the direction of the party entering 2028: “We’re going to be the center of gravity.”
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Naomi Klein and Illana Glaser Have a Message: Tax the Billionaires and Block Big Tech IPOs
"We cannot let the billionaire class take these kinds of risks with our future."
Nov 02, 2026
Progressive author Naomi Klein and comedian Ilana Glazer on Monday warned that America's billionaire class is taking "unprecedented risks with our future," and said US policymakers must block further Big Tech initial public offerings and mergers to prevent even more damage from occurring.
In an op-ed published by The Guardian, Klein and Glazer outlined how US billionaires have used tax loopholes, corporate mergers, and IPOs to enrich themselves at an unprecedented scale, as their wealth has grown by an estimated 40% over just the last two years.
Klein and Glazer argued that the upcoming IPOs of artificial intelligence giants OpenAI and Anthropic could be particularly risky to the economy given questions about their ability to be consistently profitable.
"It’s no secret that the AI companies Anthropic and OpenAI are intending to go public in the near future," they wrote. "Both of these players also had major security flaws exposed recently, and openly acknowledge mind-bogglingly huge amounts of debt."
The risk will only grow, they added, if Nasdaq grants OpenAI and Anthropic the same exception it granted to Elon Musk's SpaceX earlier this year by allowing their shares to be immediately included in index funds without having to wait through the one-year "seasoning" period.
"June’s highly contentious SpaceX IPO already carries great risk for regular investors," they explained. "If more speculative tech companies with staggering risk profiles are allowed to follow suit, the results will become too much for the market to bear."
Klein and Glazer said that policymakers need to intervene to put a halt to new Big Tech IPOs, and also pass a wealth tax to take away billionaires' power to spend cavalierly even as they leave working people potentially holding the bag for their failed investments.
"We cannot let the billionaire class take these kinds of risks with our future," they emphasized. "To stop these reckless IPOs we must stand together, take collective action, and push for real change."
Economist Jeffrey D. Sachs last month similarly called for AI IPOs to be halted until Congress "has enacted a public system of licensing, independent safety evaluation, liability, and financial backstops for frontier AI."
Sachs noted that Anthropic executives and employees, including CEO Dario Amodei, have warned that AI could pose a threat to all human life, and he questioned why the creators of such technology should become unfathomably wealthy before such risks are understood and eliminated.
"A company should not disclose a risk of catastrophe to humanity and then sell its shares to the public before any public authority has the power to evaluate that risk or to stop deployment," argued Sachs. "In fact, to proceed rapidly in the face of such dire warnings is beyond folly."
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Mamdani Demands ICE End 'Illegal' Use of New York City Parking Lots to Stage Raids
"If your agents continue any unauthorized use of these lots, New York City will take legal action to prevent this unlawful commandeering of city property."
Nov 02, 2026
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Monday threatened the Trump administration with legal action over federal immigration agents' use of city parking lots to stage raids, which the Democratic elected official said amounted to "unlawful commandeering" of public property.
"This use of city property in furtherance of federal immigration enforcement is unauthorized and is therefore illegal, endangers city residents, and sows fear among those who seek to access city property," Mamdani wrote in a letter addressed to US Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) acting director, David Venturella.
Mamdani's letter notes that ICE agents have "reportedly parked their vehicles and conducted meetings in several city-owned, unstaffed parking lots"—including ones near a park and a city-run preschool.
"ICE has not secured any authorization from the city to use these lots for immigration enforcement. To be clear: the city does not authorize ICE using its property in this manner," Mamdani wrote. "Parking lots connected to city parks are reserved for the safe use and enjoyment of New Yorkers and visitors who wish to use our parks. Use of these lots for other purposes, including ICE’s reported use of these lots, amounts to unauthorized activity on City property. Accordingly, you must immediately issue guidance to your agents prohibiting them from using any City lots to stage or conduct enforcement operations."
Mamdani's letter comes weeks after a plainclothes ICE agent shot a Dominican immigrant in the Bronx while his 5-year-old son was in the car, infuriating community members and intensifying pressure on the mayor to do everything in his power to remove the rogue agency from New York City.
"We know that ICE is rotten to its core," Mamdani said after the shooting. The mayor has called on President Donald Trump to end all ICE operations in New York City and has demanded abolition of the agency, saying it is "making a mockery of what law and order is supposed to be."
In mid-October, Mamdani and more than 100 other elected New York officials called on private parking lot owners to bar ICE agents from using their property.
"In solidarity with immigrant New Yorkers and in our shared commitment to the city we love, we ask that you do not rent, lend, or otherwise make your property available to ICE as a staging area for its enforcement operations," reads the October 16 letter. "Make it known to ICE that it is not authorized to use your garages and lots."
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As 'Freezing Winter' Looms, Amnesty Slams Russian Attacks on Ukraine's Energy Infrastructure
"This is an illegal campaign, carried out with flagrant disregard for the rules of war, and appears to be designed to create unlivable conditions for Ukrainian civilians."
Nov 02, 2026
As Russia continues to strike energy infrastructure in neighboring Ukraine over 4.5 years into a full-blown invasion, Amnesty International on Monday sounded the alarm over such attacks, with winter weather approaching.
"The Russian Federation is once again implementing a large-scale campaign against Ukrainian energy and heating infrastructure ahead of a freezing winter, including attacks far from the frontlines of conflict," said Scott Edwards, who directs the human rights group's Crisis Response Program, in a statement.
"These attacks on essential infrastructure are creating a deadly situation for civilians, who directly suffer the consequences," he continued. "This is an illegal campaign, carried out with flagrant disregard for the rules of war, and appears to be designed to create unlivable conditions for Ukrainian civilians."
Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and just over a year later, the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest. The following year, the ICC also ordered the arrests of various Russian military leaders for allegedly directing attacks on Ukrainian electrical infrastructure.
"Under international humanitarian law, electricity and heating installations are civilian objects unless and for such time as they meet the strict definition of a military objective," Amnesty explained. "Even where an installation constitutes a military objective, attacking forces must comply with the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution."
"Intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects, launching indiscriminate attacks, or carrying out attacks expected to cause excessive civilian harm in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated can constitute war crimes," the group highlighted. Both Putin and the Russian Ministry of Defense "have made public statements announcing intentional attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure."
Last winter, Russia "carried out at least 423 attacks on electricity infrastructure and 74 strikes on heating facilities," Amnesty detailed, citing the United Nations. "These attacks caused rolling outages affecting millions of people and interrupted heating for hundreds of thousands as temperatures fell below -20°C. The resulting loss of electricity, water, and heating disrupted healthcare and education, and also disproportionately harmed older people, persons with disabilities, women, and families with children."
Amnesty's statement came a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on the social media platform X that "overnight alone, our energy infrastructure came under Russian attack in four regions: Dnipro, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, and Khmelnytskyi."
"Substations, transformers, and power lines that supply electricity to our people's homes were targeted," Zelenskyy noted. "Repair crews are working everywhere. As of now, hundreds of thousands of families remain without power."
"Massive Russian attacks on Ukraine's other critical infrastructure are also continuing unabated," he wrote. "This past week Russia has launched 1,940 attack drones, more than 1,580 guided aerial bombs, and 44 missiles of various types against Ukraine, including 36 ballistic missiles."
The president added that "the intensity of the strikes is extremely high, and the Russians are trying to take maximum advantage of the shortage of ballistic missile interceptors," expressing a need for "Patriot missiles to America, Europe, and other partners who can help."
As Reuters reported Sunday:
On Friday, Russia said Ukraine had resumed strikes on its oil refineries and accused Kyiv of ignoring a request from US President Donald Trump to stop such attacks, which Trump has blamed for raising the cost of diesel before US midterm elections next week.
Ukraine says it supports a full ceasefire on energy targets, including its own battered power grid, but that Moscow is unwilling to agree to this.
Last month, shortly after signing a bipartisan bill targeting Russian revenue from fossil fuel exports, Trump controversially waived sanctions against Russia and struck a deal on diesel, while also blaming Zelenskyy for high US diesel prices—which are tied to Trump and Israel's illegal war on Iran. Trump is also waging war on the ICC, over its warrants for Israeli leaders.
Amnesty—which has forcefully spoken out against Trump's attacks on the tribunal—said Monday that all parties to the conflict in Russia and Ukraine "must respect the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution and protect civilians and civilian objects."
"States supporting accountability mechanisms must provide the expertise and resources needed to effectively investigate allegations of violations, secure evidence, and identify suspected perpetrators, including commanders and senior officials who may bear responsibility," the group continued. "All states must urgently act to protect the functioning of the ICC and should execute arrest warrants when and where they can."
Edwards added that "whatever the motives behind the Kremlin's plan to make life unbearable for civilians, it is criminal and cannot be tolerated. World leaders seeking to end this conflict must immediately use their leverage to minimize any potential harm to civilians, before another intentional humanitarian catastrophe begins with the arrival of winter."
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'Kafkaesque': London Cops Allow 'I Support Genocide' Sign, Arrest 320 Palestine Action Protesters
"You can't make this up," said one critic, who noted that in the UK, "you can openly cheer for mass murder, but you can't protest against it."
Nov 02, 2026
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."
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Tossing Charges Against FBI Agents, Judge Excoriates Trump Prosecutors for 'Weaponization' of DOJ
"I will not bury my head in the sand and pretend that I cannot read a calendar," said US Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui, referring to the 2026 midterm elections.
Nov 02, 2026
A federal judge on Monday delivered a blistering rebuke of the US Department of Justice as he dismissed criminal charges brought against two former FBI officials.
As reported by The New York Times, Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui slammed the office of US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro for bringing charges against former FBI counterintelligence officials Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides without even establishing probable cause to believe that a crime had been committed.
Pirro's office indicted Floris and Benavides just over one week ago, alleging that the two had lied to Congress about the FBI's investigation into Hunter Biden, son of former President Joe Biden.
During an hourlong speech dismissing the charges, Faruqui apologized to the two defendants, whom he said had been "dragged through the process" for transparently political reasons.
"I am deeply troubled by what happened here in the case," Faruqui said, according to the Times. "What has transpired here cannot be described as anything other than weaponization."
Faruqui also accused Pirro's office of charging the two former FBI officials in an effort to impact the 2026 midterm elections.
"I will not bury my head in the sand and pretend that I cannot read a calendar," said the judge in reference to the elections, according to The Associated Press.
The Times noted that Faruqui dissected all of the allegedly false statements made by Floris and Benavides cited in the DOJ's criminal complaint, showing that most of the statements were not false, and that the few statements that were false were not made knowingly.
According to NBC News, the case against the FBI officials was brought by Pirro's office as a criminal complaint, meaning it was never presented to a federal grand jury.
The DOJ could revive the case by seeking a grand jury indictment, although NBC explained that jurors in Washington, DC "have been skeptical of politically-tinged cases against purported Trump enemies, most recently rejecting the attempted indictment of Cassidy Hutchinson."
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Two Registered Agents of Israel Are Working for Mike Rogers’ Senate Campaign
One journalist suggested that in order to understand AIPAC-backed Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens' sudden flip to support Rogers, it is worth "following the money into foreign interests."
Nov 02, 2026
When Democratic US Rep. Haley Stevens announced her stunning flip to endorse Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers on Sunday, she did so with two registered agents of the Israeli government standing behind her, according to a report from Drop Site News.
The person who opened the press conference outside a Detroit church was Abigail Ronson, a spokesperson for the Rogers campaign, whom Drop Site found had registered as an agent working on behalf of the Israeli government under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) on May 18, 2026.
The registration lists Ronson as a part-time contractor for Clock Tower X, a communications company owned by Brad Parscale, a former campaign manager for President Donald Trump.
In May, Responsible Statecraft and The Intercept reported that through Clock Tower X, Parscale has run a multimillion-dollar operation funded by the Israeli government aimed at influencing American public opinion, which has turned dramatically against Israel amid its genocidal assault on Gaza and systematic ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the West Bank.
This campaign reportedly involves producing and distributing pro-Israel content aimed at younger Americans, particularly conservatives and evangelical Christians, creating articles meant to influence artificial intelligence chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude to give answers favorable to Israeli narratives, and conducting text messaging campaigns to direct Americans toward pro-Israel content.
Ronson, who works for the Republican consulting firm Convergence Media, was one of 14 employees at the firm working on Parscale’s pro-Israel influence operation. Convergence’s chief of staff, Jesse Stokes—who registered as an agent of Israel in October 2025—is also part of the Rogers campaign. The campaign has separately paid millions of dollars to Convergence.
Both Ronson and Stokes have been involved in campaign activities. Ronson helped organize the launch of the astroturfed "Democrats for Mike Rogers" campaign, an alleged "grassroots" coalition of Democratic voters who said they supported Rogers over his Democratic opponent, Abdul El-Sayed. The funding for the initiative overwhelmingly came from Republican-aligned sources, as well as Rogers' own campaign, and many of the supposed "Democrats" had long-standing GOP ties, according to a previous Drop Site investigation.
Stokes has no official title with the Rogers campaign. But metadata reviewed by Drop Site shows that he wrote the email launching Rogers' Senate campaign in March 2025, about seven months before he registered as an Israeli agent. Since then, he is shown to have written numerous other press releases for the campaign.
In June, after Ronson posted an AI-generated image of a “buff” Mike Rogers on social media, the campaign denied that she was a staffer. But she’s since acted as an official voice of the campaign in comments to several media outlets, including Reuters, Fox News, and The New York Times. In those comments, she defended Rogers’ attacks on El-Sayed’s Muslim background and accused the Democrat of fueling “anti-Israel hate.”
On Sunday, before Stevens (D-Mich.) suddenly abandoned her months of support for El-Sayed to back Rogers, Ronson told NBC News that “Mike welcomes her.”
Questions about the influence of the Israeli government and pro-Israel donors have hung over Michigan's Senate race since it began. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) spent an unprecedented $30 million in a failed effort to help Stevens defeat El-Sayed in August's Democratic primary, the pro-Israel lobbying group's single largest expenditure ever in a congressional race.
Israel was also at the center of Stevens’ widely reviled decision to flip against El-Sayed less than 48 hours before Election Day. After months of expressing support for her primary rival, Stevens called on El-Sayed to denounce an advertisement by an outside political action committee that blamed rising grocery prices on US support for Israel, which helped to push Trump toward launching a war with Iran. She also called on him to take back other critical statements he’d made about Israel.
Stevens’ fiancé, Jason Turkish, an outspoken pro-Israel Democrat, announced last week that he’d be supporting Rogers and appeared at a Republican Jewish Coalition event with Rogers and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). He also accused El-Sayed of fueling “death threats” against Jewish Americans by describing Israel’s conduct in Gaza as a “genocide,” a description that has been used by United Nations experts and leading human rights organizations.
After days of giving behind-the-scenes assurances that she’d continue to support the Democratic nominee, Stevens abruptly shifted her support on Sunday, appearing with Rogers. She said she made the decision after being disinvited to a campaign event with El-Sayed and because of El-Sayed’s association with the pro-Palestine left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, who she said was fomenting “hate.”
In a CNN appearance that night, she struggled to explain her decision to endorse Rogers, who has routinely trafficked in explicitly Islamophobic rhetoric during the campaign and whom she’d described months earlier as a “rubber stamp for Donald Trump’s dangerous agenda.”
According to a friend of Stevens' who spoke to The Washington Post, the congresswoman's decision came after Turkish had spent days "working her over" to abandon El-Sayed and back Rogers and telling her that she'd "betrayed" Jewish supporters by standing by the progressive Democrat.
Stevens’ romantic relationship with Turkish reportedly began during the Democratic primary, and the two became engaged in May, though the engagement was not announced until after Stevens’ primary loss. One former Stevens staffer told CNN that the congresswoman became increasingly defensive of Israel and AIPAC in May, after her engagement to Turkish, at the expense of other issues such as Michigan’s economy and manufacturing. This was despite AIPAC growing increasingly toxic among Democratic voters and becoming a target of attacks from El-Sayed.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), whom Stevens had reassured on Saturday night that she had no intention of flipping to Rogers, said he was "dumbfounded" by her decision the following day.
"Something doesn’t compute about this whole sequence of events," he said.
On MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” Monday, journalist Pablo Torre brought up the reporting on Rogers’ ties to Israel as a possible factor worth investigating when trying to make sense of Stevens’ reversal.
“This is one of the questions around corruption,” Torre said, noting that Stevens’ own pinned post on X spoke about the importance of “defeating Mike Rogers” at the time she endorsed him.
Torre said it was worth asking “whose country are we actually prioritizing” and examining “whether or not there’s a there there around following the money into foreign interests.”
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'Oligarchy Is on the Ballot': Reports Uncover Unprecedented Sums Ultrarich Spent to Buy 2026 Midterms
"In a democracy, it’s supposed to be one person, one vote, and the more one person can influence, the less egalitarian our system becomes," said one expert.
Nov 02, 2026
Some of the richest people in the US have spent unprecedented sums of money to influence the outcome of the 2026 midterm elections, and a Sunday report in The New York Times estimated that the top 20 biggest donors alone have spent a combined $2 billion in federal races this cycle.
The single largest funder of the 2026 midterms, by a wide margin, is far-right billionaire Elon Musk, who has shoveled nearly $450 million to help GOP candidates.
In fact, pro-Republican donors account for the five largest individual contributors to midterm races.
In addition to Musk, the other largest donors this cycle are industrialists Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, who have given $150 million to help elect Republicans; flagship GOP Senate super PAC One Nation, which has spent $138 million; venture capitalists Marc Andreesen and Ben Horowitz, who have given $116 million; and hedge fund investor Jeff Yass, who has given $110 million.
On the Democratic side, the top spenders have been flagship Democratic Senate super PAC Majority Forward, which has spent $104 million, and George and Alexander Soros, who have given $103 million.
The Times' report echoes an analysis published last week by the Brennan Center for Justice showing that the 40 largest individual donors to the 2026 elections had spent a combined $2.4 billion as of mid-October.
According to Brennan, this represents the single largest amount of money spent on a midterm election ever since the US Supreme Court's landmark 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. FEC unleashed limitless political campaign spending.
The Brennan analysis reveals that the spending of the very largest donors has grown dramatically over the last decade.
"The donations coming from the top 40 donors for the midterms total eight times the amount from the top 40 donors by mid-October in the 2014 midterms (the first full midterm cycle after Citizens United), adjusted for inflation," the analysis explains. "The cutoff to be in the top 40 has also increased to 10 times what it was four cycles ago, to $25 million."
And while the biggest spenders used to favor Democrats, their loyalties have since shifted to the GOP, and in this election cycle "donors loyal to the GOP now give more than three times the amount that reliably Democratic donors give."
And while labor unions were once at least represented in the list of top 40 election donors, they have since fallen out and have been replaced by donors from the cryptocurrency industry, the Brennan Center analysis finds.
Ian Vandewalker, senior counsel at Brennan and co-author of the analysis, told The Guardian in an interview published Monday that it's become easier for politicians to be totally beholden to a single large donor while ignoring the needs of voters.
"In a democracy, it’s supposed to be one person, one vote," Vandewalker explained, "and the more one person can influence, the less egalitarian our system becomes."
Economist Paul Krugman expressed similar concerns about the influence of big money in US politics, writing on his Substack page Monday that "oligarchy is on the ballot" in the 2026 midterms.
In assessing the massive spending by megadonors on elections, Krugman said the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision deserved significant blame. However, he said it was also a simple reflection of the fact that the US economy for decades has been rigged to provide benefits primarily to the ultrawealthy.
"Now we... have men big enough to own the government of the United States," Krugman commented. "This midterm is a test of whether they will get away with it."
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'I Would Not Even Think About It. I'd Do It': Trump Vows Preemptive Pardon for Elon Musk
"I did it for J6," President Donald Trump said of the Capitol insurrectionists he pardoned just hours into the start of his second term.
Nov 02, 2026
US President Donald Trump said in a podcast interview released Monday that he would not hesitate to issue preemptive pardons for mega-billionaire Elon Musk and other allies to shield them from potential investigations if Democrats retake control of Congress in this week's midterms and win back the White House in 2028.
"I would not even think about it. I'd do it," Trump said of preemptive pardons for Musk, White House staff, and other allies during an interview on the Pod Force One podcast, hosted by New York Post columnist Miranda Devine. "I did it for J6."
The president claimed that Democrats—who have signaled plans to investigate Musk should they win the House or Senate in Tuesday's elections—"want to arrest" the world's richest man and leading GOP donor, along with his lackeys who rampaged lawlessly through the federal government with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
"Big Balls. They want to arrest him," Trump said, referring to Musk associate Edward Coristine.
As Wired reported last year, Coristine—who was 19 when he was hired at DOGE—was one of the Musk operatives at the Small Business Administration "who sought access to HR, contracting, and payment systems and information."
Watch Trump's comments:
The Wall Street Journal reported in April that Trump has "repeatedly promised his top administration officials pardons before he leaves office," saying during one closed-door meeting that he would "pardon everyone who has come within 200 feet of the Oval [Office]."
The president's remarks came days after Politico reported that congressional Democrats are eager to investigate Musk's "alleged conflicts of interests" as his companies "rake in multibillion dollar federal contracts and subsidies."
"Members of House Oversight and other panels also want to examine Musk’s role in eliminating over 250,000 federal jobs during his time at DOGE, withholding congressionally appropriated money and accessing sensitive government data," the outlet noted. Democrats have also named Musk's deadly dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) as a potential target of investigation.
Musk, whose tenure at the head of DOGE ended in May 2025, has benefited massively from Trump's second White House term.
According to a recent analysis by the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, Musk is among the "top beneficiaries of the cancellation of corporate enforcement actions" under Trump. Musk's companies have "benefited from at least eight canceled enforcement actions," the group found.
Musk has funneled around $445 million in the 2026 election cycle to super PACs supporting Republican candidates in an effort to help the party maintain its congressional majorities.
"Billionaires and Big Tech have poured $2.7 billion and counting into Republican midterm campaigns, with Elon Musk breaking a new record as the largest political donor in American history," Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee wrote in a social media post on Monday. "This is what happens when the administration puts pardons, regulatory changes, tax cuts, and public policy up for auction to MAGA world."
"Democrats in Congress will investigate and uncover all the corrupt deals under the surface," the committee Democrats added.
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