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'Mike Rogers Is Watching You': Abdul El-Sayed Hits GOP Opponent Over Support for Mass Surveillance
A new ad features Rogers saying, "You can’t have your privacy violated if you don’t know your privacy is violated," and bragging about his role in creating the PATRIOT Act.
Oct 07, 2026
As Flock cameras and the data firm Palantir dominate headlines, Michigan’s Democratic US Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed is spending the final weeks of the race hammering his Republican opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers, for his role in expanding the surveillance state.
On Tuesday, El-Sayed's campaign unveiled a new campaign ad with the tagline "Mike Rogers is watching you."
The ad, first reported by WIRED, features clips of Rogers, who chaired the House Intelligence Committee from 2011-15, boasting of his role in passing the infamous PATRIOT Act, which dramatically expanded government spying powers in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, including the mass gathering of Americans' telephone records.
The video repeatedly shows a clip of Rogers from a 2013 intelligence committee hearing, where he downplayed explosive revelations about the National Security Agency's (NSA) warrantless spying powers.
"You can’t have your privacy violated if you don’t know your privacy is violated, right?" Rogers said.
Another clip shows Rogers, during a 2016 Heritage Foundation speech, saying, "We would love to get one-tenth of what Google has on you." The comment was made as Rogers lamented that aggressive intelligence gathering on US citizens had been curtailed somewhat in the wake of what he said was a "completely undeserv[ed]" backlash against intelligence agencies.
The new ad campaign comes amid broad public unease about government surveillance. A YouGov poll earlier this year found that 76% of Americans were concerned about technology's impact on state spying capabilities, while a separate survey from the Center for Democracy and Technology found 74% were concerned about the security of personal information held by government agencies.
The rapid adoption of Flock's artificial intelligence-powered license plate readers by police departments around the country has sparked bipartisan concern: 62% of voters say they are concerned by the use of Flock cameras, including majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and independents, according to a Navigator survey in September—many expressed fears that the technology was being used to collect information on innocent people without their consent.
A spokesperson for Rogers has said he “vehemently opposes unchecked use of Flock cameras to track law-abiding citizens” and emphasized that he departed from Congress before the company was founded in 2017.
Since he won the Democratic primary in August, El-Sayed has sought to lay voters' spying fears at the feet of Rogers, joking in August that the Republican had spent his career courting the "peeping Tom vote."
In addition to digital ads and billboards, El-Sayed's campaign also published a website titled "MikeIsWatching.com," which examines Rogers' record during his 14 years in Congress.
It notes Rogers' self-described role in helping to "author" the PATRIOT Act and its renewals, as well as his support for other legislation that expanded the government's reach into Americans' private lives:
- In 2008, Rogers voted for the law that created Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allowed warrantless surveillance of non-Americans outside the US. As critics warned about the ability of American citizens to be caught up in the dragnet, Rogers accused them of "fearmongering." Subsequent reporting in 2014 showed that nearly half the files collected as part of the program detailed communications by US citizens.
- Rogers also publicly defended a provision of that same law that gave telecommunications companies retroactive immunity from lawsuits related to assistance they provided with post-9/11 spying.
- On three occasions, Rogers voted against measures designed to require the government to conduct domestic electronic surveillance through FISA's court-authorized process rather than doing so without warrants.
- Following Edward Snowden's leaks about mass telephone metadata collection, Rogers helped lead the charge to kill amendments that would have prevented the government from indiscriminately collecting Americans' phone records. He warned that the measures would take the country "back to September 10."
- Rogers twice introduced the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), which civil liberties groups warned would have allowed companies to hand Americans' emails, private messages, and browsing history to the NSA. The bill, which passed the House but died in the Senate, came after Rogers and his leadership PAC received at least $103,000 from companies and groups that lobbied on CISPA.
El-Sayed, whose tight race with Rogers could decide whether Democrats retake the Senate in November, is one of several candidates around the country targeting their Republican opponents as stooges of Big Tech companies, which have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into this midterm cycle.
In Ohio, former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown has attacked Republican Sen. John Husted for promoting AI data centers, while Democratic Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D-50) has done the same to his opponent, Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton.
But others have leaned harder on the issue of mass surveillance. Also in Texas, Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa (D-49) is trying to take down Republican Gov. Greg Abbott by hammering on a $28.5 million state contract with Flock, which now has over 13,000 cameras in the state, according to the group DeFlock.
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Ken Paxton Blames Trump's Illegal War for His Political Woes in Yet Another Leaked Recording
"When it's over $6 per gallon for diesel... people are feeling the pinch."
Oct 07, 2026
Ken Paxton, the Republican Party's nominee for the US Senate in Texas, blamed President Donald Trump's illegal war with Iran for his political woes in a leaked recording published by Axios on Wednesday.
In the recording, which was made during a private meeting with donors and lobbyists last month, Paxton was asked by an attendee which issues were "dragging" his campaign.
"It's the war, it's gas prices, it's diesel," the Texas attorney general responded. "When it's over $6 per gallon for diesel... people are feeling the pinch."
Paxton added that concerns about affordability were "by far our biggest problem" and "why we're having a hard time with the numbers."
Later in the recording, an attendee pointed out to Paxton that he "can't stop the war," to which Paxton replied, "Right."
"So many factors in this federal race are uncontrollable," Paxton explained. "I don't make the decisions, and I don't... know what's behind some of the decisions."
If Paxton were elected to the US Senate, he could vote for a war powers resolution to compel Trump to end the war, which was launched in February without congressional authorization.
This is now the third leaked recording of Paxton to emerge in recent weeks. Paxton is facing Democratic nominee James Talarico in November.
In a recording leaked to Politico on Monday, Paxton lamented that he has lost control of his campaign's messaging, which he said was being dictated from Washington, DC.
The New York Times last month published a Paxton recording in which he admitted that Trump's big midterm convention held in Dallas hurt his campaign.
“The numbers—when we did that convention—it dropped our numbers,” Paxton said. “Everybody’s numbers dropped. Right now, yeah, not good.”
Veteran Democratic strategist David Axelrod predicted that Trump would not be pleased by Paxton once again placing blame on the president's decisions for his political misfortunes.
"Next to the war and the tariffs," Axelrod wrote in a Wednesday social media post, "anointing Ken Paxton as the GOP candidate for the US Senate in Texas may turn out to be [Trump's] worst political decision and the one he most regrets."
John Huffman, the former Republican mayor of Southlake, Texas, wrote that, while Trump may not want to hear it, Paxton's assessment of the political environment was correct.
"The war, gas prices, higher cost of living etc., are all making this cycle very difficult for Republicans," Huffman argued. "In a normal year, even a candidate as broken as Paxton could eke out a W in Texas."
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'Should Concern All Americans': Records Show ICE Has Gathered 50 Million Voter Records Ahead of Midterms
"If not for the laws that protect the public’s right to know what their government is doing, the public likely would have never known about these concerning schemes."
Oct 07, 2026
Documents obtained and released on Wednesday by the advocacy group Democracy Forward show that the investigative arm of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has gathered tens of millions of voter records ahead of the midterm elections as part of a purported effort to combat "voter fraud."
Democracy Forward, which obtained the ICE documents through the Freedom of Information Act, said records from the agency's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) branch underscore how the Trump administration is "using the power of the government to try to silence eligible voters and prevent them from accessing the ballot."
The 166-page document that ICE turned over to Democracy Forward shows that HSI has considered sending undercover agents to investigate nonprofit organizations accused of illegally registering noncitizens to vote. President Donald Trump and his allies have repeatedly and baselessly claimed that noncitizen voting is a significant problem in the US.
HSI admits in one of the newly released documents that its "review" of more than 40 nonprofits in New Jersey uncovered "no derogatory information."
"The information revealed in the documents should concern all Americans and is further evidence of an alarming attempt by the executive branch to undermine our elections. It appears the president and his allies want to pick their voters, as opposed to the way things are supposed to function in a democracy where voters pick their leaders," said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward. “If not for the laws that protect the public’s right to know what their government is doing, the public likely would have never known about these concerning schemes. We will continue to use all legal tools to expose threats to our elections and to challenge them swiftly.”
Democracy Forward noted that the records also show that HSI has "obtained 26,235 US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)-derived records, and 50.6 million voter roll records from the US Department of Justice, for investigating so-called voter fraud."
"Notably, ICE listed out priority states for each set of these records, including Texas, Pennsylvania, California, New Jersey, Minnesota, Michigan, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, and Ohio," the group said. "Alarmingly, certain state voter roll data may have been entered into Palantir’s ELITE app, which is used by ICE to identify, prioritize, and locate targets for deportation. HSI may also be investigating voting machines and seeking to prove voter fraud in 'counties with 2020 results.'"
ICE's efforts are part of what watchdogs and election experts have characterized as a sweeping, lawless attempt by the Trump administration to disrupt the 2026 midterms, which will determine control of the US Congress.
Hart Wood, senior oversight counsel at Democracy Forward, said the ICE documents provide "chilling new insights into the breadth and depth of the Trump-Vance administration’s efforts to pursue baseless claims of widespread election fraud and assert greater federal control over elections ahead of the 2026 midterms."
"These records also expose the influence of election denier Heather Honey at both [the Department of Homeland Security] and ICE—including her working in partnership with activists and feeding nearly 50 million records from ‘independent sources’ into DHS voter fraud data collection," said Wood. "They also show, for the first time, that HSI may be using undercover agents to investigate non-profits for purely political reasons.”
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In Senate Debate, Troy Jackson Calls Susan Collins an 'Arsonist' Who Brings a 'Cup of Water' to the Fire
"Mainers can't afford to pay their bills with a press release or a strongly worded letter," said Jackson.
Oct 07, 2026
Democratic US Senate candidate Troy Jackson took his Republican opponent, incumbent Sen. Susan Collins, to task during a Tuesday debate for her role in Maine's worsening healthcare crisis, accusing her of paving the way for the disaster while attempting to take credit for an inadequate relief fund.
"Senator Collins is like an arsonist who helped set the fire, and then she wants credit for bringing a cup of water to put it out," Jackson said after Collins touted her role in securing a $50 billion fund for rural hospitals. The fund was part of a Republican budget package that includes the largest Medicaid cuts in the program's history—roughly $900 billion over the next decade.
Collins, who is running for a sixth term, voted against final passage of the Republican budget legislation, but she played a key role in advancing the bill through the Senate.
"She could have stopped it," Jackson, the former president of Maine's Senate, said of the budget law, which is fueling hospital staffing cutbacks and closures across the US, including in Maine. "What she brought back is a pittance to what we're losing in this state. I mean, we're watching our healthcare system crash right in front of us."
Watch:
Tuesday's debate came weeks ahead of the November general election, which polling indicates is a tight race. A survey conducted at the end of September by the Maine People’s Resource Center found Jackson leading Collins 49.3% to 46.5%—an advantage that was within the poll's margin of error.
During the debate, Jackson hammered Collins over her pro-Trump voting record and repeatedly accused her of playing up minuscule or largely symbolic opposition to the president's unpopular actions, including his tariffs on Canada and his illegal war on Iran.
After Collins noted that she "got concrete, pulp, and road salt removed from the tariff list," Jackson responded: "We can't eat road salt."
"Mainers can't afford to pay their bills with a press release or a strongly worded letter," said Jackson.
Jackson also highlighted recent ProPublica reporting that placed Collins at the center of a “sprawling pay-to-play operation” involving a Hawaii-based defense contractor accused of funneling donations to lawmakers in exchange for federal contracts.
"As late as 2024, the FBI was circling around Senator Collins," Jackson noted, citing the federal investigation that ProPublica revealed. "Then, whenever President Trump came back, his administration dismantled the investigation. Now, she votes with Donald Trump 96% of the time."
"I don't owe Trump. I don't owe the billionaires nothing. In fact, I've spent my life fighting back against billionaires," Jackson added. "But I do owe the people of Maine everything. I refuse corporate PAC money, I want to ban congressional stock trading. I fight for working Mainers every day. I'm not taking money from corporations like Susan Collins does."
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Senator Says Hegseth Barred Him From Gulf Base to 'Cover Up the True Cost' of Iran War
"And from what I understand, this is happening both to Democrats and Republicans when they are traveling to the Middle East."
Oct 06, 2026
A US senator visiting the Persian Gulf said Tuesday that the Pentagon blocked him from inspecting a heavily damaged American military installation and refused to arrange a briefing on the Iran War, accusing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of mounting an "unprecedented" effort to conceal the conflict's costs and consequences from lawmakers and the public.
“This trip confirmed for me that there is an active, unprecedented, unconstitutional effort underway to hide the costs of this war and the implications of this war from Congress and the American people,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told reporters Tuesday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Murphy said he sought to inspect Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the largest US military installation in the Middle East and a crucial hub for American operations in the region. The base was struck by Iranian missiles during the opening days of the war and sustained heavy damage, including a direct hit to its Combined Air Operations Center.
“I've never encountered anything like this in my time in the Senate,” the senator said, describing the Pentagon's actions as “part of a deliberate campaign of obfuscation that my Republican colleagues in Congress should demand an end to."
"We appropriate the money for that military action, and it is an ordinary function of members of Congress to travel around the world and talk to our generals and to our troops about military activities, especially during a time of war," Murphy continued.
"Adding insult to injury, the Department of Defense, under orders from [Defense Secretary] Pete Hegseth, even denied me access to talk to military leadership," he alleged. "They would not provide me even a briefing at the [US] Embassy."
According to Murphy:
Never before has this happened. Never before has a member of Congress been denied access to military facilities and been refused briefings by generals in theater. And from what I understand, this is happening both to Democrats and Republicans when they are traveling to the Middle East.
So just understand what this is: This is Secretary Hegseth deliberately trying to cover up the extent of damage, likely in the billions of dollars, trying to cover up the true cost of this war, trying to hide from you, from the American public, not just from members of Congress, the actual consequences of a war that is spiraling out of control by the day.
"This should be unacceptable to every member of Congress—Republicans and Democrats—and this should be unacceptable to the American public," he added.
The Pentagon defended the decision, saying the senator's office had been informed before his trip that the department would not support his access to Al Udeid. A senior Pentagon official cited a March 3 directive issued by Hegseth restricting travel to the region.
The dispute comes as the Trump administration faces mounting scrutiny over the increasingly protracted war's human and financial costs.
The illegal US-Israeli war of choice has cost the lives of thousands of Iranians, dozens of citizens and residents of Gulf states, and more than 20 US troops.
The 220-day war has already cost US taxpayers more than $40 billion, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. It has driven up gasoline and energy prices, transportation and food costs, and is having broader inflationary effects caused largely by the disruption to global oil supplies and shipping.
Last week, President Donald Trump ordered the deployment of thousands more troops and another aircraft carrier to the Middle East.
"You know, by the way, we’re kicking Iran’s ass. You do know that, right? And that’ll end soon," the president told a Nebraska rally during a Monday speech in which he suggested he wouldn't mind Iran bombing California cities. "It’s gonna end one way or the other. It’s gonna end very soon.”
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'People Are Sick of a Broken Healthcare System': Poll Shows New High of 66% Support Medicare for All
"Americans are done with a healthcare system that puts profits before people," said Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
Oct 06, 2026
Two-thirds of Americans now support a national health insurance program commonly known as Medicare for All, according to a new poll released Tuesday by KFF, marking the highest level of support recorded since the public health policy group began tracking the proposal a decade ago.
The latest KFF Health Tracking Poll, conducted between September 16-21, found that 66% of US adults favor Medicare for All, up substantially from the 53% who supported the idea when KFF last asked the question in October 2020. Just 34% now oppose it.
KFF's findings come as healthcare affordability has emerged as a major concern heading into November's midterm elections. Health costs and gasoline prices are tied as Americans' top economic worries, while voters now trust Democrats over Republicans by a 20-point margin to handle healthcare costs, according to the poll.
Two-thirds of the public favor Medicare-for-All — the highest share since KFF began polling on the topic in 2016 — but public opinion is highly malleable and support shifts when competing claims from critics and proponents are heard: https://on.kff.org/4zgJv6z
[image or embed]
— KFF (@kff.org) October 6, 2026 at 11:04 AM
The poll results also underscore growing public frustration with the nation's costly and fragmented healthcare system, with progressives increasingly arguing that voters want more than incremental reforms.
"People are sick of a broken healthcare system driven by the greed of the insurance industry and Big Pharma," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—who twice ran for president as a Democrat on a Medicare for All platform—said Tuesday on social media. "The time to pass Medicare for All is NOW."
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said: "Two-thirds of Americans support Medicare for All. Americans are done with a healthcare system that puts profits before people."
"Medicare for All can save 114,000 lives and $1 trillion a year," Omar noted, referring to a recently published study out of Yale University and adding, "Turns out, progressive policies can be good politics AND good policy."
Audrey Kearney, a senior survey analyst at KFF, told Reuters that “all year, KFF polls have shown that the public is frustrated with the high cost of healthcare, and that may be leading to a desire for change."
As The Guardian reported Sunday, 1,500 unionized nurses gathered in San Francisco last week to rally for Medicare for All, a policy their unions have championed for many years.
Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, one of the proposal's most prominent 2026 advocates, asked the nurses: “Medicare for who?”
"All!” they shouted back.
El-Sayed then described Medicare for All as addressing “the very simple idea that in the richest, most powerful country in the world you should not have to suffer for your healthcare.”
I believe in Medicare for All like I believe in public schools. There for you no matter what.
[image or embed]
— Abdul El-Sayed (@abdulelsayed.bsky.social) October 4, 2026 at 6:16 AM
The California Nurses Association's Michelle Gutierrez Vo, meanwhile, pointed to the costs and failures of the existing system.
“There’s too many unnecessary illnesses and unnecessary costs,” she said. “What are we doing?”
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'ScanDuel!' Latest Talarico Ad Targets Paxton's History of Outrageous Scandals
"Here’s a tip: Always bet that he did the thing."
Oct 06, 2026
The campaign of Texas Democratic US Senate candidate James Talarico on Tuesday unleashed a new attack ad against his Republican rival, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, that targeted his long history of outrageous scandals.
The ad, titled "ScanDuel," is a parody of mobile betting apps such as FanDuel and DraftKings, and it invites viewers to place bets on whether Paxton really engaged in a wide range of scandalous behavior.
In an unsurprising twist, the narrator of the mock ad suggests would-be bettors will always make money if they wager that the Paxton scandal is true.
NEW AD: Introducing SCANDUEL! The only betting app where you can parlay Ken Paxton’s scandals — and get paid! Here’s a tip: Always bet that he did the thing. 💰 https://t.co/Hir2F2UALC
— Team Talarico (@TeamTalaricoHQ) October 6, 2026
The ad starts by touting ScanDuel as "the only betting app where you can parlay Ken Paxton offering a plea deal to a pedophile with Ken Paxton voting to protect puppy abusers."
The plea deal mentioned in the ad refers to the case of Adam Hoffman, an attorney based in Waco, Texas, who had been indicted on a charge of continuous sexual abuse of a minor.
After Hoffman's first trial ended with a hung jury, Paxton's office reached a bargain with the accused child molester in which he would plead guilty to lesser charges and serve a single day in prison. Additionally, Hoffman would not have to register as a sex offender.
The judge overseeing the case mandated that Hoffman serve 60 days in jail, but he ultimately served only half that time.
Paxton's protection of puppy abusers, meanwhile, refers to Paxton's 2015 legal opinion used by university Texas A&M to deny public records requests from animal rescue organizations about hundreds of dogs that faced abusive treatment at one of its research labs.
As reported by The Houston Chronicle at the time, Paxton's opinion held that Texas A&M was under no obligation to release its records because doing so would violate "the confidential relationship between the veterinarian and the veterinarian's client."
Legal experts raised objections to this reasoning, given that the animals obtained by the research lab came from shelters, and thus had no owners who could give consent for the records' release.
Other Paxton scandals referenced in the Talarico ad include sworn testimony from a process server who said the Texas AG fled in a truck driven by his wife to avoid being served a subpoena, and Paxton mysteriously receiving regular income cumulatively worth more than $1 million from a cellphone tower located on the property of a hospital where he was previously a board member.
"Here's a tip," the ad says. "Always bet that he did the thing."
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200+ Groups Call on Lawmakers to Oppose Permitting Reform That Would Gut Endangered Species Act
“We don’t have to choose between protecting our most endangered animals and plants and building a clean energy future."
Oct 06, 2026
More than 200 environmental groups are calling on US lawmakers to halt a bipartisan permitting reform bill they say would gut protections for endangered species.
The Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026—introduced last week by Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), and Mike Lee (R-Utah)—is aimed at speeding up the federal permitting process to accelerate clean energy and infrastructure development.
One way the bill does this is by shortening permitting and environmental consultation timelines, including reviews under Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act, which are meant to ensure government-approved projects don't jeopardize endangered species or their habitats.
The 215 signatories of a letter sent Tuesday—which include the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, WildEarth Guardians, the Western Environmental Law Center, and the International Fund for Animal Welfare—said that the bill includes “sweeping attacks on the Endangered Species Act."
If passed, the groups said, it would raise the evidentiary bar under the law's “best available science” mandate, making it much harder to protect species when the science is less than 100% settled.
It would also allow states—many of which do not recognize the same protections as the federal Endangered Species Act—to take over Section 7 consultations currently handled by federal wildlife authorities.
"What happens when Utah, which does not protect insects under state law, must complete a consultation on the Silverspot butterfly?" the groups asked. "It is unconscionable that this Senate would condemn endangered species to extinction by handing over authority to states that have fought federal protections and lack even the most basic legal and institutional safeguards."
The groups said the bill's most "insidious" feature was that it would redirect all Section 7 challenges away from district courts and into the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, which they warned would "result in significantly more backlog, strained judicial capacity, and make meaningful review far more difficult."
The Democrats who have supported the bill have argued for its environmental benefits, including that it will speed up permitting for clean energy projects, including wind and solar, as well as transmission lines to rapidly deliver the energy they produce.
“If we can pass this bill, we will flood the grid with clean, affordable energy," Whitehouse said as he announced it last week.
But the environmental coalition said this should not come at the expense of protecting vulnerable species and warned that it would also be used to speed up permitting for energy sources that pollute the environment.
“We don’t have to choose between protecting our most endangered animals and plants and building a clean energy future," said Stephanie Kurose, deputy director of government affairs at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Hollowing out the Endangered Species Act only benefits energy-hungry data centers and the fossil fuel industry while leaving monarchs, manatees, and countless other species to pay the ultimate price.”
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An Army Study Showed Shock Gloves Caused 'Intense Pain' and Terrified Victims—Then ICE Ordered 6,000 Pairs of Them
“Everyone should be alarmed that ICE is preparing to deploy a tool designed to inflict, at best, intense pain," said one watchdog.
Oct 06, 2026
When US Immigration and Customs Enforcement ordered 6,000 pairs of shock gloves this summer, the agency knew that they could cause such "intense pain" that victims stopped fighting immediately and became fearful of more shocks.
That's according to The Associated Press, which on Tuesday revealed the existence of a US Army study on the gloves. ICE put in a $17 million order for the product, known as the Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter (GLOVE), in August.
In October 2024, the GLOVE was tested on Army employees at the military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to see if it could be incorporated into their practices to move noncompliant prisoners between cells.
According to the AP:
The shocks had a profound impact on Army employees who played the role of combative prisoners during the exercise... The participants, several of whom were large-statured men, stopped resisting seconds after officers applied shocks by touching gloves to their skin, and were left with “fatigue, soreness and excessive apprehensiveness to being shocked again,” the study found.
After experiencing the effects of the GLOVE, ... ["]participants stated just seeing the GLOVE was enough to make them want to comply,” the authors wrote.
The report later noted that unlike a taser, which is designed to cause the body of a noncompliant person to freeze, the GLOVE is meant to elicit pain. It "works by overloading the peripheral nerve endings,” the study said. It also noted that participants with water or oil on their skin experienced more severe shocks and that one was left in pain for 30 minutes afterward.
The full report has not yet been released to the public; however, a four-page memo from the Department of the Army's Office of the Project Manager for Close Combat Systems summarizing its findings can be found on the website of the GLOVE's manufacturer, Compliant Technologies.
ICE has described the shock gloves as a tool to "de-escalate" conflicts in the street with targets of the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign, as well as protesters against the policy—it has said the gloves would be used to subdue those “actively or passively resisting” agents' commands.
In the wake of several fatal shootings by agents that lacked clear justification, the agency has described the gloves as a “low-impact tool” that will allow agents to avoid escalating to more extreme uses of force.
When politicians have called to restrict access to the gloves, ICE's parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), accused them of trying to deprive federal officers of "safety equipment."
The user manual of the GLOVE notes that the "pain stimulus" it delivers can produce psychological changes associated with sudden death, including increased blood pressure, heart rate, and adrenaline, as well as changes in blood chemistry and heart rhythm. It also notes that those shocked with the gloves could face serious injuries from falling after suddenly losing control of their extremities.
The manual recommends that the gloves not be used against older people, small children, people who are pregnant, and people with certain disabilities.
As Reagan Williams, a researcher at Human Rights Watch's Crisis, Conflict and Arms Division, noted in August, agency operations have regularly targeted these groups.
"Electric shock devices have long been abusively deployed around the globe, including as a method of torture and other ill-treatment. Given these risks, the European Union has implemented trade restrictions on these devices," Williams said. "The scale of this technology’s potential harm in the hands of ICE, an abusive agency whose recruits are deployed with minimal training, could be considerable."
Chioma Chukwu, executive director of American Oversight, which provided the report to the AP, noted that while the Army report concluded the gloves were effective, it said little about their safety.
“The military assessment in ICE’s own files shows that these gloves can cause ‘intense pain’ and force compliance. It does not establish that they are safe,” Chukwu said. “Everyone should be alarmed that ICE is preparing to deploy a tool designed to inflict, at best, intense pain, without showing that it is safe for the people who will be subjected to it.”
While tasers can leave severe burns and welts on subjects, the shock gloves being adopted by ICE can deliver a painful shock without leaving a mark, making it much harder to prove their use. For law enforcement agencies, this is one of their most alluring features.
“I highly recommend these gloves to anybody that’s looking for a utility they can use that is conducive to not leading to lawsuits," said Bob Couey, chief deputy of the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia, in a promotional video posted by Compliant Technologies in 2024 and resurfaced in August by Mother Jones.
Even a former ICE acting director, John Sandweg, has warned that because the gloves are so easy to use, agents might feel compelled to deploy them haphazardly.
“It’s too easy for this to get misused, against a population that doesn’t pose a threat,” Sandweg, who led the agency for about six months during the Obama administration, told MS NOW in August.
The gloves have drawn substantial criticism from Democratic members of Congress. In late August, Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) led a group of 49 members of the US House of Representatives to demand the contract be canceled.
“Introducing low-visibility electric shock weapons into our immigration enforcement system is an unacceptable escalation that prioritizes physical intimidation and unaccountable force over human safety and administrative accountability," they said in a letter to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
ICE, meanwhile, has been less than forthcoming about what guardrails will govern the use of the shock gloves. In late August, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and 15 other Democratic senators asked the agency to answer questions about how the gloves will be used, who they'll be used against, and whether it has conducted safety evaluations.
Cortez Masto told the AP that over a month later, the agency has not answered her and her colleagues' questions.
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Intimidation Feared as Trump DOJ Boosts Its Own Election Monitors While Rejecting International Observers
The president also met with election denier and former county clerk Tina Peters and discussed "plans" for the election on Monday.
Oct 06, 2026
International election observers who have monitored US federal elections since 2002, in line with the practices of the vast majority of countries across North America, Europe, and Asia, said Tuesday that President Donald Trump's refusal to invite the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to observe the November midterms was "regrettable" and "not in line" with the United States' commitments.
The decision was announced as the US Department of Justice defended the administration's plans to send its own election monitors to the polls, with Attorney General Todd Blanche insisting in an interview with Fox News on Sunday that Trump "is doing the same thing that every single administration has done in our generation and in multiple generations."
In a letter to Blanche and Harmeet K. Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, US Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Joe Morelle (D-NY) wrote last week that Congress authorized federal election observers in 1965 under the Voting Rights Act, with observers determining "whether persons who are entitled to vote are being permitted to vote” and “whether votes cast by persons entitled to vote are being properly tabulated."
The DOJ's Civil Rights Division also sends its attorneys to monitor elections, with observers required to remain outside polling places and notify local authorities of their presence.
But the DOJ deployed monitors to eight states over the summer to observe primary elections, and Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon, a Republican, complained of "aggressive" and "disruptive" behavior, including demands to interview voters and attempts to access voting machines.
"In light of the DOJ’s announcement that it intends to deploy an unprecedented 1,000 monitors to polling places throughout the
country for the general election," wrote Raskin and Morelle, "the DOJ must demonstrate that it is not misusing its election monitoring program in any way and that its monitors are being used for appropriate purposes."
Some Republican officials have alluded to plans for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to go to polling places during the midterms. The Department of Homeland Security has denied there is such a plan, but Trump, who has persistently claimed US elections are rife with so-called "voter fraud," has said he would "do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections."
The news that the OSCE is not being invited to observe the midterms only heightened concerns that the administration may try to intimidate people who go to vote in elections that Republicans are widely expected to lose, as Trump's approval rate plummets to 32% and Americans express disdain for his war on Iran, soaring prices of everyday goods, and the violent mass deportation agenda that has turned communities upside down.
“The Trump administration’s decision not to invite international observers to the United States is deeply antithetical to the spirit of freedom, democracy, and transparency that defines our elections," said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “I was an official election monitor in the country of Georgia in 2012 and most recently in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2022, so I know firsthand the importance of showing up for Allies and partners to improve the public’s confidence in election integrity. The OSCE does just that."
"I urge the Trump administration to respect the role of independent election observers and ensure that the United States holds itself to the same standards that we would expect of any other democracy," said Shaheen.
The decision to keep the OSCE from observing the elections makes the US one of only three countries in the organization, along with Russia and Belarus, to do so.
“Refusing election observers is usually something that countries in a position of weakness do, when they know that they have corrupt or unfair elections,” said Dan Baer, a former US ambassador to the OSCE during the Obama administration, told MS NOW on Tuesday. “It’s very strange for the United States, which has been historically a standard setter in free and fair elections, to refuse observers.”
On Monday, Trump also met with former Mesa County, Colorado clerk Tina Peters, who was convicted on charges of trying to breach the state's voting machines in a search for evidence that election had been committed in the 2020 election Trump lost. Democratic Gov. Jared Polis granted Peters clemency after repeated calls from Trump.
Former acting US Attorney Ed Martin told Real America's Voice that Trump and Peters were "talking about the plans" for the elections, and claimed voting machines are "compromised" because parts of them are manufactured in China and Russia.
Ed Martin says that Tina Peters met with Trump in the Oval Office today to discuss election integrity and “the plans” for the upcoming midterms elections. https://t.co/NsGuZ4UNSO
— Anna Bower (@AnnaBower) October 6, 2026
"If she's meeting with Trump to talk about the midterms," said journalist Pedro L. Gonzalez, "then there is a real non-zero chance that Trump is going to try or wants to try to do something to upend them."
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'Savagery': Horrific Injuries as French Police Crack Down on Nationwide Student Protests
A 15-year-old's hand was blown off, a 16-year-old suffered a devastating eye injury, and a 14-year-old reportedly lost most of his teeth as Amnesty International accused French police of using disproportionate force.
Oct 06, 2026
Young people across France suffered horrifying injuries this week as riot police attacked high school and university students, faculty, and parents who were joined by striking workers in the latest nationwide mobilization over the country's underfunded education system.
Hundreds of thousands of students, workers, and their supporters rallied at more than 170 demonstrations across France Tuesday, with the arrest total topping 6,000 people—including roughly 4,400 minors—since the current wave of demonstrations began on September 28, according to the country's Interior Ministry.
The school blockades and other protests began in blue-collar Parisian suburbs and rapidly spread across the country as students and their supporters demanded more teachers and staff, smaller classes, improved school buildings, an end to socially discriminatory university admissions, and an education system that does not force working-class youth to bear the cost of government austerity.
The Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT), one of France's largest unions, urged its members to join Tuesday's mobilization alongside students and educators. The union said it would stand with high school and university students "including through strikes," while demanding major investment in public education.
"Beyond the issue of resources, students are demanding greater equality and social justice, aware that the policies of [President] Emmanuel Macron and his successive governments have deliberately damaged the principles of the French public education system," a coalition of unions including CGT said in a statement of solidarity.
Such solidarity was visible on the streets Tuesday as students from Épinay-sur-Seine marched alongside SUD-Rail railway employees, while education workers formed human chains to protect young protesters from police. Workers also joined students blockading a high school in Montpellier.
Protesters in some cities were met with police violence.
Police in riot gear charge student protesters in Nantes, France on October 6, 2026. (Photo by Sebastien Salom-Gomis/AFP via Getty Images)
"The repression is the same as that employed against the Yellow Vests except that now it's our kids who are in the streets," said Julien, a CGT Total refinery worker and union activist, referring to the 2018 economic protests that swept the nation. "The high school and university students have opened the way, and we have to follow them."
Coline, a high school student in Le Havre, said that workers physically placed themselves between young protesters and police.
"Union members formed a human chain between us and the CRS," she said. "All workers should do it because our demands are theirs. They portray us as rioters when we just want a future."
Alarming scenes of police terror shocked many observers.
In Lens, a 15-year-old student suffered a devastating hand injury during clashes near his high school Monday. According to La Voix du Nord, the teenager lost his hand after a police grenade exploded. The precise circumstances remain under investigation, chiefly by the Inspection Générale de la Police Nationale (IGPN).
A fellow student, Chloé, rejected the authorities' claims that the teenager was injured when he picked up the grenade.
"The police started coming toward us," she told La Voix du Nord. "So we all started running in the opposite direction. They threw smoke grenades at us... We were running. We couldn't see. And my high schoolmate got it in his hand."
She said the injured student began shouting, "My hand! My hand!"
"I turn around and see that he doesn't have a hand anymore," she recounted. "We all gathered around him."
"We're students, we're young," Chloé added. "There's no need to do that. It was useless; we were already leaving."
A 14-year-old in Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône reportedly suffered a double jaw fracture after being struck by a tear gas grenade fired at close range. Le Monde said the incident is among several cases being investigated by the IGPN.
Another 14-year-old reportedly lost most of his teeth after a police officer apparently fired a grenade at his face at close range during a protest northwest of Paris.
“His jaw is sealed shut, he can no longer speak, and he eats through a straw,” his mother told reporters.
In Tours, a 16-year-old reportedly suffered a severe eye injury when police fired "less-lethal" projectiles, including rubber-coated steel bullets, into a crowd of protesters during a high school blockade.
Another student, 16-year-old Isabella, connected the police crackdown to the class inequalities underlying the movement.
"Everybody told us that school was the great leveler, but today that is not the case at all," she told The Guardian. "A teenager in the suburbs of Paris is never going to have the same opportunities as a student from the city center."
The protests have also become a political flashpoint, with Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his left-wing La France Insoumise party openly backing the students while rejecting government accusations that they are responsible for the unrest. LFI lawmakers have appeared alongside protesters, while Mélenchon has condemned the police response and called on his supporters to nonviolently resist what he called police “savagery.”
On Tuesday, French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez refused to apologize for the police violence, drawing calls from the left for his resignation.
Amnesty International accused French authorities of answering protests with "disproportionate" force.
“Footage and testimonies widely reported over the last week raise alarming concerns about the dangerous use of tear gas, batons, and restraint techniques by police," Amnesty International France president Anne Savinel-Barras said Monday. "Tear gas grenades have been discharged recklessly, and rubber bullets have been fired, causing serious injuries."
“Authorities must ensure that any response to demonstrations is necessary and proportionate, and that children and young people peacefully demanding their right to education are protected rather than being beaten, tear-gassed, or arbitrarily detained," she added. "The priority should be the de-escalation of tensions, and authorities must take all available precautionary measures to avoid the need to use force.”
At least dozens of protesting educators, parents, and labor unionists have also been injured by police during the demonstrations.
Some police also reportedly refused to attack protesters.
Workers interviewed during the protests appeared undaunted and focused on their own demands, as well as those of the students.
“We’re sick of wage freezes; 60% of low-wage public sector workers are paid less than the minimum wage for a full workweek,” CGT Poitiers official Vincent Bohan told World Socialist Web Site during a march in Paris last week. “More and more people rely on us, but there are not enough of us to meet the population’s needs.”
“When you hear Macron’s speeches, each one more provocative than the last, with billions of euros spent on killing, while people in France are starving, one feels like telling him: Stop... help people struggling here rather than killing people elsewhere," Bohan said, referring to rising tensions with Russia and France's testing of a new generation of nuclear missiles. "Frankly, we are very worried.”
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