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Oct 29, 2026 - World

The trouncing of the far right provides a playbook for social and environmental movements in other countries facing elections, including the US, Spain and FranceThank you, Brazil, for demonstrating how the far right can be trounced while protection for the Amazon is strengthened. In a world where nature and democracy appeared to be bleeding out in tandem, voters and forest defenders in this global south powerhouse have shown it is possible to staunch the flow. This should provide much needed inspiration and, more practically, a playbook for social and environmental movements in other countries facing elections, including the US, Spain and France.The astonishing comeback victory of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Sunday’s presidential runoff against his extreme right challenger Flavío Bolsonaro has brought oceans of rapturous supporters on to the streets, while also thrilling conservationists, climate activists and social justice campaigners across the world. Continue reading...

Oct 29, 2026 - World

A GOP strategist torched a former Trump White House aide on live TV over her "naive" plan to end a raging war.Republican strategist and CNN commentator Shermichael Singleton tore into Caroline Sunshine on Wednesday's episode of "NewsNight," guest hosted by CNN's Michael Smerconish, after she urged the U.S. to pull funding from Ukraine to force it to negotiate an end to its war with Russia. Singleton called the idea "the most absurd thing" and told her she was "incredibly naive."The clash broke out during a segment on young men souring on President Donald Trump. Smerconish cited Harvard's latest youth poll, noting nearly 70 percent of men under 30 disapprove of the job Trump is doing.Sunshine, a former Trump White House aide, laid the blame on the president's staff."I want us to win the midterms. But if we don't win, it will be because the president's staff failed to execute his winning playbook in 2024," she said. "We're not live streaming the rallies. We're not making TikToks. We're not going on podcasts. We're not talking to that audience."She said she had been "dismissed" for months while pushing for appearances with podcasters Joe Rogan and Theo Von."I don't think the president's staff trusts his instincts," Sunshine said, before urging Trump to "get a staff that understand where young men are at," to "get Ukraine to the negotiating table" and to "stop listening to" rapper Nicki Minaj.Singleton immediately jumped in."What do you mean get Ukraine to the negotiating table? You mean Russia?" he asked. "What did they do that was unlawful, illegal, immoral and unethical? It wasn't the Ukrainians. It was the Russians."Sunshine countered that "hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians are dying every day in this war" and argued the U.S. should cut Ukraine off."Ukraine is not a NATO ally. The United States has no role in this war except to end it. And the only way that it ends is by yanking funding from Ukraine," she said.Singleton shot back that it was “the most absurd thing,” as Sunshine insisted she was talking about “ending the war peacefully.” He accused her of being "intellectually dishonest" and blasted the idea of forcing Ukrainians to "come to the table over something they didn't start.""That's never been the posture of the United States," he said.As Sunshine kept pressing, Singleton cut her off. "You are incredibly naive," he said. "Why would we put pressure on the Ukrainians instead of the Russians?"He then questioned whether she grasped the subject at all."Do you even understand these issues? No, I don't think you do. I don't think you understand these issues at all," Singleton said.Smerconish eventually stepped in to move the conversation along.

Oct 29, 2026 - World

A bipartisan group of senators hoping for answers about a recent disruption to Ukraine's battlefield communications hit a wall at the Pentagon.The Defense Department's inspector general has turned down the lawmakers' request to investigate the throttling of Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet service in Ukraine, The Associated Press reported Wednesday. In a response dated Tuesday, the watchdog told the nine senators that the Air Force was better positioned to address their concerns.The senators, four Republicans and five Democrats, sought the probe after Ukrainian officials said this month that connection speeds on Starlink and Starshield, its military-grade counterpart, had been slowed. Officials in Kyiv said the restrictions hampered their ability to intercept incoming Russian drones.A congressional aide who spoke with the AP on condition of anonymity characterized the decision as the watchdog declining to look into Musk and Starlink, even though the office is well equipped to do so. According to the aide, worries in Congress about Musk's grip on Starlink stretch back years and helped drive the creation of Starshield in the first place."It is concerning that the Inspector General has apparently decided not to investigate satellite communication disruptions that Ukraine relies on to protect its civilians," Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and one of the lawmakers requesting an investigation, said in a statement to the AP.Shaheen added that "the Trump administration and SpaceX have provided conflicting accounts of what led to those disruptions" and called for "an independent accounting and review to determine responsibility and prevent this from happening in the future."Those accounts have indeed diverged. Musk admitted over the weekend that SpaceX had throttled Starlink in Ukraine, claiming the country broke the service's terms, a charge Ukrainian officials rejected. He insisted, however, that any changes to Starshield were in the hands of the U.S. government. President Donald Trump has denied ordering any restriction, while Vice President JD Vance has hinted at coordination between the White House and Musk.Mollie Halpern, a spokeswoman for the inspector general's office, said the watchdog "carefully considered the congressional request and determined that the matters raised were best addressed by the Department."The Pentagon pointed questions to the inspector general's office, and the Air Force did not immediately answer the AP's request for comment. Both have previously sidestepped questions about the slowdown.

Oct 28, 2026 - World

Vice President JD Vance has quietly stepped into an unexpected role while President Donald Trump threatens to unleash more bombing.Vance sent a letter to Mohsen Rezaei, a hard-line power broker in Tehran, in an attempt to get peace negotiations back on track, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. Rezaei leads Iran's Supreme National Security Council and has commanded the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps longer than anyone else. One person familiar with the matter told The Journal that the letter went out at Trump's direction, and Trump knows about the outreach.According to The Journal, Vance is feeling out whether the two countries share enough ground to convince Trump to hold off on a brief but punishing attack he has signaled could come within weeks.The back channel cuts against Trump's own public messaging. Last week, he insisted the administration was not in talks with Tehran. "We're not negotiating with them," Trump said, adding that "it'll happen soon." On the campaign trail in recent days, he has told audiences he expects fighting to resume and that the conflict will end on his timeline.Trump kept up the pressure Tuesday night. "They've wanted to make a deal, but they like tapping it along," he told reporters, suggesting Iran might be waiting out the election before warning "that's not gonna help them."The exchanges so far have centered on how talks might be structured rather than the terms of any deal, a source told The Journal. Rezaei himself said last week Iran would not come to the table until certain core demands were satisfied. Earlier this month, he warned Tehran could hit the United Arab Emirates along with internet cables and data centers across the region.Vance has publicly supported the war while privately voicing doubts about dragging it out, according to The Journal. He pushed for more diplomacy before Trump launched "Operation Epic Fury" in February and later served as lead negotiator, traveling abroad twice for talks. A memorandum of understanding reached in June fell apart within two weeks over disputes about reopening shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.The timing also carries political weight. Republicans are bracing for losses in next week's midterms, with voters pointing to the war and rising fuel costs as reasons for their frustration. Vance is considered the early frontrunner for the GOP's 2028 presidential nomination, The Journal noted.A Vance spokesman declined to discuss the talks, and the White House referred questions to the vice president's office. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on social media that "Iran continues to give diplomacy a chance to succeed."

Oct 28, 2026 - World

A former Defense Intelligence Agency staffer’s warning that Americans need to start preparing for a crisis has caused a stir with observers, and they can’t agree on whether to start stockpiling or roll their eyes.Farijah “Doc” St. Clair is head of technology and intelligence at the risk firm Crisis24. He wrote on X that “something is brewing” and that Americans’ “window to prepare, even with the basics, is closing.” He warned that “you will be on your own” in a national-scale crisis, urged people to prepare quietly and even “feign poverty,” and closed with: “It’s going to get rough.”Some readers took the warning seriously.“I have no idea what’s coming, if anything,” wrote novelist Danielle Langlois. “But when a former Defense Intelligence Agency employee shares advice like this (on top of the announcements I’ve seen from other nations), I take note. Go buy more food, maybe. Because this is weird.”Don Shift, a post-apocalyptic fiction author and Ventura County Sheriff’s veteran, called it “probably a very sober take on what’s really ‘up.’”Others wanted to know what, exactly, they’re supposed to be getting ready for.“What. Are. We. Preparing. For??” wrote Martin Skold, a geostrategist, policy adviser and author. “I’ll grant the premise: Having useful things on hand is useful, but anything more than that requires specifics.”“Preparing for an internet outage is not the same as preparing for a gasoline shortage is not the same as preparing for a nuclear strike is not the same as preparing for riots is not the same as preparing for a bank hack is not the same as preparing for a market crash,” Skold wrote. “I’m old enough to remember when telling people to stockpile necessities was considered pointless panicmongering.”Rebecca V., opinion editor at the publication Wrongspeak, dismissed it outright.“This is all a psyop to get people scared,” she wrote. “Power hungry elites just want more power. This is the way it’s been forever and will be until the end of time.”AI researcher David Bellamy, who works on training infrastructure for open-source AI and holds a PhD from Harvard, responded with a joke about AI-powered cyberattacks: “Yeah…so anyways, thrilled to release Claude Fable 5.5, which is a step change in cyberattack capabilities. Good luck everybody else!”St. Clair didn’t say what kind of event he believes is coming, telling readers “to not focus on the ‘what.’”