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Oct 19, 2026 - World

Veteran journalist Dan Rather spotted one issue that President Donald Trump can't avoid much longer after he made his latest turn toward Russia. Over the last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin has received several gifts from Trump. The U.S. president has agreed to purchase Russian diesel fuel, which analysts say won't have any impact on gas prices ahead of the midterms. The Trump White House has also reportedly ordered a slowdown in Ukraine's Starshield systems, the military equivalent of Elon Musk's Starlink, which helps the country identify incoming Russian ballistic missile attacks. Trump has also moved to lift sanctions on Russia included in a bill to honor the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) just days before they were scheduled to go into effect. Rather argued in a new essay for his Substack "Ready" that these moves could spark calls to investigate Trump for treason. "Most Americans don’t want to think about it, but in the background of these developments is this: Article III, Section 3 of the Constitution defines treason against the United States as 'levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.' By any objective measure, lifting Russian sanctions is giving aid and comfort to an enemy," Rather argued. "Any suggestion of holding the president to a standard of treason is too far out for a clear majority of Americans. But as Trump draws ever closer to Putin, the subject is bound to come up in some conversations," he continued.

Oct 19, 2026 - World

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth took a secret trip to Israel on Monday to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of the country's elections, according to a new report from Axios, citing "two sources with knowledge."Hegseth's trip came just days after President Donald Trump endorsed Netanyahu for re-election. Trump has also said that he would not be "inclined" to continue the war against Iran if Netanyahu were to lose. Israel's elections will be held on October 27.

Oct 19, 2026 - World

Just ahead of the midterms, the Trump administration appears to be softening one of its signature policy pledges, immigrant advocates told The Washington Post.According to a Trump administration official who spoke with the Post on the condition of anonymity, and to the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, the Department of Homeland Security is expected to extend Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, which shields noncitizens from certain countries from deportation, for around 100,000 Ukrainians whose protections were scheduled to expire Monday. An embassy spokeswoman said the extension is expected to last six months.DHS did not confirm the extension. “An announcement on Ukraine’s TPS will be made at the appropriate time. Until such an announcement is made, Ukrainian individuals present in the U.S. under TPS remain under protection,” the department said in a statement.The move follows DHS’s decision last month to let TPS remain in place for around 232,000 migrants from El Salvador. The administration never formally announced a decision, instead issuing what the Post described as a “last-minute notice.” The lack of a clear timeline has forced Salvadorans “to grapple with an uncertain future,” the Post reported. Sudanese TPS holders, also set to lose protections Monday, will keep them until further notice, DHS said.“This is different,” said Jessica Bansal, an attorney focused on TPS litigation, speaking with the Post.The Trump administration has moved to strip protected status from 13 of 17 countries whose nationals were covered by TPS when Trump returned to office. As to why the administration is now letting protections continue for some groups, Bansal speculated that officials may be reluctant to deprive American businesses of workers so close to the election. The administration’s mass deportation push has also proven unpopular with voters.“There’s some very concrete negative consequences for businesses and other sorts of constituents that the administration may care more about if they strip these people of their status,” Bansal told the Post.Todd Schulte, president of the pro-immigration advocacy group FWD.us, told the Post that forcing out tens of thousands of Ukrainians just ahead of the midterms would be politically costly.“From a political perspective, demanding Ukrainians with TPS in battleground states like Ohio — who fled Putin’s invasion — leave the U.S. would be very unpopular,” Schulte said. “This is weeks before voters in the U.S. would issue a judgment on what would be seen as purging Ukrainians and a signal that the administration is siding with the Russian authoritarian.”

Oct 19, 2026 - World

The editorial board of the conservative Wall Street Journal joined the pile-on of Donald Trump for betraying his friendship with the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).And they didn’t pull their punches.“President Trump’s assistance to Vladimir Putin keeps growing by the day, and in the latest example he stuck a shiv in the back of the legacy of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham,” the board wrote in an editorial.The board said Trump waived tariffs for an indefinite period against the top buyers of Russian energy covered by the Graham bill, which passed the Senate 86-11. His executive order also waives new sanctions on Russian political and military officials, government entities, financial institutions, the energy industry and the shadow fleet Moscow uses to evade sanctions, the board wrote.Trump "offered no explanation" beyond a statement that “the issuance of such a waiver at this time is in the national interests of the United States,” the WSJ board accused. The White House has said enforcing the sanctions now would impede U.S. efforts to negotiate a peace agreement.“The opposite is true, and Mr. Trump is now Mr. Putin’s best friend in the world, after perhaps China’s Xi Jinping,” the editors wrote.The board wrote that Putin responded Friday night with "one of the largest attacks" on Ukrainian energy infrastructure in the four-and-a-half-year war, including strikes on more than 15 power generation and transmission facilities.On Sunday, the editorial said, Trump posted that he doesn’t “want to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table.” The editors countered that “he’s been courting Mr. Putin this way for two years, to no avail.”The board also pointed to Trump dropping sanctions on Russian diesel sales, which it called a $4.5 billion windfall for Russian energy companies, and to threats to cut off U.S. intelligence to Kyiv. Trump has denied threatening to stop sharing intelligence, Euronews reported. The editors added that the administration still hasn’t explained who ordered speed limits on SpaceX’s Starshield satellite service used in Ukraine.The editorial urged “a bipartisan reckoning” after the Nov. 3 election over Trump’s “budding alliance with the Kremlin against Ukraine, Europe and American interests.”

Oct 19, 2026 - World

Third-quarter GDP up by 4.5% compared with last year as industrial output is buoyed by electronics demandRoaring exports lifted China’s economic growth in the third quarter of this year, with factory output growing much faster than consumer spending.China’s GDP grew by 4.5% year-on-year between July and September, the National Bureau of Statistics of China reported on Monday. The figures were better than economists had expected and up from the second quarter’s growth rate of 4.3%. Continue reading...