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Oct 3, 2026 - World

Fears mounted Saturday that the Trump administration was “gearing up for something” ahead of Brazil’s presidential election on Sunday, in which incumbent president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will face off against far-right candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, an ally to the White House.“They are absolutely gearing up for something and they won’t try to hide it because they assume nobody will do anything to stop it,” argued Vesper Jordan, an independent filmmaker and video essayist.In what some critics called an “unprecedented move,” the Trump administration suspended all U.S. consular services in Brazil on Friday, just two days before Brazil’s first-round presidential election. The U.S. State Department said the suspension was due to unspecified “security concerns,” though critics feared the move was part of an effort to “interfere in the country’s democratic elections.”Critics also expressed outrage over the apparent lack of media attention that the Trump administration’s actions in Brazil had received. Foreign affairs journalist Ishaan Tharoor argued that “the U.S. role in Brazil’s election” was “criminally under-discussed in the U.S.,” and journalist Noah Kulwin issued a similar but far more blunt assessment.“If we had a real news media instead of smug a------- who do video podcasts and video podcasts that are now broadcast on TV, this is the kind of thing that would be breaking through,” Kulwin wrote in a social media post on X.Bolsonaro is a lawyer, politician and son of Trump ally Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s former president who’s currently serving a 27-year sentence on charges related to an attempted coup after his election loss in 2022.Last year, Trump imposed a 50% tariff on Brazil in response to Jair Bolsonaro’s prosecution, calling it a “Witch Hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY.”“The way that Brazil has treated former President Bolsonaro, a Highly Respected Leader throughout the World during his Term, including by the United States, is an international disgrace,” Trump wrote in a July 2025 letter to Lula. “This Trial should not be taking place.”The US role in Brazil's election is criminally under-discussed in the US, though obviously front and center of the conversation in Brazil. https://t.co/qqnagh3LX0— Ishaan Tharoor (@ishaantharoor) October 2, 2026

Oct 3, 2026 - World

Jared Kushner's questionable ties to a deal he helped negotiate are again in the spotlight a day after he spoke out to defend himself.On Saturday, The New York Times reported that Kushner's business partners stand to profit from a Russian oil deal he helped broker. A day earlier, Kushner took to X to blast a CNN report scrutinizing his business dealings in Israel.Talks between the Trump administration and Russia over ending the war in Ukraine have widened to include a multibillion-dollar sale of international assets owned by Lukoil, one of Russia's largest oil companies, the Times reported. Russian President Vladimir Putin raised the deal during a September 5 Kremlin meeting with Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff, according to the report.The leading group bidding for Lukoil's assets includes Trump megadonor Todd Boehly, a federal agency and two Middle Eastern investment groups with business ties to Kushner or Witkoff's family. One is a Qatar-based conglomerate run by brothers Moutaz and Ramez Al-Khayyat, who have partnered with Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, on a luxury resort in Albania.Another member of the group is a fund controlled by Emirati national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, whose separate fund Lunate ranks among the biggest backers of Kushner's private equity firm.The Times found no sign that Kushner or Witkoff would personally profit. But a senior administration official confirmed both men had a direct hand in shaping the federal government's financial stake, pushing for a "substantial upfront payment and profits interest for the United States."Hui Chen, a former Justice Department prosecutor and ethics adviser, raised red flags about the arrangement."This is an alarming and very concerning set of entanglements," Chen told the Times. "And it means you have to question how the Trump administration is evaluating the different bidders involved here. Are the personal interests involved going to wrongly influence the outcome?"The revelations land one day after Kushner went on the offensive against CNN, which reported Thursday that his firm Affinity Partners is the top shareholder in an Israeli financial company invested in suppliers to Israel's military. CNN noted it found no evidence his diplomacy affected those holdings."For the last 10 years, I have ignored false and misleading stories about me and focused on the work," Kushner posted on X Friday. He called CNN's story "deeply misleading" and vowed to start publicly rebutting coverage he views as inaccurate.

Oct 2, 2026 - World

The Trump administration suspended all U.S. consular services in Brazil on Friday in what one political economist feared was a ploy to “interfere in the country’s democratic elections this weekend.”The State Department told Reuters that the suspension of all consular services across the South American nation was due to “security concerns,” but did not provide additional details, including what those concerns were or when consular services would be restored.“Consular Services in the US Embassy and Consulates in Brazil will be suspended starting Friday, October 2 due to security concerns," the State Department said in a statement, according to Reuters. "US citizens seeking emergency assistance during this time should not come to the Embassy, the Consulates, or other US diplomatic facilities."The timing of the move was suspect, argued David Adler, co-general coordinator of Progressive International and former advisor to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Brazil’s first-round presidential election is on Sunday, pitting Flávio Bolsonaro — a far-right politician supported by President Donald Trump — against incumbent Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a progressive Workers' Party member and frequent Trump critic.“Holy s---. In an UNPRECEDENTED move, the United States suspends ALL embassy services in all American consulates in Brazil… with no justification whatsoever,” Adler wrote in a social media post on X. “Yet another fear-stoking effort to interfere in the country’s democratic elections this weekend.”Brazilian political commentator Julio Freiress — whose commentary was cited by the Brazilian Supreme Court earlier this year — expressed similar concerns.“Trump has already started interfering in the Brazilian election,” Freiress wrote, according to an automatic translation by X’s Grok chatbot from its original Portuguese. “There's no reason whatsoever for the United States to suspend embassy services. There's already a whiff of interference in the air.”

Oct 2, 2026 - World

President Donald Trump is trying to rewrite his own predictions about how long the war with Iran would last, but CNN's Daniel Dale subjected his revised public claims to a fact check.Seven months after launching the war on the last day of February, the 80-year-old president claimed Thursday that his much-repeated "four to six weeks" estimate referred only to eliminating Iran's nuclear threat, not to the entire conflict."I stated, numerous times, that it would take 4-6 weeks to get rid of THE IRAN NUCLEAR THREAT, and I did it in one night! The rest of the time is just to make sure it stays that way," Trump wrote on Truth Social.In an interview with TIME Magazine published the same day, a reporter told Trump that "most people heard you say four to six weeks." Trump blamed the media: "No, I think the press fed it to them."But CNN's review found that Trump and his former press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, repeatedly described the weeks-long timeline as applying to the war as a whole.On March 2, less than three days into the fighting, Trump told CNN's Jake Tapper, "I always thought it would be four weeks. And we're a little ahead of schedule." Later that day, he said in a speech, "We projected four to five weeks."At a March 10 briefing, Leavitt said the "initial timeline was about four to six weeks to achieve the full objectives" of the operation. She listed goals that went well beyond nuclear weapons, including destroying Iran's missiles and navy and weakening its proxy groups.Trump repeated the estimate twice at a March 26 Cabinet meeting. "We estimated it would take approximately four to six weeks to achieve our mission, and we're way ahead of schedule," he said.On March 31, Trump went further. He told reporters the U.S. could be done "within two weeks, maybe; two weeks, maybe three." Asked to clarify, he added: "We'll leave."As recently as April 8, Leavitt said Trump "stated this would be a four-to-six-week military operation to dismantle the military threat" posed by Iran.CNN asked the White House for any example of Trump limiting his timeline to the nuclear threat. The White House offered none and instead sent back a statement insisting Trump was "right" without addressing the request.Many experts also dispute Trump's separate claim that he eliminated Iran's nuclear threat in a single night.Trump has been distancing himself from the estimates for months. In April, he accused Democrats of claiming he "promised 6 weeks to defeat Iran.""He can quibble about whether he made a promise or offered an estimate," Dale concluded. "But the record shows the “six weeks” figure came from his own mouth."

Oct 2, 2026 - World

Explosive new reporting on Fernando Cerimedo — the far-right operative dubbed “MAGA’s Man” in Latin America who was jailed for allegedly ordering the murder of his pregnant mistress and is under investigation for drug trafficking — featured what one journalist called an “extremely unsurprising” cameo from President Donald Trump’s son.Cerimedo is an Argentine political consultant and publicist, and is connected to Trump’s orbit in several ways. He was honored at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort as 2025’s “best Hispanic political consultant,” and has business ties with Brad Parscale, Trump’s former campaign manager who’s now running a pro-Israeli online influence campaign.In August, Cerimedo was arrested in Bolivia following the shooting of Nadia Beller, a Bolivian lawyer and activist who was reportedly pregnant with Cerimedo’s child. Cerimedo had been married to former Argentine government official Natalia Basil since at least 2024.Bolivian authorities are investigating whether Cerimedo had arranged for his mistress to be killed, as well as for his alleged links to drug trafficking. In some of the Spanish-language reports, photos of Cerimedo with Donald Trump Jr. had surfaced, something that immediately caught the attention of journalist Ryan Grim, co-founder of Drop Site News.Grim also pointed to the Trump administration’s recent move to revoke the visas of Bolivia’s attorney general — who oversees the Cerimedo probe — and other officials over alleged corruption, accusing the White House of working to cripple the case.“This is why they are now physically coming after the Bolivian attorney general,” Grim wrote in a social media post on X. “The right in Latin America is heavily bound up in drug trafficking and Cerimedo’s arrest was/is threatening to expose it all. Don Trump Jr cameo extremely unsurprising.”According to the Associated Press, the Trump administration started the process to revoke visas for 27 Latin American officials from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, which the outlet noted were all nations “friendly with President Donald Trump.”“Those leaders have complained that many of those targeted by the visa revocations were hindering their efforts to fight crime,” the Associated Press’ report reads.This is why they are now physically coming after the Bolivian attorney general. The right in Latin America is heavily bound up in drug trafficking and Cerimedo’s arrest was/is threatening to expose it all. Don Trump Jr cameo extremely unsurprising. https://t.co/qDIJBjveqn— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) October 1, 2026