Wednesday, October 28, 2026

Judge declines to block California from counting alleged noncitizen voters’ ballots in DOJ lawsuit

The DOJ said it had identified over 20,000 “likely non-citizens,” but California officials said that the claim wasn’t backed by evidence and that the government was trying to interfere in the election

Oct. 28, 2026, 4:52 PM GMT-8

A federal judge in California on Wednesday refused the Trump administration’s request to segregate 20,000 mail-in ballots from individuals it alleges are noncitizens.

Three Arab states back Greece in dispute over Turkey-Libya maritime accord


Reuters

October 27, 20262:57 AM GMT-8 Updated October 27, 2026

ATHENS, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates aligned with Greece to denounce a Turkey-Libya maritime accord as a threat to regional security and international legal order ​in a long-standing dispute over sea borders in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

Spain Train Disaster: At Least 64 Dead, The Guardian Reports, as Investigators Examine Signalling Failure

Mars Strangelove Jr. on Duty
October 28, 2026

TOLEDO, Spain — At least 64 people have been killed and dozens injured after two high-speed trains collided in Spain’s Toledo province on Wednesday morning, according to the latest figures in live reporting supplied to The Greek Courier. Rescue operations remain underway at the scene.

The collision occurred shortly before 9 a.m. local time on the high-speed railway connecting Madrid with southern Spain. The trains involved were a Renfe AVE service travelling from Madrid towards Seville and a train operated by private rail company Iryo. The two services were carrying hundreds of passengers.

It Appears That the AI Bubble Has Just Burst in China


"And now we see the bubble bursting."
Published Oct 27, 2026 10:57 AM EDT
As economists in the rest of the world look at the billions being poured into the AI industry with their hands over their eyes, the fate of China’s AI industry may be a sign of things to come.

A report from Reuters suggests that the AI bubble in China “has already burst.” Or it might be more apt to say that it shriveled like a rapidly deflating balloon: over the past four months, Reuters notes, the country’s STAR50 index of AI and semiconductor companies collapsed by 40 percent, wiping out $480 billion in market value. That is not a typo.

Grand jury refuses to indict former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, AP sources say




By —Alanna Durkin Richer, Associated Press
By —Eric Tucker, Associated Press
Oct 27, 2026 6:40 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Tuesday failed to secure a grand jury indictment against a former White House staffer who provided dramatic but disputed testimony against President Donald Trump before a House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurrection, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Electoral Deadlock in Israel Means Only One Thing: Nothing's Gonna Change

By Mars Strangelove Jr.
October 27, 2026
Associated Press, Reuters, The Times of Israel
Israel’s election has ended without a clear path to a governing majority, leaving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his principal challenger, Gadi Eisenkot, facing a difficult political calculation. Neither camp appears to have secured the 61 seats required to command a majority in the 120-member Knesset. Meanwhile, Arab-led parties have made significant gains and could influence the formation of the next government.
The initial exit polls placed Netanyahu’s bloc at approximately 50–52 seats and the opposition led by Eisenkot at 49–53, depending on the broadcaster. Arab-led parties were projected to win 17–19 seats. With roughly 40% of ballots counted early Wednesday, October 28, the official count remained incomplete. Exit polls indicate the political balance, not the final seat allocation. 

Tuesday, October 27, 2026

Israelis smash turnout records to pass wartime judgment on Netanyahu

By Steven Scheer and Alexander Cornwell 
October 27, 2026

JERUSALEM, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Israelis streamed to the polls on Tuesday in record numbers to pass wartime judgment on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in what some described as the most consequential election in the nation's history.

Follow the results of the Israeli elections here

Flávio Bolsonaro Is Sought in Brazil, But Rumored to Have Fled to America. Will Trump Protect Him Despite the US–Brazil Extradition Treaty?

By Yiannis Damellos and Mars Strangelove Jr.
October 27, 2026 
Illustrations: Gemini

Brazilian Senator Flávio Bolsonaro has disappeared from public view after losing Sunday's presidential election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. On Tuesday, October 27, Brazilian Federal Police sources told Reuters that Flávio had missed a Supreme Court deadline to surrender his passports and that the documents had been cancelled. Authorities were trying to establish his whereabouts. 

Argentina said it had no record of his entry, while people close to the Bolsonaro family were unable or unwilling to clarify where he was. A senior Brazilian Federal Police official said he had not left through a regular migration checkpoint. His departure from Brazil, let alone his arrival in the United States, has not been confirmed.

Three Russian Diesel Tankers Head for America as the UN Documents the Human Cost of Moscow’s War

Mars Strangelove Jr.
October 27, 2026 

Trump’s deal with Putin is opening an American market to Russian fuel just as international investigators document the human cost of Russia’s attacks on Ukraine. The arrangement has triggered bipartisan opposition in Washington, raised questions about federal law and exposed the conflict between domestic fuel prices and national security.

Three tankers carrying approximately 140,000 tonnes of Russian diesel are heading toward American ports under a temporary sanctions exemption negotiated by President Donald Trump’s administration. According to the Financial Times, the vessels are expected to arrive in November, shortly after the November 3 midterm elections. One of them, the Leruo, is sanctioned by the United Kingdom, the European Union and Canada. The shipments are among the first to move toward the United States under Trump’s October 9 arrangement with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Walter Koenig, Ensign Chekov on the original ‘Star Trek’ series, dies at 90

By JONATHAN LANDRUM JR.
Updated 12:24 PM GMT-8, October 26, 2026
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Actor Walter Koenig, who played Ensign Pavel Chekov, the youthful Russian navigator on the “ Star Trek ” television series and several movies, has died. He was 90.

Participatory Democracy Writes History in Serbia, but Its Fate Remains an Enigma

In a Politically Numb World, a Leaderless Mass Movement Wins a Historic Election—and Challenges Our Understanding of Democracy

By Yiannis Damellos and Mars Strangelove Jr.
October 27, 2026
They organized through assemblies, rejected the traditional political hierarchy, and won a parliamentary majority. Now Serbia faces an experiment whose consequences could extend far beyond its borders: can ordinary citizens build a democracy that does not surrender its power to a new political elite?

Monday, October 26, 2026

It’s the Economy, You Moron. Not the Brotherhood.

By Yiannis Damellos and Mars Strangelove Jr.
October 26, 2026
Source: BBC News
Trump invokes 9/11 to attack Abdul El-Sayed, but the Michigan Senate candidate is talking about groceries, gas prices and health care — the bills Americans must pay every day.

On Sunday, Donald Trump offered no evidence whatsoever establishing that Abdul El-Sayed was a terrorist or had ties to extremist violence, yet brought the memory of September 11, 2001, into Michigan’s Senate race, using the terrorist attacks to launch a personal assault on the Democratic candidate. At a rally in Port Huron, Trump called El-Sayed a “jihadist,” accused him of being a Muslim Brotherhood member, and invoked Todd Beamer, one of the passengers who fought back against the hijackers aboard United Airlines Flight 93. Trump warned that electing El-Sayed would put a threat inside the US Capitol. 

Rewriting the Code of Life: A New Era in Gene Therapy Begins

Edited by Yiannis Damellos and Mars Strangelove Jr.
October 26, 2026
Source: Nature

A new gene-editing trial could change how inherited diseases are treated — but the first patient’s results are still unknown

Imagine discovering that a disease is caused by a tiny mistake in your body's genetic instructions. Instead of treating the consequences for the rest of your life, doctors might one day be able to correct the mistake itself.

That possibility has moved a step closer to reality.

Israel’s Day of Reckoning: Beyond the War, Netanyahu’s Political Survival and the Battle for Democracy

By Mars Strangelove Jr. on Duty
October 26, 2026
Source and Photo Credit: Euronews
Illustrations: Gemini

As Israelis prepare to vote, Netanyahu faces questions about October 7, military exemptions, judicial reform, and his own political survival

Israelis go to the polls on Tuesday, October 27, in their first national election since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack. After three years of war involving Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking another term while facing questions about the security failures that preceded the attacks and the decisions made by his government since then.

Russia is escalating its confrontation with the West in orbit. Its satellites are pursuing spacecraft from companies helping Ukraine — and Starlink has been put on notice.

October 25, 2026, 9:30 pm
Source: Meduza
An ICEYE satellite. Illustration
There has long been talk of “hunter” satellites and an intensifying confrontation in space between Russia and the United States. But this week brought an unprecedented escalation in the new “star wars.”
On October 18, a Russian inspector satellite came closer than ever to a spacecraft operated by the Finnish-American company ICEYE. The company openly helps Ukraine, giving its armed forces access to satellite images of Russian military facilities, including airfields, naval ports, and oil refineries. Here’s what we know about the exceptionally close encounter, how Moscow is describing it, and why independent experts are alarmed.

I Am Dreaming of A Blue Texas (Just like the One I Used to Know)

By Yiannis Damellos and Mars Strangelove Jr.
October 26, 2026

Is Texas Turning Blue? Trump carried Texas by nearly 14 points in 2024. Now, Democrats are challenging Republicans in statewide races as voters confront rising costs, a controversial war and the consequences of tariff policy.

For more than a century, Texas was predominantly Democratic territory in presidential elections. From 1872 through 1976, the state voted for the Democratic presidential nominee in all but four elections: 1928, when Republican Herbert Hoover defeated Al Smith; 1952 and 1956, when Dwight D. Eisenhower carried Texas; and 1972, when Richard Nixon won the state in a national landslide. Jimmy Carter reclaimed Texas for the Democrats in 1976. Then the political map changed.

Sunday, October 25, 2026

Forty Iranian sailors rescued off Sri Lanka coast after medical emergencies

3 hours ago
Koh Eweand and Dinuk Hewawitharana
BBC Sinhala
AFP via Getty Images
Sri Lanka's foreign ministry says it has coordinated efforts to treat and repatriate 40 Iranian sailors suffering from unspecified medical emergencies in international waters off the island's southeastern coast.
Ministry spokesperson Thushara Rodrigo told BBC Sinhala they received a distress call on Saturday from Iranian ships "regarding an urgent medical need". The rescue operation was planned by the Iranian Embassy in Colombo, he said.

Haaretz: IDF Leaders Fear Netanyahu Could Order A Confrontation with Iran Before Tuesday’s Election

ISRAEL ELECTIONS
Israeli media report a dispute between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and military chief Eyal Zamir over an unspecified operation that could trigger a confrontation with Iran. Netanyahu denies a clash.

By Yiannis Damellos and Mars Strangelove Jr.
October 25, 2026

Israel’s military leadership is reportedly concerned that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could order military action involving Iran shortly before Israel’s parliamentary election on Tuesday, October 27. Haaretz, reporting by Amos Harel, says senior military figures disagree with Netanyahu over the urgency of an offensive. The report comes amid heightened tensions between the prime minister and the Israel Defense Forces’ chief of staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir.