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This evening's music features Chicago blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player Howlin' Wolf. Enjoy!

“No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them”

-- Elie Wiesel

News and Opinion

Zionism Is OBVIOUSLY A Racist Ideology

On Sunday the UK Greens adopted a motion asserting that Zionism is a form of racism, defining the ideology as “an ethnonationalist political project.”

Green Party leader Zack Polanski, who is Jewish, was immediately banned by the Israeli government from entering the nation after the motion was passed.

As you might expect, Israel apologists are presently churning out hasbara trying to spin the new Green Party policy as an evil attack on Jews and arguing that Zionism is actually a perfectly lovely and normal thing that we should all support.

“Zionism is just the belief that Jews deserve a homeland and self-determination,” they’ll claim, often adding a suggestion that the real racists are those who would oppose such a reasonable position.

I am a Zionist.

I believe in the Jewish people’s right to a state in our homeland, in our right to live in peace and security.

As we prepare to mark three years since the October 7th massacre, the UK Green Party has chosen to side with terrorists and antisemites.

It is not Zionism that’s racism, it is the Green Party.

— Yair Lapid (@yairlapid) October 4, 2026

The problem with these arguments is that they have already been soundly refuted by objective reality. You don’t get to just make up your own pleasant-sounding definition of Zionism when there has been a Zionist state showing us in stark terms exactly what Zionism is for eight decades. Zionism means nonstop apartheid, ethnic cleansing, war, genocide, and abuse. That is what Zionism is. The evidence is in. This is a settled matter.

There is no way to implement Zionism without implementing fundamentally racist policies. As Richard Sanders put it, “If you can work out a way to create an ethnically defined political entity in a territory that, at the start of the process, was almost entirely populated by people of a different ethnicity, without resorting to ethnic cleansing and Apartheid, then you need to tell the Israelis. Because they’ve certainly never worked it out.”

The Palestinian author Mohammed El-Kurd summed it up eloquently with the following anecdote:

“At a recent closed-door meeting in London to discuss BDS with various publishers and writers, a well-intentioned, well-known author asked me if Zionism could hold a double meaning: To some, it is a settler-colonial movement motivated by expansion and racial elimination, and to others it is a movement for Jewish self-determination. ‘No,’ I said. ‘Zionism is best defined by its material manifestations — the most recent being genocide. It is irrelevant whether it could contain multitudes.’ “

In other words, Zionism is what it does. And what it does is visible to the entire world.

What remains of Gaza City?

Images show how neighbourhoods across Gaza's largest city have been levelled in recent months https://t.co/H6JaRHOAcG

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) September 13, 2025

There is no argument to be made that Zionism doesn’t necessarily entail racism, apartheid and abuse; if it did, the modern state of Israel would have existed without these things at some point.

If you think racism, apartheid and abuse are bad, then you necessarily oppose Zionism. If you support Zionism, then you necessarily support racism, apartheid and abuse. If you tell me you can have Zionism without racism, apartheid and abuse, then you are simply lying to me. And maybe to yourself as well.

Genocidal apartheid ethnostates should not exist, and it is racist to believe that they should. It’s amazing this isn’t obvious to everybody.

Ex-Diplomat Reveals Who Is Quietly Replacing Governments

US bombers pulled from RAF Fairford base after suspected terror plot

The US Air Force has pulled its bombers from RAF Fairford following an investigation into an alleged planned terror attack at the base. The bombers were redeployed back to their home bases in the US, according to a Pentagon official who was not authorised to discuss sensitive military movements and spoke on Sunday on condition of anonymity.

A Pentagon spokesperson said: “While ⁠operational security precluded us from confirming the movement of our ​assets and forces in ‌real time, we can acknowledge ‌now that all US bombers that were deployed to ‌RAF Fairford have redeployed to their home stations in the United States.”

At least 10 B-1 bombers of 12 flew out of Fairford on Sunday, including some that arrived on rotation less than a week ago, underlining the haste of the departure and the apparent significance given by the US to the threat.

According to reporting by US media, the withdrawal appears to be in response to fresh or renewed security concerns about safety on the base. A report in the New York Times said: “American officials on Sunday declined to specify the nature of the new information that prompted the rapid withdrawal of the Air Force bombers, some of which had just arrived in the past week as part of a normal rotation of forces.

“One US official said the new information was part of the same threat warnings that surfaced three weeks ago, but specific details and a sense of urgency spiked in the past 24 hours, alarming commanders.”

FORBIDDEN STUDIOS PRESENTS: WHEN PILOT IS FIGHTING, PLUMBER IS FLYING

One plane. One sword. One plumbing emergency.
The biggest Bollywood action psyop of the year has arrived. https://t.co/fnhtgPr0gE

— Forbidden HQ (@WearForbidden) October 2, 2026

Seyed M. Marandi: If Saudi Arabia Collapses, the Entire Region Will Transform

US Backs Major Saudi-Led Offensive as Yemen Slides Back Toward All-Out War

Yemen is spiraling back toward full-scale war after its Saudi-backed government launched a major offensive on Sunday to retake territory captured by the Iran-backed group Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthis.

President Rashad al-Alimi said the armed forces would seek to retake all Houthi-controlled territory, which is home to about 70% of Yemen’s population, including the capital Sanaa. He said the offensive would continue “until the country is liberated from the grip of the terrorist militia.”

Houthi officials said Saudi forces have launched 50 air and missile attacks in the last 12 hours. As al-Alimi announced the new offensive, the Houthis responded by launching ballistic missiles and drones at Saudi Aramco oil facilities, including one near Riyadh that was engulfed in flames.

A large plume of smoke and fire was seen rising in the vicinity of an Aramco facility in Riyadh on Saturday. https://t.co/e6oTKTe2gM

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) October 3, 2026

Last month, the Houthis captured major strategic areas along the Red Sea coast, giving them unprecedented leverage over one of the world’s busiest shipping routes and adding to the economic stranglehold Iran is asserting by restricting travel through the Strait of Hormuz in response to US-Israeli attacks.

Earlier this month, it was reported that President Donald Trump had rebuffed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s request for the US to launch airstrikes against the Houthis.

However, US officials told Axios on Friday that the military is providing Saudi Arabia with “everything short of direct combat, mainly intelligence and targeting data.”

While the Saudis conduct a new campaign of airstrikes, Yemen’s government could reportedly mobilize as many as 100,000 troops, one of the largest military buildups since the 2022 truce that halted the nation’s brutal eight-year civil war.

That war, in which the US also provided extensive military support to a merciless Saudi air campaign, is estimated by the United Nations Development Program to have caused about 377,000 excess deaths by the end of 2021: 154,000 from the fighting itself and 223,000 from indirect effects such as hunger, disease, and the collapse of healthcare and basic infrastructure. An estimated 259,000 of those deaths were of children under 5.

Even before Sunday’s escalation, renewed fighting was already fueling a major displacement and hunger crisis. More than 149,000 people have been driven from their homes, according to the International Organization for Migration. Meanwhile, the World Food Program says fighting has disrupted food delivery routes, placing 18.3 million Yemenis at risk of acute food insecurity.

Iran DISRUPTS US Hormuz Blockade: FORCES Toll Payments

Yemen WAR EXPLODES As Saudi Pipeline HIT Spiking Oil

Yemen’s Saudi-backed government launches military drive to retake all Houthi-held territory

Yemen’s Saudi-backed government has announced the start of a new military operation to retake all territory held by the Houthis, even as the militant group made fresh gains on the ground, reportedly encircling a government-held city. Rashad al-Alimi, the head of Yemen’s presidential council, said in a statement on Sunday: “I announce today the start of military operations to retake the remaining territories of the republic and extend the authority of the state and its institutions across the entire national territory.”

The announcement sets an ambitious goal for the embattled government, which recently lost swathes of the country’s Red Sea coastline and areas around the Bab al-Mandab strait – a chokepoint for international shipping – after a lightning offensive by the Iran-backed Houthis.

Yemen’s internationally recognised government has struggled to roll back the surge, even with the military support of Saudi Arabia. The Houthis have increasingly targeted Saudi Arabia in recent weeks, and on Sunday said they had attacked oil infrastructure in the capital again.

The statement came just hours after the Houthis cut a vital supply route linking the besieged city of Taiz with the government’s interim capital, Aden, according to four security sources. The Houthi advance followed days of heavy fighting in and around the city. “We were informed that the Houthis had taken control of the al-Safiya area, where they cut the main road and took control of the police station,” a police source in the area said.

Three sources with the Yemeni military also confirmed Houthi control over the area and the supply route, with traffic along the road halted and the group now surrounding Taiz city. Fighting in the area was ongoing, they added.

Larry Johnson : Netanyahu Lying for Votes

Israeli politician pretends to have a conscience:

Yair Lapid says young Israelis told him 'even babies' in Gaza should be killed

There are "no innocent people" in Gaza and Israel should "also kill two-week-old babies" in the Palestinian enclave, Israel's former prime minister Yair Lapid has recounted young Israelis telling him. "I heard all the rhetoric of: 'they all need to be killed,' 'there are no innocent people'," Lapid said in an interview on Wednesday, describing "a furious and painful meeting with a group of really young people" he had recently met.

The former prime minister, who is now part of the centrist-right wing alliance of the Together party, added that he asked them, "What about babies? They said: 'babies too, because eventually they'll grow up and become terrorists'," Lapid recounted, adding that they said it applies even to two-week-old babies. "So, Hamas won," Lapid said, adding that "those are Hamas's standards. That's what it wanted. For us to become like them." The government's failure to act against Israeli ministers and officials who called for the starvation of children caused, Lapid said, an "internal damage where you fail to define value-based standards for being different from Hamas."

Lapid, who served as prime minister for five months before Benjamin Netanyahu regained power in late 2022, accused the government's conduct of leading to a sharp decline in Israel's international standing in the past three years.

Lapid said he was equally worried about how young Israelis see the Palestinians after three years of genocide, adding that Israel is conducting a "just" war in Gaza. The centrist leader stated that the accusations levelled at Israel that it carried out a genocide in Gaza are "nonsense" but "children shouldn't die in grown-ups' wars, period," he said.

Lapid's comments on Wednesday come amid a growing body of literature and opinion polls that indicate that young Israelis are more right-wing than their parents, with last month serving as an indicator of this right-wing shift. Israeli outlet Channel 12 News reported that, according to a new poll, 74 percent of Jewish Israelis between the ages of 18 and 22 hold right-wing or centre-right views.

Israel is Isolated. So why is it still untouchable? with Craig Mokhiber

Palestinian Researcher Dismantles Israel’s List of So-Called ‘Terrorist’ Journalists Slain in Gaza

Seeking to discredit reports of its unprecedented killing of journalists in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces last week published a list of 170 slain Palestinians it claimed were not legitimate media workers but members of “terrorist groups.”

Palestinian political analyst Muhammad Shehada, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, reviewed every single entry on the list. He called it “the most sloppy shameless fraud possible.”

Israeli officials and Western supporters have trumpeted the IDF’s list as a counter to findings by groups like International Federation of Journalists, which has described Israel’s nearly-three-year-old-war in Gaza as “the deadliest period in the history of journalism” and cataloged at least 240 journalists and media workers killed.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has found dozens of cases in which it concluded journalists were targeted deliberately because of their reporting and filed multiple complaints with the International Criminal Court (ICC) alleging war crimes against the press.

The database, which the IDF refers to as the “Press Files,” says “that claim does not tell the full story” and states that “individuals presented as innocent journalists were, in fact, militants in the military wings of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and other terrorist organizations.”

The IDF claims the list was the product of an “in-depth investigation” consisting of open-source information, documents recovered by Israeli forces in Gaza, interrogations of alleged Palestinian militants, and intelligence gathered during military operations.

But as Shehada explained in a thread posted to social media on Sunday, “In the overwhelming majority of those listed, the IDF presents ZERO credible evidence. In most of them, their pages are literally blank.”

I checked every single name on Israel's list of 170 Gazan "terrorist" journalists. It's the most sloppy shameless fraud possible

In the overwhelming majority of those listed, the IDF presents ZERO credible evidence. In most of them, their pages are literally blank. https://t.co/YYg29HEStP

— Muhammad Shehada (@muhammadshehad2) October 4, 2026

In 59 cases, Shehada found that the IDF did not provide any evidence for its claim that a journalist was a member of Hamas or PIJ other than that the claim was “based on multiple intelligence sources.”

Shehada said this amounted to essentially saying “trust me, bro,” which is especially insufficient given the numerous instances in which the IDF has been found to have misled the public about its responsibility for certain attacks, like the killing of 5-year-old Hind Rajab in 2024.

In another 42 cases, Shehada found, the IDF provided only decontextualized “snippets” of files, which were “undated and unspecified.” Without more information, Shehada said, this is “not... evidence of anything.”

“Those snippets could be taken from random files; they could be outdated or fabricated,” Shehada said, pointing to previous cases in which purported Hamas intelligence circulated by Israeli sources was later revealed to be misleadingly presented as fabricated.

2\ In 42 cases, the IDF provides only snippets, undated & unspecified

This is NOT an evidence of anything. Those snippets could be taken from random files, they could be outdated, or fabricated (like the fake Hamas docs Israel "leaked" to Bild & Jewish Chronicle & got caught)

See https://t.co/5mD2pVQgiI

— Muhammad Shehada (@muhammadshehad2) October 4, 2026

Shehada pointed to specific cases in which Israel’s allegations against specific journalists have been undermined by the underlying evidence.

Israel claimed that Al Jazeera reporter Ismail al-Ghoul, whom the IDF killed in July 2024, was an operative with Hamas’ elite Nukhba wing and released a supposed Hamas personnel document as proof.

But as Reporters Without Borders has previously explained, the document says al-Ghoul, born in 1997, received a military rank in 2007, when he was 10, while elsewhere saying he joined in 2014. It also identifies him as an engineer, contradicting the IDF’s description of him as a Nukhba fighter. Israeli troops also detained al-Ghoul at al-Shifa hospital months before he was killed but released him after 12 hours.

The case of Anas al-Sharif, another Al Jazeera journalist killed in 2025, is similar. As Shehada documented for +972 magazine last year, al-Sharif was seriously injured in 2017, listed in a military context in 2019, but described as “suspended” and “unassigned” by 2023—while another document nevertheless portrays him as an elite Nukhba fighter. He was also reportedly detained and released by Israeli forces during the 2024 al-Shifa raid.

In other cases, the IDF’s evidence outright debunks the military’s own claims. For instance, Israel labeled photojournalist Hassan Aslih—killed by an airstrike at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis in May 2025—as a “military operative.” But the 2019 Hamas document provided as evidence for this lists him as a “photographer” involved with “media services.”

While the document, if authentic, does establish a relationship between Aslih and Hamas’ Qassam Brigades at least six years before his death, this does not make him a legitimate target under international humanitarian law, which distinguishes between those who have a “continuous combat function” and those who provide political or other indirect forms of support, like media coverage.

Shehada found at least seven cases in which the only evidence provided by the IDF was photos of slain journalists holding guns. In another 12 cases, the IDF provided undated photos of journalists allegedly taking part in Hamas or PIJ military activities.

Shehada noted that many prominent Israeli journalists also have past military service, such as Axios correspondent Barak Ravid, who was an IDF reservist until 2023. “Does that make him a ‘legitimate target’? or a non-civilian forever?” Shehada asked.

The distinction between past military affiliation and active combatant status has been a repeated source of dispute for press freedom groups that have attempted to tally the number of journalists killed.

Last month, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) completed a sweeping review of 229 deaths after Hamas and PIJ published obituaries identifying some people listed as journalists as members of armed groups.

CPJ ultimately removed 22 people from its list, including some it found had participated in combat—but retained others despite militant obituaries, gun photos, or past organizational ties when the evidence did not establish active combatant status.

The “Press Files” database contains 49 cases in which the main piece of evidence is one of these obituaries. Among them are people who CPJ examined and concluded were not active combatants, such as photojournalist Amr Abu Odeh—a 26-year-old freelance photographer for the Anadolu Agency and Reuters—whom the IDF database labels a Hamas “squad commander.”

CPJ examined photos of Odeh wearing a military uniform, which came from a 2021 military training course with Gaza’s Ministry of the Interior. The group noted that “No armed factions in Gaza have claimed Abu Odeh as being affiliated with them, and the IDF has not alleged he was involved in combat.”

“In multiple cases, despite obituaries by Hamas/PIJ, the Committee to Protect Journalists investigated thoroughly and concluded those journalists were NOT engaged in any militant activity during the genocide,” Shehada wrote. “They may have in the past. That doesn’t make them combatants forever.”

He added that the flimsiness of the IDF’s evidence was more striking given the sophistication of the intelligence unit it uses to “dig up dirt” on journalists to provide post hoc justification for their killings, which has been referred to internally as the “Legitimization Cell,” which was revealed in a +972 investigation.

“If that’s all they can provide as ”evidence“ (e.g. blank pages, random snippets, outdated docs) despite having formidable resources,” Shehada wrote, “then it’s a vindication of Gaza’s journalists!”

Alastair Crooke : Trump and Netanyahu Planning More War

Tonight at Gillette Stadium, Zach Bryan, one of the biggest country music artists in the world, wore a Free Palestine shirt onstage.

Gillette Stadium is owned by Robert Kraft, who pushed Ed Sheeran and his promoter to drop Macklemore from his tour.

Bryan isn’t just a major country artist.

He is one of the biggest live draws in music, filling stadiums across the United States and in major cities around the world.

Bryan served eight years on active duty in the US Navy and served overseas in Bahrain and Djibouti.

Members of Bryan’s band also wore shirts supporting the Palestinian cause, including his drummer, who wore a jersey honoring the memory of Hind Rajab.

Zach Bryan has a second show at Gillette Stadium tomorrow, Saturday night.

— Yashar Ali (@yashar) October 3, 2026

We are so honored to see musician Noah Le Gros rocking our Palestine Jersey on stage at the Gillette Stadium (owned by Robert Kraft, the same guy who called Ed Sheeran to kick Macklemore off the tour)

Noah and Zach both stood for Palestine tonight on a stage that tried to ban the simple mention of it.

Free Palestine

— WearThePeace (@WearThePeaceCo) October 3, 2026

Larry Johnson: Perfect Storm in Ukraine - Bridges, Ports, Energy Infrastructure & Kiev Under Attack

Russia To Intensify Strikes on Ukraine After Zelensky Vows More Attacks on Russian Oil Refineries

The Russian Defense Ministry on Sunday vowed that it would intensify attacks on Ukrainian military sites and related infrastructure after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine would double down on its attacks on Russian oil infrastructure.

“Following Zelensky’s statement today, the Russian Armed Forces will step up strikes on military and defense industry facilities, as well as related infrastructure,” the Russian Defense Ministry said, according to TASS.

The ministry also said that it launched “massive strikes” on Kyiv and other Ukrainian regions that it framed as a response to recent major Ukrainian drone attacks, including operations that disrupted the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum several months ago, and an attack that involved over 1,000 drones during Russia’s parliamentary election last month.

Brazil’s presidential race goes to second round as Flávio Bolsonaro leads incumbent Lula

Brazil’s presidential race will go to a second round after the far-right candidate, Flávio Bolsonaro, beat the incumbent leftwing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, but failed to secure the outright majority he needed to avoid a runoff. With more than 99% of votes counted, the 45-year-old son of the disgraced former president, Jair Bolsonaro, had won 47.1%, meaning he will now face a 25 October showdown with his 80-year-old rival. Lula received 45%.

Bolsonaro will go into the second round as favourite and is likely to be boosted by the migration of votes from the election’s other rightwing candidates, who included Ronaldo Caiado, who secured 2.1%, and Renan Santos, who won 2.2%.

Brazil’s far-right put in a stronger than expected showing, with a succession of Bolsonarista politicians winning congressional or gubernatorial races. They included Jair Bolsonaro’s second son, Carlos Bolsonaro, and his wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, who both won seats in the senate. Bolsonaro’s youngest son, Jair Renan, was elected to the lower house of congress. Bolsonaro’s former infrastructure minister, Tarcísio de Freitas, was reelected as governor of São Paulo, Brazil’s most populous and economically important state.

Of the 54 senators elected, 34 were from the right or far right.

Speaking in Sāo Paulo, Lula put a brave face on a difficult night for the left. “We have just had a lesson in Brazilian democracy,” he said. “The result is often unexpected. We can never get everything we wanted. I confess to you that I was convinced I was going to win the election in the first round … But we have a second round.” Lula said Bolsonaro’s “dark past” would become clearer to voters in the lead-up to that vote. “From tomorrow we will launch a new campaign: [and in] a campaign with only two candidates we will be able to show the difference between our proposals for Brazil.”

Damn. False alarm.

Conservative US supreme court justice Samuel Alito hints at retirement in interview

Samuel Alito, the conservative US supreme court justice, has said “I think I have to” contemplate retiring every year at his age. Alito, 76, delivered that comment in a rare interview with CBS News scheduled to air on Monday, a little more than six months after a widely publicized hospital visit invited speculation about his potential retirement.

In a preview clip circulated online by the network, Alito told Jan Crawford, CBS national correspondent, that “I thought about” retiring at the end of the supreme court term that ended in June, saying: “It’s something that I think someone at my age has to think about.”

“But,” Alito continued, “I thought I could still make a valuable contribution – which is why I became a justice and a judge in the first place. So that was basically it.” Crawford then said: “So you’ll be considering this probably every year – rethinking it.” And Alito replied: “Yeah, I think I have to.”

Asked whether he was unduly undermining Republicans’ wish to confirm a conservative replacement at a time when their party controlled the US Senate, Alito rejoined: “It’s too hard to predict … how for anybody, and particularly when you reach a certain age, what your situation will be.

Trump appears to share personal phone number of US senator in ploy to push permanent daylight savings

Donald Trump on Saturday put pressure on the US senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas to support a bill to make daylight saving time permanent, urging Americans to call what appeared to be the personal cellphone number of his fellow Republican and the chair of the Senate intelligence committee.

The Sunshine Protection Act passed the House in July, but it faces roadblocks in the Senate, where some Republicans are strongly opposed to it. Proponents, including the president and his administration, argue that the change would provide more daylight during the times that Americans are most active. Detractors say permanent daylight saving time would lead to darker and potentially more hazardous winter mornings when children will be waiting for school buses and parents will be driving to work in darkness.

Daylight saving time is that period between spring and fall when clocks in most parts of the US are set one hour ahead of standard time. Not all states observe it – and under the bill, states can opt out of the change if their respective legislatures act to do so before the bill’s enactment. “For some reason, Tom is stopping the Bill,” Trump wrote on social media, noting that passing the proposal would give professional golfers more time on the greens. “So, everyone in Arkansas … tell Tom to, GET IT DONE! It will be appreciated by all.”

“Call Tom on his cellphone,” Trump added, and included a phone number with an Arkansas area code. The Associated Press called the number, but no one answered – and the voicemail box was full.

US Added Just 29,000 Jobs, Wage Growth Hit New 5-Year Low Last Month as Trump Economy Teeters

A Friday report from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that the American job market is running on fumes.

According to the BLS, the US economy added just 29,000 jobs in September, which was well below economists’ forecasts of 90,000 jobs added on the month.

Additionally, employment numbers for previous months were revised downward by a total of 60,000 jobs, and BLS now estimates that the economy posted a net loss of 10,000 jobs in July and a net gain of 133,000 jobs in August.

In a Friday social media post, economist Bill McBride noted that the economy over the last year has only created 496,000 jobs, which averages to roughly 41,000 jobs per month. For comparison, the economy created an average of 186,000 jobs per month in the last year of former President Joe Biden’s term.

Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, called the latest jobs numbers “mediocre,” and pointed out that wage growth in September posted just a 3% yearly gain.

“That’s a new five-year low,” Long remarked, “and it’s wiped out entirely by ~3.4% inflation.”

Tahra Hoops, director of economic analysis at Chamber of Progress, also pointed to wage growth failing to keep up with inflation, which she said “gives credibility to the negative consumer sentiment” expressed in recent surveys.

Kyle Moore, chief economist at The Century Foundation, said that the weak wage growth on the month doesn’t tell the full story of the stresses working-class Americans are facing because the numbers “leave out debt, all the bills families have to pay before they can spend any of their paycheck.”

“A worker with debt often can’t afford to miss a paycheck, and therefore can’t afford to quit a bad job or push for a raise,” Moore explained. “That is exactly what we see in today’s job market, with hiring stalled, the quit rate stuck at 1.9%, and wage growth falling as prices climb. Mounting debt, sluggish hiring and real wage growth, and weak social support all disempower workers.”

Moore criticized President Donald Trump and his administration for trying to spin their economic policies as successes given the current numbers.

“Until the Trump administration confronts the reality that debt is eating into workers’ gains—wage gains that are now non-existent, in real terms, for the typical worker,” said Moore, “the gulf between how this administration spins the economy and how working families actually experience it will continue to widen.”

White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett didn’t heed Moore’s advice on this matter, and continued boasting about the state of the economy during a Friday interview.

“If you look at the data from this week, it’s proving that Trumponomics is really working,” said Hassett, “and this is one reason why markets are celebrating so much.”

Breyon Williams, chief economist at Groundwork Collaborative, called the weak jobs report emblematic of how the economy as a whole has performed during Trump’s second term.

“There’s a clear pattern in the Trump economy,” Williams explained. “One sector is creating most of the new jobs, unemployed workers can’t find new jobs, and Americans are seeing their paychecks eaten up by the president’s high prices. When businesses are barely hiring and raises aren’t keeping up with rising prices, it’s a stalled economy—and working families are stuck in it.”

May heatwaves, deaths, ruined harvests: study of Europe’s summer paints grim picture for the future

The scorching heat that persistently baked western Europe this summer was the worst on record, a report has found, with more than half the continent seared by “very strong” heat stress that felt hotter than 38C. Surface air temperatures in western Europe from June to August were 2.5C above the recent decadal average, according to an update from the EU’s Copernicus climate monitoring service on Friday, while milder but still deadly heat across the rest of the continent made the summer Europe’s third hottest on record.

The finding comes as a swelling El Niño of unprecedented strength raises global temperatures and supercharges violent weather from South America to Australia. The natural sea warming pattern, which has broken the temperature record months before its expected peak at the end of the year, is expected to cause almost half a million extra heat-related deaths by February.

In Europe, where El Niño’s effects are felt mostly indirectly – for instance, through higher food prices and inflation – the intense heat experienced this summer is the result of fossil fuel pollution clogging the atmosphere. The report found at least 60% of western Europe suffered through temperatures above 30C on 17 days this summer. In 2003, a year also marked by ferocious heat, this was observed on 11 days, and in 2025 on just seven. The high heat led to a record-breaking 13 days of “very strong” heat stress across western Europe.

Europe saw an abnormally early start to summer-like weather when a powerful heatwave boggled climate scientists in late May, and high heat continued even through September, the report found. Recurring heatwaves, made hotter and more common by climate breakdown, killed tens of thousands of people across the continent while ruining harvests and shutting power plants.

“The consequences extended far beyond temperature records – affecting water availability, energy systems, transport, ecosystems and human health,” said Samantha Burgess, a climate scientist at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. “As the climate continues to warm, events like these underscore the importance of building resilience to increasingly interconnected climate risks.”

Judge Blocks Trump’s Big Bend Border Construction—For Now

A federal judge in El Paso on Friday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from continuing construction of border barriers, roads, and other infrastructure across the Big Bend region, a win for environmentalists, landowners, and other Texans from across the political spectrum who are united in their opposition to the project.

US District Judge Kathleen Cardone—who was appointed by former President George W. Bush—granted a preliminary injunction sought by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and other plaintiffs.

“The court finds that plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of at least one of the claims in [their] suit, that there is a likelihood that they will suffer serious, irreparable harm without an injunction, and that the balance of the equities and the public interest weigh in their favor,” Cardone wrote in her two-page decision.

Cardone’s order immediately prohibits the Department of Homeland Security and its agencies from building “border barrier or related infrastructure” or engaging in “any construction or ground-disturbing activities” in the Big Bend Sector until they comply with applicable laws. It also stays the effect of three Trump administration waivers that had allowed officials to bypass numerous federal protections.

“This is a historic victory for Big Bend and everyone who loves this wild corner of Texas,” said Laiken Jordahl, CBD’s national public lands advocate. “No administration has the right to destroy a crown-jewel national park for political theater.”

“With a federal court ordering the bulldozers to stop, Big Bend gets to breathe,” Jordahl added. “But this fight is far from over. We won’t rest until Big Bend’s environmental protections are fully restored and the illegal waiver that allowed so much destruction is gone for good.”

Clara Bensen, director of communications for No Big Bend Wall and a board member of Conserve Big Bend, also welcomed the ruling.

“For months we’ve watched the federal government send bulldozers into a national park that belongs to all of us. Today a federal judge told them to stop,” she said in a statement.

“Since we learned the Trump administration planned to seize public and private land and destroy the Big Bend region as we know it, this community has come together across the political aisle to fight back,” Bensen added. “The government tried to ignore the law to build unnecessary border infrastructure, and the court made clear it can’t. This is a victory, but we are not letting our guard down.”

The ruling comes after contractors began bulldozing roads and building other infrastructure in and around Big Bend National Park in August, including near Santa Elena Canyon and Mariscal Mountain. US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) temporarily halted construction on August 17, but that pause expired earlier this week.

The Trump administration has argued that the project—which initially included plans for a 30-foot-high reinforced steel wall—is necessary to achieve what it calls “operational control” of the border. Plaintiffs in the case challenged the administration’s determination under Section 102 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 that the region is an area of “high illegal entry,” noting that the government’s claim is contradicted by its own statistics.

The Big Bend Sector is among the least-trafficked portions of the southern border, accounting for roughly a quarter of the international boundary’s length, but no more than 3% of annual migrant apprehensions. The sector recorded just 1.3% of total border apprehensions in 2025, according to CBP data.

Plaintiffs in the case argued that the administration unlawfully used extraordinary powers to waive environmental and other laws, including the Endangered Species Act, National Park Service Organic Act, and National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Indigenous groups alleged violations of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and the Archaeological and Historic Preservation Act.

At Friday’s hearing, Rio Grande river guide and landowner Danny William Miller described the prospect of a barrier cutting across his property and blocking access to the river as “a bullet to the head,” according to The Big Bend Sentinel.

Miller testified that once the landscape is altered, it cannot simply be restored. His guide work, he said, would become “a tour of the military-industrial complex, rather than a tour of the wilderness.”

Another local resident, Bill Guerra-Addington, told the court, “They’re taking the river away from us, and it’s devastating.”

Friday’s injunction is temporary. The underlying lawsuit will continue, and the broader legal battle over Trump’s Big Bend border project—and the administration’s legally dubious waivers—remains unresolved. On Wednesday, US District Judge Orlando Garcia, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, rejected a request from an Indigenous group and business owners for a temporary restraining order in one of several separate cases seeking to halt work on the project.

Still, National Parks Conservation Association president and CEO Tiernan Sittenfeld called Cardone’s order “a victory for Big Bend and for all of America’s national parks.”

“While national park advocates are grateful for this halt to border construction in Big Bend, the devastating toll it has already taken on this national park must be studied and remediated,” she said. “The administration must repair the damage it has done to the beautiful, fragile desert ecosystems that make Big Bend National Park one of America’s most iconic places.”

“The administration’s border plan at Big Bend has faced strong bipartisan opposition from local landowners, experienced local borderland sheriffs, and conservationists alike,” Sittenfeld added. “Big Bend is no place for border barriers. It’s time for the administration to come to the table with the border communities that know Big Bend best, repair the damage from this ill-conceived project, and find new solutions.”

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