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Category: Politics

The Islamophobic attacks on Zohran Mamdani carry the weight of history and the urgency of the present

The Islamophobic attacks on Zohran Mamdani carry the weight of history and the urgency of the present

Rozina Ali writes: In the autumn of 2008, Colin Powell, the former Secretary of State under George W. Bush, broke from the Republican Party and endorsed the Democratic nominee for President, Barack Obama. It had been a brutal summer of electoral warfare. Rumors that Obama was Muslim swirled, becoming a significant aspect of the media coverage of his campaign. A group working with his opponent, John McCain, called people in swing states, planted doubts about Obama’s religious background, and asked…

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How Mamdani built bridges to Jewish New Yorkers

How Mamdani built bridges to Jewish New Yorkers

The Forward reports: In his quest to become the first Muslim mayor of the city that is home to the largest Jewish community in the United States, Zohran Mamdani has created a rare coalition of progressive Jews, liberal Zionists, and segments of the Hasidic community. Mamdani, a democratic socialist and critic of Israel, has been boosted by local Jewish elected officials and embraced by prominent rabbis, even as the frontrunner continues to struggle to earn the trust of many Jewish…

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Why the crisis everyone mourns reveals liberal tradition at its most vital

Why the crisis everyone mourns reveals liberal tradition at its most vital

Mike Brock writes: This is, after all, a philosophy blog. And right now, a strange paradox confronts us: at the precise moment when everyone declares liberalism dead or dying, the liberal tradition is displaying more intellectual vitality than I’ve witnessed in my lifetime. The despair is everywhere. Establishment liberals mourn the end of technocratic consensus. Progressives declare the Enlightenment project failed. Conservatives celebrate democracy’s inevitable collapse. Neo-reactionaries publish blueprints for what comes after. Even defenders of liberal democracy often sound…

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‘Get out of our neighborhood!’: Chicago locals take on ICE block-by-block

‘Get out of our neighborhood!’: Chicago locals take on ICE block-by-block

Reuters reports: The immigration agents’ tear gas grenades clinked and then exploded against the concrete, shrouding the block in plumes of white gas. The dozen or so residents at the scene only screamed louder. “We don’t want you here,” yelled Rae Lindenberg. The 32-year-old, who works in marketing, ran out of her apartment when she heard the shrill sound of whistles. “Get out of our neighborhood!” The squad of agents had appeared in Lakeview last month, an upscale neighborhood dotted…

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Strong-arm tactics led by Border Patrol’s Bovino are the new norm in Chicago as ICE leadership gets sidelined

Strong-arm tactics led by Border Patrol’s Bovino are the new norm in Chicago as ICE leadership gets sidelined

Chicago Tribune reports: Cameras rolling, Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino sailed down the Chicago River in a convoy of government boats. His men held rifles as videographers filmed the stunt later posted to their social media. The Trump administration had just launched an operation in the city to pursue “the worst of the worst” criminal undocumented immigrants. Homeland Security used the footage for a music video set to Alice in Chains’ “Rooster” ending with Bovino smiling into the distance. In…

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Michigan lawyer says a Halloween terror plot that FBI Director Kash Patel announced never existed

Michigan lawyer says a Halloween terror plot that FBI Director Kash Patel announced never existed

The Associated Press reports: A Michigan defense lawyer is disputing FBI Director Kash Patel’s allegations that his 20-year-old client and four other young suspects were planning to carry out a terror attack on Halloween weekend. Announcing their arrests on Friday, Patel said more information would be coming soon, however the FBI and Michigan authorities have offered few details about the case. Spokespersons for the state and national FBI and the U.S. Attorney in Detroit did not immediately respond to messages…

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Nick Fuentes is entering the MAGA mainstream

Nick Fuentes is entering the MAGA mainstream

Ali Breland writes: Tucker Carlson slapped his nicotine-pouch container down on the table and got straight into it: “Nick Fuentes, thank you for doing this,” he said. “I want to understand what you believe, and I want to give you a chance, in a minute, to just lay it out.” The two were sitting in Carlson’s barn turned podcast studio at his home in Maine. In a more-than-two-hour-long episode of The Tucker Carlson Show that aired earlier this week, Carlson…

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ICE plans cash rewards for private bounty hunters to locate and track immigrants

ICE plans cash rewards for private bounty hunters to locate and track immigrants

The Intercept reports: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is considering hiring private bounty hunters to locate immigrants across the country, according to a procurement document reviewed by The Intercept. Under the plan, bounty hunters may receive “monetary bonuses” depending on how successfully they track down their targets — and how many immigrants they then report to ICE. According to the document, which solicits information from interested contractors for a potentially forthcoming contract opportunity, companies hired by ICE will be given…

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ICE has powerful Clearview AI facial recognition app that Illinois cops are barred from using

ICE has powerful Clearview AI facial recognition app that Illinois cops are barred from using

Chicago Sun-Times reports: The Trump administration has wiped a facial recognition policy from its website while further embracing the controversial technology and securing a $9 million contract with a company barred from selling to Illinois law enforcement agencies. The ban was the result of a lawsuit filed in Cook County that alleged Clearview AI’s massive database of photographs pulled from across the internet violated a landmark state law protecting people’s personal information. But a settlement of the case didn’t apply…

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Andrew should answer Epstein questions in Congress, Democrats say

Andrew should answer Epstein questions in Congress, Democrats say

BBC News reports: Members of a US congressional committee investigating the Jeffrey Epstein case have intensified their calls for Andrew Mountbatten Windsor to answer questions about his links to the late sex offender. King Charles stripped his brother of his “prince” title on Thursday, following months of pressure over Andrew’s ties to Epstein. Andrew has always denied wrongdoing. At least four Democrat members of the House Oversight Committee have since renewed their calls for Andrew to testify – although the…

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Harrison Ford on Trump: ‘I don’t know of a greater criminal in history’

Harrison Ford on Trump: ‘I don’t know of a greater criminal in history’

The Guardian reports: Harrison Ford has said that Donald Trump’s assault upon measures to address the climate crisis “scares the shit out of me” and makes the US president among the worst criminals in history. In a blistering attack upon the president, Ford told the Guardian that Trump “doesn’t have any policies, he has whims. It scares the shit out of me. The ignorance, the hubris, the lies, the perfidy. [Trump] knows better, but he’s an instrument of the status…

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Trump holds Gilded Age Halloween party as 42 million Americans lose food aid

Trump holds Gilded Age Halloween party as 42 million Americans lose food aid

Raw Story reports: As 42 million Americans missed their first food assistance payment Saturday amid the ongoing government shutdown, President Trump attended a Great Gatsby–themed Halloween party at his Mar-a-Lago resort — sparking outrage from critics who described the event as ‘tone deaf.” “Trump and Rubio at the Mar-a-Lago Halloween Party, on day 31 of the shutdown,” wrote Danny Kemp, the White House correspondent for AFP, in a social media post on X Friday night. “Official theme is Gatsby and…

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More than 100 judges have ruled against the Trump admin’s mandatory immigrant detention policy

More than 100 judges have ruled against the Trump admin’s mandatory immigrant detention policy

Politico reports: It’s one of the most thorough legal rebukes in recent memory. More than 100 federal judges have now ruled at least 200 times that the Trump administration’s effort to systematically detain immigrants facing possible deportation appeared to violate their rights or was just flatly illegal, according to a POLITICO review. The rulings come from judges appointed by every president since Ronald Reagan, including 12 appointed by President Donald Trump. One of those appointees took the bench just last…

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U.S. pressure on Venezuela won’t bring about rapid collapse of Maduro – in fact, it might boomerang on Washington

U.S. pressure on Venezuela won’t bring about rapid collapse of Maduro – in fact, it might boomerang on Washington

A man rides past a poster of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and an anti-tank barricade in Caracas on Oct. 28, 2025. Juan Barreto/AFP via Getty Images By Robert Muggah, Instituto Igarapé; Princeton University The U.S. military buildup along South America’s northern rim is, Washington insists, aimed at “narco-terrorists.” A growing chorus of analysts aren’t convinced; they suspect what the Trump administration is really after is regime change in Venezuela. Nicolás Maduro, the country’s leader since 2013, is taking no chances….

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Epstein: JPMorgan alerted U.S. to potentially suspicious transfers involving Leon Black, Alan Dershowitz et al

Epstein: JPMorgan alerted U.S. to potentially suspicious transfers involving Leon Black, Alan Dershowitz et al

The New York Times reports: Weeks after Jeffrey Epstein died in federal custody in 2019 awaiting prosecution on sex-trafficking charges, JPMorgan Chase filed a report alerting the U.S. government to tens of millions of dollars of potentially suspicious transactions involving him and prominent Wall Street and business figures. The so-called suspicious activity report that JPMorgan filed identified transactions with Leon Black, the co-founder of private equity firm Apollo Global Management; Glenn Dubin, a well-known hedge fund manager; the lawyer Alan…

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Jasmine Crockett on Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene and the Democratic Party

Jasmine Crockett on Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene and the Democratic Party

  Politico: For liberals who lament the Democratic Party’s ongoing struggle to break through with their messaging, the emergence of Rep. Jasmine Crockett represents a rare jolt of good news. Here, finally, is a Democrat who’s eager to tangle with Republicans on Capitol Hill and gets plenty of media attention for doing it. Someone who gets invited onto Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show to talk about President Donald Trump and his cognitive tests. And Crockett is game. Now, not every member…

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