People’s Party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo pledged today to carry out sweeping right-wing reforms on social issues in Spain, promising to rewrite abortion and euthanasia laws if he wins the Nov. 29 election.

Feijóo vows conservative overhaul if he wins Spain’s Nov. 29 election

The opposition leader reiterated his willingness to govern with the far right while pledging to tighten access to abortion and scrap the Equality Ministry.

politico.eu

This is literally the end of the rule of law. If a President can pardon people committing crimes on his behalf - and the Supreme Court says he himself can't be prosecuted for crimes committed as part of his job - then the government becomes a lawless entity able to violate our rights without limit.

The Washington Sun@washingtonsun.com · 14h ago

New: White House attorneys are evaluating whether to issue mass pardons to junior staffers. https://www.washingtonsun.com/whitehouse/white-house-weighing-mass-pardons-for-junior-staff

JUST POSTED: A Russian energy giant has secretly moved to acquire a position in a massive Alaska gas project. Its part of talks between Witkoff/Kushner & Putin. But CEO of US company resigns after learning of Russian money in the project. A wowzer of a story. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/23/u...

In U.S. Gas Talks With Kremlin, Hidden Financing for Alaska Project Emerges

Interviews and documents show a Russian energy giant secretly funded a U.S. firm. The deal has been discussed in talks to end the war in Ukraine.

nytimes.com

This is appalling, illegal, immoral, and 500 other things, by a private citizen who is not even in the same universe as the chain of command.

NOELREPORTS@noelreports.com · yesterday

❗️Zelensky says Starlink and Starshield speed restrictions are still in place and interceptor deliveries needed against Russian ballistic missiles remain delayed. “This is a real problem, because the Russians attack us almost every day,” he said. #Ukraine

I think it’s bad we have a political/economic system that allows a fascist to contribute half-a-billion dollars to electing fascists.

dell cameron@dell.bsky.social · yesterday

NEW: Elon Musk gave his super PAC $76 million in just two weeks of October, and more than half of its new candidate spending went to one race: the Texas Senate fight against James Talarico. He’s now given more than $445 million this cycle, far more than he spent electing Trump.

The question is: Why did Trump derail peace talks?

POLITICO Europe@politico.eu · 2d ago

Czech President Petr Pavel says a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine was “quite close” – until Donald Trump lifted sanctions on Russian diesel. 🔗 vist.ly/5pjp8

Mark Carney on Elon Musk crippling Ukraine’s Starlink: “I search for the right adjective to describe whoever took this decision… against a country that is literally fighting for the lives of its citizens against naked aggression."

"Had the whole campaign been conducted in a parallel universe, reaching everyone except the people who would decide the result?" Who are the voters we can't see? And how do we reach them? politicalquarterly.org.uk/blog/the-vot...

The fact that the president's doctors are giving him the dementia test over and over again -- tracking his decline, most likely -- and that the president keeps bragging about having to take that test should be a five-alarm fire.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2d ago

Trump: "You know, the first question -- they have a lion, a snake, a giraffe, and a bear. And they say 'which is the snake?' ... by the time you get to number five a lot of people are left out on the road ... I get no credit for it."

Gary King just dropped a study showing that AI peer reviews now dominate human peer reviews on every metric they tested. gking.harvard.edu/peerless/

AI Article Reviews Dominate Human Peer Reviews at Their Best: Evidence and Policy Choices | Gary King

We show that AI-generated article reviews are now better, by every measure we could construct, than reviews written by well-compensated human experts and judged to be of unusually high quality by jour...

gking.harvard.edu

Just as a private equity firm buys out a corporation and strips it for parts, a consultant class is raiding the Democratic Party and getting “generationally wealthy” along the way New from me and @adambonica.bsky.social newrepublic.com/article/2163...

How the Consulting Class Is Eating the Democratic Party

Fundraising costs gobble up most of the funds raised. Billions are spent on TV ads that have virtually no impact. Candidates may win or lose—but the consulting class always wins.

newrepublic.com

A coalition of two kleptocracies.

Anne Applebaum@anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 3d ago

In Venezuela last September, I found people hoping for change, but shocked and surprised by US policy, especially opaque oil deals with former regime cronies. The system looks, one economist told me, like “a coalition of two kleptocracies" www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

The chance to keep global warming below 1.5°C with no overshoot is gone. But urgent action can still limit the overshoot and bring warming back to 1.5°C by 2100. Current policies, however, put the 🌎 on course for up to 2.8°C this century. New #EmissionsGap Report: https://ow.ly/SNHX50ZZz8l

Ukraine was winning the war, so Trump kneecapped Ukraine to help Russia. I wish it weren’t that simple, but it is. Our president is in bed with our enemies.

Again, we can argue about which form/label of less-than-full-democracy best characterizes America in 2026. You may not agree with me that it is "competitive authoritarianism." But everyone should be clear that we do not have "free & fair elections" & any 2026 result is not going to justify that.

Brandon Friedman@brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 3d ago

Voter suppression in Texas is working exactly as it was designed to work. Republicans closed 92 voting locations in the state's largest swing county and now voters are waiting in line two hours to vote.

A disgrace.

Adam Schwarz@adamjschwarz.bsky.social · 4d ago

Steve Witkoff to Putin: "You are a humanitarian also, sir. And I salute that, I commend you, and I thank you again."

Is Trump a Russian asset? At this point this much is clear: if he were a Russian asset, he would be doing exactly what Trump is doing now. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/10...

"Realism" is an empty doctrine - and "realists" are just mimicking Moscow talking points, says @EdwardGLuce giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Putin’s American friends

‘Realist’ critics of Nato echo Moscow’s talking points on Ukraine

giftarticle.ft.com

My brain cannot process this level of corruption. She was being paid $50 million to engineer a pardon from Trump *while working at the Justice Department* as a "Special Government Employee." And it worked. He got the pardon, and she got the money. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/20/u...

A Billionaire Wanted a Trump Pardon. His Family Gave Alina Habba a $50 Million Deal. (Gift Article)

Julio Herrera Velutini, a prominent Venezuelan, was seeking clemency. He got it not long after his daughter gave Ms. Habba, a lawyer close to President Trump, an extraordinarily lucrative job.

nytimes.com

🚨🚨 #ElonMusk ordered #starlink slowdown that blindsided #ukraine. Nonethelese @wsj.com report clarifies that move was coordinated with the #trump administration. www.wsj.com/world/ukrain...

Exclusive | Musk Ordered Starlink Slowdown That Blindsided Ukraine

The SpaceX founder authorized the move and has been discussing Ukraine with Trump, but the president has denied ordering the restrictions.

wsj.com

Literally every single one of his behaviors are inappropriate for a leader of a healthy society. You can just feel him shredding the nation's moral fabric in real time.

Immigrants and immigration are under attack everywhere. My forthcoming book looks at the other side, to examine the people who actually support immigration in Europe. cambridgeblog.org/2026/10/beyo...

I know we are well past the point of needing to know this, but it is astounding how unfit this man is for this position.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 4d ago

😳 Trump snaps at another reporter: "Hey! I don't know who the hell you are but you better be careful"

Legro and Moravcsik (1999)

Nicholas Grossman@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 5d ago

Mearsheimer’s Putin apologetics stand out because they go against the IR theory that made his career. In Offensive Realism, states are inherently power seeking and revisionist, so Russia was always going to try to regain what the USSR lost. This “look what you made me do” BS is utterly discrediting.

This is such a great essay about how to handle AI in universities. openquestionsblog.substack.com/p/ai-is-kill...

AI Is Killing Higher Ed. Here’s How to Save It.

What university administrators must do about rampant cheating with ChatGPT

openquestionsblog.substack.com

Mearsheimer’s Putin apologetics stand out because they go against the IR theory that made his career. In Offensive Realism, states are inherently power seeking and revisionist, so Russia was always going to try to regain what the USSR lost. This “look what you made me do” BS is utterly discrediting.

Edward Luce@edwardluce.bsky.social · 5d ago

"Mearsheimer merits attention because he lends academic respectability to those blaming the west for Russia’s bloody war of conquest. At a moment when the US has swung behind Putin's driove to snuff out Ukraine such cover is invaluable." as.ft.com/r/2861010e-b...

"When this is over, if the Democrats take back the House and at least come close to retaking control of the Senate, high on their agenda must be seeking to get Big Money out of our politics. And also going after the source of much of the Big Money by enacting a national wealth tax"

Robert Reich@rbreich.bsky.social · 7d ago

This election is not really a choice between two parties. Nor will it be a choice between the “left” and the “right.” The real choice is between ever more concentrated wealth and power at the top VS. more wealth and power in what used to be the American working middle class. Some thoughts 👇

This has been Putin's dream for years: That his country, with GDP per capita lower than Poland, unable to conquer Donbas since 2014, will be treated as an equal to the US and China. www.wsj.com/world/russia...

Exclusive | Putin Floats a Summit With Trump and Xi to Discuss Ukraine Deal

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky wouldn’t be included in the proposed talks, as Russia’s leader seeks to negotiate an end to the war that favors Moscow.

wsj.com

Our role as scholars in all this, and our relationship with political parties more generally, is exhausting. No matter how many times we warn them, we seem to have very little impact, while careerists and opinion columnists increasingly dominate the debate.

Vicente Valentim@valentimvicente.bsky.social · 6d ago

The Spanish center right have announced a hard liner as their candidate in Barcelona, to try and prevent far right growth. All over Europe, we keep seeing mainstream politicians responding to far right success by accommodating them. (Evidence: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...)