“The 1998 action thriller Enemy of the State (RIP Gene Hackman) imagined a world in which government surveillance could follow an ordinary citizen almost anywhere, drawing on cameras, communications data, and increasingly sophisticated technology to monitor his movements. What once played as an exaggerated warning about the surveillance state now looks considerably less exotic. Some of today’s most consequential surveillance infrastructure is far less dramatic than the machinery of a Hollywood thriller. Instead of hidden trackers in your buttons and shoes, you instead have cameras mounted on utility poles, quietly recording your every move.” (09/29/26)
“A jury deliberating on a federal bribery charge against Trayon White, a Washington, D.C., councilmember, could not come to a unanimous decision, leading to a mistrial Monday. The jury, eight women and four women, told U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras that they could not agree on a decision after four days of deliberations. A meeting will take place after Oct. 14 to what happens next. … White was allegedly shown on video accepting envelopes full of cash from business owner Allieu Kamara, who reportedly said he wanted the favor of D.C. officials. White was arrested in August 2024. White and his defense attorney said that there was no crime: that White accepted money but that it was not a bribe and there was no quid pro quo. Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for D.C., said she plans to retry the case.” (09/28/26)
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Sam Fraser & William Hartung
“With Trump’s overall polling numbers cratering, Democrats appear to have a decisive advantage in November’s midterms. Yet this has not translated into a lead in foreign affairs, where polling suggests the two parties are essentially tied. This reality may stem from the fact that, while Democrats have correctly lambasted the president’s actions abroad, the party — and especially its top leadership — has yet to articulate a vision for U.S. foreign policy that reckons with how Trump’s two terms have changed the world and America’s role in it.” (09/28/26)
“As Americans struggle to pay for gas, groceries, and other necessities, Donald Trump has found a new use for their tax dollars: promoting himself and his party in the midterms. In the last week, the Trump administration has spent more than $1.7 million in federal funds to run three ads on TV, including on Fox News during primetime, on a Sunday-morning political show, and on NFL games. The White House calls these videos ‘public service announcements.’ In reality, they’re obvious campaign ads. And Trump, through taxation and unauthorized spending, is forcing Americans to pay for them.” (09/28/26)
“EU lawmakers are calling for the Commission to forbid European firms and banks from applying U.S. sanctions, as Washington weighs sanctioning the International Criminal Court over its actions concerning Israel. The U.S. has already targeted nine of the court’s judges and four prosecutors since the Netherlands-based institution issued a warrant for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. ‘To protect its values, [the EU] needs to protect the ICC and the people who work there. It means … activating the blocking statute,’ said Dutch lawmaker Dirk Gotink of the center-right European People’s Party after a closed-door meeting of the economy committee on Monday evening.” (09/28/26)
“SpaceX’s next-generation Starship rocket came back to Earth earlier than planned after its first orbital flight Monday, with an explosion visible on the company’s livestream just after touchdown in the Pacific Ocean. … Starship launched from South Texas just before 9 a.m. ET on a planned test flight of about 10 hours. It was set to orbit Earth about six times before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, west of Chile. But SpaceX decided to bring it back to Earth after only about 3 hours. As part of the mission, Starship deployed 26 of the company’s new, better-performing Starlink V3 internet satellites. The cause of the apparent explosion was not immediately clear, and the company didn’t offer any details.” (09/28/26)
“For all his talk about defeating ‘radical left lunatics,’ the president seems awfully cozy in their company. In the span of a week, Donald Trump managed to pose for chummy photo ops with New York’s democratic socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, and Venezuela’s illegitimate leader, Delcy Rodríguez. Last Wednesday, he rounded out his leftist tour de force by kicking off a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Smiling for the camera doesn’t make Trump a socialist — but the White House’s growing corporate portfolio might. … a democratic socialism that endorses ‘public ownership’ of large corporations and shrinking the workweek ‘with no reduction in pay or benefits’ used to be the kind of nonsense that Republicans could argue against. Today, the GOP could have credibility as the alternative to socialists only if its leader quit acting like one.” (09/28/26)
