Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Joseph Solis-Mullen
“American farmers are in crisis, facing rising costs, disrupted export markets, and mounting financial pressure. While farming has always faced unavoidable challenges, such as weather, pests, and the vagaries of demand, the present problems are entirely of Washington’s making. The Trump administration’s tariffs have damaged critical trading relations, and its war against Iran has disrupted energy and fertilizer trade through the Strait of Hormuz. Washington’s response to beleaguered American agricultural interests has been billions of dollars in emergency aid and promises that future trade deals will deliver additional relief. It is a familiar cycle: Washington creates new risks for American producers, taxpayers absorb part of the resulting losses, and the underlying policies remain in place. Farmers receive temporary assistance but are left to navigate the same uncertain markets and elevated costs that made the assistance necessary.” (0/22/26)
“Thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets on Thursday in the first nationwide opposition protest in nearly two years, as demonstrators demanded free elections and other political changes. The United States has been working closely with the interim government led by acting President Delcy Rodriguez since US forces captured President Nicolas Maduro in January. Both US President Donald Trump and Rodriguez, Maduro’s former deputy, have said there will be elections, but have not set a date either for a legislative vote or a national contest for president. Opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado, who has been outside the country for nearly a year after living in hiding following a contested 2024 election, has said elections must take place by July 2027. Her Vente Venezuela movement organized the protest, which took place in the capital Caracas, as well as cities including Valencia, Maracay, San Cristobal and Maracaibo.” (10/22/26)
“The United States continues to underwrite Europe’s security, forcing Washington to maintain an oversize military and risk American lives and wealth on behalf of prosperous, populous allies able to defend themselves. Yet the Europeans are ever less willing to follow American geopolitical dictates, despite enjoying a de facto subsidy for their more generous welfare states. And Trump’s commercial extortion hurts Americans more than it helps them, raising prices, distorting trade, and inflaming conflict. Washington should instead encourage the emergence of Europe as a friendly, if at times competitive, geopolitical player, able and ready to promote shared economic, political, and other international objectives.” (10/22/26)
“Roadblocks by truckers in southern Italy are exposing the limits of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s hardline approach toward protests, as she concedes she will have to take a carrot-and-stick approach to demonstrators struggling with soaring fuel costs. The demonstrations across the south are fast spiraling into a full-blown economic crisis. Truck drivers and farmers protesting soaring diesel bills have blocked highways, ports and distribution centers this week, leaving supermarket shelves empty and petrol pumps dry. Airports in the south are also suffering from fuel shortages. After a cabinet meeting on Thursday, the right-wing Meloni vowed to use a security decree to clear the roadblocks, but also pledged to give financial relief to farmers and fishermen crippled by the price of diesel.” (10/22/260
“Calley Means, the health entrepreneur who became the Trump administration’s most vocal advocate of the MAHA agenda, resigned from his senior adviser post on Thursday. Means’ departure two weeks before the midterm elections underscores the MAHA base’s discontent with the pace of change on food policy and the administration’s stances on issues like pesticide use. Means cited ‘entrenched, dark forces in DC’ in a statement on X but said he had ‘tremendous respect’ for the way President Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. laid out a vision for change.” (10/22/26)
“Ray Youssef (cryptocurrency pioneer) on activism, peer-to-peer crypto solutions for the Global South; Entrepreneur, Developer, Humanitarian, and CEO of the Resistance.” (10/22/26)
“Yes, President Trump wants an end to the war, but not for the sake of Ukraine or the defense of NATO; rather, to secure ‘economic opportunities’ with Russia. Putin has had Kirill Dmitriev travel to Miami, Moscow, New York and Washington to entice Team Trump to win something that his military cannot deliver — Ukraine. Trump has not been able to deliver Ukraine either. Mr. Art of the Deal cannot close the deal, and he continues using tactics unbecoming of any president before him to pressure Zelensky into making a bad deal.” (10/22/26)
