“A bomb exploded Tuesday near a bridge that crosses Colombia’s border with Venezuela, injuring at least four police officers in the Colombian city of Cucuta, officials said. Norte de Santander provincial Gov. William Villamizar said on X that police were investigating who was responsible for the attack. The explosion was set off in front of the local branch of Colombia’s tax collection agency near the Francisco de Paula de Santander International bridge. Footage of the aftermath showed a truck and several motorcycles that were damaged by the blast. The attack comes as Colombia’s conservative government changes the nation’s security strategy and takes a more confrontational approach towards gangs and rebel groups.” (10/27/26)
“The group was looking around for an available wall. Activists with Indivisible Kansas City were targeting Jon Patterson, the Speaker of the Missouri House of Representatives, who is seeking a seat in the state Senate in a battleground race against Democratic state Rep. Keri Ingle. They had flyers to hand out, but Krista Mann, who organized the action, had also created a slide presentation reminding voters about Patterson’s longtime support for data centers. The slides explained that Patterson personally prevented votes on transparency measures and supported a bill allowing Missouri power companies to charge ratepayers for building electricity infrastructure ‘to provide the power that we need for the data centers’. Mann hooked a portable projector into her computer and displayed the presentation on a brick facade outside a bank. They called it a ‘guerrilla projection’.” (10/27/26)
Source: Wall Street Journal
by Mary Anastasia O’Grady
“Brazil’s leftist President Luiz Inácio ‘Lula’ da Silva of the Workers’ Party defeated Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the conservative Liberal Party in a runoff election Sunday. Going into the vote, pollsters gave Mr. Bolsonaro the edge but Lula had narrowed the gap. With 99% of the vote counted Lula had 52% to Mr. Bolsonaro’s 48%. This is a bitter disappointment for conservatives. But they’ll do well to note that Lula will take the oath of office Jan. 5 with the Brazilian right having gained ground. Mr. Bolsonaro surprised pollsters when he finished first in the first round on Oct. 4 with 47% of the vote against Lula’s 45.2%. Down ballot the right did even better. In the Senate, the Liberals won 19 seats out of 54 contested.” (10/25/26)
“Over the weekend, Barack Obama appeared at a campaign rally for Democrats in Ohio and managed to make some headlines by ridiculing President Trump’s design skills. ‘He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory’, the former president quipped. The crowd, of course, loved it. The media did too. Republicans responded with some mockery of their own, pointing out that Obama has little room to talk about design preferences, given the architectural monstrosity that is his presidential library in Chicago. All things considered, Obama accomplished what he set out to do: he made himself the center of attention, which is the only place, apparently, that he feels comfortable. Now, I know what you’re thinking: Obama? The guy who left office ten years ago? Why is this multi-deci-millionaire running around the country trying to get socialists and socialist-adjacent candidates (including Abdul El-Sayed) elected to high office?” (10/26/26)
“There are certainly still millions of God-fearing, patriotic Americans remaining in the country. And they’ll vote next week. But the question has become: Are there enough of us left to save the nation? To too many Americans, politics and politicians have become the do-all and end-all for the country. To them, government is the new Messiah, and the people who work in it are our only hope and saviors. Thus, ‘electing the right people’ is the redemption of the nation. Countless Americans have now been taught to look at the world horizontally, at fallible, carnal, secular humans who have virtually no wisdom to deliver us, rather than looking up where the only answers are truly found.” (10/26/26)
“New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani faced viral backlash on Friday after posting instructions in Spanish on how residents should handle interactions with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). … Mamdani explained ‘what every New Yorker should know’ if they ‘encounter ICE’, adding that ICE ‘cannot enter private spaces like your home, school, hospitals or private areas of a workplace without a judicial warrant signed by a judge.’ Mamdani reminded New Yorkers they have the right to remain silent and gives tips on best practices for interacting with ICE, saying that ‘these are very frightening times for many people’. Mamdani’s post was quickly criticized by conservatives on social media, with many characterizing the video as the mayor encouraging obstruction of federal law enforcement and encouraging illegal immigration.” (10/26/26)
“How will historians view the 2026 midterm elections? My guess is that many of them will write that ‘the Affordability Crisis’ helped save democracy. Without a dumb war and high diesel prices, Donald Trump’s autocratic behavior might have been validated at the polls. Imagine a world where 2027 and 2028 were more sinister versions of 2025. Look instead for a neutered beast. For all the talk about the House and Senate, these midterms may be remembered by history for a race for governor—a campaign that featured the most disgusting political ad in the history of television. Echoing Roy Cohn’s maxim to never, ever admit error, Donald Trump and JD Vance (Vivek Ramaswamy’s close friend and Yale Law classmate) doubled down on a child molester who raped both his daughter and, later, his stepdaughter. The latter was 12-year-old Amy Acton, now expected to be the governor-elect of Ohio.” (10/26/26)
“Voter ID is the only way to fix California’s broken election system. That’s the only reasonable conclusion from Sunday’s extraordinary hearing at the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. A three-judge panel heard the Trump administration’s case against non-citizen voting in California. Earlier this month, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) gave California a thumb drive with 20,000 names on it, ostensibly containing the names of suspected non-citizens who had registered to vote in the state. State and county officials, who had already sent ballots out by mail, refused to open it. So the DOJ sued in district court, hoping to force California to set aside those 20,000 ballots if and when they came in. Time is of the essence: ballots are already being mailed back, and counted. And once they are in, it’s almost impossible to fish them out again.” (10/25/26)
“A United Airlines flight heading to New Jersey returned to Las Vegas following an apparent hijacking threat Saturday. United Flight 1681 was carrying 150 passengers and six crew members from Harry Reid International Airport to Newark Liberty International Airport on Oct. 24 when a flight attendant noticed a traveler sending messages with reference to taking control of the plane. The crew member did not engage with the passenger and quickly alerted the pilot. ‘The flight attendant saw him texting that he was going to hijack the aircraft. They called me. We went into lockdown, and we returned to Vegas,’ the flight’s pilot told an air traffic controller shortly after the plane took off, reported CBS News. When the controller inquired whether the passenger was cooperative or under restraint, the pilot said that the traveler showed ‘no restraint’ because ‘he’s unaware’.” (10/26/26)
“Mary Peltola, Alaska’s Democratic Senate candidate, has paused campaigning ahead of the US midterm elections after sustaining ‘minor injuries’ in a car crash. Peltola, 53, and her family were travelling to an event on Saturday when the vehicle they were in was hit by another driver, her campaign said in a statement. She is running in one of the most closely watched races in the elections, which take place on 3 November – one that could help decide the balance of power in government. Peltola has rescheduled campaign events ‘as she takes time to recover’ on the advice of medical professionals, her campaign manager, Cheryl Bruce, said in a statement. ‘Mary and her family sustained minor injuries but are in good spirits,’ Bruce said.” (10/26/26)
