THANK YOU to supporter AT, whose $25 donation over the weekend brings our annual fundraiser total to (as of 5am) $1,053!
After a fantastic start, our “once and only once a year” fundraising event has slowed in pace … and that sucks, because the more quickly we reach our goal, the more quickly I stop talking about money entirely for the rest of 2026 and mostly for the first nine months of 2027.
Our goal is $5,503. Supporter GL has pledged to “match funds” for half of that, but not until we raise the FIRST half from you.
We’re 38% of the way there.
Let’s hit 50% — $1375.75 — TODAY.
PLEASE SUPPORT THE FREEDOM MOVEMENT’S DAILY NEWSPAPER!
“Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a vocal critic of U.S. President Donald Trump, was reelected Sunday in a result that provides relief to critics of widening U.S. influence in Latin America. With 100% of the vote counted, Brazil’s electoral court announced that the soon to be 81-year-old Lula had a lead of nearly 4.4 million votes over opponent Flávio Bolsonaro, giving him 51.8% of the total vote. Bolsonaro quickly refused to concede defeat and asked for the election results to be annulled after an evening of chaos at some polling places that followed a last-minute decision to extend voting by two hours.” (10/26/26)
“A Russian strike on Ukraine’s southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia injured four people overnight, regional governor Mykhailo Semikin said on Telegram on Monday. Two more were injured in Russian strikes on the Chernihiv region, Ukraine’s emergency service said on the messaging app. Also on Telegram, the Russian defence ministry said it hit a power station in Ukraine’s second largest city of Kharkiv, a warehouse in the surrounding region and another power station in the Khmelnitskiy region.” (10/26/26)
“Serbia’s longtime nationalist strongman, Aleksandar Vucic, conceded defeat Sunday in a general election held after his once-tight grip on power was weakened by nearly two years of student-led street protests. Serbia’s vote for a new Parliament came just six months after voters in neighboring Hungary rejected their own populist nationalist leader, Viktor Orban, a close ally of Mr. Vucic. The Serbian leader had adopted many of the Hungarian’s authoritarian methods — and, at the end, his gracious acceptance of defeat, as well. … Vucic, Europe’s longest-serving leader outside the former Soviet Union, has been Serbia’s dominant political figure since 2012, serving as both president and prime minister, a post he had hoped to regain after Sunday’s election.” (10/25/26)
“A federal appeals court appeared unlikely to immediately agree to the Trump administration’s bid to segregate 20,000 California ballots it says are likely noncitizen voters, expressing skepticism at a rare Sunday hearing that a trial judge needs to move quicker. ‘I don’t see how we have jurisdiction,’ said U.S. Circuit Judge Mark Bennett. The Justice Department (DOJ) sued California earlier this month as the state rebuffed claims that it sent ballots to 20,000 likely noncitizens as part of its universal mail voting program. The DOJ wants the ballots segregated and verified before they can be counted. It’s one of multiple lawsuits the administration has launched in recent weeks as the midterm elections quickly approach. A trial judge is set to hold a hearing on Tuesday, but the DOJ says action is needed sooner, because ballots are already being submitted.” (10/25/26)
“After more than 10 months in exile, Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel laureate María Corina Machado has returned home to a political landscape that has been reshaped by her ally the United States without her involvement. ‘In Venezuela! Together! For freedom!’ she posted on X Sunday night, alongside a video of her greeting a crowd of cheering supporters that surrounded her car, waving Venezuelan flags and blasting joyous music. … Machado had attempted to re-enter Venezuela seven times over the past few months without success, according to her advisers.” (10/25/26)
“The opposition Conservative Party won an election in the Canadian province of British Columbia for the first time in nearly 100 years, promising to ramp up liquefied natural gas production, provisional results showed on Sunday. The result marks an end to nine years of power for the left-of-center New Democrats, who voiced opposition to new oil pipelines and supported a ban on tankers along the province’s northern coast. The right-leaning Conservatives won 64 of the 93 seats and the New Democrats won 27. It is the first Conservative provincial election win since 1928.” (10/25/26)
“Prosecutors indicted a 20-year-old US Marine on Sunday on suspicion of robbing and murdering a woman in Okinawa earlier this month as the case renews anti-base sentiment among locals burdened with hosting the bulk of US military installations in Japan. Devin Ballard, who is stationed at Futenma Air Base, is charged with killing the woman by wrapping a phone cord around her neck at a hotel in Naha, the capital of the southern island prefecture, and taking her backpack containing a wallet on October 3, according to the indictment. The cause of death was suffocation, it said. … Following the incident, Okinawa Governor Genta Koja has stepped up calls on the central government to take preventive measures, with locals already angered by past crimes committed by American service members, including those against women and girls, in addition to noise and pollution issues.” (10/25/26)
“In his first rally of the 2026 midterm cycle, former President Barack Obama slammed President Donald Trump and Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, calling out the latter’s much-maligned campaign ad centering on Democrat Amy Acton’s mother. ‘There’s gotta be something inside you where you just say no office is worth stooping that low,’ Obama said of Ramaswamy’s choice to run the ad. With the midterms just over a week away, Obama was rallying in Cleveland in support of Acton and Democratic Senate candidate Sherrod Brown. Trump, Obama said, had broken a slew of promises he made on the campaign trail in 2024, ensnaring the country in an ongoing war in Iran and failing to bring down costs. Instead, ‘he’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory,’ the former president said, taking aim at Trump’s renovations to the executive mansion.” (10/24/26)
“Ugandan citizens returning to the country with a history of travel to Democratic Republic of Congo will be quarantined for 21 days, Health Minister Chris Baryomunsi said on Sunday as Uganda tightened Ebola precautions despite saying it remained Ebola-free. Uganda has been investigating a Nigerian Ebola case involving a woman who had travelled from Uganda. Officials said they were reviewing genomic sequencing, travel information, interactions and movements in coordination with Nigerian authorities and international partners.” (10/25/26)
