“The Trump administration plans to federalize 300 members of the Illinois National Guard, Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker said Saturday. Pritzker said the guard received word from the Pentagon in the morning that the troops would be called up. He did not specify when or where they would be deployed, but President Donald Trump has long threatened to send troops to Chicago. ‘This morning, the Trump Administration’s Department of War gave me an ultimatum: call up your troops, or we will,’ Pritzker said in a statement. ‘It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a Governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will.’ A spokesperson for the governor’s office said she could not provide additional details. The White House and the Pentagon did not respond to questions about Pritzker’s statement.” (10/04/25)
“Just one day after Apple took down the iOS App Store listing for ICEBlock, Google has confirmed to 404 Media that it has removed a similar app, Red Dot, from the Google Play Store. The company also reportedly said it ‘removed apps that share the location of what it describes as a vulnerable group after a recent violent act against them connected to this sort of app.’ On Thursday, Apple removed ICEBlock and similar apps, including Red Dot, after facing pressure from the Department of Justice. Attorney General Pam Bondi said to Fox News on Thursday that ‘ICEBlock is designed to put ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs, and violence against law enforcement is an intolerable red line that cannot be crossed.'” (10/03/25)
“The government shutdown costs taxpayers $400 million every day to pay federal employees who are not actively working, totaling $1.2 billion as of Friday, Congressional Budget Office (CBO) data published by the office of Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, estimates. … A law passed in 2019 requires furloughed employees receive backpay after a funding agreement is reached and a shutdown ends. The CBO found that the furloughed employees’ daily cost of compensation sits at about $400 million, or a total of $1.2 billion as of Friday.” (10/04/25)
“Police in Georgia have clashed with anti-government protesters trying to storm the presidential palace in the capital, Tbilisi. Security forces used water cannons and pepper spray to disperse demonstrators. The Caucasus country has been in crisis since the ruling Georgian Dream party claimed victory in last year’s parliamentary election, which the pro-European Union opposition says was stolen. Since then the government has paused talks on joining the EU. The protest took place on the same day as local elections, which the opposition is largely boycotting following a government crackdown. One organiser had earlier called for leaders of the Georgian Dream party to be arrested. Waving Georgian and EU flags, tens of thousands of protesters marched in central Tbilisi on Saturday.” (10/04/25)
“Iran executed six death-row inmates Saturday it alleged carried out attacks in the country’s oil-rich southwest on behalf of Israel, the latest prisoners to be put to death in a wave of executions believed to be the highest in decades. The executions follow the 12-day Iran-Israel war in June, which ended with Tehran vowing it would target its enemies at home and abroad. However, activists warn Iran often relies on coerced confessions and closed-door trials in its death penalty cases, particularly those involving Israel.” (10/04/25)
“Taylor Swift’s surprise midnight Friday album drop has taken over the internet and quickly worked itself into the current biggest personal rivalry in American politics. Gov. Gavin Newsom released a TikTok video Friday afternoon showing a montage of his interactions with President Donald Trump set to Swift’s new song ‘Actually Romantic.’ The video shows Trump’s tweets attacking Newsom captioned with the lyrics, ‘It’s actually sweet, all the time you’ve spent on me.’ The Friday video is only the latest jab in a duel that’s come to epitomize the subterranean lows American political dialogue has reached. Trump has spent the past decade eroding political norms with a constant stream of name-calling, overstatements, outright lies and all-caps social media posts aimed at whoever crosses his mind. Newsom has recently responded in kind, with his own stream of rants and foul-mouthed social media posts, usually aimed at Trump or one of Trump’s followers.” (10/03/25)
“U.S. Border Patrol agents shot an armed woman in Chicago Saturday after an angry mob tried to attack the law enforcement officers. The group of agents were conducting their routine patrol near 39th Place and South Kedzie Avenue in the city’s South Side ‘when they were attacked and rammed by vehicles and boxed in by 10 cars,’ the Department of Homeland Security said. ‘The officers exited their trapped vehicle, when a suspect tried to run them over, forcing the officers to fire defensively,’ according to DHS, which called the incident ‘an evolving situation’ and noted FBI agents were currently on the scene. The suspect, who is a U.S. citizen, was armed with a semi-automatic weapon, department spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said.” (10/04/25)
“Hundreds of thousands of people marched through central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists. People with banners and flags, chanting ‘Free Palestine’ and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organisers said attracted more than 1 million people, while police put the figure at around 250,000. … Towards the end of the march, around 200 people broke away and clashed with officers in riot gear near the St. Mary Major basilica, police said. Officers responded with tear gas and water cannons. In later incidents, protesters set fire to a couple of cars and several rubbish bins, and hurled firecrackers at officers, police said, adding they detained 12 suspects and took down the names of 262 people.” (10/04/25)
“Billionaire businessman Andrej Babis has won parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic, although his populist ANO party fell short of an overall majority. ANO received just under 35% of the vote, earning them 80 seats in the 200-seat lower house – up from 72 seats four years ago, according to preliminary results. Babis – who served as prime minister from 2017 to 2021 – is expected to be invited to lead talks on forming a new coalition. ‘This is a historic success,’ Andrej Babis announced to cheering supporters at the ANO headquarters in the suburbs of Prague. He’d entered the building holding aloft a Bluetooth speaker blasting a remix of the 1981 hit ‘Sarà perché ti amo’ by the Italian pop trio Ricchi e Poveri. The same song resounded across the stage as he accepted the applause. Some colleagues – including the former finance minister Alena Schillerova – danced along to the beat.” (10/04/25)
“A federal judge blocked President Donald Trump’s call-up of 200 National Guard troops in Oregon, ruling on Saturday that Trump’s claims of daily unrest in Portland were ‘untethered to facts’ and risked plunging the nation into an unconstitutional form of military rule. ‘This is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law,’ wrote U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee. Immergut said Trump’s decision to enlist members of Oregon’s National Guard was based on false claims about nightly unrest targeting federal immigration authorities and buildings in Portland. Though Trump described the city as ‘war-ravaged’ and wracked with violence, police said immigration-related protests had been small, manageable and largely peaceful in the days leading up to Trump’s pronouncement.” (10/04/25)
