US regime sanctions Colombia’s Petro, escalating Trump feud

Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]

“The United States Department of the Treasury has slapped sanctions on Colombian President Gustavo Petro, his family and the South American country’s interior minister, Armando Benedetti. Friday’s decision marks a significant escalation in the ongoing feud between the left-wing Petro and his US counterpart, the right-wing Donald Trump. In a statement, the US Treasury accused Petro of failing to rein in Colombia’s cocaine industry and of shielding criminal groups from accountability.” (10/24/25)

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/24/us-sanctions-colombias-president-gustavo-petro-escalating-trump-feud

Thomas L. Knapp

Weekend Special Edition (and Year-End Fundraiser Update)

Hey, everyone …

We’ve got a short (20-item) “weekend special edition” for you this morning.

And, of course, a year-end fundraiser update.

Friday was a “zero-dollar day,” with our total so far remaining at $785.50 (as of 5am on Saturday) versus our goal of $5,501.

Once we’ve raised half our total ($2,750.50), reader GL will “match funds” for the rest. But to get that SECOND half, we have to raise the FIRST half, and that’s where you come in. We’re a reader-supported publication; you’re a reader; please support us at:

https://news.rationalreview.com/support-rrnd

Setting “mini-goals” seems to help, so here’s one: $131.34 by Monday morning.

That would get us to $916.84, the 1/3 mark, putting us a few days ahead of schedule to hit the goal before December 31. If you value the freedom movement’s daily newspaper at $131.34, or some fraction thereof, please kick in at:

https://news.rationalreview.com/support-rrnd

Enjoy your weekend!

Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily

Thomas L. Knapp

Pentagon orders carrier to Caribbean, escalating “Operation Forget About the Epstein Files”

Source: Washington Post

“The Pentagon on Friday signaled a major expansion of its military campaign against ‘Transnational Criminal Organizations’ in Latin America, saying it will deploy the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford and its associated warships to the region in coming days. … The carrier will join an armada that has been assembled in the Caribbean in recent weeks. Other vessels there include the destroyers USS Jason Dunham, USS Gravely, USS Stockdale, the guided-missile cruiser Lake Erie, and the littoral combat ship Wichita. The Navy and Marine Corps also have combined to deploy the Iwo Jima amphibious ready group, a three-ship task force that includes more sailors and Marines, off the coast of Venezuela.” (10/24/25)

https://archive.is/LNUZK

Thomas L. Knapp

A Trumpian Headache

Source: Antiwar.com
by Andrew P Napolitano

“President Donald Trump’s use of the U.S. military to kill persons on speed boats in international waters, or in territorial waters claimed by other sovereign nations – all 1,500 miles from the U.S. – has posed grave issues of due process. The Constitution’s guarantee of due process requires it for every person, not just Americans. … The Trump administration has claimed that it can kill whomever it designates as an unlawful enemy combatant … and the due process it provides is the intelligence gathered by American spies and the White House analysis of that intelligence. This secret analysis, the government’s argument goes, satisfies the president that the folks he has ordered killed are engaging in serious and harmful criminal behavior, and somehow is a lawful and constitutional substitute for the jury trial and its attendant procedural protections that the Constitution commands.” (10/24/25)

https://original.antiwar.com/andrew-p-napolitano/2025/10/23/a-trumpian-headache/

Thomas L. Knapp

Obamacare Was Never Affordable

Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Gary M Galles

“The focus of the current government shutdown circus has increasingly narrowed to Democrat demands to undo proposed reductions in very large, supposedly temporary, Covid-era Obamacare (Affordable Care Act) subsidy boosts. A major part of their public push is the claim that they are trying to save citizens money, though what they are actually demanding is that we shift the burden to future generations via increased federal debt, backed by the threat of demonizing Republicans as heartless for taking away any benefits. They emphasize the need to maintain the ‘great deal’ the ACA offered. The problem with their emphasis was revealed by a recent Washington Post editorial that admitted that ‘The real problem is that the Affordable Care Act [Obamacare] was never actually affordable,’ because ‘policies cost more than expected.'” (10/24/25)

https://fee.org/articles/obamacare-was-never-affordable/

Thomas L. Knapp

Lebanon: Two murdered in Israeli ceasefire violations

Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]

“An Israeli drone strike has killed two people in southern Lebanon, according to the country’s Ministry of Public Health, a day after Israeli warplanes launched a series of deadly strikes on the country’s eastern mountain range and south. It’s the latest in near-daily Israeli violations of the United States-brokered ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah that began in November. The attack in the town of Toul in the Nabatieh district on Friday also injured two people, the ministry said. It did not provide details on their condition.” (10/24/25)

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/24/israeli-strikes-in-southern-lebanon-kill-two-in-latest-truce-violation

Thomas L. Knapp