In Brighton, for a special recording of Downstream IRL, Ash Sarkar sat down with Naomi Klein, and organiser, writer and co-founder of the Debt Collective, Astra Taylor. They gathered to discuss their new book, End Times Fascism: And the Fight for the Living World.

Progressive Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) wrote on social media late Friday that Democrats should force Trump to veto a litany of progressive policies from Medicare for All to blocking aid and bombs to Israel to taxing billionaires.

“Make him veto Medicare for All,” he advised.

Make him veto Medicare for AllMake him veto a $25 living wageMake him veto free childcareMake him veto Block the Bombs to IsraelMake him veto zero aid to IsraelMake him veto free collegeMake him veto erasing student loansMake him veto taxes on billionaires
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) October 24, 2026

Groundwork CEO Lindsay Owens called Schatz’s strategy “worrisome” on Saturday.

“Trump vetoing bills to make healthcare cheaper is a good political outcome for Dems,” she wrote on social media, arguing that it would increase the likelihood of a Democratic victory in 2028.

Dale Johnston opens the gate to his neat suburban garden on the western fringes of Newport in South Wales. There’s a trampoline and a slide on the lawn for his grandchildren, and chairs for him and his wife. He should be enjoying the light draining from the perfect autumnal sky – but almost his entire view is blotted out by a vast expanse of prefabricated panels.

The 23 metre-high grey hulk looming over him and his neighbours is a hyperscale datacentre. It is heralded by the area’s Labour politicians as a job creator, yet all Johnston can think about is what he has lost: “Before, the sun used to come around here and it was lovely.” The way residents have been treated is “disgusting”.

Johnston, who used to work for a chemical company in the city, worries what their lives will be like when the centre is switched on: the 36 sets of air blast coolers, needed to stop the chips inside overheating, most likely generate a constant drone, while regular testing of 60 back-up diesel generators, to prevent costly interruption to the flow of data, could produce harmful fumes. He already has to keep his bathroom window closed to stop the low hum from another facility on the rapidly expanding 46-acre datacentre campus that borders the small enclave of 27 houses.

Dale Johnston opens the gate to his neat suburban garden on the western fringes of Newport in South Wales. There’s a trampoline and a slide on the lawn for his grandchildren, and chairs for him and his wife. He should be enjoying the light draining from the perfect autumnal sky – but almost his entire view is blotted out by a vast expanse of prefabricated panels.

The 23 metre-high grey hulk looming over him and his neighbours is a hyperscale datacentre. It is heralded by the area’s Labour politicians as a job creator, yet all Johnston can think about is what he has lost: “Before, the sun used to come around here and it was lovely.” The way residents have been treated is “disgusting”.

Johnston, who used to work for a chemical company in the city, worries what their lives will be like when the centre is switched on: the 36 sets of air blast coolers, needed to stop the chips inside overheating, most likely generate a constant drone, while regular testing of 60 back-up diesel generators, to prevent costly interruption to the flow of data, could produce harmful fumes. He already has to keep his bathroom window closed to stop the low hum from another facility on the rapidly expanding 46-acre datacentre campus that borders the small enclave of 27 houses.

“We tried to head into the small side streets nearby, but the police were blocking many of the exits. They told us, ‘You have to go out that way,’ and pointed us in a direction where there was the most tear gas.”

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In an interview with The North Star, Félix recounts that the first two protests he attended were massive and relatively calm. According to him, about 10,000 people had gathered in Bordeaux at the time. “Toward the end, some people set trash cans on fire […] but I’ve been told that’s relatively normal at the end of a protest.”

The October 17 demonstration, which Léa also joined, was more turbulent, however. The couple had joined an initial gathering at Place de la Victoire that marched toward a larger rally taking place at Place de la Bourse.

However, the heavy use of tear gas dispersed the second rally before it had even officially begun. “We hadn’t even reached Place de la Bourse yet, and there were really a lot of people there. The estimates put the number at at least 50,000 people. But the police were already firing tear gas before the protest had even started,” Félix recounts.

Measles is an extremely contagious disease with many possible serious side effects to the immune system, sight, hearing & more. The vaccination provides a high level of protection against infection & contagion.

The ⁠US defense department has designated Chinese-funded cultural centers on university campuses ⁠known as Confucius ⁠Institutes ​as a threat to US national security, defense secretary Pete ⁠Hegseth said on Friday.

Washington has long accused Confucius Institutes of being Chinese propaganda ⁠tools and has taken steps to ​crack down on them.

Hegseth, ‌in a ‌video posted on social media, alleged that Confucius ‌Institutes were operating under disguise at US universities and that the Pentagon had added them to its list of institutions that threaten US national security.

An analysis published Thursday showed that millions of Americans have lost critical food assistance since President Donald Trump signed last year’s massive Republican tax giveaway for the superrich, with soaring grocery prices and cuts to school meals exacerbating the crisis.

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), approximately 5.5 million people, including roughly 2 million children, have lost Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) assistance since Trump signed the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) in July 2025.

The legislation approved the deepest cuts to SNAP—also known as food stamps—and Medicaid in those programs’ histories while slashing billions of dollars from other essential social programs to fund massive tax breaks for billionaires and corporations.

When the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the most prominent pro-Israel lobby group in the US, announced on Wednesday that it would stop endorsing candidates or make direct contributions to them, its many critics were quick to hail the development as Aipac’s admission of how toxic its brand had become.

The announcement marked a significant reversal that underscored just how profoundly US public opinion of Israel has shifted over the latest war in Gaza, and how political candidates’ once reflexive support for Israel has increasingly become a liability.

But Aipac, which only launched its political action committee and started endorsing candidates three cycles ago, is hardly getting out of US elections. It pledged to maintain the work of its deep-pocketed Super Pac, United Democracy Project, and to continue to funnel millions of dollars to prop up pro-Israel candidates through individual donors and Aipac members. The shift in strategy was a sign it was adapting to a changing political landscape, not that it was giving up its efforts to shape it.

Another mediocre ‘manly’ man doing god’s work against women

The Office of Personnel Management [OPM] unlawfully granted the Department of Government Efficiency access to sensitive federal personnel data last year, a federal judge found.

RAGBRAI

Since 1973, RAGBRAI, Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, has been a celebrated tradition, bringing thousands of cyclists and spectators together for an unforgettable journey across the state.

What’s more alarming for transgender people, however, is that the DCCC is behind the ad. Whereas a candidate’s political ad is the candidate’s choice, an ad paid for by the DCCC is the Democratic Party’s choice. That makes this ad the first known instance of the party itself choosing anti-transgender messaging to win an election, a notable development for those watching for signs that explicitly anti-transgender positions, once rare in the Democratic Party, might be gaining steam across the party as a whole.

This escalation comes as more and more evidence emerges that anti-transgender ads are ineffective, suggesting that embracing anti-transgender messaging is a policy choice rather than a political calculation designed to win an election.

It “should be clear” that both birth vaccination schedules – with or without hepatitis B – are not “dangerous to anyone”, he wrote. There is a clear benefit to giving hepatitis B vaccines at birth, and not doing so can lead to lifelong danger, experts say.

Conducting a study like this “makes the case that there’s something that’s worthy of study, for which they have no evidence”, Offit said.

“We have millions and millions, arguably hundreds of millions, of children in this world who have gotten that vaccine as a birth dose or haven’t. If there was any evidence that this was problematic, you would know this by now,” Offit added. “We eliminated hepatitis B in the United States in children virtually within years of starting that program, so the benefits are clear.”

The study was to be funded with $1.6m from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), along with another $1.6m from private partners like the Bill Ackman-backed Pershing Square Foundation and the Bluebell Foundation.

“The solution is clear here: take the money and vaccinate as many kids as you can,” said Paul Offit, a vaccines expert at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who sharply criticized the proposed study as unethical.

Brad Lander, a US Democratic Party candidate for Congress, was detained by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, along with other Americans and Israelis harvesting olives alongside Palestinian farmers, rights ​groups said.

Lander wrote on X that he had been released with a warning, which he said was apparently due to his public profile, but said several dozen rabbis and other participants ‌were still detained.

Lula’s current presidency has succeeded in reducing poverty by 27 percent and extreme poverty by more than 40 percent; unemployment fell from 9.3 percent to a record low of 5.4 percent; and the real minimum wage increased by 12.7 percent. His first two terms produced even more dramatic gains. It is clear that these and other advances cannot be expected from a Bolsonaro government, based on its track record, stated and pursued goals, and values.

These goals and values have made the Bolsonaros soulmates of the Trump/Rubio team

“I think that will be amazing because the kind of money that’s been stolen is trillions from this country,” Trump said.

Now he’s a TRILLIONAIRE???