Federal immigration agents broke the arm of a US citizen in what a Democratic congressman said was a "brutal attack" during a confrontation with protesters in California.
PARIS, Oct 19 (Reuters) - France's worst bout of civil unrest in years has plunged President Emmanuel Macron's final months in office deeper into turmoil, exposing the powerlessness of a leader struggling to contain social anger with little money to spend, scant political capital and an increasingly fragile grip on public order. The rioting that swept across France on Saturday, leaving a trail of looted shops, torched buildings and defaced public institutions, presents Macron with perhaps the most explosive challenge of his twilight presidency: a country demanding more from a state that can no longer afford to give much.
More evidence that we're living in Bizarro world: The Justice Department said it was investigating whether the major TV networks violated antitrust law by agreeing not to participate in pool coverage of the White House. Apparently, pulling out of an arrangement to share and coordinate coverage -- i.e. the pool -- is over-sharing. In other words, breaking up a shared agreement is more antitrusty (that's a word, isn't it?) than a shared agreement.
Top Trump adviser Ric Grenell allegedly outlined a stunning pay-for-influence offer to a Turkish billionaire last year: access to "POTUS," "VIP events" and administration officials, according to a text message, reviewed by Axios, that the White House counsel is investigating. "Once the money comes to the company here, I will arrange the donation to Kennedy Centre [sic], and you'll be joining the VIP events and get close with the administration, even with POTUS," the May 3, 2025, text says. Grenell has called the accusations "lies" and denied sending the text message. Read more
The proposed talks come as Washington eases economic pressure on Moscow while pressing Ukraine to halt strikes on Russian oil infrastructure, raising concerns in Kyiv that the Kremlin is securing concessions without making any of its own.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin has reportedly proposed a three-way summit with US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping next month to negotiate an end to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to US media.
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha warned on Monday that such a meeting would only encourage Putin to continue the war, while the European Commission questioned Moscow's willingness to negotiate an end to the conflict.
In the southeastern city of Lyon, a tourist office building was burned. Some storefronts along the shopping streets near Bordeaux's city hall were destroyed, and the goods inside appear to have been stolen, social media videos geolocated by NBC News showed. City halls in Marseille, Lille, and Angers were broken into, Interior Minister Laurent Nuez said Sunday, adding the arrests made had little to do with the student protests. Authorities had "lost control" in major cities, the interior minister conceded. He offered his resignation to Macron, who rejected it. Read more
US President Donald Trump has excoriated Ukraine's leader after the country launched one of its biggest drone attacks on Russia this year, hitting a key oil terminal in defiance of his demand it stop hitting Russian energy infrastructure. There have been growing tensions between Ukraine and the US in recent days, prompting fears in Kyiv it could lose essential support as it approaches another winter under relentless Russian attack. Trump on Friday invoked a waiver exempting Russia from sweeping economic penalties mandated by the US Congress. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later told NBC News' "Meet the Press" the US siding with Russia would be a "historic mistake."
CBS News editor in chief and anti-woke crusader Bari Weiss urged her newsroom to cover right-wing conspiracy theories regarding Democratic Senate candidates James Talarico and Abdul El-Sayed.
Weiss "personally advocated" for a deeper dive into El-Sayed's personal history, and she even faced internal pushback for her insistence that the newsroom inaccurately tie El-Sayed to the 9/11 terror attacks, as she published an August headline reading "Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed's deleted tweets on Sept. 11 attacks invite scrutiny of past remarks."
Extremism reporter Will Sommer of The Bulwark believes Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner's efforts to build a luxury resort in Albania are likely dead. Albanians haven't stopped protesting the plan since the announcement, and over the weekend protesters burned their Supreme Court building to the ground. Meanwhile, the parliament and the education department have been vandalized, and the prime minister is in hiding. The plan was for Trump and Kushner to spend $1.4 billion to $4 billion to build a luxury resort on Sazan Island and parts of the nearby Zvrnec peninsula along Albania's southern coast.
After seeing Michael Dell's wife Susan in the White House recently, I started wondering how far robotic technology may have come. This story is about a $150,000 dollar robot from AION. But who knows about the robots we aren't seeing. Imagine the robot a billionaire tech oligarch may already own. ..Or do we have to imagine anymore?...
And if not, what happened to the real Susan?
A group of men, calling themselves the SB244 Compliance Crew, have organized to protest a new Kansas law that requires people to use public restrooms that align with the biological sex they were assigned at birth. The group reports encountering women who have quickly fled bathrooms upon seeing them, angry confrontations, complaints to facility staff and calls to law enforcement who are powerless to stop them because the men are following the law.
Is a miracle in the cards?
Russia has deliberately attacked Ukraine's energy infrastructure and oil and gas sector 76 times in the week since US President Donald Trump announced an energy truce. Over the past week, the Russians launched nearly 2,700 attack drones, 1,700 guided aerial bombs and 66 missiles against Ukraine, most of them ballistic. Energy infrastructure was the main target of these attacks. The president said Russia is trying to plunge Ukraine into a blackout.
After the mentally ill flatulent orange baboon leaves the White House on 20 Jan 2028, the next non-AIPAC presidential administration will still have to deal with malevolent Israel, a mountain of corpses in Gaza, nefarious Russia, the Trumpf Crime Family (TCF), an army of well-armed ICE thugs, Proud Boys and Oafkeepers, pardoned Jan 6 runamoks, an ascending super-wealthy China, the thoroughly corrupt SCOTUS, GOP Senators, a dilapidated FBI, AI surveillance super centers, environmental disasters, tattered international relationships, and powerful malicious oligarchs. And who knows how much work will be required to restore America's destroyed public health care and aviation safety systems, as well as our demoralized military. Still, one can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good; thus, the people of the world eagerly anticipate 20 Jan 2028 just like they awaited the 20 July 1969 Apollo XIII lunar landing. Nothing can stop the countdown.
Microsoft's October 2026 Patch Tuesday addresses 1408 CVEs across the October security release. The infographic above summarises severity and risk level by product family; the prose below unpacks the items that need attention this cycle. 3 CVEs carry a zero-day flag (publicly disclosed and/or being exploited in the wild).
A fire engulfed the historic town hall in Limoges, central France, after a group set the 143-year-old building alight amid unrest following nationwide cost-of-living protests. Local prefect Maurice Barate said the roof had collapsed onto the lower floors, except for the west wing, and that around two-thirds of the building's exterior had already disappeared. The blaze followed demonstrations that escalated into violence in several French cities on Saturday. The extent of the damage to the town hall was still being assessed Read more
