Editor's Choice: Scroll below for our monthly blend of mainstream and alternative October 2026 news and views

Note: Excerpts are from the authors' words except for subheads and occasional "Editor's notes" such as this. 

 

Oct. 4

Top Headlines 

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, greets President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, far left, and fellow New York City real estate and golfing crony Steve Witkoff, next to Kushner, with both Kushner and Witkoff designated by Trump as U.S. special envoys to negotiate deals regarding Russia-Ukraine and Middle East matters, among others (Russian media pool photo by Sputnik). Chart below by New York Times.

• New York Times, U.S.-Russia Talks on Ukraine Now Involve an Oil Deal Tied to Trump Allies, Anton Troianovski and Eric Lipton, Oct. 4, 2026 (print ed.). President Vladimir V. Putin brought up a sale of Russian energy assets with President Trump’s envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, pushing a deal that raises new questions about conflicts of interest.
• New York Times, Trump, Putin, Ukraine and an Oil Deal: 5 Takeaways, Eric Lipton and Anton Troianovski, Oct. 4, 2026 (print ed.). A proposal to bolster relations with the Kremlin through the purchase of Russian energy assets is striking even for an administration that regularly mixes personal business interests with foreign policy
• New York Times, Russia Turns to Striking Kyiv’s Bridges, Threatening a Vital Lifeline, Constant Méheut, Oct. 4, 2026 (print ed.). The bridges, used by many commuters in the Ukrainian capital, are the latest target in a broad Russian bombing campaign against infrastructure.

More On Trump Team Obsessions, Oppressions, Corruption  

• Hope for America, Opinion: Donald Trump is cornered, Heather Delaney Reese, right, Oct. 3, 2026. At 7:45 tonight, Donald Trump experienced what appeared to be a serious mental health crisis while on stage campaigning for Republicans in Ohio. He had just arrived at the High School Activity Center in Vandalia, Ohio, 45 minutes late after his motorcade was forced to change its route to avoid protesters.

President Trump speaks to White House media before his trip to Alabama to host a political rally on Oct. 2, 2026. 

• Hope for America, Opinion: The President's decline is in a freefall. Heather Delaney Reese, right, Oct. 3, 2026. At 3:54 pm Donald Trump emerged from the White House with freshly colored hair and makeup, as Marine One’s engine roared in the background. He walked directly over to the waiting press, threw his hands out in front of him, gesturing at the empty ground in front of him, while he squeezed his legs together and arched his torso forward, yelling to the reporters, “This is the way the White House is supposed to look. Not asphalt. Broken, dirty asphalt. Look at it.” He then paused, frowning as he looked over his left shoulder, and continued, “The finest stone you could buy anywhere in the world.” The gathered press said nothing, confused by his odd behavior. 

More Special Reports On Nefarious Trump-Related Ties To Russia, Hurting U.S., Europe, Ukraine  

 

Lev Parnas, above, being interviewed by cable television host Rachel Maddow on Jan. 15, 2020 for a documentary she produced about his life. He is shown also with his wife, who stood by him during a hoked up prosecution and imprisonment orchestrated by the Trump Justice Department as retribution for his willingness to expose their Russian-coddling dealmaking in his commentaries, courtroom proceedings and in his memoir, "Shadow Diplomacy."

• Justice Integrity Project Backgrounder On Lev Parnas, Entrepreuneur, Former Trump Team Operative, Now Whistleblower, Andrew Kreig, Oct.4, 2026. A native of Ukraine and former high-level liaison on behalf of President Trump and his team to Eastern European contacts, is an expert commentator who has publisted a three-part series this fall documenting insidious relationships between the Trump Team -- President Trump, his families, their companies and their allies -- to Russian and other foreign interests damaging to most Americans. Parnas, a naturlized U.S. citizen who son Aaron Parnas, right, works independently as a prolific journalist with millions of readers and often quoted on this site, received a lifetime achievement award in 2025 for courage at a featured ceremony at the 13th annual Whistleblower Summit and Film Festival, which he memorialzed in a colum immediately below:

Lev Remembers, Yesterday Changed Me Forever: From Brooklyn to the National Press Club—A Whistleblower’s Journey and a Father’s Pride, Lev Parnas, Aug. 1, 2025. Yesterday was one of those rare days that I’ll never forget. 

2026 Trump-Russia Analysess

• Lev Remembers, Analysis and Opinion, Exposed: Follow the Oil. Follow the Money, Lev Parnas, right, Sept 23, 2026. Trump is blaming Ukraine for rising energy prices. But my sources say the bigger story is where oil, financial markets, presidential signals — and enormous amounts of money — intersect.
• Lev Remembers, Analysis and Opinion, Exposed: The Russian Network Surrounding the Trump Family, Lev Parnas, Sept 30, 2026. From Moscow in the 1980s to Putin’s inner circle today, I connected the documented relationships—and this map is only the beginning. Lev Parnas Chart shown above.
• Lev Rembers, EXPOSED — PART THREE: The Trump-Russia Network Gets Bigger, Lev Parnas, Oct. 1, 2026. We mapped the family. We followed the inner circle. Now the trail reaches lawyers, government officials, business power brokers and tech billionaires—and some familiar Russian names keep appearing.

Marcy Wheeler and Wayne Madsen Reporting On Nefarious Trump Relationships With Foreign Powers

New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan co-authored "Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump," a best-selling account of his rapid transformation of the United States and its global alliances.

• Emptywheel, Analysis and Opinion: Russia Russia Russia Never Stopped Russia Russia Russiaing, Emptywheel (Marcy Wheeler, right), Oct. 4, 2026. One of the infuriating things about "Regime Change," Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan’s book, is that it introduces key players who played important roles in the influence operations targeting Trump in 2016 with no reminder they were part of them.
• Emptywheel, Analysis: Trump Is Still Relying on Dossier-Driven Polarization to Hide Russian Shenanigans, Emptywheel (Marcy Wheeler, right), Oct. 3, 2026. We’re falling behind, under the weight of stories making it clear that Trump’s Russian shenanigans never ended. The biggest sign of that is the NYT story revealing that part of the Jared Kushner/Steve Witkoff “peace” plan for Ukraine is an oil deal involving the Emirati guy alleged to be Tom Barrack’s handler back in 2016.

More Special Reports on Trump Family Self-Dealing  

• New York Times, White House Memo: An Outrage in 2019. No Problem in 2026, Peter Baker, Oct. 4, 2026. Trump Has Moved the Ethical Line. The president’s decision to hold an international summit at his own private golf club, an idea rejected in his first term, illustrates how much he has shattered norms.
• The Parnas Perspective, Investigation: Trump Is Defying Congress' Power of the Purse. Here’s a Roadmap for Investigating His Misuse of Taxpayer Funds, Aaron Parnas, right, Oct. 4, 2026. He was once forced to pay $2 million for misusing his own charity's money for politics. Now it's the federal Treasury. Here's the roadmap Congress needs. More details below.

More On U.S. Elections, Politics, Governance

• New York Times, Senate Races in Republican States Tilt Toward Democrats, Polls Find, Patricia Mazzei, Ruth Igielnik and Sophia June, Oct. 4, 2026 (print ed.). Democrats are performing strongly in five reliably Republican states where they are trying to flip Senate seats to win control of the chamber, new New York Times/Siena polls found.
• Hopium Chronicles, Advocacy and Opinion, Five Encouraging Senate Polls From The NYT, Early Vote Really Picks Up This Week, Hang Out With Some Inspiring Candidates This Weekend, Simon Rosenberg, right, Oct. 3, 2026. Wonderful Candidate And State Party Interviews:  We’ve had some great reports from the battleground states and races in recent days.
• New York Times, In Texas, Talarico Inspires a Recurring Blue-Tinted Dream , Robert Draper, Oct. 4, 2026 (print ed.). After a dry spell of more than three decades, Democrats are daring (yet again) to believe they can win one or more top-of-the-ballot races in a vast and stubbornly red state.
• New York Times, As She Divorces Ken Paxton, His Wife Urges Texans to Vote for Him, Lauren McGaughy, Oct. 4, 2026 (print ed.). In a new ad, Angela Paxton, right, tells voters to focus on the “whole team,” not “individual players.” Angela Paxton, right, a Texas state senator, appeared in a new ad urging Texans to vote for Republicans, including her estranged husband Ken Paxton (New York Times photo by Desiree Rios)..

More On U.S. Courts, Law, Crime, Immigration, Rights, Justice

• Scott MacFarlane News, The Comeback Kids: Jack Smith’s Legal Team Scores Series of Recent Victories, Scott MacFarlane, Oct. 4, 2026. After years of being smeared and maligned, the former Jack Smith Special Counsel team is enjoying a big series of victories. It’s been rough sledding, in the two years since Smith and his team were forced to abandon their criminal cases of President Trump before the cases could go to trial. So… we shouldn’t ignore that Jack Smith and his team have enjoyed a helluva good week and month.

More On U.S. Elections, Politics, Governance

• New York Times, Democrats Lead Governor Races Deep in Republican Territory, Polls Show, Anna Griffin, Ruth Igielnik and Sejal Govindarao, Oct. 4, 2026. Democratic advantages in the races for governor in Texas, Iowa, Ohio and Alaska reflect deep unhappiness with President Trump and the economy. A Republican leads in Kansas. 
• The Opposition via The Bulwark, Trumpism in Trouble on the Prairie, Lauren Egan, Oct. 4, 2026. Democrats have found an opening in one of America’s reddest states. Now comes the Republican money. I just got back from Kansas, where the race for Senate between GOP Sen. Roger Marshall and Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton has become shockingly competitive. Tonight’s edition is all about what I saw on the ground. 
• New York Times, Trump, Critic of Voting by Mail, Urges Republicans to Do It in Midterms, Tim Balk and Evan Gorelick, Oct. 4, 2026 (print ed.). It was the latest mixed messaging from President Trump, who regularly votes by mail, but has made baseless claims that the practice is “inherently corrupt.”
• New York Times, ‘Creepy, Weird’ Steve Hilton Ad Denounced by California Republicans, Anna Griffin, Oct. 4, 2026. An online spot for Mr. Hilton, the G.O.P. candidate, is full of sexual innuendo that has befuddled Republicans and Democrats watching the race for governor in California.

Special Report: Deep Dive Into Trump Family Corruption

• The Parnas Perspective, Investigation: Trump Is Defying Congress' Power of the Purse. Here’s a Roadmap for Investigating His Misuse of Taxpayer Funds, Aaron Parnas, right, Oct. 4, 2026. He was once forced to pay $2 million for misusing his own charity's money for politics. Now it's the federal Treasury. Here's the roadmap Congress needs. Continued from above.

News Updates

• The Parnas Perspective, Evening News and Commentary: Trump Enters ‘Desperation Mode,’ Texas is a ‘Five-Alarm Fire,’ Administration Clears Way to Institutionalize Disabled Americans, Aaron Parnas, right, Oct. 3, 2026. With 31 days until the midterms, Donald Trump is entering desperation mode. In the past 24 hours alone, he appeared to post a Republican senator’s personal cellphone number over daylight saving time, renewed his promise of $5,000 checks if Republicans keep Congress, announced $90 payments to 20 million seniors weeks before Election Day, and told a half-empty arena in Alabama, a state he won by 30 points, to “pretend I’m on the ballot.”

More On U.S. Courts, Law, Crime, Immigration, Rights, Justice

Fascist leaders Benito Mussolini of Italy and Adolf Hitler of German, and U.S. President Donald Trump.

• CounterPunch.org, Nuremberg’s Warning: When Law Legitimates the Machinery of Authoritarianism, Henry Giroux, Oct. 2, 2026. The legacy of Nuremberg is with us once again, less as a reminder of the power of the legal system to punish those who enabled and enacted the horrors of Nazi Germany than as a warning that the spirit of Nuremberg must be reclaimed as a moral and political imperative.

More On Campus Rape, #MeToo Claims

• Civil Discourse, Legal Analysis: Jane Doe, Joyce Vance, right, Oct. 3-4, 2026. Jane Doe is the name by which we knowthe young woman who has come forward to say she was gang raped in a room at the Chi Phi fraternity house while she was a student at Cornell in 2024.
• New York Times, How Cornell Punished Each of the 7 Men Accused of Sexual Assault, Sharon Otterman, Hurubie Meko and Debra Kamin, Oct. 4, 2026 (print ed.). Summaries obtained by The New York Times offer a detailed look at the discipline meted out to the men accused of sexually assaulting a fellow student at Cornell University.
• New York Times, D.A. in Cornell Rape Inquiry Declined to Review Additional Evidence, Michael Rothfeld and Hurubie Meko, Updated Oct. 3, 2026. Records show that campus police officers informed Tompkins County prosecutors that they had conducted additional interviews beyond taking a statement from the woman who said she was raped.
• New York Times, Cornell Case Revives Anger About Handling of Campus Sexual Assault Cases, Sephanie Saul and Emma Goldberg, Oct. 4, 2026 (print ed.). A lawsuit alleging rape at Cornell has led to an outpouring of women sharing stories about sexual violence on college campuses.
• New York Times, Cornell President Calls Rape Inquiry ‘Defining Moment’ for Campus, Claire Fahy, Oct. 4, 2026 (print ed.). Michael I. Kotlikoff, right, said in a video the university would be more transparent, hold Greek groups accountable and improve sexual assault prevention.

More On Russia's Invasion of Ukraine, Trump Family's Russian Ties

• New York Times, Russia Turns to Striking Kyiv’s Bridges, Threatening a Vital Lifeline, Constant Méheut, Oct. 4, 2026 (print ed.). The bridges, used by many commuters in the Ukrainian capital, are the latest target in a broad Russian bombing campaign against infrastructure. Russia has a new target on its rapidly growing list of Ukrainian infrastructure to bomb: bridges. Over the past three days, Russia has attacked bridges in the capital, Kyiv, six times. Three drones hit one in the city’s south on Thursday, and the same bridge was struck twice on Friday. On Saturday morning, another attack hit a bridge in the north.

More Global News

• New York Times, Lula and Bolsonaro Son Head to Runoff for Brazil’s Presidency, Ana Ionova and Adam B. Ellick, Oct. 4, 2026. Neither President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva nor his top challenger, Flávio Bolsonaro, won a majority of votes in the first round. But for now, Mr. Bolsonaro is leading the race.
• New York Times, U.S. Rushes to Withdraw Bombers From U.K. Air Base After New Threats, Eric Schmitt, Oct. 4, 2026. The withdrawal came with unusual speed, following what U.S. officials said were threats of an Iran-based plot against the installation.

More On Middle East Wars

• New York Times, Saudi-Backed Yemeni Government Declares War Against Houthis, Vivian Nereim, Eric Schmitt and Saeed Al-Batati, Oct. 4, 2026. More than 200 U.S. intelligence and military analysts are in Saudi Arabia helping it provide assistance to its Yemeni allies, current and former U.S. officials say.

More On U.S. Culture, Religion, Sports, Media, Education

• New York Times, Measles Outbreak in Amish Country Forces Some to Rethink Vaccines, Anemona Hartocollis, Photographs by Madeleine Hordinski, Oct. 4, 2026. The spread of measles in Pennsylvania and Ohio is largely affecting Amish communities where vaccinations levels are low.
• The Athletic via The New York Times, Inside Arizona State men’s hockey, and the workout that left a player on life support, Katie Strang, Nathan Fenno and Adam Kilgore, Sept. 17, 2026. Greg Powers was going to fix the problem. The longtime Arizona State University men’s hockey coach, the only person to lead the program in its 12 years in Division I, had watched his 2025-26 team lose 10 of its final 12 games and miss the postseason, and he knew why.
• Politico, RFK Jr.’s movement is in disarray, Amanda Chu, Oct. 4, 2026. Tony Lyons, the leading organizer of the Make America Healthy Again movement, promised to raise $100 million to support Republicans this year. He’s nowhere close. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement is turning on its leader. Not RFK Jr. Rather, Tony Lyons, the Kennedy friend and book publisher who is the president of a web of MAHA nonprofits and political groups.
• Status with Natalie Korach, The Sunday Spotlight: McClatchy Goes Mute, Natalie Korach, Oct. 4, 2026. Weeks after gutting local newsrooms, McClatchy leadership has offered staffers virtually no explanation of what comes next, Status has learned, as the company builds out its controversial A.I. operation.

U.S. Energy, Climate Change, Environmental Regulation

• New York Times, A Supreme Court Battle Over Climate Change Begins, Karen Zraick, Oct. 4, 2026. The justices are about to hear a lawsuit that could determine whether the oil industry faces billions of dollars in liability for damages caused by global warming.