Biden says he would have resigned if he knew had cancer

Time   - Former President Joe Biden said in a recent interview that he wasn’t aware that he had cancer when he was in the White House—but that if he had known, he would have stepped down. In an interview with PEOPLE, the former President was asked if he would have done anything differently during the 2024 election.

“What I can’t say, because there’s no evidence of it—if I had known that I was feeling lousy because I had cancer, I would have resigned,” Biden, 83, replied. “I would’ve not gone forward, because I don’t think an 80-year-old man with cancer should be running for [President].”

“But that wasn’t the case,” he continued. “I believe that on an objective basis, I was the best-equipped person to do the job.” Biden’s office announced in May 2025 that he had been diagnosed a few days earlier with an aggressive form of prostate cancer and that tests indicated that the cancer had spread to his bones. He later had surgery and went through radiation therapy as part of his treatment

Meanwhile. . .

Marco Rubio reportedly spent over $1.2m of taxpayer money traveling to son’s football games

Mississippi gets its first black mayor

NY Times -  The last Black man to represent Mississippi in the Senate was born into slavery and left office in 1881.  Nearly a century and a half later, Scott Colom, a Democrat, defeated Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, Republican of Mississippi, according to The Associated Press, delivering a remarkable upset on Wednesday and becoming the first Black person to be elected to the Senate in his state since the Reconstruction era.

Mr. Colom’s victory, which came by a slim margin after more than a week of ballot tallying following the Nov. 3 election, puts an exclamation point on the sweeping Democratic victories across the country during this year’s midterms. For Republicans, the outcome was a jarring rebuke in a reliably conservative stronghold.

“God didn’t want us to get it the easy way,” Mr. Colom told the crowd gathered outside the historic chapel at Tougaloo College, a Black college that served as a haven for civil rights organizers. “He wanted us to get it the Mississippi way.”

CEO of Nvidia resigns in wake of espionage charges

NY Times - Jensen Huang, the co-founder and chief executive of the Silicon Valley chip giant Nvidia, resigned on Thursday, according to the company's board of directors, capping a swift, stunning fall for one of the most powerful figures in the A.I. boom. His departure came after revelations that he had extramarital affairs with an executive who reported to him and with a woman whom U.S. intelligence agencies concluded was spying for China.

Colette Kress, Nvidia's chief financial officer, will serve as interim chief executive while the search for a permanent replacement is carried out, Nvidia's 10-member board said in a statement. In a note to Nvidia employees, Ms. Kress said she believes "deeply in this company" and called its employees "our greatest strength."

Mr. Huang's exit, which followed a lengthy board meeting on Wednesday, opens an uncertain chapter for Nvidia, the premier maker of artificial intelligence chips, and will have widespread ripple effects. Its shares plunged more than 10 percent at the start of trading, weighing on the broader market.

Over three decades, Mr. Huang, 63, built Nvidia into one of the world's most valuable public companies, controlling an estimated 90 percent of the market for the advanced chips that are an essential component of the A.I. projects driving the U.S. economy - and are at the center of the U.S.-China tussle for dominance in A.I.

A series of reports by The New York Times showed that Mr. Huang had an affair with a Chinese businesswoman who goes by Alice Huang, who had been recruited by China's main spy agency to gather information on Mr. Huang, and that President Trump had been warned about the relationship but took no action. Ms. Huang has not responded to requests for comment.

Though Nvidia had said that it had "no reason to believe" that Mr. Huang had compromised national security or company secrets, its board, with a track record of deference to its celebrity C.E.O., opened an investigation. The company's share price plunged in after-hours trading on Wednesday as the board met to consider Mr. Huang's future, and continued to slide on Thursday.

China has rejected the espionage claims. U.S. officials suspect that Megaspeed, the Singaporean company where Ms. Huang was a top executive, has helped smuggle restricted chips into China. China's embassy has called the allegations "smears."

Trump regime considers jailing journalists

Mediate -   The White House and Department of Justice have reportedly been discussing potentially throwing journalists in jail to reveal the identities of leakers and fresh White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller is behind the plan.

In an Atlantic report about the exit of Susie Wiles from her chief of staff role at the White House, it was revealed that a plan to jail journalists is in consideration in the administration. Wiles reportedly pushed back on such a plan while Miller gave it his endorsement.

Meanwhile. . .

House Republicans banded together to shelve impeachment articles against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who had earlier dismissed the charges as the work of a “disgruntled” G.O.P. congressman. Read more

AFL-CIO - This election season, working people across the country made their voices heard. The AFL-CIO reports that union members made up a record 15% of the electorate this year, up from 11% in 2024, and that 639 union members have been elected, a record number who will be seated in elected office next year. Behind those numbers are union volunteers who reached more that 16 million union voters by knocking on doors, making calls, and talking with coworkers on the job.

Congrsswoman considers taking on Fetterman

The Hill - Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) said Tuesday she is “considering” challenging Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) in 2028, as more Democrats weigh bids to unseat the incumbent.

“I’m going to be considering it,” Dean said in an interview with Politico. “I have been concerned about, really, two things, which is his family and his health … and am very disappointed in his activity as a senator and in his votes.”

She did not offer a timeline for making a decision, saying she would first need to discuss a potential campaign with her family.

….Her comments come a day after Ahmed Moor, a Palestinian American writer and businessperson from Philadelphia, became the first Democrat to formally launch a 2028 challenge against Fetterman.

Moor, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, is campaigning on ending the Iran war and expanding access to healthcare, childcare and affordable housing. Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) also said in an interview with Politico he is giving a potential Senate run “serious thought.”

Fetterman has faced growing criticism from Democrats over his support for the Iran war, his staunch backing of Israel and his willingness to break with his party on key votes. He also drew criticism in September for appearing by video at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, where he introduced Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) as a “great friend.”

Despite speculation about his political future, Fetterman has repeatedly insisted he will remain a Democrat.

Black political power

MS NOW -  A new era of Black political power is coming to Washington. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., now the minority leader, is on track to become the first Black speaker of the House. A record number of Black senators will take office in January. And the Congressional Black Caucus, which spent the past year bracing for losses, will instead begin the next Congress with more members than ever.

Black voters helped make it all happen, fueling Democratic gains deep into Republican territory in last week’s midterm elections. The results have set the stage for one of the most influential classes A new era of Black political power is coming to Washington.

Middle East

 The Guardian - Good morning. Oil prices have dropped after Donald Trump unilaterally declared that the US war on Iran was “effectively over”. During a White House press conference, Trump said Israel and Gulf allies in the region were well protected from Iran and that an escalation was not needed.

He said, however, that the US remained “locked and loaded, ready to go for any reason”, adding: “We’re seeing momentum toward the end of this conflict. I think it’s going to be ending fairly soon.” Brent crude has dropped below $90, its lowest level since August.

Donald Trump

New Republic - On Monday night, President Donald Trump had the bright idea to call C-SPAN and rant on the air.

The call began with an unidentified woman laughing in the background. Then viewers got to hear Trump rant about immigrant drug dealers and rapists, even after the interviewer pointed out that Trump had expressed sympathy for working immigrants who paid taxes in a 60 Minutes interview that aired the day before.

Trump incorrectly claimed that the U.S. government hadn’t put the same pressure on those kinds of immigrants, and then abruptly pivoted to the U.S.’s takeover of Venezuela, talking about how great he believes it’s going. He mentioned how the U.S. has taken “hundreds of billions of dollars and millions and millions of barrels of oil” from the country.

The president continued to rant about having “won” Venezuela and then how he won Iran, going on about how the Middle Eastern country wants to make a deal with him but “won’t say that.” When asked how much longer the war would go, he didn’t answer the question, claiming that he’d taken out the country’s nuclear program and that the country was in shambles.

Money

According to calculations by The New York Times, overall prices were around 4 percent higher compared with the same time last year, up from 3.7 percent in September.  Follow live updates

Pete Hegseth

NY Times  -   Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, attempting to fend off an impeachment effort, on Tuesday cast the accusations that he violated the Constitution as a slanderous attempt to damage President Trump by “one disgruntled and defeated congressman.”

House Republican leaders said they could hold a procedural vote related to the effort, which is being spearheaded by an outgoing Kentucky Republican, as soon as Tuesday evening. That vote could be an attempt to bottle up the articles, which accuse him of abusing his power and endangering members of the military, in a committee for the rest of the year.

The Guardian - Hegseth says Iran war was a 'necessary undertaking' despite Republicans blaming conflict for midterms defeat. After several Republicans, including vice-president JD Vance, said that the party’s shellacking in the midterm elections was due to the ongoing Iran war and spike in prices as a result of the conflict, Hegseth danced around whether he agreed.

“I respect the vice-president greatly, and I’m certainly not going to exchange in any finger pointing. And thankfully, politics is not really my thing,” the defense secretary said. “But I agree with what the president said when he said: ‘hey, if if I had to do this all over again, would we do it again? Absolutely.”

Hegseth referred back to secretary of state Marco Rubio’s sentiment that the war, now in its eighth month, is “not necessarily popular, but it may have been necessary”.

“That’s certainly how I feel. It was a necessary undertaking,” Hegseth added.

.... Following Pete Hegseth’s press conference, Donald Trump issued a brief, and glowing, assessment of his defense secretary’s performance, while blasting the Republican representative who is moving to impeach him.

“Pete Hegseth gets an ‘A’ PLUS, PLUS, PLUS for his defense against a disgruntled, angry, defeated, former Congressman, Thomas Massie, a TOTAL LOSER!” the president wrote on Truth Social.

California rejects billionaire tax

NY Times - California voters rejected a billionaire tax, The Associated Press determined on Monday, rebuking a measure that would have created the nation’s first wealth tax by targeting the assets of residents with a net worth beyond $1 billion.

Under the tax measure, Proposition 40, the state would have imposed a one-time, 5 percent tax on the personal assets of billionaires and devoted most of the revenue to health care.

The Democratic voters who dominate the California electorate generally support the concept of making wealthy people pay higher taxes. But Democratic leaders were divided over the proposal — Gov. Gavin Newsom opposed it while the California Democratic Party endorsed the tax. And some of the California billionaires who stood to pay the tax contributed heavily toward a campaign that slammed the proposal with attack ads on TV throughout October.

Trump vs. young scientists

NY Times -  For nearly a century, the United States has been the global leader in cultivating young scientists, training them at the nation’s vast network of universities and harnessing their talents to ensure American dominance in research and innovation. But now that Ph.D. pipeline is in turmoil.

An analysis by The New York Times of university and federal data found that the Trump administration, in its broader dismantling of the American scientific machinery, has undermined opportunities for young scientists.

Many of the nation’s top research universities, facing uncertainties in federal funding, are offering fewer Ph.D. spots across the sciences. Federal programs created long ago to finance doctoral students are mired in chaos. Widespread grant cancellations and funding delays have made it harder for recent graduates to find jobs and start new labs. Some institutions have managed to adapt by marshaling funds from elsewhere, but the sudden instability of federal support has led many others to scale back their Ph.D. programs.

…Interviews with dozens of early-career scientists — Ph.D. applicants, doctoral students and newly minted graduates — revealed deep concern that even two years of disruption could permanently alter the storied success of federally funded science in the United States.

Joe Biden

MS NOW -   Former president Joe Biden expresses frustration and delivers a rebuke to those who suggested he covered-up and failed to disclose his cancer diagnosis in a timely manner, according to excerpts obtained by MS NOW from his soon to be released memoir. Biden announced his prostate cancer diagnosis publicly last May, days after he said doctors first diagnosed him.

In excerpts of his personal memoir, “Promise Me, America” set to be released next week, Biden writes, “What did surprise me was the cynical twist the story took in the political press and among political commentators.” “Almost immediately, the reaction was: ‘You hid it from us.’ ‘You must have known it.’ ‘You’re lying.’ Let me tell you something: There isn’t anyone in this world with stage 4 cancer who doesn’t wish it had been caught sooner.”

The former president did not call out anyone by name, but his successor suggested Biden wasn’t being honest about his health.

Earth accumulating heat at accelerating rate

The Guardian  - Heat is accumulating in Earth’s systems at an accelerating rate, the UN’s weather agency has reported as the Cop31 climate change summit begins in Turkey, with 2026 on track to be one of the four warmest years on record.

The imbalance between incoming energy from the sun and energy leaving Earth reached its highest level since monitoring began, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in its State of the Global Climate update.

That imbalance and the accumulation of heat will supercharge extreme weather events such as heatwaves, droughts and tropical cyclones.

Around the world, the average surface temperature for January to September 2026 was about 1.47C above the preindustrial average, the agency said. Sea surface temperatures hit monthly records and sea level was the highest since records began. The ocean absorbs 90% of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gases and 2026 is on track to be a 10th successive year of record ocean heat.

A volunteer fits a nasal oxygen cannula on a seated woman at a smoke-haze shelter

View image in fullscreen

A centre for people experiencing respiratory difficulties in Palangkaraya, Indonesia. More than 11,000 people have been treated during a months-long wildfire crisis. Photograph: REINA/AFP/Getty Images

“We have entered a new age of climate extremes,” said António Guterres, the UN secretary general. “A supersized El Niño is colliding with a planet already superheated by manmade climate change. Climate records keep falling. The human costs keep rising. And those least responsible are suffering first and worst.”

12 Native American words that you use daily without even knowing it

CLICK FOR STORY

Artificial Intelligence

Ameican Market News -  Building advanced AI takes staggering amounts of computing power. This year, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta are expected to spend roughly $735 billion to $750 billion combined, much of it on the data centers, chips, energy and network capacity the AI buildout demands.

The question investors are starting to ask: will AI revenue ever justify that spending? If earnings don't keep pace, today's premium valuations could come under pressure. And because a handful of tech giants now make up a large share of the S&P 500, that pressure wouldn't stay contained to tech.

Donald Trump

Washington Post - A former White House aide who quit last month took broad aim at some of President Donald Trump’s senior advisers, saying they had treated the president “like a baby in many respects” and prioritized money for the midterms over Make America Healthy Again policy goals.

Calley Means, who also served as a top aide to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said Sunday on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” that he was concerned that Trump “has been subverted” by top aides and strategists who he alleged were seeking money from major industries for the midterm elections. He zeroed in on some top aides, notably Susie Wiles, who left her role as chief of staff Friday, as a staff shake-up is underway.

Means’s interview with “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan followed an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast in an episode released Friday in which he named staffers he believed blocked or hindered progress on policies popular within the MAHA movement.

Charges against Trump

Google -   Donald Trump has faced multiple criminal indictments, convictions, and congressional impeachments related to business records, election interference, classified documents, and official conduct:

New York Felony Conviction (Hush Money Case)

• Charges: 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree in New York State Supreme Court.

• Offense: A "catch and kill" scheme involving disguised reimbursement payments made to cover up a hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

• Verdict & Status: A Manhattan jury found Trump guilty on all 34 counts on May 30, 2024. In January 2025, Judge Juan Merchan sentenced him to an unconditional discharge (no jail time, fines, or probation). His legal team continues efforts to challenge and overturn the conviction in court.

Federal Election Interference Case (2020 Election / January 6)

• Charges: 4 federal counts including Conspiracy to Defraud the United States, Conspiracy to Obstruct an Official Proceeding, Obstruction of an Official Proceeding, and Conspiracy Against Rights.

• Offense: Alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, culminating in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

• Status: Impacted by the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on presidential immunity, leading to a narrowed superseding indictment by Special Counsel Jack Smith.

Georgia State Election Case

• Charges: 13 felony counts including racketeering (RICO) and soliciting a public officer to violate their oath.

• Offense: Alleged efforts to interfere with and overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.

• Status: Proceedings have been paused amid legal challenges and controversies regarding the district attorney's office.

Classified Documents Case (Florida)

• Charges: 40 felony counts regarding willful retention of national defense information and obstruction of justice.

• Offense: Allegedly removing classified documents from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago estate and resisting government efforts to retrieve them.

• Status: Dismissed by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a decision appealed by the Special Counsel.

Congressional Impeachments

• First Impeachment (2019): Impeached by the House of Representatives on charges of abuse of power (soliciting foreign interference from Ukraine) and obstruction of Congress. Acquitted by the U.S. Senate (48–52 and 47–53).

• Second Impeachment (2021): Impeached by the House for incitement of insurrection following the January 6 Capitol attack. Acquitted by the U.S. Senate (57–43).

Middle East

NY Times -  Israel’s president on Saturday selected Gadi Eisenkot, the leading rival of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to try to form a new government, handing him the daunting task of forging a parliamentary coalition after an indecisive national election last month.

Isaac Herzog, the Israeli president, said he had held “in-depth talks” with both Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Eisenkot before making his decision. He ultimately tapped Mr. Eisenkot, a center-right former Israeli military chief, after more members of Parliament supported Mr. Eisenkot than Mr. Netanyahu during consultations over the past week.

The announcement gives Mr. Eisenkot, 66, a long-awaited chance to fulfill his pledge to unseat Mr. Netanyahu, but he will have to navigate significant obstacles to form a government. He has up to six weeks to build a coalition before the president passes the opportunity to another candidate, most likely Mr. Netanyahu.

Workers union on the election

United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America -The "blue tsunami" of Democratic wins in Tuesday's midterm elections was a stunning rebuke of division, war, and corruption, and of the corporate crime wave that Republican rule has enabled. However, the credit for these wins belongs not to the Democratic Party - whose leadership has offered at best tepid resistance to the Republican agenda over the past two years - but to the working people across the country who have spent the last two years organizing and fighting back in their communities and workplaces.

From bringing food to neighbors too terrified of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to leave their homes, to confronting ICE in the streets, to turning out in the largest demonstrations in our country's history, everyday working people created the momentum that led to this point. Trump's approval ratings began to fall after the working people of Minnesota demonstrated in January that it was possible not only to stand up to, but to defeat his authoritarian agenda. Tuesday was not just an electoral victory, but an organizing win.

Crucially, the margins of victory in this election were so large that Trump's pre-election threats not to recognize the results, based on unfounded allegations of voter fraud, were rendered irrelevant. They were "too big to rig," as a source within the Trump administration admitted to CNN....

While President Trump has promised to veto any legislation passed by the new Democratic Congress, Democrats must not use that as an excuse not to craft and pass legislation to constrain corporate power and put more money in working people's pockets. Let Trump clearly demonstrate which side he is on by vetoing legislation that would improve workers' lives.

At a minimum, the new Democratic Congress should:

Raise wages with an immediate boost to the federal minimum wage, which still stands at a paltry $7.25 per hour, unchanged since 2009. A number of the candidates elected on Tuesday campaigned on fighting for a $25 minimum wage.

Lower costs by both investigating corporate price-gouging, especially by oil and food companies, and addressing the biggest costs for working families: healthcare, housing, education, and childcare. Over the past four decades, costs for these four items have risen from one and a half to six times faster than inflation, driven largely by bad policy choices. Good federal policies can ensure that every American has healthcare, stable housing, quality public education, access to higher education, and the ability to raise a family comfortably.

Pass Medicare for All. With double-digit increases in healthcare costs on the horizon, now is the time to finally join the rest of the industrialized world by implementing a universal healthcare system which takes healthcare off the bargaining table and guarantees it to every American.

End attacks on higher education and ensure that our nation's universities have the funding they need to do research that benefits society, without political strings attached.

Expand and fully fund Social Security so that all Americans are guaranteed a decent retirement.

Tax the rich and corporations. In 2017 and again in 2025, President Trump and the Republicans gave massive tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations. Those tax cuts should be immediately reversed, and the resources devoted to programs which benefit working people.

Dismantle the rogue ICE and Department of Homeland Security agencies and rebuild our immigration system. The Trump administration's approach to immigration enforcement has been especially cruel, indiscriminately killing people, grabbing children off the streets, and detaining people in inhumane conditions. However, it is built on a fundamentally broken system, which through both Democratic and Republican administrations has separated families, punished hard-working people who have contributed to our society for generations, and been a drag on our economy. It is long past time to pass immigration reform legislation that includes a legalization program, prioritizes family reunification, and protects worker rights for both current and future immigrants.

Slash funding for war and end U.S. financial support for the Israeli military, and redirect those resources to meeting working people's needs.

Post election

The Hill - Hispanic Americans helped deliver a historic blow to the GOP in Tuesday’s contest, diminishing gains President Trump made with Latino men while augmenting the ranks of Democrats in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC).  Exit polling data from polling firm BSP showed significant attrition among Latinos who backed Trump in 2024 — 17 percent of those who backed the president in the last election cycle supported the Democratic ticket during the midterms.

Meanwhile, a record-breaking number of Latinos voted this week, including newer, younger voters who more consistently backed the Democratic ticket. BSP found that among Latinos casting a ballot, 17 percent were first-time federal election voters, while 41 percent had joined the electorate since the 2022 cycle.

“While the numbers are still coming in, what we know so far indicates that this will undoubtedly be the largest turnout of Latino voters ever in a midterm election,” Janet Murguía, president and CEO of Unidos US, said on a call with reporters.

Alternet  - When President Donald Trump's Republican Party lost the 2026 midterms in a landslide, the immediate GOP reactions varied, from Trump's surprising decision not to fight the results to conservative interest groups insisting their party would have won if Trump had listened to them. Now a new report indicates that Trump is literally in a state of dazed denial about the historic defeat he suffered on Tuesday.

"In the days since his defeat, he has sounded like a man in denial," reported The New York Times' Peter Baker on Sunday. "With his party still picking through the wreckage of a political earthquake, a seemingly oblivious President Trump signed a steel beam for his new White House ballroom and flew to Florida to give a speech on the space program. He seems flat these days, maybe a little dazed."

After describing how Trump dominated American politics from his surprise victory in the 2016 presidential election until last week, Baker points out that Trump has yet to openly accept that his heyday is behind him, something his predecessors did not struggle to do when faced with similar setbacks.

"Unlike other presidents who suffered midterm defeats, Mr. Trump has largely not acknowledged the setback," Baker wrote. "After Mr. Bush’s Republicans lost both houses in 2006, he admitted it was a “thumping.” After President Barack Obama’s Democrats lost the House in 2010, he admitted it was a “shellacking.” Mr. Trump, by contrast, has offered no expression of humility or much recognition of public discontent with him."

The Hill - After Democrats clinched majorities in both chambers of Congress, party leaders have already vowed to try and stop them through legislation.

“We need to stop the Trump tariffs that have increased costs on everyday Americans by thousands of dollars,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) told reporters on Wednesday. 

How Democrats can do this once they assume the majority in both chambers could take different forms, Erica York, a senior economist at the Tax Foundation, told The Hill.

“It could be really narrow and just say, ‘These particular tariffs that the president has imposed, we want to … overrule those or … remove those from the books,’” she said of potential legislation.

She added, “It could be more expansive and say, ‘This authority in general shouldn’t sit with the president, and so we want to bring that back to Congress and not let any president do any tariff under this type of authority.’”

Arun Venkataraman, an international trade lawyer with Covington & Burling LLP who previously served in senior roles at the Commerce Department, said he sees Democrats getting more support “for specific tariff actions than they are to do a broadside against underlying” authorities.

“I don’t think we’re going to see them out of the gate on day one completely try to revise all of the U.S. trade laws,” he said. “I think that perhaps the more focused and strategic approach is to address particular tariffs, and then be able to get Republican support for some of that.” Trump, however, still holds the veto power, a fact that he has repeated since Tuesday’s blue wave.

NBC News  -  Sen.-elect Adam Hamilton, who flipped deep-red Kansas for Democrats, said that he hopes to prioritize lowering costs for his constituents and that he would be “deeply disappointed” to spend two years investigating members of the Trump administration.

“The bigger priority for me, and I think for most people in America, especially people living paycheck to paycheck, is ‘please help us with the cost of living,’” Hamilton told NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”

Middle East

Epoch Times Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has responded to President Donald Trump’s recent announcement to end billions of dollars in aid to the country. “U.S. military aid to Israel has always been a cross-the-aisle agreement,” Netanyahu’s office wrote in a post on X. “Israel has used it both to defend itself and to confront enemies who threaten America and the West. Today, Israel has a strong and stable economy.”

Framing Trump’s announcement as a collaborative transition from “aid to partnership,” the office wrote that the decision “shows the strength and sophistication of our relationship, and its ability to adapt and stand strong over time.”

MS NOW -  The historic Republican losses in the midterm elections have left President Donald Trump with even fewer options for ending the war with Iran quickly, experts say.

Trump has said he would consider resuming strikes against Iran after the midterms. But U.S. airstrikes are unlikely to make the Iranian regime capitulate, and the country’s leaders are likely to stand by expansive demands they have made in negotiations.

“Iran has been very unwilling to have any reasonable discussions about peace,” said Leslie Shedd, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council and a former senior aide to Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas.

Trump could launch U.S. airstrikes against Iran but the government there has already absorbed thousands of such strikes.

In the unlikely scenario that Trump takes the extraordinary step of dropping a tactical nuclear weapon on a nuclear storage site beneath Pickaxe Mountain, it would not eliminate Iran’s nuclear program, which is deeply buried and also spans the country, experts said. The first attack since Nagasaki with a nuclear weapon of any size would create long-lasting radioactive fallout and threaten to destabilize existing weapons agreements among nuclear powers.

Meanwhile. . . .

People -   In his posthumous book Camelot’s Architect, John Carl “Jack” Warnecke details his two-year love affair with Jackie Kennedy. Warnecke writes that Jackie confided in him that marrying her second husband, Aristotle Onassis, was “the biggest mistake” she ever made. Camelot’s Architect will be published on Nov. 10

California Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled a plan to review death row commutations one case at a time by stapling every case together and reviewing it once, sources have confirmed.

Time  - About two-thirds of humanity now lives in countries with declining populations, raising concerns about limited resources, economic cliffs, and even civil wars.

Stephen Miller

Republican Informer -  The Wall Street Journal reported that Melania Trump complained to her husband after learning that people she knew personally had been deported. According to the account, summarized by multiple outlets on November 5, 2026, President Trump then told aides that Miller’s deportation push had gone “too far.” The report does not name the acquaintances or say when the conversation took place.

Axios -   Stephen Miller is no Susie Wiles: He believes in almost limitless presidential power, considers the Democratic Party an extremist organization, and dreams of ruthless crackdowns on immigration and foreign adversaries, Axios' Marc Caputo and Alex Isenstadt report.

Why it matters: Miller, who starts Monday as the new White House chief of staff, is unlike any of his five predecessors who have held the job during Trump's two terms — and unlike anyone who has held the powerful position in the modern era. Miller puts the hard in hard-liner, and understands how to pull the levers of power to get his way and make the U.S. government a MAGA machine.

Miller's appointment sets the stage for two years of partisan warfare with the new Dem-led Congress, which is likely to launch investigations of Trump's administration, political committees and allies.

.... Despite his post-midterm comments about finding ways to work with Democrats, Trump's choice of Miller signals that the president isn't looking for truces. He's prepping for war, and sees Miller as a brass-knuckle general and tactical expert impervious to criticism or traditional restraints.

The 41-year-old Miller — Trump's MAGA brain for a decade — has detailed his Miller Doctrine in speeches, policies and press conferences:

Presidential power is "very substantial and will not be questioned." Miller said those words about Trump's Muslim travel ban in 2017 on CBS' "Face the Nation." But to him, they broadly apply to other areas of the executive's authority.

Court authority is limited. In May 2025, when courts blocked aspects of Trump's deportation policies, Miller said the rulings were the work of "radical rogue judges" who were "at war" with the executive and legislative branches.

The political opposition is a threat to America. "The Democrat Party is not a political party. It is a domestic extremist organization," Miller told Sean Hannity in August 2025. Miller also warned that if Democrats won Congress, "it's game over." They just won it.

Homeland security is the nation's spine. A key architect of the administration's hard-line immigration policies, Miller said in a March speech: "Our national security, our homeland security, the safety and well-being of our people begins at home, begins in our neighborhood, begins in our home region."

America should use "hard power" in the Western Hemisphere. "The cartels that operate in this hemisphere are the ISIS and the al-Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere, and should be treated just as brutally and just as ruthlessly as we treat those organizations," Miller said in the same speech, to foreign leaders at the Shield of the Americas conference.

Between the lines: Trump advisers see Miller's elevation as a way to reenergize the president's populist base, which failed to turn out in sufficient numbers for the midterms — and in some cases voted for Democrats.

Advisers point to Trump's handling of the Epstein files and his decision to attack Iran — which in turn escalated fuel prices — as reasons he lost support among those voters.

Without winning them back, Republicans say, they'll have no chance in the 2028 elections.

.... With Trump's legislative agenda effectively stalled, Miller's allies argue he is particularly well suited to a White House that will increasingly rely on executive orders and legal battles — areas in which Miller has extensive experience.

But some critics worry that Miller's elevation could mean Trump turns Miller's hard-line immigration agenda into a centerpiece of his final two years in office — something that could continue to alienate independent and moderate voters, as it appeared to do in the midterms.

The election

How Abdul El-Sayed swung young men from Trump by 55 points in Michigan

Alternet -   It was unfamiliar territory for an entertainment channel that typically reveres President Donald Trump, but Newsmax’s “Wake Up America,” Saturday edition had no choice but to come to terms with Trump’s culpability in the recent Tuesday destruction that bowled Republicans out of their House and Senate majorities.

“[L]ook, I'm going to be blunt here: His demeanor, his focus on things that Americans were not talking about, like arches and ballrooms and, and reflecting pools certainly added to his problem,” said founder and senior partner at John Zogby Strategies, John Zogby, speaking of the Republican rout, and the particularly dramatic flip of the state of Texas blue

Zogby added that as a growing state and a more affordable state than California, Texas had an influx of suburban creative class people who work in the knowledge sector, along with a lot of young people coming in and “making for a new Texas.”

“This was going to happen sooner or later. What it always needed was the right candidate, the right moment. This was the right moment,” said Zogby, but he insisted that “the Republican brand has been hurt all over and it was hurt in Texas.”

12 Amtrak tips

JD Vance

New Republic -  Where did things go wrong? That question is often top of mind after a humiliating failure, so it’s hardly a surprise that Vice President JD Vance is asking it after the Republican Party lost both chambers of Congress in the largest midterm defeat since Watergate. What’s surprising is how he’s answering the question.

In a lengthy post Wednesday on X, Vance spun the GOP’s massive defeat by blaming the administration he serves in—and the president he serves under, in particular—for launching a deeply unpopular war on Iran. The veep’s goal is barely concealed: He wants to succeed Donald Trump in two short years, and he doesn’t want the stink of Iran or the 2026 midterms on him. So he publicly threw his boss under the bus in an essay on Elon Musk’s hellsite. It has to be one of the boldest and most shameless things a vice president has ever done.

Donald Trump

The Hill - President Trump signed a proclamation Thursday making the Oval Office and Cabinet Room in the White House a national monument.  Trump noted Congress would have to ratify the proclamation, and that “no major modifications” would be able to be made to the rooms without approval from Congress.  “It’s a symbol of our country, and the greatness of our country,” Trump told reporters, referring to the Oval Office.