Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at last month's United Nations General Assembly.

Art of Russia’s Deal -- President Trump’s claim of an energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, coming after his announcement that the US is freeing up its sanction on Russian diesel fuel, was news to Kyiv.

“Ukraine has no information about an energy ceasefire” as announced by Trump Sunday, a senior Ukrainian official told The Kyiv Independent.

[UPDATE: Six senators called on President Trump to “immediately reverse course” on his administration’s plan to purchase diesel from Russia to lower prices, The Associated Press reports. Four are Republicans; Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Curtis of Utah. Two are Democrats; Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.]

Speaking to reporters at the White House Saturday, Trump had again blamed Ukraine for high global diesel fuel prices – which of course inflate prices on anything shipped by diesel truck or train – and said he will lift sanctions on Russian diesel in order to quickly lower the fuel’s global price, according to The New York Times.

The president said the US has told Ukraine; “You can do whatever you want to Russia. Don’t hit the refineries because that’s a world problem that’s caused.”

Trump’s statement thus scapegoats Ukraine, which has been fighting Russia’s jet-drone strikes on its civilians with drone strikes of its own on Russian oil refineries in the country’s effort to bring dictator Vladimir Putin’s economy to its knees. 

Global diesel prices have, in fact, skyrocketed since the beginning of the US-Israeli war on Iran. According to AAA’s survey of national average prices at the pump, diesel jumped from $3.757 per gallon on March 5, shortly after the war began, to $4.33 on March 6. It hit an all-time high in the US of $6.5276 per gallon on September 22 and has since eased just a bit to $6.2771 per gallon.

While the White House has negotiated an end to Russia’s war on Ukraine largely by meeting with the Kremlin, Trump blames Ukraine for refusing to reach a deal. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “wants to make problems for the world,” Trump told reporters Saturday. “I think it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president.”

Trump’s relationship with Putin remains much warmer. NPR’s Charles Mayne told host Scott Simon on Weekend Edition Saturdaythat Trump had a “highly successful” discussion with the Russian dictator in which he agreed to “immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel fuel to the US and global markets, with more to follow.” 

This will bring down diesel prices worldwide “IN RECORD NUMBERS, AND FAST,” Maynes said of Trump’s TS, though no oil industry analyst believes it will be fast enough to come in time for the November 3 midterm elections. But Trump immediately issued a six-month wavier, Maynes reported, of the sanctions on Russian oil that were imposed shortly after Putin attacked Ukraine in February 2022. 

Is this just Trump being The Art of the Deal Trump, as his supporters would say --  negotiating agreements between Moscow and Kyiv without consulting Kyiv, for leverage?

It doesn’t look that way. Rather, Trump appears to be ‘negotiating’ in Moscow’s favor, as he has done since blowing his deadline of ending the war on Day One of his second term.

Behind the deal …. Even before Trump’s latest attack on Zelenskyy, a New York Times report last Thursday detailed the White House’s proposed multibillion-dollar deal involving a partial acquisition of Russia’s Lukoil that the president claims will advance our foreign policy interests and lower energy prices.

Under this deal, the US government, via the US International Development Finance Corporation would acquire about 15% of Lukoil’s interests, including oil fields, refineries and gas stations. Todd Boehly, an American billionaire who has donated about $2 million to pro-Trump causes in the last two years, and the federal government, would receive a small minority stake in the deal, but would control a majority of its board, people close to the deal told the NYT. 

More than half the equity of this Lukoil entity is currently held by investors in the Middle East, including ties to the royal family in Abu Dhabi as well as two billionaires partnered with White House son-in-law Jared Kushner and the president’s daughter Ivanka Trump, the NYT reports, again citing participants in the negotiations. Kushner and fellow special envoy Steve Witkoff have been key negotiators trying to get a ceasefire deal with the Kremlin.

If Putin, who is said to have final say, approves the deal, Boehly’s group would acquire Lukoil stock from non-Russian owners at a face value of about $10 billion. Once the deal is complete and the Treasury Department approves, Lukoil’s assets no longer would be subject to the US sanctions, the NYT reports, and that $10 billion worth of stock would see an immediate increase in value. 

One can see why President Trump and his kleptocratic peace negotiators would find it unacceptable for Zelenskyy’s Ukraine to continue drone-bombing Russian oil fields. 

•••

And the Price Is – Diesel in the US averages $6.2665 per gallon nationally, AAA reports, which is 1.06 cents cheaper than on Sunday but $2.5095 more than on March 5. Unleaded regular, meanwhile, fell 0.29 cents from Sunday to $4.3556 Monday, or $1.3756 costlier than on February 27.

•••

Guilfoyle’d? – Former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson has joined former Fox News Vice President Ken La Corte in criticizing the conservative television outlet for failing to report on a scandal involving another of its former hosts, current US Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle, Mediaite reports. 

Last week The Wall Street Journal reported that Guilfoyle (who also is a former wife of Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom!) was preparing for her Senate hearing for her ambassadorship when she reached out to Trump donor Eric Deters seeking $100,000 to pay her American Express bill and offering access to administration officials. 

Former corporate veep La Corte accused Fox News of “journalistic malpractice” prompting former host Carlson to respond that the decision not to cover the scandal was made “from the top.”

Meanwhile, top Democrats on the House and Senate Foreign Affairs Committees have asked the State Department to investigate the WSJ’s reporting that Guilfoyle allegedly used her position to promote gas deals with a Greek company across southern Europe. 

Michael Costa, host of The Daily Show except on Mondays said; “Wow, if the Justice Department still existed, Kimberly Guilfoyle would be in soooo much trouble.” –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
MONDAY 10/12/26

President Trump personally instructed Russ Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, to use $20 million of taxpayer money from the Department of Homeland Security, The New York Times reports, for his blatantly political TV ads.

•Do Not Miss Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay's "Who's He Kidding?" in The Gray Area.

By Todd Lassa

Last week’s most important economic news was not Friday’s tepid Labor Department report that the US economy added just 29,000 jobs in September (for a still exceptional 4.2% unemployment rate). The number was good news, in a way, for President Trump in that the Federal Reserve’s next interest rate hike signaled by his choice for chairman, Kevin Warsh, may now be held to zero for the rest of 2026.

Last week’s most important economic news was, instead, Freddie Mac’s report that home mortgage rates breached the “psychologically important” 7% level last seen a year-and-a-half ago.

Home mortgage rates had fallen below 6% last February, for the first time since 2022, “sparking a flurry of buyer interest and fueling optimism” ahead of the traditional spring selling season. Now, The Wall Street Journal reports, the 7.03% Freddie Mac reported for the end of September and into October “may be the housing market’s ‘new normal.’” 

Trump in his big interview with Time magazine last week promised an end to the war with Iran after the midterms, resulting in a quick drop in oil prices. To make sure you received that message, Trump repeated his offer to give every adult US citizen $5,000 if Republicans hold their majorities in the House and Senate.

But the prospect of an easy resolution to the war he along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched in February is far from guaranteed. 

This Sunday The New York Times reported that the Pentagon has withdrawn all 12 B-1 Air Force bombers from RAF Fairfield after commanders received threats regarding an Iranian-backed plot against the field in southern England, according to two officials. Report of the withdrawal was confirmed by the Pentagon’s European command, though they gave no reason for it.

This comes one week after police arrested five men approaching RAF Fairfield in three white vans. It must be noted that British authorities have not yet indicated the motive or nature of the presence of the five men at the airfield.

Meanwhile … As both chambers of Congress take recess until after the November 3 midterms and Trump (above) hits the campaign trail in an effort to retain the GOP’s control of the Senate and House of Representatives, we are off from our regular schedule of daily updates, October 5 to October 9 only. 

We will return with daily news/aggregate/analysis updates in this center column Mondays through Fridays on October 12. During this time, you are still encouraged to join our conversation on political news. Email your COMMENTS to editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line, so we can publish them in the appropriate (left or right) column.

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MONDAY 10/5/26

Unemployment Rate Ticks Up -- The US economy added just 29,000 jobs in September, the Labor Department reports Friday morning, and the unemployment rate rose to 4.2% from the 4.1% rate of July and August. Economists expected about 80,000 jobs, according to Marketplace Morning Report, where MacroPolicy Perspectives founder and President Julia Coronado noted the average over the last three months was a solid 50,000 jobs. Health care employment was one of the bright spots, though it rose at a rate slower than the 12-month average. Construction employment was little- changed and manufacturing employment rose by just 9,000. [CHART: Bureau of Labor Statistics]

Russia to Step Up Attacks Ukrainian Energy – Ukraine has intercepted a Russian plan to collapse its energy systems this winter through methodical attacks, with up to 1,000 missiles, jet-powered drones and bombs targeting electrical substations, hydroelectric and thermal powerplants and boiler houses. Russia’s planned campaign would plunge Ukrainian cities into cold and darkness with more force than in the past four winters of the war, according to the plan, which was revealed by Ukrainian energy minister Denys Shmyhal to European partners in Paris two weeks ago.

The report was obtained by The New York Times, whose reporters spoke with people familiar with Shmyhal’s meeting in Paris.

•••

Good’s Family Sues Feds – The family of Renee Good, who was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis January 7, has filed two lawsuits against the federal government and top Trump administration officials, seeking compensation and a trial to determine liability, per the Minnesota Reformer. Administration officials include Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and former Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino.

The ICE agent identified as the shooter, Jonathan Ross, has not been charged though local and federal law officials say they continue to investigate the case.

“Our government is killing our citizens without any legal justification,” said Antonio Romanucci, attorney with the Chicago-based firm Romanucci & Blandin, who was co-council for the estate of George Floyd. 

One lawsuit was filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act while the second is based on the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which outlaws conspiracies to deprive people of their Constitutional rights, according to the Reformer. The second lawsuit alleges the Trump administration’s Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis was aimed at Somalis and Hispanics.

•••

Meanwhile, Prices at the Pump – The national average for a gallon of unleaded regular fell 1.76 cents to $4.3961 Friday, according to AAA’s daily report. That’s $1.4161 costlier than February 27, the brink of the US-Israeli war on Iran. Diesel is $6.3726 Friday for a drop of 1.69 cents versus Thursday and 75.6831 higher than on September 1, AAA says. --TL

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Iran War, Week 25

THURSDAY 10/1/26

DHS funds Ministry of Truth – Federal funds from the Department of Homeland Security financed pro-Trump video advertisements that the White House dubbed ‘US Government ads,’ The Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the matter. The taxpayer money came from US Customs and Border Protection, an arm of DHS, according to the report.

•••

SNAP-Off – Big changes to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps) begin Thursday as last year’s One Big Beautiful (budget) Bill cuts about $186 billion out of its budget over the next 10 years, according to Marketplace Morning Report. States are now responsible for 75% of administration costs, up from 50% previously, according to Elaine Waxman, senior fellow at the Urban Institute. 

That could cost states millions of dollars to hundreds of millions, depending on the size of the state, she says, and some states may pull out of SNAP altogether. Beginning Autumn 2027, the program will require more paperwork from applicants, Waxman says. More than 5 million people have stopped participating in SNAP since the budget bill passed, though it’s difficult to say how many of them dropped off because of the initial tightening of application requirements.

•••

Was it Terrorism? – Israeli authorities have not determined the motives of an Omani pilot on flydubai flight 1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv, who allegedly stabbed his Indian co-pilot and sent the flight plunging toward a crash. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed on Fox & Friends Thursday the suspect “underwent Islamist, radical indoctrination.” 

It was Israeli PM Netanyahu’s second appearance on conservative Fox News in 24 hours, according to The Times of Israel.

Because the injured co-pilot managed to open the cockpit door on Wednesday’s flight, passengers detained the suspect while an off-duty British flydubai pilot pulled the jet aircraft out of a “death spiral,” according to the Daily Mail.

•••

Hegseth Doubles Down – In his ‘State of the Force’ speech Wednesday, War Secretary Pete Hegseth says the Pentagon has fired 10% of generals and admirals in the US military and he would like to get that to 20%.

Hegseth, speaking before junior officers at Virginia military base, also announced initiatives to study the future of warfare focusing on autonomous operations, per NPR’s All Things Considered.

Hegseth also told the junior officers this: “The ideological clowns are out. The patriotic cowboys are in, with testosterone testing on top.”

•••

Tennessee Botches Execution – Christa Pike would have been the first woman executed by Tennessee in more than 200 years when she received a last-minute stay about nine hours before her scheduled lethal injection, Wednesday. The Supreme Court then overturned the lower court’s ruling, 6-3, with Justices Sonya Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elana Kagen dissenting.

Pike, 50, later survived two doses of lethal injections Wednesday night, The New York Times reports, before state officials suspended the execution at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. She then was taken to hospital for medical care, her attorneys said. 

Pike was 18 when she killed 19-year-old Slemmer, and thus is eligible for the death penalty. Pike’s boyfriend at the time, Tadaryl Shipp, also was convicted of the murder. Because Shipp was 17 at the time of Slemmer’s murder, he was sentenced to life in prison. He was recently denied parole, according to the NYT.

Pike’s attorneys have argued that her initial legal defense in the 1995 trial did not adequately present the likelihood of child sexual abuse and neglect.

•••

South Korea Disputes $50b US Investment – A South Korean government official Thursday disputed Trump administration claims it had reached a deal for a $50-billion liquid natural gas (LNG) pipeline in Alaska, The Wall Street Journal reports. Kim Jung-kwan, South Korea’s industry minister, disputed the $50-billion number and that any deal had been reached at all.

“Putting out figures, or using definitive language, goes far beyond what was agreed,” Kim said at a press briefing in Seoul.

But definitive language is exactly what President Trump, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) -- who faces Democratic challenger Dan Sullivan in his re-election bid November 3 – voiced in announcing the deal at a White House press conference Wednesday. 

“This one is huge for Alaska,” Republican incumbent Sullivan said.

The project, first proposed in 2014, would pipe LNG from the far-north of Alaska, liquefy it and export it to Asia. If and when it happens, liquefied LNG exports would be years off into the future. 

South Korea’s Kim said he expects both sides to follow up with discussions on the pipeline.

•••

Gas Relief Continues – AAA’s national average for a gallon of unleaded regular is $4.4137 Thursday, 2.06 cents lower than Wednesday and $1.4337 higher than on February 27. Diesel is $6.3895 Thursday, down 2.44 cents lower than Wednesday and 75.7 cents higher than on September 1, AAA says. Meanwhile, NPR reports the international benchmark price of oil is up Thursday, breaching the $100 per barrel mark. --TL

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WEDNESDAY 9/30/26

Pre-deregulating AI/SI – Following a White House luncheon with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and other “top executives,” President Trump announced an Artificial Super Intelligence policy that relies on “tremendous self-policing of products and technology.” Trump later told reporters he was “thinking of forming a committee” that would include tech execs.

The White House document on Trump’s pre-deregulation policy outlines four “layers of controls and audits” for AI SI purveyors, according to The Guardian; 1.) implementation of internal safety monitoring during training 2.) internal teams to make sure that first layer is properly implemented, 3.) external auditors to independently assess safety controls and 4.) independent boards for each company to review reports of the safety controls.

SI … Perhaps most importantly, the White House issued a separate order centered on the president’s Gulf of Mexico America-like renaming of AI, as Trump first floated at the United Nations General Assembly last week. It mandates using “‘Super Intelligence’ and ‘SI’ in place of ‘Artificial Intelligence’ and ‘AI’ in official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports, policy documents, and other non-statutory documents within the executive branch.”

The tech broligarchy is pleased.

“This is a start and an accord that the whole industry could come to. It was a sort of historic conversation,” Meta’s Zuckerberg told reporters after the luncheon.

•••

Smith’s Hawks – Americans should not take the rule of law for granted, Jack Smith, special counsel investigating Donald J. Trump’s alleged 2020 election interference, said ahead of his second testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. It was his third hearing under oath over MAGA Republicans’ accusations Smith “weaponized” the Justice Department against Trump between his two terms. 

The hearing’s TV news moment came when Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) grilled Smith on whether his attending an NBA game between the Golden State Warriors at the Hawks in Atlanta February 3, 2024, just after Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis – who also was investigating Trump’s alleged shenanigans in the ’20 election – admitted to an affair with one of her prosecutors. 

Schmitt had uncovered texts to and from the former special prosecutor that “proved” Smith was in Atlanta that day for the Warriors-Hawks game. 

Except, it turns out Smith was attending an Iowa Hawkeyes women’s basketball game featuring phenom Caitlin Clark, versus the Terrapins at the University of Maryland, in College Park, just outside Washington, D.C.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) told the Judiciary Committee that the University of Iowa team is known among fans as the “Hawks,” and demanded that Schmitt apologize to Smith for calling him a “dirtbag” after misplacing him at the Warriors-Hawks game.

Call him what you will; Schmitt refused.

•••

Sovereignty Day in Iraq – The US Wednesday withdrew the last of its troops who returned in 2014 to lead an international coalition to fight the Islamic State, or ISIS (per The New York Times). After toppling Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003, the US military occupied Iraq until 2011 and returned three years later to fight the ISIS threat.

Iraq calls the US withdrawal its “sovereignty day,” though Ret. Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, who had commanded US troops there told NPR’s Michel Martin on Morning Edition that removing all troops could strengthen neighboring Iran while leaving Iraq vulnerable to an ISIS resurgence.

•••

Gas Relief – As commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz returns to normal according to various reports, Americans are finding some relief at the pumps. National average for a gallon of unleaded regular slipped 2.15 cents to $4.4343 Wednesday, AAA reports. That’s $1.4543 pricier than on February 27. Diesel is down, too – though higher prices at retail and grocery stores are still on the way -- by 2.52 cents, to $6.4139, which is 81.04 cents higher than AAA’s August 30 average. –TL

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TUESDAY 9/29/26

Iran Connection Still a Question –President Trump was upset by British authorities’ release on bail of five men arrested at US-operated RAF Fairford Air Base in the Cotswolds, NPR reports. The men, British nationals from the London area, were arrested shortly after midnight Sunday when they drove three vans onto the airbase. 

British authorities have not established a connection to terrorists and have floated the possibility they were unwitting pawns in an alleged scheme that may or may not have involved terrorists, Morning Edition reports. Iran’s UK embassy on Monday denied involvement in the incident. 

But Secretary of State Marco Rubio “confirmed” on Fox News’ Hannity Monday night that the illegal entry onto the air base was a thwarted terrorist plot involving a “foreign actor.”  

“What happened, what almost happened, what could have happened in the UK over the weekend is a very serious situation,” Rubio told eponymous host Sean Hannity. “It’s one that clearly involves the hands of a foreign actor.”

Meanwhile, oil frees up … Oil exports from the Middle East are up sharply in September, close to the level before Iran closed off the Strait of Hormuz, analysts tell The New York Times. With ships passing an average of 10 million barrels of oil daily through the Strait this month, according to tanker-tracker firm Kpler, some energy prices may soon ease. 

•••

At the US Pumps – Gasoline and diesel prices continue to ease off recent highs, according to AAA. Diesel Tuesday averages $6.4391 nationally, 1.4-cent lower than Monday and 8.85 cents lower than its all-time high set one week ago. Unleaded regular averages $4.4558 nationally Tuesday, 2.1 cents lower than Monday and $1.4758 higher than on February 27.

•••

It’s ‘Super’ – OpenAI has scrapped its release of GPT-6.1, its new artificial intelligence model, over safety concerns, The Wall Street Journal reports. GPT-6.1’s cancellation comes just ahead of OpenAI’s annual developer conference in San Francisco and company President Greg Brockman’s attendance at a White House lunch for AI executives, both on Tuesday.

In addition to Brockman, Tuesday’s White House lunch with President Trump is to be attended by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and – oh, yeah, him -- Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA). The lunch guest list was confirmed by Semafor.

Note that while Trump barred The Associated Press from some White House press events last year when the wire service refused to rename the Gulf of Mexico, “Gulf of America,” there have been no repercussions, yet, for the WSJ or Semafor or for that matter, OpenAI for failing to call it “Super Intelligence” after the president changed the name at the United Nations General Assembly last week.

Note to OpenAI … What with cancellation of GPT-6.1, this might be the time to rename yourself “OpenSI.”

•••

‘Protecting’ College Sports – The Senate passed the Protect College Sports Act, 77-22, with bipartisan support as well as bipartisan opposition, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. Oppo, both Democratic and Republican, comes from critics concerned it curbs college student athletes’ rights and earning power without curbing the millions of dollars schools spend on recruiting, athletic facilities and coach salaries.

President Trump supports the bill, but the House won’t get to it until after representatives return to Capitol Hill after the midterms. –TL

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MONDAY 9/28/26

Five British Nationals Arrested at US Air Force Base in England – Five men in their 20s arrested early Sunday for suspicion of terrorism offenses at US-operated RAF Fairford air base in England are UK nationals from London, according to counter-terrorism police, The Guardian reports. 

Police were called when an area resident witnessed three vans being driven toward the airbase, according to the BBC, though President Trump said on Sunday that US intelligence had been watching the men involved.

The US Air Force has used RAF Fairford to launch attacks on Iran during the war.

The five men were detained under suspicion of offense under the Explosives Act and for preparation of a terrorist act, contrary to Section 5 of the UK’s Terrorism Act, The Guardian reports. Police evacuated 85 households from the nearby village of Whelford, Sunday.

Iran’s embassy Monday denied any involvement with the incident, the AP reports.

•••

Meanwhile, at the Pump -- National average for a gallon of unleaded regular eased over the weekend, and settled at $4.4768 per gallon Monday, AAA reports. That's 1.5 cents cheaper than Friday and $1.4968 more expensive than February 27. Diesel is $6.4531 per gallon, 4.88 cents lower than Friday. Do not expect more relief Tuesday, as the apparent breakdown of negotiations between the US and Iran was pushing global oil prices up on Monday.

•••

Senate Runs Out of Time – The House of Representatives already is on its midterm elections break and the Senate has just this week remaining for its final votes, with a college sports bill coming up Monday evening the only sure bipartisan thing, according to Roll Call. That gives the Senate precious little time to respond to President Trump’s pocket recission cancelling $810 million in health and education funds already approved by Congress. 

“I will work with my colleagues to address these illegal actions,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), arguably the most endangered Republican senator for November 3, said in a statement in response to Trump’s pocket recission.

•••

Once More, With Feeling – President Trump expects his negotiators to resume talks with Iran this week, he told Axios in a phone interview Sunday. This came one day after Trump rejected a proposal by Iran to end the seven-month-long war. 

Iran and the US are reportedly far apart on key issues, while Qatar and other mediators from the region have tried to revive the negotiations. 

The Iranian proposal Trump rejected on Saturday centered on the Strait of Hormuz and the US naval blockade, while the Trump administration remains more focused on nuclear concessions. US envoy Steve Witkoff and White House son-in-law Jared Kushner had held their latest round of negotiations with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on the sidelines of the United Nations’ 81^st General Assembly last week.

•••

Election Fraud Alert – The Trump administration could use the hours and days after the November 3 midterm to disrupt results – now looking kinda real good for Democrats in the House, if not the Senate -- after struggles to enforce voting crackdowns, election experts speaking in a briefing by the Brennan Center for Justice and reported by The Guardian, said last week.

“I think because the administration has lost so many of their attempts to disrupt the normal process in courts, that they are going to use the claims of foreign interference at the end of voting days to either seize equipment or seize ballots, whether they are legally justified to do so or not,” Caitlin Durkovich, former deputy Homeland Security advisor for resilience and response on the national security council said. 

The non-partisan Brennan Center conveniently has documented the chronology of President Trump’s pre-emptive attempts to influence the 2026 midterms. Trump’s worry is that if Democrats take control of the House, it can impeach him for a third time, but it will take a highly unlikely 60-Democrat majority in the Senate (or several Republicans willing to defy MAGA and join Democrats) to assure conviction. 

•••

Netanyahu Asks for Cover? – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed to deny Haaretz’s Sunday report the Emerati leader warned Netanyahu of the Hamas attack that sparked Israel’s war on Gaza, shortly before the October 7, 2023 attack, according to a report Monday in Haaretz. UAE sources told the newspaper that Netanyahu asked bin Zayed to deny details of their pre-October 7 phone conversation, as well as other details of events leading up to the Hamas attack that could embarrass the Israeli PM and asked for “moral support” in a one-hour meeting at the Tel Aviv airport Sunday. 

The revelations come just ahead of the October 27 Israeli election of all 120 members of Israel’s Knesset, which will determine the coalition to succeed the 37^th government led by Netanyahu. His serious challenger is the National Unity Party’s Benny Gantz, who is pushing for a broad, moderate Zionist government, according to The Jerusalem Post. –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
MONDAY 9/28/26

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that following his speech to the United Nations’ 81^st General Assembly Wednesday [UN Web TV, above] he secured a new deal for desperately needed Patriot missiles, the Kyiv Post reports. But Zelenskyy was tight-lipped about it and would not reveal the source, number of Patriots or when they would arrive in the Ukraine. He did claim Ukraine shot down 60% of incoming Russian ballistic missiles Thursday night, up from a 29% seen in July, which the Post suggests indicates some help already has arrived.

•UPDATE: The White House says President Trump will detail on Monday trade agreements made with Chinese President Xi during his state visit this week. Scroll this column for details on their meeting.

Defiant Netanyahu at the UN – Amidst large anti-Netanyahu protests in New York City, the Israeli prime minister played the ‘antisemitism’ card on Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who tried to block him from coming to the United Nations’ 81^st General Assembly because of the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against him.

“Shame on you, Mr. Mamdani,” Benjamin Netanyahu said in his 40-minute speech to the General Assembly. “Since you were elected mayor, many Jews no longer feel safe in New York. They talk to me.”

Netanyahu addressed the war on Iran his government launched in late February with the Trump administration.

“Devastating Iran’s nuclear facilities was hard,” he said. “But for me, it was one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever had to make as prime minister. Because if we hadn’t done it, we’d all be dead.”

Netanyahu also pushed back against the accusations of genocide on Palestinians in Gaza that lead to the ICC’s arrest warrant. 

“What genocidal regime gives a million polio vaccines to the enemy’s population? What genocidal regime enables the distribution of 2 million tons of food into Gaza?” Netanyahu said.

He later added; “Israel didn’t commit genocide. Israel has prevented genocide.”

According to Haaretz, Israel has not provided vaccines to Palestinians, but at most has allowed vaccine campaigns by international groups.

Netanyahu also cited two or three incidents of violence by Israeli settlers on Palestinian homes in the West Bank, saying perpetrators are “young juvenile delinquents, about 150 in numbers.”

The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that 23 Palestinians have been killed by settlers since the beginning of 2026, according to Haaretz.

•••

All Pomp, Scant Circumstance – Nothing substantive emerged from Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s state visit to the Trump White House this week. President Trump, in fact, was “very angry” there was press coverage his unprecedented red carpet greeting of Xi photo op upon his arrival at the airport, according to WAMU’s The 1A.

Tech titans at the state dinner Thursday were Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, X-DOGEman Elon Musk, Trump AI whisperer Jensen Huang of Nvidia, Apple’s Tim Cook, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, according to The New York Times, as well as executives from Google, Microsoft, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, JP Morgan Chase, Pfizer, GE Aerospace and ExxonMobil.

If there were no announcements of, say, a Chinese automaker building an assembly plant in the US, there were expressions of mutual admiration between Trump and Xi, according to USA Today.

“As the leaders of our two nations, President Xi and I both understand that we represent different systems, but the ties between our people endure, and we’ve never gotten along better,” Trump said. “Since the first trade ships from New York left the harbor to arrive on the banks of the Pearl River, Americans and Chinese have always exchanged goods, knowledge, customs and ideas.”

“President Trump has pledged to make America great again and led the American people in making significant strides,” Xi said. “China is committed to achieving great national rejuvenation and Chinese modernization has kept breaking your ground.”

Meanwhile, at the press table … After the White House initially defied US District Judge Timothy Kelly’s temporary restraining order that CNN, Politico and MS NOW be allowed in, the three outlets’ reporters and photographers were allowed access by Thursday afternoon. But while Politico journalists were able to attend the Trump-Xi state dinner, CNN and MS NOW were again barred.

•••

Gas Up – National average for a gallon of unleaded regular rose to $4.4918 Friday, up 0.93 cents from Thursday and up $1.5118 from February 27, AAA reports. Diesel is $6.5019 per gallon, 1.22 cents lower than Thursday. –TL

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UN General Assembly Day 3, Trump-Xi Day 1

THURSDAY 9/24/26

Trump White House Defies Court Order – US District Judge Timothy Kelly granted a temporary restraining order to restore access by CNN, Politico and MS NOW early Thursday, but that didn’t stop the Trump White House from denying them access later Thursday morning. According to Politico, its White House reporter was denied access Thursday, along with reporters for CNN and MS NOW. 

The judge’s order was to immediately restore access for the news organizations after President Trump banned them from the White House late last week. 

The three outlets have since filed an emergency request for a court hearing, CNN reports.

The reporters had expected to join other White House correspondents in covering Trump’s meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

•••

About Zelenskyy’s Warning – President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his address to the United Nations 81^st General Assembly Wednesday warned that Vladimir Putin’s Russia is ramping up his threats beyond Ukraine, including to Moldova, Poland and the Baltic States. He added that Russia shows “no respect” for the sovereignty of countries in the South Caucasus and Central Asia.

“The more freedom Putin has to act, the more dangerous the world has become for everybody else,” Zelenskyy said.

•••

Gas Prices Rise Again, Diesel Eases – After a downward blip Wednesday, gas prices at the pump are up again for Thursday, according to AAA. The national average for a gallon of unleaded regular is $4.4825, up 0.81 cents over Wednesday and $1.5025 over February 27. The national average for a gallon of diesel slipped 0.76 cents to $6.5141. –TL

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United Nations General Assembly, Day 2

WEDNESDAY 9/23/26

Trump Sinks to New Low – Coincidentally following President Trump’s recount of his second-term successes before the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday, his approval rating has sunk to 29%, an historical low, according to the American Research Group’s latest poll. Trump’s disapproval rating in the poll, which has an error margin of 3%, is 68% in the ARG poll, Political Wire reports.

•••

Energy Ceasefire? – President Trump urged Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to stop striking Russian oil depots, Marketplace reports. Trump and Zelenskyy briefly met Tuesday evening, after the UN General Assembly.

Zelenskyy, who addresses the General Assembly Wednesday, says Ukraine is “ready for any kind of format of energy ceasefire,” The Guardian reports. He said he did not get a chance to say much to Trump Tuesday.

“I hope we will end this war, and President Trump will help us end this war,” Zelenskyy said. “We need to do it as quick as possible, before winter.”

•••

Diesel and Gas Prices Ease – The national average for a gallon of diesel fuel Wednesday is $6.5217, AAA reports, 0.59-cent lower than Tuesday, up 95.1141 cents from August 21. Unleaded regular is $4.4744 Wednesday, six-one-hundredths of an unobtainable penny lower than Tuesday and $1.4944 more expensive than on February 27.

•••

Trump’s Media Ban Goes to Court – Attorneys for CNN, Politico and MS NOW will cite an exchange between President Trump and CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at the United Nations Tuesday to argue for their temporary restraining order to end their banning from the White House, according to Mediate, citing a report by correspondent Scott MacFarlane of the left-leaning MeidasTouch news site. 

US District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump 45 appointee, hears the case Wednesday afternoon.

Attorneys for the three outlets prevented from entering White House grounds Saturday submitted to the court an Axios report of Trump’s remarks at the UN, in which he objected to Collins’ coverage, per Mediaite.

“I’m surprised that CNN is here, covering me,” Trump said. “You shouldn’t be here!”

Collins replied: “The United Nations allowed me in, sir.” – Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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WEDNESDAY 9/23/26

By Todd Lassa

The United Nations’ 81^st General Assembly consists of a different crowd than the Trump rallies the president still holds well into his second term. And so this time, there was no dancing to the Village People’s YMCA.

But President Trump did recount his long list of self-congratulated successes since retaking office in January 2025 to transform America from the “Dark Age into the Golden Age.” 

“I do not believe in letting problems foster,” Trump said, “they are harder to solve.”

Therefore, the Trump administration’s latest ultimatum for the Islamic Republic of Iran is that it must reach a deal after the midterm elections.

“I believe we’ll make a deal after the election,” Trump told the General Assembly. “They’re waiting to see if I win the election, but I am not running.”

As a reminder, the Trump administration will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. If the US and Iran can reach a deal, the president said, there will be so much economic investment in the country so as to make it a premier state in the region.

If no deal? “Do I annihilate the Islamic Republic?” 

With the contingent of the Nobel Peace Prize’s host nation, Norway, in the audience, Trump ticked off the eight wars he says he ended since retaking office and said once again he will soon end the Russian-Ukrainian war [or as it’s better-known, Russia’s war on Ukraine].

With Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the audience, Trump said if he has to impose tariffs of up to 100% on oil and natural gas allowed by the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 (the late senator, unlike the president, was an unwavering supporter of Ukraine), he would. 

“We will get that one done,” he said of a resolution to the war. “It will happen more quickly than people understand.”

Trump spoke of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s (he was in the UN audience with First Lady Melania Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent) diplomatic efforts with Havana. The Cuban delegation stood up and left the General Assembly at that point in Trump’s speech.

The president said his agreement with Denmark and its semi-autonomous territory, Greenland, to build two “very major” military bases there would be signed later Tuesday. 

Announced just last weekend, this could have been the centerpiece of Trump’s speech. But the agreement with Denmark and Greenland essentially extends a 1951 agreement to make Greenland a US/NATO bulwark against Russia and China. The agreement also prohibits US adversaries from making “sensitive” investments in Greenland, an island rich in minerals and other raw materials, but does not account for the possibility that the island’s citizens could in the future vote for independence from Denmark, according to The Atlantic.

Trump threatened what right-wing Republicans have long considered the UN’s globalist tendencies, such as “transgender mutilation of our children,” persecution of Christians “all over the world” and the UN’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) “promotion of mass migration,” which he said is destroying greater cultures.

“We want to remain a sovereign nation, and so should you,” Trump said.

The US president Tuesday morning followed Brazil’s progressive President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who pre-emptively countered virtually all of Trump’s speech, point-for-point. 

Quoting Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1964 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, da Silva said; “I believe that what self-centered men have torn down men other-centered can build up.”

In the US president’s speech, Trump said fear of artificial intelligence comes from the same people who once warned we’d be dead from global warming, since renamed climate change because, he claimed, the world is actually cooling down. He equated the “AI hoax” also with “Russia, Russia, Russia” and “Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine” as well.

As with the Gulf of America, Lake America the state of New America and the Comedy Central satirical animation South America, AI is due for a Trumpesque name-change.

And so, the president has renamed AI “Super Intelligence,” or “SI.” [Imagine what this might do for Sports Illustrated’s website, si.com.]

“We’re going to encourage super intelligence,” Trump said, “not reign it in.”

•••

Networks’ Boycott – After CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox ceased their pool coverage of the Trump White House in response to the president’s banning of CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the press pool Monday, the administration announced its own television channel on YouTube. But it did not launch in time for Newsmax’s coverage to President Trump’s permanent helicopter pad on White House grounds, which had visuals but no audio. 

Other networks, including PBS and NPR joined the five networks in solidarity and are not using White House-provided visual or audio assets (The Hustings also joins the boycott). 

Newsmax, meanwhile, will have to rely on Trump TV: The Essentials Station for its White House coverage.

•••

Diesel is Up, Gas is Down – The national average for a gallon of diesel rose 1.69 cents Tuesday to $6.5276, AAA reports. That’s up 95.12 cents from August 21. Unleaded regular Tuesday is down 0.36 cents from Monday to $4.475 per gallon, or $1.495 higher than on February 27.

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Iran War, Week 24

MONDAY 9/21/26

UPDATE: The five networks that comprise the White House press pool – CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox -- have banded together to effectively boycott pool coverage of President Trump over his ban (per Mediaite).

THIS WEEK – The UN General Assembly meets in Manhattan. President Trump meets with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani Monday and attends a state dinner with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Washington this Thursday.

SCROLL THIS COLUMN FOR ...

•Military base use for the Triumphal Arch?

•ICE shooting in Austin

•Diesel tops $6.50 per gallon

Arming the Arc d’Trump – Drones and ammunition will be stored within and snipers will ‘protect’ from above President Trump’s triumphal arch to be built, whether Congress and the District of Columbia want it or not, between the Lincoln Memorial and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s home – now Arlington Cemetary – across the Potomac River. The president announced the military/security justification, which recalls the need for a security bunker beneath his White House East Wing ballroom, in a Truth Social post over the weekend. 

Trump Truth Socialed that military leaders asked him for the Arc d’Trump arsenal. But Major Gen. Randy Manner of the US Army (retired) and acting vice chief of the National Guard Bureau told NPR’s Michel Martin on Morning Edition Monday that Trump’s claim the military “begged” for it is an insult to the military, which already has a heavily guarded arsenals in the area, including Fort Myer, next to Arlington.

“This is absurd,” Manner said. “The president of the United States is trying to say we need this sniper stand so we can kill Americans.” 

•••

Trump Assaults First Amendment, Again – President Trump on Friday announced that CNN, MS NOW and Politico are banned from White House access, meaning primarily regular press conferences, for disseminating “fake news.” More such bans of other fact-based news organizations are forthcoming, Trump said.

On Saturday morning, journalists for the three outlets were denied access to the White House.

“A few minutes ago, our colleague Cheyenne Haslett attempted to enter the White House to do her job as a political reporter,” Politico Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Greenberger wrote in a newsroom-wide email Saturday. “Secret Service denied her entry to the complex and confiscated the pass that allows her access to the White House. We stand by her and all reporters here covering the White House. As we said yesterday, we will vigorously defend our First Amendment rights.”

MS NOW, formerly MSNBC, also reported that some of its journalists were denied access to the White House last Saturday morning. 

“The White House belongs to the American people,” MS NOW said in a statement, “and the decisions made inside are funded by the American people.”

CNN, MS NOW and Politico Monday sued the Trump administration over the president's ban.

“The president is absolutely within his rights to limit journalists to government facilities, particularly when, in his opinion, they’re not behaving as good faith journalists and that’s just not his opinion,” United Nation’s Ambassador Mike Walz told CNN’s Dana Bash on State of the Union Sunday. “That’s the Supreme Court’s opinion.”

Walz was referring to the Supreme Court’s 1965 ruling in Zemel v. Rusk, in which Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote “the right to speak and publish does not carry with it the unrestrained right to gather information.”

But that SCOTUS decision would seem to regulate, say, whether or not RAND Corporation military analyst Daniel Ellsberg had the right to hand over The Pentagon Papers to The New York Times, not whether the president could restrict journalists working for fact-based news organizations could be kept out of the White House to make room for MAGA-right podcasters and influencers who never will publish anything critical of Trump. 

And it cannot go unmentioned that it’s typical for governments in Moscow and Beijing, to name two, that choose which news media outlets cover their leaders.

Asked which news stories published or broadcast by Politico, CNN and MS NOW the president found to be fake, Trump responded there have been “cumulative stories over the past few years.”

Meanwhile … The Associated Press’ suit seeking to be allowed back into the White House is still under appeal. The news organization has had access to some White House events, but the administration has kept its journalists out of specific restricted spaces since April of last year, according to factually.com. Trump banned the AP from the White House for refusing to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.

•••

Another ICE Shooting – An ICE agent shot and wounded 28-year-old Venezuelan immigrant Wilber Garces Perez in Austin, Texas, Sunday as he apparently was making DoorDash deliveries.

Neither Austin police – which stated it was not involved in the shooting – nor ICE released Perez’s name, though Austin immigration attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch identified him for The Texas Tribune. The attorney said Perez has a valid work permit and entered the US legally and was released from the hospital into federal custody Sunday evening. Perez called his wife from inside his car to say he was shot, Lincoln-Goldfinch said.

Department of Homeland Security officials said its investigation department along with the FBI will probe the shooting, which comes more than two months after an ICE agent fatally shot a man in Houston. 

Biden! … Without naming Perez, DHS said he entered the US illegally under the Biden administration.

•••

Diesel tops $6.50 – The national average price of a gallon of diesel fuel is $6.5107 Monday, AAA reports, up 6.31 cents over Friday and up 93.43 cents from one month ago. Unleaded regular is $4.4786, up 0.99 cents over Friday and $1.4986 more than it cost on February 27. –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 9/21/26