US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace has called on Israel to immediately allow all necessary humanitarian supplies into Gaza after rain flooded tens of thousands of tents.
The US-backed body, established to oversee the implementation of Trump’s Gaza peace plan, acknowledged the steps now being considered by Israel, but said “the response remains insufficient”.
Israel’s military agency in charge of co-ordinating aid into Gaza said it had allowed in tens of thousands of tents and trucks with winter supplies, but added reconstruction “can only begin after Hamas fully disarms”.
On Sunday, three children and a woman were killed when a sand embankment collapsed onto tents in the central Strip.
Most people in Gaza have been displaced because of Israel’s military actions. Around 65% of the population, about 1.4 million people, now live in tents or makeshift shelters, the UN says.
Standing soaked in Gaza City, Mohammed Jneid told the AFP news agency that heavy rains hit from one side and sewage overflowed on them from the other, with the ground and tents no longer able to hold.
“We have nothing left, no bedding, no food, nothing,” he said.
Sitting inside her tent, Islam Al Mobayed told AFP there were seven children there, five of them young.
“This is not life,” she said. “We are exhausted, we are tired of this entire life.”
In rare criticism of Israel, the Board of Peace said it had been urging the Israeli government to authorise the entry of essential goods for temporary shelter and water and sanitation infrastructure.
The Board added that delays in approving the entry of supplies “exacerbated the consequences of a foreseeable humanitarian challenge” and delayed the start of decommissioning weapons and transferring Hamas authority to a transitional government.
It also said Hamas’s failure to disarm and transfer power had compounded the difficulties facing Gaza’s civilians.
The UN’s humanitarian agency OCHA said more than 150,000 tents were outside Gaza ready to go in, but aid efforts were constrained “by Israeli restrictions on the entry of supplies and equipment and funding shortfalls”.
UN humanitarian coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov said on Monday that stocks of essential shelter and winter items inside Gaza had been exhausted.
“Israeli authorities must immediately lift all restrictions on entry of the supplies,” he said, adding “we have run out of time”.
Israel’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Michal Maayan on Monday said Israel had in recent months put in place a winter plan in coordination with the Board of Peace and international charities.
That plan has brought in more than 91,000 tents and 8,200-plus trucks with tarpaulins, blankets, winter clothing, and other equipment, according to Cogat, the Israeli military body responsible for aid.
Cogat said it would not allow in equipment that could be used for military purposes.
Maayon accused Hamas of hoarding aid, saying: “Hamas is responsible for the delays in making more progress in the Strip, and winter-related hardships are a consequence of Hamas’s action and policy.”
In response to the Board of Peace, Hamas said in a statement published on Palestinian media that its comment “presents a distorted account of the causes of the disaster”. The group denied it was responsible for ceasefire delays, pointing to a statement in August from Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish mediators that accused Israel of violations.
Hamas said Israeli restrictions prevent the entry of materials necessary for shelter and recovery – and added the Board as the ceasefire implementor should look at its own “serious shortcoming”.
Under the deal to end the two-year-long war in October 2025, Hamas agreed to give up governance and its weapons in exchange for a phased Israeli troop withdrawal from the 60% of Gaza it still occupied. Israel, however, has insisted Hamas must fully disarm before withdrawal.
The dispute has left the next stages of the peace plan stalled, with both sides blaming each other.
The war in Gaza began after the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 when around 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken hostage.
The Israeli military campaign in response has killed 74,645 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures the UN considers reliable. More than 1,600 people have been killed since the ceasefire in October last year.

California voters have rejected the controversial billionaire tax.
Proposition 40 sought to impose a one-time 5% tax on California billionaires’ assets to try to offset federal healthcare funding cuts. The novel tax on the ultra-wealthy had trailed from the first day of vote counting and was officially rejected on Monday night.
Even as a blue wave washed across the country in the midterm election, the new tax failed to spark enough support in one of the most liberal states.
Opponents of the wealth tax used their much larger war chest of campaign spending to flood television, radio and smartphones with ads. In a state that hasn’t been shy about voting in new taxes in the past, voters heard their message: the wealth tax is a reckless experiment and a tax on everyone, not just billionaires.
Roughly 53% of Californians voted against the measure, while 47% supported it, the Associated Press said when it declared that the proposition had failed.
Although the billionaire tax was rejected in the vast majority of counties, the late tally showed major pockets of support in Los Angeles and San Francisco — home to the lion’s share of the state’s 200 billionaires. Orange County, however, voted no by a wide margin.
The political battle over the ballot measure and two competing proposals divided the state and was among the most expensive in California history. More than $400 million had been spent on the three intertwined ballot measures, with more than 90% spent opposing the billionaire tax, according to fundraising disclosures filed with the secretary of state’s office.
Billionaires, notably Google co-founder Sergey Brin, poured hundreds of millions of dollars into groups that funded ads to kill the billionaire tax. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, the California Teachers Assn. and Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California are among the powerful Democrats and other Democrat-aligned groups expressing fears that billionaires would flee the state.
Some, including Brin and fellow Google co-founder Larry Page, moved out of California because of the proposal.
An onslaught of advertisements against the billionaire tax argued it could impact all Californians, not just the ultra-wealthy. Teachers, firefighters and other middle-class Californians became the face of their campaigns, fueling growing opposition ahead of election day.
Opponents of Proposition 40 said Californians made the “right decision,” calling the measure a “reckless experiment” that would hurt the state’s economy. The group included the California Medical Assn., California Primary Care Assn. and the California School Boards Assn.
“Proposition 40 risked California’s economic competitiveness and fiscal stability, as well as the revenue we rely on to fund our top priorities — from education and healthcare to public safety and infrastructure,” the group said.
Leaders of the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, which sponsored the proposition, vowed to put a billionaire tax proposal on the 2028 ballot if Sacramento leaders don’t find a way to better support the public health sector. Given California’s volatile budget, which is expected to be particularly problematic next year, it appears unlikely that state lawmakers will find a way to backfill an estimated $100 billion of federal healthcare funding cuts.
Supporters said the proposed tax on more than 200 California billionaires aimed to raise that amount, with 90% funding healthcare, and the remainder going to schools and food assistance.
“Billionaire-funded propaganda may have influenced the outcome of this election, but as hospitals reduce services, emergency rooms close and families lose access to care, the truth will become increasingly difficult to hide,” said Suzanne Jimenez, chief of staff for the SEIU-UHW. “Californians will see for themselves what was at stake.”
This will not be the end of the debate about taxing the rich. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont), who both backed Proposition 40, are pushing for the passage of a federal 5% tax on American billionaires.
Earlier this year, they introduced the “Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act.” Despite Democrats winning control of the House and Senate last week, the legislation will probably face constitutional challenges if it passes.

Late Monday, The Associated Press determined that California voters had rejected Prop 40, the proposed billionaire wealth tax I wrote about last week. Given the big blue wave we saw during the midterms, why did this tax on billionaires fail to surf to victory?
To make sense of the results, I went back to the two economists I spoke with last week: UC Berkeley’s Gabriel Zucman, a leading champion of wealth taxes, and Stanford’s Joshua Rauh, a prominent critic of Prop 40.
Last week, they disagreed on what this wealth tax on billionaires would do to California’s economy and tax revenue. Now comes the sequel, in which they disagree on what the results say about the politics of wealth taxes.
Their debate could foreshadow a bigger one in the next Democratic presidential primary: should the party embrace a wealth tax?
Did billionaire money tip the scales?
Zucman blames the corrosive influence of money for Prop 40’s failure.
“I am not surprised,” Zucman says. Opponents of Prop 40 spent almost $400 million fighting it, including spending on competing ballot measures, making it one of the most expensive ballot initiative fights in history.
“The money spent by the billionaires was critical,” Zucman says. “Anyone who lives in California has been carpet-bombed by a deluge of ads. One can easily see how this could be pivotal in such a closely contested ballot.”
But didn’t Democrats win plenty of races this cycle despite huge sums spent against them? In Texas, for example, Elon Musk alone poured more than $150 million into defeating Democrat James Talarico. And Talarico ended up winning his Senate race by a comfortable margin. Why would money have been so decisive with Prop 40 and not in other races around the nation?
For one, Zucman says, the spending gap was much bigger in the fight over Prop 40. “The billionaires spent more than $300 million on ads versus negligible sums on the other side,” Zucman says. “On TV and in their mailboxes, voters were exposed only to the anti-tax arguments. This was very different from the other midterm races: in those races, when spending was high (e.g., Talarico vs. Paxton in Texas) it was high on both sides, even if unevenly. The net difference in spending was considerably larger for Prop 40.”
It’s also possible that money can matter more in ballot initiatives than in races between candidates. Analysts have complained for decades that California’s ballot initiative system is too easily manipulated by special interest groups. The nitty-gritty details of specific policies can get complicated, and many voters don’t take the time to get educated on them. That can give well-funded advertising campaigns more power to shape their views.
In candidate races, meanwhile, voters can at least fall back on name recognition or party labels, which give them an easy mental shortcut — what social scientists call a “heuristic” — when making decisions at the ballot box. Even when they know little about the candidates, they usually know which party they prefer.
But Prop 40 didn’t come with the same clear partisan signal. In fact, prominent Democrats, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, came out against it. Newsom said he favored a national minimum tax on billionaires instead.
Or was this tax policy itself the problem?
“Popular opinion on wealth taxes is clearly not as strong as proponents thought,” Rauh says.
Rauh questions whether money and advertising can really explain Prop 40’s poor showing. He compared support for the tax with support for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. In some of “the most progressive Bay Area counties,” he says, Harris won overwhelming support while Prop 40 won much less. This gap between support for Harris and support for Prop 40 was bigger there than it was in other Democratic-leaning counties across the state.
If advertising was the main explanation for this tax’s poor showing, he argues, why was the gap so much bigger in the Bay Area? Sure, he says, advertisers may have done more targeting there, but he thinks the uneven pattern across the state casts doubt on the idea that advertising was the decisive factor.
“[T]he counties with the largest defections are actually the ones whose residents are most likely to know a billionaire, to work for one, or to have watched one move to Texas or Florida,” Rauh writes in a recent post. “The simple reading is that proximity to the people being taxed, and to the businesses they fund, made voters more skeptical of the tax relative to their baseline politics.”
For Rauh, that skepticism points to a broader conclusion: “The electorate even in progressive California has shown that it isn’t ready for a wealth tax,” he says.
More moderate Democratic voters, especially in affluent areas like the Bay Area, may simply dislike this novel way of taxing rich people in America and the consequences it could have. After all, this policy idea has divided Democrats before. During the 2020 presidential primary, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders both championed wealth taxes, but rivals like Sen. Cory Booker and Michael Bloomberg opposed them. Joe Biden said he didn’t oppose a wealth tax on the campaign trail, but early in his presidency, he declined to pursue Sen. Warren’s wealth tax proposal.
Or maybe voters weren’t rejecting the idea of a wealth tax per se. Maybe they were rejecting the particulars of this wealth tax.
For one thing, Prop 40 was a one-time tax, and it earmarked its projected revenue in ways that drew opposition from traditional Democratic allies. It allocated 90% of the revenue to health care, leaving only 10% for food assistance and education-related programs.
That helped put some typically left-leaning organizations in the opposition camp. For example, the California Teachers Association, a powerful teachers union. It argued that Prop 40 shortchanged public schools and did “not provide the sustainable and long-lasting funding that our schools and communities deserve.”
Meanwhile, Prop 40 would have taxed billionaires at the state level. Supporters of a national approach argue that a wealth tax would be more effective at the national level because it’s harder to leave America than it is to move to another state.
When Newsom came out against Prop 40 back in June, he wrote, “Wealth is movable, and it shops for the state with the lowest taxes. The fight belongs at the federal level, where this broken system was created in the first place.”
Where does the wealth tax movement go from here?
Despite Prop 40’s defeat, Zucman believes the wealth tax movement is far from over.
“With the blue wave nationally, the billionaire tax is going to be front and center in the new Congress,” Zucman says. “Many of the newly elected Democratic senators have been campaigning on curbing the power and influence of billionaires. One can reasonably expect to see significant progress in the next two years.”
Rauh also expects to see more wealth tax proposals in the coming Congress. But with President Trump in the White House, he sees little chance of one becoming law anytime soon.
“It will be the 2028 election that will really demonstrate the extent to which the public wants wealth taxation, as those proposals will likely feature prominently in political debate,” Rauh says.
But even if wealth tax supporters win over voters, Rauh stresses they would encounter another big hurdle: the courts. He argues a federal wealth tax would constitute “a direct tax,” a kind of tax that is subject to crippling constitutional restrictions.
As I explained in this 2019 Planet Money newsletter, the U.S. Constitution requires that “direct taxes” go through a complicated rigamarole in order to be constitutional. Specifically, the share of a direct tax’s total revenue collected from each state has to match its share of the national population. That could mean wildly different tax rates depending on where people live.
This weird rule’s history is tangled up with slavery. In one early Supreme Court case, one justice described it as basically a concession to Southern states seeking to limit federal taxation of their land and enslaved people.
The 16th Amendment exempted income taxes from this requirement. But that amendment doesn’t mention wealth taxes.
Legal scholars disagree over whether this rule would doom a federal wealth tax. Is a wealth tax even a “direct tax”? That early Supreme Court case involved a tax on horse-drawn carriages that George Washington signed into law in 1794. The Court upheld it, a precedent wealth tax supporters point to today. For more on that story, listen to the Planet Money episode I did, “The Carriage Tax.”

3 hours ago
Pinned
Rubio defends Hegseth, touts damage to Iran’s military: ‘He’s done a very good job’
Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended War Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday, praising his leadership at the Pentagon and pointing to the damage inflicted on Iran’s military as evidence he has done “a very good job.”
“I think Pete works really hard. He’s incredibly smart,” Rubio told reporters in Paris.
“The Department of War and the Pentagon in particular, has been responsible for many of the important things this administration is working on, whether it’s our counter cartel coalitions that we have going on in the Western Hemisphere.
“Look at the damage that was inflicted on the Iranian military structures, they have no navy, they have no air force,” Rubio explained.
“They’re deeply degraded from a military standpoint.
“They still retain capabilities, obviously, but they are very degraded from where they were a year ago,” he said.
“So, you know, I think from the perspective that I sit in and the seat that I’m in as the national security adviser and secretary of state, for that matter, Pete has done a very good job.
“He really has. And, you know, but obviously politics or politics and people can have different views,” Rubio added.
Posted by Emma Bussey
41 mins ago
Trump declares ‘entire Middle East protected’ as US tightens land, sea blockades on Iran
President Donald Trump said Monday that Israel and the entire Middle East are protected from Iranian threats as the U.S. blockade continues by “land and sea.”
Citing an “excellent conversation with Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, the Prime Minister of Qatar,” Trump said that much was discussed regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran.
“Most importantly, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, and others, would prefer the status quo, in other words, a continuation of the Greatest Naval Blockade in History, and the new Operation Iron Gate,” he said on Truth Social.
“Therefore, Land and Sea.
“All have agreed that Iran cannot have a Nuclear Weapon — That is non-negotiable!” he added.
“Should there be any change with respect to developments in the Middle East, the United States of America is ‘locked and loaded’ and ready to go.
“At this point, however, that seems to be quite unlikely. Israel, and the entire Middle East, are protected from Iranian danger and threats.
“We are seeing positive momentum toward an end to this Conflict, and will ensure that America’s interests are at all times protected. At the conclusion of this Military Engagement, the American People and the World, will be far safer and more secure,” Trump assured.
Posted by Emma Bussey
57 mins ago
Trump touts aircraft carrier ‘loaded to the gills’ as US maintains ‘status quo’ posture against Iran
President Donald Trump said Monday that the U.S. is maintaining the “status quo” in its military posture toward Iran, citing the ongoing port blockade and the deployment of another aircraft carrier.
“Now, what we’re doing is we’re, It’s really status quo territory,” Trump told reporters at a White House press briefing.
“We’re keeping it going. We have the greatest military blockade ever,” he said before highlighting the “new Iron Gate.”
“Iron Gate is land. So by land and by sea and we will take care of business,” he added.
Trump said he hoped to reach an agreement with Tehran while emphasizing U.S. military readiness.
“I hope we’re going to be able to make a deal with them,” he said.
“We just have another aircraft carrier. It’s all loaded up to the gills with brand new, beautiful stuff,” Trump added.
Posted by Emma Bussey
1 hour ago
Trump says US must protect Middle East allies as Iran war nears end
President Donald Trump said Monday that the United States must protect its longtime Gulf allies as the war with Iran winds down, stressing the need to take care of those who have been good to America.
“We have some great allies there, and we have to make sure they’re not hurt and they would be hurt,” Trump told reporters during a White House briefing.
“They are right now a lot safer than they were six months ago, because Iran’s been very much decapitated, but they’re still the bully of the Middle East a little bit.
“And I see that we want to make sure they’re okay,” the president added.
“We want to make sure it’s a long term solution, not just the short term.
“They’ll never have a nuclear weapon, but we have to make sure that’s a long term.
“So it’s ending quickly,” Trump said of the war before adding that the United States wants to “take care of people that have been very good to us over the years,” Trump said.
Posted by Emma Bussey
1 hour ago
Trump signals Iran war could end soon after Qatar talks, warns US ‘locked and loaded’ if needed
President Donald Trump said Monday that the United States remains “locked and loaded” for potential strikes against Iran but suggested further military action may not be necessary as he sees an end to the conflict approaching.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said he had held an “excellent conversation” with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed, during which the two discussed Iran and the ongoing conflict.
“Much was discussed with respect to the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Trump said at the press briefing.
“Most importantly Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and others would prefer the status quo that we remain as is,” he said, indicating that the U.S. naval blockade would remain in place, along with Operation Iron Gate.
Trump also reiterated that Iran must never obtain a nuclear weapon.
“I’ve agreed that Iran cannot have. And everybody’s agreeing Iran will never have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.
“And that’s a non-negotiable point,” he added. “They understand that. They accept that.”
Trump stressed that the United States remains prepared to act if circumstances in the Middle East change.
“Should there be any change with respect to developments in the Middle East, the United States of America is fully locked and loaded with, the best equipment ever made,” he said.
“And we don’t think there’s going to be any reason to use it. However, it’s going very well. You know, we haven’t lost a soldier in six months.”
“The military action doesn’t seem to be a very necessary thing, but we’re locked and loaded, ready to go for any reason that changes.”
“We’re seeing momentum toward the end of this conflict. I think it’s going to be ending fairly soon,” Trump said.
Posted by Emma Bussey
1 hour ago
Oil prices plunge nearly 7% amid Iran diplomacy push, easing Middle East supply fears
Oil prices plunged Monday, with Brent crude futures tumbling nearly 7% to settle at $91.61 a barrel, as hopes for a diplomatic breakthrough between the United States and Iran eased fears of widespread oil supply disruptions in the Middle East, according to reports.
President Donald Trump had met Monday at the White House with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani as diplomatic efforts to de-escalate tensions with Iran fueled optimism in global energy markets.
Posted by Emma Bussey
2 hours ago
Trump says US ‘ready to go anytime’ with Iran strikes as Qatar, Saudi Arabia push for peace
President Donald Trump said Monday that the U.S. is prepared to launch new strikes against Iran whenever he chooses and as Qatar and Saudi Arabia press for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
Trump, who met with Qatar’s prime minister earlier Monday, told Reuters in an interview that Qatar would “rather see a peaceful solution” but emphasized that the United States is “ready to go anytime we want” with strikes.
Trump’s meeting with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani took place around noon Monday and lasted approximately 45 minutes, according to reports.
The president also addressed the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz.
“We’ll see where it goes,” he said in a brief phone interview. “I’m prepared,” he added.
Posted by Emma Bussey
2 hours ago
Iran claims nuclear site visited days ago amid tensions with UN watchdog
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, claimed Monday that Tehran remains committed to its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) while saying that one of Iran’s nuclear sites had been inspected several days earlier.
“Those who committed acts of aggression and disrupted the implementation of safeguards arrangements must answer for their actions,” he said, according to Iran’s semiofficial Fars News Agency.
But Baghaei also said Iran could not meet its obligations under the circumstances imposed on the country following U.S. and Israeli strikes.
He also said the Bushehr nuclear power plant had been visited several days earlier and that Iran’s mission in Vienna remained in professional contact with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), according to Iran International.
Posted by Emma Bussey
3 hours ago
Trump meets key Iran war mediator as UAE reveals major oil export surge despite conflict
President Donald Trump met Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, on Monday at the White House as diplomatic efforts to end the war with Iran continue, even as Secretary of State Marco Rubio warns that negotiations remain far from a breakthrough and Tehran signals a willingness to negotiate without yielding to pressure.
The competing messages come as the Strait of Hormuz remains a major source of global economic disruption and regional governments push for a diplomatic solution to a conflict that has subjected Gulf countries to thousands of Iranian missile and drone attacks.
Speaking to reporters Sunday before departing for a G7 foreign ministers meeting in Paris, Rubio said there had been little progress in negotiations and rejected the terms put forward by Tehran.
“I wouldn’t say we’re on the verge of a breakthrough,” Rubio said. He emphasized that Trump prefers a diplomatic settlement but described Iran’s demands as unrealistic.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Monday that Tehran was prepared to negotiate an end to what he described as a prolonged state of neither war nor peace.
This is an excerpt from a report by Fox News Digital’s Efrat Lachter.
Posted by Emma Bussey
3 hours ago
Rubio warns Houthi violence could ‘metastasize’ across Mideast, ‘spiral at any moment’
Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Monday that escalating violence involving the Houthis and Saudi Arabia could “metastasize” across the Middle East, further impacting U.S. personnel and families overseas.
“We’re always worried about the safety and security of our personnel and their families overseas,” Rubio told reporters in Paris.
“We’re also concerned about what’s going on with the Houthis and Saudi Arabia that could spiral at any moment.”
“In some cases, you’ve seen Saudi Arabia, for example, attacked not just from Yemen, but you’ve also seen attacks come in from Iraq via the Iranian backed militias.”
“If this spreads or metastasizes to other countries and airports are shut down as an example. Now, we can’t get our people out and now they’re trapped.”
Rubio said the department initiates an internal security assessment when threats emerge, evaluating the safety of personnel, the number of family members overseas and whether Americans could be evacuated if conditions deteriorate.
Those assessments lead to recommendations from security officials and personnel on the ground, which are then presented to Rubio for a decision.
“And it’s not just about Iran, frankly. It’s also about what’s happening in Yemen with the Houthis,” Rubio said.
Posted by Emma Bussey
3 hours ago
Rubio blasts Iran’s ‘deranged’ IRGC after cyberattacks hit French supermarkets
Secretary of State Marco Rubio slammed Iran’s IRGC as a “deranged group of revolutionaries” Monday after French authorities accused Tehran of orchestrating cyberattacks targeting refrigeration systems in supermarkets across France.
“The IRGC is a bad group of people. That’s why we sanctioned them. That’s why we consider them terrorists in the United States,” Rubio told reporters in Paris.
“You’re dealing with a deranged group of revolutionaries,” Rubio also said of the regime.
“The Iranian people are great people. I’ve said this. Go back to my hearing,” he said.
“When I was being nominated for secretary of state, I talked about how great Iran is and how great its people are and how different the Iranian people are from the small corps of violent maniacs that govern them.
“It’s very sick. And these people are very sick, and they’re very bad people, and they do terrible things around the world.
“They’ve been doing terrible things now since 1979,” Rubio explained.
Posted by Emma Bussey
3 hours ago
Rubio says Trump, not Congress, sets the course for US foreign policy
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that President Donald Trump sets the course for U.S. foreign policy, emphasizing that Congress’ influence does not displace the president’s leading role.
“While obviously Congress has a role to play in our foreign policy, it is the administration at the executive branch that leads American foreign policy and frankly, sets it,” Rubio told reporters in Paris.
Rubio also recalled trying to influence foreign policy as a senator under Democratic presidents.
“And that’s the way it’s historically been in American history. That’s the way the Constitution is set up,” he said.
“So, again, look, Congress has a role to play in our foreign policy, particularly in what it funds and in its oversight function.
“But the number one factor in determining the foreign policy of the United States has always been and will remain the president of the United States,” Rubio said.
Posted by Emma Bussey
Breaking News4 hours ago
France vows retaliation, names IRGC in supermarket fridge hacks
French officials Monday formally accused Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of orchestrating the October cyberattacks that disabled commercial refrigerators and freezers at hundreds of sites across France, vowing consequences that include further EU sanctions and the pursuit of international arrest warrants.
Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the Iranian ambassador had been summoned and described the operation as “unprecedented in both its scale and its level of aggression.”
He called it the first large-scale cyberattack aimed at sabotage on French territory and “a major assault on the nation’s interests and on the security of the French people.”
Barrot said France would push retaliatory sanctions “at a European level” and take “any other necessary and proportionate measures” to respond and deter repeats.
The attacks, which hit overnight Oct. 11, targeted roughly 700 commercial sites – primarily supermarkets but also butcher shops, a slaughterhouse, and food-processing facilities. Hackers remotely overrode temperature controls, initiating prolonged defrost cycles while disabling safety alerts.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Posted by Eric Mack
4 hours ago
War Secretary Pete Hegseth to hold Tuesday news conference on impeachment effort
War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced he will hold a news conference Tuesday at the Pentagon to address the House push to impeach him.
Asked about his accomplishments relative to the impeachment efforts, Hegseth said he is “happy to do it all day long” and defended operations including those tied to Venezuela and other recent actions.
“If you want to take issue with what we did,” he warned, “you’re taking issue with the troops and what they accomplished.”
Despite the effort being introduced by outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., Hegseth dismissed the “partisan political games.”
“We’re not worried about that,” Hegseth told reporters.
“Don’t worry about the noise. We’re focused on delivering the president’s agenda.”
Posted by Eric Mack
4 hours ago
Saudi-led coalition destroys Houthi ballistic missile production sites
The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said Monday it destroyed a factory used to make ballistic missile components and a chemical plant used to produce ballistic missile fuel.
The locations of the targets has not been reported. The strikes come amid continued regional tensions linked to the broader Iran conflict, with Houthi forces having attacked shipping and Saudi interests in recent weeks.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Posted by Eric Mack
5 hours ago
Saudi East-West oil pipeline struck in Medina region, state media says
Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline was hit in the Medina region, state media reported Monday, citing an energy ministry source.
The attack caused a limited fire that has since been extinguished. There were no fatalities or injuries, and pipeline operations were not affected, the source said.
The 1,200-kilometer (745-mile) line, which runs across the Arabian Peninsula to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, was previously shut for several days in September after drone strikes that Saudi Arabia blamed on Iraqi militias.
With the Strait of Hormuz disrupted by the ongoing conflict, Riyadh has rerouted about 4 million barrels per day of crude – roughly 4% of global supply – through the East-West Pipeline, shielding the world’s largest exporter from the worst of the shipping disruptions that have hit its neighbors.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Posted by Eric Mack
Breaking News6 hours ago
Hegseth: US in midst of deepest national security ‘recalibration’ since WWII
The United States is undergoing “the most far reaching strategic recalibration of our national security posture since the end of the second world war,” War Secretary Pete Hegseth told the Naval War College in a Monday morning address.
“The pivot is deeper and more profound than the fall of the Soviet Union,” Hegseth said. “Under President [Donald] Trump’s America First foreign policy paradigm and the 2026 National Defense Strategy, the assumptions that guided American statecraft for 80 years have been overturned.”
The remarks come as Hegseth faces a renewed impeachment push in the House tied to the ongoing Iran war and other operations. He has used recent appearances to stress that the military’s sole purpose is winning wars and that senior service colleges must focus on producing leaders prepared for that mission.
Posted by Eric Mack

From 4h ago
Trump says deportation policy ‘might have been too tough’ ahead of Miller’s first day as chief of staff
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
Donald Trump said he thinks his administration was too aggressive on deportations and that he was open to an arrangement to allow some undocumented immigrants to remain in the US.
The president said, in his first major interview since his party lost control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections, that his deportation policy was part of the reason Republicans lost.
He told CBS’s ‘60 Minutes’ in an interview that aired on Sunday:
double quotation markI think it might be too tough, yeah. And a lot of people would say that it’s great. But a lot of people think it’s too tough.
The president’s comments were an unusually frank acknowledgment that one of the defining policies of his second administration had become a political liability. But they were seemingly at odds with his decision on Friday to elevate Stephen Miller, the architect of his immigration crackdown, to White House chief of staff.
Trump said that he thinks he could reach an agreement with the new Democratic majority, adding:
double quotation markWe would work something out. And I think it’s something – I think that’s something that’s actually doable.
The president claimed that his policy “both helped and hurt”, since people gave him an “A+ for closing up the border” and “very high marks for getting the bad ones out”. But he admitted: “I get hurt because we also took people that had good jobs, that created one violation, or breaking of the law, and that was that they came into the country illegally.”
His comments come as his most controversial aide Miller was due today to start his new role as chief of staff. In a social media ‌post, Trump called Miller, 41, “one of ​my most trusted advisors” and praised the outgoing Susie Wiles for doing “an ⁠outstanding job”.
Read our full report here:
In other developments:
On the race among Republicans to succeed him for the 2028 presidential election, Trump hinted at staying neutral. Asked whether he’d endorse a potential successor, the president said “probably, not necessarily.” “We have a tremendous bench. I have so many people that I have great relationships with,” Trump said in his CBS interview.
Trump said on Sunday that he “was only kidding” when he announced a day earlier that he had offered the job of White House press secretary to Dana White, the chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Speaking to reporters on his way back the White House from his beach club in Florida, Trump explained the premise of his joke, that if the UFC boss, who is a devoted fan of the president, took over the briefing room, flanked by six fighters, reporters “wouldn’t mess around with him so much”.
Trump will meet with Qatar’s prime minister at ⁠the White House today, according to the White House schedule, as the ⁠conflict with ⁠Iran ​drags on and diplomatic efforts to end it face significant obstacles. Trump is due ⁠to meet with Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, who also serves as Qatar’s foreign ⁠minister, in a closed-door meeting. Vice-president JD Vance ​is also scheduled to meet ‌with the ‌Qatari leader, according to a US official.
A US deportation flight of Iranian nationals bound for Iran by way of Pakistan was abruptly canceled Sunday morning, according to an attorney who spoke to some of the detainees slated for repatriation. At least eight Iranians were loaded onto a plane Sunday morning in Mesa, Arizona, for a deportation flight headed to the country of Georgia, then on to Pakistan, according to Ali Rahnama, an attorney with the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund who filed emergency motions on behalf of some of the Iranian detainees. The flight was canceled without explanation, he said.
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Key events
Congress returns to Capitol Hill as funding deadline looms
House and Senate lawmakers are back in Washington after Democrats’ swept Republicans out of Congress in the midterm elections. This means that the remaining weeks in-session are likely to be ineffective as the GOP prepare to lost control. However, members do have one key deadline – 11 December.
This is when government funding, which was extended by a continuing resolution in September, lapses. Both chambers will have to hammer out another stopgap spending fill to avert a shutdown before Democrats take control in the new year.
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We’re also bringing you the latest as we get the final US House race results – where currently Democrats have a 92-seat majority. There are 19 races that still have to be called, so as we get the latest result counts we’ll provide an update.
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Hakeem Jeffries says Trump administration will provide Congress with closed-door briefing on Jensen Huang’s relationship with alleged spy
Democratic Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, currently the House minority leader who is poised to become new Speaker next year, told CBS News that the Trump administration will hold a closed-door congressional briefing today to discuss Jensen Huang’s affair with an alleged Chinese spy.
Last week the Republican chairs of three key House committees also called on Huang to appear before lawmakers in a closed-door hearing on 18 November.
Nvidia announced it is launching an independent investigation following reports that Huang, its founder and CEO, had been the target of “a foreign intelligence effort”.
That effort, reports claim, led to Huang conducting a romantic relationship with a Chinese woman, Alice Huang, who was recruited to spy for China’s Ministry of State Security intelligence agency.
On Sunday Donald Trump said he had yet to speak with the Nvidia CEO. “I just know he’s a fine person, but you never know what is going on,” the president said of Huang. “I’m sure. I hope everything’s fine. He’s done such an incredible job, and so I would certainly hope he’s a fine person, in my opinion.”
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Colom leads Republican incumbent in razor-thin US Senate race in Mississippi
We’re also keeping an eye on the latest results out of Mississippi, in the neck-and-neck US Senate race.
With 97% of the votes counted, Democrat Scott Colom is leading the Republican incumbent, Cindy Hyde-Smith by more than 2,500 votes. A reminder that election officials in the state can accept ballots until 10 November (five business days after election day) as long as they are postmarked by 3 November.
We’ll bring you the latest as we learn more.
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Donald Trump is in Washington today. He’ll spend most of the day in closed door policy meetings. At 12pm ET he’ll welcome the Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, the prime minister of Qatar, to the White House. That summit is closed to the press for the time being, but we’ll bring you the latest in case that opens up.
This meeting comes just days after Trump said that the US carried out out new “minor” strikes on Iran, targeting an Iranian air defense system, as a deal to end the conflict remains stalled.
On Sunday, the president told CNN that it is “highly unlikely” he will need to resume strikes as long as there is progress in negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program and reopening the strait of Hormuz.
“The answer is highly unlikely it’s going to be necessary. They’re a failing nation. It just came out, you saw this year, 301% inflation. Highly unlikely it will be necessary. I would if necessary, but we hit them really hard. I hit them so hard. You don’t know how hard I hit them,” he said.
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Heather Timmons
Don’t worry, cash-strapped Americans, “relief is on the way”, the senator Chuck Schumer promised last week in a press conference celebrating Democrats’ massive midterms win.
Winning candidates promised to cut food and healthcare costs, rein in corporations ripping off consumers and workers, curb billionaire power and make the world’s biggest economy better serve the working class.
There’s broad agreement on those lofty goals and on some short-term steps. But the big win is bringing decades-old battles to the fore, about how the US federal government should fund safety nets and check healthcare and food costs.
The “lame duck” period between an election and a new Congress’s swearing-in in early January is often a frenzy of behind-the-scenes battles and public posturing as corporate lobbyists, thinktanks, voter groups and big donors try to influence the agenda.
This time, it’s all that on steroids.
Already, JB Pritzker, the Illinois governor, has issued a 75-page list of 200 policy proposals for Congress’s “day one agenda”; Columbia professor Tim Wu is pushing an “affordability bill”; Texas’s new senator James Talarico is promising universal healthcare for all; there’s an 181-page investigation memo circulating; and moderate Democrats are arguing for more incremental steps.
Meanwhile, Trump’s power to veto bills means anything the president doesn’t like will need a clutch of Republicans to pass, making things more complicated. Expect a mix of affordability bills the president will back, like curbs on private equity and credit card interest rates, and ones he will veto, which Democrats will use for anti-Republican political messaging.
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Donald Trump said on Sunday that he was “only kidding” when he announced a day earlier that he had offered the job of White House press secretary to Dana White, the chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC):
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Public health won big in the US midterm elections
Melody Schreiber
Public health leaders and politicians who made healthcare a central part of their platforms swept into office in the US midterm elections last week, setting the stage for national, state and local changes.
Voters, faced with an unprecedented rise in vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, alongside devastating outbreaks of foodborne illnesses, chose national candidates who prioritized public health, healthcare affordability, reproductive health and the impeachment of Robert F Kennedy Jr, among other key issues.
“The American people are speaking out against President Trump and the policies that he’s been rolling out since the day he took office,” said Julie Scofield, a member of the coordinating committee at the grassroots organization Defend Public Health. “I think it’s a complete repudiation.”
Mallory Harris, a scientist in Austin, almost delayed having children because she was worried about accessing life-saving healthcare, such as vaccines and abortion, if she needed it. She had doctors check her immunity against viruses including measles, and sought assurances from her physicians that she would have access to appropriate care. Harris found out she was pregnant just as 2026 officially became the worst year for measles in the US since before she was born. Texas has no paid time off for maternity or paternity leave, but Harris and her husband will try to wait until the baby is six months old and can get the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot early before starting daycare.
Dealing with public health emergencies like these have been “a top issue” for her as a voter. After the election, “it suddenly became a lot less scary”, Harris said. “We’ve seen scientists and physicians getting elected in record numbers. We saw big shifts in places that have had measles outbreaks.”
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Updated at 07.54 EST
Trump to meet Qatari PM as effort to end Iran war ramps up
Donald Trump will meet the prime minister of key mediator Qatar on Monday as efforts to end the Iran war ramp up ⁠following last week’s midterm elections, though ⁠senior US and Gulf officials cast ​doubt on the chances of an imminent deal.
With no victory in sight more than eight months into the conflict he launched alongside Israel on 28 February, Trump has played down the likelihood of major warfare ⁠restarting soon but remains unwilling to accept an existing Iranian truce plan.
Mutual attacks continue, with the US striking Iran’s Qeshm island overnight, according to Iranian state media, and Iran attacking tankers in the Gulf and strait of Hormuz this month, while its Yemeni ⁠Houthi allies have hit Saudi Arabia.
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Updated at 07.53 EST
Trump: I was kidding about making UFC’s Dana White the next press secretary
Robert Mackey
Donald Trump said on Sunday that he “was only kidding” when he announced a day earlier that he had offered the job of White House press secretary to Dana White, the chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
Speaking to reporters on his way back the White House from his beach club in Florida, Trump explained the premise of his joke, that if the UFC boss, who is a devoted fan of the president, took over the briefing room, flanked by six fighters, reporters “wouldn’t mess around with him so much”.
“So I was kidding, but I think Dana likes the idea, and he is a very capable guy,” Trump added. “Of course, I was kidding. And you could see that because I put all of the great fighters as his assistants, that they’re all going to come with him … It was just a little fun.”
Earlier on Sunday, the president shared an animated AI cartoon made by one of his supporters on social media, which showed UFC fighters beating up journalists and one, Josh Hokit, repeating the racist remark about Michelle Obama he made during the UFC event at the White House on Trump’s birthday in June.
The president said that his mock announcement that White would become his spokesperson, in a social media post on Saturday, “was an example of something where I was kidding, and then people said, ‘You know, that’s actually a pretty good idea’”.
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Updated at 07.53 EST
Adam Gabbatt
Stephen Miller, the influential architect of Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown, is due to start as White House chief of staff today. His promotion has horrified many, handing even more power to the president’s most controversial aide.
The 41-year-old has been with Trump since the beginning of the US president’s political career – serving as a speechwriter during his 2016 presidential campaign – and has long been seen as a hardliner on the right, serving as the driving force behind first-term Trump policies such as family separation at the US-Mexico border and the travel ban on people from many Muslim-majority countries.
Here is Miller in some of his own words:
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Trump says deportation policy ‘might have been too tough’ ahead of Miller’s first day as chief of staff
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
Donald Trump said he thinks his administration was too aggressive on deportations and that he was open to an arrangement to allow some undocumented immigrants to remain in the US.
The president said, in his first major interview since his party lost control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections, that his deportation policy was part of the reason Republicans lost.
He told CBS’s ‘60 Minutes’ in an interview that aired on Sunday:
double quotation markI think it might be too tough, yeah. And a lot of people would say that it’s great. But a lot of people think it’s too tough.
The president’s comments were an unusually frank acknowledgment that one of the defining policies of his second administration had become a political liability. But they were seemingly at odds with his decision on Friday to elevate Stephen Miller, the architect of his immigration crackdown, to White House chief of staff.
Trump said that he thinks he could reach an agreement with the new Democratic majority, adding:
double quotation markWe would work something out. And I think it’s something – I think that’s something that’s actually doable.
The president claimed that his policy “both helped and hurt”, since people gave him an “A+ for closing up the border” and “very high marks for getting the bad ones out”. But he admitted: “I get hurt because we also took people that had good jobs, that created one violation, or breaking of the law, and that was that they came into the country illegally.”
His comments come as his most controversial aide Miller was due today to start his new role as chief of staff. In a social media ‌post, Trump called Miller, 41, “one of ​my most trusted advisors” and praised the outgoing Susie Wiles for doing “an ⁠outstanding job”.
Read our full report here:
In other developments:
On the race among Republicans to succeed him for the 2028 presidential election, Trump hinted at staying neutral. Asked whether he’d endorse a potential successor, the president said “probably, not necessarily.” “We have a tremendous bench. I have so many people that I have great relationships with,” Trump said in his CBS interview.
Trump said on Sunday that he “was only kidding” when he announced a day earlier that he had offered the job of White House press secretary to Dana White, the chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Speaking to reporters on his way back the White House from his beach club in Florida, Trump explained the premise of his joke, that if the UFC boss, who is a devoted fan of the president, took over the briefing room, flanked by six fighters, reporters “wouldn’t mess around with him so much”.
Trump will meet with Qatar’s prime minister at ⁠the White House today, according to the White House schedule, as the ⁠conflict with ⁠Iran ​drags on and diplomatic efforts to end it face significant obstacles. Trump is due ⁠to meet with Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, who also serves as Qatar’s foreign ⁠minister, in a closed-door meeting. Vice-president JD Vance ​is also scheduled to meet ‌with the ‌Qatari leader, according to a US official.
A US deportation flight of Iranian nationals bound for Iran by way of Pakistan was abruptly canceled Sunday morning, according to an attorney who spoke to some of the detainees slated for repatriation. At least eight Iranians were loaded onto a plane Sunday morning in Mesa, Arizona, for a deportation flight headed to the country of Georgia, then on to Pakistan, according to Ali Rahnama, an attorney with the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund who filed emergency motions on behalf of some of the Iranian detainees. The flight was canceled without explanation, he said.
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