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A towering gold statue of a naked President Donald Trump has gone on display inside a European Parliament building.The 8.5-foot sculpture, titled "Orange Plague" and also known as "King of Injustice," shows a nude Trump holding a set of justice scales and a long golf club topped with a golf ball made to look like the Earth, and he sits on the shoulders of a smaller, clothed man who holds him up, reported The Telegraph.The plinth reads: "I am sitting on the back of a man. He is sinking under my burden. I will do anything to help him. Except stepping down from his back."The statue stands at one of the busiest crossings between two of the parliament's buildings in Strasbourg, France, and is set to remain there until Thursday.Danish artist Jens Galschiot, who made the piece and covered it in 23-carat gold leaf, said it was inspired by "The Emperor's New Clothes," the fairy tale about a vain ruler whose subjects are too afraid to tell him he is naked."Trump represents one of the greatest threats to the rules-based world order, democratic values and our common effort to solving the climate crisis," Galschiot said. "We must address this issue and stand together against such destructive influence."Per Clausen, a left-wing Danish member of the European Parliament, invited the artist to show the statue. He shrugged off any worry about how Trump might react."If someone is so thin-skinned that they cannot tolerate this sculpture being exhibited in the European Parliament, then they have no place on the world stage," Clausen said.The statue has already appeared at last year's COP30 climate summit in Brazil and at this year's Munich Security Conference. Visitors are getting free miniature versions, and Galschiot has posted files online so people can 3D-print their own.The White House has not responded.It's a far cry from the golden tributes Trump prefers. In April, a 15-foot clothed statue called "Don Colossus," showing him with his fist raised, was unveiled at his Miami golf course, and he plans to put two giant golden statues of himself in his presidential library.

President Donald Trump's boast that allies agreed to a "massive" fuel release falls apart on close inspection, according to an economist.Justin Wolfers, an economist at the University of Michigan, argued in an article for his Platypus Economics newsletter on Tuesday that the 100 million barrels of oil and fuel the Group of Seven pledged last week are largely what's left over from an emergency release promised in March.Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday that Europe had agreed to release a "massive amount" of diesel right away, casting it as a concession won in exchange for dropping his threat to ban U.S. diesel exports.But Wolfers wrote that "almost nothing new has happened," with the G7 agreeing to do what it had already promised.Wolfers noted that International Energy Agency members agreed in March to tap their emergency reserves for roughly 400 million barrels after the U.S. attack on Iran made shipping through the Strait of Hormuz dangerous. By his reading, about 100 million barrels of that pledge remain undelivered, and the G7's new communique simply commits the G7 to finishing the job within four months."This is an agreement to agree that they agree about the earlier agreement," Wolfers wrote.He also flagged that the Energy Department offered oil companies up to 40 million barrels from the U.S. reserve on September 29 as part of America's share of the March pledge, raising the possibility that a big chunk of what Trump credited to Europe is American oil already owed. Wolfers said there's no way to know for sure because neither the G7 nor the IEA has disclosed which countries owe what.Taken at face value, Wolfers argued, the release is still tiny next to the shortfall. The package works out to about 0.8 million barrels a day, while traffic through the strait was down about 12 million barrels a day from prewar levels as of August."The daily gap is 15 times larger than the fix," Wolfers noted.The communique promises a "front-loaded substantial diesel release" within 20 days but offers no figures, no country breakdown and no way to enforce it. Wolfers pointed out that the window closes October 22, less than two weeks before the midterms.Traders weren't buying Trump's brag either, Wolfers noted. Diesel futures dropped after Trump's post but climbed back to about $4.55 a gallon wholesale within hours once the actual communique came out, according to Wolfers."It isn't new, it isn't large, and it isn't enforceable," he wrote. "It's the appearance of doing something without the thing actually getting done."

MS NOW's Nicolle Wallace struggled to find words on Tuesday's edition of MS NOW's "Deadline: White House," following President Donald Trump's open invitation for Iran to bomb Los Angeles and San Diego.She bounced her thoughts off Amy McGrath, a retired Marine colonel and fighter pilot who ran for Senate in 2020."It's tribalism," said Wallace. "It's tribalism for dummies because there are a whole bunch of Republicans. I mean, there are 100,000 active-duty military in San Diego. There have been Republican governors who presided over the cities of San Diego and Los Angeles."With all that in mind, she said, "The idea that you could take out L.A. and San Diego and that that would be some kind of owning of the liberals or some troll of the left is insane."McGrath agreed."There are seven major military installations just in San Diego alone," said McGrath, noting that she had served at Miramar Air Station in San Diego for seven years. "We have Marines, sailors, military families live there. Millions of Americans live there.""I do think it's important to put aside the bizarre, ugly rhetoric for just a second and make sure that the American people know that Iran cannot launch a ballistic missile from Iran and hit San Diego or Los Angeles," McGrath added. "That cannot happen ... they simply do not have the capability to do that." Trump, she said, is just "trying to scare Americans" so they won't question his war — but that's "something I have never, never would imagine that a U.S. president would do." - YouTube youtu.be

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is asking the Trump administration for proof after U.S. officials claimed that U.S. service members were fired upon from Mexico.“We asked for all the evidence because we have no evidence,” Sheinbaum said Monday during her daily news conference, just one day after U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson claimed U.S. Coast Guardsmen were “fired upon” near the Rio Grande in Texas.The incident reportedly occurred on Sept. 26, with U.S. Coast Guard service officials telling Stars and Stripes last week that the initial gunshots came from the Mexican side.The incident comes as tensions between Sheinbaum and Johnson remain high. As noted by Al Jazeera, the Trump administration has threatened to carry out military strikes inside Mexico to target cartels, and Johnson “has sought to push the Mexican government to cooperate with [President Donald] Trump’s demands.”“The fight against cartels should unite us, not divide us,” Johnson wrote in a social media post on X in June. “Every moment spent turning this shared security challenge into a political dispute is a missed opportunity to strengthen our partnership and protect the people we serve.”Sheinbaum fired back at Johnson the next day during her daily news conference, demanding the Trump appointee respect Mexico’s sovereignty.“It is also very important, and I say this respectfully, to remember that ambassadors should focus on coordination and collaboration,” Sheinbaum said. “Ambassadors must respect the internal political affairs of their countries.”Since the alleged shooting, the United States has sent some 500 troops to the border, according to Mexico News Daily. Relations were already strained by an April car crash in Chihuahua that reportedly killed two CIA agents, and Sheinbaum said her government was never informed of their activities in the country.

CIA experts warned in a classified report that Israel could be headed toward “civil war” or “total collapse,” Drop Site News reported Monday after being briefed on the assessment by two U.S. sources.“The writers of this are Israel experts,” one of the U.S. sources told Drop Site News, speaking on the condition of anonymity for the outlet’s report, which was co-published Monday alongside the news outlet Capital & Empire. “This isn’t a fantastical what if — with the upcoming election and the fissures in Israel we should take seriously their conclusion that Israel is one spark away from real internal conflict.”Titled “Fracture From Within,” the report was compiled in August by Red Cell, an analytical unit within the agency created after the Sept. 11 attacks to “challenge conventional wisdom in the intelligence community” by producing “alternative analysis,” as described by Foreign Policy. Drop Site News had the content of the report described to it by the two U.S. sources, with the assessment pointing to several “volatile” pressures that appeared to be "converging" ahead of Israel’s Oct. 27 elections, the outlet reported.Among those pressures straining Israeli society cited in the report are economic struggles, record-high military spending, and mass psychological trauma and “mental illness.” The “deepest fractures in Israeli politics” cited in the report, Drop Site News noted, involved the nation’s growing ultra-Orthodox population, whose men have historically received broad exemptions to Israel’s mandatory military service “while continuing to receive state benefits.”“Their collective refusal to serve is not rooted in opposition to Israel’s wars, as ultra-Orthodox leaders argue that military service threatens religious life and their obligation to Torah study,” Drop Site News’ report reads. “But after years in which reservists have been repeatedly called away from their jobs and families, the exemption has become a potent source of resentment in Israeli society.”

Pakistani authorities insist marchers calling for former PM to be released from jail will not reach the capitalImran Khan’s supporters have begun a march to Islamabad to demand his release from jail after efforts by the government to halt the protest failed.The march began in the former prime minister’s stronghold province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in north-west Pakistan on Sunday, according to leaders of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. Continue reading...

The world’s largest tropical rainforest that serves as a “critical counterweight to climate change” is under threat of complete destruction following the strong electoral performance of a far-right ally to President Donald Trump, one legal expert and former Democratic lawmaker warned Monday.Flávio Bolsonaro is a Brazilian politician and presidential candidate who “outperformed expectations” Sunday in the nation’s first-round presidential election, sending him into a runoff against incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. He is also the son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, another Trump ally who’s serving a 27-year sentence for his role in an attempted coup after his election loss in 2022.“A Bolsonaro win — aided by Trump and Big Tech billionaires — will be the likely end of the Amazon, the lungs of the earth,” warned Aaron Regunberg, a Rhode Island activist, lawyer and former state lawmaker. “If you have young kids, you are watching them get locked into an extremely dangerous future. You’re not mad enough at the fascists and their collaborators.”From 2019 to 2022, Jair Bolsonaro oversaw a 60% increase in Amazon deforestation, with more than 17,400 square miles of forest cleared, according to the Associated Press. Conversely, Lula oversaw a 45% decrease in deforestation. With Jair Bolsonaro’s son, Flávio Bolsonaro, heading into the runoff with a narrow lead, conservation experts feared another Bolsonaro administration could cause devastation for the vital ecosystem.“The risk we face is that Brazil could move away from a positive environmental agenda toward a position more similar to the one now adopted by the United States — one of climate denial,” said Márcio Astrini, the executive director of the Climate Observatory, speaking with the Associated Press.Taciana Stec, who works as a climate policy specialist at the Brazilian think tank Talanoa, suggested that even Brazil’s existing laws governing the Amazon would not be able to stop deforestation under another Bolsonaro administration.“Given his long history of advocating weaker environmental protections, there is concern that activities now considered illegal could simply be legalized and no longer subject to enforcement,” Stec told the Associated Press.A Bolsonaro win — aided by Trump and Big Tech billionaires — will be the likely end of the Amazon, the lungs of the earth. If you have young kids, you are watching them get locked into an extremely dangerous future.You’re not mad enough at the fascists and their collaborators.— Aaron Regunberg (@AaronRegunberg) October 5, 2026

Computer equipment and communications were seized in Brazil’s largest city as part of a new Brazilian investigation announced Sunday into “possible external interference by the United States” in the nation’s presidential election, Agencia EFE reported.On Sunday, Brazil held its first-round presidential election, which pitted Flávio Bolsonaro — a far-right politician supported by President Donald Trump — against Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s progressive incumbent president and frequent Trump critic. Bolsonaro “outperformed expectations” Sunday after receiving 47% of the vote to Lula’s 45.1%, forcing the two into a runoff.Brazil’s Federal Police, however, launched an investigation into whether the United States had unlawfully interfered in Brazil’s election, executing two search and seizure warrants in São Paulo on Friday.At the heart of the investigation is a report from The Guardian that revealed the Trump administration planned to divert taxpayer dollars to fund groups opposing what it called “judicial overreach and censorship” by Brazil’s judicial system. Brazil’s Federal Police argued the Trump administration’s plan was designed to "destabilize and undermine the institutionality of the Brazilian Judiciary," Agencia EFE reported.“Brazil's Federal Police is now officially investigating the US intervention in the election,” wrote journalist and analyst Benjamin Norton in response to Agencia EFE’s report. “The Trump admin openly supported far-right US puppet candidate Bolsonaro.”Fears mounted ahead of Brazil’s first-round presidential election on Sunday after the Trump administration suspended all U.S. consular services in Brazil just two days before the election, a move critics described as “unprecedented.”Bolsonaro is a lawyer, politician, and son of Trump ally Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s former president who’s currently serving a 27-year sentence on charges related to an attempted coup after his election loss in 2022. Trump imposed a 50% tariff on Brazil last year in response to Jair Bolsonaro’s prosecution, which he called a “Witch Hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY.”“The way that Brazil has treated former President Bolsonaro, a Highly Respected Leader throughout the World during his Term, including by the United States, is an international disgrace,” Trump wrote in a July 2025 letter to Lula. “This Trial should not be taking place.”