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DHS says migrants ‘retain protections’ after temporary protected status was set to expire on MondaySend us your questions about immigration and the midtermsMore than 100,000 people from Ukraine and Sudan can stay in the United States without immediate risk of deportation, the Department of Homeland Security said, in what amounts to a temporary reprieve after their right to stay in the country was set to expire on Monday.Temporary protected status was set to end on Monday for about 101,000 Ukrainians and 1,800 Sudanese. But the DHS said an announcement “will be made at the appropriate time”. Until then, the department said in a written statement, Ukrainians and Sudanese in the US covered by those temporary measures “retain protection”. The department did not indicate how long they could stay or when a final announcement would be made on their status. Continue reading...

Just ahead of the midterms, the Trump administration appears to be softening one of its signature policy pledges, immigrant advocates told The Washington Post.According to a Trump administration official who spoke with the Post on the condition of anonymity, and to the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, the Department of Homeland Security is expected to extend Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, which shields noncitizens from certain countries from deportation, for around 100,000 Ukrainians whose protections were scheduled to expire Monday. An embassy spokeswoman said the extension is expected to last six months.DHS did not confirm the extension. “An announcement on Ukraine’s TPS will be made at the appropriate time. Until such an announcement is made, Ukrainian individuals present in the U.S. under TPS remain under protection,” the department said in a statement.The move follows DHS’s decision last month to let TPS remain in place for around 232,000 migrants from El Salvador. The administration never formally announced a decision, instead issuing what the Post described as a “last-minute notice.” The lack of a clear timeline has forced Salvadorans “to grapple with an uncertain future,” the Post reported. Sudanese TPS holders, also set to lose protections Monday, will keep them until further notice, DHS said.“This is different,” said Jessica Bansal, an attorney focused on TPS litigation, speaking with the Post.The Trump administration has moved to strip protected status from 13 of 17 countries whose nationals were covered by TPS when Trump returned to office. As to why the administration is now letting protections continue for some groups, Bansal speculated that officials may be reluctant to deprive American businesses of workers so close to the election. The administration’s mass deportation push has also proven unpopular with voters.“There’s some very concrete negative consequences for businesses and other sorts of constituents that the administration may care more about if they strip these people of their status,” Bansal told the Post.Todd Schulte, president of the pro-immigration advocacy group FWD.us, told the Post that forcing out tens of thousands of Ukrainians just ahead of the midterms would be politically costly.“From a political perspective, demanding Ukrainians with TPS in battleground states like Ohio — who fled Putin’s invasion — leave the U.S. would be very unpopular,” Schulte said. “This is weeks before voters in the U.S. would issue a judgment on what would be seen as purging Ukrainians and a signal that the administration is siding with the Russian authoritarian.”

The editorial board of the conservative Wall Street Journal joined the pile-on of Donald Trump for betraying his friendship with the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).And they didn’t pull their punches.“President Trump’s assistance to Vladimir Putin keeps growing by the day, and in the latest example he stuck a shiv in the back of the legacy of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham,” the board wrote in an editorial.The board said Trump waived tariffs for an indefinite period against the top buyers of Russian energy covered by the Graham bill, which passed the Senate 86-11. His executive order also waives new sanctions on Russian political and military officials, government entities, financial institutions, the energy industry and the shadow fleet Moscow uses to evade sanctions, the board wrote.Trump "offered no explanation" beyond a statement that “the issuance of such a waiver at this time is in the national interests of the United States,” the WSJ board accused. The White House has said enforcing the sanctions now would impede U.S. efforts to negotiate a peace agreement.“The opposite is true, and Mr. Trump is now Mr. Putin’s best friend in the world, after perhaps China’s Xi Jinping,” the editors wrote.The board wrote that Putin responded Friday night with "one of the largest attacks" on Ukrainian energy infrastructure in the four-and-a-half-year war, including strikes on more than 15 power generation and transmission facilities.On Sunday, the editorial said, Trump posted that he doesn’t “want to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table.” The editors countered that “he’s been courting Mr. Putin this way for two years, to no avail.”The board also pointed to Trump dropping sanctions on Russian diesel sales, which it called a $4.5 billion windfall for Russian energy companies, and to threats to cut off U.S. intelligence to Kyiv. Trump has denied threatening to stop sharing intelligence, Euronews reported. The editors added that the administration still hasn’t explained who ordered speed limits on SpaceX’s Starshield satellite service used in Ukraine.The editorial urged “a bipartisan reckoning” after the Nov. 3 election over Trump’s “budding alliance with the Kremlin against Ukraine, Europe and American interests.”

Trudy weakens to tropical storm after warnings of strong winds and heavy rain, while one person killed in GreeceIn contrast to the quiet Atlantic hurricane season, there has been ongoing activity in the Pacific, with Trudy being the 22nd and latest named system. The category 2 hurricane remained roughly 100 miles (160km) south-west of the coast of Mexico, meaning the worst of the conditions stayed offshore. However, the US National Hurricane Center put coastal parts of the states of Jalisco, Michoacán and Colima under hurricane warnings, with sustained winds of up to 60-90mph forecast on Sunday.Rainfall totals of 100-150mm were likely for these areas, prompting warnings of flooding and landslides. Warnings also covered the risk of a dangerous storm surge accompanied by damaging waves in areas of onshore winds across the coast of south-western Mexico. By Monday morning, Trudy had weakened and been downgraded to a tropical storm, with coastal warnings being lifted. Continue reading...

President Donald Trump formally endorsed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for reelection on Sunday. The move angered critics on the left and some of Trump’s own “America First” supporters.Trump posted the endorsement on Truth Social as a letter “To the Great People of Israel.” He called Netanyahu “a great warrior Prime Minister, and an even greater partner for peace in the fight against the Islamic Republic of Iran.”“If Israel has the wrong leader, meaning anyone other than Bibi, America will have to do the job itself, and I have no inclination to do so,” Trump wrote. “Please consider this letter my full and complete endorsement of Benjamin Netanyahu in his next race for reelection as Prime Minister of Israel. Bibi Netanyahu will never let you down!”Axios reporter Barak Ravid was among the first to flag the post. Netanyahu answered with a video saying that only he and Trump would destroy Iran’s nuclear program.Danny Citrinowicz, a senior fellow at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies and a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council, said the wording worried him.“I may be reading too much into this statement, and I certainly hope I am wrong,” he wrote. “But it is hard not to interpret it as suggesting that Netanyahu promised Trump another joint military operation against Iran in exchange for his political support.”“Israel cannot afford another war with Iran driven by political calculations rather than a genuine national security necessity,” he added.Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, pointed to the International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued for Netanyahu in 2024 over the war in Gaza.“Netanyahu has committed genocide, yet Trump endorses him,” Roth wrote. “I suppose that’s not worse than aiding and abetting the genocide, which Trump also did.”Some of the sharpest criticism came from the right. Conservative commentator Breck Worsham, who posts as ThePatrioticBlonde, called the endorsement a “slobber filled love letter of idolatry.”“Trump just once again endorsed Netanyahu, KNOWING how much the American people hate him, KNOWING how much the American people detest Israel,” she wrote. “He just continues to give the middle finger to the country he was elected to represent.”Rich Baris, director of the right-leaning Big Data Poll, noted that the endorsement came hours after a report said Trump wouldn’t weigh in on Israel’s election.“Welp, that was wrong. He did,” Baris wrote.The endorsement comes more than six months into Trump’s war with Iran, which polls show is deeply unpopular with American voters.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio tried to clear up why Ukraine’s satellite internet has been slowing down. Critics say he made things murkier, and one prominent conservative predicted Congress would be asking about it.Rubio talked to reporters Saturday at Joint Base Andrews before leaving for Central Asia. One asked about Starshield, the military version of SpaceX’s Starlink. Elon Musk had said this week that limits on the system are up to the president.“Starshield is a defense product, a military product,” Rubio said. “It’s not at this moment available to Ukraine, and that’s under conversation.”Asked about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s claim that the slowdown was deliberate, Rubio waved it off.“I’m not sure Zelenskyy knows what he’s talking about, but it wasn’t deliberate,” he said. “We have nothing to do with that. I don’t – the United States, nobody ordered that Starlink speed to be slowed down. It sort of happened, but my understanding is it’s been restored.”He added that Ukraine wants Starshield “in order to conduct deep strikes inside of Russia” but doesn’t have access to it.Christopher Miller, chief Ukraine correspondent for the Financial Times, said that’s wrong.“In fact, Ukraine has had access to and contracts for Starshield since 2024,” Miller wrote. “So it seems the Ukrainian president is not the one who doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”Miller noted that a week after the slowdown, Ukraine still has no explanation of who ordered the speed limits.“The White House and SpaceX each claim it’s the other who’s responsible,” he wrote. “Rubio says nobody in the US is responsible.”Barak Ravid, a politics and foreign policy reporter for Axios, pointed out that Rubio’s account doesn’t match what Kyiv has said.“This is very strange. Ukrainian officials claim they had access to starshield through the Pentagon until a few days ago when it was restricted,” Ravid wrote. “Maybe there is some misunderstanding.”Even some critics on the right questioned Rubio’s version. David Pyne, a conservative national security commentator who posts as “America First Con,” wrote: “Rubio is lying. Biden gave Ukraine access to Starshield years ago when he authorized deep strikes into Russia. Trump has only disabled it intermittently since October 14th.”Jonah Goldberg, the conservative editor-in-chief of The Dispatch, said the moment won’t go away.“This interview is weird,” Goldberg wrote. “What he says here will be revisited by journalists, historians, and Congressional committees.”Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) went after Rubio’s tone.“Innocent civilians are dying in Ukraine because of Trump/Musk and Rubio treats it like it’s a special at Applebee’s that has run out,” he wrote.Terry Moran, an independent journalist and former ABC News correspondent, said Rubio has given up the hawkish views he once held.“Marco Rubio was once a serious man,” Moran wrote. “Now he cannot even whisper a syllable of the principles he once proudly and effectively proclaimed. It profits a man nothing to sell his soul for the whole world. But for Donald Trump?”German military analyst Julian Röpcke, a former journalist for the tabloid Bild, wrote in German that “the former Russia critic Rubio” had shown how Trump’s “authoritarian aura turns formerly principled politicians into spineless Putin supporters.”An American YouTuber based in Ukraine who posts as Jay in Kyiv put it more bluntly: “Rubio tells a series of complete lies.”The remarks come shortly after President Donald Trump put on hold the sweeping Russia sanctions law named for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, and a week after he struck a deal to import Russian diesel.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee broke his silence this weekend on an American journalist who was “severely” beaten by Israeli settlers, and quickly drew scorn for what he said.On Friday, The Washington Post’s Heidi Levine was attacked by Israeli settlers despite “wearing a protective vest clearly marked PRESS on front and back,” the Post reported. She was “kicked repeatedly” after being knocked to the ground and “stripped of her cameras and phone.”Outrage soon poured in as Huckabee remained silent on the matter until the next day, when he released a statement.“Heidi Levine, photojournalist for [The Washington Post], suffered serious injuries from vicious & cowardly attack. Heidi is US Citizen, clear ID as journalist. Details of who under investigation, but those who attacked unarmed reporter should spend YRS in prison,” Huckabee wrote. “We have called for a full investigation, arrest, and prosecution to the fullest extent of the law to whoever participated in this. Attacking a female photographer is despicable act of terror carried out by masked cowards. Dishonorable act of senseless violence.”Despite the encounter being captured on video, Huckabee did not identify the assailants as Israeli settlers, which multiple outlets had already confirmed. More than 700,000 Israeli settlers live in settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, which are considered illegal under international law, with Israeli settler violence reaching record-high levels in recent months.“[Thirty-six] hours later and no mention of the illegal Israeli settlers we all saw on camera attacking her. No mention of Israel whatsoever. Pathetic stuff here,” wrote journalist and former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan.Independent journalist Jasper Nathaniel, who extensively reports on Israeli settler violence, sarcastically jabbed at Huckabee’s omission of the incident’s assailants.“Dang it the unknowable masked bandits of the West Bank strike again,” Nathaniel wrote in a social media post on X.Others, like the independent news outlet Drop Site News, condemned Huckabee for his past rhetoric, which it alleged helped fuel such attacks.“[Levine] was left with a broken rib, four broken vertebrae and a finger ripped open to the bone, the Post said. Israeli military jeeps drove through while the attack continued, and soldiers fired tear gas at Palestinians, witnesses said. No arrests have been reported,” reads a statement from the outlet.“Huckabee has spent his career erasing the people Israeli settlers target. He rejects the term ‘West Bank’ in favor of ‘Judea and Samaria,’ and said in 2008 that ‘there's really no such thing as a Palestinian.’”“Those who attacked”Who are they?— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) October 17, 2026

President Donald Trump said he was “not inclined” to continue his deeply unpopular war against Iran if a far-right ally of his loses in an election next week.That ally is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose party is trailing behind his chief political rival’s party in recent polls ahead of next week’s Israeli elections.“If Israel has the wrong Leader, which would be anyone other than Bibi, America will have to do this work ourselves, and I am not inclined to do so. Bibi Netanyahu has been Strong, Brave, and Brilliant in the face of tremendous opposition, including that coming from even Israel, itself,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.“Please let this Letter serve to represent my Complete and Total Endorsement of Bibi Netanyahu in his upcoming Race for Re-Election as Prime Minister of Israel. BIBI NETANYAHU WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!”The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, accusing the criminally indicted leader of intentionally targeting civilians and using starvation as a method of war during Israel’s ongoing siege on Gaza.Netanyahu’s top political rival, Gadi Eisenkot, the former chief of staff for the Israel Defense Forces, is a chief proponent of the Dahiya doctrine, an Israeli military strategy involving the mass destruction of civilian infrastructure.