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President Donald Trump seems to be trying to stoke what one analyst described as "deliberate chaos" at the United Nations. The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, citing sources familiar with the matter, that the Trump administration is advocating for former Hungarian dictator Viktor Orbán, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, for the U.N. Secretary-General position. That would give Orbán power to settle conflicts between body members and would require him to be the public-facing head of the organization. Orbán did not officially state that he is running for the Secretary-General position, as he has reservations about a nationalist politician serving in such a role, according to the report. Current Secretary-General António Guterres' term ends on Dec. 31. The Journal's conservative editorial board was none too pleased about the report. "Maybe the best to say about the Orbán idea is that it would lift the veil by giving the U.N. a leader as low as Turtle Bay has already sunk," the editors wrote. The report also outraged several political analysts online. Jim Stewartson, a politics writer, described the move to support Orbán's hypothetical candidacy as "deliberate chaos.""It feels like we’re watching the end of a bad frat party where a bunch of chuds run out of beer so they just start breaking stuff and throwing furniture in the pool or whatever. It’s just deliberate chaos," Stewartson posted on X. Mike Nellis, a Democratic political strategist, was flabbergasted by the idea. "Holy s---, they're nuts," Nellis posted on X. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an expert on authoritarianism, was not entertained by the report either. "What a joke," she posted on X.

The fifth plenum comes against a backdrop of years of purges that have had some analysts wondering if the issue is corruption or a lack of loyaltyWhen Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, he pledged to stamp out corruption all through the ranks of the Communist party. More than a decade later, the pace of investigations has not slowed. Last year, China’s disciplinary authorities opened investigations into more than 1 million people, including more than 100 officials at or above ministerial or provincial level.As Chinese Communist party (CCP) officials kick off an important meeting this week, discipline – and party loyalty – is high on the agenda. For those who try to read the tea leaves of elite Chinese politics, concern about the apparent lack of discipline is dominating CCP discussions. Continue reading...

A former Trump administration staffer shared a startling prediction about how Donald Trump's presidency could end in a new podcast interview Sunday. Anthony Scaramucci, one of Trump's press secretaries during his first administration, predicted during a new episode of "The Daily Beast Podcast" with host Joanna Coles that Trump could be asked to leave office after the midterms. The risk of him being asked to leave will become even greater if Trump agrees to sit down with Russian President Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping to discuss an end to Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine, he added. "If that meeting were to happen, then I would tell you that the Republican Party is completely dead," Scaramucci said. "We'd probably have to get a tombstone out, and you tell me the date that meeting and I will chisel into the tombstone.""Trump should be very careful with that, because he's going to push the envelope where he may be asked to leave the presidency," he continued. Scaramucci added that Democrats don't have to win the Senate for the scenario to be plausible. "People say, 'Oh, that's crazy. [It's] not crazy because the Democrats are going to take the House. Let's say they split and they go 50-50 [in the Senate]. You need 17 Republicans who have had enough of him," he said. "They hate his guts."President Donald Trump's standing among the Republican Party has sunk throughout his second term. Polling indicates that 37% of Republicans disapprove of Trump's handling of the economy. The president's strikes against Iran and his deal to buy Russian oil have also rankled the Republican base. " allowfullscreen>

A geopolitical expert warned Sunday that President Donald Trump is facing a trap in Iran, one that created one of the most dangerous windows in the war's timeline. Robert Pape, a political scientist who teaches at the University of Chicago, wrote in a new Substack essay that Iran's pathway to winning the war against the U.S. is by creating excruciating economic pressure on the Trump administration. Pape predicted that the Trump administration is likely to respond to such pressure with a limited ground operation in Iran after the midterms are over. This could cause a spiral of repeating escalations that drag the U.S. further into the war. "This is the Escalation Trap in its purest form," Pape wrote. Pape argued that the two months after the midterm elections in November will be the "most dangerous" part of the war. For starters, Pape noted that the lame-duck Congress will have little incentive to prevent Trump from acting on his worst impulses, especially if the Democrats trounce Republicans, as some polls have suggested. He also noted that Trump will have the fewest domestic constraints of his second term after the midterms, which could cause Trump to deal with the ongoing economic pressure in a concerning way. "Pressure on Hormuz and Gulf oil leaves Washington two choices: make the sweeping concessions an increasingly ambitious Iran demands, which carry a heavy price at home, or climb the next rung," Pape wrote. The stakes are even greater because of the looming elections in Israel, he added. There is a chance Netanyahu becomes a "caretaker" Prime Minister after the election, which could cause him to act erratically as well.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's inner circle waged a behind-the-scenes fight with another Cabinet department over a marquee sporting event abroad, according to a new report.The Washington Post reported Friday that Hegseth's office tried to scrap all U.S. military involvement in the NFL's first-ever game in Paris, only to reverse course after State Department officials objected.Sunday's matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and New Orleans Saints at Stade de France, just outside the French capital, had been slated to include dozens of service members, according to officials who spoke to the Post anonymously about internal discussions. Hegseth's team moved to pull them all following a weekend of unrest in Paris that President Donald Trump has publicly criticized.State Department officials pushed back, arguing that putting American troops on display at such a visible event carried diplomatic weight. They also told Hegseth's staff their department had not concluded that Americans or U.S. personnel in Paris faced a high risk of danger, the officials said.Hegseth's office ultimately agreed to bring back part of the military's role, including a color guard. Those ceremonial units, which carry the American and service branch flags, typically involve fewer than 10 people.Pentagon spokespeople would not say who in Hegseth's office sought to cancel the military involvement or why plans shifted so abruptly. A senior Defense Department official instead sent the Post an unattributed statement that echoed the president."The Department is supporting the NFL game in Paris this weekend amid the ongoing riots and unrest. As President Trump has said, France is really in trouble," the statement read, adding that the call "was made by the Secretary's core leadership team, not one person alone."Trump himself suggested Friday that the league should have considered pushing the game back."I would have said the NFL could have probably postponed that match if you want to know the truth, because France is really in trouble," Trump told reporters. "That's what happens when you go left."The State Department and the NFL declined to comment to the Post.Protests over school funding and living costs have spread across Paris and other French cities, prompting the State Department to warn Americans attending the game to steer clear of demonstrations. Trump has blamed the turmoil on immigration and Islam, while French President Emmanuel Macron has dismissed his remarks as "stupid."The U.S. military has taken part in other NFL games abroad this season, including in London and Melbourne, with games in Madrid and Munich still to come.

President Donald Trump’s White House credited first lady Melania Trump with diplomacy to secure a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, but critics say Pope Leo XIV got there first.The White House statement came earlier in the day, saying the ceasefire is localized to the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky and would begin Oct. 29 to allow humanitarian aid in and prepare for civilian evacuations.“The situation in Oleshky is dire. Oleshky is a front-line war city on the brink of disaster. Oleshky’s remaining population is comprised primarily of elderly residents who urgently need medical attention, medicine, food, and clean water,” the first lady said. “The people of Oleshky have limited electricity, live amid mined roads, and endure regular military attacks. It was abundantly clear that without my intervention, the possibility to bring humanitarian aid into the city and to evacuate the elderly would be impossible.”Some observers, however, noted that the pope had publicly pushed for the same thing a week earlier.The Vatican said Leo “phoned Putin and asked him to arrange a ceasefire to let aid and food into the town” on Oct. 16, Reuters reported. The Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said the call was the pope’s initiative. The Kremlin said Putin agreed to “cooperate on this matter,” but its statement did not mention a ceasefire. The pope also spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Oct. 19.The progressive MeidasTouch network noted on X that the White House announcement came “just one week after Pope Leo personally called Vladimir Putin to push for the SAME THING,” and asked why the White House was “taking credit for an initiative Pope Leo was publicly pursuing a week ago.”“Pope Leo personally called Putin and Zelenskyy, pushing for a ceasefire in Ukraine. Now the Trump White House is trying to give MELANIA TRUMP the credit, completely ignoring the Pope’s efforts!” wrote former Biden aide Chris Jackson.

A prominent political strategist has called for the “immediate removal” of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law from “every diplomatic assignment” following an explosive report alleging that Jared Kushner secretly had access to roughly $1.75 billion in Gulf money while serving in the White House.“I call it financial treason: the exchange of entrusted American power for concealed foreign financial benefit,” wrote ex-GOP strategist Steve Schmidt in an analysis published Friday on his Substack.“The constitutional crime of treason has a specific definition that prosecutors must satisfy; my accusation concerns the betrayal of allegiance at the heart of this reported bargain. I will not pretend it is a misunderstanding about etiquette.”According to an excerpt from journalist Matthew Cole’s book “Princes and Thieves” published by Vanity Fair, Kushner became a signatory on a roughly $750 million account in the United Arab Emirates held through a charity. Cole reported that Emirati ruler Mohamed bin Zayed separately routed about $1 billion, allegedly intended for Kushner’s personal benefit, through Azerbaijan to Israel’s central bank at the encouragement of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.The report also alleged that Dutch intelligence found screenshots from Kushner’s phone on a Russian military intelligence server, indicating Moscow had penetrated the device. Kushner’s counsel has denied that the accounts existed and denied any wrongdoing.Kushner, who holds no official administration title, serves as an informal envoy and has helped lead U.S. negotiations involving Israel and Hamas, Russia and Ukraine, and Iran. Citing Kushner’s enormous influence on U.S. foreign policy, Schmidt called for immediate action from lawmakers not only to remove Kushner from his diplomatic roles, but also to launch a massive criminal probe.“Put Kushner and everyone with relevant knowledge under oath. The alleged transaction must be investigated as a potential crime. Accepting benefits corruptly in exchange for being influenced in official acts is bribery. The agreement, the benefits and the acts must be established,” Schmidt wrote.“There must be no family exemption. No private accommodation. No assumption that the money is too large, the people too powerful, or the implications too disturbing to confront. Americans have been asked to endure years of lies, cruelty, corruption and contempt while the most privileged people in the country explain why accountability must always wait. Enough.”

Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has courted Donald Trump and other leading MAGA figures for a decade, according to a trove of newly leaked emails reviewed by the Guardian.The leak, reported Friday, includes more than 420,000 emails and documents from the party, most dating to before 2019. The AfD has confirmed a cyberattack on an external provider in September but said only parts of a few inboxes, "mostly unused for years," were copied unlawfully.The Guardian reported that senior AfD officials agonized over the wording of an “obsequious” congratulatory telegram after Trump’s 2016 win, which included the wish that his “hopes as a person be fulfilled.” The party quickly moved to asking the White House for support on policy, the paper reported. A second message, sent Jan. 20, 2017, asked Trump to help remove the United Nations’ “enemy state” clauses. The AfD’s federal board adopted the request on a Jan. 16 call, according to a record in the leaked documents. When the party’s federal office circulated an English draft on Jan. 19, Georg Pazderski, then the party’s Berlin leader and a federal board member, objected to the tone and the request.“You don’t address the president as Mr Trump, he is Mr President. Otherwise a bit wordy and flowery. I stand by it: the enemy-state clause doesn’t belong in this letter at all. You don’t do that in a letter of congratulation. It looks like a begging letter,” Pazderski wrote, according to the Guardian.Other documents show a growing relationship between Alice Weidel, now the AfD’s leader, and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. The two met in Zurich in March 2018, though the files show "no follow-up," according to the Guardian.The AfD has surged since then. It won 12.6 percent of the vote when it entered the Bundestag in 2017 and came second with 20.8% in the February 2025 federal election, the Guardian noted. It now leads national polls at about 30 percent. On Sept. 6 it won 43.8 percent in Saxony-Anhalt, and Trump hailed the result on Truth Social. “Wow! The Populist Party in Germany just had a really big night,” he wrote, ending with “MGGA!!!”Germany’s domestic intelligence agency monitors the party as a suspected rightwing extremist organization, the Guardian reported.AfD politician Markus Frohnmaier said he could not verify the documents, which he said were obtained unlawfully, and described the contacts as ordinary political outreach, according to the Guardian. The paper said the US State Department has had friendly contacts with the party during Trump’s second term.