It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, November 02, 2026
Kushner book author reveals bombshell detail he left out about hacked phone
The author of a bombshell book on Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner's alleged Gulf dealings just revealed something about a hacked phone his book left out.
Investigative journalist Matthew Cole, whose new book "Princes and Thieves" alleges Kushner had access to secret Gulf-funded bank accounts while serving in the White House, told host Molly Jong-Fast on Saturday's episode of "Fast Politics" that his reporting points to other U.S. allies knowing about Dutch intelligence services hacking Kushner's phone.
"There are some indications in my reporting, which are not in the book because it gets complicated, that there are other European, other NATO allies that have seen or are aware that the Dutch were in there and that they had access to Kushner's phone," Cole told Jong-Fast.
As Gizmodo reported, Cole's book alleges that Dutch military intelligence found screenshots from Kushner's iPhone on a Russian military intelligence server and later exploited the same weakness to watch his screen, catching him logging into a Dubai-based account that had taken in hundreds of millions of dollars.
Cole described that access as limited.
"It wasn't malware where they could manipulate the phone, but they had the ability to see the phone when the phone was on," he noted.
Cole also took on a question that "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart pressed him on earlier this week, namely why the Dutch never alerted Washington.
"The U.S. is a NATO ally. Intelligence agencies keep secrets. That is literally what they do for a living," Cole told Jong-Fast. "If they can get into something, they will. And if they can gather something, they will."
He added that he had "no indication at all" that the Dutch shared what they found with the U.S. government, though he allowed it was possible.
Cole framed the episode as a sign of how little the public knows about what happens behind closed doors.
"At least in foreign policy, our government has shrunk to like three people, essentially a family and a few friends," he said.
Asked whether his reporting captured only a sliver of a larger story, Cole said his work was extensive but much of what lies beneath it remains hidden.
"What my reporting shows is this is the tip of the iceberg," Cole explained. "I don't know how big the iceberg is, and I don't pretend to."
Cole noted that Kushner and his lawyer "unequivocally and emphatically deny every allegation in the book." Kushner has publicly dismissed the claims.
Trump’s Epstein birthday letter lawsuit dealt fatal blow by judge: 'He has failed'
U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles on Saturday tossed President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal over its reporting on a birthday letter Trump allegedly wrote to Jeffrey Epstein — a decisive blow to the president’s case against the paper.
“This Order addresses President Donald J. Trump’s second attempt to plead that Defendants… acted with actual malice when they published an article in the Wall Street Journal linking him to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein,” Gayles wrote in his ruling. “As with his first attempt, he has failed.”
Because the dismissal was with prejudice, Trump cannot refile the claims. Gayles wrote that because this was Trump’s second attempt to plead his case, dismissal with prejudice was appropriate.
The Journal published its story on July 17, 2025, reporting that a letter bearing Trump’s name appeared in a leather-bound album that Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell compiled for his 50th birthday in 2003. The paper described typewritten text framed by a hand-drawn outline of a naked woman, with Trump’s signature placed below her waist.
Trump denied writing the letter before the story ran and sued the next day, seeking $10 billion from Dow Jones, News Corp, Rupert Murdoch, News Corp CEO Robert Thomson and Journal reporters Khadeeja Safdar and Joseph Palazzolo.
Attorneys for DOJ prosecutor try to quit case amid judge's probe of criminal misconduct
Two Justice Department lawyers defending Chicago’s federal prosecutors against misconduct claims asked to withdraw from the case as a judge weighs possible criminal contempt findings related to fallout from President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown in Chicago.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Diane MacArthur and Nathaniel Whalen each told the court Friday that they were “no longer assigned to this case,” in motions filed by MacArthur and Whalen. Neither gave a reason.
Friday was also U.S. District Judge April Perry’s deadline for U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros’ office to turn over evidence to help her make “findings of fact regarding potential sanctions or criminal contempt,” the Chicago Sun-Times reported Oct. 9.
Perry’s inquiry grew out of the collapse of a protest prosecution in May.
The office charged six protesters, including then-congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh, with conspiring to impede a federal agent outside an immigration facility in suburban Broadview in September 2025, during Trump's Chicago immigration crackdown, the Sun-Times reported.
Charges were dropped May 21 after Perry uncovered apparent misconduct before the grand jury. She has since left open the possibility of naming a special prosecutor to investigate Boutros and others, the Sun-Times reported after an Oct. 1 hearing.
“My sole focus, at this point, is on lack of candor, concealment of material facts, or other misconduct that occurred before me,” Perry said at that hearing.
“It is my very sincere belief, Your Honor, that no prosecutor acted intentionally in misleading you,” Boutros told Perry in May, according to CNN.
MacArthur and Whalen have spoken for the office on whether officials in Washington had a hand in the case.
The evidence Perry requested includes every communication the office had with anyone outside it, other than local FBI agents, about investigative or charging decisions from the day of the protest to March 30, 2026, when prosecutors denied any such communications existed.
The trial prosecutors wrote in that March filing that there were “no communications of any nature” with anyone outside the office about those decisions, and “to be crystal clear,” that included the White House and Justice Department headquarters.
But in August, a brief signed by Whalen and Boutros disclosed a virtual meeting with Justice Department lawyers in Washington on Sept. 27, 2025, the day after the protest.
The office later called that answer “mistaken” in a Sept. 25 correction, saying it came from First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Yonan, Boutros’ top deputy, and not from MacArthur. The correction said there were communications with Justice Department headquarters “after the charging decision had been made.”
“No way, no how,” the judge said Oct. 1 of what she had been told about such contacts. “And now, your argument has changed pretty significantly.”
MacArthur and Whalen are not the first government lawyers to move to withdraw from the case, and the first to do so later retired from the Justice Department in protest.
Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheri Mecklenburg, who led the grand jury presentations and says she “owns” any mistakes she made, withdrew in February when she left for a temporary assignment in Washington, according to her Sept. 24 court filing.
The filing said the office had advised her she “could be disciplined or terminated” if she filed anything on her own behalf.
In her retirement letter, she accused Boutros of pursuing a felony prosecution “that you personally directed over my objection.”
Perry will take up the withdrawal requests Nov. 5, court records show. The government’s brief on whether she can constitutionally appoint an independent prosecutor is due Monday under her Oct. 1 order.
'You're a stupid person!' Trump rages as protesters repeatedly interrupt rally
President Donald Trump seemed angered Sunday as protesters repeatedly interrupted his rally in Iowa.
Trump spoke at the Five Flags Center in Dubuque, Iowa, to rally supporters to vote for Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA) as she attempts to keep the state's Senate seat red on November 3. The rally was one of two events Trump held Sunday, with the other happening in Salina, Kansas.
Multiple protesters disrupted Trump's speech in Iowa Sunday, which seemed to send the president into a frenzy.
One protester interrupted Trump as he talked about Hinson's weight loss journey, saying he "knew the importance of what she was doing." The move seemed to anger Trump, as he was interrupted before he got to his "punchline."
"Don't bother. They're paid protesters," Trump said, waving his hand. "They go away quickly. They're like a gnat; they're like a little fly."
As Trump berated one protester, the crowd began chanting "U.S.A." Police escorted the person out of the rally without incident.
"There's usually two or three of them per rally," Trump said. "They get paid $250. They get paid by [George] Soros. They're losers!"
Trump seemed to grow more frustrated as protests continued to erupt inside the Five Flags Center.
"They put about three or four of them in [here," Trump said. "And your law enforcement does such a good job."
The president seemed to lose his cool after the third protester began shouting at him
"You're a stupid person!" Trump snapped.
'Major reason' for potential 'blue tsunami' emerges as NBC poll shows a 30-year first
Voters are souring on their own finances for the first time in three decades of NBC News polling, and observers say that could cost Republicans dearly on Tuesday.
The new NBC News poll, conducted Oct. 28-30 among 1,000 registered voters, found that 51% are dissatisfied with their financial situation and 49% are satisfied. It’s the first time in 30 years of NBC News polling that more voters said they were dissatisfied than satisfied.
The poll also found that President Donald Trump’s disapproval rating has hit 60%, a new high across his two terms in NBC polling. Only 40% approve. Asked which party they want controlling Congress, voters picked Democrats over Republicans, 52% to 45%. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
“For the first time in 30 years of @NBCNews polling, more voters say they are dissatisfied with their financial situation (51%) than satisfied (49%),” wrote Republican pollster Frank Luntz.
Ben Kamisar, NBC News’ deputy political editor, highlighted the same finding. He wrote that Democrats “have a 7-point edge on the congressional ballot,” while “Trump’s disapproval rating hits a new high.”
Ernie Ausejo, a University of Alabama law student, wrote, “If there is a blue tsunami on Tuesday, this coupled with the fact POTUS literally says the country is getting rich and doesn’t care about voter’s beliefs, will be one of the major reasons as to why it occurred.”
Logan Mohtashami, lead analyst at HousingWire, pointed to the administration’s economic policy and the war in the Middle East.
“We talked on the podcast recently about how sometimes you need both hands on the stove and to feel the burn to realize that, politically, it’s hard to manage inflation spikes when you have a trade war and a conflict in the Middle East at the same time,” he wrote.
Conservative writer Julie Kelly picked through the poll’s other numbers, noting that it should come with the caveat “no need to reply that no one should believe the polls.” She noted that 73% are dissatisfied with the economy. She also pointed out that Republicans still hold a 2-point edge on handling the economy, an 11-point edge on immigration and a 5-point edge on government corruption, while Democrats lead by just 1 point on inflation.
Kelly also listed favorability numbers from the poll: Republican Party: 38% positive, 50% negative Democratic Party: 29% positive, 52% negative Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY): 13% positive, 53% negative
The poll was conducted by Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates and Republican pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies.
“Democrats are in total control of the 2026 issue agenda,” McInturff said, according to NBC News' report.
“The Trump presidency can be summarized as the promise of two years ago and the peril of two days from now,” Horwitt said.
Alarm as US embassy in Moscow issues rare 'mass casualties' notice: 'You don't see this'
The U.S. Embassy in Moscow warned Saturday of a “credible threat” of an attack that could cause mass casualties at a popular park in the Russian capital. Observers noted the warning was strikingly specific.
“The U.S. Embassy in Moscow has learned of a credible threat of an incident that could result in mass casualties TODAY, October 31, on the grounds of the Tsaritsyno Museum-Reserve in Moscow,” the embassy wrote on X. It said the U.S. government “is coordinating response measures with the relevant authorities of the Russian Federation.”
The embassy told Americans to avoid the park Saturday, stay away from large crowds, keep their phones charged and carry identification. Tsaritsyno is a sprawling former royal estate in southern Moscow that draws large crowds.
The alert quickly drew comparisons to the March 2024 Crocus City Hall attack outside Moscow. In that attack, gunmen linked to the Islamic State killed more than 140 people at a concert venue, weeks after the U.S. Embassy publicly warned that extremists were planning to target large gatherings in Moscow. “Last time I remember this kind of specific alert it was before the Crocus City concert hall ISIS-linked attack in 2024,” wrote ABC News international correspondent Patrick Reevell, calling the warning “unusual.”
Sarah Adams, a former CIA targeting officer and author of “Benghazi: Know Thy Enemy,” shared the alert with a brief comment: “You don’t see this everyday.”
Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and a Kremlin envoy who has taken part in talks with the Trump administration, cast the warning as a sign of improving relations.
“In a spirit of goodwill, the US has informed Russian security services and issued a public alert about a possible terrorist attack in Tsaritsyno Park in Moscow,” Dmitriev wrote. “US-Russia security services cooperation is vital for global security.”
The embassy did not say who was behind the threat or what kind of attack it anticipated. There were no reports of an attack as of publication.
Dire warning as 'cornered and desperate' Trump ally tips the world toward nuclear war
President Donald Trump may be "sleepwalking" toward a nuclear conflict at the urging of one of his "cornered and desperate" allies, according to one analyst.
Tucker Carlson, a former Fox News host, posted a lengthy warning on X, alleging that the Trump administration may approve a nuclear strike on Iran within a week of the midterm elections. It's an issue that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls Trump about "every day," according to Carlson.
"The target would be Pickax Mountain in central Iran, where Israeli intelligence claims the Iranian government has restarted its nuclear enrichment program," Carlson wrote. " No conventional weapon in the American arsenal can penetrate 300 feet of solid granite to destroy the tunnels where enrichment is supposedly taking place. The only military option is a nuclear strike. Netanyahu has been pushing hard for one."
Carlson noted that the recent election results in Israel made Netanyahu's pleas more urgent. Netanyahu's governing coalition took a shellacking in the election because of a surge in support for Israel's Arab parties, which could pave the way for Netanyahu's exit from state politics.
"Netanyahu is cornered and desperate," Carlson noted. "After last week’s election results, he can’t form a government unless Trump intervenes directly in Israeli politics and brokers a deal with other parties that gives Netanyahu 61 seats in the Knesset. Otherwise, he is out as prime minister and on his way to ignominy, investigations, and possibly jail. Netanyahu must stay close to Trump. He needs this war."
"No country other than the United States has ever used a nuclear weapon in war. Some would like to. An American nuclear attack on Iran would set a new precedent. The Russians have already told at least two other governments that an American nuclear strike on Iran would free them to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine. Pakistan and India would be tempted to do the same against each other, as would North Korea against Seoul. After the first nuclear strike, World War Three is inevitable. That war would be short and final," Carlson added.
"We’ve been sleepwalking toward this moment for months," Carlson added. "Since February, the administration has quietly rewritten America’s nuclear doctrine to make first use of so-called 'battlefield nukes' easier and therefore more likely. No one in Washington in either party seems bothered by this. Now we’re on the brink of it."
Cold showers benefit the environment and your health
Many people know that their behavior harms the environment, yet they struggle to change their habits. "This is especially true when they feel they have to give something up or spend more money," says psychologist Dr. Lena Glaser. As a psychotherapist, she regularly encounters this reluctance to change in her work.
Small changes that fit into everyday life
In her recently completed doctoral dissertation at the Faculty of Psychology, Glaser explored whether people are more willing to adopt habits that benefit both the climate and their health if those habits are easy to incorporate into everyday life and offer personal rewards. She investigated this question by studying the effects of regular cold showers.
"When people talk about changing their behavior to protect the climate, the discussion usually centers on transportation, diet or recycling," Glaser says. But in these areas, sweeping measures such as banning flights or serving only vegetarian meals in workplace cafeterias often meet with resistance. For some, it even feels like their lifestyle choices are being policed, despite knowing that flying contributes to climate change and that eating meat has negative consequences for both the environment and their health.
"We need a more empathetic approach if we want people to change their behavior," Glaser believes. She points out that water temperature and water consumption rarely come up in climate-action discussions, even though changing shower habits has an environmental impact comparable to recycling. "Taking a cold shower isn't exactly pleasant, but it's a small change to make. After all, we shower anyway." It's also a relatively easy step that can save money.
Fewer sick days
The study included 719 participants aged 18 to 65 who were asked to take showers as cold as their shower would allow for 12 weeks. To qualify, they had to be in good health and not already take cold showers.
Many participants dropped out during the first two weeks, but the dropout rate declined afterward. "That suggests people gradually get used to it," Glaser concludes.
As the study progressed, the remaining participants reported feeling increasingly better, both mentally and physically. According to Glaser, these subjective improvements also showed up in their sick leave: On average, participants took 31% fewer sick days than the control group.
Good for the environment and your wallet
When asked about the immediate benefits of a cold shower, participants said they felt more awake and refreshed. They also took pride in having pushed themselves to do something uncomfortable. "Experiences like these can be motivating," Glaser says.
Over time, taking cold showers also saves you money. People tend to spend less time in the shower, reducing their water consumption. They also use less energy because the water doesn't need to be heated. or a 45-liter shower, lowering the water temperature from 40°C to 15°C saves 1.3 kWh of energy. That means lower utility bills and a measurable reduction in CO2 emissions. Over the 12-week study, participants reduced their CO2 emissions by 15 kilograms per person, roughly equivalent to the emissions from driving 100 kilometers. In other words, cold showers make sense both environmentally and financially.
More generally, Glaser says, "When people see a personal benefit from changing their behavior and don't feel that they're giving something up or missing out, they're more motivated to stick with it."
Whether participants continued taking cold showers after the study ended is unknown. It's also unclear how environmentally conscious they were in other areas of their lives, or whether they compensated for the discomfort of cold showers by treating themselves in other ways. Such behavior could reduce or even cancel out the environmental benefits.
Find the temperature that works for you
Glaser has encouraging news for anyone who still dreads stepping into a cold shower: Even small changes in water temperature can have a positive effect. It doesn't have to be all or nothing. Finding a middle ground is perfectly fine.
"If we force ourselves to give up every comfort and pleasure, it will eventually take a toll on our well-being and mental health. And getting sick doesn't help the environment either."
Anyone interested in trying cold showers can start gradually, test their limits, and perhaps push them a little further over time. "The water doesn't have to be equally cold every day. We don't feel equally brave every day, and that's okay," Glaser says.
For someone trying it at home, the study's instruction to shower "as cold as possible" could be interpreted a little differently: Make the water as cold as you feel comfortable with that day. "It's important to listen to your body and pay attention to how you feel. But sometimes it's worth pushing yourself a little."
Global change is also affecting the behaviour and mobility of the ocellated lizard, a reptile typical of Mediterranean ecosystems. This species — the largest lizard on the Iberian Peninsula — could experience changes in its ability to move efficiently between shelters and feeding areas, escape predators and interact with its natural environment. This is the conclusion of a paper published in the Journal of Animal Ecology led by researcher Antigoni Kaliontzopoulou, from the Faculty of Biology and the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio) at the University of Barcelona.
The study describes how the behaviour of the ocellated lizard varies in response to rising temperatures, a vital aspect for reptiles and other ectothermic organisms, which depend on external heat sources and are unable to maintain body temperature in the same way as mammals and birds (endotherms).
In a warmer climate, the ability of ocellated lizard (Timon lepidus) populations to respond will not be uniform: some lizards, considered “generalists”, show greater resilience and a higher capacity for mobility at high temperatures compared to “specialists”, whose mobility stagnates at high temperatures and, as a result, are less adapted to take advantage of extreme warming scenarios.
“The strategy based on a ‘generalist’ profile proves to be more effective in the long term for coping with climate change than specialist profiles,” notes Antigoni Kaliontzopoulou, a member of the UB’s Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences. “However, while increased mobility can offer more opportunities for reproduction and foraging, it is also associated with a higher risk of mortality from predation.”
The study, which integrates physiological, behavioural and microclimatic data, provides a powerful approach to predicting how climate change can reshape the spatial and temporal niches of ectotherms. “The results of the study are relevant to ectothermic organisms in general: lizards are excellent models for studying these impacts, as their body temperature and physiological performance depend directly and closely on the environment and temperature,” says Kaliontzopoulou.
The study is also signed by experts Katerina Sioumpoura, Neftalà Sillero and Carolina Reyes-Puig of the University of Porto (Portugal), and Urtzi Enriquez-Urzelai of the Czech Academy of Sciences (Czech Republic).
Biologging and mechanistic niche modelling reveal thermal dependence of individual lizard movement paterns
Article Publication Date
23-Oct-2026
The study, which integrates physiological, behavioural and microclimatic data, provides a powerful approach to predicting how climate change can reshape the spatial and temporal niches of ectotherms.
Credit
Katerina Sioumpoura
The results of the study are relevant to ectothermic organisms in general.
Credit
Journal of Animal Ecology
Hidden erosion: Study reveals soft mountain rock erodes three times faster than hard rock—with climate implications
UMass Amherst-led research relying on cosmic rays from exploded stars shows gentle alpine slopes hide rapid erosion rates that shape the Earth’s carbon cycle
AMHERST, Mass. — A University of Massachusetts Amherst-led research team has discovered that weaker rock in mountain landscapes erodes three times faster than harder rock–even on gentler slopes–and is one of the main attributes governing mountain erosion. The finding also challenges our current understanding of the relationship between erosion and the release of carbon dioxide, and suggests that geologists and atmospheric scientists may be underestimating the CO2 contributions coming from the Earth’s rocky places.
The research, recently published in Science Advances, depends on a new technique relying on common quartz grains, the rare isotope beryllium-10 (known as 10Be) and cosmic rays from exploded stars.
Over the course of the universe’s nearly 14 billion years, countless stars have exploded, and when they do, they blast out showers of cosmic shrapnel in the form of high energy particles. These cosmic particles have been raining down on the Earth for uncountable ages in at a constant rate. When the particles penetrate rocks on the surface, 10Be is produced within quartz. For four decades, geologists have been able to harvest these quartz grains from rocks like granite and sandstone, in which the quartz grains are comparatively large, to test all sorts of hypotheses.
But in rocks where the grains are too fine, such as shale, the conventional 10Be technique hasn’t worked. And that has limited geologists’ abilities to accurately pinpoint things like erosion rates across a broad spectrum of rock types.
That is, until Marder and his colleagues developed a new method for harvesting the rare isotope from such rocks.
“When we look at landscapes, we are only seeing a snapshot in time,” says Eyal Marder, a postdoctoral researcher in Earth, geographic, and climate sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the lead author of the new paper.
But researchers want to understand the full geological movie from start to finish in order to understand the land’s lifecycle. Marder and his team studied the Colorado’s East River Watershed, which drains approximately 465 square kilometers of the southern Elk and West Elk mountains—jagged peaks whose most famous landmark, Crested Butte, is revered as one of the U.S.’s premier ski areas. The sheer alpine topography is notable for its diverse geological composition: a mix of incredibly durable igneous rock and much weaker shale, deposited by rivers eons ago.
Their new technique allowed Marder and his team to make a few surprising discoveries. As expected, weaker sedimentary rocks erode faster than harder igneous ones. What was surprising is how much faster they erode.
“Shale’s erodibility is three times that of the harder rocks in the East River Watershed,” says Marder.
It’s so fast that the contrast with the slower-eroding rocks can prolong landscape erosion over millions of years. This also means that the fastest erosion might happen not in steeper, more resistant parts of the mountains, but rather in lower, comparatively gentle, rounder, sedimentary ones.
This shift means that the best way to evaluate whether or not a landscape has reached equilibrium is not by visually gauging its pitch, but also estimating erosion rates from the amounts of 10Be in the sediment carried by the streams that drain mountainous regions.
Marder and his team have also exposed a missing piece in global climate models. Geologists recognize that weathering of different minerals on the surface can either release or absorb CO2. But the fact that in mountainous landscape, shale, which releases CO2 to the atmosphere, is eroding faster and at a larger magnitude than intrusive rocks, which absorb CO2 from the atmosphere, means that geologists and atmospheric scientists may have underestimated the CO2 contributions coming from mountains.
“Scale our work up from the Elk and West Elk mountains to all the mountainous regions of the world, and getting erosion rates and their equivalent impact on CO2 release right has a marked impact on what we know about biogeochemical global cycles and climate change,” says Marder. “Give us the type of rock and enough quartz for our 10Be measurements, and we can estimate what effect it will have on CO2 emissions from thousands to millions of years.”
Quartz grains isolated from the sediment they were found in. The next step is to dissolve them in order to extract, and ultimately measure, their beryllium-10.
Credit
Eyal Marder
About the University of Massachusetts Amherst
The flagship of the commonwealth, the University of Massachusetts Amherst is a nationally ranked public land-grant research university that seeks to expand educational access, fuel innovation and creativity and share and use its knowledge for the common good. Founded in 1863, UMass Amherst sits on nearly 1,450-acres in scenic Western Massachusetts and boasts state-of-the-art facilities for teaching, research, scholarship and creative activity. The institution advances a diverse, equitable, and inclusive community where everyone feels connected and valued—and thrives, and offers a full range of undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees across 10 schools and colleges and 100 undergraduate majors.
