Wednesday October 29th, 2025
- "It Is Not A Question of Who Is Right Or Wrong But What Is Right Or Wrong That Counts."
- --Geoff Metcalf
- Providing an on line Triage of the news since 1998
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World & Nation
Putin announces Russia tested Poseidon nuclear torpedo, which can destroy cities with radioactive tsunamis: ‘Huge success’
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that his country’s military
successfully tested a massive nuclear-torpedo dubbed the Poseidon
capable of leveling coastal cities with 1,600-foot high radioactive
tsunamis.
The despot, while enjoying tea with wounded Russian soldiers at a
hospital in Moscow Wednesday, said the underwater bomb was launched
from a submarine the day before and was a “huge success.”
“For the first time, we managed not only to launch it with a launch
engine from a carrier submarine, but also to launch the nuclear power
unit on which this device passed a certain amount of time,” Putin said.
“There is nothing like this.”
“This is a huge success,” Putin said, adding that the destructive power
of the Poseidon surpasses the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic
missile, ominously known as the Satan II, which can carry 15 nuclear
warheads.
Hurricane Melissa live updates: Category 3 storm makes landfall in Cuba after pummeling Jamaica
Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Cuba early Wednesday, with 120 mph
sustained winds and moving at 10 mph. Forecasters are describing it as
an “extremely dangerous” Category 3 hurricane.
The storm is projected to strike Bahamas later Wednesday.
Melissa made devastating landfall in Jamaica on Tuesday as a Category 5
hurricane, wiping out power to 500,000 people there as experts brand it
the “storm of the century.”
Shutdown Talks Gain Urgency as Deadlines, Union Pressure Mount
Talks to end the Democrats' government shutdown have reportedly picked up amid crucial deadlines and mounting outside pressure.
Nearly a month into the stalemate, "the vibes might finally be
shifting," Politico reported Wednesday, as looming food aid cutoffs,
travel delays, and calls from the nation's largest federal workers
union to reopen the government push lawmakers toward a deal.
"I think they've picked up," Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.,
told Politico of bipartisan talks. "Deadlines have a way of doing that."
‘Why Is It Suddenly Right?’: CNN Host Kasie Hunt Reminds Gallego Democrats Set Up Crisis They’re Blaming On Trump
CNN host Kasie Hunt pressed Democratic Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego on Tuesday over his party’s stance on healthcare subsidies.
The government shut down Oct. 1, and Democrats have refused to reopen
the government unless Republicans agree to extend expiring Obamacare
premium subsidies. During an exchange on “The Arena With Kasie Hunt,”
Hunt said Democrats long championed the importance of maintaining
legislative “norms” — the very ones they’ve now abandoned in defense of
extending the expiring Obamacare subsidies.
“Why is it suddenly right to do it [shutdown] this way, and to do it
for this long, when it didn’t used to be, though, the right way, in
Democrats’ view?” Hunt asked Gallego.
Trump given gold crown in South Korea as host hails his ‘golden age’
President Trump was given a massive gold crown Wednesday by South
Korean President Lee Jae Myung, who proclaimed a new “golden age” of
the nations’ alliance.
Trump, known for his love of the precious metal, which he has used
extensively to redecorate the Oval Office, also received the Grand
Order of Mugungwha, South Korea’s highest honor, featuring a large
medallion on a golden necklace.
A Korean translator told Trump that the enormous pronged crown,
meanwhile, was a replica of “the largest and most extravagant of the
six existing crowns from the Silla period.”
The Silla kingdom, based in Gyeongju for about 1,000 years between 57 BC and 935 AD, at one point ruled most of Korea.
Trump’s war on drugs stops at Mexican border — for now
Maritime raids in Caribbean force traffickers to adapt land and sea routes
Somewhere off the coast of Venezuela, a U.S. Navy radar locks onto a
fast-moving vessel skimming through the Caribbean. The ship, believed
to be carrying cocaine bound for the United States, is one of dozens
targeted under Washington’s revived maritime counter-narcotics campaign
— a series of deadly interdictions that have brought the U.S.
military’s battlefront back to the Western Hemisphere.
But as the U.S. clamps down at sea, cartels are already adapting.
"They’re going to try and stay alive by moving cargo on aircraft," said
Brent Sadler, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and former
Navy officer. "But it’s more expensive, and you can’t move as much by
volume, so it’s going to hurt their business model."
Sadler said the shift shows how U.S. pressure on maritime smuggling
routes is forcing traffickers to find new ways to move their product —
and new vulnerabilities for Washington to exploit.
US economy may lose up to $14 billion due to government shutdown standoff, CBO warns
The U.S. economy could lose up to $14 billion due to the ongoing government shutdown, a new analysis said Wednesday.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released new
projections that show the shutdown is likely to have a temporary
negative impact on the U.S. economy, though gross domestic product
(GDP) — adjusted to remove the effect of inflation — is expected to
take a modest permanent hit.
It is Day 29 of the government shutdown, with Democrats and Republicans
appearing no closer to a deal on ending the standoff than when it began
on Oct. 1.
House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, asked the CBO
for an analysis earlier this month of how the shutdown will impact the
U.S. economy.
Food aid for 42 million imperiled by shutdown politics, as Trump tests law
Nearly 42 million people are set to lose food aid due to the
second-longest U.S. government shutdown, as Democrats and Republicans
in Congress continue to blame each other for a weeks-long legislative
stalemate.
Neither party was showing signs of changing its position days before
funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known
as food stamps, is set to lapse beginning on Saturday.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's decision last week not to draw on
an emergency fund to pay for part of November's SNAP benefits is
splitting senators, as Democrats argue the agency is legally required
to spend the roughly $5.5 billion in contingency funds to maintain at
least a portion of the benefits.
Confident Trump teases plans for summit with China’s Xi Jinping on hot mic, predicts ‘very, very satisfactory’ result
President Trump geared up for a high-stakes sit-down with Chinese
President Xi Jinping Wednesday — revealing on a hot mic how long he
plans to spend with Beijing’s leader.
Trump, 79, was overheard claiming during a diplomatic dinner hosted by
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung that the Thursday meeting with Xi
would stretch “three to four hours” — despite official guidance from
the White House budgeting a little under two hours for the summit.
“We’re going to have something that’s going to be very, very
satisfactory to China and to us,” Trump told leaders at the dinner. “I
think it’s going to be a very good meeting. I look forward to it
tomorrow morning when we meet.”
The president, who is wrapping up a three-country tour of Asia
Thursday, also brushed off concerns about North Korean dictator Kim
Jong Un.
Paramount Layoffs Begin: David Ellison Tells Staff Restructuring Required to Address “Evolving Priorities”
About 1,000 roles are expected to be
impacted this week, ahead of the new owner's first earnings call as
Paramount CEO in November.
Major Paramount layoffs are beginning today, as CEO David Ellison seeks
to reposition the company and shift financial resources toward what he
and his executive team see as growth opportunities.
Ellison informed staff of the cuts early Wednesday morning in a memo,
which was acquired by The Hollywood Reporter. About 1,000 jobs are
expected to be impacted this week.
“We want to be as open and direct as possible about the reasons behind
these changes,” Ellison wrote. “In some areas, we are addressing
redundancies that have emerged across the organization. In others, we
are phasing out roles that are no longer aligned with our evolving
priorities and the new structure designed to strengthen our focus on
growth. Ultimately, these steps are necessary to position Paramount for
long-term success.”
Ellison assumed control of Paramount in August, and has spent the last
few months familiarizing himself with Paramount’s workings, and
figuring out where resources need to be shifted around.
JD Vance addresses the prospect of 2028 presidential run with ‘best friend’ Marco Rubio on ‘Pod Force One’
Vice President JD Vance gushed that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is
“my best friend in the administration” in a “Pod Force One” interview
after President Trump teased them as an “unstoppable” 2028 ticket.
Vance, 41, told The Post’s Miranda Devine on the latest edition of the
podcast, out Wednesday, that he ribbed Rubio, 54, about the prospect of
their potential presidential ticket after discussing the details with
Trump over lunch six months ago.
“We try to get lunch every couple of weeks just to catch up on what’s
going on and talk about things,” Vance said of his sit-downs with the
commander-in-chief.
“[Trump] mentioned it probably six months or so ago,” the veep said of
a potential Vance-Rubio ticket. “And I mentioned it to the secretary in
jest, but it, it feels so premature because we’re still so early.
“And what I always say to people is, if we take care of business, the
politics will take care of itself,” Vance said. “And we’re nine months
into this administration]. We’ve done a lot of good.”
Gerrymandering won’t work — it may tweak Congress but 2030 census dooms blue states’ sway
Redistricting fervor is gripping our states’ capitals, as red states
and blue states one-up each other in a mid-decade battle to redraw
congressional lines.
When red Texas and Missouri unveiled redistricting plans in recent months, blue states retaliated.
Californians are voting on Proposition 50, a measure pushed by Gov.
Gavin Newsom to end-run the state’s legally mandated nonpartisan
mapping commission.
The redistricting plan threatened by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul faced
steep constitutional challenges, so Democrats this week filed a lawsuit
against the city’s single Republican, declaring the improperly drawn
lines.
Here's what Donald Trump and Joe Biden have in common on energy policy
'All of the above' energy strategy needed instead of picking winners and losers
The late, great philosopher and New York Yankees baseball catcher, Yogi
Berra, once declared, "It's déjà vu all over again." While Berra was
referring to something relating to America’s favorite pastime, the same
could be said about recent decisions by the Trump administration to
cancel offshore wind projects up and down the East Coast, especially in
comparison to the Biden administration’s cancellation of the Keystone
XL pipeline.
At first blush, these decisions might seem like exact opposites — one
focused on renewable energy, the other at fossil fuels. But in reality,
they are both political decisions that hurt confidence in the energy
industry, jeopardize jobs and ultimately affect our nation’s domestic
energy security. Predictability matters most when it comes to companies
and workers in the energy field, whether you’re laying gas pipelines,
exploring for oil or constructing wind farms.
And I’m not alone in expressing these concerns. In recent weeks,
Colette Hirstius, president of Shell USA, publicly questioned the Trump
administration’s decision to halt fully permitted wind projects,
asserting it is "very damaging" to investment and calling for more
consistency in regulation.
