Steve Herman

Here’s our hour-long @dwnews discussion examining the current dissent in America. https://www.youtube.com/live/RmikNRrv9Pw?si=1cEHrhLFgyAvHmxJ&t=69

BBC - Twenty-six officers have been injured while policing a protest organised by far-right activist Tommy Robinson, which saw up to 150,000 people march through central London. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwydezxl0xlo

The Washington Post’s founding Global Opinions editor, Karen Attiah, says she was fired for her Bluesky posts about the killing of Charlie Kirk and political violence. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/washington-post-fired-charlie-kirk-karen-attiah-b2826734.html

Amtrak now has a passenger train in service that can match the speed Japan's Shinkansen achieved in 1992. https://www.amtrak.com/nextgen-acela

French police arrest five more people, including a prime suspect, over the jewellery theft from the Louvre museum. https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20251030-five-new-suspects-arrested-over-louvre-heist-paris-prosecutor-says

One of our former Voice of America colleagues, Peter Clotttey, who a broadcaster in the English to Africa division, has launched a new video podcast called Africa Thinks to fill some of the huge void left by VOA being silenced. https://africathinks.com

CNN - A three-star US Army general serving on the Pentagon’s Joint Staff has been pushed out of his position following months of sustained tensions with Secretary of Defense Hegseth. https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/29/politics/three-star-pushed-out-by-hegseth-caine-over-tensions

Shares of US-listed rare earth miners rally after China agrees to delay the introduction of further export controls as part of an agreement between President Trump and Chinese leader Xi. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/30/rare-earths-stocks-china-delays-export-controls-after-trump-xi-summit.html

“I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately.” -President Trump on social media, just prior to meeting with Chinese President Xi in South Korea

VP Vance, in a relatively anodyne speech at Ole Miss honoring Charlie Kirk, urges audience members to get involved in politics, saying there may even be a future vice president among them.

Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika, delivering an emotional nationalist Christian-themed speech at Ole Miss here in Oxford (which I’m watching from a sushi bar as I only could manage to get on the waitlist). She says her husban “was obeying the Lord” and “we will bow only to the King of Kings.”

The lone Democratic commissioner at the FCC criticizes the decision to vote on nearly a dozen points of business, saying the prolonged government shutdown has left the commission without enough staff to adequately prepare for a vote on those matters […]

Semafor - So how did the Times, a pillar of quality British journalism since the 18th century, blow the story so badly? https://www.semafor.com/article/10/29/2025/times-london-zohran-mamdani-new-york

Two purported Russian mobsters each sentenced to 25 years behind bars for hiring a hitman to kill an Iranian American journalist at her Brooklyn home on behalf of the Iranian government. Masih Alinejad, for years, hosted a program on VOA’s Persian News Network […]