Issue: Foreign Affairs

President Trump signed a rare earth deal with the Prime Minister of Japan, welcomed the PM’s plans for a military buildup—and apparently heard words that were music to his ears:

[Prime minister Sanae] Takaichi, a protegee of Trump’s late friend and golfing buddy Japanese leader Shinzo Abe, applauded Trump’s push to resolve global conflicts, vowing to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize, according to Trump’s spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt.

President Trump will meet President Lee Jae-myung of South Korea and move on to the important meeting with Xi Jinping, the leader of China. The Wall Street Journal’s Walter Russell Mead dubs the presidential trip “the greatest show on earth” and writes that both Trump and Xi hold high cards:

Both in the Middle East and in the Americas, Trump-era foreign policy aims to strengthen American dominance over fossil-fuel markets. One can debate the means, but the objective is sound. America’s ability to control Russia’s oil income and to deter China by blocking Chinese maritime energy imports in a crisis is an ace the president brings to his meeting with Mr. Xi, and it is one whose value China’s leader fully understands.

Mr. Trump’s many establishment critics—wringing their hands over his unorthodox trade politics and his cavalier disregard for the liberal pieties and diplomatic niceties of alliance politics—can see no method in his madness. But when the Chinese and American leaders meet, Mr. Trump will have some solid accomplishments to bolster his position. Both Europe and Japan have turned a corner on defense spending, an accomplishment that has eluded every previous American president since the end of the Cold War.

The Wall Street Journal’s Bill McGurn writes that President Trump is the only person who could win the freedom of Jimmy Lai, the heroic Hong Kong newspaper publisher whom China imprisoned. McGurn cites “reason for optimism.”

Meanwhile, an editorial in the Wall Street Journal says that Xi will give Trump a “Taiwan test”:

The U.S. doesn’t need to clarify its policy on whether it would defend Taiwan in a crisis. But a concession to Mr. Xi on independence would be self-defeating for Mr. Trump’s goals. Mr. Trump wants the island to spend more on its defense, but endorsing Mr. Xi’s view would undermine morale and tell the Taiwanese that attempting to defend itself is futile. That’s what Beijing wants Taipei to conclude.

The House Oversight Committee is out with its much-anticipated report on former President Biden’s mental decline, who was making decisions during the Biden administration. Lefty Politico says that the probe into Biden’s “alleged” mental decline landed with “a thud.”

The New York Post calls the same report a “bombshell” and refers to former President Biden’s “last daze in office.” The Post focuses, among others, on Biden’s doctor, Kevin O’Connor, whom the D.C. Medical Board is urged to investigate. Fox Digital calls the report “scathing,” noting that the Committee demands a Department of Justice probe. Whaddaya bet it gets one?

The partial government shutdown grows increasingly unpopular. The New York Times—which calls it the “Trump shutdown” rather than the widely accepted “Schumer shutdown”—addresses the effects of the shutdown on anti-poverty programs (so-called):

For 42 million people who rely on SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, it means the loss of grocery assistance when food banks are already stretched thin. For the 6.7 million women and children who participate in the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program, or WIC, there is uncertainty about whether the Trump administration will find stopgap funds to keep the program going after this week.

Republican Senator Josh Hawley weighs in with “No American Should Go to Bed Hungry.” Today is the first day that air traffic controllers will work without a paycheck. In a possible turning point, the American Federation of Government Employees breaks with Democrats and calls on Congress to reopen the government. (But you said it was the “Trump shutdown,” NYT,) Politico calls this “the first major fraying” of the Democratic coalition. Politico:

There was no immediate surrender from party leaders, but the union’s plea forced many Democratic lawmakers into a defensive crouch. 

(But I thought ….)

The New York Post reacts to the Mamdani threat. The cover headline on the feisty tab this morning is: “One Week to Save New York.” USA TODAY reports that socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani’s lead over former Governor Andrew Cuomo has been cut in half. “Why Many New Yorkers Will Never Vote for Mamdani” lets “Never Mamdani” New Yorkers speak:

“If you know anything about Black history since the great migration, it was only by purchasing private property that we were able to gain economic empowerment in New York City … So, anybody against private property, in my view, is against most of black wealth,” Pastor Conrad Tillard of the Congregational Church of South Hempstead told The Post.

“You embrace New York for what it is. You don’t try to make New York into Cambridge, Massachusetts. That’s what these gentrifiers are doing,” he said of Mamdani.

“The bike lanes, the pedestrian plazas, congestion pricing. They’re trying to make this great metropolis into a college town.”

Many New York Jews are worried about how a Mayor Mamdani would affect them. But Mamdani does have a Jewish rabbi to mollify with “Jews for Mamdani” events. The rabbi is Rabbi Abby Stein, “a transgender rabbi who was once booted from a Biden White House pride party.” He was “chanting to end U.S. support for Israel” at the White House affair.

But it is possible that none of this will matter. In “Why Curtis Sliwa Is the Most Important Man in New York,” John Ketcham notes in City Journal that the Guardian Angels founder, who polls a paltry third, may hand the keys of the city to Mamdani. In the same publication, Nicole Gelinas writes that a Mamdani mayorship “won’t faze the rich,” but “everybody else will have to bear the brunt.” Isn’t that generally the case?

There is a major shake-up in the leadership of ICE, possibly the most controversial federal agency right now. Fox Digital reports:

A mass shakeup of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) leadership is underway amid growing friction inside the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over deportation tactics and priorities, according to four senior DHS officials.

The overhaul affects ICE field offices in at least eight cities and will replace many senior leaders with Border Patrol officials, marking an unprecedented power shift inside DHS and exposing sharp divisions over how far to go in ramping up deportations, the officials told Fox News.

The changes are being driven by competing camps inside DHS.

On one side are Border Czar Tom Homan and ICE Director Todd Lyons, who have advocated focusing on criminal aliens and those with final deportation orders.

On the other side are DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, senior adviser Corey Lewandowski and Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino, who have pushed for a broader and more aggressive approach, targeting anyone in the U.S. illegally to boost deportation numbers.

Hey, Genius. “Bill Gates Says Climate Change ‘Will Not Lead to Humanity’s Demise’” blares a New York Times headline. This represents an apparent shift for the Microsoft founder, who spent millions spreading climate alarmism. But I guess even Doomsday can go out of style.

Does Somebody Need a Cognitive Test? MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace says she can’t remember Democrats ever comparing President Trump to Hitler. New CBS boss Bari Weiss is looking to shake up “60 Minutes.” Find out who’s on the chopping block and who’s saved. There is one surprise.

President Trump’s weeklong Asia tour is in full swing. The New York Times has updates: The president meets with the New Japanese Prime Minister tomorrow. China and the U.S. agreed to “a framework for a possible trade pact ahead of a crucial face-to-face meeting between Mr. Trump and China’s top leader, Xi Jinping.” Early morning stock market rally based on the U.S.-China pact. More on the tentative trade deal.

Don’t Cry for Javier Milei. The Argentine President and Trump ally defied expectations. Cry instead for those who desire more socialist experiments in Latin America. Reuters reports:  

Argentine President Javier Milei’s party cruised to victory in midterm legislative elections as voters handed him a mandate to keep pushing through his radical overhaul of the economy despite widespread discontent with his deep austerity measures.

A relief to Milei, whose poll numbers had sagged in recent weeks, the results are also likely to please U.S. President Donald Trump, whose administration had faced criticism after providing Argentina with a hefty financial bailout.

Newsweek described the Argentine elections as “the other midterm election Trump is hoping to win.”

The New York Post cover this morning: “Mam-Child: Beware, NYC Is No Toy to Hand to Nepo Baby Like Zohran”

Early voting for the next Mayor has begun in New York, and socialist, anti-Israel candidate Zohran Mamdani is favored to win. Kyle Smith writes in the New York Post:  

Mamdani is not Vladimir Lenin. He’s something much more recognizable: our own Bowdoin Beto of the Boroughs. He’s a bluff, a hope, a whimsy, a rumor of a man who has no knowledge of anything, no experience running so much as a halal hot-dog stand and nothing to offer except vibes.

His stock answer to everything, when he even pretends to answer, is to smile charmingly and leave the details to the future.

Smith calls former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who is also running, a “grubby jerk,” but says he has had experience in governing. But he suggests that it doesn’t matter because Curtis Sliwa, third in the polls, makes a Cuomo win well-nigh impossible.  

An editorial in the Wall Street Journal is headlined “Democrats Fall Into the Mamdani Line.” The editors write:

The big question now is whether Chuck Schumer, the Senate Minority Leader, will endorse Mr. Mamdani. Doing so would betray his long career as a supporter of Israel and opponent of antisemitism. Only after months of criticism did Mr. Mamdani say he’d “discourage” the “globalize the intifada” chant of Hamas sympathizers.

But as the left rises in the Democratic Party, the pressure to go along for the socialist ride will become more intense.

Meanwhile, an opinion piece in the Washington Post urges voters to learn from leftist London’s sad decline. London has seen its economy crushed in the three terms of leftist Mayor Sadiq Khan.

National Review’s Becket Adams says that the media’s Nazi-symbol hunters have taken a holiday when it comes to the Nazi-tattooed Democratic candidate for Senate in Maine. Townhall’s Kurt Schlichter says that “The More Disturbing the Dirt, the Better Democrats Like Their Dirtbags.” Dirtbags is Mr. Schlichter’s word for candidates:

How about [candidate for state AG in Virginia) Jay Jones, the guy running for chief law-enforcement officer of the Commonwealth of Virginia, who wants to murder Republicans and watch their children die? Oh, and he might be indicted himself for scamming his way out of his community service sentence, which he received as a sweetheart deal after being caught driving 116 mph. He’s still competitive in his race – in fact, I bet he gets into office on the votes of people who stick “Hate Has No Home Here” signs in their front yards. I guess hate does have a home there.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem takes to the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal this morning to pen an important piece headlined “The Left Attacks the Rule of Law.” Noem tells how Antifa terrorists, gang members, and rioters are endangering federal officers in American cities.

IW alum Christine Rosen has an excellent piece in Commentary magazine headlined “The Danger of Trans.” Christine’s starting point is Nicholas Roske, who tried to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, but received a light sentence because he identified as transgender:

Unlike earlier activists who have sought to expand acceptance of minorities, trans activists have made little effort to persuade most Americans that their cause is either rational or just. They and their apologists have denied or ignored evidence of its active harms, particularly to children and women. And they have increasingly been demanding not simply equal treatment, but special treatment….

And it is not right that a man who sought to assassinate a Supreme Court justice for political reasons should get a pass from a judge in part to ease his path to a gender change. That is not tolerance; it is madness.

Helen Andrews struck a nerve in her Compact magazine piece headlined “The Great Feminization.” Now, Washington Post columnist Megan McArdle responds to Andrews in a piece headlined “Toxic Femininity and the Rise of Cancel Culture.”

“Over the past decade, we’ve talked a lot about toxic masculinity,” McArdle writes, saying that Andrews has “stepped in to fill the gap. She goes on:

Cancel culture, for example, does feel like female-style aggression — one might even call it “toxic femininity.” (My phrase, not hers.) Since that phrase will probably raise some hackles, let me explain: an all-out reputational attack that seems to come from everywhere at once and nowhere in particular. It’s a dynamic that will be familiar to anyone who has attended an all-girls camp….

Put a group of boys together, writes Benenson, and you’ll see structured play with elaborate rules and hierarchies of skill that they spend time negotiating, while the girls “shake their heads at what seems to them a bizarre emphasis on enforcing the rules at the expense of other more important concerns, such as someone’s feelings.” That’s a pretty good description of much of the Great Awokening: defenders of abstract norms such as free speech squaring off against critics who argued those norms permitted too much exclusion, hurt and offense.

Ms. Must mentioned Jen Psaki’s verbal attack on Second Lady Usha Vance last week. I know a lot of you do not subscribe to the London Telegraph, so I saved space for a longish piece from the Telegraph’s Kara Kennedy, who argues that Psaki’s jab “gave the game away: liberals think conservative women must be oppressed.” She writes:

What Psaki seemed not to know – or worse, not to care about – is that Usha Vance is not some docile appalachian Stepford wife cowering behind a wood-burning stove. She’s a Yale-educated lawyer who clerked for both Chief Justice John Roberts on the US Supreme Court and Brett Kavanaugh. She has three children, a formidable CV and a life that suggests she could probably argue most people in Washington DC into intellectual submission before breakfast with her beautiful family. She could certainly outwit the quivering, bumbling, pathetic excuse of a press secretary that was Jen Psaki.

To assume that Usha Vance has been brainwashed, bullied or captured by her husband’s politics is more than insulting, it’s revealing. It tells us that Psaki, and the many who nodded along to her “blink if you need help” joke, apparently cannot conceive of an intelligent, successful woman choosing conservatism freely. The liberal imagination has its limits, and one of them is the idea of female agency existing outside progressive orthodoxy.

This is what makes Psaki’s comment so much worse than a cheap laugh line. It’s a confession – not about Usha Vance, but about the patronising world-view of a certain class of feminist who cannot imagine disagreement without dysfunction. If you’re a conservative woman, they assume you must be brainwashed. If you’re married to a conservative man, you must be terrified.

Meanwhile, the increasingly sane Washington Post supports President Trump’s big, beautiful ballroom:

The White House cannot simply be a museum to the past. Like America, it must evolve with the times to maintain its greatness. Strong leaders reject calcification. In that way, Trump’s undertaking is a shot across the bow at NIMBYs everywhere.

What a remarkable day it was.

While Israel and the (civilized) world rejoiced that all the hostages still alive came home, President Trump delivered “a ringing endorsement of Israel and a US pledge for peace” before Israel’s Knesset. Here is what Trump said.

“The Hostages Return Home and the Lies Fall Apart” is the headline on Eli Lake’s The Free Press story.  “For the ‘ceasefire now’ crowd, the end of the fighting has been a bit of a drag.” Also at The Free Press: “Trump Deserves His Middle East Victory Lap,” by Matthew Continetti. “The president has triumphed in the Middle East by flipping the script in the most Trumpian way imaginable,” Continetti argues. Batya Ungar-Sargon writes that President Trump worked a Mideast miracle with his two-sided “America First” doctrine.

It was a great day for those who feared that the United States’s leadership on the international stage was a thing of the past. New York Post cover: “Leader of the Free World.” But a cartoon at the U.K. Telegraph captured the dilemma of Trump haters. Two Washingtonians bend over another lying supine on the ground. “I was wrong,” says one of the upright Washingtonians. “It DID kill him to say something nice about President Trump.”

Former Secretary of State under former President Joe Biden, Antony Blinken, chose to credit the peace plan to Biden and his administration. Biden himself, who is undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, was more gracious. The former president might even realize that most people would agree with U.K. Spectator writer Jonathan Sacerdoti (“Thank God for Donald Trump”) that “Biden would never have authorized ‘Midnight Hammer’,” the strike on Iran’s nuclear sites that was a huge step in reaching the peace agreement.

Biden boosters are trying to say that Biden had a plan that would have delivered peace some time ago, but meany Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thwarted it. Nobody better to debunk this than foreign policy guru Elliott Abrams in the spunky Free Beacon:

The truth is that the war ended because Israel and the United States exercised power—political, diplomatic, and military. In June, Israel bombed the Iranian nuclear sites and eliminated many of its top scientists and generals. President Trump followed days later with devastating strikes on the largest Iranian nuclear sites. Israel’s assault on Gaza City, Hamas’s last stronghold, began in late August and taught Hamas that holding hostages would not prevent such an assault. Then on Sept. 9, Israel struck at Hamas leaders in Doha, scaring the Qataris into begging for protection from Trump. He offered it—but it is no coincidence that this was the moment when the Qataris began to pressure Hamas to agree to a ceasefire and to release all the living hostages on day one. It was Qatari diplomatic pressure that brought Turkey to push Hamas for the same concessions….

The facts are plain to see for those not motivated by hatred of Netanyahu and of Trump, or at least by political rivalry with either of them. Israel devastated the military power of Hezbollah; Netanyahu and Trump devastated the military power of Iran; with Trump’s approval, Israel began to conquer Gaza City; and the Israeli attack in Doha created a diplomatic opening when the Qataris concluded that the war must end, and they were willing to give their own ultimatum to Hamas.

It wasn’t just the guns that were silent yesterday. Top Democrats have posted nothing about the end of the Gaza war, Townhall’s Matt Vespa observes. But does it matter? Who cares? Even CNN’s Christiane Amanpour was forced to apologize for her “atrocious” words on Hamas and the hostages. Here is what Amanpour said:

And I think for sure, people who start to talk to the hostages who have only just been released, will find that it will take a long, long time for them to recover physically, but also mentally. It’s been a terrible, terrible two years for them, because not only are they there — you know, they’re probably being treated better than the average Gazan, because they are the pawns and the chips that Hamas had. Now, Hamas has given up all of its leverage, by the way, by giving them all up. So that is a victory for the Israeli side.

Hate Marches On. Fraser Myers writes that the ceasefire in Gaza has done nothing to placate the rage of the anti-Israel bigots. Looking to what it apparently hoped would be the future, the National Teachers Association, the country’s largest and most influential teachers’ union, sent a map of the Middle East that erases Israel to its 3 million members.

Could the ceasefire affect New York’s mayoral race? U.K. Telegraph columnist David Christopher Kaufman suggests that the Israel-Hamas ceasefire could upset the election bid of current frontrunner, Zohran Mamdani. Kaufman suggests that the race, which has been dominated by genocide charges might return to more normal issues such as the economy and education. Mamdani has issued a rather unsatisfactory statement, but his wife is mourning a Hamas terrorist, and his party has condemned the ceasefire. Indicted New York AG Letitia James apparently has no doubts about Mamdani—she will headline a rally for him. Yoni Weinberg writes in The Tablet that the election of Mamdani would pose an interesting dilemma:

Faced with rising antisemitism and a radical would-be mayor, New York’s Jewish artists confront a once unthinkable question: Is it time to flee?

Heard about the partial government shutdown? Yeah, it’s still going on, but not getting as much attention as one might have expected. President Trump took a major pressure point off the table over the weekend, announcing he would shift money around to ensure military members don’t miss a paycheck on Wednesday.” GOP Senator Tom Emmer is turning the tables on his colleagues across the aisle. The Senate votes again tonight.

Can She Win Some? A new poll has the Virginia governor’s race neck and neck, with current AG Jason Miyares leading assassination fantasist Jay Jones. This isn’t some fly-by-night poll. It was done by Trafalgar, which has an excellent record for accuracy. Meanwhile, Democrats have spent a record amount of money to win the New Jersey gubernatorial race, but the race is tied. This race got all shook up when Rep. Mikie Sherrill told her opponent, Jack Ciattarelli, “you killed tens of thousands of people” because of his medical publishing business (the New York Times describes Sherrill’s words as “more nuanced”).

Columnist Liz Peek suggests that if Ciattarelli wins, it would give the GOP a blueprint for the midterms.

No Antifa Here. Indeed, not only are blue cities such as Chicago not crime-ridden hellholes, but you don’t have to worry about Antifa—it’s imaginary, according to some Democratic leaders. One Antifa denier is blue jeans heir and intellectual giant Rep. Dan Goldman.

Blue Blazes. There were anti-police riots the other day in blue Boston. Fox Digital has the story:

The president of a union that represents Boston police officers said that people who took part in a recent street takeover in the city were “hell-bent” on attacking law enforcement officials.

According to the Boston Police Department, over 100 people were involved in the takeover that involved street racing just after 2 a.m. on October 5. Officers found more than 100 people trying to attack police cruisers with fireworks, cones, poles and other items….

“What happened last weekend got out of control, it went through four different communities, ended up here at a couple of locations in Boston. And each location that they went to in this past incident, it appears as though they got more aggressive,” he said. “And when they ended up in the downtown South End section of Boston, that pretty much in our opinion looked premeditated.”

Before I Go. A Strange New Respect Award for Marjorie Taylor Greene. … Career Advice: New CBS boss Bari Weiss made the outrageous request that CBS employees tell her what they do in their jobs, but the Writers Guild of America, which represents many CBS employees, is urging them to resist and refuse to reply to Weiss’s memo. Ms. Must is betting on  The Disruptor.

Nope, he didn’t get it.

The Jerusalem Post’s historic cover—featuring a mosaic of President Trump’s distinctive silhouette composed of pictures of the hostages, with the banner headline “He’s Bringing Them Home”—is not the Nobel Peace Prize (more on that later).

But it’s a wonderful cover that celebrates the sense of epic gratitude and joy President Trump richly deserves. Israel says the ceasefire has begun as Israeli troops begin leaving parts of Gaza.

It made an impression that Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, born and bred and educated in the bosom of the Trump-hating beltway establishment, said on TV yesterday that Trump did what former President Joe Biden couldn’t do (and he wasn’t talking about walking up steps). Ignatius followed it up this morning with a column. An editorial in the Wall Street Journal is headlined “The Lessons of Trump’s Gaza Peace Deal.” The editors write:

The lessons of Mr. Trump’s method are also worth noting. First, sustained U.S. pressure was needed on Hamas, not Israel. The more Mr. Biden restrained Israel or blocked arms shipments, the less reason Hamas had to cut a deal. The terrorists expected Mr. Biden to force Israel to stop if they held out long enough.

Mr. Trump reversed Hamas’s calculus. Neither protests nor Iranian escalation would cause him to rein in Israel. Instead his threats to Hamas garnered a January hostage deal, after which he encouraged Israel to conquer Gaza. That was nearing completion when Hamas took this new deal.

Second, there was no substitute for Israeli military pressure….

Qatar seems to have been influenced by Israel’s much-denounced Sept. 9 strike on Hamas leaders in Doha, which endangered the ruling al-Thani family’s lucrative double game. That threat, along with U.S. conciliations that followed, coaxed Qatar to demand its Hamas client sign on the dotted line. The deal now opens the prospect of expanding the Abraham Accords between Israel and the Arab states.

Don’t miss Rich Lowry’s “The Gonzo Brilliance of Trump’s Gaza Diplomacy.” Here’s what to know about the deal. Okay, so what about that Nobel Peace Prize? U.S troops are arriving in Israel, but only to monitor ceasefire implementation, not to go into Gaza. Okay, so what about that Nobel Peace Prize? The Nobel Committee awarded it to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. Here’s a Wall Street Journal profile of Machado, who was briefly imprisoned by the Maduro regime.

Machado appears brave and worthy. She has been in hiding from the Maduro regime for more than a year. A Scott Johnson post at Powerline, headlined “Maria Corina Machado? Whodat???,” however, makes an interesting point:

In its story on this year’s recognition of Maria Corina Machado, Reuters invokes what “experts” have had to say (link in original): “Ahead of the announcement, experts on the award had said Trump would not win it as he is dismantling the international world order the Nobel committee cherishes.”

Churlish:

Former President Barack Obama on Thursday hailed the Gaza cease-fire deal brokered by President Trump – but failed to mention the commander in chief’s name. 

New York AG Letitia James has won the not coveted Nobody Is Above the Law Award. “Letitia James Is Indicted as Trump Takes Over Justice Department” is the New York Times headline. Even those of us who are all qualmy over what seems to us too close to a continuation of lawfare find it hard to sympathize with the smug Ms. James. The New York Times acknowledges that the case against James—real estate fraud—mirrors the case she brought against then-candidate Trump. Fox host and former Congressman Trey Gowdy observed that she will get a fairer trial than did President Trump. James has even lost CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

The partial federal government shutdown enters Day 10 as the Dems and GOP remain far apart. Tempers have flared (what does House Minority Leader Hakeen Jeffries call somebody who gets in a verbal set-to with him? Why “a malignant clown,” of course). The sticking point remains the extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies. Florida Senator Rick Scott addresses this in a Wall Street Journal op-ed:

Congressional Democrats have said the quiet part out loud: They want the federal government to keep cutting massive checks to insurance companies forever, using your tax dollars to shore up the sinking ship of ObamaCare. They’ve even shut down the government to demand it.

ObamaCare didn’t deliver on its promise of healthcare affordability and stability. …

To keep ObamaCare afloat, the federal government has propped it up with hundreds of billions of dollars in handouts directly to the insurance industry while failing to lower costs. These handouts lacked any accountability or eligibility requirements, opening them up to fraud, waste and mass confusion that lined the pockets of insurance companies and brokers, and failing Americans who need help. The whole system is misconceived—but Washington has done its best to hide that from the American people….

It is time to end this madness …

Political Round-up. The New York Post reports that the latest poll delivers bad news for New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani (but it’s not so bad that he’s not still sitting on a sizeable lead). … Politico says that Virginia gubernatorial candidates Winsome Earle-Sears and Abigail Spangberg “tussled over violent political rhetoric in only debate” last night. Translation: Spangberg repeatedly affirmed her support for assassination dreamer Jay Jones for Attorney General of Virginia. … In the heated New Jersey gubernatorial race, Republican Jack Ciattarelli says he will sue opponent Rep. Mikie Sherrill for claiming he killed New Jersey residents because of a medical textbook his company published.

Bad Weather. Sane environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg urges the U.S. to halt the World Bank’s foolish climate fantasies that hurt the world’s poor. Lomborg writes:

At Monday’s World Bank Annual Meeting, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent must demand that it explicitly scrap its wasteful climate targets — and redirect its attention to its true objective.

Remember, the Bank’s purpose has always been lifting poor people out of poverty.

But as the climate-change narrative took hold, poverty was implausibly linked to 100-year temperature changes….

Tackling poverty through nutrition, health and education can quickly help hundreds of millions of people live better lives at low cost.

Tackling poverty through climate action will do next to nothing  — yet climate policy costs easily run into the trillions, while harming the world’s poor by driving up costs of fertilizer and energy.

Parents Are No Longer Waiting for Bad Public Schools to Reform Themselves. American Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Robert Pondisco writes that recent developments in education are empowering parents:

Parents are no longer waiting for reforms to arrive or bear fruit. They are seizing new opportunities to direct their children’s education, aided by policies that allow dollars to follow students instead of funding systems. Education savings accounts (ESAs) are the leading edge of that change. …

The idea is simple but profound: Public funding for education no longer has to mean attendance at a single assigned school—or a school at all. A new report suggests this shift is not only real—it’s sticky. The University of Arkansas’s Department of Education Reform has released its second annual evaluation of the state’s Education Freedom Accounts….To my mind, however, the most telling data point is the program’s 91 percent retention rate into year three. That number suggests that families are not dabbling impulsively with alternatives to traditional public schools or leaving them in a fit of pique only to return. They’re making durable changes. If this trend holds and is replicated in other ESA states, it should set off alarm bells in public school districts nationwide. It suggests that once parents exercise choice, they rarely go back.

It’s not too late for regular public schools to improve and become competitive.

We’re Looking to Hire an Illegal Alien with an Extensive Arrest Record. Meet the expensive search firm behind the Des Moines public school system’s hiring of Ian Roberts as superintendent. Mister Roberts was once described as “a beloved” school official “with a criminal past.” See the above item.

We’ll be off Monday. It is Columbus Day. Yes, it is.

“BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS” is the way President Donald J. Trump concluded his message of a peace deal in the Middle East. Hostages could be released as soon as this weekend. CNN acknowledges that President Trump “willed” phase one of the negotiations over the finish line.

The New York Times is forced to admit that with this deal, President Trump is on the brink of a major diplomatic accomplishment. President Trump called the families of the hostages before issuing his statement. Then, the hostage families called him.

Congratulations to The Free Press for rounding up comments on what this means from people from whom we’d like to hear. TFP posed the question, “Is the war in Gaza Finally Over?“

Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren responded:

It may not be the end of the war—Hamas apparently still has its guns and is still embedded in Gaza—but neither is it merely the beginning of the end. It promises to be the end of the unspeakable suffering of the living hostages and the families of both the survivors and the dead. It suggests an end to the enervating and traumatic military service of tens of thousands of Israeli reservists. It holds out the hope for ending the agony and homelessness of millions of Gazans and for reviving a diplomatic horizon for the Palestinians. One end is certain—of America’s isolation and withdrawal from the Middle East. President Trump may yet achieve a lasting peace, but he has already restored the Pax Americana.

Matthew Continetti responded:

The Gaza deal is a triumph of coercive diplomacy. By pairing support for Israel with negotiations, President Trump leveraged IDF hard power to gain Hamas concessions. Just as he did in Iran, Trump used the credible threat of military force to achieve his goal. Americans are often tempted to separate force from peace talks, thinking that one must precede the other. Trump doesn’t make this mistake. For him, talk without action is meaningless. Talk with action gets results. And demonstrations of power are integral to the bargaining that culminates in a transaction.

Fox’s Brit Hume proclaimed the Israel-Hamas plan a “very big deal,” but admits he’ll believe it when the hostages are actually released. President Trump has not been coy about his desire for the Nobel Peace Prize, the same prize that was awarded aspirationally to Barack Obama less than a year after his first inauguration. A USA TODAY columnist quotes “peace experts and historians” saying President Trump doesn’t deserve the prize. The lofty lefty Daily Beast sneers. The BBC has a story headlined “Inside the Room Where the Nobel Peace Prize Is Decided—but Will Trump Get His Wish?“

Of course, this is much more a test for the Nobel committee than it is for Donald Trump, who, if the deal comes off and the hostages are released, already has won the biggest peace prize in recent history. President Trump reflected last night on Hannity on how the peace deal came about. Bravo Senator Fetterman!

Another Prize Nomination. A Pulitzer for the AP photographer who snapped the picture of Secretary of State Marco Rubio whispering into President Trump’s ear what appears to be news of a breakthrough in peace negotiations.

It appears that California gubernatorial favorite Katie Porter failed her anger management classes. When a reporter asked Porter what she would do to win California’s Trump voters (40%), Porter exploded:

The exchange grew tense as Porter pushed back on the question, arguing over whether she needs to court Trump voters, particularly if she’s running head-to-head against another Democrat.

“So you don’t need them to win,” Watts asked Porter.

“I feel like this is unnecessarily argumentative,” Porter said, prompting the reporter to point out that she had asked the same question to the other candidates in the race, and they answered it.

“I don’t want to keep doing this, I’m going to call it,” Porter said.

Politico says this fiasco plunged the Porter campaign into “disaster.” Porter’s particular beef was that the reporter asked “follow-up questions.” Porter is a special case. Her temper and propensity to fling about the f-word, especially at staff, are legendary. Porter’s ex-husband alleged that she dumped a pot of boiling potatoes on his head. But Porter’s most recent meltdown illustrates a deeper truth about California politics: Democrats aren’t asked follow-up questions. Former Vice President Kamala Harris is the poster girl boss for this. Like Porter, Harris is in dire need of some mouth soap.

USA TODAY’s Ingrid Jaques gives advice to Jay Jones (and Virginia Democrats) in a column headlined “Two Bullets to the Head’? Virginia Democrat’s Texts Should End His AG Campaign.” But Jones is visiting early voting sites, telling voters, “When we vote, we make our voices heard and shape Virginia’s future.” It will be interesting to learn what Virginia voices say about a man who embodies what we now call “assassination culture.” Nancy Pelosi says that “on balance” (!) Jones is the better candidate for VA AG.

Burning Man. The authorities have arrested a man accused of starting, on purpose, the Palisades fires that caused untold damage and cost the lives of 12 innocent people. The DOJ statement identifies the suspect as Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, a former Uber driver. Let’s hope he rots … in prison.

Wow. City Journal has three must-read stories this morning.

One is about Calla Walsh, the young American who chants “Death to America” and works for the enemies of the United States. Stu Smith writes:

Walsh, now 21, took an interest in politics in high school. Her campaigns for prominent figures like Boston city councilor Julia Mejia and Senator Ed Markey once earned her praise in Boston magazine as part of the “Gen Z” takeover of Boston politics. Four years later, Walsh’s latest campaign is in Lebanon, where she effectively serves as a mouthpiece for the Axis of Resistance. She now considers the label “terrorist” a “badge of honor.” Walsh did not respond to requests for comment for this article.

While Walsh’s story has its own unique aspects, she represents a new kind of foot soldier in a fifth-generation war playing out across an increasingly multipolar and digital world. Once a young talent and asset to the Democratic Party, she now agitates against American interests. What measures can the government take to prevent American citizens from becoming weapons of foreign regimes?

City Journal’s other two recommended stories are “Gavin Newsom Vetoes Bill Expanding Abstinence Programs for the Homeless” and “A Judge Just Upheld Religious Liberty in New York.”

But let’s also remember freedom of speech this morning. Don’t miss Federalist co-founder and CEO Sean Davis’s testimony yesterday for the Senate Commerce Committee on the Biden administration’s war on The Federalist. Gotta hand it to Davis—the man knows how to deliver a rousing conclusion:

Prove your commitment to the First Amendment is real by finally admitting to the censorship schemes many of you cheered, and working to make sure nothing like that ever happens again.

Predictably, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker is charging that it is President Trump’s “dementia” that makes him send the National Guard and ICE to Chicago. Can’t help thinking it’s the wrong day for that accusation. Ditto Karl Rove, whose otherwise fine column this morning is headlined “Trump’s Problem Is Lack of Focus.” He maybe should have used that column for another week.

Meanwhile, CNN’s Harry Enten says President Trump “is who the voters thought he would be,” an editorial in the Wall Street Journal fat-shames some gal named “Fannie Mae,” and Hugh Hewitt tells Chuck Schumer why he would be wise to end the Schumer Shutdown. Something about the 2024 election.