Big Surprises
Week of October 2-8, 2026
Published in conjunction with The Nation magazine, TRACKING THE CRISIS is a weekly round-up from The Democracy Collaborative tracking the administrative, legislative, and other actions of the Trump Administration as well as the many forms of legal and movement response from across a broad range of social, political, and economic actors. TDC is providing this service for collective informational purposes, as a tool for understanding the times during a period of disorientingly rapid flux and change in the U.S. political economy. This round-up is produced by humans, not by Artificial Intelligence. TDC should not be understood as endorsing or otherwise any of the specific content of the information round-up.
TRUMP TRACKER: Administration actions
‘Midterm Surprise’: Trump, Pentagon telegraph major attack on Iran ahead of midterms as Iran escalates attacks in Hormuz. As the U.S. midterm elections draw closer, political and economic pressure to end the war in Iran have heightened as the Trump Administration considers its next move, which from all indications will entail an escalation of military aggression against Iran. On Thursday, October 1, Trump once again floated the possibility of resuming strikes on Iran after the midterm elections, telling TIME Magazine that the United States has replenished its stocks of advanced weapons, and that “annihilating” Iran would actually “bring peace to the world.”
On Friday, October 2, top Trump Administration officials met with the president at Camp David in a closed meeting, reportedly with JD Vance chairing and with the wars in both Iran and Yemen on the agenda. Reporters noted that the last time such a meeting had taken place was just before the twelve-day war on Iran launched in July 2025. Other attendees reportedly included Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, Scott Bessent, Steve Witkoff, CIA director John Ratcliffe, and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine. While details remain secret, officials told Axios that “things were decided, or at least deeply discussed.” Speaking to reporters briefly on Friday, Trump said "If I told you, you would have a major story… but you will see. It is working out very well.”
The meeting came at the same time as the Pentagon prepared for a massive buildup of troops in the Middle East, dispatching up to 10,000 additional U.S. troops aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group and Makin Island amphibious unit, bringing the total deployment to three aircraft carriers and two amphibious units. The Hormuz Letter also reported on Saturday that the U.S. military was “flooding” Israel with increasing numbers of C-17 military transport planes as more equipment and personnel were being moved to the region, possibly anticipating retaliatory attacks from Iran against Israel and Jordan.
More U.S. military flights over Iranian territory were also sighted, with Iran reportedly firing a Sayyad 3 surface-to-air missile from Qeshm Island, shooting down an unknown target on Saturday. Analysts say the U.S. is attempting to “normalize” military flights over Iran in preparation for another wave of attacks. On Sunday, reports emerged that a U.S. Navy MH-60 attack helicopter had crashed into the Red Sea off Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, sending an emergency 7700 code before its altitude dropped to zero. CENTCOM denied that a crash had taken place.
Meanwhile, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ghalibaf said on Sunday that “while Americans say one thing in the media, they have recently put forward proposals through intermediaries,” indicating that the United States was still seeking a deal. Open-source intelligence accounts on social media reported that an unidentified C-130 aircraft was spotted landing at Mehrabad Airport on Sunday with its transponder turned off, fueling speculation that unfrozen Iranian funds were being conveyed to Tehran from Turkey. Trump dismissed reports that the United States had offered to unfreeze Iranian funds and give sanctions relief, sending oil prices rising after hopes of a deal faded.
Saying “the era of stalling for time and dictating unilateral demands is over,” Ghalibaf added that the proposals from the U.S. side remained similar to their previous ones, and that Tehran was not interested in entertaining any further overtures, announcing that “the Strait of Hormuz will not open until our seven conditions are met,” and that Iran was prepared to meet the United States and Israel with “new surprises” should further aggression be taken.
On Monday, October 5, Trump spoke about the war at a GOP campaign rally in Grand Island, Nebraska, where he called high gas prices a “small price to pay” for the campaign against Iran. In meandering remarks, he also said, “They [Iran] can take out a city… Let them take out Los Angeles, let them take out San Diego. That’s – this is a very small price to pay, and it’s going to be over with very soon.”
The remarks about the two U.S. cities, which have a combined metro area population of over 21.6 million people, horrified locals and national observers. California governor Gavin Newsom called the remarks “deranged and dangerous,” while Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass commented to Anderson Cooper that “the role of the president is to protect and defend the American people… He went to war with Iran, and he basically said it’s OK, that it’s a small price to pay to attack 3.8 million people in the nation’s largest city.”
The White House attempted to clarify the remarks, saying that Trump had been referring to what could happen should Iran be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon; but not before several Internet memes were circulated suggesting that Mar-A-Lago would be a geographically easier target to reach from Iran.
Meanwhile, reports emerged that Israel was preparing for renewed strikes on Iran without U.S. involvement, as well as deepening the IDF’s campaign in southern Lebanon, increasing the likelihood that Israel will escalate its military operations ahead of the October 27 elections, where Netanyahu’s political career – and possible future jail time – are on the line.
Also on Monday, Iran responded to Trump’s threats and the buildup of U.S. military activity in the Persian Gulf, with the IRGC’s Major General Ali Abdollahi warning that any U.S. actions against Iran “before or after the elections, regardless of the outcome” taken “independently or at the instigation of Israel,” would be met with an immediate, powerful, and painful strike on U.S. interests “without any restrictions,” and that “the fire will consume everyone.” He also warned the IAEA against using claims about Iran’s nuclear program to instigate a renewed war, on the threat of an “unrestricted” Iranian response.
Iran continued to prepare for any military possibility; Reuters released photos on Monday of the thousands of Iranian women being trained for ground combat, including AK-47 and zipline training. Meanwhile, an updated Congressional Research Service report on Monday revealed that 81 U.S. military aircraft have been destroyed by Iranian forces, up from 42 as previously reported, at an estimated loss of $3.3 billion. Also this week, whistleblowers within the U.S. Army came forward to describe their situation in a March attack on a Kuwait airbase that killed 6 U.S. servicemembers, saying that commanding officers failed to provide them the necessary protections, ordering them out of a safe bunker zone into an unprotected trailer with no alert sirens or air defenses nearby. Servicemembers wounded in the attack also reported being denied traumatic care for their injuries and were instead ordered to seek their own outpatient treatment; several are still waiting for injury benefits.
Trump also touted reports this week that Iran’s leverage over the Strait of Hormuz has waned as Bessent announced that economic pressure via ‘Operation Economic Outcast’ was working to break Iran, based on industry data released this week that claimed oil exports from the Persian Gulf were back up to 80% of pre-war levels. However, supplies of refined products, especially diesel, remain constrained due to the damage done to refinery capacity in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. On Tuesday, Venezuela’s second-largest refinery at Cardon caught fire due to a gas line breach, causing a large explosion and shutting down the facility.
This week, the G7 announced that it would release another 100 million barrels of crude oil and diesel from emergency reserves, with the IEA coordinating the release over the next 4 months, easing Brent crude prices back down to $100 per barrel on Monday. The Trump Administration also announced the planned release of an additional 40 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), which as of Monday sat at 283 million barrels, about two weeks’ supply at U.S. consumption rates.
On Tuesday at an industry conference of oil executives in London, Aramco CEO Amin Nasser warned that global reserve stocks were getting “scarily thin.” Out of 10 billion barrels available in commercial and government stockpiles when the war began, only 6 billion barrels remain, he said, the vast majority of which are not easily accessible due to structural concerns with storage facilities like the salt caverns in Louisiana where the SPR is stored. The CEO of commodities firm Vitol Russell Hardy said that the world is now relying on surreptitious exports out of the Strait “to keep things in balance as we go through winter, because there aren’t any more inventories to drain in the West.”
Natural gas supplies are also dangerously depleted, as Petronas CEO Tengku Muhammad Taufik warned that a “bad winter” may result in a “bloodbath” in the gas market if the situation in the Gulf is not resolved. On Monday, Massachusetts governor Maura Healey declared a state of emergency ahead of the winter months due to anticipated gas and heating oil costs, waiving charges on gas bills and announcing a $150 million relief program for residents.
At the same time, Iran also escalated its attacks on tankers crossing the Strait of Hormuz, with twelve confirmed attacks on ships this week, the highest rate since the start of the war. On Monday, UKMTO reported that Iran struck a U.S. Navy-escorted vessel, causing a fire in the engine room; and on Tuesday, Iran launched at least three of its anti-ship cruise missiles directly at U.S. military-escorted vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, with explosions heard off the southern coast of Iran.
On Thursday, Iran launched an attack on an oil tanker outside of the Strait for the first time, striking the Antigua and Barbuda-flagged vessel Acers off the north coast of Qatar, deep inside the Gulf of Oman. The IRGC also declared that they are preparing to close the Omani route through the Strait, through which the Navy has been escorting tankers. So far, there has been no U.S. military response to the escalation, although Trump said multiple times this week to expect “big surprises.”
On Wednesday, the Atlantic reported that the White House has now directed the Pentagon to develop new strike options against Iran ahead of the midterm elections, with strikes possibly targeting energy infrastructure on or before November 3. Axios reported Thursday that the Pentagon has ordered CENTCOM this week to wrap up preparations for renewed military operations against Iran. Officials close to the Administration describe it as Trump’s desire to demonstrate U.S. power and declare a “win” right before the election, as he believes such a strike will bring down oil prices for voters before they cast a ballot. Reports note that since the start of the war, oil prices have only risen in the wake of renewed kinetic strikes, and on Thursday morning, Brent crude surged 4.4% from the day before, settling at just over $104 per barrel due to the news.
Trump took to Truth Social midday Thursday to reassure the market, writing that the United States “will not be attacking Iran prior to the midterm elections.” However, the news failed to soothe the market; Brent crude rose to $105.92 per barrel, with benchmark diesel futures jumping more than 8% in European markets. Oil prices remain elevated around 3% over Wednesday as of this writing, on the dual threat of increasing Iranian strikes in the Strait of Hormuz and the approach of Hurricane Isaias, which is expected to grow to a Category 3 storm before making landfall over Gulf Coast refineries by Friday or early Saturday.
Ansar Allah makes major advances against Saudi Arabia as new Mecca Defense Pact is activated for the first time. Mohammed bin Salman, ruling monarch of Saudi Arabia, has found himself in a bind in Saudi Arabia’s renewed war against Ansar Allah (aka ‘the Houthis’) as the group struck deeper into Saudi Arabia itself, striking several Aramco facilities, completing a second attack on the Saudis’ East-West oil pipeline and striking two airports, including the main Saudi airport in Riyadh this week, killing three people.
On Saturday, October 3, Ansar Allah struck a major oil refinery in Riyadh, the first successful ballistic missile attack in four years, sending a black plume of smoke into the sky from the site. Ansar Allah also claimed attacks on an Aramco oil field and processing hub at Khurais in eastern Saudi Arabia, near its border with Bahrain and Qatar – Saudi Arabia’s second-largest oil field and one of the largest crude oil processing facilities in the world, with a capacity for processing 1.5 million barrels of oil per day.
The next day, the Saudi-backed Yemeni government announced a major new offensive against Ansar Allah with the backing of Saudi Arabia, who claimed the right to “defend itself” against Houthi attacks. Nearly 100,000 Yemeni troops were mobilized for the offensive to recapture all territory captured by Ansar Allah including Sanaa, Yemen’s capital that has been under Houthi control for several years; the troops were to be commanded by Saudi officers and backed by Saudi air support, according to Rashad al-Alimi, president of the Saudi-backed government in Yemen.
As the new offensive threatened to pull the United States deeper into a widening regional conflict and a new front in the war against Iran, the U.S. declined to officially join the Saudi-led coalition against Ansar Allah, with a Trump Administration official saying that the United States is “not going to take kinetic action for now,” although that may change if the coalition runs into “problems.”
On Sunday, October 4, Houthi forces once again attacked Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline, striking Pumping Station No. 2 just outside of the capital of Riyadh. A smoke plume 50km long could be seen from space, and NASA’s VIIRS satellite data detected fires burning at 387 degrees Kelvin, the maximum temperature the satellites can register.
On Monday, the Saudi-backed Yemeni government claimed it launched over 1,100 attacks against Ansar Allah forces who were advancing through southwest Yemen, had just taken the government-held city of Turbah and began laying siege to Taizz, Yemen’s third-largest city. The government also claimed it had retaken the city of Mocha and “regained control” over the Bab el-Mandab Strait with the help of 100 Saudi fighter planes, driving Houthi forces to retreat across the Red Sea. In videos released on social media, Saudi-backed forces in armored cars were seen running over Houthi fighters who had their hands up in a gesture of surrender, which Saudi-aligned commentators likened to the video game Grand Theft Auto.
Ansar Allah denied the government’s claims, saying that Mocha and the Bab el-Mandab Strait were still both under Houthi control. On Monday evening, Ansar Allah attacked two airports in the south of Saudi Arabia at Jazan and Najran, two provinces that were granted to Saudi Arabia by British colonialists after the Saudi-Yemeni war of 1934. Ansar Allah also announced an air blockade of Saudi Arabia, saying that Saudi airspace “will become a theater for operations of our armed forces.”
On Tuesday, an emergency meeting between Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey took place in Riyadh, after which it was announced that the newly formed Mecca Defense Pact, a mutual defense agreement modeled on NATO, had been officially activated. Pakistan and Turkey confirmed that troops from their respective countries were being deployed to provide “practical measures” to defend Saudi Arabia from attacks.
Also on Tuesday, Mohammed bin Salman met with Syrian president Ahmad al-Sharaa in Riyadh, officially to discuss developments in the region, bilateral relations and “promising opportunities for developing these relations in various fields.” Israeli media reported that Syria was planning to join the Saudi-led coalition against Ansar Allah in Yemen, but Syrian officials denied the claims; while asserting that it “stands with” Saudi Arabia, Damascus said that its official policy remains aimed at “stability, peace and cooperation” in the region.
Analysts note that Saudi Arabia is especially vulnerable as the Iran conflict spills over to engulf the wider Middle East, as its long-standing dependence on U.S. security guarantees it thought it had bought with trillions in U.S. investments has proven unreliable and, in its gravest strategic challenge since 1990, has found out it cannot defend itself on its own against Ansar Allah’s advances after 14 years of a U.S.-backed blockade.
As Pakistani troops arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, Ansar Allah launched its boldest attack yet on Saudi Arabian territory, as Ansar Allah military spokesman Yahya Saree claimed strikes on military facilities and airports in Abha, Khamis Mushait, Najran and Asir. Saree also claimed that ballistic missiles and drones had targeted King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, prompting mass flight cancellations. The New York Times verified two videos circulating on social media that showed smoke plumes rising above the Riyadh airport, confirming the strikes.
On Thursday, more explosions were heard around Riyadh as Ansar Allah released a barrage of missiles and drones at the Saudi capital for the third day in a row, targeting the airport again as well as the Saudi Royal Air Force’s King Khalid air base. India and Qatar condemned the attacks as U.S. personnel in the capital were warned to shelter in place, with U.S. officials warning that the conflict has the potential to escalate dramatically. AP reports that no flights have taken off from King Khalid International after explosions were heard at the airport Thursday morning.
Ansar Allah leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi issued a statement Thursday reprimanding Qatar for taking Saudi Arabia’s side in the conflict, stating: “We remind you of facts you lived through yourselves. After you joined the aggression against our country at its outset, the Saudis showed you no gratitude and launched a major campaign against you. The Saudi regime worked to isolate Qatar completely, through political and economic boycott and military intimidation, and incited others against it…️ We offer Qatar brotherly advice to reconsider its calculations. Our people are the wronged party and are defending their freedom.”
‘Big Surprises’: Controversies and speculation rage around federal intervention in elections as ICE is found to have accessed millions of voter records. On Tuesday, October 7, Trump stood with Project 2025 author Russell Vought at a campaign rally in Maryland as he told the crowd of MAGA faithful that “we have big surprises coming up in a few weeks.” He referenced the director of the Office of Management and Budget as he said “right, Russ?” and added, gesturing to Vought: "He’s gonna be one of the very important people in the history of our country in my opinion, he’s got some great things happening."
Trump’s comments have sparked a wave of alarmed speculation about what he may have planned for the upcoming midterm elections, now just 27 days away. After renewing his conspiratorial doubts about the 2020 election earlier this year with a raid on election offices in Georgia, the Trump Administration and its allies have stepped up their chaotic ‘flood the zone’ tactic of rumor-mongering, accusations of foreign interference, and signaling potential federal interference in the election, growing more desperate by the day as polling data shows the most dismal prospects for Republicans this century and a growing potential for Democrats to capture both houses of Congress in November.
Last week, Trump said in an interview with TIME magazine that he would not rule out invoking the Insurrection Act or a national emergency around the election, suggesting cryptically that “we’ll see how it plays out in court.” Analysts note that his comments resemble a suggestion made last month by far-right conspiracist and Trump’s childhood friend Peter Ticktin that Trump is “going to have to declare martial law… that’s the only thing that can happen.” Last week, Ticktin again made the suggestion on right-wing podcaster Joe Oltmann’s show, saying: “He’s got nothing to lose, the nation has nothing to lose, it’s better if we’re going to have a civil war of any sort that it would be martial law with our side in control of the armaments.”
Ticktin is the attorney for Tina Peters, a Colorado election clerk that was convicted of four felonies and three misdemeanors for tampering with state election equipment in a bid to prove Trump was cheated out of a win in the 2020 election. She was sentenced to nine years in prison before her sentence was commuted by Governor Jared Polis earlier this year. Peters reportedly met with Trump at the White House earlier this week, after which Ticktin claimed that she suggested to Trump a plan to seize ballots across the country and do a hand recount after this November’s elections. Election officials and experts noted to the Guardian that the post-election ‘counting window’ could be a critically vulnerable time during which Trump and his allies could “amplify unfounded allegations” in order to challenge results that don’t go their way.
According to election experts, such a declaration would have little legal or practical impact in giving Trump control over elections, as he has sought in his second term, as “no federal statute – of all those 50 statutes that deal with national emergencies, none prescribe any powers to the president over elections,” according to expert Rick Hasen. Nevertheless, Max Flugrath of Fair Fight Action notes that the real concern is the “chaos it could cause – confusing voters, deterring people from the polls, and laying groundwork to dispute the results,” recalling the doubt deliberately sowed over the 2020 election that eventually led to the January 6th MAGA insurrection.
Also last week, the Justice Department announced that it would be deploying over 1,000 election monitors across the country, in what Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon called “the biggest DOJ election observer effort in history.” This week, The Atlantic reported on rumblings within the FBI that director Kash Patel is “desperate” to deliver indictments and headlines that would please Trump, and field agents have sought counsel from legal experts as to how to respond to potential FBI directives that may be handed down to investigate the midterm elections.
On Wednesday, the NAACP filed suit against Dhillon and the DOJ to release documents related to the deployment of monitors, after the Justice Department failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request in September. One day earlier, the U.S. officially rejected a bid from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to provide routine independent election monitoring, the first time the OSCE has been blocked from observing U.S. elections in over two decades.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth also signed an order last week directing the military to “defend” the U.S. midterm elections from “foreign interference.” The accusations of foreign interference in U.S. elections come at a time when the Trump Administration faces accusations this week that the United States was involved in interfering in Brazil’s elections, where last Sunday saw Flavio Bolsonaro, son of convicted coup plotter Jair Bolsonaro, eke out a narrow plurality over Workers Party incumbent Lula da Silva. Brazil’s federal police are now officially investigating the U.S. intervention in Sunday’s election on evidence provided by the nation’s Attorney General’s office.
This week, election watchdog Democracy Forward received a trove of documents from a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit revealing that ICE had obtained over 50 million voter records in a sweeping “hunt” for election fraud, the clearest evidence yet that the Department of Homeland Security agency had acted under a “national initiative” to involve itself in election procedures that are, by Constitutional mandate, the jurisdiction of state governments. ICE had also attempted to share the voter data with surveillance tech giant Palantir, the company of noted far-right billionaire Peter Thiel, in an effort to identify targets to round up for deportation.
The documents also revealed that ICE had probed hundreds of nonprofit voter registration groups over the past year, and had considered sending agents undercover into these organizations to “substantiate recruitment methods and activities related to illegal alien voter registration” and “initiate prosecutions and dismantle illicit facilitation networks.” Central to these efforts, Democracy Docket reports, is Trump ally Heather Honey, a 2020 election denier that now serves as a senior adviser to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
As the midterms draw closer and the prospects for the GOP and MAGA coalition become more dire, Trump has deployed a panoply of tactics to try to swing the elections his way, from pushing red states toward gerrymandering to secure more GOP seats, to using executive power to force the USPS to refuse to deliver mail ballots, to offering all U.S. voters a check for $5,000 each to secure a Republican victory. This week, Trump began mailing $500 checks to Americans, claiming they were overcharged by the Affordable Care Act, and on October 2 began giving out $100 checks to seniors from funds that were diverted from the Congress-appropriated Medicare Improvement Fund. Trump this week also tied the prospect of disaster relief aid to the election results, coupling endorsements with funding announcements and causing concern as Hurricane Isaias barrels toward the Gulf Coast.
This week, Trump hit the road to campaign for his favored GOP candidates in key contested races, such as the Senate race in Texas between Trump ally Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico. He has also spent over $20 million in public funds committed to DHS to flood airwaves in battleground states with ads for the Trump agenda, on top of an over $1 billion war chest amassed by the GOP as key Senate races threaten unprecedented upsets by Democrats in traditionally deep-red states.
Trump enters the midterm election with an approval rating of 30-32%, the lowest rating of any president going into the midterms in modern history, and panicking GOP observers fear that no amount of meddling can save the Trump coalition from a crushing defeat in the election. Nevertheless, observers warn that the dimming prospects could spark even more desperate measures in the weeks leading up to November 3, as outgoing Republican Senator Thom Tillis offered a stark warning that defeat could potentially lead to “another January 6th” type insurrection. This week, a bipartisan effort from Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D) and Don Bacon (R) urged Congress to accept the election results, no matter what the outcome.
Still, the notorious “October Surprise” tradition still looms over the coming election as Democratic Party operatives and state election officials brace themselves and prepare for any eventuality; Newsweek reported this week on five possibilities that Trump could drop as an “October Surprise.” As for the GOP, the desperation is growing, as American Conservative commentator Luke Nicastro observes that a Democratic victory in November could put the Trump Administration on a path to “impeachment and the Hague.”
MOVEMENT TRACKER
Austerity protests bloom across Europe and South America. Protests against government austerity measures and against far-right political candidates continue to spring up internationally, as mass actions across Europe and South America grabbed headlines in recent days.
In France, hundreds of thousands took to the streets on Tuesday in the largest yet in a series of protests around conditions within the country’s school system, the day after a 15-year-old protester’s hand was blown off when he picked up a stun grenade fired by police during a clash between officers and a group of largely high school student protesters in the northern town of Lens. The protest movement began in mid September, when high schoolers in the Paris suburb of Creteil began blockading the entrances to their schools in opposition to staff shortages, overcrowded classrooms, and dilapidated facilities.
More than 6,000 have been arrested in the aggressive police response to the protests, with 85% of those arrested reportedly being under 18. Protests remain ongoing, as large crowds filled streets across the country again on Thursday, with largely peaceful gatherings being met with riot police as the evening wore on.
In Spain, news broke that Maria del Carmen Abascal, the 87-year-old woman who became a protest symbol after being evicted from her home of 71 years last month, died this week, just as unionists announced a nationwide general strike over housing issues ahead of the upcoming snap election in November. Abascal, known across Spain as Maricarmen, had been hospitalized since she was removed from her home on a stretcher during the eviction, which came after an international investment fund bought her building and raised her rent by more than 200 percent in order to push out a long-term tenant in favor of more profitable tourist lodgings.
Tens of thousands took to Madrid’s streets in response to her eviction in protests organized by the Madrid Tenants’ Union, protests which then spread to several other cities across the country as demonstrators were met with violent pushback from riot police. On Tuesday, Spain’s government approved a series of emergency measures to begin addressing the housing crisis, including extended eviction protections, prohibition on speculative real estate purchases, new taxes on seasonal rentals, and tax breaks for tenants and owners who pay on time.
In Belgium, more than 100 protesters were detained in the city of Liege this week at a protest against rising education costs echoing the student movement in neighboring France. Student protests have been a growing theme across Europe in recent weeks, with Italy, Greece, Ireland, Austria, and Germany all seeing their own disruptions over education funding and access. These protests come as the continent is gripped with spiraling cost of living crises and skyrocketing energy costs.
In South America, Chile has seen its own student movement grow, as riot police confronted demonstrators in Santiago on Thursday during protests against expected cuts to education funding in the country’s proposed 2027 budget. The largely peaceful march, which had been previously authorized by authorities, was met with riot control equipment including tear gas and water cannons. The students affected by the crackdown have called for a nationwide mobilization supported by social organizations including the United Workers’ Central of Chile (CUT), the Feminist Coordinating Committee 8M and the Teachers’ Association of Chile.
Brazil has seen its own student mobilizations, but of a more expressly electoral bent, as demonstrators have taken to the streets in support of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in his race against Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, son of convicted former president Jair Bolsonaro. Thousands took to the streets of Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday with the rallying cry of “no to the father, no to the son,” just days after Bolsonaro earned the most votes in the first round of Brazil’s presidential race, outstripping next closest opponent Lula by 2%. Protesters expressed fears of “dictatorship” after a series of far-right wins in the country’s preliminary elections; a run-off between Lula and Bolsonaro will take place on October 25th.
Vermont residents carry out week of action against ICE facility amidst ongoing protests. Activists in the small town of Williston, Vermont held a week of action against ICE’s National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center (NCATC) this week, part of more than a year of ongoing protests against the facility in the 10,000-resident Burlington suburb. On Tuesday, a group of around 40 activists reportedly took action by building large, brightly-painted planter boxes out of plywood and cinder blocks affixed with construction adhesive across the primary road accessing the facility. Protesters reportedly danced, sang, and drew on the road with sidewalk chalk while plants were put in the boxes, as law enforcement observed but largely did not interfere.
Prior to this week, activists have engaged in a series of sit-in protests against the facility since early this year, along with other forms of disruption such as setting off car alarms in the area and vandalizing signs in the parking lot. For most of that time, local Vermont prosecutors have largely declined to pursue charges against those arrested at these protests; however, in late September, Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark introduced surprise misdemeanor charges against 13 area residents for alleged participation in a July sit-in outside the facility. Last week, federal prosecutors brought charges related to the protests against 5 locals, the oldest of whom is aged 80 years, for purported disruption of the NCATC’s operations. Activists described the charges as a failed attempt to dissuade protest in advance of this week’s planned actions, with one telling the Boston Globe, “I think that this attempt at repression has backfired and just encouraged more people to stand up”; the claim appears to be backed by popular sentiment, as recent polling indicates that the majority of Vermonters disapprove of ICE enforcement actions.
Fight breaks out at Memphis City Council amidst data center protests. A city council meeting in Memphis erupted into chaos this week after a hotly contested data center moratorium vote was delayed for a second time. More than 100 Memphis residents reportedly packed the meeting hall, with many holding signs protesting data centers, as the council debated a proposal that would place a 12-month ban on new data center development. When city councilman JB Smiley Jr. asked community members ahead of the vote to stand if they supported the moratorium, nearly all of those present got out of their seats; a council vote to instead postpone the decision until Oct. 20th prompted massive outcry immediately, with some residents heard shouting “sell outs” at the council. Tensions rose to the point that a fistfight broke out between two individuals in the lobby, and Council Chairwoman Jana Swearengen Washington eventually called a recess of the meeting while police cleared the chamber.
Some protesters at the meeting called out Elon Musk specifically, harkening to the two SpaceXAI data centers in Memphis’s Boxtown and Whitehaven neighborhoods. Councilwoman Jerri Green, the Democratic nominee for Tennessee governor, elicited cheers from the audience when she said in the meeting, “That is the whole point of the moratorium – is for us to take a pause to get the community input, which was overlooked completely by Elon Musk and xAI when they came in.” The SpaceXAI facilities have been an epicenter of national data center backlash, as Memphis residents have complained of noise pollution, increased utility costs, and air pollution since construction. In April, the NAACP filed a lawsuit in conjunction with the Southern Environmental Law Center and Earthjustice alleging that the Memphis SpaceXAI facilities violated the federal Clean Air Act with their use of natural gas-burning turbines to power the centers; the suit remains ongoing.
Cornell gang rape case sparks nationwide “I am Jane Doe” movement protesting sexual violence. Thousands of students and faculty attended protests at Cornell University this week as the school has become the focus of nationwide outrage related to an alleged 2024 gang rape at a Cornell fraternity, after the victim filed a civil suit in September claiming her alleged attackers had faced insufficient consequence from the university despite incriminating text messages relating to the horrific assault. Protesters held signs reading “We Are Jane Doe” (the pseudonym for the victim in the case) and “Ban the Frats,” and vandals at one point broke a window in one of the campus’s main halls and graffitied the phrases “Smash the Patriarchy” and “At Cornell rapists are protected protesters are expelled” on the walls.
In a statement to the student news outlet The Cornell Daily Sun, student organizers wrote that they were calling for the abolition of the Interfraternity Council system on campus and the “expulsion/revocation of degrees for all Chi Phi members involved in the rape.” A 2025 survey found that 35% of undergraduate women report experiencing some form of sexual assault during their time at Cornell. National attention on the case exploded into a movement after calls from online conservative commentators to identify the victim in the case were met with a flood of posts claiming “I am Jane Doe” in solidarity. Over 150 cities reportedly saw local protests in solidarity on Thursday under the banner “Stop Sexual Violence: from the Frat House to the White House,” as many have described the moment as echoing the “Me Too” movement of the late 2010s.