UNDERNEWS

The safest and most hazardous cities

2026-10-19T15:50:19.253-04:00

Wallet Hub - To determine where Americans can feel most protected from life’s hazards, including nonphysical forms of danger, WalletHub compared more than 180 U.S. cities across 41 key metrics. The data set covers factors ranging from traffic fatalities and assaults per capita to the unemployment rate and the percentage of the population that is uninsured.

Safest Cities in America		Least Safe Cities in America
1. Juneau, AK		173. St. Louis, MO
2. Warwick, RI		174. Cleveland, OH
3. Overland Park, KS		175. Houston, TX
4. Burlington, VT		176. Jacksonville, FL
5. South Burlington, VT		177. Detroit, MI
6. Virginia Beach, VA		178. Philadelphia, PA
7. Cedar Rapids, IA		179. Memphis, TN
8. Casper, WY		180. Baltimore, MD
9. Boise, ID		181. Baton Rouge, LA
10. Yonkers, NY		182. New Orleans, LA

Safest vs. Least Safe

Pembroke Pines, Florida, has the fewest aggravated assault incidents (per 100,000 residents), which is 51.7 times fewer than in Memphis, Tennessee, the city with the most.
Port St. Lucie, Florida, has the fewest thefts (per 1,000 residents), which is 9.2 times fewer than in Dover, Delaware, the city with the most.
New York City, has the most law-enforcement employees (per 100,000 residents), which is 4.9 times more than in Irvine, California, the city with the fewest.
Plano, Texas, has among the fewest pedestrian fatalities (per 100,000 residents), which is 25.4 times fewer than in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the city with the most.

To read the full report and your city’s rank

Ukraine

2026-10-19T15:45:00.378-04:00

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Donald Trump of trying to pressure Kyiv into surrendering to Russia, escalating a week-long row with the US president. Zelenskyy also offered a new proposal to accede to Trump’s request to stop targeting Russian refineries in exchange for deliveries of more Patriot air-defense missiles. Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin proposed a meeting with Trump and China’s Xi Jinping next month to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Donald Trump

2026-10-19T15:25:37.296-04:00

Alternet - One of the many ways that President Donald Trump has been able to dodge paying his taxes is by using an "environmental easement" for his Trump National Golf Course in Florida. It's saved him $825 million, Forbes reported Monday, "give or take a couple hundred million."

The bombshell expose recalls past reports that Trump was using what's called a "conservation easement," which is an agreement that stops any future development unless it complies with certain strict environmental standards. Typically, the restrictions can be so tight that hardly anything can be built. Keeping the land is a tax write-off. It gives a deduction that reduces taxable income, though it isn't a dollar-for-dollar reduction in your tax bill. For Trump, that means a golf course can remain a functioning, revenue-generating business while becoming a major tax write-off.

Early voting

2026-10-19T14:52:11.923-04:00

Daily Kos - Early voting has begun in half of the country, and there may be warning signs for Republicans in areas they need to win if they have any shot of maintaining their House and Senate majorities.

Across 10 Senate battlegrounds, 53% of early and mail-in votes have been cast by registered Democrats, while only 34% has been cast by registered Republicans, according to data from NBC News. And in none of those 10 battlegrounds, which range from Kansas to Maine, have more votes been cast by Republicans than Democrats.

Trump's Doctor Not Allowed to Leave His Side

2026-10-19T14:44:59.299-04:00

Alternet America - Trump’s personal physician must remain within three minutes of him at all times, according to a new report. Trump’s primary physician, Navy captain Sean Barbabella, or a backup colleague, must be within three minutes of the president at all times, according to The Wall Street Journal. …Barbabella’s May 2026 health report said that AI-enhanced electrocardiogram analysis shows Trump’s cardiac age is about 14 years younger than his actual age. The military doctor said Trump was in excellent health and fit for duty, but advised him to reduce his aspirin intake, exercise more and change his diet.

What’s happened to the past?

2026-10-19T07:36:00.000-04:00

Sam Smith - In a few weeks I will turn 89 which has led to some pondering about the end of life. One thing that has struck me is that when I pass so will most of what I remember. This is contrary to what many far more prominent figures think, assuming instead that they have not only made history but won’t lose it.

To test this, I recently thought of what I had heard recently about Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson. My sum: very little. In fact, the New Deal and Great Society have largely disappeared not only from the daily media but from our memories and actions as well.

This has led me to redefine my past as a series of good or bad events and ideas that will largely fade away. It’s more like a movie we go to, experience strongly, and then move on to other thoughts and matters. The amount of my own past that has disappeared in my mind supports this feeling.

As a journalist I became used to this early. One covered a story and wrote it and then in a few days forgot about it. As a musician, I experienced something similar. While I remembered tunes and played them I soon forgot the gigs where I had done so.

This is not something one can reform but it helps credit one’s thoughts and actions in a more accurate fashion. We are much better at doing things than remembering them. Which helps to explain why important matters – like ending ethnic bias – often don’t last as long as we expect.

So in my remaining time, I will continue to approach life as I have as a journalist: finding new ways to help revive good causes, beliefs, and behavior, partially with the hope that this time it will work better. And we won’t forget about it.

Donald Trump

2026-10-18T15:11:49.943-04:00

NY Times - President Trump said on Sunday that his administration finalized plans to transform East Potomac Golf Links in Washington into a “world class championship golf course,” saying the municipal course would close within four weeks and that its replacement would be playable in about 15 months.

The announcement set up another frantic legal clash over the site. A federal judge ordered the administration in July to present her with any long-term plans for the course and not to carry out a surprise overhaul as the president had with the East Wing of the White House and the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

The Interior Department appeared to have done just that earlier this month, taking down hundreds of trees over a holiday weekend and giving the court and a group suing to stop ay changes to the course less than a day to react.

In a post on social media on Sunday morning, Mr. Trump appeared to affirm what a historical-preservation group and two Washington residents had warned of in a federal lawsuit: that the administration might move to seize the existing course before they had a real chance to oppose the plan.

Middle East

2026-10-18T12:56:23.493-04:00

The Guardian - Israeli settler militants have attacked European diplomats, a French mayor and the archbishop of Cambrai in Taybeh, in the occupied West Bank, injuring three people and damaging a car, in the latest violent attempt to prevent Palestinians from harvesting olives on their own land. Bernard Baudoux, mayor of Aulnoye-Aymeries, was wearing his red, white and blue sash of office and attempting to enter a vehicle with diplomatic plates when he was assaulted and knocked to the ground on Saturday. The masked militant shouted “Vive la France” as he launched the attack, a witness said. Badoux’s wife, and Vincent Dollmann, archbishop of Cambrai, were also threatened by the group of seven men, some armed with clubs….

Settlers first attacked a group working on the lower slopes of hills near Taybeh. As well as stealing olives, they kicked, abused and assaulted a Palestinian woman in her 70s and beat a man so badly he needed six stitches for a head injury.

I Teach at a Business School. It’s Time to Shut Them Down.

2026-10-18T12:47:35.411-04:00

Climate

2026-10-18T12:18:45.023-04:00

Should human beings remain in control of planet Earth?

2026-10-18T11:08:58.086-04:00

Bernard Sanders, The Atlantic - Should human beings remain in control of planet Earth? Or should we be replaced as the dominant species? As absurd as these questions may sound, and as obvious as the answers may seem, the Big Tech oligarchs funding the artificial-intelligence revolution have responded in ways that should alarm all of us.

In Silicon Valley, some of the wealthiest people on Earth believe that they have the power to create a superior species. Sam Altman, the head of OpenAI, wrote in 2017 that AI would allow humans to become “the first species ever to design our own descendants.” What this means for humans, however, remains unclear. According to Altman, we will either jump-start digital intelligence “and then fade into an evolutionary tree branch, or we can figure out what a successful merge looks like.” In other words, humans have a choice: face extinction or merge with machines. “I believe the merge has already started,” Altman added, and is “probably our best-case scenario.”

Similarly, Dario Amodei, the head of Anthropic, has opened up the possibility of rights for AI models. “We don’t know if the models are conscious,” he explained, and added, “But we’re open to the idea that it could be.”

Earlier this month, Elon Musk, the head of SpaceXAI and the richest man on Earth, posted on X, “Propagating super intelligence to the stars is a great success condition for a biological bootloader,” likening humans to the programming that launches a computer’s operating system. Put simply, Musk is saying that humans are merely a step toward digital superintelligence. Peter Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of Palantir and a major AI investor, was asked last year if he would prefer that the human race endure. His response? “Uh … Well, I don’t know. I would—I would … There’s so many questions implicit in this,” he stammered, before reluctantly conceding that humans should survive.

Meanwhile....

2026-10-18T10:33:13.580-04:00

Netflix Is Cutting 1000 Jobs As Stock Price, Customer Growth Stumble

Did Frank Sinatra really act as a secret liaison between JFK and the mob?

2026-10-18T10:21:32.424-04:00

Flying cars

2026-10-18T09:56:51.419-04:00

Are flying cars finally here?

Pope Leo's recovery

2026-10-18T09:49:32.219-04:00

The Guardian - Pope Leo told a crowd gathered in St Peter’s Square on Sunday that he would “gradually resume” his activities, at his first appearance before the faithful since undergoing an operation to remove a cancerous tumour from his lung.

The Catholic leader, 71, was greeted with applause as he appeared unaided at the window of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace to deliver his Sunday angelus. It was his first public appearance since making the shock announcement at the previous Sunday’s address that a small nodule had been found on his lung.

Leo was diagnosed with the most common kind of lung cancer – adenocarcinoma – on Tuesday, after doctors removed part of his right lung to extract the tumour.

He thanked those who had prayed for him in recent days, saying that he appreciated the support while adding that the experience had made him feel especially close “to all those who are going through illness or a state of infirmity”.

“Now that this delicate phase has passed … I will gradually resume my activities, always with the help of God and your prayers,” he said.

Leo left Gemelli hospital in Rome on Saturday, where doctors deemed him “fit for discharge” after undergoing blood tests and a chest X-ray that morning.

Doctors said on Wednesday that Leo’s recovery from the operation was progressing normally. They said they were waiting for the results of tests to determine whether the cancer had spread and if more treatment would be needed.

French riots

2026-10-18T09:46:16.339-04:00

Axios - Police arrested at least 1,800 people across France after violent groups clashed with officers and looted shops during nationwide demonstrations that drew hundreds of thousands of people who denounced rising living costs and poor conditions in schools. Masked groups set fires and attacked public buildings, including city halls, in several cities. In Limoges, in central France, flames engulfed the neo-Renaissance city hall, which was built in the 19th century and survived two world wars. The building's iconic clock tower collapsed.

The changing internet

2026-10-18T09:29:09.971-04:00

Axios - The internet is undergoing a foundational shift as websites evolve from human destinations to information hubs for AI agents, Axios' Sara Fischer and Kerry Flynn write in an Axios Media Trends Executive briefing. Human discretion, a critical safeguard for establishing trust online, is rapidly disappearing. Bad actors are using AI to create new information sources designed to manipulate LLMs. Without a trust layer to vet information that machines retrieve and analyze, the internet risks becoming a breeding ground for content that's useless to humans. Share this story

Canada

2026-10-18T09:23:17.743-04:00

Time - Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has warned that the United States is trying to sow discord as he urged Albertans not to vote for separation in a referendum. “The stakes are high. This referendum comes at the worst possible time. The world has become more dangerous and divided,” Carney said at a rally in Calgary ahead of Monday’s vote, which will see residents decide whether the oil-rich province should take a step toward secession. “There are some outside our borders who are working to break us, so they can own us.”

Carney's statement came a day after U.S. President Donald Trump revisited his ambitions to annex Canada, telling the crowd at a rally in Arizona that the country will “end up being the 51st state, because it's the only way it works.” Carney, who was raised in Edmonton, Alberta, framed the vote as an opportunity for Canadians to “recognize that we're all responsible for each other.”

Ukraine

2026-10-18T09:11:07.689-04:00

NBC News - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that the U.S. formally siding with Russia’s Vladimir Putin would be a “historic mistake,” but said he still sees President Donald Trump as an ally despite a series of moves that have unsettled his country and its friends on Capitol Hill.

“We want to trust him,” Zelenskyy told NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” referring to Trump. “I hope that he will change his decisions, because I think that it’s all mistakes, and it will not help us, and it will not help United States.”

Measles

2026-10-17T12:29:25.982-04:00

Newsweek - The United States could finish 2026 with as many as 6,500 confirmed measles cases, infectious disease experts told Newsweek, as vaccine skepticism fuels outbreaks in under-vaccinated communities and threatens the country's measles-elimination status.

Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, predicted that the country would end the year with “roughly 6,000 to 6,500 confirmed cases."

“This is a return of the primitive,” Adalja told Newsweek, “a disease we eliminated a quarter-century ago, back by choice.”

The United States had recorded 4,080 confirmed cases this year as of October 8, already 78 percent more than the 2025 total of 2,289 cases. The highly contagious virus was declared eradicated in the U.S. in 2000 after the measles vaccine was developed decades earlier.

Measles-associated death counts this year differ between federal and state figures. The CDC has reported two deaths nationally, while Pennsylvania has confirmed five measles-associated deaths, including two infants, an 18-year-old and a 40-year-old woman. A sixth death reported by a county coroner remains under state review.

Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, agrees that the U.S. is on pace to reach 6,000 to 6,500 cases in 2026.

“That’s a reasonable order of magnitude of what we can expect,” Schaffner told Newsweek.

Russia

2026-10-17T11:15:04.785-04:00

NBC News - President Donald Trump waived sweeping new sanctions against Russia passed by Congress, arguing in an executive order Friday that the move “is in the national interests of the United States.”

Trump had signed the legislation, named for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., just last month. The bill took aim at Russia’s largest buyers of oil and gas, allowing the president to impose tariffs on goods from those countries, which may include China and India.

Passed with bipartisan support, the bill was intended to target Russia’s revenue streams as the country continues to wage its war against Ukraine. Suspending the sanctions provides Russia a financial lifeline.

Trump’s decision to put a hold on the sanctions package comes after he announced a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week to release hundreds of thousands of tons of Russian diesel fuel onto the global market as fuel prices soar.

Trump has expressed frustration with Ukraine’s attacks on Russian oil and gas infrastructure and has blamed them for the increase in fuel costs while downplaying the impact of the Iran war on the oil market.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that lifting sanctions was “wrong” and “only helps the Russians.”

NY Times - The White House has broad authority to issue sanctions exemptions or waivers, and the new law requires Mr. Trump to notify Congress only if he opts against imposing the economic restrictions on Russia. Two days before the law is set to take effect, Mr. Trump exercised that power.

Why is Musk allowed to give so much political money?

2026-10-17T10:56:25.658-04:00

Google - Elon Musk is legally permitted to spend massive amounts of money on political campaigns and super PACs because U.S. courts view independent political spending as a form of free speech protected by the First Amendment.

Key Legal Reasons

• Constitutional Rights: Landmark Supreme Court rulings (such as Citizens United) established that individuals and corporations can spend unlimited amounts on independent political communication, advertising, and support for candidates, as long as they do not coordinate directly with a candidate's official campaign.

• Super PACs: Musk channels much of his money through political action committees (like America PAC and the Senate Leadership Fund), which are legally allowed to raise and spend unlimited sums from individuals, corporations, and unions for independent election activities.

• Direct Contributions vs. Independent Spending: While direct contributions given straight to a candidate's campaign are legally capped, spending independently to run ads, back PACs, or support political messaging is uncapped.

Meanwhile, , ,

2026-10-17T10:00:27.743-04:00

NY Times - Pope Leo XIV was discharged from a Rome hospital on Saturday, four days after surgery to remove a tumor from his right lung. The pope left Gemelli Hospital about 3:30 p.m., roughly three days earlier than the Vatican had originally suggested for when he would return to his residence.

NY Times - How a Teacher and a Dad Stopped the Slaughter in an Oregon School

Trump swaps half his female cabinet for men

2026-10-17T09:51:15.237-04:00

Alternet - Grabby President Donald Trump is no kind of feminist, but he likes to point to his hiring and promotion of women to silence criticism of both his misogynist policies and personal conduct. His White House chief of staff Susie Wiles is actually the first woman to have the job.

But the Guardian points out that during his second term, there is one common characteristic share by most of those he has jettisoned from his administration.

“In the space of just a few months, half of his eight female cabinet officials have either resigned or been fired. All have been replaced by men,” reports the Guardian. “Several other women in his administration have also departed, whether voluntarily or involuntarily.”

The women are fleeing so fast that on Friday, Trump was forced to deny claims that he was even mulling replacing Wiles. “She’s gonna be here for a long time,” he claimed.

Meanwhile, the Guardian reports that numerous top male officials, including Trump’s goof--prone defense secretary Pete Hegseth, who has endangered soldiers by sharing military developments and plans on Signal chat, and threatening to embarrass the nation by broadcasting the live feed of shooting a paraplegic in a wheelchair, remains in his post, as does the allegedly drunken and mouthy FBI director Kash Patel.

Health

2026-10-17T09:32:15.887-04:00

The Hill - Americans are bracing to pay significantly more for health insurance next month, whether they have Affordable Care Act plans or get insurance through work. Premiums for some people could be the highest in decades, while others may pay more in the form of out-of-pocket costs like copays or deductibles.

People are getting squeezed by rising costs across income brackets, and experts say affordability woes will truly hit home when open enrollment kicks off next month.

The reasons for the looming spike vary. Higher prices for hospitals and other care are a significant driver of spending by insurers and employers, as is increased utilization of expensive prescription drugs like GLP-1s for weight loss.

The approximately 19 million adults on Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans, meanwhile, are expected to see another year of double-digit premium increases due to many of the same pressures. But eligible enrollees no longer have enhanced subsidies to blunt the increase after Republicans in Congress let them expire last year.

Health cost worries have resonated throughout the midterm elections campaign, and Democrats have made those concerns a centerpiece of their messaging.

A recent poll from health research group KFF found healthcare costs, alongside gas prices, outranked food, housing and utilities as the top economic concern for voters in the midterm elections.

A Pew Research Center survey earlier this month showed 64 percent of Americans said healthcare was a “very important” issue, ranking it higher than immigration, foreign policy, crime or AI.

Meanwhile. . .

2026-10-16T16:23:06.926-04:00

NBC News - Katie Zacharia is out as White House press secretary after just five days on the job, a senior administration official, an administration official and a source familiar with the decision said, following a widely panned first press briefing and the revelation that she represented herself as a lawyer but did not pass her bar exam.

Amazon prices up

2026-10-16T14:14:54.388-04:00

Business Insider - The owners of Bed Scrunchie, a company solving the problem of unruly sheets one mattress at a time, say Amazon is pressuring them to raise their prices wherever else they sell online. "Amazon told us basically that if we don’t increase our price elsewhere, that this product will remain [in]visible to buy," co-owner Jack Nehala shares in a new Business Insider video essay. California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is leading a price-fixing case against the Big Tech giant, says this is a common tactic for Amazon — "We have the receipts."

Stacy Mitchell, a key expert featured in the story, says this is likely "just the tip of the iceberg of a huge price-fixing operation” and argues that online competition cannot lower consumer prices if policymakers let these tactics continue. “Amazon has so much power over suppliers to essentially monitor prices and make sure that other retailers never have lower prices than Amazon," warns Stacy.

Polls

2026-10-16T13:41:16.218-04:00

Medialite - The latest Fox News poll carried some decisively bad news for President Donald Trump and his administration, which has been plagued by corruption scandals in recent months.

The new poll found that the top issue among voters, with 88% of respondents saying they are “extremely or very concerned” about it, was “corruption in government.”

The poll conducted between October 9th and the 12th, among 1,202 registered voters, found “Inflation and high prices” to be the second most important issue to voters, with 85% “extremely or very concerned” about it.

“Gas prices” came in third, with 83% of respondents being “extremely or very concerned” about it, while “Healthcare” landed in fourth place with 80%.

Liberals backing Puerto Rican independence

2026-10-16T12:48:11.141-04:00

The Nation - Something is changing in the political conversation about Puerto Rico. In recent months, major leaders and organizations on the American left have explicitly signaled their support for the island’s independence.

On September 23, to mark the 158th anniversary of the Grito de Lares freedom revolt, future congressman Chris Rabb joined his Puerto Rican constituents in Philadelphia and declared, “I support Puerto Rican independence. Puerto Rico has the right to be a free, sovereign, and independent nation.”

Rabb, who will almost certainly get elected to the US House of Representatives from Pennsylvania’s 3rd district, joined other influential progressives who have come out for Puerto Rico’s freedom. Earlier this year another general election shoo-in, Darializa Avila Chevalier in New York, called for an inclusive Puerto Rican self-determination process. She added: “I also support independence for the Puerto Rican people. Because after 128 years, it’s the least the people on the island deserve.”

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has also weighed in. In June, on the eve of the National Puerto Rican Day Parade, Mamdani gave Puerto Rican independence a poetic shoutout:

“This weekend, the boricuas of our city will don bright colors, sing songs of freedom, and wave a flag that was once made illegal by the United States government. There will be joy…as well as the bittersweet knowledge of an independence that has too long been denied.”

Notably, support for sovereignty is rising among political leaders outside of Puerto Rican bastions like New York and Pennsylvania. Former Missouri representative Cori Bush and fellow Missouri Democratic primary candidate Hartzell Gray came out in support for Puerto Rican sovereignty. So did Julie Gonzales, who gave John Hickenlooper a scare in the Democratic primary for US Senate in Colorado. (Full disclosure: My organization, Boricuas Unidos en la Diáspora, which advocates for Puerto Rican independence, endorsed all three of those candidates.)

UNDERNEWS

The safest and most hazardous cities

Ukraine

Donald Trump

Early voting

Trump's Doctor Not Allowed to Leave His Side

What’s happened to the past?

Donald Trump

Middle East

I Teach at a Business School. It’s Time to Shut Them Down.

Climate

Should human beings remain in control of planet Earth?

Meanwhile....

Did Frank Sinatra really act as a secret liaison between JFK and the mob?

Flying cars

Pope Leo's recovery

French riots

The changing internet

Canada

Ukraine

Measles

Russia

Why is Musk allowed to give so much political money?

More problems with Katie Zacharia

Meanwhile, , ,

Trump swaps half his female cabinet for men

Health

Meanwhile. . .

Amazon prices up

Polls

Liberals backing Puerto Rican independence