Some influencers in MAGA world are at one another’s throats over the arrest and possible deportation of one of the movement’s loudest anti-immigration cheerleaders.
Samuel Sey, a Christian blogger and Ghanaian immigrant, has gained popularity for his vocal defenses of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents waging Donald Trump’s racist anti-immigrant crackdown. But as I explained in this week’s Tuesday Tech Drop, he was arrested last week after reportedly overstaying his visa.
The Department of Homeland Security told The Christian Post that Sey is “an illegal alien from Ghana” who has accepted “voluntary departure” from the country.
The MAGA movement, it seems, is torn over the ordeal.
On one hand, a Black immigrant who overstayed his visa would seem like a prime target for a movement like MAGA. On the other hand, a Black immigrant willing to celebrate Trump’s brutality toward immigrants is useful to the movement for propaganda purposes — and that seems like a big reason why some conservatives are expressing sympathy for him.
Christian nationalist influencer Joel Webbon faced some backlash over a prayer in which he thanked God for Sey’s arrest and for “shutting his mouth from spewing out more lies and slander against your servants.” Webbon, who also prayed for Sey’s deportation, is someone known for promoting bigotry and arguing that the U.S. could use even more racism.
The Philippine peso has recorded the weakest performance in Asia for October, losing nearly 8% of its value against the U. S. dollar since the start of the year. The currency hit a historic low of 64.200 pesos per dollar, a drop driven largely by the country's critical dependence on imported energy and its sensitivity to geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
To counter inflationary pressure, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) took an unusual step this month, raising its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points outside the regular schedule. Market analysts indicate that the central bank is preparing additional measures to defend the exchange rate.
One likely intervention involves tightening requirements on commercial banks' foreign currency positions. By limiting the volume of dollar assets held by these institutions, the BSP would force them to sell surplus dollars. This mechanism increases the supply of foreign currency in the market, which can dampen speculative activity that drives the peso down.
Marocco's Ministry of Transport and Logistics outlined a concrete expansion plan for the Institute of Higher Marine Studies (ISEM) in Casablanca, targeting a tripling of annual graduate output by 2030. Minister Abdel Samad Kayoukh stated that the country aims to produce 500 maritime specialists per year by 2030 and 1,000 by 2035, a specific capacity increase intended to support the development of a competitive national commercial fleet.
According to ISEM Director Aissa Benazzouz, the institution admitted 72 new students this year after a multi-stage selection process involving oral examinations, medical checks, and psychotechnical tests. The curriculum is expanding with the immediate launch of a new engineering program in marine electrical technology. For the 2027-2028 academic year, the institute plans to introduce engineering tracks in ship architecture and a bachelor's program in hydrography, while also establishing doctoral programs to transition ISEM into a research-oriented institution.
To align educational output with industrial needs, three agreements were signed to structure the practical components of training. An agreement with the Moroccan Association of Ship Owners (ARMA) includes provisions for internships, employment support for graduates in marine science and ship mechanics, and a role for the association in ISEM's management. A separate deal with the Moroccan Shipbuilding Industry Cluster (CINM) focuses on internships and thesis projects in shipbuilding, maintenance, and ship architecture, alongside the hiring of industry experts and joint R&D projects. A final tripartite agreement involving ISEM, CINM, and ARMA outlines the framework for creating a maritime museum within the institute's premises.
A ten-month cycle of labor disputes in Portugal's banking sector has concluded, revealing the precarious position of the country's middle class. Workers in financial organizations found themselves in a "social sandwich": their incomes were too high to qualify for state social assistance yet insufficient to maintain a decent standard of living or secure a future pension, particularly amid persistent inflation and rising energy costs.
The conflict was fueled by a sharp contrast between employee conditions and the sector's financial performance. Data indicates that capital profitability in Portugal's banking industry is twice the European average. Despite this, employees reported that increases in productivity and profits were not reflected in their salaries, while top management incomes continued to grow at double-digit rates annually.
Protest efforts culminated in a series of strikes and street demonstrations. Bank employees alleged a rupture in the "social pact," asserting that they were being treated by leadership solely as a factor of production rather than as full participants in the economic process.
In Diourbel, Senegal, local officials are shifting strategy to reduce reliance on expensive imported energy and centralized grids. Department Council Chairman Hadim Gay stated during a regional development committee meeting that the area is moving away from fossil fuels to leverage biomass and expand solar generation. This shift specifically targets the production of electricity from agricultural residues, including peanut shells and dry wood, reviving a practice previously displaced by imported fuels despite the country's earlier experience with such bio-energy sources.
The operational impact of this transition is quantified in direct budgetary savings. Over the past decade, the department council allocated approximately 300 million CFA francs (roughly $450,000) to install solar equipment for villages, vegetable farmers, and daara (Quranic schools). This infrastructure is designed to cut annual electricity bills, which currently stand at about 6 million CFA francs, to a level below 1 million CFA francs.
Expansion plans for the current year include equipping an additional 30 daara, three high schools, and three medical points with solar kits. However, council leadership notes that local resources are insufficient to fully address the region's energy deficit, requiring increased direct state financing to scale these capacity changes.
WASHINGTON: A Syrian man was sentenced to 42 months in prison on Thursday for his role in computer hacking on behalf of the regime of former Syrian president Bashar Assad, the US Justice Department said. Ahmad Umar Agha, 32, and co-conspirators hacked Western media outlets, businesses, non-governmental organizations and US and allied government entities “to spread the former Syrian government’s propaganda,” the department said in a statement. The hacking group known as the Syrian Electronic A
By the end of 2025, Morocco's banking sector faced non-performing loan (NPL) balances of 100 billion dirhams, representing 8.2% of the total credit portfolio. According to outcomes from a national meeting in Rabat organized by the Ministry of Justice and Bank Al-Maghrib, the primary obstacle to reducing this volume is not borrower solvency, but rather systemic failures in debt recovery and collateral realization mechanisms.
Abdellatif Jouahri, head of Bank Al-Maghrib, stated that the accumulation of bad debt is constraining business lending, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and is negatively impacting the financial sector's credit ratings. In response, the regulator tightened prudential norms in December 2025 by introducing a category for "sensitive" loans and revising the definition of default.
However, the core issues remain within judicial procedures. Participants in the meeting identified several critical bottlenecks in the recovery process. First, procedural traps exist: under consumer protection law, a bank can only declare a credit agreement terminated after three consecutive late payments and official notification. In practice, if a notification lacks specific details, such as the exact interest rate or commission amount, courts may deem the lawsuit inadmissible, effectively nullifying the recovery process.
Two ammonia leaks occurred at the Dos Pinos ice cream plant in the coastal district of Coyola, Alajuela, on Sunday, October 25, and Monday, October 26. The union representing the workers, Union de Empleados de la Cooperativa Dos Pinos (Udeco), reported that four employees required emergency medical attention: three women who felt ill during evacuation and a mechanic who sustained a hand burn.
Udeco stated that the first incident began around 9:00 a. m. on Sunday during maintenance of equipment unit number 304. The union claimed that emergency response personnel were absent from the area, forcing staff to manage the evacuation themselves. The second incident occurred around 10:20 a. m. on Monday, following the rupture of a valve during technical intervention. According to the union, the mechanic was working without personal protective equipment, which resulted in an ammonia cloud forming in the production zone.
A central issue in the union's complaint is the absence of dedicated ammonia detection systems. Udeco noted that while the facility is equipped with standard smoke detectors and fire alarms, it lacks devices that specifically detect gas refrigerant leaks. The union also cited blocked evacuation routes, claiming one exit was locked and another obstructed by stacked pallets and cargo. Witness accounts collected by Udeco indicate that some staff had to use alternative routes to leave the danger zone, and one worker was temporarily trapped while attempting to exit through a service door.
Chile's Communist Party (PC) has submitted a 14-point proposal document to the Confederation of Chilean Workers' Unions (CUT), outlining measures for employment, wages, and social rights. The central fiscal anchor of this platform is a plan to create 500,000 new jobs between 2027 and 2029, a target the party estimates will cost 16.4 trillion Chilean pesos. According to the resolution, funding for this initiative would be secured through a combination of increased state debt and the introduction of a tax on the ultra-wealthy.
The 16.4 trillion peso figure represents a projected political scenario for future obligations rather than an immediate budgetary fact. Given that Chile's annual state tax revenue ranges between 40 and 50 trillion pesos, the proposed investment package equates to a significant portion of the national annual budget. This scale suggests broad structural shifts in fiscal policy rather than targeted stimulus measures. The amount reflects a stated target resource need for social programs, not already allocated funds.
In addition to mass employment goals, the document includes more immediate support mechanisms: a three-month emergency income provision and a six-month wage supplement for workers earning no more than 1.5 million Chilean pesos (approximately US$1,500 to $1,700). The proposal also discusses transitioning to a concept of a "vital salary" (salario vital), which would require revising current minimum wage mechanisms. In Chile, the minimum wage is traditionally indexed to consumer prices rather than a broader definition of the cost of living.
UN experts have called on Venezuelan authorities to expand the removal of blocks on media outlets, human rights organizations, and digital services. In a statement released Wednesday, the group warned that current restrictions unlawfully impede access to information, freedom of expression, the right to privacy, and secure communication.
The document identifies several internet service providers-CANTV, Digitel, Telefónica Venezolana (Movistar), Inter, Net Uno, Airtek, and G-Network-that have restricted access to news resources, human rights entities, social media platforms, messengers, and VPN services for several years. Experts stated these measures were likely implemented at the request of the National Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL).
While the block on platform X was lifted following earthquakes in June 2026 and additional portals were unblocked in September 2026, many national and international media sites, online privacy tools, and civil society organizations remain partially or fully inaccessible.
Engineer Cuauhtemoc Cardenas Solorzano died on October 28 in Mexico City at the age of 92. A victim of an oncological illness, he was the first elected head of government of the capital.
Cuauhtemoc Cárdenas inherited that cause and devoted more than six decades to it, along with the defense of the rights of the working classes and the structural transformation of Mexico’s political system.
He became established as a reference point for the country’s progressive, patriotic and transformative struggles.
The engineer was the son of General Lazaro Cardenas del Río, who carried out the 1938 nationalization of Mexico’s oil industry, a decision that placed crude oil under state control and became a milestone of national sovereignty.
His remains are being mourned on October 29 at the French Pantheon in the capital, the mausoleum where his life partner, Celeste Batel, also rests. He is survived by three children: Lázaro, Cuauhtémoc and Camila Cárdenas Batel.
🇬🇧 The Socialist International mourns the passing of Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, our Honorary President, a tireless champion of democracy and social justice in Mexico and Latin America. Our heartfelt condolences to his family, his comrades and the people of Mexico.
Cardenas began his political activity in 1954 through the National Liberation Movement (MLN, in Spanish) and served as governor of Michoacán from 1980 to 1986. In 1987 he led the deepest break in contemporary Mexican politics. Together with Ifigenia Martínez, Porfirio Muñoz Ledo and César Buenrostro, he founded the Democratic Current within the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI, in Spanish) to fight the imposition of the presidential candidate and the shift toward the neoliberal model.
He left the PRI that year and was nominated by the Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution, later building the National Democratic Front with a range of social forces. The July 6, 1988 presidential election was marked by the scandalous fraud of the so-called “system crash,” which imposed Carlos Salinas de Gortari. That day marked a turning point in the struggle for clean elections. Cardenas led the peaceful protest, together with other candidates, to avoid violence and bloodshed in the country.
After the fraud was carried out, Cuauhtemoc Cardenas drove the founding in 1989 of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), a platform oriented toward rejecting privatizations and budget austerity, and defending secularism and state control of strategic industries.
After his presidential bids in 1988 and 1994, on July 6, 1997 he became the first elected head of government of what was then the Federal District. His victory dismantled the direct control of the executive branch over the capital and established an administration with a social emphasis, transparency and priority attention to vulnerable sectors.
At 90, at the tribute paid to him by National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), he firmly recalled that winning democracy in Mexico cost the lives of between 600 and 800 activists who fell in various days of struggle. Their killings remained unpunished under the governments of the regime.
🕊️ Un encuentro que quedó para la historia. El 3 de julio de 2018, dos días después de su triunfo electoral, @lopezobrador_ se reunió con Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, a quien reconoció como precursor del movimiento democrático que daría paso a la 4T.
Text reads: “A meeting that has gone down in history. On July 3, 2018, two days after his electoral victory, @lopezobrador met with Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, whom he recognized as the precursor of the democratic movement that would lead to the 4T (4th transformation).”
Final Years and Honors
In his last years, Cardenas defended strategic resources against transnational capital. On March 18, 2026, at the ceremony for the 88th anniversary of the oil expropriation in Pueblo Viejo, Veracruz, President Claudia Sheinbaum named him head of the Advisory Commission of the state oil company Pemex.
He received an honorary doctorate from the National Polytechnic Institute in January 2026, and in September 2026 the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) created the Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Chair in recognition of his contribution to sovereignty and self-determination.
He ran for president a third time in 2000. The defense of strategic resources was his last great cause, which he upheld uncompromisingly in his final years against the appetites of transnational capital.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum opened her morning press conference in the Treasury Hall of the National Palace with the homage, describing the former governor and presidential candidate as one of the central figures of contemporary Mexican politics. She presented his political life not as a single campaign, but as the foundation of a broader national transformation.
“His legacy is of honesty and democracy, but democracy that comes from below, not the democracy of the elites. Democracy as the people in power,” she asserted.
Members of her cabinet joined the tribute, underscoring the peaceful and sovereign character of Cárdenas’s historic campaign.
Interior Secretary Rosa Icela Rodríguez highlighted the leader’s composure in channeling popular outrage through democratic means after the electoral manipulation of 1988. “Leading a popular mobilization requires responding to people’s expectations, but also protecting their lives and preserving the possibilities of continuing the struggle,” she said, honoring militants persecuted by the regime of that era.
For his part, Pablo Gómez, head of the Presidential Commission for Electoral Reform, defined Cárdenas as “the leader of the political rupture with national surrenderism, anti-democracy and corruption.” He called him an indispensable precedent for the electoral gains of the present day.
The death of Judge Alvin Hellerstein will not invalidate procedural decisions already made in the criminal case against Nicolás Maduro and Silvia Flores, according to Nizar El Fakir, their attorney. Speaking on Wednesday, October 28, El Fakir clarified that the legal proceedings will not restart.
El Fakir explained that the case files will retain their current status at the preliminary stage and be transferred to a successor judge. All rulings and actions taken by Hellerstein remain fully valid for the ongoing process.
The transfer procedure is governed by Rule 17 of the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Under this rule, the internal committee responsible for case allocation assigns the docket to a new judge either by lot or through personal selection, ensuring continuity without losing accumulated legal positions.
Alaska's Republican governor has ordered a state investigation of allegations in a New York Times report that Democrats recruited spoiler candidates in the state's US Senate race.
Argentina's state oil company YPF increased its average shale oil production to 224,000 barrels per day in the third quarter of 2024, a 32% increase over the same period last year. Total oil production reached 973,700 barrels per day in September, nearing the company's historical peak of one million barrels.
The production growth resulted from increased drilling activity and lower extraction costs. These operational shifts contributed to a quarterly adjusted EBITDA of $2.503 billion and a net profit increase of 84% year-on-year.
YPF allocated $1.287 billion to capital expenditures during the period, a 26% increase from the previous year, with 70% of those funds directed toward unconventional shale gas and oil reserves.
US President Donald Trump said that Vice President JD Vance’s outreach to Iran was about helping the country get medical supplies, after US media reported Vance had written to Tehran’s top security official to revive peace talks.
Iran has received a letter from Vance but it has not responded to it yet, the country’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Thursday, while adding that Tehran wants the US to meet its conditions and “any position that contradicts this framework is unacceptable.”
Also on Thursday, the US military’s senior officer overseeing the Middle East, Admiral Brad Cooper, met Trump at the White House to outline military options in Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing US officials and other people with direct knowledge of the meeting.
Reuters could not immediately independently verify this report.
Vance sent the letter to Iranian Security Council chief Mohsen Rezaei in a bid to revive peace negotiations, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing US officials and people familiar with the matter. Reuters could not immediately verify the reports.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Vance sent the letter at Trump’s direction. When asked by reporters later on Wednesday if he directed Vance to reach out to Iran to restart peace negotiations, Trump said: “No.”
“What that is is they need help with medical supplies and various things. He (Vance) asked me what I thought. I said, if you want to do that, that’s okay. Basically, it’s getting supplies in to help people that are not well,” Trump told reporters.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter and Trump’s remark. Vance’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
TEHRAN’S CONDITIONS
Iran’s parliament speaker said on Thursday that Tehran’s conditions had been repeatedly and clearly communicated to mediators and that progress can only be achieved if Iran’s seven conditions are met.
The “carrot-and-stick approach has no effect on Iran,” Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf added.
Conditions Iran says must be met before it will reopen the strategic Strait of Hormuz shipping route include, among other demands, lifting the US blockade on Iranian ports, lifting US sanctions on Iranian oil exports and ending hostilities on all regional fronts.
The United States and Israel launched a war against Iran at the end of February. The US has also since imposed a naval blockade on Iran to starve it of oil export revenue and escalated efforts to economically isolate Iran.
Iran has long blamed US sanctions for hindering civilian access to medical supplies.
In an August letter to the UN Security Council, Iran accused the US of intentionally depriving civilians “of access to food, medicines, medical equipment, energy and other necessities, with grave consequences for their rights to life, health, food and a decent standard of living.”
Qatari mediators presented Iran with a new draft deal on Sunday to end the war, but a senior Iranian official said Doha had only put forward unacceptable ideas that did not amount to an offer.
The war’s impact on global energy costs has also weighed on support for Republican candidates and hurt Trump’s approval ratings ahead of the US midterm elections that decide control of Congress. Trump’s Republican Party holds a narrow majority in both chambers of Congress.
The Geological Institute of Peru (IGP) is deploying a physical monitoring network across 12 major mountain rivers in the country. The system comprises video cameras and sensors designed to track water flow presence, velocity, and height. Its primary function is to convert visual data on water movement into emergency alerts for the population.
According to IGP director Hernando Tavera, the system's algorithm calculates the time required for a flow to reach populated areas based on the distance from the observation point. The average alert window is eight to 10 minutes before water reaches residential zones. In valleys located downstream, this interval may increase depending on the riverbed slope and current speed.
Currently, equipment is installed and operational in three regions. In Lima, the system monitors the Waiquoloro River. In Ancash, four waterways are under surveillance. In Arequipa, sensors are deployed in six rivers fed by the runoff of the Misti volcano. Installation of additional units is underway in Arequipa, Piura, and La Libertad.
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