Right-Wing Power Hardens Across Borders as Scandals Mount and Bodies Pile Up

Italy's right-wing Vice Premier Matteo Salvini says Spain's Socialist leader Pedro Sánchez has gotten it right when it comes to taxing banks. The concession reveals how populist movements in government adopt progressive economic rhetoric only to defang it, governing alongside finance-friendly partners who ensure capital stays protected.

In Washington, the New York Times reports that Donald Trump's strategy, message and spending have left the G.O.P. in a difficult spot as lawmakers try to outrun his sagging approval ratings. The party's institutional apparatus bends to one man's electoral calculus, sidelining any internal dissent.

In London, Nigel Farage has downplayed his involvement in the scandal which has seen the Reform party accused of breaking British electoral law. The insurgent who campaigned against corruption becomes the subject of a corruption probe — a familiar trajectory for movements that treat accountability as a weapon against opponents, never themselves.

In Dallas, the speaker list for the RNC Midterm Convention leaked on Saturday. Axios obtained and reported on a preliminary list for the event, which has been described as a "first-of-its-kind" lineup. The convention functions as a loyalty oath ceremony rather than a policy debate.

In Kyiv, the BBC reports it will be the first trip by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump's top negotiators, to Kyiv.

The human cost of this hardening power is measured in bodies. In Springfield, Ohio, the family of Pierre Damas Bel, a 20-year-old Haitian immigrant, says he died by suicide August 31 after losing Temporary Protected Status. Bel, an honors neuroscience student and JROTC member, was beginning his freshman year at Wright State University.

In Minneapolis, the Trump administration blocked prosecution of an ICE agent who allegedly shot Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in the leg during Operation Metro Surge and then lied about it. Impunity for state violence against migrants is not a bug — it is the governing logic.

The Guardian's Simon Tisdall writes that ordinary people have more power than we think, even as he describes a world of unending wars, expanding humanitarian crises, rising authoritarianism, and dysfunctional institutions. The pattern across these reports confirms the diagnosis. The second half — organized resistance — remains the only variable not yet written.