November 2025 - POLITICAL NEWS

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As Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, then head of Ukraine’s state-owned national power company Ukrenergo, was scrambling to keep the lights on.

Somehow, he succeeded and continued to do so every year, earning the respect of energy executives worldwide by ensuring the country was able to withstand Russian missile and drone strikes on its power grid and avoid catastrophic blackouts — until he was abruptly forced to resign in 2024, that is.

 Israel’s military said Thursday that Palestinian militants handed over the remains of two more hostages, in the latest indication that the fragile ceasefire agreement is moving forward despite Israeli strikes on Gaza this week.

The two sets of remains were given to the Red Cross in Gaza, then transported into Israel by troops and taken to the National Institute of Forensic Medicine for identification, the Israeli military said.

The rumble of large machinery, whine of chain saws and chopping of machetes echoed through communities across the northern Caribbean on Thursday as they dug out from the destruction of Hurricane Melissa and surveyed the damage left behind.

In Jamaica, government workers and residents began clearing roads in a push to reach dozens of isolated communities in the island’s southeast that sustained a direct hit from one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes on record.

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts is standing by Tucker Carlson after the conservative podcaster’s friendly interview with Holocaust-denier Nick Fuentes drew condemnation from within a GOP grappling with a series of antisemitic incidents.

Roberts, in a video posted to X Thursday, denounced the “venomous coalition” that has criticized Carlson and said “their attempt to cancel him will fail,” though he didn’t specifically name anyone. He said Carlson remains a “close friend” of the highly influential conservative group and “always will be.”

The events of Jan. 6, 2021, are now almost five years in the past, but the turmoil they continue to cause for the Justice Department and its prosecutors was on clear display again Thursday in a federal courtroom in Washington.

Two federal prosecutors whom the Justice Department abruptly placed on leave Wednesday appeared at a sentencing hearing for Taylor Taranto, a pardoned Jan. 6 rioter who was convicted on separate charges for unrelated threats and firearm crimes. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Carlos Valdivia and Samuel White were placed on leave hours after describing Jan. 6 in a sentencing memo as an attack by “thousands of people comprising a mob of rioters.”

Zohran Mamdani has reason to be confident in the final days of the New York City mayoral race. Andrew Cuomo has reason to keep fighting. Both are saying the contest is far from decided.

As the top two contenders enter the homestretch, new polling, last-minute endorsements and early voter turnout numbers offer a hint at what’s to come: Mamdani is on track to win, but an 11th-hour surprise remains possible.

Denmark will close its airspace to civilian drones this week following disturbances near military bases on Friday and at civilian airports last week. With the European Council meeting in Copenhagen on Wednesday to discuss defense and Ukraine, followed by a European Political Community gathering in the city the following day, authorities have acted to safeguard both events.

A leading cabinet minister has urged colleagues to back off their attacks on Keir Starmer and demands for Rachel Reeves to turn on the spending taps as the annual Labour conference kicked off in Liverpool on Sunday. Speaking at a POLITICO event at the Labour conference, Starmer ally and recently-appointed Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden, said the prime minister “deserves far more credit” for winning the 2024 election.

Russell M. Nelson, the oldest-ever president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died Saturday night at the age of 101, church officials announced. Nelson died at his home in Salt Lake City, church spokesperson Candice Madsen said in a statement.

Democrats have largely sidestepped or toughened their stances on immigration since Donald Trump rode his signature issue back to the White House. But with polling shifting against the president on immigration, Gavin Newsom is doing the opposite.

The Energy Department has added “climate change,” “green” and “decarbonization” to its growing “list of words to avoid” at its Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, according to an email issued Friday and obtained by POLITICO. 

Wes Moore took his strongest swipe yet at President Donald Trump’s efforts to redraw maps to give Republicans an advantage in next year’s midterms — by painting the GOP’s efforts in explicitly racial terms.