October 2025 - POLITICAL NEWS

---

Last week, as the leaders of other Western nations used their trips to the United Nations to announce recognition of a Palestinian state, President Donald Trump was able to do little but watch disapprovingly. But now that a question about Israel is coming to the fore in a very different international organization, Trump finds himself with potentially much more power. 

The pro-EU Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) is firmly in the lead in a pivotal Moldovan election that is set to determine whether the country stays on track to join the EU or is hauled back into Moscow’s orbit. With around three-quarters of ballots counted, PAS is well ahead with more than 44 percent of the vote compared with less than 30 percent for the pro-Russian Patriotic Electoral Bloc (BEP)

Democrats running for California governor backed shutting down the federal government if their party can’t extract health care concessions from Republicans, while promising at a forum Sunday to continue their state’s sparring with the Trump administration long after Gavin Newsom leaves office. 

President Donald Trump said Sunday he will attend Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s gathering of military generals this week, according to a report from NBC. The meeting, convened by Hegseth, is to discuss how the military is doing, Trump said.

GRAND BLANC TOWNSHIP, Michigan — A gunman opened fire inside a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chapel in Michigan during a Sunday service before apparently setting the building ablaze, killing at least two people and injuring several others before police shot him, authorities said Hundreds of people were inside the church in Grand Blanc Township when a 40-year-old man rammed a pickup truck through the front door, then got out of the vehicle and started shooting, Police Chief William Renye told reporters.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar on Sunday accused the White House of seeking “vengeance” following the appointment of Lindsey Halligan as the top federal prosecutor in Virginia and the subsequent indictment of former FBI director James Comey. 

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.