“The White House said Friday that it has agreed to exempt Hungary from U.S. sanctions on buying Russian oil for one year following President Donald Trump’s meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán,” Politico reports.
“It’s a big win for the conservative Hungarian leader, whose top priority in coming to Washington was to seek relief from sanctions that could cripple his country given its reliance on Russian energy sources.”
So far, just 27% of weekly news quiz takers have gotten every question right. Can you compete?
“President Trump said he has asked the Justice Department to launch an investigation into meatpacking companies to determine whether they are colluding to drive up beef prices,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Just published: Great Power Diplomacy: The Skill of Statecraft from Attila the Hun to Kissinger by A. Wess Mitchell.
“From the beginning of time, human societies have found themselves confronted by enemies too numerous or ferocious to defeat solely by force of arms. In these dramatic moments, wise leaders have turned to diplomacy to rearrange the gameboard in their favor and stymie seemingly unstoppable foes.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that flight cancellations across the U.S. could rise to 15%—or even 20%—if the government shutdown continues, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Said Duffy: “If this shutdown doesn’t end relatively soon, the consequence is that more controllers don’t come to work. I don’t want to see that.”
Derek Thompson: “On the surface, Mamdani, Spanberger, and Sherrill emerged victorious in three very different campaigns. Mamdani defeated an older Democrat in an ocean-blue metropolis. In Virginia, Spanberger crushed a bizarre Republican candidate in a state that was ground zero for DOGE cuts. In New Jersey, Sherrill—whose victory margin was the surprise of the evening—romped in a state that had been sliding toward the Republican column.”
“Despite these cosmetic differences, what unified the three victories was the Democratic candidates’ ability to turn the affordability curse against the sitting president, transforming Republicans’ 2024 advantage into a 2025 albatross.”
Andrew Sullivan: “There was something perfect about the Supreme Court’s review of President Trump’s tariff spree the week Dick Cheney passed away. What the court was weighing, after all, was Cheney’s core legacy: the limitless executive power now claimed by Cheney’s Frankenstein monster, Trump.”
“In that sense, Dick Cheney pioneered the Trump presidency. Without Cheney and Addington, no Trump and Vought. Cheney was never a constitutional conservative; he was always an extremist, a pioneer of an elected, unaccountable, and secret monarchy that has reached its zenith in the GOP today. His attempt to cast himself in recent years as some kind of principled, old-school constitutional Republican is classic Cheney: i.e. shameless misdirection, calculated spin, and a big fat lie.”
“Senate Majority Leader John Thune said senators could begin voting as soon as Friday on a package of FY2026 spending bills and a stopgap funding measure that would reopen the federal government — but there’s not a lot of optimism about getting to a quick resolution,” Punchbowl News reports.
“Thune is also teasing potential weekend work, as well as a possible vote Friday afternoon on Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R-WI) bill to pay federal workers during the shutdown. Thune said senators have been “advised to be available” over the weekend.”
Sen. Ted Cruz blasted fellow Republicans for failing to criticize Tucker Carlson, saying the conservative pundit has “spread a poison that is profoundly dangerous,” Politico reports.
Said Cruz: “My colleagues, almost to a person, think what is happening is horrible, but a great many of them are frightened because he has one hell of a big megaphone.”
“A year ago, the Labor Department’s social media messaging focused heavily on portraying a diverse assortment of employees and laborers, both in gender and race,” the Washington Post reports.
“But the agency has made a dramatic shift during the Trump administration, launching a social media campaign with illustrations that appear to be AI-generated and that almost exclusively feature White men — part of an effort to promote the hiring of American citizens over foreign workers.”
“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired or sidelined at least two dozen generals and admirals over the past nine months in a series of ousters that could reshape the U.S. military for years to come,” the New York Times reports.
“His actions, which are without precedent in recent decades, have come with little explanation. In many cases, they have run counter to the advice of top military leaders who fought alongside the officers in combat, senior military officials said.”
“Pressure from the White House to speed up the pace of deportations has spawned infighting at the Department of Homeland Security over which tactics to use to remove more people from the U.S.,“ the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Longtime immigration officials, led by President Trump’s border czar Tom Homan and Todd Lyons, the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, want to rely on traditional methods including using police research to develop target lists, and to give priority to people with criminal histories…”
“Their approach has collided with that of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and top adviser Corey Lewandowski, who have opted for large, attention-grabbing operations such as the one in Chicago that are meant to push migrants to self-deport.”
“Cornell University reached an agreement with the Trump administration on Friday that will restore hundreds of millions in federal funding to the university,” the New York Times reports.
Out next week: Fateful Hours: The Collapse of the Weimar Republic by Volker Ullrich.
“Democracies are fragile. Freedoms that seem secure can be lost. Few historical events illustrate this as vividly as the failure of the Weimar Republic.”
“The Trump administration asked a federal appeals court to issue an emergency block on a judge’s order that it pay 42 million Americans their full SNAP benefits for November by Friday,” CNBC reports.
“A growing number of Senate Republicans are indicating they’re open to a deal on extending the Affordable Care Act premium subsidies,” Axios reports.
“A clear path forward on the ACA issue would solve one corner of the Senate’s puzzle to end the government shutdown. But reforms will be needed. There’s very little appetite for a straight extension.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
