Good morning! We’ve got a damp one, probably. There’s a good chance of rain this morning, and then we’ll be overcast for most of the day. We’re just barely going to hit 60 degrees, which means it might finally be time to break out your fall boots and jackets. It’s leather weather, baby.

Peace Deal in Gaza: It may have finally happened. Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of a peace deal. The truce would take place on Friday, starting a 72-hour window when they are expected to exchange hostages and prisoners. UN Secretary General António Guterres said the UN is ready to scale up food, water, shelter, and medical assistance in long-starving Gaza once a cease-fire goes into effect. The whole agreement is still on a razor’s edge, but today, Palestinians and Israelis are celebrating in the streets. 

Higher Education’s Situationship: Since Trump took aim at most of our higher education system at the top of his term, our major universities have been trying to figure out how to coexist with this administration—and most of them are deciding that a lil’ acquiescence is worth the hundreds of millions of dollars they want to keep from the federal government. Last week, the Trump administration sent letters to nine universities offering to put them at the front of the line for federal research funding if they align their campus with his administration. Instead of telling Trump where to shove it, according to the New York Times, Harvard officials are weighing their options—what’s a liiiittle authoritarianism, if they get to keep their funding?

If everything you just read made you a little queasy, I recommend this guest essay in NYT by a professor of democracy at Johns Hopkins. The attack on the university system is part of “Trump’s bigger agenda to remake American politics so that everyone wants to be his friend and no one dares to be his enemy,” he writes. “If the administration can reshape politics in such a way, it can create an enduring advantage for itself, as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey have done.” They win when society cracks, he writes. So it’s on universities to find solidarity with other institutions, not Trump. “Those who oppose authoritarianism have to play a different game, creating solidarity among an unwieldy coalition, which knows that if everyone holds together, they will surely succeed.”

Seattle’s Trolls Go to the White House: On Wednesday, Trump held an “Antifa Roundtable” and invited the internet’s worst people. The PNW’s far-right media contingent was well represented: Brandi Kruse told Trump that she used to suffer from “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” but now that she’s on board, she’s “happier,” “more healthy,” and “I think I’m even a little more attractive.” Jonathan Choe, who was there on behalf of Charlie Kirk’s TurningPoint USA, told Trump that he should be keeping an eye on Seattle’s Democratic Socialists of America, because their “research” says the DSA is “behind antifa.” Andy Ngo, Katie Daviscourt, and Nick Sortor all told their horror stories of their fight against antifa, and Trump told them they were very pretty.

The Ruse: The Roundtable was all part of Trump’s attempt to validate his belief that we’re in a civil war. Turns out, not even federal law enforcement believe that. Before Trump said he was going to send the National Guard to Portland, federal law enforcement reported that the protests were “low energy.” (Rude.) NYT reports that the on-the-ground info from the feds “offered no indication of a dangerous escalation of tensions, or unusual levels of protest activity that would prompt the level of alarm expressed by Mr. Trump.” 

The Government Is Still Shutdown. That’s it. That’s the tweet.

Trump Bombed Colombian Citizens: Remember when Trump attacked an alleged Venezuelan drug smuggling boat in the Caribbean? The president of Colombia says the boat was Colombian, and carrying Colombian citizens. “A new war zone has opened up,” he tweeted, without elaboration.

How are you coping with all this? We all have our vices, but don’t do it with 7 pounds of gummy cola bottles, okay? A man in the UK put himself in the hospital after scoring a bulk bag of the gummies for just 22 bucks, and housing them in three days. Don’t do that.

But What About the Big One?? Last night we had our last major, televised debate in the race for the mayor’s office, moderated by KOMO’s Chris Daniels, Seattle U’s professional-in-residence Joni Balter, and Seattle U student Diego Borromeo. We saw a lot of the same: Harrell insisting that Wilson doesn’t have the experience necessary to run the city; Wilson touting 14 years of coalition building that says otherwise. The vibes were… off. Doing her best Sara Nelson impression, Balter scolded the crowd of students any time they cheered for Wilson—claiming that it was eating into time for more questions. And the moderators threw in some of the weirdest “gotchas” I’ve seen yet. They asked Wilson what she would do if an earthquake hit the region, a non-political emergency prep question that was really just a thinly veiled attempt at taking their own dig at her experience. And then gave her a series of “yes/no” questions about whether or not she’s a Sawant-style socialist (which they then posed to Harrell, and allowed him to ramble on and on and on…). Can we go back to boycotting Sinclair media?

Balter's got a round of gotcha questions! WHAT KIND OF A SOCIALIST ARE YOU KATIE?? Do you support decriminalizing prostitution? A rent freeze? A $30 minimum wage in five years? ARE YOU KSHAMA, KATIE???

— Erica C. Barnett (@ericacbarnett.bsky.social) October 8, 2025 at 7:46 PM

 

For SOME reason, they're giving the same are-you-a-socialist questions to Harrell, and they're giving Harrell tons and tons of time to answer each yes/no question. How about some rapidfire gotcha questions aimed at him? No?

— Erica C. Barnett (@ericacbarnett.bsky.social) October 8, 2025 at 7:47 PM

Speaking of Experience: Seattleites have a lot of experience with Harrell now (and Sara Nelson and Ann Davison) and it turns out we simply didn’t like that experience very much. The Northwest Progressive Institute, which does regular “Civic Heartbeat” polling in Seattle, found that since 2021, Harrell, Nelson, and Davison’s approval ratings have consistently plummeted. The primary election wasn’t a fluke. It showed the incumbents what many of us already knew: their records suck, and it’s time for something new. Bye, Felicia.

The Egyptian Goes Dark: SIFF announced on Thursday morning that they're ending their lease with the Egyptian. The movie theater has been closed since a pipe burst and flooded the building in 2024, and in a press release, the nonprofit said that reopening "would not have contributed to SIFF's long-term organizational stability." Seattle Central still owns the building, but it's not clear what'll happen to it yet.  

Some Vibes for Your Morning: Sometimes you need a song to shake off the cobwebs and get you moving. And sometimes you need a soundtrack that makes you feel like you’re inside Zelda: Ocarina of Time. This is the latter. And if you want more of it, Patricia Wolf will be at the Chapel Performance Space this Saturday.