“Thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets on Thursday in the first nationwide opposition protest in nearly two years, as demonstrators demanded free elections and other political changes. The United States has been working closely with the interim government led by acting President Delcy Rodriguez since US forces captured President Nicolas Maduro in January. Both US President Donald Trump and Rodriguez, Maduro’s former deputy, have said there will be elections, but have not set a date either for a legislative vote or a national contest for president. Opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado, who has been outside the country for nearly a year after living in hiding following a contested 2024 election, has said elections must take place by July 2027. Her Vente Venezuela movement organized the protest, which took place in the capital Caracas, as well as cities including Valencia, Maracay, San Cristobal and Maracaibo.” (10/22/26)
“Roadblocks by truckers in southern Italy are exposing the limits of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s hardline approach toward protests, as she concedes she will have to take a carrot-and-stick approach to demonstrators struggling with soaring fuel costs. The demonstrations across the south are fast spiraling into a full-blown economic crisis. Truck drivers and farmers protesting soaring diesel bills have blocked highways, ports and distribution centers this week, leaving supermarket shelves empty and petrol pumps dry. Airports in the south are also suffering from fuel shortages. After a cabinet meeting on Thursday, the right-wing Meloni vowed to use a security decree to clear the roadblocks, but also pledged to give financial relief to farmers and fishermen crippled by the price of diesel.” (10/22/260
“Calley Means, the health entrepreneur who became the Trump administration’s most vocal advocate of the MAHA agenda, resigned from his senior adviser post on Thursday. Means’ departure two weeks before the midterm elections underscores the MAHA base’s discontent with the pace of change on food policy and the administration’s stances on issues like pesticide use. Means cited ‘entrenched, dark forces in DC’ in a statement on X but said he had ‘tremendous respect’ for the way President Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. laid out a vision for change.” (10/22/26)
“New York City council passed a bill Thursday that would ban horse-drawn carriage rides by June 2028, pulling back the reins after the death of a teenage tourist last spring. The legislation requires Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s office to develop a plan by next April to help the more than 150 remaining drivers and the rest of the industry find other jobs, though its provisions are vague and doesn’t set clear benchmarks for displaced workers. Instead, it requires city hall to come up with a program that includes job referrals, career counselling and educational opportunities. It also allows the administration to consider some form of compensation for industry workers.” (10/22/26)
“Israel has released nine of the 10 Israeli [squatter] suspects arrested over attacks on a US journalist and European diplomats in the occupied West Bank, placing them under house arrest. An Israeli court in Jerusalem ordered the release late on Wednesday, according to Honenu, a law firm that represents Israeli [squatters]. … Masked [squatters] were filmed last week assaulting Heidi Levine, a Washington Post photojournalist covering a Palestinian olive harvest who was taken to hospital and underwent surgery on a finger. In a separate attack earlier this week, masked [squatters] assaulted French, Belgian and Polish diplomats and a French mayor in another part of the West Bank.” (10/22/26)
“The U.S. Department of Justice has opened a probe into allegations former Department of Homeland Security official Corey Lewandowski profited off his position, according to U.S. media reports. The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and CNN cited unnamed people with the situation as saying the investigation follows a criminal referral by the DHS inspector general for Lewandowski, who served as former DHS Secretary Kriski Noem’s de facto chief of staff. Lewandowski and Noem were ousted from DHS in March following embarrassing disclosures about infighting and spending at the agency. … Either Lewandowski or close associations approved nearly all DHS spending decisions on sums of more than $100,000, giving him insight into the contractors the agency worked with and the power to hold up contracts.” (10/22/26)
“Tom Skerritt, who starred in the TV series ‘Picket Fences’ and appeared in movies ranging from ‘MASH’ to ‘Alien,’ ‘Top Gun,’ ‘A River Runs Through It’ and ‘Ted,’ died on Wednesday of natural causes, Variety has confirmed with his publicist. He was 93. The lean, rugged, mustachioed actor won an Emmy in 1993 and was also nominated in 1994 for playing Jimmy Brock, sheriff of the oddball town at the center of David E. Kelley’s CBS dramedy ‘Picket Fences.'” (10/22/26)
“The International Criminal Court has won this year’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, awarded by the European Parliament, according to two people with knowledge of the decision. The €50,000 prize honors defenders of human rights and freedom of thought, with past winners including Nelson Mandela, Alexei Navalny, Belarusian journalists, and the people of Ukraine. The Socialists and Democrats group nominated the ICC following U.S. President Donald Trump’s sanctions on the court, announced on Oct. 9.” (10/22/26)
“A 54-year-old teacher who survived a mass shooting at an Oregon elementary school said she pretended to be dead so the gunman would not shoot her again. Becky Drury, a teacher at Silver Rail Elementary School, said in a statement shared with US media that as she tried to shut her classroom door, the gunman shot her and she fell to the floor. ‘I did the only thing I could do, which was to pretend to be dead in the hope he would not shoot me again,’ Drury said. The attacker – who has been identified as a 16-year-old former student at the school – killed three students and a teacher before a parent from the school fatally shot him. In her first remarks since the 15 October shooting in Bend, Oregon, Drury said that she went to see what was happening outside the special-education classroom, and after spotting the shooter, she tried to shut the door.” (10/22/26)
“Authorities have arrested the mayor of Kissimmee, Fla., on allegations that she abused her office and stole tens of thousands of dollars in COVID-19 relief funds intended to help local businesses recover from the pandemic. Eva Jacquelyn Espinosa was arrested Wednesday on one count each of grand theft and organized scheme to defraud, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced in a press conference. … The charges stem from the City of Kissimmee’s Business Boost 2.0 Grant Program, a federally funded program launched in September 2025 to aid small businesses in overcoming lingering economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.” (10/22/26)
