“The hometown of jailed drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman has been hit in attacks by explosive-laden drones, the governor of the northwest Mexican state of Sinaloa said on Tuesday. Authorities did not specify when the strikes on Badiraguato, Guzman’s birthplace and the historical stronghold of drug trafficking in Mexico, took place. Displaced residents said attacks in the region began in September. Dozens of residents were forced to leave the area, Governor Ruben Rocha Moya told a news conference. … The attack in Guzman’s hometown comes just days after a drone attack hit the prosecutor’s office in the Mexican border city of Tijuana.” (10/29/25)
“Attorneys for Sami Hamdi, a British political commentator being held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in California, are challenging his detention in court, his legal team said Wednesday. Hamdi, who is Muslim, was detained Sunday by ICE officers at San Francisco International Airport, according to federal officials. His lawyers say the arrest was triggered by his criticism of the Israeli government, while U.S. officials have pointed to comments he made after Hamas'[s] Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, which they claim celebrated the violence.” (10/29/25)
“The White House on Tuesday fired all six members of the Commission of Fine Arts, an independent federal agency that had expected to review some of President Donald Trump’s construction projects, including his planned triumphal arch and White House ballroom. … The commission, which was established by Congress more than a century ago and traditionally includes a mix of architects and urban planners, is charged with providing advice to the president, Congress and local government officials on design matters related to construction projects in the capital region. Its focus includes government buildings, monuments and memorials. White House officials have traditionally sought the agency’s approval.” (10/28/25)
“A new ‘quiet’ supersonic X-59 jet designed to revolutionize air travel successfully completed its first test flight, Lockheed Martin announced this week. The sleek, needle-point aircraft built for NASA is designed to break the sound barrier while reducing the sonic boom to a ‘thump’, according to the aerospace contractor. The aircraft aims to overcome one of the major hurdles to supersonic travel, which is noise restrictions over land. The plane took off from Palmdale, Calif., at Skunk Works’ facility at U.S. Air Force Plant 42, accompanied by a NASA chase plane. It landed safely about an hour later at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center. The plane’s unique shape is designed to greatly lower the volume of the sonic boom typically produced when a plane breaks the sound barrier.” (10/29/25)
“Rodrigo Duterte, the former president of the Philippines, has appealed last week’s decision by the International Criminal Court to continue its case against him and is seeking his release, court documents showed on Wednesday. Last week, ICC judges ruled that the court had jurisdiction over Duterte’s case despite his team’s contention that the court did not open a full-fledged investigation into alleged crimes in the Philippines until after the country had withdrawn from the ICC in 2019. Duterte, president from 2016 to 2022, was arrested and taken to The Hague in March on an arrest warrant that linked him to murders committed during his war on drugs in the Philippines. During that campaign, thousands of alleged narcotics peddlers and users were killed. Duterte and his lawyers maintain his arrest was unlawful.” (10/29/25)
“Two purported Russian mobsters were each sentenced to 25 years behind bars Wednesday for hiring a hitman to kill Iranian American journalist Masih Alinejad at her Brooklyn home three years ago on behalf of the Iranian government. ‘I crossed an ocean to come to America and have a normal life and I don’t have a normal life,’ Alinejad said just before Judge Colleen McMahon announced the sentences in Manhattan federal court for Rafat Amirov, 46, and Polad Omarov, 41. ‘I’m a brave woman. I’m a strong woman. They couldn’t break me. But they brought fear to my life. These criminals turned my life upside down,’ Alinejad said as she spoke at a lectern near the men, who sat in prison uniforms with their hands folded before them. McMahon said the men had committed ‘a terrible, terrible crime.’ Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael D. Lockard had urged McMahon to dispense 55-year prison terms to the men.” (10/29/25)
“A federal judge disqualified acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli in Southern California from several cases after concluding Tuesday that the Trump appointee has stayed in the temporary job longer than allowed by law. U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright disqualified Essayli from supervising the criminal prosecutions in three cases, siding with defense lawyers. Essayli has been unlawfully serving as acting U.S. attorney for the Central District of California since July 29, Seabright wrote. But he may continue to serve as a First Assistant United States Attorney, Seabright ruled, effectively leaving him as the office’s top prosecutor. … The decision represents another setback to the Trump administration’s effort to extend handpicked acting U.S. attorneys beyond the 120-day limit set by federal law.” (10/28/25)
“Saudi Arabia is preparing to shift its $925 billion sovereign wealth fund away from a focus on real estate gigaprojects that have dominated its development goals for the last decade, a source with direct knowledge of the plans told Reuters. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, known as MbS, introduced his Vision 2030 plan in 2016 to transform the economy with a focus on large real-state projects.” (10/29/25)
“You can only walk 6 kilometers per hour if you want to follow the law in Slovakia. The Slovak parliament Tuesday afternoon adopted an amendment to the traffic law that sets a maximum permitted speed on sidewalks in urban areas at 6 kph. The limit applies to pedestrians, cyclists, skaters, and scooter and e-scooter riders — all of who are allowed on sidewalks — and aims to avoid frequent collisions. … The average walking speed typically ranges between 4 to 5 kph. However, the British Heart Foundation reports that a pace of 6.4 kilometers per hour is considered moderate for someone with excellent fitness. The opposition criticized the change, and even the Slovak Interior Ministry said it would be more appropriate to prohibit e-scooters from the sidewalks than impose a general speed limit.” (10/29/25)
“The conservative city council in Huntington Beach, Orange County’s deep-red MAGA stronghold, has been unrelenting in its yearslong battle over so-called pornographic children’s books at its public libraries. Now, after seemingly endless legal battles, the council is gearing up for another round in court. In a crusade to keep certain books out of the public library’s children’s section, the conservative-majority political body voted Tuesday, Oct. 21, to appeal a judge’s court order from earlier in the month that found the city had wrongfully banned books at its public libraries, the Los Angeles Times reported. The Huntington Beach City Council, whose members refer to themselves as the ‘MAGA-nificent Seven’, pushed back after an Orange County Superior Court mandated that the city drop its 2023 order to censor children’s books. Instead, Huntington Beach has to eliminate its newly created youth-restricted zone and return the books to the regular children’s section.” (10/29/25)
