“The U.S. Anglican archbishop has been accused of sexual misconduct and abuse of power, according to a recently filed complaint. Stephen Wood, 62, has been accused by a former children’s ministry worker of putting his hand on the back of her head and attempting to kiss her in his office in April 2024. The alleged incident happened two months before Wood ascended to the church’s top post, The Washington Post reported. The woman, Claire Buxton, also accused Wood of unexpectedly giving her approximately $35,000 from church coffers before he made the alleged advance. Wood, the father of four children, remains the rector of St. Andrew’s Church in Charleston, S.C., and a bishop who oversees more than 40 churches across the southern United States. Woods stands to be defrocked and forced to resign if his case goes to an ecclesiastical trial.” (10/23/25)
“As Politico and other news outlets reported over the past week on old posts written by progressive US Senate candidate Graham Platner and a tattoo he got while in the military, pollsters with the University of New Hampshire were speaking to Mainers about their views on the state’s Democratic primary, in which Platner is now facing Gov. Janet Mills along with several other candidates. Despite the media onslaught, UNH’s Pine Tree State Poll revealed on Thursday that voters in Maine heavily favor Platner, who has spent the past two months since his campaign launch speaking to overflow crowds about his platform — one that is focused on making life more affordable for Maine families, shifting the Democratic Party away from corporate interests and toward the needs of working people, and ensuring corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share to provide for the needs of all Mainers.” (10/23/25)
“A mid-Michigan police chief says he will rescind a cooperation agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — not because of backlash against it but because of staffing issues he can’t otherwise resolve. Metro Police Authority Chief Matt Bade told MLive-The Flint Journal of his decision on Wednesday, Oct. 22, just hours after advising his department’s oversight board of his plans. Metro was created when Mundy Township and the city of Swartz Creek merged their police departments in 2017. … Bade has said his agreement with ICE would have enabled five officers within the department to hold individuals until they could be taken into custody by the Department of Homeland Security. But the chief said Wednesday that those officers haven’t completed the required 40 hours of training to participate and won’t be able to because of other duties.” (10/22/25)
“The elite Central Committee of China’s ruling Communist Party replaced 11 members at a key meeting, Xinhua reported on Thursday, its highest personnel turnover since 2017 amid an ongoing military corruption purge. Veteran Chinese general Zhang Shengmin, 67, was promoted to second-ranked vice chair of the powerful Central Military Commission, Xinhua said, quoting a party statement. The statement was released on the last day of a key closed-door meeting of the 300-plus member body in Beijing known as the Fourth Plenum, which also discussed a five-year economic development plan to achieve technological self-reliance amid an intensifying rivalry with the United States. Zhang, who currently serves on the CMC, replaces He Weidong, the former second-ranked vice chair who was expelled from the Communist Party last week on corruption charges along with eight other People’s Liberation Army generals.” (10/23/25)
“The United Nations chief delivered a strong defense of science and meteorology on Wednesday, praising the U.N. weather agency for helping save lives by keeping watch for climate disasters around the world. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke to the World Meteorological Organization as science faces an assault in the United States: President Donald Trump’s administration has led an anti-science push, and Trump has called climate change ‘a con job.’ A longtime advocate for the fight against global warming, Guterres spoke at a special WMO meeting aimed to promote early-warning systems that help countries rich and poor brace for floods, storms, forest fires and heat waves. ‘Without your long-term monitoring, we wouldn’t benefit from the warnings and guidance that protect communities and save millions of lives and billions of dollars each year,’ he said, alluding to ‘the dangerous and existential threat of climate change’.” (10/22/25)
“Early voter turnout exceeds expectations in California’s Nov. 4 special election over redrawing the state’s congressional districts, a Democratic-led effort to counter Republican attempts to keep Congress under GOP control. ‘We’re seeing some pretty extraordinary numbers of early votes that have already been cast, people sending back in their ballots,’ Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a livestream with former President Obama on Wednesday. More than 3.4 million mail ballots have been returned as of Wednesday, with votes from Democrats outpacing ballots from Republicans and Californians registered as not having a party preference, according to a ballot tracker run by Democratic strategist Paul Mitchell. … That’s roughly the same number of ballots returned by this time in the White House contest between then-Vice President Kamala Harris and then-former President Trump in 2024, notable because turnout during presidential elections is higher than in other years.” (10/22/25)
“Israel’s Supreme Court on Thursday pushed back the hearing of a petition filed by an organisation representing international media outlets in Israel and the Palestinian territories, demanding independent access for journalists to Gaza. Since the Gaza war began in October 2023, Israeli authorities have prevented foreign journalists from entering the devastated territory, taking only a handful of reporters inside on tightly controlled visits alongside its troops. … While Israel has prevented foreign reporters from entering Gaza, its forces have killed more than 210 Palestinian journalists in the territory, Antoine Bernard, RSF’s director for advocacy and assistance, said on Tuesday.” (10/23/25)
“Law enforcement officials have made more than 1,000 arrests and found dozens of missing children in Memphis, Tennessee, as part of President Donald Trump’s crime crackdown in the notoriously violent city, Fox News Digital learned Wednesday. ‘From arresting more than 100 gang members to locating more than 70 missing children, our brave federal agents and local authorities are doing incredible work to protect the good people of Memphis,’ Attorney General Pam Bondi said Wednesday in comment to Fox News Digital. ‘Tolerating crime is a choice: under President Trump, we refuse to accept the victimization of innocent American citizens and will continue making our cities safe again.'” (10/23/25)
“Social media giant Reddit has launched a lawsuit against artificial intelligence company Perplexity, alleging that it illegally scraped user posts to train its AI model, marking the latest data-rights clash between content owners and the AI industry. The complaint filed in New York federal court on Wednesday also named three defendants, which Reddit says helped Perplexity collect its data: Lithuanian data scraper Oxylabs, ‘former Russian botnet’ AWMProxy, and Texas startup SerpApi. Reddit alleged that the three smaller entities were able to extract its copyrighted content ‘by masking their identities, hiding their locations and disguising their web scrapers as regular people.'” (10/23/25)
“North Korea successfully tested a ‘new cutting-edge weapons system’ involving hypersonic missiles, state-run media reported Thursday, amid heightened regional tensions ahead of the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea. Two hypersonic projectiles were launched in a northeast direction from the Pyongyang area and hit targets on a plateau of Kwesang Peak in Orang County, North Kamgyong Province, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.” (10/23/25)
