“Israeli [squatter] militants have attacked European diplomats, a French mayor and the archbishop of Cambrai in Taybeh, in the occupied West Bank, injuring three people and damaging a car, in the latest violent attempt to prevent Palestinians from harvesting olives on their own land. Bernard Baudoux, mayor of Aulnoye-Aymeries, was wearing his red, white and blue sash of office and attempting to enter a vehicle with diplomatic plates when he was assaulted and knocked to the ground on Saturday. … [Squatters] first attacked a group working on the lower slopes of hills near Taybeh. As well as stealing olives, they kicked, abused and assaulted a Palestinian woman in her 70s and beat a man so badly he needed six stitches for a head injury. Then they approached the diplomats and Badoux, who was in Taybeh for the launch of a twinning agreement with his town in northern France.” (10/17/26)
“A judge dismissed child sex abuse charges against actor Timothy Busfield on Friday because, he said, prosecutors ‘failed to act in a fair and impartial manner.’ Busfield, 69, was indicted by a grand jury in New Mexico in February on four counts of criminal sexual contact of a child on the set of the Fox television series The Cleaning Lady. Busfield, who acted in and directed the show from 2022 to 2024, was indicted after accusations of groping twin boys who worked as child actors on the show. … He denied all charges, and said the boys’ parents were seeking ‘revenge’ after the child actors were not invited back for the show’s final season, Variety reported.” (10/16/26)
“A nursery owner and five members of her staff have been jailed after they were found to have poisoned more than 200 children with lead-tainted food. Li Huifang, who operated the Heshi Peixin Kindergarten in Tianshui, in the Gansu province, was sentenced to life in prison for producing and selling toxic and harmful food, according to Chinese state media. In July 2025, 247 pupils and staff at the nursery were found to have abnormally high blood lead levels after children began falling ill. A report into the incident found that chefs at Heshi Peixin had used inedible paint to ‘enhance the look’ of its meals to attract more students – despite the paint being being clearly marked as such. In addition to the sentence, the Lanzhou Intermediate People’s Court also ordered the confiscation of 500,000 yuan (£56,200; $74,700) of Li’s personal assets, state broadcaster CCTV reported.” (10/17/26)
“Lawyer Juan Francisco Solorzano Foppa, known for his high-profile cases against powerful businessmen in Guatemala, has died after being shot by two men during a visit to a sports centre. The attack on Saturday at the Campo Marte sports complex in Guatemala City resulted in the deaths of Foppa and another man, Gustavo Adolfo Aguilar Gamarro, according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office. Foppa was a 43-year-old former prosecutor and anticorruption lawyer who denounced wrongdoing by some of Guatemala’s most powerful politicians, business leaders and companies, and in 2023 briefly joined the defence team of a prominent journalist.” (10/18/26)
“California Highway Patrol officers had a highly unusual task this week — catching the second-largest bird in the world. California Highway Patrol officers in Santa Cruz received several calls about an emu walking into traffic at Harper Street and 17th Avenue. The big bird had escaped from its owner and traipsed its way in and out of traffic. ‘While we often deal with dogs, cats, deer, and occasionally birds, an emu was unexpected!’ CHP Santa Cruz said on Facebook. An emu loose on a highway can pose a deadly risk to drivers if struck by a vehicle, according to the American Emu Association. The owner quickly arrived to recover their feathered friend, and with the help of the officers, the owner was able to corral the animal and get it back home.” (10/16/26)
“Katie Zacharia is no longer the White House press secretary after five days in the role, bringing an abrupt end to a tumultuous tenure …. Zacharia’s brief stint started off rocky and went downhill from there. Her first press conference was widely panned. Then followed revelations that she inflated her credentials, calling herself an attorney when she never passed the bar exam — though she did graduate from Pepperdine University Law School.” (10/16/26)
THANK YOU to subscribing contributors WSS3, MM, and ES, and to long-time supporters RB and SZ! Their contributions yesterday, totaling $170, bring our annual fundraiser total (as of 5am) to $990.50!
That gets us to 1/3 of our goal (once we’ve raised $2,751.50, supporter GL will “match funds” to make it $5,503) … and once we reach that goal, I’ll stop hectoring you about money completely for the rest of the year, and almost completely until next October. So:
PLEASE SUPPORT THE FREEDOM MOVEMENT’S DAILY NEWSPAPER!
We don’t do FIREHOSE FRIDAYS very often these days, in part because we now include extra web-only content, above and beyond our 60-item email digest, EVERY day, but it’s worth turning on the water every once in a while both to call attention to how much content we’re collecting for you and to drag you over to the web edition where you might …
… and today we’ve got more than 100 news stories, opinion pieces, and audio video links lined up for you at the web site.
Since the firehose is already on at both the content and fundraising ends, let’s keep it on over the weekend — our “mini-goal” is to hit the $1,500 mark by 5am on Monday. I’ve already given you that URL in big letters twice above.
Have a happy, healthy, and prosperous weekend!
Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily
“Five people have been killed and 16 injured in a Houthi missile attack targeting the presidential palace in the port city of Aden in southern Yemen, which is the seat of the [Saudi puppet regime], officials say. Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani told the BBC that the prime minister and other ministers were unhurt when five ballistic missiles hit al-Maashiq Palace. The Houthis’ military spokesman, Yahya Sarea, said they struck ‘the Saudi enemy’s military operations headquarters in Aden’.” (10/15/26)
“A Trump donor who Kimberly Guilfoyle allegedly asked to wire her $100,000 has sued the former ambassador to Greece, alleging she defamed him when she disputed the allegations against her. Eric Deters, a talk radio host, former lawyer and unsuccessful Republican candidate for Kentucky governor and a House seat, said he sued Guilfoyle over her statements to the Wall Street Journal after the newspaper published messages that appear to show the former ambassador asking him to wire $100,000 to her American Express account. … Deters said he planned to depose Guilfoyle and Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son who was engaged to Guilfoyle for years, claiming the case ‘might bring down the entire Trump administration, an administration I have supported since Day 1.'” (10/15/26)
“Ukrainian drones attacked a refinery in Russia’s Ryazan region early Thursday, hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that a brief truce spurned by Moscow was over amid deepening tensions with Washington. The drone strike started a fire at the refinery about 300 kilometers (180 miles) southeast of Moscow, Russia’s Defense Ministry and Ryazan Gov. Pavel Malkov said. Russia’s Astra online news outlet posted what it said was a photograph of the blaze. A senior Ukrainian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly, confirmed that Ukraine had hit the refinery. … Three people were killed and six others injured after the Kirovohrad region of central Ukraine came under a Russian drone attack lasting more than 10 hours, Ukraine’s Emergency Services said Thursday.” (10/15/26)
