October 25-31, 2026
NEWS DIGEST
I voted. Did you?
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL
US consumers paying the most for fuel price spikes from Iran war, study says: US consumers are paying more than anyone in the world for the jump in fuel prices caused by supply disruptions resulting from the US war on Iran, including the virtual shutting and then blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a study said on Monday. REUTERS
Explosive report on the Epstein files and the cover-up to protect the President: A growing body of evidence demonstrates that Donald Trump was an active participant in Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of young women during the mid-to-late 1990s. The Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are doing everything they can to keep the American people in the dark about it. HOUSE DEMOCRATS JUDICIARY COMMITTEE
On multiple fronts, the Trump administration faces accusations of data manipulation: MSNBC's Steve Benen raises concerns about the reliability and transparency of federal government statistics under President Trump. A former senior Department of Homeland Security statistics official estimates that 790,000 to 1.9 million immigrants left the country between January 2025 and July 2026, far below the administration's claim of more than 3 million. The FBI has been accused of inflating its arrest statistics by including arrests made by state and local police, while the IRS has delayed releasing data on the impact of the 2025 Republican tax legislation. Meanwhile, proposed changes to the 2030 Census would exclude undocumented immigrants and certain legal immigrants from population counts. Benen argues that these developments reveal a troubling pattern of manipulating, withholding, or redefining government data for political purposes, undermining public trust in statistics that have historically been regarded as reliable and independent.
Courts push back against Justice Department intervention in elections: In California, a federal appeals court this week ruled 2-1 that the Justice Department had failed to justify its emergency bid to force the state to set aside mail ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters it alleges are likely noncitizens. A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Justice Department from threatening state and local election officials, dealing yet another legal setback to the Trump administration. REUTERS AP
Alaska Senate election embroiled in controversy over a second Dan Sullivan: Federal investigators are examining allegations surrounding the candidacy of Daniel J. Sullivan, a retired teacher whose name closely resembles that of Republican Senator Dan Sullivan. The Justice Department is seeking to isolate certain ballots as it investigates possible voter confusion. Democratic candidate Mary Peltola and the teacher deny involvement. NPR
CORRUPTION ALERT
Private prison was on sale for $75 million; ICE paid $495 million: New records obtained by KARE 11 show the company that owned a vacant private prison in Appleton, Minnesota, offered to sell it to the state in 2025 for $75 million. One year later, the Trump administration agreed to use taxpayer funds to buy the same abandoned prison from CoreCivic, Inc., for $495.6 million. KARE11
A Chinese businesswoman who had a close relationship with Jensen Huang was found to be passing intelligence to Beijing. President Trump was briefed and took no action: The US intelligence service believes a Chinese national named Alice Huang — who has served as a leader of Nvidia chip customer Megaspeed and who maintains a well-documented relationship with Huang himself — has acted as an intelligence asset and passed information to the governing party in Beijing. NYT
Trump offers $1 million bounty for ‘voter fraud’ ahead of Election Day: The announcement represents Trump’s latest attempt to present fraud and illegal voting by noncitizens — a vanishingly rare phenomenon — as a widespread problem that threatens the integrity of U.S. elections. DEMOCRACY DOCKET
As Trump brags about U.S. oil and gas company profits, his stocks gained millions during Iran war.: The president's personal holdings in oil and gas are now worth between $22.5 million and $81.6 million, compared with $12.6 million to $46 million at the end of 2025, according to a new report by Democrats on the Congressional Joint Economic Committee. CBS
DESI NEWS
Donald Trump loses support among South Asian American supporters ahead of November midterms, poll finds: A new survey finds US President Donald Trump has lost a significant chunk of his support among South Asian American voters, with 25% of those who voted for him in the 2024 presidential election planning to vote for the Democratic Party in the crucial November midterm election. HINDUSTAN TIMES
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