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TDFP News Roundup – 10/22/26

Writer: Yossi Schmidt
Yossi Schmidt
3 days ago
8 min read

Today’s 20 stories from The Digital Free Press, led by Russia agreeing to resume three-way Ukraine peace talks after Nov. 10, an alleged ISIS-inspired plot to assassinate Rep. Keith Self, a Treasury rule to bar big investors from buying single-family homes, and the State Department ordering non-emergency U.S. staff out of Saudi Arabia.



Part 1: Top 10 Stories


1. Russia agrees to resume three-way Ukraine peace talks with the U.S. and Kyiv after Nov. 10

Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed “in principle” to restart three-way negotiations with the United States and Ukraine after Nov. 10, Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said Wednesday after Putin met U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff in St. Petersburg, the Associated Press reported. Ushakov said the talks will focus on “building a security system for Russia and Ukraine after the conflict ends.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he supported the push to restart talks quickly but added, “We’ll see what happens this time,” the AP reported.


2. Texas teen accused of plotting to assassinate Rep. Keith Self on behalf of ISIS

A 17-year-old from McKinney, Texas, allegedly plotted to assassinate Republican Rep. Keith Self on behalf of ISIS and was arrested by the FBI on Oct. 5 after getting a firearm, the New York Post reported, citing sources who spoke to WFAA. The unidentified teen, who allegedly planned to carry out the attack at a public cook-off, remains in federal custody, according to the Post. “This only strengthens my resolve. I will not back down,” Self wrote on X.


3. Treasury proposes a rule barring big investors from buying single-family homes

The Treasury Department is proposing a rule Thursday that would bar institutional investors from buying single-family homes starting Jan. 7, 2027, unless the purchase is an “excepted purchase,” such as build-to-rent, renovate-to-rent and homeownership programs, the New York Post reported. The rule implements the ROAD to Housing Act, which defines institutional investors as those owning 350 homes or more, and will outline civil penalties, according to the Post. “Under President Trump, this Administration continues to restore the path to affordable homeownership for millions of young and working families,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.


4. State Department orders non-emergency U.S. staff out of Saudi Arabia as Houthi attacks intensify

The State Department has ordered non-emergency U.S. government employees and their families to leave Saudi Arabia as Houthi missile and drone attacks intensify across the kingdom, Fox News reported. Spokesperson Tommy Pigott said Wednesday the ordered departure applies to “Saudi Arabia only,” pushing back on reports of a wider evacuation across the Gulf. President Trump is weighing direct U.S. military strikes against the Iran-backed Houthis, according to Fox.

Source: Fox News


5. New Mexico judge orders Meta to pay $25 billion in penalties

A New Mexico state judge on Wednesday ordered Meta to pay $25 billion in penalties in a case brought by state Attorney General Raúl Torrez, the Daily Wire reported. The company faced potential penalties of roughly $219 billion before Judge Francis J. Mathew reduced the amount to $25 billion, according to the Daily Wire. “This ruling, and the Attorney General’s approach to this enforcement, makes it all but impossible to do business in the state of New Mexico,” Meta attorney C.J. Mahoney said in a statement.


6. Trump administration asks the Supreme Court to restart the Big Bend border wall

The Trump administration filed an emergency appeal Wednesday asking the Supreme Court to lift a lower court order that halted border wall construction across the Big Bend region of Texas, Breitbart News reported. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone ordered the government on Oct. 2 to stop work across the roughly 500-mile project area, about a quarter of the U.S.-Mexico border, while a lawsuit plays out. The fight centers on Homeland Security waivers that let Customs and Border Protection skip environmental rules, which Cardone found likely went beyond what the law allows, according to Breitbart.


7. Supreme Court won’t let the Trump administration end gender treatments for federal prisoners for now

The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the Trump administration’s request to pause a lower court order blocking a Bureau of Prisons policy that ends gender transition procedures for federal inmates, the Daily Wire reported. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito would have granted the request, according to the court’s order, which gave no reasoning. “While we’re disappointed in the Court’s order, this isn’t a final decision on the merits,” a Justice Department spokesman told the Daily Wire, adding that the department will pursue its appeal in the D.C. Circuit.


8. Trump tells data center builders to pay neighbors a “dividend” if they want local support

President Trump wrote on Truth Social early Wednesday that companies wanting their data centers to be popular should “pay the community, and/or individuals within the community, a ‘dividend,’” the Daily Caller reported. Trump said new large data centers “are mandated by me to make their own electricity, and give or sell any excess back to the local community, or grid.” An ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll released Wednesday found 72% of Americans oppose building a new data center where they live, according to the Daily Caller.

Source: Daily Caller


9. Trump’s political groups have spent nearly $277 million in the final stretch of the midterms

President Trump’s flagship super PAC, MAGA Inc., has reported spending nearly $277 million since the beginning of September, according to new federal campaign finance filings, the Associated Press reported. That includes transfers of $200 million to No Going Back PAC Inc. and $25 million to Safety & Affordability PAC Inc., the AP said. “It’s more than any president has ever spent, by far, on the midterms,” GOP strategist Corry Bliss told the AP.


10. Retired NYPD detective charged with murder in a George Washington Bridge shooting

Victor Romero, 62, a retired NYPD detective from Haverstraw, faces a murder charge after he allegedly shot and killed Con Edison worker Koran Irvine, 46, on the George Washington Bridge on Tuesday, the NYPD said, according to Fox News. Irvine was shot in the shoulder while driving, crashed into a median and was later pronounced dead at a hospital, Fox reported. The New York Post reported that the shooting appeared to be a road rage attack.

Source: Fox News


Part 2: 10 More Stories, Only on TDFP


11. Trump says it’s too “early” to endorse Vance for 2028

President Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday that Vice President JD Vance is “a very talented person” but that it is too early to endorse him for a potential 2028 presidential run, Breitbart News reported. “We are very early right now. We have to get through the midterms, we’ll see how it goes,” Trump said. A day earlier, Vance told journalist Mark Halperin he thought he would get Trump’s endorsement but had not talked to him about it, according to Breitbart.


12. DOJ moves to remove two Minnesota federal judges from immigration cases over their comments

Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodard filed motions Tuesday seeking to remove U.S. District Judges Patrick Schiltz and John Tunheim from separate immigration-related cases, arguing that their comments to the New York Times about immigration enforcement raise questions about their impartiality, the Washington Examiner reported. The cases involve the Trump administration’s effort to strip a Minnesota man of his U.S. citizenship and the prosecution of a South African woman accused of voting illegally in the 2024 election, according to the Examiner.


13. California state workers strike for the first time over a return-to-office mandate, pay and health care

Members of SEIU Local 1000, the largest union for California government workers with more than 100,000 employees, began a one-day strike Wednesday, hitting the picket lines for the first time since the union’s founding in 2004, the Associated Press reported. The union wants Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration to agree to a new contract with higher pay, affordable health care and more remote work flexibility after its contract expired in June, the AP said. Newsom ordered state workers back to the office four days a week by July 1, arguing it would improve collaboration, according to the AP.


14. Energy Secretary Chris Wright says the administration is talking about reopening idled refineries

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Tuesday in Houston that the Trump administration has been talking with the owners of every refinery that closed in the past decade about bringing one back to produce more fuel, the Daily Caller reported, citing Argus Media. “We are talking about reopening every refinery we can,” Wright said. “There are dialogues there, and that’s a tough challenge. I’m not saying all these are going to happen.”

Source: Daily Caller


15. Feds say they uncovered nearly $42 million in alleged food stamp fraud; Atlanta rapper charged

Vice President JD Vance and Justice and Agriculture Department officials said Wednesday in Cincinnati that a Trump administration crackdown has uncovered nearly $42 million in food stamp fraud, the New York Post reported. Prosecutors indicted Atlanta social media personality Mercedes New, known as “Shawty Dred,” on 46 counts of mail fraud, 15 counts of aggravated identity theft and one count of food stamp fraud, alleging he used more than 350 fake accounts built on stolen identities to obtain SNAP cards, according to the Post. “We’ve indicted men and women in 13 different districts just in the past seven weeks,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said.


16. Trump says federal law enforcement prevented $1.6 billion in cybercrime losses this year

President Trump said at a White House roundtable on Wednesday that federal law enforcement has warned over 10,000 Americans targeted by scammers and “prevented $1.6 billion in losses at least this year,” Breitbart News reported. Trump said agencies have also frozen nearly $1 billion in cryptocurrency tied to foreign scammers and shut down more than 500 fraudulent websites. He said the administration is “aggressively confronting the sexual extortion rackets” that target young people, according to Breitbart.


17. DHS says there is “absolutely ZERO chance” a new migrant caravan gets into the U.S.

The Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday there is “absolutely ZERO chance this caravan will be allowed into the United States,” responding to video of a group moving north through southern Mexico, the Daily Wire reported. The caravan left Tapachula, Mexico, on Tuesday with roughly 500 to 600 people, mostly Hondurans, Guatemalans and Salvadorans, according to Mexican media cited by the Daily Wire. “We will protect our borders — America is a nation, not an economic zone,” DHS said.


18. Trump administration drops its fight to overhaul student loan forgiveness for public workers

The Justice Department on Wednesday dropped two appeals of June court rulings that blocked the Trump administration’s overhaul of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, the New York Post reported. The rule would have let the education secretary remove employers from the program if their work was found to have a “substantial illegal purpose,” according to the Post. Federal officials gave no explanation for dropping the appeals.


19. Pope Leo XIV needs no further cancer treatment after his lung tumor was removed, doctors say

Pope Leo XIV will need no further treatment for lung cancer after final tests confirmed the disease was localized, his doctors said Wednesday, Fox News reported. “The results confirmed that the tumor was a lung adenocarcinoma and that the disease was localized,” Dr. Luigi Carbone and Professor Stefano Margaritora said in a statement. The pope had surgery Oct. 13 at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, according to Fox.

Source: Fox News


20. Texas deputy killed in a shootout while helping serve a felony warrant

Van Zandt County, Texas, Sheriff’s Deputy Adam Sherifi was killed Tuesday night in a shootout while helping Canton police serve a felony warrant, Breitbart News reported, citing KLTV. The man they sought, wanted on warrants for aggravated assault and aggravated assault on a peace officer, fired from inside a house, hitting Sherifi and a Canton police officer, according to Breitbart. The suspect was later found dead inside the home.


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