Independent newsroom

Thursday, October 22, 2026

The File

Every claim traces to a primary source. Uncertainty is labeled. Corrections are public.

Edition

Thursday, October 22, 2026

Thursday edition

Security

PHP ships emergency fixes for two flaws found with AI

Confirmed
The people who maintain PHP, software that runs a large share of websites, released emergency fixes on Wednesday for two flaws that can let a stranger take over a server without a password. The U.S. cyber agency told organizations to patch “immediately.”12

Sources · 4 listed

Supreme Court

Supreme Court keeps a block on prison hormone care

Confirmed
The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to pause a lower-court order that blocks a Federal Bureau of Prisons policy on care for inmates with gender dysphoria. The case is , No. . Justice Thomas and Justice Alito would have granted the stay.1

Sources · 3 listed

Aviation

FAA lets BETA fly an electric aircraft for market surveys

Confirmed
The Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday gave BETA Technologies a new certificate for its battery-powered ALIA A250, an aircraft that takes off and lands straight up. The certificate lets the company fly with operators so they can see whether the aircraft fits their work. It is not permission to carry paying passengers.1

Sources · 1 listed

Washington

Prosecutors charge Jerrell Jackson in the Capitol Hill shooting

Partially confirmed

Updated 6:40 a.m. ET, Oct. 22

Federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged Jerrell Lamont Jackson by criminal complaint in the Capitol Hill shooting that wounded a National Guard member. The U.S. Attorney's Office says the wounded man is a Georgia National Guardsman. His name and unit are still not public. The charges are allegations.12

Sources · 3 listed

Voting

Judge pauses door-to-door voter checks in nine states

Confirmed
A federal judge in California on Wednesday blocked the Department of Homeland Security from door-to-door voter inquiries in nine states. The order is not in effect yet. Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín stayed it until 5:00 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 23. The order does not say which time zone that clock uses.1

Sources · 1 listed

Courts

New Mexico says Facebook must pay a $25 billion penalty

Confirmed
New Mexico's attorney general said Wednesday that a court ordered Facebook to pay $25 billion in civil penalties. He said a jury found 43,899,725 violations of the in a privacy case tied to Cambridge Analytica. Meta's response was not obtained.1

Sources · 2 listed

Jobs

Median weekly pay rose less than prices last quarter

Confirmed
The typical full-time worker earned $1,232 a week in July through September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said at 10:00 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday. That was 1.5 percent more than a year earlier. Consumer prices rose 3.5 percent over the same stretch, the bureau said.1

Sources · 1 listed

Companies

AT&T lifts its profit outlook as other firms report

Confirmed
AT&T said Wednesday that quarterly revenue was $32.3 billion, up 5.3 percent from a year earlier, and that it is raising its outlook for 2026 adjusted earnings per share to the $2.40 range. IBM, Texas Instruments, and Lam Research also reported. The numbers are the companies'.1234

Sources · 4 listed

Space

NASA test-fires an RS-25 engine for eight minutes

Confirmed
A rocket engine firing on a test stand, with a bright exhaust plume.
NASA conducts a hot fire of RS-25 engine No. 10001 on the Fred Haise Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, on Oct. 21, 2026. Credit: NASA/Danny Nowlin. Source. Public domain. A work of the U.S. government, created by NASA.
NASA on Wednesday fired an RS-25 rocket engine for almost eight and a half minutes, the same burn the engines make when the Space Launch System leaves the pad. The test was at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The engine on the stand will not fly.1

Sources · 1 listed

Space

NASA plans a faster way to pick science missions

Confirmed
NASA told scientists it wants to choose missions faster. Associate administrator Nicola Fox said the agency will hold a virtual town hall on Monday, Oct. 26, to explain Competition Model 2.0. The letter does not give a time of day.1

Sources · 1 listed

Energy

Geological Survey estimates vast undiscovered Alaska gas

Confirmed
The U.S. Geological Survey said Wednesday that it estimates 96 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered natural gas under Alaska's North Slope, gas it says could technically be recovered. That is an estimate of what has not been found, not a count of reserves.1

Sources · 1 listed

Supreme Court

Florida lists William Reaves as executed on Oct. 20

Confirmed

Updated 6:40 a.m. ET, Oct. 22

Florida's prison agency now lists William Reaves as executed on Oct. 20, 2026. He is number 143 on the state's execution list. The Supreme Court order that day denied his request for a stay and does not itself say the sentence was carried out.12

Sources · 2 listed

Justice Department

Justice Department announces a food-stamp fraud sweep

Partially confirmed
The Justice Department said Wednesday that a crackdown since Sept. 1 produced actions against more than 40 people in schemes aimed at nearly $45 million in federal benefits. Nearly $42 million of that, the department said, was food-stamp fraud.1

Sources · 1 listed

Courts

Judge sentences Regan Prater to 210 months in prison

Confirmed
A Tennessee man who pleaded guilty to arson and to trying to support a terrorist group was sentenced Tuesday to 210 months in prison. He is Regan Darby Prater, 28, of Tullahoma. The Justice Department said he destroyed a building at the Highlander Center in New Market.1

Sources · 1 listed

Courts

Court gives Shu Jun Zhen nine years for laundering

Confirmed
A federal court in North Carolina on Wednesday sentenced Shu Jun Zhen to nine years in prison for her role in a money-laundering organization. The Justice Department said she must forfeit nearly $23 million. It said the organization laundered over $92 million.1

Sources · 1 listed

Courts

New Mexico sues two men tied to the Epstein estate

Partially confirmed
New Mexico's attorney general sued two men he says handled Jeffrey Epstein's affairs, and he asked a federal court to block estate payments and recover money for survivors. The men are Darren K. Indyke and Richard D. Kahn. The suit is civil, and the complaint's claims are allegations.1

Sources · 1 listed

Supreme Court

Administration asks Court to restart Big Bend wall work

Confirmed
The Justice Department on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to let border-wall and road construction resume in the Big Bend Sector. The application is Mullin v. Friends of the Ruidosa Church, No. 26A560. The Court has not ruled.1

Sources · 2 listed

Elections

Trump says he may challenge a second Alaska Sullivan

Partially confirmed
President Trump said late Wednesday that he is looking at “legal options” to remove a second man named Sullivan from Alaska's Senate ballot. The post is his. The state elections office was not checked, so this story does not say who is on the ballot.1

Sources · 1 listed

Civil rights

Justice Department finds race bias in Ohio State admissions

Confirmed
The Justice Department said Wednesday that Ohio State's medical school discriminated by race when it admitted the classes that entered in 2023, 2024, and 2025. The department says it is in settlement talks and will sue if those talks fail. Ohio State's response was not obtained.1

Sources · 1 listed

Diplomacy

State orders non-emergency staff to leave Saudi Arabia

Partially confirmed
The State Department said Wednesday that it ordered non-emergency U.S. government employees and their families to leave Saudi Arabia. The department's travel account said operations at the main airport in Riyadh remain suspended. The formal travel page was not opened.12

Sources · 2 listed

Sanctions

Treasury sanctions a law firm tied to Iranian shipping

Confirmed
The Treasury Department on Wednesday sanctioned a law firm it says helped Iran's oil tankers hide their owners. The firm is Karnakis and Karnakis, based in Panama and Greece. The action is part of what the government calls Operation Economic Outcast.12

Sources · 3 listed

Diplomacy

Rubio says he left India after regional talks

Confirmed
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said early Thursday that he had left India. He wrote that the trip advanced economic and strategic priorities. He did not announce a new trade deal in the post.1

Sources · 1 listed

Cloud

OpenAI models will be sold inside Google Cloud

Confirmed
OpenAI and Google Cloud said Wednesday that businesses will be able to buy OpenAI's models inside Google's cloud. General availability is planned “in the coming weeks,” OpenAI said. Microsoft, OpenAI said, remains its primary cloud partner.1

Sources · 1 listed

Products

Anthropic tests an app that acts before you ask

Confirmed
Anthropic on Wednesday opened a test of Claude Duet, an app that it says watches your other software and does tasks without waiting for a prompt. It is a research preview, by waitlist, for U.S. subscribers on the Pro and Max plans. It is not a new model.1

Sources · 1 listed

Governance

Christopher Stubbs joins Anthropic's benefit trust

Confirmed
Anthropic said Wednesday that physicist Christopher Stubbs has joined the trust that can appoint a majority of the company's board. He is a former dean of science at Harvard. The company did not, in the sentences used here, describe what its new public-benefit report concluded.1

Sources · 1 listed

Safety

Taiwan raises a land warning as Typhoon Champi closes in

Confirmed

Added 7:45 a.m. ET, Oct. 22

Taiwan's weather agency told people on Thursday to stay away from the sea, warning of waves over 20 feet along the east coast, the island's northern tip and the Hengchun Peninsula in the far south. 12 It issued a sea-and-land typhoon warning for Typhoon Champi, telling every part of Taiwan to be on high alert for strong winds and heavy rain. 14

Sources · 5 listed

Safety

Ebola is gaining ground again in Congo as Nigeria's patient grows sicker

Confirmed

Added 7:45 a.m. ET, Oct. 22

The woman being treated for Ebola in Abuja has grown sicker. Her organs are failing, Olajumoke Babatunde, a laboratory director at the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said at an emergency meeting on Wednesday, Nigerian newspapers reported. 12 Three molecular tests confirmed the Bundibugyo strain, the same one spreading in Congo, for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment. 12 Health teams are watching 44 people who were in close contact with her. 1

Sources · 7 listed