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Current Events
🌍 Current Events AM

Current Events — Sunday, October 25, 2026 at 6:30 AM

🌍 Current Events AM10/25/2026🕐 6:30 AM⏱ 5:21World briefMorning

Top stories, ranked by relevance.

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#1Trump dangles $5,000 checks if GOP sweeps Congress

At a Saturday night rally in Perry, Georgia, President Trump pledged a $5,000 payout to every adult American citizen — $10,000 per married couple — if Republicans hold both chambers on November 3. He pegged the cost at roughly $1 trillion and warned a Democratic Congress would trigger a "1929-style economic depression." He heads to Port Huron, Michigan, Sunday at 3 p.m. Eastern for Senate candidate Mike Rogers.

#2DOJ sues over Alaska Senate ballot as Obama hits Michigan

The Justice Department filed suit to block certification of Alaska's Senate race if Sen. Dan Sullivan loses to Democrat Mary Peltola, arguing a second candidate named Daniel J. Sullivan on the ranked-choice ballot confuses voters. Trump said he "personally directed" the filing. Meanwhile Barack Obama rallied Detroit for Abdul El-Sayed and Jocelyn Benson, with AOC barnstorming Michigan, Maine, Ohio, California and Nevada.

#3Oil hits four-year high as investors flee the AI trade

Brent crude surged past $116 a barrel Friday — a four-year high — on fears of renewed US strikes on Iran, with oil up about 6% for the week. The Dow slipped 0.41% to 52,215, the S&P 500 fell to 7,623 and the Nasdaq dropped to 25,955, while the small-cap Russell 2000 gained 2% as money rotated out of tech. American Express announced a 5% workforce cut.

#4Iwo Jima statue decapitated near Quantico; Trump calls it "a disgrace"

Miguel Alonso Maldonado Soriano, 27, a Mexican national in the country illegally and a former DACA recipient who lost status this year, was arrested October 21 after police found him striking the Iwo Jima monument near Marine Corps Base Quantico with a sledgehammer. One Marine figure's head was knocked clean off, with damage estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. He's charged with felony injury to a monument and held without bond.

#5France burns again: 410,000 march, roughly 1,000 arrested

France's Interior Ministry counted 410,000 demonstrators nationwide Saturday, including 110,000 in Paris, with clashes in Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Lille and Nice. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez deployed up to 70,000 officers with helicopters, armored vehicles and water cannons; roughly 1,000 were arrested. The Louvre closed preemptively, one week after rioting damaged or looted some 3,000 businesses.

#6Netanyahu calls for toppling Iran's regime as strike plans firm up

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Iranian regime must be overthrown "once and for all," as reporting indicates US and Israeli planners have drawn up a three-day offensive against Iran's nuclear sites, missile arsenals and energy infrastructure. The White House ruled out any strike before November 3 but left the door open afterward. Iranian security officials say Tehran has plans to sever undersea communications cables in response.

#7China quietly makes it much harder to leave the country

New exit-control rules effective September 15, 2026 require travelers to give "true and lawful" reasons for departing and let immigration officers bar anyone they judge to have misstated. Analysts say the burden falls hardest on entrepreneurs, people with debts or tax disputes, and workers in finance, tech and semiconductors. Court-recorded exit bans roughly doubled every year from 2021 to 2024.

#8NASA locks in 2028 for boots on the Moon

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced this week that American astronauts will land on the lunar surface in 2028, with Artemis III launching next year to rendezvous with commercial landers in low Earth orbit. Isaacman says the agency will insert additional standardized missions to build toward long-duration stays and "an enduring presence" rather than a single flag-planting trip.

#9Pentagon's FORTRESS plan: every base self-sufficient for 90 days

Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell detailed FORTRESS, an initiative requiring every major stateside military installation to run essential operations for 90 days with no civilian power, water, fuel or supply chain. The toolkit includes portable nuclear reactors, microgrids, battery storage, hardened satellite links and dual-source production for critical materials. "It's an intolerable risk," Parnell said of depending on municipal infrastructure.

#10FBI agents logged a silent black triangle that vanished in seconds

Newly released Pentagon UAP records describe FBI agents watching a matte-black, nonreflective triangular craft with a 9-to-15-foot wingspan and no visible exhaust climb 200 to 300 feet above a ridgeline. It hovered about 20 seconds, then accelerated almost instantly and disappeared into a canyon within two to three seconds. The documents came out under the administration's PURSUE disclosure program.

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