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Trump Announces Audi Will Build $4 Billion SUV Plant in Georgia: October 25, 2026

PERRY, Georgia — President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that German carmaker Audi will build a $4 billion factory in the United States, telling a rally in Perry, Georgia, that the plant will make 200,000 SUVs a year, DW reported.

“Think of that. 200,000 cars a year. That’s incredible,” Trump said, crediting his tariffs for the investment, as quoted by DW.

Construction is due to begin next year, with production starting in the early 2030s. A US official told Reuters the plant would build the Q7, Q8 and Q9 models and create about 4,500 jobs, according to DW.

Audi, owned by Volkswagen, has been hit hard by US import duties; tariffs cost the company €1.2 billion last year.

The announcement comes days before the November 3 midterm elections.

Sources: DW

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Two Former FBI Officials Charged With Lying to Congress About the Hunter Biden Laptop Investigations: October 24, 2026

WASHINGTON — Two former senior FBI officials have been charged with lying to Congress during 2023 testimony about the bureau’s investigations involving Hunter Biden’s laptop, CBS News and The Associated Press reported, in a case brought by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office in Washington.

Nikki Floris, 46, a former intelligence analyst in charge at the FBI’s Washington Field Office, and Bradley Benavides, 56, a former deputy assistant director in the Counterintelligence Division, appeared in federal court in Washington on Friday and were each charged in a criminal complaint with one count of making false statements to Congress, CBS News reported.

The complaint alleges Floris lied to the House Judiciary Committee on July 19, 2023, and Benavides in September 2023, about “their awareness of involvement in the FBI’s investigations into Hunter Biden.” In his interview, Benavides told investigators he had learned some details about the laptop investigation from Wikipedia while preparing, the complaint said.

Prosecutors say the statements were meant to conceal the Foreign Influence Task Force’s engagement with the Hunter Biden investigations. The complaint centres on a task force operation known as “Round River,” which it said collected “derogatory informant reporting on, among other things, Hunter Biden, to flag the reporting as Russian disinformation.” It also says the two gave defensive briefings to Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson in August 2020.

A criminal complaint is an allegation, and both defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.

Sources: U.S. Department of Justice, The Associated Press, CBS News

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U.S. Intelligence Chief Warns Iranian Plots Against Americans Have Reached ‘Advanced Stages’ as Tehran Eyes Gulf Undersea Cables: October 24, 2026

WASHINGTON — Iran has “substantially increased efforts to target US personnel” in the Middle East and elsewhere, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton warned in a memo seen by BBC News.

The unclassified memo, sent Friday to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, said: “The lethal plotting efforts by the Iranians against US citizens have reached advanced stages in both the Middle East and certain other countries.” Clayton said he was working to downgrade as much intelligence as possible so it could be shared with State Department staff, the BBC reported.

The warning follows this week’s ordered departure of non-emergency U.S. embassy staff from Saudi Arabia amid escalating attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis. At least 21 people have been killed in Houthi attacks on Saudi airports since the start of October, according to Saudi authorities, including 13 in a single missile strike on Riyadh’s airport on Oct. 10.

Separately, Reuters, via CNA, reported that Iran has drawn up detailed plans to hit undersea internet cables in the Gulf if it is attacked again. “If Iran is attacked, there will be no more red lines … from undersea cables to military bases,” Reuters reported. A senior Revolutionary Guards official, Yadollah Javani, has publicly named seven cables running through the Strait of Hormuz.

Alan Mauldin of research firm TeleGeography told Reuters that less than 1% of global bandwidth passes through Hormuz, though damage could disrupt connectivity for Gulf states. The U.S.-Israeli air campaign against Iran that began in February led to the effective closure of the strait, and a preliminary June deal to reopen it collapsed within weeks, the BBC noted.

Sources: BBC News, CNA / Reuters

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Rubio Urges Cubans to Seek a ‘Discrete Partnership With the CIA,’ Drawing Mockery From Havana: October 24, 2026

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday publicly invited Cubans who want political change to work with the CIA, in a post on X that Cuba’s government ridiculed, Al Jazeera reported, citing AFP and Reuters.

“To those who seek to create positive change in Cuba – now is the time,” Rubio wrote from his official account. Citing “the disappointment of failed promises, corruption, and the privileged lives of only a few,” he urged Cubans to “seize this opportunity to create the change you desire through a discrete partnership with the CIA.”

Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío mocked the appeal. “Now the United States is resorting to public recruitment for the CIA… There must be a great deal of desperation or misery within the agency for it to be forced to sell its services like a tube of toothpaste,” he wrote on X.

The post comes as Washington ramps up pressure on Havana. A U.S.-imposed oil blockade this year has deepened fuel shortages and blackouts on the island, and UN rights experts have called it a violation of international law. President Donald Trump and other officials have for months hinted at possible military action against Cuba, which Fernández de Cossío last month called an “atrocious international crime.”

The CIA separately posted a Spanish-language video on X with instructions for people who believe they have information of interest to the agency, Al Jazeera said.

Sources: Al Jazeera / AFP / Reuters, Marco Rubio on X

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Judge Orders Trump to Sit for Deposition in His BBC Lawsuit by Dec. 11 or Face Possible Sanctions: October 23, 2026

MIAMI — A federal magistrate judge has ordered President Donald Trump to answer questions under oath in his lawsuit against the BBC by Dec. 11 or face sanctions, BBC News reported.

Trump is suing the broadcaster over a Panorama episode that edited together two separate sections of the speech he gave on Jan. 6, 2021, before the riot at the U.S. Capitol. The BBC has apologised for the edit, saying it gave “the mistaken impression that Trump made a direct call for violent action,” but has asked the court to dismiss the suit.

Trump cancelled a scheduled deposition on Oct. 16, citing “matters of national importance.” BBC lawyer Charles Tobin told the court in Miami on Thursday that Trump was campaigning in Georgia that day and had “prioritised that.”

U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett said the most extreme possible sanction could be dismissal of the lawsuit, unless the discovery period is extended. In a filing Wednesday, Trump’s lawyers proposed a deposition between Jan. 11 and 22 and said the BBC was “wrong to claim that President Trump is avoiding his deposition.”

In July, Trump’s lawyers conceded they had no evidence the documentary was available in the U.S., and Trump dropped his claims against BBC Studios, the broadcaster’s commercial arm.

Sources: BBC News

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New Mexico Judge Orders Meta to Pay $25 Billion for Years of Misleading Facebook Users About Their Data: October 22, 2026

NEW MEXICO — A New Mexico judge has ordered Meta to pay the state $25 billion after a jury found the company spent years misleading the public about how it handled Facebook users’ data, the largest penalty ever imposed on the company, BBC News and Al Jazeera reported.

“Facebook’s wrongdoing — over the course of years and systematically broadcast to the public — goes to the heart of Facebook’s core business practices,” Judge Francis Mathew wrote, according to Al Jazeera. He found the violations were “willful” and spanned 2010 to 2021, and that communications among senior executives, including Mark Zuckerberg, were “designed to mislead the public.”

The judge said a penalty of more than $219 billion was warranted under state law but reduced it to $25 billion — roughly Meta’s quarterly profit, the BBC said. The state had sought up to $40 billion; Meta argued anything above $3.4 billion would be unconstitutional. A jury found Meta violated state law more than 40 million times.

The lawsuit, filed in 2021, grew out of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which a British political consultancy harvested data from as many as 87 million Facebook users. The state also accused Meta of misleading the public about its handling of hate speech.

“No corporation is too powerful to be held accountable,” Attorney General Raúl Torrez said. Meta’s chief legal officer, CJ Mahoney, said the ruling made it “all but impossible to do business in the state of New Mexico” and that the company expects to win on appeal.

Earlier this year New Mexico won $942 million from Meta in two trials over child safety on Instagram and Facebook.

Sources: BBC News, Al Jazeera

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U.S. Orders Diplomats’ Departure From Saudi Arabia as Attack on Dammam Airport Kills Two: October 22, 2026

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The U.S. State Department has ordered non-emergency government employees and their families to leave Saudi Arabia as attacks on the kingdom escalate, BBC News and The Guardian reported.

Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority said Thursday that two people were killed and eight injured in an overnight attack on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, on the Gulf coast. Separately, the energy ministry said falling debris from a drone intercepted near an oil facility in the country’s southeast killed two more people, according to The Guardian. Neither attack was immediately claimed.

“Iranian-supported Houthis have increasingly engaged in hostilities against Saudi Arabia, including attacks on civilian airports and other critical infrastructure resulting in civilian casualties and severe travel disruptions,” the State Department said, warning that “the hostilities have the potential to escalate rapidly,” according to BBC News.

Spokesperson Tommy Pigott called reports of similar withdrawals from the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain “inaccurate,” saying the order covered only the embassy in Riyadh and its consulates.

Yemen’s Houthis have fired missiles and drones at Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers since July, when a four-year informal ceasefire unravelled. Their “maritime embargo” in the Bab al-Mandab Strait has helped push up oil prices, since Saudi Arabia has relied on Red Sea exports since the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz.

The drawdown comes as The New York Times reported that the U.S. and Israel have drawn up plans for a possible new operation against Iran after the Nov. 3 midterm elections, The Guardian said. Trump has publicly said he does not intend to restart the war before the vote.

Sources: BBC News, The Guardian, Reuters

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Rubio Says a U.S.-India Trade Deal Is ‘Weeks, Not Months’ Away as He Pushes Energy Sales on a Two-City India Visit: October 21, 2026

MUMBAI, India — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said a long-negotiated trade deal with India is nearly done, as he met Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in Mumbai and pressed India to buy more American energy, according to The Indian Express and the State Department.

“I think we’re incredibly close. The way I would say it is, we are weeks, not months, away from I think finalising it. I think 99% of the work is done,” Rubio told The Indian Express. He said the remaining issues are “language-related. It’s basically down to what certain words mean, what certain phrases mean.”

The State Department said Rubio and Jaishankar discussed regional and global issues, including the Middle East, and that Rubio stressed that more energy trade with the United States could help India diversify its supply chains. He also praised recent progress in defense and civil nuclear cooperation. Rubio posted about the meeting on X:

Rubio told the paper that Washington’s tariffs and tighter visa rules are not aimed at India. “None of these tariffs are meant to punish or harm India,” he said, describing them as part of a broader policy tied to the war between Russia and Ukraine. He said President Donald Trump did not impose sanctions on Russian oil partly because of the harm it would do to relations with India.

The visit, Rubio’s second to India this year, also took him to Reliance Industries’ facilities in Jamnagar. Rubio said India is one of the few places that can refine Venezuelan heavy crude and called the visit a chance “to identify opportunities to achieve our goal of diversifying energy resources.”

Sources: The Indian Express, U.S. State Department, AP

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FAA Certifies Boeing’s Long-Delayed 737 MAX 10, Clearing the Way for Deliveries of the Biggest MAX: October 21, 2026

EVERETT, Washington — The Federal Aviation Administration has certified Boeing’s 737 MAX 10, the largest version of its best-selling jet, clearing the way for deliveries to airlines, the FAA and Boeing announced on Tuesday.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy handed over the certification documents at a small ceremony in Everett, Boeing said. “After extensive safety reviews — including thousands of hours of test flights — the team at the FAA is ready to approve this critical aircraft for sale,” Duffy said. “This is a major win for American manufacturing.”

“We will continue to hold Boeing to the highest safety standards as the company begins production of the 737 MAX-10,” said FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford.

Before approving the plane, the FAA required changes tied to the 2020 Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act and to National Transportation Safety Board recommendations, including an enhanced angle-of-attack sensor system. Boeing said that system will become standard across the 737 MAX family.

Boeing said the test program logged nearly 1,000 flights and more than 2,000 flight hours. The MAX 10 can seat up to 230 passengers, and more than 30 customers have ordered 1,555 of them — over 30% of the 737 MAX order book.

Approval from Transport Canada and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency should follow in “probably a couple months,” Boeing executive Mike Sinnett told Reuters. Canada’s WestJet is set to receive the first MAX 10 early next year.

Sources: FAA, Boeing, Reuters

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Elon Musk Says Merging Tesla and SpaceX Would Be ‘a Good Idea’ as Both Companies Set Up Committees to Study a Deal: October 21, 2026

STARBASE, Texas — Elon Musk says he is actively considering merging Tesla and SpaceX, his two biggest companies, and that both have set up special committees to look at a deal, BBC News and DW reported.

“Do I think it would be a good idea? Yes,” Musk said on Tuesday’s call with analysts about SpaceX’s latest results. “The special committees have not reached agreement on terms of any transaction and there’s no guarantee that they will. But I do think there is a lot of merit to merging and a lot to be gained.”

With Tesla worth roughly $1.5 trillion and SpaceX about $2 trillion, a combination would be one of the largest mergers in history, BBC News reported. Musk, who runs both companies, said he is a “conflicted party” and is not on either committee. He compared even talking about the idea to “tap dancing through a minefield.”

At least 50% of Tesla’s shareholders would need to approve a deal, a bar Musk called “quite a high hurdle to achieve.” He said a merger would make sense for the companies’ work on chips, artificial intelligence and software, including Terafab, their joint chip-making effort.

SpaceX reported a $4.4 billion profit for the July–September quarter, though it lost $1.1 billion over the first nine months of the year as revenue jumped to $27 billion from $13.7 billion, the BBC said. Revenue from its cloud computing business reached $7.5 billion in the quarter, up from $813 million a year earlier, while Starlink brought in $5.2 billion.

SpaceX shares rose 8% in after-hours trading after Musk’s comments, and Tesla shares rose about 2%, DW reported. Tesla reports its own quarterly results on Wednesday.

Sources: BBC News, DW, AP

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