Wednesday, October 14, 2026

U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle resigned Tuesday after the White House asked her to step down, press secretary Katie Zacharia said during her first briefing. The move follows Wall Street Journal reports alleging she sought to have a Republican donor pay off a $100,000 debt and allegations of improper conduct. President Trump said, "We didn't like what we were reading." Guilfoyle called the allegations of improper conduct "false" and said being ambassador was the "honour of a lifetime."

The Treasury Department announced more than $1.2 billion in penalties against Bank of America on Tuesday, including a $1.2 billion FinCEN fine (with $750 million from the OCC) and an $11.6 million OFAC settlement. Regulators said the bank failed to timely report over $5 billion in suspicious transactions, including activity linked to Chinese money-laundering networks, and processed payments that appeared to violate sanctions on Iran and Russia. Bank of America admitted to willfully violating anti-money-laundering laws.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration must continue granting CNN, MS NOW and Politico journalists access to the White House while their lawsuit proceeds. Kelly found the September 18 revocation of the outlets' press credentials likely violated their First and Fifth Amendment rights. The preliminary injunction extends earlier temporary orders and will remain until the case concludes, which could take weeks, months or years.

Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old Saudi national who had worked as an engineer at OpenAI since July, was arrested and charged with using or attempting to use a device to intercept communications. Prosecutors say a device wrapped in toilet paper was found inserted in a USB port on the back of a TV in an executive conference room. OpenAI said the device was built to evade detection and that Alfozan had planned to secretly record meetings in other sensitive spaces.

Twelve senators, six Republicans and six Democrats, sent a letter urging President Trump to rescind Treasury's General License No. 135, which waived sanctions on Russian diesel exports to allow imports of up to 2.2 million tons, the Hill reported. The senators called the deal "a gift to our adversary and a betrayal of our Allies," saying it would help finance Russia's war in Ukraine while offering little relief on U.S. fuel prices.

The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to review whether the Department of Government Efficiency must turn over internal communications sought by a watchdog group under the Freedom of Information Act. The Trump administration calls the demand "intrusive" and says it violates separation of powers; the court had earlier sided with the administration on emergency relief. The case is expected to be argued early next year. The court also agreed to hear an asylum case involving a Nigerian cook and declined to hear a gun-rights appeal from a felon convicted on marijuana-growing charges.

CVS Health agreed to pay $315 million to settle Justice Department allegations that it illegally filled prescriptions for opioids and other controlled substances for over a decade and billed federal healthcare programs for them. The lawsuit, brought under a whistleblower provision by former CVS employee Hillary Estright, alleged violations of the Controlled Substances Act and False Claims Act, including filling excessive, early, and "trinity" opioid prescriptions, and prescriptions from "pill mill" providers. Sources differ on when the case was filed, citing 2019 or 2024.

Florida executed James Robertson, 63, by lethal injection on Tuesday at Florida State Prison, nearly 18 years after he fatally attacked his cellmate, an act he said he committed deliberately to be sentenced to death. He died about 10 minutes after the injection and declined to give a final statement. State officials said it occurred without complications, Florida's first execution since a botched lethal injection in Tennessee and its 17th this year.

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes extended her order barring the Trump administration from removing more trees at East Potomac Golf Links, blocking further work until at least October 26. The ruling follows a hearing over the removal of hundreds of trees last weekend and seeks testimony from Interior Department officials about whether they defied an earlier court order. Trump has sought to redevelop the course into a championship-level venue.

Homeland Security Investigations agents searched Rep. Ilhan Omar's Washington home Monday under a court-authorized search warrant tied to an immigration probe, the Justice Department said, without detailing its scope. Fox News reported the investigation concerns immigration paperwork filed by Omar's late father when she was a child. Democratic leaders including Hakeem Jeffries and Jamie Raskin condemned the search as an abuse of power, three weeks before the midterm elections. Omar called it political targeting and is fundraising off it.

The Vatican said Pope Leo XIV was diagnosed with lung adenocarcinoma, confirming suspicions from earlier tests, after surgeons removed the lower lobe of his right lung Tuesday at Rome's Gemelli Hospital. The 71-year-old pope was in the operating room about three hours, with the operation lasting roughly 90 minutes; doctors reported no complications. He awoke normally, returned to his room, and spent a calm night, with recovery expected to take about a week.

Yemen's Houthi militia struck a building at Saudi Aramco's headquarters, days after hitting Riyadh's international airport in what the New York Times called the group's most lethal attack on the kingdom to date. The strikes have expanded the conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-backed group. The U.S. is considering military action, while Saudi authorities have intensified strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen and detained Americans for photographing attack sites.

Britain's MI5 director Ken McCallum said Iran has escalated attempts to strike military installations in the UK, calling the suspected plot against RAF Fairford last month part of a broader pattern rather than an isolated incident. He also described Iran-led attacks on Jewish communities as "sickening" and warned of escalating hybrid threats from Russia, alongside risks from China, AI and terrorist groups.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine received no intelligence from partners about missiles heading toward Kyiv before a Russian attack. The strike killed two people, according to Zelensky. He said Ukraine normally receives such warnings from allied intelligence sharing, but none came ahead of this attack.

Russia's security service detained a journalist from the Japanese newspaper Hokkaido Shimbun in the Sakhalin region in Russia's far east, accusing him of espionage. Authorities allege he collected information on Moscow's defense capabilities for Tokyo; he had been reporting on military recruitment in the area. Japan has not been reported to have responded publicly.

China's exports rose 36.3% year-on-year in September, the fastest growth in nearly any month since the global financial crisis, according to official data. The surge puts China's trade surplus on track for a record, with the surplus reaching $938 billion for January through September, Reuters and AP reported. Analysts say the pace could intensify trade tensions with major trading partners.

A Ukrainian army officer, identified as Serhii K, went on trial in Hamburg on Wednesday accused of involvement in the 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, which carried Russian gas to Germany. German prosecutors charge him with a war crime over the alleged plot to destroy the pipelines. The attacks occurred four years ago.

China and North Korea will open a new bridge linking the two countries on Thursday, more than a decade after construction finished on the Chinese side. The opening is described as the latest sign of closer ties between the two countries.