Friday morning news: October 23, 2026

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Virginia state senator charged » One of Virginia’s most powerful Democrats faces federal charges, accused of running an illegal marijuana business.

State Senator Louise Lucas chairs the Senate’s budget committee.

U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the case Thursday.

BLANCHE: The charges listed in the indictment reflect the alleged behavior of a public servant who put her own financial interests before the people she was elected to serve

Lucas faces five charges, including conspiring to sell marijuana and launder the proceeds.

Six others are charged, including her two daughters and a grandson.

Prosecutors say Lucas used her political power to shield the operation.

FBI Director Kash Patel told reporters:

PATEL: The purpose of her enterprise included trafficking large quantities of illegal marijuana, creating generational wealth for members and associates of her criminal enterprise, recycling drug proceeds to expand the operation that she launched and created, and steering marijuana licenses to entities in which members held financial interests

The state senator says the case is politically motivated. But Blanche says the investigation began before President Trump returned to office.

Lucas says she—her words “will not be intimidated.”

Blanche on Omar raid » Meantime, Democratic U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota has said much the same in response to a federal investigation looking into potential immigration fraud. Omar has said she will not be intimated and asserts that the timing of federal agents raiding her Washington home was political, just ahead of midterm elections.

But Attorney General Blanche spoke to the timing, telling reporters Thursday:

BLANCHE:  That is a covert operation. It's a search warrant. And, and when you-- anytime you apply for a search warrant, one of the factors under the rules is why it needs to happen on a pr- uh, pursuant to a search warrant and not a subpoena, and why it has to happen on that day and not some other day. And as the magistrate judge found, there w- we needed to do it then

Blanche did not expound on why the search needed to happen when it did.

Judge orders Trump to sit for deposition in BBC suit » President Trump must answer questions under oath in his lawsuit against the BBC or risk having the case thrown out. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: A federal judge Thursday gave Trump until December 11th to testify, though that deadline could still be extended.

Trump is seeking 10 billion dollars after suing over a BBC documentary that spliced together separate parts of his January 6th, 2021 speech.

The British broadcaster has acknowledged the edit wrongly made it sound as though Trump directly called for violence. It apologized but denies defaming him.

The BBC’s lawyers say Trump canceled an October 16th deposition, citing matters of national importance. They told the judge he campaigned that day instead.

The judge also allowed access to some records from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club membership application totals and fees. The BBC says those records could help test Trump’s claims that his reputation suffered.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Rush to patch websites » Serious online security flaws just revealed this week could let hackers break into websites on a massive scale. That's because the software at the heart of the issue helps power roughly 70% of the world’s websites.

Now, the race is on to fix it.

The flaws affect software called PHP.

Researchers used artificial intelligence to help uncover the danger. And fixes came out Wednesday, but operators still need to install them.

U.S. officials are warning that vulnerable sites should go offline if they can’t be updated immediately.

White House press secretary search » Former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is advising President Trump in the search for a new press secretary, after her successor lasted less than a week. WORLD’s Harrison Watters reports from Washington.

ZACHARIA: Good morning! [reporters respond]

HARRISON WATTERS: It was only Tuesday of last week when Katie Zacharia made her debut in the White House press room.

ZACHARIA: I am so honored to work for President Trump and the American people.

WATTERS: But by the weekend, she was off the job, setting a new record for shortest tenure in the role after President Trump asked her to reconsider the position.

Karoline Leavitt said, as it turned out, the job was not a good fit for Zacharia.

LEAVITT: It takes a lot of preparation, and sometimes you don’t know how someone will perform until they go out there…

WATTERS: Zacharia described herself as a lawyer. But she faced tough questions about that because, despite having a law degree, she never passed the bar exam or became licensed to practice law.

Karoline Leavitt left the administration in August, but has continued to serve as an outside consultant. She said there are many qualified candidates for the job.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Harrison Watters in Washington.

Latest Russian attack » In Ukraine:

SOUND: [Explosion]

Explosions sounded in Kyiv as Russian strikes damaged subway infrastructure in the capital city, killing one person and wounding more than 20.

Meantime, the Kremlin says Russian air defenses intercepted more than 800 drones fired by Ukraine at targets in Moscow and other cities.

All of that comes after Vladimir Putin agreed “in principle” this week for his negotiators to resume peace talks with Ukraine and the U.S, though no date is set for those discussions.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: John Stonestreet joins us for Culture Friday. Plus, a sci-fi film that leaves room for the sovereignty of God.

This is The World and Everything in It.

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