🚨 HAPPENING RIGHT NOW 🚨
France remained on edge Saturday as roughly 70,000 police fanned out nationwide for a fresh wave of protests, a day after a suspected terrorist attack in Trappes, outside Paris, killed one person and wounded four others, including a 12-year-old girl. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez called the stabbing "clearly a terrorist crime" and said the motive may be racist, while President Emmanuel Macron blamed "ultra-left groups" for weeks of violence, banned several planned marches, and scrapped a trip to Nigeria and Senegal. The Louvre, Musee d'Orsay and two dozen Paris Metro stations are shut for the day.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24th, 2026
Before we get to today's news, here's what happened on this date in history:
A 63-year-old schoolteacher and widow named Annie Edson Taylor became the first person to survive a trip over Niagara Falls in a homemade barrel on October 24, 1901, hoping the stunt would finally bring her fame and fortune after years of hard luck. Towed into the Niagara River in a cushioned wooden pickle barrel and cut loose, she emerged alive but battered roughly 20 minutes later near the base of the falls. Her celebrity faded fast and she never earned the fortune she'd hoped for, though her stunt inspired a string of copycat daredevils; between 1901 and 1995, 15 people went over the falls, and 10 survived.
Western Union crews finished stringing the first transcontinental telegraph line on October 24, 1861, joining the Atlantic and Pacific coasts together even as the Civil War threatened to split the young nation apart, with the eastern and western lines meeting in Salt Lake City. California's chief justice sent the first message to President Lincoln, pledging the state's loyalty to the Union, and the line made coast-to-coast communication far faster than the Pony Express, which folded just two days later after a grueling run hauling mail across the frontier.
🗽 Illegal Alien With Lapsed DACA Status Charged After Beheading Quantico's Iwo Jima Statue With a Sledgehammer
Police say Miguel Alonso Maldonado Soriano, 27, took a sledgehammer to the Marine Corps War Memorial's Iwo Jima statue outside Marine Corps Base Quantico late Wednesday night, decapitating one Marine figure and gouging two others before Prince William County officers arrived and arrested him on the spot.
Maldonado Soriano faces felony destruction of property, trespassing, and injury-to-a-monument charges, and is being held without bond with no court date yet set; repairs are expected to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Federal sources say he entered the U.S. illegally in December 1999, received DACA protection in 2014, had it extended in 2024, and lost status in August 2026 when it lapsed and wasn't renewed.
White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said he "disrespected our brave service members and defaced a beautiful monument that honored their sacrifice."
🇨🇺 Rubio Urges Cuban Dissidents to Quietly Work With the CIA as Trump Floats Sending Him to 'Finish Up' a Havana Deal
Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on X Friday urging Cubans who want political change to cooperate discreetly with the CIA, hours after President Trump told a Fort Myers midterm rally he might soon send Rubio to Cuba to "finish up" a deal with the communist government.
Rubio wrote that "now is the time" for Cubans "to create positive change" through "a discrete partnership" with American intelligence, without naming any specific operation.
Trump suggested U.S. warships returning from the Middle East could pass by Cuba, with one stopping offshore, though he gave no details of any actual agreement.
The State Department, CIA, White House and Cuban Embassy did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's requests for comment.
— Fox News
⚖️ Erika Kirk Rips Defense's 2029 Trial Date for Her Husband's Alleged Killer as 'Grossly Out of Line'
Charlie Kirk's widow, Erika Kirk, filed court papers this week urging a Utah judge to reject Tyler Robinson's defense team's proposed third-quarter-2029 trial date and instead set the earliest practicable 2027 trial for the man accused of fatally shooting her husband at a Turning Point USA event last year.
Her legal team argued the delay would prolong her family's suffering, especially for the couple's two young children, and noted Robinson's defense has already cost taxpayers roughly $1.6 million in its first year.
Prosecutors say they'll be ready by October 2027 and have proposed a January 2028 trial start, with about 17 weeks of testimony expected.
Robinson, 23, was ordered in September to stand trial on seven charges, including aggravated murder, and could face the death penalty if convicted.
📜 Michigan Senate Rivals Clash Again Over Resurfaced Letter Tying El-Sayed to Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood
Democrat Abdul El-Sayed faced fresh scrutiny Friday night on Fox's "Special Report" over a November 2012 letter he reportedly signed backing then-Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's calls to purge the country's police and media, with Republican rival Mike Rogers arguing the episode shows El-Sayed has "adopted the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood."
El-Sayed denied any Muslim Brotherhood ties for himself or his family, telling anchor Bret Baier the question was really about "whether or not I have dual loyalties," and said he'd "be loyal to the Constitution of the United States."
He called Rogers's suggestion about his Muslim faith "sad" and "beneath him," while Rogers countered it's "not how he prays, it's how he thinks."
The Washington Free Beacon first reported the 2012 letter, which was signed by 46 Egyptian-American community leaders; El-Sayed's campaign has not responded to requests for comment on it.
🚓 Entire Police Force of a Georgia Town Resigns, Chief Accuses Mayor of Secretly Tracking His Truck
Milner, Georgia's entire full-time police force and most of its part-time officers resigned this week, along with City Manager Tausha Grose, after Police Chief Lamar Bunn accused Mayor Craig Timmons's city hall of secretly placing a GPS tracker on his personal truck without his knowledge.
Bunn cited "fundamental differences regarding leadership, governance, and ethical alignment" and said he'd also been falsely accused of having an affair with the city manager, with the rumor spread during a council meeting.
Police Captain Craig Walton's resignation letter called for an independent investigation into whether the mayor violated his oath of office or employees' rights.
Mayor Timmons acknowledged the concerns at a council meeting and said he hopes the situation can be resolved; he didn't respond to a request for comment.
— Fox News