Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times,

State authorities arrested the mayor of the central Florida city of Kissimmee on Oct. 21, charging her with grand theft and organized fraud over funds she received from a COVID-19 relief program.

Kissimmee Mayor Jackie Espinosa maintains her innocence after state charges were filed Oct. 21, 2026, accusing her of grant theft and organized fraud. Osceola County Jail

State Attorney General James Uthmeier accused Mayor Jackie Espinosa of illegally granting herself, her husband, and family members $50,000 from a city program she created that was meant to boost small businesses recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Espinosa created, funded, expanded, and promoted the Kissimmee Business Boost 2.0 for small businesses and submitted her applications before anyone else on the first day it opened, which prosecutors alleged violated state law.

“The evidence makes very clear there was intent to engage in this conflict of interest, then ultimately abused her office to enrich herself,” Uthmeier said during a press conference Wednesday.

The mayor and her family own several local businesses, including the Adanse, Real Estate Gallery, Matador Tacos and Tapas, and Empresas Espinosa. At the time of the applications, they also owned Kissimmee Diner.

Espinosa was handcuffed outside her home and taken to the Osceola County Jail, where she remained on Wednesday afternoon, according to jail records.

She is charged with one count of grand theft and one count of defrauding to obtain property, first- and second-degree felonies, according to Uthmeier.

Espinosa maintains her innocence, her lawyer Migdalia Perez told The Epoch Times.

“This case involves a publicly approved grant program administered by city staff, not a secret scheme to steal taxpayer money,” Perez said in an emailed statement.

“The prosecution must establish that the mayor acted with criminal intent. We firmly maintain that she did not.

“There is a fundamental difference between an alleged ethics violation and a criminal offense,” Perez added. “The state cannot transform one into the other without proving every element of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Espinosa, who was elected as mayor in 2024, plans to challenge the allegations in court, her attorney said.

A state financial audit of the city’s pandemic funding was performed as a routine matter, according to Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, who oversees the state’s financial services.

Auditors noticed irregularities in the city’s Boost program, Ingoglia said, with funds allegedly linked directly and indirectly to the mayor.

“This led my team to look further,” Ingoglia said.

During the investigation, auditors say they were allegedly told that some people in the city office attempted to ask Espinosa if her applications represented a conflict of interest, but they didn’t get a response, Ingoglia said.

The city manager also allegedly notified her in a text message that the city attorney believed she was prohibited from receiving the grant funds, according to the arrest record.

Espinosa allegedly told the city manager she received the city attorney’s opinion but “felt it was confusing,” the court document stated.

Florida state law does not allow defendants to avoid criminal liability by claiming to not know they were violating the law, according to prosecutors.

The audit found three applications signed by Espinosa and filed before all other applications the day the funds became available, according to Ingoglia.

A couple walks in front of a house in Kissimmee, Fla., on Jan. 11, 2023. Marco Bello/Reuters

Of those, one company, Adanse LLC, which Espinosa legally retains 100 percent ownership of, received $20,000 in relief funds.

Her husband’s company received $15,000 in funds, the audit found.

Ingolia said he and his team were with law enforcement when they arrested the mayor at her home in Tallahassee on Wednesday morning.

“I am proud of the outstanding work that my auditing team and Criminal Investigations Division did to uncover the alleged misuse of taxpayer dollars and to ensure that Jackie Espinosa’s corruption did not go without recourse,” Ingoglia said in a social media post.

A state ethics probe found Espinosa violated three ethics rules in July, which prompted the city commission to hold an impeachment vote against her.

The vote stalled after the commission deadlocked last month.

City commissioners also hired a special prosecutor to oversee the ethics complaint.

Espinosa faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted on all charges. A bond amount had not been set.

The city of Kissimmee said there had been no effects on its operations from the mayor’s ordeal and regular business has continued.

“The city is prepared to follow the process outlined in the City Charter if a suspension occurs,” Spokesperson Alibeth Suarez told The Epoch Times in an email.

“There are no impacts to city operations, which continue under the leadership of the City Manager and within the City’s Council-Manager form of government.”

There are new, grim numbers out of Yemen, after fierce fighting has been raging for many weeks going back to late August renewed war between the Saudi coalition (and its government in Aden), and the Iran-aligned Houthis.

The UN’s World Health Organization on Thursday announced its tally of at least 8,513 casualties in the Yemen conflict since August. This is as of Oct.19, the WHO indicated.

According to the breakdown, this included 1,574 fatalities, and 6,939 others injured and wounded. The organization did not specify whether these were civilians or military personnel.

The WHO indicated further that over just the last eight-day period (counting backward from Oct.19), 292 people were killed and 1,048 others were injured.

Civilians have certainly borne a huge brunt of the renewed conflict, also with attacks spilling over into Saudi territory – where over 20 civilians have died, and cities and airports and energy sites have been targeted.

Al Jazeera reported earlier this week that at least a quarter-million people in Yemen have been displaced, which includes populations on both sides of the fighting.

“More than 250,000 people have been internally displaced in Yemen since the country’s war reignited in July, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has said, as fighting between Houthi rebels and forces loyal to the internationally recognized government rages across several fronts,” the report said.

“The city of Taiz in southwestern Yemen is at the center of the displacement crisis, accounting for 76 percent of departures and hosting 52 percent of those newly displaced, UNHCR said in a statement on Tuesday,” it added.

Additionally, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), “about 33,700 families still require shelter assistance amid severe underfunding of the humanitarian response to the war.”

Nearly 260,000 Displaced by Fighting in #Yemen Since August, UN Says Nearly 260,000 people have fled their homes in Yemen since fighting escalated in August, with almost half seeking refuge in #Taiz Governorate, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said. The UN Human Rights Office has verified 57 civilian deaths and 194 injuries. Children accounted for half of those killed. Humanitarian partners have provided food, hygiene kits and emergency cash to more than 174,000 displaced people despite difficult operating conditions. Newly displaced families cited shelter as their most urgent need, followed by food and cash assistance. OCHA called on all parties to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, uphold international humanitarian law and allow the safe and sustained passage of aid and essential commercial goods into and across Taiz.

— Yemen Newsroom (@yemen_newsroom) October 22, 2026

The region has experienced on-and-off outbreaks of war and fighting going all the way back to 2014, when the Saudi-backed government began losing ground to the popular Houthi rebels. At one point the US was much more directly assisting the Saudi air campaign, but currently is said to only be playing an intelligence and advisory role.

Saudi coalition airstrikes have also gone back years, and the new outbreak of fighting has seen hundreds of air raids, which are especially devastating for civilians particularly in urban centers. The Houthis have in turn pummeled Saudi coalition areas with missiles and drones, which have also more frequently been sent across the border into the kingdom itself.

* * *

Authored by Ed Dowd: Beyond the Narrative via Substack,

October Surprise Season is back, right on schedule. The phenomenon is simple and well documented. Basically in the final weeks before a high-stakes election, an event, leak, crisis, or carefully timed disclosure appears that is meant to shift momentum, freeze the narrative, or force voters to reassess. The classic modern example remains 1980, when the Iran hostage crisis and the fear of a last minute Carter breakthrough gave the phrase its name. Bill Casey, running Reagan’s campaign, used the term explicitly.

Decades later the pattern repeats with variations:

• · George W. Bush’s 1976 DUI surfacing days before the 2000 election

• · The Trump Access Hollywood tape and the late Clinton email revelations in 2016

• · Hurricane Sandy in October 2012 and Obama’s response was positive for his campaign

• · Assorted foreign policy or scandal drops that dominate cable and social media for 72 hours

The common thread is timing. With early voting, mail-in ballots, and compressed news cycles, an October event has maximum leverage and minimal time for full scrutiny or counter narratives. Whether organic or engineered, the incentives favor dramatic movement right before ballots are finalized.

Informal X Poll

On Tuesday October 20th I asked my X followers a direct question: two weeks until the midterms, so what will be the October surprise? The replies clustered around a few themes. One high-engagement response noted that USAID had been gutted and therefore “no money for surprises this year.” I found that response quite humorous.

Another leaned toward nothing at all, arguing that the institutional interests prefer a blue team outcome so certain legislation (amnesty, digital ID, conscription) can pass with Trump’s signature and the political blame can be shared…essentially a uniparty viewpoint.

A third predicted an Iran war escalation paired with a stock-market crash. Cyberattack scenarios, grid disruptions, and stock market rug-pulls also appeared repeatedly.

A forth expressed the feeling among many that you could post almost any absurd answer and it would seem plausible…a sign of the times.

The distribution was telling as relatively few expected a classic personal scandal or policy announcement that would clearly favor one side. More people expected either controlled chaos or deliberate inaction designed to produce a specific legislative or institutional result.

Well Timed NSA Cyber Security Alert

Yesterday the NSA issued a rare public cyber security alert. Organizations running PHP, the language powering an estimated 70 percent of websites, were told to prepare for updates addressing two critical vulnerabilities or take systems offline until mitigated. The flaws, reportedly identified with the assistance of frontier AI models from OpenAI’s Patch the Planet effort and independently by Wiz, can provide a direct path to a server’s file system or database. OpenAI described the issue as one of the most impactful in recent memory; patches were released the same day, and multiple governments echoed the urgency. The alert itself is legitimate on its face as PHP is foundational infrastructure. The timing is what stands out. Midterms are thirteen days away. Election administration, poll-book systems, voter-registration portals, and related state and local web applications are not immune to the same underlying technology stack. If unpatched or poorly patched systems are present in any voting-related infrastructure, the window for exploitation is now open. Even if the immediate risk is limited, the episode supplies a ready-made explanation for later anomalies: “cyber incident,” “system offline for security,” “delayed tabulation.” History shows that once such an explanation exists, institutional actors have strong incentives to use it.

Potential Positive Trump Administration Surprises

Positive surprises for the incumbent side are also possible and would follow the same October logic. A credible framework that ends or freezes the Ukraine conflict, or a de-escalation agreement with Iran that reopens the Strait of Hormuz and stabilizes energy prices, would be classic late election cycle good news. Both theaters have already produced significant market and political volatility. A sudden diplomatic breakthrough that can be framed as “peace through strength” would dominate coverage, potentially shift polling among independents, and complicate Democratic messaging on foreign policy and inflation. Whether such deals materialize depends on counterparties who do not answer to U.S. election calendars, but the political incentive to announce progress is obvious and well understood by every administration.

Bottom Line: Post-Election Day Questions May Be The Surprise

The more durable issue, however, sits after Election Day. Mail-in and early voting volumes remain elevated in key jurisdictions. Statistical anomalies in the timing and distribution of ballots have been documented in prior cycles and have not been fully resolved to the satisfaction of large segments of the electorate. Chain-of-custody gaps, observer access limitations, and the continued use of systems whose source code and operational procedures are not fully transparent create legitimate questions about final tallies. I personally believe the system is broken and not secure from fraud. A cyber alert thirteen days out does not resolve those questions rather it potentially expands the set of post-election explanations available to whichever side loses. In that environment, the legitimacy of the reported results and the willingness of institutions and the public to accept them will matter more than whatever headline arrives between now and November 3. The October surprise, if it comes, will be noisy. The quieter and more consequential question is whether the post-election count can be shown, with evidence, to reflect the actual votes cast. That standard has not been consistently met in recent cycles, and the current technical and procedural environment does not make it more likely. Post election mayhem is my personal odds-on favorite.

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” Ecclesiastes 3:1

It has been a long, long time since this much optimism has persisted when it comes to the chances of achieving a Russia-Ukraine peace deal.

There are reports that trilateral talks involving Russia, Ukraine, and the US will finally soon happen in the wake of Steve Witkoff’s meeting with President Putin this week. A high level meeting is reportedly being scheduled for as early as next month; however, some top White House officials are also injecting some key caveats and realism.

Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that Russia and Ukraine are still too far apart to reach a peace agreement, despite at least tentatively seeing eye to eye on resuming US-backed negotiations.

In a fresh interview with Forbes, Vance said.”I think both countries have agreed to come to the negotiating table. The reason we have not yet reached a peace agreement is that they are simply too far apart on the details of those negotiations.”

He praised Witkoff for his efforts at getting the warring sides back to the negotiating bale: “He is optimistic. The nature of these things is that you make an attempt, see how far you can get, and then come back to it again. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t,” the Vice President continued.

Vance further stated:

“We are trying to do difficult things, knowing we have a very high mountain ahead of us. We are trying anyway.”

Putin aide Yuri Ushakov announced in the middle of this week that Moscow has agreed to resume trilateral talks with Ukraine and the United States in November.

President Putin has meanwhile not changed his tune, emphasizing in fresh media remarks that the goals of the ‘special military operation’ will be achieved with or without a deal…

Putin on Ukraine: I think that we can reach an agreement. We agree with that. But if someone wants otherwise, fine, it will be otherwise. But in any case, we will accomplish our tasks, and all the goals of the “special military operation” will be achieved. https://t.co/qjXsjocMNf

— Clash Report (@clashreport) October 22, 2026

The Kremlin on Wednesday still hailed that there have been significant changes in Washington’s posture in Ukraine, with Ushakov having noted that these changes caused Moscow’s stance to in turn be “re-evaluated, taking into account the signals received from the Americans.”

Authored by Silvio Canto, Jr. via American Thinker,

Guess who is traveling to Paris for a training seminar on how to commit terrorist acts and destroy historic sites?

I’m sure that the first class is about destroying all of those statues of Lincoln and Jefferson.

Let’s check this report from Kamal Sultan in the NY Post:

A Minnesota rapper who traveled to France to join escalating riots has urged white people to “raise hell” and “f–k s–t up” as part of a revolution on American soil, The Post discovered. And communist-linked groups in the US may be working to bring that hell to the nation’s capital.

Artist Tufawon, whose real name is Rafael Gonzalez Jr., joined Swedish activist Greta Thunberg outside Paul Éluard, the high school at the heart of the leftist protests marred by violence, looting and arson.

He addressed balaclava-clad protesters before performing his song “No One Is Illegal,” and riling up the crowd with chants of “f–k ICE” and “ICE out.”

“All power to the people,” the 40-year-old from Minneapolis boasted to his fans on Facebook. “After returning home from France I can clearly see how we need to become far more radicalized in the states.

“We have to be more enraged. Our comfort is hindering our progress. It really and truly needs to be white people that go outside and raise hell if we want to see revolution.

We want to see revolution?

As the song goes, you say you want a revolution, well you know, we all want to change the world. But I thought that the Paris protests were over school supplies, not changing the world. Am I the only one who is asking about who is financing these “trainees” traveling to Paris? Rent is expensive over there, you know.

Watching France from my seat in Texas makes you wonder what ever happened to the country that used to be France. How much longer will we call it French fries? It makes you wonder whether President Macron even cares that his country is burning. He was apparently at a concert cheering his favorite Celine Dion tune while the mob was destroying small businesses a few blocks away.

So I hope that Secretary Marco Rubio is keeping track of these “students” traveling to Paris to learn terrorism. Let’s cancel their “student” visas if they go to Paris to pick up some new skills for the next anti-Israel march at the university. And let’s hope that the FBI keeps track of the Americans on the trip and whoever is financing the trip.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of ZeroHedge.

America’s largest banks are scrambling to defend themselves against a new and rapidly evolving security threat: artificial intelligence agents gaining access to customer accounts, sometimes behaving in ways that appear to go beyond what their human users originally authorized, according to Axios. 

Major financial institutions including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and Citigroup are confronting the growing presence of third-party AI assistants inside their banking platforms. Some institutions have detected unauthorized agent activity, while others are concerned about cases in which AI systems appear to initiate actions without explicit instructions from account holders.

The problem is becoming particularly difficult because banks cannot always distinguish between a legitimate customer accessing an account, an AI assistant acting with that customer’s permission, and a potentially rogue agent operating outside its intended authority.

In many cases, customers themselves are providing AI tools with their banking credentials so the software can perform financial tasks on their behalf. While those arrangements may be voluntary, they frequently violate bank policies requiring account holders to maintain control of their login information.

More troubling is what happens once an AI agent gains access. Depending on the permissions it has been given, an assistant could potentially initiate purchases, transfer money or perform other financial transactions. Bank executives are increasingly concerned about the possibility of these systems making consequential decisions without adequate human oversight.

The Axios report out Thursday morning reported instances of agents interacting with bank call centers, as well as activity suggesting that certain systems may have attempted to act independently of their users’ instructions. The developments have prompted several Wall Street institutions to begin tightening access to their platforms.

Morgan Stanley has reportedly started blocking third-party AI agents, while JPMorgan, Bank of America and Citigroup have also moved to restrict their activities. A Chase spokesperson cautioned customers against sharing account usernames and passwords, while Morgan Stanley said it had not identified instances of rogue AI agents accessing its systems.

The industry is not necessarily opposed to AI-powered financial assistants altogether. In fact, many banks already permit limited, read-only access to customer information through authorized third-party applications, including budgeting and personal finance software.

That model could provide a compromise for AI agents, allowing them to analyze balances, review transactions and help customers manage their finances without granting them the authority to actually move money.

But even that distinction is becoming more complicated as AI systems grow increasingly autonomous.

Banking executives acknowledge that consumers will likely demand more sophisticated AI assistants capable of handling financial tasks in the future. The challenge is developing safeguards that allow those capabilities without exposing customers to unauthorized transactions, compromised accounts or unpredictable automated behavior.

Compounding the problem is the speed at which the technology is evolving. Even banks with enormous cybersecurity budgets and extensive experience protecting critical financial infrastructure are struggling to keep pace with new vulnerabilities.

Financial institutions are consequently investing not only in preventing unauthorized AI activity, but also in preparing for potential failures. According to Axios, some are developing contingency plans for rapidly securing accounts and restoring customer access following a serious AI-related security incident.

The broader concern is that AI agents are advancing faster than the systems designed to supervise them. And in an industry where a single unauthorized action can have immediate financial consequences, the distinction between an assistant following instructions and an autonomous system acting on its own is becoming an increasingly important security problem.

For Wall Street, the challenge is no longer simply figuring out how to incorporate artificial intelligence into banking. It’s figuring out how to keep increasingly capable AI systems from doing things that neither the banks nor their customers intended.

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

The U.S. Department of Energy has announced it will offer a heating oil exchange in a bid to lower costs ahead of the winter as the war in Iran continues.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the department announced a proposal request for an exchange of up to 315,000 barrels of ultra-low sulfur distillate, a refined oil product used for home heating. Ultra-low sulfur distillate uses the same specification as most types of diesel, which has experienced high prices in recent days.

“This solicitation is structured to mitigate supply chain challenges disrupting fuel oil supply,” the department said, adding the move is designed to keep the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve stocked ahead of the winter months.

“The Trump administration is committed to doing everything in our power to lower energy costs for the American people,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said in a statement.

According to the Energy Department, the terms of the exchange mean that borrowing companies have to “return the same volume of fuel oil” and include a premium back to the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve.

After receiving letters from the two Maine U.S. senators, Wright said he then directed his agency to exchange barrels of fuel from the oil reserve to mitigate high heating oil costs.

“Of course, this is a temporary measure to solve a temporary supply disruption. I encourage the governors of New York and New England to work with the Trump Administration to build the Constitution Pipeline and replace home heating oil with low-cost natural gas,” he said. “Doing so would save their residents billions of dollars in home heating and electricity costs.”

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) wrote in a post on X that the move equals a roughly 13 percent supply increase for New England, essentially pushing down the northeastern United States’ heating oil costs this winter.

The Energy Department’s announcement added that it will loan the hundreds of thousands of barrels of heating oil from Connecticut, Maine, and Massachusetts. The deliveries will be completed by Nov. 13.

According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), the average retail price of diesel has remained over $6 per gallon for weeks. From Tuesday to Wednesday, the price for diesel remained virtually unchanged in the United States, standing at $6.31 per gallon.

Diesel hit a record high of $6.52 per gallon on Sept. 22, the AAA figures show. Those figures also show that regular gasoline dropped about 1 cent on Wednesday to $4.26 per gallon.

Oil prices have hovered around $100 per barrel for months now, with international Brent crude reaching $108 and U.S. West Texas International reaching $97, respectively, per barrel on Wednesday.

In an effort to control crude oil prices that have risen due to the war with Iran and amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Trump administration in March agreed to loan 172 million barrels of crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, located in Louisiana and Texas. Currently, the reserve has dropped to 282 million barrels, the lowest levels seen since the 1980s.

President Donald Trump also indicated that his administration may move to permanently allow E-15 gasoline, which is blended with 15 percent ethanol instead of the regular 10 percent, to be used all year long. Normally, some states bar its usage during the summer months.

During a rally in Kansas on Monday, Trump said he would initiate the move if Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) wins his reelection bid during the midterms next month.