Latest News Digest - October 20, 2025

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem Highlights Accomplishments Since January.

Secretary Noem spoke in Bradenton, Florida, about ICE (Immigration and Custom Enforcement) operations’ successful apprehension of 480,000 criminal illegal aliens since January and she stated that 70% of those illegals had criminal charges against them.  She said that her department is “focused on the worst of the worst”, bringing these criminals to justice. For example, a convicted murderer from Cuba was arrested in Sarasota, and he was also convicted of kidnapping and carjacking.  Another illegal immigrant from El Salvador was arrested and had a conviction for sexual assault against a child in 1995.  Her department’s goal across the country is to make communities safer so that families can prosper and “enjoy the kind of freedom that this country was established to provide.” – Fox13 Tampa Bay News

9^th Circuit Appeals Court Issues Motion to Authorize President Trump to Deploy the National Guard to Portland, Oregon.

Pausing a lower court’s order that had blocked the deployment of the National Guard in Oregon under the direction of President Trump’s administration, the 9^th Circuit Appeals Court authorized the President under 10 US Code Section 12406 to deploy the Guard against the state’s wishes.  The Code states that “whenever  (1) The United States or any of the Commonwealths or possessions, is invaded or is in danger of invasion by a foreign nation; (2) there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the United States; or (3) the President is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States; the President may call into Federal service members and units of the National Guard of any State in such numbers as he considers necessary to repel the invasion, suppress the rebellion, or execute those laws. - MSNBC

Police Arrest Man at Atlanta International Airport Who Had Plans to “Shoot It Up”.

CNN reported that a 49-year-old man’s family alerted police that he was headed to the Atlanta Airport to shoot people.  Billy Joe Cagle was arrested by the police who acted quickly and prevented another possible mass shooting.  Authorities said Cagle had mental health issues and they found a loaded AR-15 rifle inside his truck. 

Amazon Web Services Goes Down and Causes Major Disruptions Throughout the Globe.

A glitch in an internet cloud computing service disrupted internet use around the world, as reported by AP News, CNN, and others today.  Companies like AT&T, Amazon, Capital One, T-Mobile, the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, the Signal chat app, a widely-used educational platform called Canvas, banks, airlines and many others were affected.  Outages of this type point to the vulnerability of systems that are relying on a few large cloud providers.

President Trump Floats Plans to Import More Beef from Argentina to Ease Beef Prices.

As consumer demand for beef has kept steady, the problems with depleted herd counts, reduced imports, and bottlenecks at some U.S.-approved slaughterhouses have caused the price of beef at grocery stores to reach record highs this year.  President Donald Trump has stated he might import more beef from Argentina to increase the supply of beef and hopefully bring down prices for consumers.  U.S. ranchers fear that this will harm their industry and could import disease that can threaten the domestic livestock production.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture halted imports of Mexican livestock this year to keep out a damaging pest spreading in Mexico. It takes two years to raise cattle for slaughter and U.S. herds had dwindled due to a years-long drought in the western U.S.  Also, President Trump imposed tariffs on Brazilian beef so the imports from Brazil have slowed further reducing the supply of beef. – NBC News and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association

President Trump Signs Critical-Minerals Deal with Australian Prime Minister.

An $8.5 billion deal that had been negotiated over several months was signed at the White House on Monday by President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. The U.S. has been dependent on China for the importation of rare earth minerals that are needed in the techology supply chain and it could take years for the U.S. to develop other mining and processing projects that will reduce its dependence on Chinese sources. Rare earth minerals are 17 metallic elements found in the earth's crust and must be in concentrated deposits to be extracted and refined economically. - PBS, Newsweek, Britannica