Russia freed jailed Michigan teacher Stephen Hubbard, 74, during Witkoff’s visit to Putin; Trump says there was no swap but ties the release to his sanctions waiver.
Hubbard, a retired teacher arrested in April 2022 and sentenced to nearly 7 years on mercenary charges, was released on Wednesday, Oct. 21, while U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff was visiting Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg.
No swap: the release followed his request to Putin in a phone call last week.
Asked by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins whether lifting sanctions bought it: “If I didn’t do that, you wouldn’t have him coming back.”On Oct. 16, Trump waived new penalties under this year’s Russia sanctions law, two days before they took effect.
The waiver has no end date and does not mention Hubbard.“You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that.”Witkoff, to Putin
- Sen. Thom Tillis, Republican
“WTF, Steve?”
- Sen. John Cornyn, Republican
“Putin is a stone cold killer.”
- Rep. Don Bacon, Republican
“Another embarrassment.”
Vice President JD Vance said he cared “much less about what Steve said” than about an American coming home.
Hubbard was the only American in Russia formally designated wrongfully detained; that list is now empty. At least five Americans are still detained there, per the advocacy group Global Reach; CBS puts the total near 10, counting dual nationals.
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Democrats sued to block voter purges built on DHS noncitizen lists; state records showed all 185 Nevada voters DHS said it confirmed as noncitizens were citizens.
Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, the Democrats’ Senate and House leaders, filed the suit in Washington with party committees about two weeks before the Nov. 3 midterms. It says threats to prosecute violate the Voting Rights Act’s ban on intimidating voters or the officials who count their ballots. DHS had flagged nearly 16,000 Nevada registrants.
- Nevada, 2026The 185 DHS said it confirmed as noncitizens
All 185 were citizens, per state records
- Los Angeles County, 2026Those flagged on DOJ’s list of more than 20,000 California voters
More than 25% have a U.S. birthplace on record
- Texas, 2019The state’s list of possible noncitizens
About 25,000 of about 95,000 were citizens; Texas rescinded it
Each list was checked differently. The Los Angeles review is preliminary, and its share is a floor.
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The State Department ordered non-emergency U.S. staff and their families out of Saudi Arabia after Houthi attacks on airports and oil sites.
The order, issued Wednesday, Oct. 21, is mandatory for those staff. It evacuates no private Americans; State’s policy is that they leave on commercial flights while those still run. A spokesperson said it covers Saudi Arabia only, rejecting a Reuters report of a Gulf-wide pullout.
- 1Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport
A Houthi strike this month killed 12, including an American, per CBS; Fox News counts at least 13. Every flight now needs Saudi permission.
- 2Dammam’s King Fahd airport
An attack aimed at it Wednesday evening killed one and injured eight, Saudi officials said, per CGTN.
- 3Aramco’s Shaybah oilfield
Debris from a drone shot down over it killed two.
- 4Jizan and Najran airports
Near the Yemen border, closed through at least Thursday, Oct. 22.
Numbers mark the named sites, not impact points.
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The U.S. and Israel have drawn up plans for possible new strikes on Iran after the Nov. 3 midterms, the New York Times reports, citing officials it does not name.
The Times described “a short but intensive operation” against Iran’s nuclear sites, energy facilities, and missile and drone arsenals. It said Trump is far from certain to approve it; he has repeatedly vetoed plans to return to major combat this year.
The U.S. “will not be attacking Iran at any time prior to the midterm elections.”
It does not comment on military plans “that may or may not exist.”
The Times also reported a small chance of strikes this month, before the vote.
The Times cited U.S. officials and others briefed on the planning, none named, according to the Times of Israel’s and Anadolu’s accounts of its report.
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A New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $25 billion for misleading Facebook users about privacy, the company’s largest fine ever.
A September jury found Meta broke the state’s consumer-protection law, counting each misleading statement once for every New Mexican it could have reached, at up to $5,000 a violation. Judge Francis Mathew said state law justified $219.5 billion before cutting it to $25 billion.
FTC fine, 2019, over the same Cambridge Analytica harvest
$5 billionNew Mexico’s judgment
$25 billionWhat the state’s lawyers asked
$35 billion to $40 billionWhat the judge said state law justified: 43.9 million violations at up to $5,000 each
$219.5 billion- 11 statements in the news × 2.1 million, the state’s population
- 15 on Facebook’s own channels × 1,386,648, its monthly users there
Meta’s fiscal 2025 net income, for scale
$60.46 billion
Meta is expected to appeal; it argues the penalty breaks constitutional limits and that the state never showed New Mexicans were harmed.
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Russia is ready “in principle” to restart three-way talks with the U.S. and Ukraine, suspended since February, a Kremlin aide said after Putin met Witkoff.
Witkoff and Putin met for about three hours in St. Petersburg. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said the talks would be between negotiating teams, not presidents; Putin still refuses to meet Zelensky anywhere but Moscow. The BBC says a round could come around Nov. 10 in Abu Dhabi, but no side has confirmed a date or an agenda.
- Three rounds
- Abu Dhabi, Jan. 23–24 and Feb. 4–5; Geneva, Feb. 17–18
- Two prisoner swaps
- 314 captives on Feb. 5; 500 for 500 on March 5–6
- No ceasefire
- Russia still demands that Ukraine leave all of Donbas and parts of Zaporizhzhia.