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Today's Brief: Hubbard, Drones, and Bans

The Homebrew · · Posted · AI-drafted daily brief, synthesized from Left, Center, and Right coverage. Facts may be inaccurate — verify with the cited sources below.

Stephen Hubbard, the 74-year-old American freed by Russia, touched down in the U.S. Wednesday night, President Trump said, CBS News reported. Shortly after envoy Steve Witkoff met Vladimir Putin, Russia and Ukraine traded overnight strikes that Ukrainian authorities said killed seven people, Euronews reported. In Saudi Arabia, an attack on Dammam's airport killed at least two people, and the U.S. military has quietly cut its footprint at Middle East posts, CBS News reported. In France, President Emmanuel Macron said "illegitimate" protests would be banned, NBC News reported.

Hubbard home; strikes resume. Trump said Hubbard would visit the White House "in the next day or so," CBS News reported. Trump first said there was "no 'swap' necessary," then told reporters that if he had let new sanctions on Russia take effect, "you would not have Mr. Hubbard coming back," according to CBS. Witkoff told Putin, "you are a humanitarian also, sir," CBS News reported; Rep. Don Bacon called that "another embarrassment," and Sen. John Cornyn said Putin "is a stone cold killer," according to the BBC. Vice President JD Vance said he cared "much less about what Steve said than about the fact that he is bringing an American hostage home," the BBC reported.

Hubbard, a retired teacher from Michigan, was captured in Ukraine in 2022 and sentenced in 2024 to almost seven years in a penal colony after Russian authorities accused him of manning a checkpoint for mercenaries, CBS News reported; his family has disputed the charges. His son, Fr. Joseph Coleman, a Greek Orthodox priest, told CBS that his father's release was "a small step toward peace in this greater conflict." The State Department called the release "a welcome step" and said "there are currently no Americans determined to be wrongfully detained in Russia," the BBC reported.

Overnight, Ukrainian authorities said strikes killed a man in Sumy, a woman in Kharkiv, three people in Zaporizhzhia and two in Donetsk, and Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 15 people were wounded in the capital, Euronews reported. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said two people were wounded as 630 drones headed toward the region, most of them intercepted, according to Euronews. The Kremlin said it was "in principle" willing to resume three-way talks with Ukraine and the U.S., potentially in mid-November after the midterms, and Trump said the sides were "maybe now the closest we've been" to ending the war, Euronews reported.

Gulf: airport hit, troops thinned. Saudi Arabia's civil aviation authority raised the death toll from the strike on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam to two; the statement did not assign blame, though the Houthis in Yemen have attacked Saudi airports and infrastructure for weeks, CBS News reported. Saudi Aramco told staff to evacuate its Dhahran headquarters and work remotely, Reuters reported, according to CBS. Brent crude rose about 3% Thursday to $112 a barrel after Iran's Revolutionary Guard said it attacked four vessels near the Strait of Hormuz and three others hit sea mines, CBS reported. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said indirect talks with the U.S. on a seven-day ceasefire proposal continue, according to CBS.

France: bans before Saturday. Macron, speaking after a meeting with intelligence chiefs and senior ministers, blamed "seditious" ultra-left groups and vandals for last weekend's riots and said union-organized marches could go ahead, NBC News reported. Thursday protests in Paris, Lyon, Lille and Grenoble were banned, according to NBC. Macron said he would convene a defense council Friday, Euronews reported. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez had expected about 200,000 people on Oct. 17, compared with 550,000 to 800,000 counted, and junior interior minister Jean-Didier Berger said police numbers for Saturday would rise "20%," Euronews reported.

From the right, The Federalist ran a piece headlined "Yes, The Riots In France Are Because Of Mass Immigration."

Markets: Meta beats, Tesla slips. Stocks rose Wednesday: the S&P 500 gained 0.58% to 7,757.17, the Nasdaq Composite 1.05% to 26,702.86, and the Dow 360.21 points to 52,856.09, CNBC reported. SpaceX shares rose 7% and Netflix fell more than 5%, according to CNBC. (Disclosure: The Homebrew is drafted by xAI's Grok.)

Meta reported third-quarter revenue of $64.60 billion, up 26%, and said costs included a $9.89 billion charge tied to its agreement with 52 attorneys general to resolve teen mental health litigation; it guided fourth-quarter revenue to $73 billion to $76 billion. Meta shares rose 3% and Tesla fell 2% in extended trading Wednesday, CNBC reported. Tesla earned an adjusted 48 cents a share on revenue of $28.05 billion, above LSEG estimates, according to CNBC. In Thursday premarket trading, Meta was down 2% and Tesla down 3%, CNBC reported.

Washington and the campaign. Rep. Ilhan Omar said she will move out of her Washington home after federal agents searched it last week, ABC News reported, citing the Associated Press. Federal authorities are investigating potential fraud in her family's immigration paperwork, a person briefed on the investigation told the AP; the Justice Department has said only that it is a criminal investigation, and Omar said she is "confident in the fact that I didn't do anything wrong," according to ABC.

Rep. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, called Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy's ad featuring the estranged mother of Democratic rival Amy Acton "the most shameful, disgusting, offensive ad this election season," the Guardian reported; Vance backed the ad. An Emerson College poll shows Democrat James Talarico at 48% and Republican Ken Paxton at 46% in the Texas Senate race, according to the Guardian.

The Justice Department dropped two appeals defending a rule that would have let the education secretary disqualify some employers from Public Service Loan Forgiveness, after federal judges struck it down in June, the Washington Examiner reported. In Los Angeles, 66.2% of voters said they were unhappy with the way the city was going and 42% said they had seriously considered leaving California in the past four years, in a California Post-McLaughlin & Associates poll of 400 voters, the New York Post reported.

Ohio and health. At least 60 people were treated after glycidyl methacrylate leaked from a 5,500-gallon tank during a transfer error in Toledo, Ohio, ABC News reported; a city spokesperson said there was no explosion. The three-mile shelter-in-place order ended and the evacuation zone shrank to a half-mile, WTVG reported.

Nigeria's Ebola patient, a woman who traveled from Uganda to Abuja, developed symptoms four days after arriving, according to the World Health Organization, and 44 close contacts have been identified, the BBC reported. Uganda's health ministry said she transited the country without symptoms, according to the BBC. The outbreak, which began in Congo in May, has killed at least 4,600 people with more than 9,500 cases, the BBC reported, citing the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

From the left, ProPublica reported that the Energy Department has filed more than 500 legal appeals seeking to block state benefits for sick Hanford nuclear site workers and their survivors.

Sources used

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