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Top 5 US news stories

October 10 2025

Greg Loving

10 Oct 2025 • 5 min read

Palestinians on a coastal road in central Gaza on Friday. Credit...Abdel Kareem Hana/Associated Press

Subprime Auto Loan Defaults Hit Record High, Flashing Warning for Economy

Cease-Fire Takes Effect in Gaza; Israeli Troops to Reposition

New York Attorney General Letitia James Indicted on Bank Fraud Charges

China Imposes Sweeping Export Controls on Rare Earth Minerals and Technology

Venezuelan Opposition Leader María Corina Machado Awarded Nobel Peace Prize

…US GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN ENTERS 10th DAY…

1. Subprime Auto Loan Defaults Hit Record High, Flashing Warning for Economy

Since the pandemic, buyers on auto-dealer lots have encountered surging sticker prices and smaller incentives from automakers to lessen the blow. To afford an automobile, more consumers, especially lower-income families, have resorted to buying used cars and taking out longer loans. Now, more are falling behind on their loans, signaling that lower-income consumers are struggling to afford payments as wages stagnate and unemployment ticks higher. While the economy has remained strong, and Wall Street has kept buying subprime auto loans, the auto market is evidence that not all is well under the hood. The percentage of new-car buyers with credit scores below 650 was nearly 14% in September, roughly one in seven people, J.D. Power said last month. That is the highest for the comparable period since 2016. And the portion of subprime auto loans that are 60 days or more overdue on their payments hit a record of more than 6% this year, according to Fitch Ratings.

WSJ

2. Cease-Fire Takes Effect in Gaza; Israeli Troops to Reposition

The Israeli military said on Friday that a cease-fire had come into effect at noon and that its soldiers were repositioning themselves within Gaza. The statement came after the Israeli government approved a deal early on Friday between Israel and Hamas. It includes the release of all hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, as well as an initial pullback by the Israeli military in Gaza. It was not immediately clear what the situation on the ground in Gaza was on Friday. According to the text of the deal released on Friday by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, the Israeli military would move to new deployment lines inside Gaza by early Saturday. Hamas would then have 72 hours to return all of the hostages, including the bodies of those who have died.

NYT

3. New York Attorney General Letitia James Indicted on Bank Fraud Charges

New York Attorney General Letitia James, a longtime foe of President Donald Trump, was charged on Thursday with lying on a mortgage application… A grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, returned an indictment charging James with one count of bank fraud and one count of making a false statement to a lending institution, court records showed. The indictment was the second in as many weeks returned against a high-profile adversary of Trump… Former FBI Director James Comey was indicted on September 25 on charges of making false statements and obstructing a congressional investigation, which he denies. The Justice Department has also opened probes into U.S. Senator Adam Schiff and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, among others. Neither Schiff nor Cook has been charged with a crime, and they both deny wrongdoing. James, a Democrat, said in a statement she would continue serving as New York state's top law enforcement official and called the charges "a continuation of the president's desperate weaponization of our justice system." "We will fight these baseless charges aggressively," James said. Trump administration officials deny that he is using the Justice Department for political ends, and argue that Democrats weaponized the department against an adversary when federal prosecutors brought charges against Trump in 2023. Trump pleaded not guilty and the cases have been dismissed.

Reuters

4. China Imposes Sweeping Export Controls on Rare Earth Minerals and Technology

China has unveiled sweeping export controls on rare earths and related technologies, as Beijing strengthens its leverage over critical minerals ahead of an expected meeting this month between US President Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. Under the new rules, foreign companies will need Beijing’s approval to export magnets that contain even trace amounts of Chinese-sourced rare earth materials, or that were produced using the country’s extraction methods, refining or magnet-making technology. The restrictions announced on Thursday by China’s commerce ministry will for the first time create a Chinese version of the US foreign direct product rule, a measure Washington has used to block semiconductor-related exports to China from third countries.

5. Venezuelan Opposition Leader María Corina Machado Awarded Nobel Peace Prize

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work promoting democracy and fighting dictatorship in the country. Announcing the prize, Nobel Committee Chairman Jorgen Watne Frydnes described Machado as a “brave and committed champion of peace…who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness.” As the leader of the democracy movement opposing the regime of President Nicolás Maduro, Machado has been a key, unifying figure in a movement that was once divided—an opposition that found common ground in the demand for free elections and representative government. Earlier this year, Machado was briefly detained by Maduro’s regime after she emerged from months in hiding to rally the opposition against his planned inauguration to a third six-year term. Machado was banned from running against Maduro during the 2024 presidential election, and ended up backing Edmundo González, a representative of a different party. Despite being blocked from standing, she managed to mobilize hundreds of thousands of volunteers from across the political divide to act as election observers at polling stations. After Maduro declared victory in the heavily contested vote, Machado vowed to fight on. “We are going to defend the truth,” Machado said at the time. “Everyone knows what happened. They know what happened and what they are trying to do.”

WSJ

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