Welcome to today’s daily update for Friday, October 16, 2026. Here’s everything you need to know.
The Breakdown
The White House has chosen Katie Zacharia to be their new press secretary, but the details around her background remain muddled.
At the end of August, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt left her position to spend more time with her kids, particularly her second child of just several months. She confirmed that the job required being on call 24/7 and needed her to work more than 60 hours a week, which was simply too demanding after giving birth to her second child.
This week, almost two months later, US President Donald Trump announced that lawyer Katie Zacharia would be the administration’s new press secretary, utilizing her experience as a conservative commentator and former spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security.
However, her credentials quickly raised questions. She earned a bachelor’s degree and a law degree from Pepperdine University, but reporters found that she never passed the California bar exam to become an official attorney. In order to formally practice law in the United States, one must pass the bar exam, which Zacharia did not.
Upon asking Zacharia about this in an interview, she replied that she had passed the bar “when I moved to China.” She did, in fact, work on international transactions for several years between 2011 and 2013 after moving there with her husband after her graduation. However, this statement also drew scrutiny – foreign nationals are legally banned from practicing law or holding licensed attorney positions in Chinese domestic firms.
Zacharia later admitted that she had failed the bar, but argued that she could still call herself a “lawyer” due to her extensive consulting experience. She attempted to emphasize the difference between a lawyer and a practicing attorney, which is a true statement – technically, according to the exact definitions, anyone who has graduated from law school is considered a lawyer, but one can only become an attorney by passing the bar. Nevertheless, news organizations and legal experts still pointed out the at Trump’s characterization of her profession as an “attorney” is still incorrect, and her usage of definition of a lawyer can still be confusing to citizens.
Either way, the administration appears to be happy with her performance so far – she held her first press conference this week, lasting just 15 minutes. The majority of the time was taken up by her opening speech, and she spent six minutes taking questions from three right-wing news organizations: Fox News, Breitbart, and the Daily Mail.
The Global Snapshot
Trump has canceled the planned livestream that would have shown a mass shooter’s execution by firing squad. Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a former US Army member, opened fire at Fort Hood – a military base in Texas – in 2009. Hasan killed 13 people and injured more than 32 others, prompting his sentence to death after his conviction. However, the Trump administration approved the use of execution by firing squad for Hasan, marking the first time since World War II that a firing squad has been forced upon someone – it has been used since 1945 several times, but only in specific cases where the criminal requested it. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also stated that the execution would be livestreamed in order to “deter” others from taking such actions, leading to intense backlash that compared a livestream to the tactics of terrorist groups like ISIS. After speaking with various officials, Trump has walked back on that decision, though, now confirming that only the immediate families of the victims will be able to watch the execution.
At least 35 people were killed and more than 50 others remain injured after a roof collapse at a private school in the Pakistani city of Peshawar. The incident took place at the Al-Khair school, where the roofs of a second-grade and a third-grade classroom caved in with the children inside. Dozens of rescuers arrived within minutes, helping to save more than 40 people, and nearby residents also rushed to the scene to help with rescue efforts. Unfortunately, 34 children were killed, alongside a teacher, making it the deadliest building collapse in Pakistani history.
Fact of the Day (The Fact Site): The average computer user blinks approximately seven times a minute, while the normal rate is around twenty times per minute.
Quote of the Day (Gracious Quotes): An aim in life is the only fortune worth finding. (Robert Louis Stevenson)
Word of the Day (Merriam-Webster): Outlandish (noun, out-LAN-dish) - Outlandish can describe things that are strikingly strange or unusual; in this use, it’s a synonym of bizarre. Outlandish can also describe things, such as claims, rumors, and accusations, that go beyond reasonable limits or standards.
In a Sentence: One of the author’s greatest strengths is her ability to write outlandish characters whose quirks remain lodged in readers’ minds long after they’ve finished the book.
Image: Katie Zacharia / X
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