Homeland Security Investigations executed a DOJ-obtained, judge-authorized search warrant at Rep. Ilhan Omar's Washington-area home in a predawn operation Monday, tied to a criminal fraud investigation into immigration paperwork filled out by her late father. Today, US Attorney Jeanine Pirro opened a separate federal probe into Omar's financial disclosures, and a former ICE official said investigators believe they have probable cause on immigration crimes. Omar says she "will not be silenced" and calls it political intimidation; Hakeem Jeffries called the search "deeply disturbing."
With Election Day three weeks out, the map is stretching: Republicans' Lone Star Liberty PAC pushed its Texas reservations up another $6.3 million to $123 million for Ken Paxton, while Democrats' Senate Majority PAC pulled ad money out of Georgia to chase flips in redder states. Susan Collins and Democrat Troy Jackson debate in Maine today, and Montana's Democratic Party chair resigned Monday while endorsing an independent over her own party's nominee. Generic-ballot polling still has Democrats favored to take the House.
JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Wells Fargo posted a combined $31.75 billion in third-quarter profit, powered by trading desks and lending. The backdrop is less cheerful for everyone else: wholesale prices ran 4.7% above a year ago, and the Fed's own survey found 37% of adults couldn't cover a $400 emergency in cash. Brent crude eased to about $105.76 a barrel this afternoon after the Saudi attacks spiked it.
Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem, 42, of Atlanta died Monday afternoon after falling from the 200-foot, 70-mph Goliath coaster, striking several other riders on the way down and injuring four. Six Flags temporarily shut comparable coasters at parks nationwide, and Georgia's Office of Insurance and Safety Fire said this morning its investigators are conducting a comprehensive review.
Saudi Arabia reported a fresh barrage of drones and missiles today with Riyadh's airport closed, days after a Houthi strike on the kingdom's busiest airport killed at least 12 and wounded more than 300. Trump said "we may" join the Saudi-led counteroffensive — "The Houthis are misbehaving, very badly" — while Washington so far limits itself to intelligence, targeting and planning support. Houthi official Mohammed Al Bukhaiti promised a "swift and painful response targeting the US and all its interests in the region" if America steps in.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham told Parliament the suspected attack plot against RAF Fairford was "highly likely" coordinated in Iran and almost certainly directed by the Revolutionary Guard — the first official British attribution. Five men arrested near the base on September 27 were found with gasoline but no viable explosive and have since been released on strict bail. Twenty-nine foreign ministers endorsed London's assessment; Tehran denies any involvement and demands Britain produce evidence.
Trump declared an immediate halt to strikes on energy infrastructure Saturday on Truth Social — "Both parties have agreed. Do not break it!" — a move aimed at cooling diesel and oil prices. Zelensky says Russian air attacks on Ukrainian oil and gas facilities continued anyway, and Moscow has never actually confirmed the deal. Meanwhile Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins joined Democrats urging Trump to scrap his 300,000-ton Russian diesel purchase, arguing it violates the 2022 import ban.
A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral's pad 40 at 6:33 a.m. Eastern this morning carrying Cargo Dragon C211 and more than 6,300 pounds of supplies on the CRS-35 resupply run. The manifest includes the last set of roll-out solar arrays to finish upgrading the station's power budget, hardware to manufacture artificial retinas in microgravity, and 3D heart-tissue models for drug testing. Docking at the Harmony module is set for Thursday morning.
The James Webb Space Telescope mapped XLSSC 122, a cluster 10.4 billion light-years out that already shows the size, structure and dark-matter density of a modern cluster — in an era when clusters were supposed to still be assembling. It's now the most distant cluster known to produce strong gravitational lensing, which is how astronomers weighed its invisible mass. Researchers also found an unexpected link between scattered starlight and dark matter that could reshape how the early universe gets studied.
Physicists at Oxford used a hybrid quantum computer — trapped-ion qubits standing in for gauge fields, ion vibrations standing in for matter — to reproduce the Aharonov-Bohm effect, in which a particle reacts to magnetic flux it never passes through. With the simulated flux switched on, the particle's two possible tunneling paths interfered destructively and canceled out completely, freezing it in place. The effect was predicted in 1959; seeing it staged inside a programmable quantum machine is the new part.
