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The president said Thursday he "should have probably left the leaders" of Iran in place to reach a deal faster, as IRGC attacks continue in the Strait of Hormuz. CENTCOM flatly rejected Tehran's claim that it controls the waterway, insisting the U.S. and regional partners are keeping commercial traffic moving. Trump also lashed out at a suspected leaker who disclosed bomber departure times, saying "leakers should be shot."
Homeland Security Investigations raided Rep. Ilhan Omar's Washington home in a criminal immigration-fraud inquiry centered on whether her family misstated her age on 1995 paperwork. Agents seized her cellphone, and investigators have since issued more than a dozen subpoenas to family members. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro has opened a separate probe into Omar's financial disclosures; Omar denies wrongdoing and calls it political targeting.
Oil is up more than 40 percent since the Iran conflict began, with diesel vaulting from 3.56 to 5.13 dollars a gallon and pump prices averaging about 4.38. Economists peg the hit to American households at roughly 860 dollars apiece, or about 115 billion dollars in total. Diesel is the quiet killer here, since it moves farm equipment and grocery trucks alike.
Trump announced a new Pentagon weapons "super range" in Montana at a midterm rally, then posted Thursday morning urging Ohioans to back Sen. Jon Husted in the state's special Senate election. New Marist numbers put Democrat Sherrod Brown up 51 to 43, and a Fox News poll had the gap at eight points. Inflation is the top issue for 40 percent of Ohio voters, and 51 percent say Husted is too close to the president.
Ukrainian drones hit a refinery in Russia's Ryazan region early Thursday, hours after Zelenskyy declared Trump's energy ceasefire dead. "The block is out. We're done," he told the Financial Times, after telling Piers Morgan he felt betrayed — "Really, yes, between us." Kyiv says Russia never stopped hitting Ukrainian energy sites in the first place, and Ukrainian officials claim they were never formally told the truce existed.
A missile struck Saudi Aramco's Dhahran complex Tuesday, burning the top three floors including CEO Amin Nasser's offices. Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree promised continued strikes on Saudi airports and oil facilities and warned shipping companies to pull staff out of the kingdom. It follows an October 8 missile attack on Riyadh's airport that killed 12 and injured more than 300.
The container ship M/V GFS Pride sank while under tow after being struck by an IRGC projectile, and Iran reported a tanker burning in the eastern strait. Pro-IRGC outlets claim multiple vessels were hit. The International Energy Agency is accelerating an emergency release of 100 million barrels to steady a rattled market.
The FAA announced Wednesday it will prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement on SpaceX's request to raise its Starbase cadence from 25 launches a year to 456. Separately, Ship 40 — the first Starship to survive both orbit and ocean splashdown — has been hauled back to Starbase so engineers can study real reentry-scarred hardware. Starship just passed its tenth birthday, having finally reached orbit and deployed Starlinks on Flight 14.
On October 11 NASA's Perseverance rover rolled past 45.22 kilometers — about 28.1 miles — nudging out the 45.16 kilometers Opportunity logged across fourteen years of service. Meanwhile JWST data shows galaxies were already seeding space with carbon and oxygen just 500 million years after the Big Bang, and physicists in Vienna built the first self-stabilizing nuclear clock.
A 17-person Purdue-backed expedition has landed on Nikumaroro Island after five days at sea to physically inspect the Taraia Object, a satellite anomaly that may be Earhart's Lockheed Electra. Leader Rick Pettigrew says they're "this close" to resolving an 89-year-old mystery. Complicating matters: the island is crawling with giant meat-eating coconut crabs with a crushing grip.
