- Tuesday October 6th, 2026
- "It Is Not A Question of Who Is Right Or Wrong But What Is Right Or Wrong That Counts."
- --Geoff Metcalf
- Providing an on line Triage of the news since 1998
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World & Nation
11 Tankers Attacked Near Strait of Hormuz Since Monday
At least 11 tankers have been attacked in and around the Strait of
Hormuz since last Monday, threatening a recovery in Persian Gulf oil
exports as fighting spreads across the region.
Four of the attacks occurred in the past two days, underscoring the
risks facing ships despite protection from U.S. forces, The New York
Times reported Monday.
The strikes came as Yemen's Saudi-backed government announced Sunday a
major military campaign against the Iran-backed Houthi militia
following Houthi attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure.
Is it over for Iran? Oil, the rial and the oil minister all fail at once
Iran's currency, the rial, surpassed IRR2.69mn to the dollar on October
5, hitting its lowest-ever rate against the US currency. This is while
its terminals loaded no crude in September and its oil minister
abruptly quit the night before, forcing his subordinate to take his
place. The pressure on the Pezeshkian administration is truly mounting;
is something about to break in Tehran?
The short answer is no, and assuming Tehran will cave in this situation
shows a misunderstanding of the Islamic Republic's mindset. The longer
answer is that the three things that have kept the economy running -
oil revenue, a manageable currency and a steady hand on the oil
ministry- are all failing at the same time, and the date by which the
last cushion runs out is now close.
Let's start with oil exports, or lack thereof. Iran loaded no oil at
its export terminals last month, the first time since the 1979
revolution, according to expatriate-based Homayoun Falakshahi, head of
crude oil analysis at Kpler, on October 3.
Trump signs off on first military execution since 1961, and it will be by firing squad
Donald Trump has approved a firing squad execution for Nidal Hasan, the
former Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people and wounded 32 others in
the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas. If it goes forward, it will
be the first time the U.S. military has put one of its own to death
since 1961.
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced the decision on X,
saying Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recommended death by U.S. Army
firing squad and Trump approved it. Parnell called Hasan a jihadist and
wrote, “Judgment day for Hasan has finally come.” Acting Army Secretary
Adam Telle will set the time and place.
On November 5, 2009, Hasan, then an Army major, walked into a
processing center at Fort Hood where soldiers were preparing to deploy
and opened fire on unarmed troops. It remains the deadliest attack ever
carried out on an American military base. A military jury convicted him
in 2013 and sentenced him to death. He has been held ever since at the
U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, home of the
military’s only death row.
Former
NY prosecutor claims AG Letitia James is threatening him — as he
refuses to delete evidence of anti-Trump political corruption
A former prosecutor in the New York attorney general’s office claims
that Letitia James is threatening him after he blew the whistle on a
scheme to take down President Trump – as he refuses to delete evidence
of the alleged corruption.
Daniel Wiesenfeld, who worked in James’ Investor Protection Bureau
before he was axed last month, defiantly told his former boss Monday he
would not be handing over “confidential and privileged” materials,
according to email obtained by the Times-Union.
The blistering email also included a photo of a detective’s business
card from the AG’s Executive Protection Detail that had been jammed
into his front door, the paper reported.
New York declares measles disaster emergency as cases surge in Pennsylvania
Executive order expands who can administer MMR vaccine, including pharmacists vaccinating children as young as 2
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a statewide emergency on Monday over a measles outbreak spreading from Pennsylvania.
It is the first time an emergency declaration has been issued since measles began surging in the U.S. in 2025.
Pennsylvania has reported 977 measles cases and five deaths as of Oct.
2, with most cases centered in rural communities. Meanwhile, New York
has reported 108 cases.
"No one should get seriously ill or die from a vaccine-preventable disease," Hochul said in a statement.
Rubio fires back at Russia's bold call to pull diplomats out of Kyiv
Russia constantly strikes Kyiv and urges foreign diplomats to leave the
Ukrainian capital. The United States will decide for itself when to do
so, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during his press conference.
"Russia has been urging foreign diplomacy to leave the house for
months. We have an embassy presence there, and we'll make the
determination about whether it's safe for them to be there or not," he
emphasized.
Rubio noted that the United States would reconsider its decision if the situation changes and diplomats face a genuine threat.
"We analyze the safety of every diplomatic mission in the world, and if
a threat arises that we feel needs to be addressed by a change of
posture, we'll do so," the US Secretary of State said.
‘Cornell 7’ fraternity brother apologizes to Jane Doe about ‘backlash’ in newly obtained phone call
A Cornell University fraternity brother accused of gang-raping a
student apologized to the alleged victim over the “backlash” she was
receiving, according to a newly obtained phone call.
Winston Lee, one of the seven members of Chi Phi named in last month’s
lawsuit, allegedly snorted ketamine off the body of the Jane Doe who
filed the suit.
When Jane Doe called him, roughly three weeks after the reported incident in October 2024, Lee seemed apologetic at first.
David Ellison’s $81B merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery officially completed
David Ellison’s $81 billion merger of Paramount and Warner Bros.
Discovery officially closed Tuesday more than seven months after his
winning bid, creating a new media behemoth known as Skydance.
The combined company will include two historic film studios and their
Hollywood lots; major streaming services HBO Max and Paramount+; CNN
and CBS News; live sports channels including CBS Sports and TNT Sports;
and thousands of iconic movie titles.
“Today is a historic day, not just for Skydance but for our entire
industry,” Ellison, chairman and chief executive of Skydance, said in a
statement.
Even Biden DOJ officials called memo targeting parents as potential domestic terrorists ‘ridiculous’: bombshell emails
Top Justice Department lawyers balked at the Biden administration’s
attempts to prosecute parents who protested mask mandates and critical
race theory at school board meetings as potential domestic terrorists
in the fall of 2021, ripping senior officials’ push for the criminal
probes as “ridiculous” and highly “political,” according to emails
released Monday.
Attorneys in Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco’s office expressed
concern about the demand for federal criminal investigations at the
behest of the National School Boards Association (NSBA), and mocked the
partisan goals it would accomplish, messages published by the DOJ’s
Weaponization Working Group show.
“This is ridiculous,” wrote Robyn Thiemann, an attorney in Monaco’s office, on Sept. 25, 2021.
Corey Amundson, chief of the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section of the Criminal Divison called the effort, “Stupid, stupid, stupid.”
Trump Hits Fox for Easy El-Sayed Interview
President Donald Trump slammed Fox News for conducting a "softball"
interview with Michigan progressive Democrat U.S. Senate candidate
Abdul El-Sayed.
Trump took aim at the network both during a Monday rally in Grand
Island, Nebraska, and afterward on Truth Social, complaining that Fox
gives too much airtime to Democrats while failing to give Republicans
and his MAGA movement comparable coverage.
"El-Sayed was interviewed just a little while ago on a certain network,
I won't tell you which one," Trump told the Nebraska crowd. "They let
this guy talk, talk, talk. They hardly fight him at all."
Trump was referring to El-Sayed's lengthy appearance Monday on Fox
News' "The Story," where host Martha MacCallum questioned the Democrat
about terrorism, Iran, Medicare for All, and campaign financing.
Dem fundraising giant makes damning admission as GOP probes foreign donation allegations
ActBlue said it was updating its passport verification standards in a letter to House GOP investigators
Democrats' largest campaign fundraising platform says it has
strengthened its donor verification standards days after House GOP
investigators accused it of potentially taking in foreign donations for
U.S. campaigns, according to a new letter obtained by Fox News Digital.
Attorneys for ActBlue sent a letter to the House of Representatives on
Monday announcing it is launching a new "passport verification program"
as part of its "ongoing investment in the security of contributions
processed from donors located abroad."
House Republicans have for years accused ActBlue of having insufficient
verification standards for weeding out illegitimate campaign donations.
Border czar Tom Homan clashes with CBS interviewer over migrant deaths, asks for Biden-era data
Border czar presses interviewer on whether he had Biden-era custody death statistics before defending ICE standards
Border czar Tom Homan accused a CBS journalist of asking a "loaded
question" in a Friday interview about how ICE treats detained illegal
migrants, asking him whether he gathered statistics about migrant
deaths under the Biden administration.
CBS News' immigration correspondent Camilo Montoya-Galvez asked Homan
about deaths in ICE custody under the Trump administration, noting that
this year could set a "new record high."
"How many people died during the Biden administration?" Homan
immediately replied, followed by a long pause. "How many people died in
custody during the Biden administration? Do you know?"
"I don't have the data here," the CBS interviewer admitted.
"Of course you don't," Homan said. "Again, it's another loaded question against the Trump administration."
Millions saved by blocking dead people payouts as Trump Treasury drops hammer on federal fraud
The 'Do Not Pay' program screened more than 1.1 billion federal payments totaling roughly $3.7 trillion in FY2026
The Treasury Department blocked $175 million in federal payments tied
to deceased recipients in fiscal year 2026, up sharply from the $99
million identified just months earlier as the Trump administration
expanded government-wide screening for improper payments.
"I applaud Secretary [Scott] Bessent for slamming the door on these
fraudsters before they can pick taxpayers’ pockets," Republican
Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy told Fox News Digital.
"Unless you were playing Frisbee in the quad during Econ 101, you know
the federal government shouldn’t be sending taxpayer money to dead
people," Kennedy went on. "I fought for years to pass my common-sense
bill to stop fraudsters from gaming the system, and now it’s the law."
Dr. Drew: Russian Plague Scare Presents Little Threat
Dr. Drew Pinsky told Newsmax on Monday that Americans should not be
overly concerned about reports of a suspected pneumonic plague case in
Russia, saying the bacterial disease can be contained and effectively
treated with antibiotics.
"This is a whole different situation, and this should be very easy to
contain," Pinsky, chief of the medical board for The Wellness Co., told
"American Agenda."
The concern follows the death of Daria Shipilova, 28, a laboratory
technician at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute in Siberia.
A blue wave? The liberal media wants one, but voters might disagree
Democrats are banking on voters’ dislike for President Trump carrying their party to victory in November
By Liz Peek
Four weeks from today, Americans will go to the polls and set the
country’s course for the next two years. Heads up to Republicans:
things are shifting.
The liberal media is positively giddy over polls showing Republicans
lagging in key Senate races, and others showing the GOP likely to lose
the House. But are their happy forecasts of a blue wave likely to prove
right?
Maybe, but there are signs that voters are beginning to look at
Democrat candidates more closely, and they don’t like what they see.
When long-time Democrat Debra Messing endorses Republican Bruce
Blakeman for governor in New York State over incumbent Kathy Hochul,
something is afoot. Incumbent Republican Senator Susan Collins,
considered vulnerable by Democrats, now leads her opponent, and
Michigan Democrat candidate Abdul El-Sayed just lost the endorsement of
an important union. Meanwhile, in Minnesota, which went for Kamala
Harris in 2024, candidate Michele Tafoya could become the first
Republican senator from the state since 2009.
‘Cornell 7’ crisis is a consequence of online porn — and the ‘sex-positive’ left
By Bethany Mandel
“Never let a good crisis go to waste.”
Political strategists from Niccolo Machiavelli to Winston Churchill to
Rahm Emanuel have promoted that notion — and now it’s having another
moment, as leftist activists and candidates latch on to the “Cornell 7”
rape case as a means of advancing their own ends.
And while these opportunists wield Jane Doe as their latest cudgel,
they’re closing their eyes to how their own ideology fueled a culture
that reduces women to mere sexual objects.
Early Monday, Cornell University campus activists shattered windows and
graffitied an administration building with messages like “Smash the
Patriarchy” — all, they said, “for Jane Doe.”
Their manifesto ordered administrators to “resign and turn power over
to the students,” while also (of course) denouncing the university’s
relationship with Israel.
