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Fears of escalation in the Middle East mounted Saturday night after the U.S. military carried out a strike on a civilian vessel in the Gulf of Oman.“U.S. Central Command forces disabled a commercial cargo vessel in the Gulf of Oman, Oct. 10, after the ship’s crew ignored repeated warnings and attempted to run the ongoing naval blockade against Iran,” reads a statement from U.S. Central Command. “The large cargo vessel was attempting to transit regional waters after having previously departed an Iranian port.”According to U.S. Central Command, the vessel, a Panama-flagged cargo ship, was struck with a “precision munition,” which fully disabled the ship’s propulsion “without harming the crew.”Reacting to news of the strike, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) questioned what the Trump administration’s long-term strategy was, arguing that the U.S. blockade had no clear endgame despite its exorbitant cost to taxpayers.“What is this all for? Why are taxpayers paying billions to hit [commercial] ships?” Murphy asked in a social media post on X. “Apparently the goal is to gain leverage in order to convince the Iranians to let us pay them billions to return everything to the way it all was before the war. What a disaster.”Geopolitical expert Brett Erickson noted that the strike was “the first strike we have seen from the United States in a long time now,” and questioned whether it would prompt Iranian retaliation.“This will be interesting to see whether or not Iran escalates in retaliation to this, or if this was merely a test to see if the U.S. would seriously maintain their blockade in the lead-up to the midterms,” Erickson wrote in a social media post on X.President Donald Trump’s deeply unpopular war against Iran has sent fuel prices soaring across the United States and has coincided with the president’s approval plummeting to career lows in the lead-up to the midterms next month.What is this all for? Why are taxpayers paying billions to hit commericals ships?Apparently the goal is to gain leverage in order to convince the Iranians to let us pay them billions to return everything to the way it all was before the war.What a disaster.— Chris Murphy ???? (@ChrisMurphyCT) October 11, 2026

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) said over the weekend he will force a House vote to block Russian oil purchases. The move directly challenges President Donald Trump’s new diesel deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Axios reported.Fitzpatrick co-chairs the Congressional Ukraine Caucus. He said he would introduce the “Ronald Reagan Peace Through Strength Act” and use a discharge petition to get around Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). A discharge petition needs 218 signatures to bring a bill to the floor without leadership’s approval.“It will be forced to the Floor via discharge and it will pass overwhelmingly,” Fitzpatrick wrote on X.Retiring Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) told Axios he has “already agreed” to sign it.Trump announced Friday that Russia would immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel to U.S. and global markets. He has pitched the deal as a way to lower fuel prices, but energy analysts doubt it will make much difference. Critics also warn it could help pay for Russia’s war in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the deal “not fair and not honest.” On Saturday, Trump called for Ukraine to replace Zelensky.Fitzpatrick and Bacon used the same tactic earlier this year to force a House vote on Ukraine aid and Russia sanctions. That bill passed the House but stalled in the Senate.Time is short this time too. The House isn’t scheduled to vote again until after the Nov. 3 midterms. Any bill would still need to pass the Senate and could face a Trump veto.

The Trump administration pushed a key U.S. ally to carry out strikes on Iran in a bid to “avoid political fallout” before the midterms, according to an explosive report from The Jerusalem Post published on Saturday — a report that two U.S. officials denied within hours of its publication.Citing a report from the Hebrew-language Israeli newspaper Maariv, The Jerusalem Post details a supposed pressure campaign from the Trump administration to urge Israel into carrying out strikes on Iran “over the past two weeks.”“Washington wanted Israel to assume the political risks of a military operation ahead of the US midterm elections, rather than US President Donald Trump,” The Jerusalem Post’s report reads, citing Maariv’s report.“American officials reportedly believed Israel would be interested in striking Iran before its own elections, while a US operation ahead of the midterms could have negative political consequences for Trump.”Trump’s approval among Americans has plummeted to career lows in large part due to his deeply unpopular war against Iran, which continues to keep fuel prices elevated. On Saturday, the average cost of diesel fuel was $6.28, around 25 cents lower than the all-time high reached late last month. The average cost of regular fuel was $4.37 on Saturday, far above the $3.10 recorded a year ago.According to The Jerusalem Post, the Trump administration had since “backed down from its demand, at least for now,” citing Maariv’s reporting. Two U.S. officials and an Israeli official denied the report, according to Axios’ Barak Ravid.Trump has ramped up threats to resume strikes on Iran in recent weeks, including as recently as Friday during a rally in New York, warning that he may opt to “finish it off” if Iran refused to accept a deal.Two U.S. officials and one Israeli official denied this report and told me the U.S. didn't ask Israel to initiate a strike against Iran before the elections— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) October 10, 2026

President Donald Trump drew a fierce wave of backlash after he suggested a U.S. ally fighting off an invasion should replace its leader.Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Trump said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had "better d— well stop" striking oil refineries in Russia, arguing the attacks were affecting diesel and hurting American farmers. "I think it's time for Ukraine to get a new president," he said, per clips of the moment.When a reporter pointed out that Ukrainians are suffering under Russian attacks, Trump doubled down. "I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal," he said.The remarks set off a swift outcry online, with critics accusing Trump of doing Russian President Vladimir Putin's bidding. The progressive MeidasTouch political news network called him "the enemy of the free world" in a post on X."Anybody enabling this individual is a traitor to the United States," MeidasTouch continued, referring to Trump."Trump is a coward. Zelensky is a warrior," echoed former GOP congressman Joe Walsh. "Trump is a pathological liar. Zelensky is a truth teller. Trump is a scoundrel. Zelensky is a hero. Trump kisses Putin's a—. Zelensky is kicking Putin's a—. Trump is a traitor to the free world. Zelensky is defending the free world.""I think it's time for the US to get a new president," suggested Kate Bohuslavska, a social media personality who runs the Kate from Kharkiv account."It's time for America to get a new president," agreed national security expert and political commentator Paul Rieckhoff. "One who stands with freedom instead of with Putin.""Someone should explain to the US president that appointing Ukraine's president is not part of his job description," shot back Ukrainian politician Anton Gerashchenko. "Looks like we're having another Oval Office crisis.""Trump is Putin's b—," blasted policy consultant and journalist Adam Cochran. "We must free Congress from its spinelessness and hold Trump accountable."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s odyssey to Greece was described as a rousing success until the Wall Street Journal broke the news that Ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle tried to shake down a Donald Trump donor, according to The Hill.The Journal reported late Wednesday that Guilfoyle asked Eric Deters, a Kentucky businessman and Trump supporter, to wire $100,000 to pay her American Express bill days before her July 2025 Senate confirmation hearing. “It won’t show up anywhere if you wire money to American Express that’s all that will show,” she allegedly texted him, CBS News reported. Deters says he never paid. He told CBS the request was a “quid pro quo,” while Guilfoyle called his claim “completely false.” Her lawyer, Jesse Binnall, has disputed the messages’ authenticity.The Hill spoke to one person deeply involved in U.S.-Greek relations, who requested anonymity and called the chaos around Guilfoyle a “clown show” that “tainted” a successful Rubio visit. The person said her conduct is unlikely to damage long-standing ties between Washington and Athens, but that it reinforced the idea that U.S. foreign policy is for sale and that closeness to Trump’s family and allies equals access. “It says, ‘we’re the merchants,’” the person said.Rubio was forced to address the issue, which took him off message, with the Hill reporting it appeared to have blindsided members of the Trump administration.“Our job is not to respond every time someone decides to give the media something without any advance warning, without having any chance to look at it and see what’s in there,” he told reporters while complaining that the story was “not the gospel."The allegations follow a Journal report last month that Guilfoyle promoted the business interests of a Greek construction and energy company and let its lobbyist into private diplomatic meetings. She has denied wrongdoing.Democrats have seized on the new report. “Reports coming out regarding Amb. Guilfoyle’s conduct are deeply concerning and suggest potentially corrupt influences on U.S. foreign policy,” Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) said in a statement to The Hill. “I have already demanded answers from Secretary Rubio regarding her conduct and will continue to press for transparency and accountability. As I have said before, if these allegations are accurate, Amb. Guilfoyle is unfit to represent the United States abroad and should be removed from her position.”

A federal judge ruled that President Donald Trump’s first administration illegally sent asylum seekers to wait in Mexico, where they faced “persecution, torture, and possibly death.”U.S. District Judge Jesus G. Bernal of the Central District of California issued the 40-page ruling Wednesday in a lawsuit over the Migrant Protection Protocols, the policy better known as “Remain in Mexico.” A redacted version of the ruling was unsealed Friday, Politico reporter Kyle Cheney reported on X.Two legal aid groups, the Immigrant Defenders Law Center and Jewish Family Service of San Diego, sued in 2020 along with several asylum seekers, according to the ruling.The Trump administration launched the policy in January 2019, requiring many asylum seekers who arrived from Mexico to wait there while their cases moved through U.S. immigration courts, the ruling said. The Department of Homeland Security placed 66,985 people in that first version.The government said it created the program to address what it called a migration crisis at the southern border and to stop what officials viewed as abuse of the asylum system. But human rights groups documented more than 1,000 instances of violence against people in the program, including murder, torture, rape and kidnapping.“DHS concluded that MPP 1.0 enrollees awaiting their court hearings in Mexico ‘were subject to extreme violence and insecurity at the hands of transnational criminal organizations,’” Bernal wrote.Bernal ruled that the program broke a federal law requiring agencies to reasonably justify their decisions, because officials did not fully consider conditions in Mexico before launching it.“Yet, there is no evidence that Defendants considered the conditions in Mexico prior to implementing MPP 1.0,” the judge said.Bernal also ruled that the policy violated the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of a full and fair hearing for people facing deportation.“Defendants’ removal of MPP 1.0 enrollees to Mexico where they … ‘face[d] persecution, torture, and possibly death’ deprived them of this right,” Bernal wrote. “Where noncitizens face dangerous conditions, it would be ‘untenable’ to expect them to litigate their immigration case under such conditions."The policy also violated asylum seekers’ right under federal law to be represented by a lawyer, the judge ruled. Only about 7% of people in the program had attorneys, compared with 80% of asylum seekers in immigration court overall, according to immigration court records cited in the ruling.The judge further found that the program violated the First Amendment rights of the legal aid groups and asylum seekers at immigration hearing sites, where attorneys got at most one hour with clients before court and could not speak with people who had not hired them.“The Government fails to point to any evidence in the record, or even make any argument that the restrictions ‘fulfill[] a legitimate need,’” Bernal wrote.The Trump administration reinstated the policy in January 2025, according to the ruling. Bernal paused the revived version in April, but a federal appeals court later limited the pause to the Immigrant Defenders Law Center’s current and future clients.Bernal ordered the government to propose within 21 days how it will notify asylum seekers covered by the lawsuit, after formally voiding the original program’s policies and guidance.

Committee recognises work of South African who chaired UN commission that concluded Israel was guilty of genocide in GazaThe Nobel peace prize has been awarded to Navi Pillay, the South African former UN human rights chief who chaired the UN commission that concluded Israel was guilty of genocide in Gaza.The Norwegian Nobel committee said Pillay, who is serving as a judge at the international court of justice (ICJ), has “shown that legal measures can help prevent acts of war and violence”. Continue reading...

President Donald Trump made no personal mention of his failure to win the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday morning, but he did share comments made by one of his impeachment lawyers.While this year’s honoree, Navanethem “Navi” Pillay, 85, a South African jurist and former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, poked fun at the American president in her initial comments, telling admirers, “If you clap a little bit more, I may share this prize with Trump,” the president held his tongue.Instead, on Truth Social, he posted a statement from attorney Doug Schoen, who served on Trump's defense team during his second Senate impeachment trial in February 2021.According to Schoen, the Nobel committee made a huge mistake.“Today the Nobel Committee shamed itself beyond repair and demeaned the once great Nobel Peace Prize by giving it to the UN’s Navi Pillay,” he complained. “Pillay is an unabashed hater of America and Israel. In her position she celebrated terrorists and rewarded Hamas. She conducted a phony ‘investigation’ claiming to find that Israel committed genocide and urging prosecution. She has no credibility in any normal sphere and has never done a thing to foster peace. Just the opposite.”“But what could be expected from a committee that previously gave the once coveted peace prize to Yasser Arafat?” he raged.“President Trump gave us the Abraham Accords, which the world said would be impossible and is now expanding them! He brought home the hostages when all seemed hopeless! He is making best efforts to end the Russia/Ukraine war, to stop Iran, the number one sponsor of international terrorism, and he is trying to rebuild Gaza despite the terrorists’ best efforts to control it. The list goes on and on. These are the kinds of things the Nobel Peace Prize was intended to recognize and reward!!!” he wrote.