- Friday October 2nd, 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
Hostile action is 'highly likely' for ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, UKTMO warns
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre (UKMTO) said in a
new report issued Friday that the threat environment in the Middle East
"remains elevated" for commercial shipping as "no diplomatic resolution
has been achieved."
It assessed the risks as following: "Strait of Hormuz SEVERE (hostile
action highly likely, continued navigation interference and potential
mining activity); Gulf of Oman MODERATE (ongoing electronic
interference and enforcement activity); Arabian Gulf MODERATE
(navigation interference and residual kinetic risk remain present)."
In the Strait of Hormuz, “Commercial vessels continue to be targeted on
the southern route, with ongoing military activity sustaining an
increased risk to maritime operations,” according to UKMTO.
Trump vows to hit Iran very hard after hijacking of Israel-bound Flydubai plane
President Donald Trump vowed on Thursday to "hit" Iran "very hard"
after alleging it was connected to the attempted crashing of a FlyDubai
flight.
The commcercial plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Saudi
Arabia on Wednesday after the flight's co-pilot reportedly stabbed the
pilot and attempted to crash the aircraft.
The plane bound for Tel Aviv from Dubai had 174 people on board. It
lost half of its altitude within a minute before the seriously injured
pilot managed to open the cockpit, allowing passengers and crew to
regain control.
The president did not provide specifics. He added that Iran "will be hit very hard. They know what happened."
G7 Nations to Release 100 Million Barrels of Oil
The Group of Seven industrial nations said on Friday that they plan to
release 100 million barrels of oil in the coming weeks, starting with
“substantial” amounts of diesel after the fuel recently hit record high
prices in the United States, where President Donald Trump said the
diesel release would happen “immediately."
Trump and his Republican Party face pressure to address surging prices
ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, and Trump announced the action
Friday on social media.
The president's approval ratings on the economy hit a new low according
to an AP-NORC poll as the Iran war and his trade battles have increased
U.S. prices for oil and other goods.
US to Europe: We'll send diesel on one condition
Washington is turning up the heat on Europe's diesel reserves, Reuters
reports. Citing three sources, the outlet says the Trump administration
has warned France and Germany to tap their emergency diesel stocks to
help cool global fuel prices—or risk a US ban on diesel exports. The
move, tied to efforts to lower US pump prices ahead of November's
midterms, marks a sharper phase in US-Europe energy tensions. An EU
official confirmed that the European Commission and several member
states, including Germany and France, held a call Thursday on whether
to release diesel reserves.
According to one European source, Washington wants the EU to put as
much as 120 million barrels of diesel on the market over the next six
months. US officials have been irritated that Berlin and Paris, in
their view, have not fully delivered on earlier stock-release pledges.
Europe, already more reliant on US fuel after cutting off Russian
imports and losing Middle Eastern supplies, offered little public
pushback. If the Trump administration does follow through with a diesel
export ban, it could mean a serious blow to Texas' economy, reports the
Texas Tribune. Texas refineries sell 6.3 million barrels of diesel each
day, with roughly a quarter heading overseas. If companies are unable
to sell their products, they could downsize operations, leading to less
supply and more price increases, insiders say. (This content was
created with the help of AI. Read our AI policy.)
Iran just handed the world a big clue that the war is nowhere close to ending anytime soon
The U.S. and Iran continue to negotiate over the status of the Strait
of Hormuz. Meanwhile, reports describe an incident in the Strait this
week.
According to Reuters, citing the shipping intelligence service Marisks,
three Liberian-flagged oil tankers were “struck by unknown projectiles”
while transiting the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday.
The report says the ships were moving with their Automatic
Identification System transponders turned off, a common practice in
recent months as ships avoid detection while transiting the Strait of
Hormuz.
The ships were named as the oil products tanker Al Ruwais, the “Very
large crude carrier” Mersin Prosperity, and the Aframax-sized tanker
Sinbad. ADNOC Logistics & Services manages the first two, while
Anglo-Eastern Tanker Management manages Sinbad.
IRGC issues warning to US warships as tensions with Iran rise
An Iranian Guard commander, Ali Mohammadi, warned that U.S. warships
could be targeted as far away as the Indian Ocean if fighting with Iran
starts again in a future war.
His comments came during fresh diplomatic strain over the Strait of
Hormuz, a narrow waterway where military pressure has already affected
commercial shipping and energy markets during the current conflict.
Putin's administration outraged by tough US demand over Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s administration is unhappy that the
US is demanding that Russia first resolve the situation surrounding
Ukraine and only then restore economic cooperation with Washington,
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said this, according to TASS.
"Unfortunately, the Americans still link this entire process, despite
the obvious benefits, to resolving the situation in Ukraine. In other
words, they say that a settlement must come first, and only then can
the project be implemented. We believe they could avoid waiting. They
could already be working for their own benefit," Putin’s representative
complained.
He also began claiming that Ukraine has still failed to move closer to
negotiations with Russia. Against this backdrop, Peskov once again
falsely claimed that Europe continues to obstruct the resumption of
negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow.
The sick, online posts that pushed Cornell 7 rape accuser to go to cops: ‘I was a sex doll’
The Cornell University student who accused seven fraternity brothers of
drugging and raping her first reported it after seeing online posts
bragging about the Chi Phi brothers “gang banging,” according to
disturbing records.
The young student, only identified as Jane Doe, was initially “in
shock” but hopeful that she had a consensual threesome — until the
messages online made her realize she’d been “assaulted,” according to
newly revealed documents that contained some of the sickening posts in
a forum about Greek life.
“Are Chi Phi brothers Crips or Bloods because I hear they have been
doing hell Gang Banging?” read a key post she cited to cops, according
to a review of the docs by the New York Times.
“They do drugs and gang r*ped a sophomore,” another user wrote. “Report them.”
The young woman cited the posts as pivotal to her reassessing what had
really happened to her at the Chi Phi fraternity house in October 2024,
the docs show.
Dramatic new bodycam footage shows moment cops realize they got Luigi Mangione: ‘It’s f—king him’
Dramatic new bodycam footage captures the moment cops realized they had
finally caught Luigi Mangione in a McDonald’s after an intense five-day
manhunt.
A female officer smiled as she pulled a gun magazine that was wrapped
in underwear out of Mangione’s backpack, according to a report by CNN.
“It’s f–king him dude,” a male cop is heard telling her.
Mangione was caught in Altoona, Pennsylvania on Dec. 9, 2024, five days
after he shot and killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in
Manhattan.
France’s teen riots take explosive new turn as government points finger at hard left
LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon denies responsibility as intelligence agencies point to hard-left politicians
Riot police move in as students set fires and clash with officers during growing unrest. (Video: Reuters.)
Violent student unrest intensified across France on Friday as riot
police clashed with teenagers in several cities, roughly 400 high
schools remained shuttered and authorities said some 2,000 people had
been arrested since the protests began — while the government
increasingly blamed the country’s hard left.
Tear gas filled streets in Strasbourg, protesters fired fireworks
toward police lines in Marseille, and garbage bins were set ablaze in
Rennes, while clashes also broke out in Paris, Reuters reported Friday.
The latest violence marks a sharp escalation from the unrestt reported
by Fox News Digital Thursday, when hundreds had been arrested as school
blockades and clashes spread across the country.
Hero FlyDubai pilot says he was 'fighting for my life' as plane plunged after copilot attack
Captain Smit Machchhar recalled saying, 'This is the last push Smit, do it, the door is right there'
Capt. Smit Machchhar, the FlyDubai pilot who heroically opened the
plane's cockpit door after being stabbed by his copilot in a mid-flight
attack, told Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi he was fighting for his
life before taking the heroic action.
"You are my biggest idol, and I am feeling very proud that you called
me and encouraged me. I was fighting for my life in that moment," he
told Modi during a Friday phone call.
"It was a moment when I thought, because I had fallen on the floor, I
was wounded and fell down. At that moment, I thought if I don't get up,
I've been flying for the last 17 years and I have been a captain for
the last 11 years, and even if I shut my eyes, I can tell what is
happening inside a plane. When I was lying on the floor, I could feel
that the aircraft was plunging, and I said to myself while I was
getting beaten, 'This is the last push Smit, do it, the door is right
there,'" he recalled.
"Somehow, I opened the door and everyone came in and everyone else had
an equal role (in the rescue). I was trying to save myself, but I also
knew that I can't let anyone die," he said.
Trump Poised to Test His Powers Again at US Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court begins its new nine-month term on Monday much
as it ended its last one, confronted with more cases involving
President Donald Trump's far-reaching policies and aggressive uses of
power that will keep testing how far the justices will let him expand
his authority.
The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, wrapped up its last
term in June, one dominated by legal battles centered on Trump's
exertion of presidential powers. The justices gave the Republican
president several major wins and a few big losses.
Considering the array of new cases that the administration is teeing up
for review by the top U.S. judicial body, the new term promises to feel
familiar. Already, the court has agreed to hear disputes over two key
policies underpinning Trump's hardline stance on immigration and
pursuit of mass deportation — mandatory detention without a bond
hearing, and the rapid expulsion of deportees to countries other than
their own.
Legal trouble for Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax is just beginning
By New York Post Editorial Board
Cross your fingers that a state judge’s slapdown of the pied-à-terre
tax’s rollout marks the beginning of the end of the whole misbegotten
tax.
This week’s ruling came in a case challenging the burden the city
placed on homeowners to prove they don’t owe the tax, which applies to
nonresidents who own co-ops and condos valued $1 million or more or
one-, two- and three-family homes worth $5 million and up.
Not only did City Hall require homeowners to prove they resided in
Gotham for more than half the year, it told 17,000 New Yorkers they may
be liable for the tax, and posted a list of 900,000 city properties as
potentially ripe for the hit, which the judge ordered removed.
I was a Hamas hostage — and I won’t cower from Hasan Piker’s hate
By Maya Regev
On Wednesday night, I visited the University of Texas at Austin to
address students there — and so did notorious Twitch streamer Hasan
Piker.
I, a female survivor of Hamas’ brutal terror, came to share my story at the campus’ Chabad student center.
On an auditorium stage half a mile away stood Piker, who once said
about the day I was shot and taken: “It doesn’t matter if rapes f–king
happened on Oct. 7, like that doesn’t change the dynamic for me even
this much.”
He isn’t a fringe character on college campuses; he’s increasingly becoming the mainstream on campus.
But his enthusiastic fans are the people who most need to hear my story.
