THE NEWS

More than 15 years after surviving several gunshot wounds during a terrorist attack at Fort Hood, retired Staff Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford is preparing to watch the man who shot him be executed.Speaking on “America’s Newsroom,” Lunsford explained why he wants to attend the execution, which President Donald Trump recently approved to be carried out by firing squad.”You live by the sword, you die by the sword,” Lunsford said. “And the way that he went about doing his deed was a coward’s way because we didn’t have any way to defend ourselves that day.”TEXAS EXECUTES JAMAAL HOWARD DESPITE CONCERNS OVER LETHAL INJECTION DRUG USED IN FAILED TENNESSEE EXECUTIONTrump approved the use of an Army firing squad to execute Nidal Malik Hasan, a former Army major convicted of killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 others in the 2009 attack. Hasan opened fire on unarmed soldiers and civilians at Fort Hood while shouting “Allahu Akbar.”Standing at 6-foot-9, Lunsford was shot several times, including once in the head. He believes attending the execution could bring closure to survivors and grieving families.”It’s for two reasons. One is to give the families of the deceased a chance to close a chapter and also the survivors to close a chapter,” Lunsford said of the execution.”And it sends a clear message that we will not stand for this activity in any of our armed services or in the United States,” he added.Lunsford said that for him and others affected by the attack, even holidays are not the same, adding that families of the deceased will “never get a chance to cherish a Christmas, a Thanksgiving, an Easter” with their loved ones again.”For the survivors, even though we can still do those, celebrate those holidays, we still feel for those ones that we lost that day. Me personally, the holidays will never be the same for me. But what I can do for the ones that I lost that day is to live for them and to keep fighting so that we will never have this happen again,” he added.TRUMP’S PENTAGON SHAKE-UP REVIVES A PRESIDENTIAL POWER PLAY WITH A LONG HISTORYHasan remains on military death row at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. If carried out, his execution would be the first by the U.S. military since 1961. The military last used a firing squad for an execution in 1945.Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell confirmed the decision on X, writing: “Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has recommended — and President Donald J. Trump has approved — death by U.S. Army firing squad for convicted terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan, the jihadist who opened fire on unarmed American soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009.”ARMY IDENTIFIES 2 PILOTS KILLED IN APACHE HELICOPTER CRASH NEAR FORT HOOD DURING TRAINING EXERCISEParnell added: “Judgment day for Hasan has finally come.”Hasan’s execution is set to take place Dec. 3, 2026, at Fort Hood, Texas, where the attack took place, according to acting Army Secretary Adam Telle.Fox News Digital’s Stepheny Price and Leo Briceno contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump lambasted incumbent Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, calling the congressman “a loser” on Wednesday, while criticizing the lawmaker for remaining a Democrat after receiving a presidential pardon.Trump pardoned Cuellar and his wife last year as the couple faced charges pertaining to bribery and money laundering.”In any event, I did the pardons, and made no deal, where a crooked politician would have, but I thought there would be a good chance that Cuellar, who was persecuted by Democrats because they didn’t like him, would have routinely gone over to the Republican Party — the people that saved him from years in prison,” Trump wrote in a lengthy Truth Social post.HOUSE DEM BACK IN THE SPOTLIGHT AS BROTHER FACES UP TO 10 YEARS IN PRISON IF CONVICTEDCuellar, who has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2005, is currently seeking re-election.”In any event, the man running against him, Tano Tijerina, is a STAR and, hopefully, will WIN! We call that payback for a disloyal and ungrateful person, a person whose life has been saved only to go back into the clutches of the people that tried so hard to destroy him. Henry Cuellar is a LOSER who, right now, should be serving a longterm jail sentence with his wife in a top level penitentiary,” Trump declared in another part of the post.”Tano, a legendary Baseball Star, Great Athlete, respected County Judge, and fine person, will hopefully beat Cuellar so that people can show how bad it is when you are recognized and humiliated as being one of the most disloyal political people on Earth!” Trump wrote. “I am very proud of the fact that I didn’t make a deal with Cuellar, which I easily could have, but relied on his character, which turned out to be a faulty one.”DEM REP HENRY CUELLAR REJECTS DSA AGENDA, SAYS SOCIALISTS ARE TRYING TO ‘USE’ DEMOCRATIC PARTYTrump issued the Truth Social post on Wednesday prior to delivering similar remarks during a rally in San Antonio, Texas.Tijerina declared in a Wednesday post on X, “Everyone in South Texas knows anything after Hello coming from Henry Cuellar is a lie. President Trump just confirmed that.”Fox News Digital reached out to Cuellar’s campaign for comment on Thursday.TRUMP ANNOUNCES PARDON FOR DEMOCRATIC REP HENRY CUELLARIn part of a Truth Social post last year, Trump claimed that President Joe Biden had “used the FBI and DOJ to ‘take out’ a member of his own Party after Highly Respected Congressman Henry Cuellar bravely spoke out against Open Borders, and the Biden Border ‘Catastrophe.’ Sleepy Joe went after the Congressman, and even the Congressman’s wonderful wife, Imelda, simply for speaking the TRUTH.”

The mother of Darya Shipilova, the 28-year-old Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and Far East worker whose death has sparked global public health concerns, pushed back against reports her daughter was infected after she broke a test tube.Svetlana Shipilova, who is a medical professional, told the Russian outlet Glubina that she does not believe the account circulating regarding her daughter’s demise, according to The Telegraph.”I know the truth,” she reportedly said. “I’m having to fend off stupid acquaintances who believed all this — the clever ones didn’t believe it, of course.RUSSIAN BIO-LEAK SECRECY FOLLOWS CHERNOBYL PLAYBOOK, EX-CIA OFFICER WARNS”Not even all medical professionals understand it’s impossible to break a test tube like that,” she added. “Even if you fling it at the wall. Only an amateur could say something like that.”Even hypothetically, you simply can’t spill what’s inside or break the tube — they’re that well protected,” the mother reportedly said. She also asserted to reporters, “They simply let my daughter die.”TRUMP RESPONDS TO CONCERNS OVER SUSPECTED PLAGUE CASE IN RUSSIA, SAYING US ‘WILLING TO HELP’Russian public health agency Rospotrebnadzor has said that the woman died of “pneumonia of unknown origin” and that “extensive” testing uncovered no evidence the individual’s illness was caused by any of the pathogens she worked with.World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted during remarks on Wednesday that “we don’t yet have the full picture of this event, and we are not able to conduct a full risk assessment.”RUSSIAN RESEARCHER’S MYSTERY DEATH COULD BE ‘FAR WORSE’ THAN THE PLAGUE, FORMER SENIOR TRUMP OFFICIAL WARNSThe U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in part of a Tuesday post on X, “CDC is aware of and closely monitoring reports of a suspected case of pneumonic plague in the Irkutsk region of Russia that resulted in a death. We are working across the U.S. government to assess developments as additional information becomes available.”The Associated Press contributed to this report

A 15-year-old boy wielding a knife and wearing a helmet-mounted camera attacked a Polish primary school he used to attend, killing one employee and wounding two others, in the country’s second school stabbing in two days.Authorities are investigating whether the attacks are connected to an online challenge encouraging teenagers to kill as many people as possible.Police said a 37-year-old woman who worked as a caretaker died in the Thursday morning attack at the school in Leszczydol-Nowiny, northeast of Warsaw.The school’s head teacher, Krzysztof Ochmanski, was injured while subduing the teenager, officials said. Ochmanski told a radio station that he heard a scream and ran into the hallway.MOTHER ACCUSED OF TRYING TO KILL DAUGHTERS IN FREEWAY CRASH AND KNIFE ATTACK AS SOLDIERS STEP IN”He wounded me with the blade of a rather long knife — he had three knives on him — and hit me with the handle,” Ochmanski told the public broadcaster Polskie Radio RDC. “By then, I had managed to restrain him.”The day before the latest attack, a 19-year-old wounded 10 people, including himself, at a school in Ostroleka, which is in northeastern Poland.Also this week, police arrested a 17-year-old in Sierpc in north-central Poland after authorities suspected he was planning a similar attack, Reuters reported.AMERICAN YOUTH RADICALIZED ONLINE, BUSTED IN SUSPECTED TERROR PLOTS AFTER HATING COUNTRY ON SOCIAL MEDIA”We fear a grim copycat phenomenon,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk told an emergency meeting, according to Reuters. “We are facing an extraordinary situation … for the first time, we are dealing with a killer who wore a helmet-mounted camera, intending to film the knife attack.”Tusk ordered police to visit schools every day in order to discourage further violence.Nikola, the 18-year-old sister of a boy at the school that was attacked Thursday, told Reuters there were rumors about the social media challenge that the police are now investigating.”I mean, I didn’t know if it was even real — I still don’t know if it’s true, actually — because it sounds so unreal, so terrifying, just like something out of a movie: some kind of challenge to kill as many people as possible,” she said.

FIRST ON FOX: The FBI’s global crackdown on overseas scam centers targeting Americans has led to more than 130 arrests or detentions in Ghana, with investigators identifying nearly $10 million in financial losses, Fox News Digital has learned.The latest takedown is part of Operation Blackout, the FBI’s international campaign to dismantle scam compounds that prey on Americans, particularly seniors.According to information provided to Fox News Digital by the FBI, investigators have identified 89 fraud victims and seized more than 300 devices. The more than 130 individuals arrested or detained include suspected trafficking victims expected to be repatriated to their home countries, primarily Nigeria.EXCLUSIVE: FBI EXTRADITIONS SOAR AS PATEL RAMPS UP FOREIGN OUTREACH, VOWS ‘NO SANCTUARY’FBI Director Kash Patel said the operation reflects the bureau’s broader effort to dismantle international fraud networks at their source.”The FBI’s ‘Operation Blackout’ is our historic, global scam center fraud demolition operation that takes apart scam compounds all over the world targeting American citizens – primarily seniors,” Patel said. “We are attacking this problem right at the source and blowing these compounds up, seizing billions of dollars, freeing thousands of trafficked workers, and protecting tens of thousands of Americans at risk of looking their hard-earned savings through these scams. Those who steal from Americans no longer have sanctuary – this FBI will find them and bring them to justice.”BURMA APPROVES DEATH PENALTY FOR SCAMMERS MONTHS AFTER FBI’S $8 BILLION CRYPTO CRACKDOWNThe Ghana operation follows an earlier warning from Patel that international scam networks were expanding beyond Southeast Asia and the Middle East into Africa.”That’s why you’re seeing the migration of these scam compounds to central and sub-Saharan Africa, which is where we are already pre-positioned to take them off,” Patel told Fox News Digital in September.That same month, U.S. investigators helped authorities in Madagascar dismantle 13 scam centers linked to Chinese organized crime syndicates, processing more than 3,200 electronic devices, according to previous Fox News Digital reporting.FBI SEIZES RECORD-SETTING $8 BILLION IN CRYPTOCURRENCY AMID INTERCONTINENTAL ‘SCAM COMPOUND’ CRACKDOWNThe FBI says Operation Blackout has seized roughly $17 billion globally, led to hundreds of arrests and freed thousands of trafficked workers. The bureau has not provided a detailed breakdown of the seized assets.The bureau also says it has warned more than 10,000 Americans about suspected scams, preventing an estimated $670 million in financial losses.The FBI previously reported that 77% of the more than 10,400 potential victims contacted through its Operation Level Up prevention initiative did not realize they were being scammed.The Ghana investigation remains ongoing, and the FBI expects the number of identified victims and financial losses to grow.

We had three series end last night in the MLB; now we have just one series remaining before the Championship Series is set. Underdog is offering new users a chance to wager on Game 4 as the White Sox host the Guardians. Use promo code FOXNEWS to bet $5 and receive a $10 bonus bet token. Repeat that process for ten straight days to earn $100 in bonus bets.The Guardians were finally able to get a win in the series. They dropped both of their home games, and now must win two more in order to advance to a date with the Rays in the ALCS. Game 3 was the first game where Cleveland actually broke out the lumber and got some runs on the board. They scored three in Game 2, but ultimately gave up the lead and lost the game.In Game 3, they scored 9 runs, with four of them coming in the final two frames to shut the door on any comeback opportunity. What is encouraging about the Guardians is that all of their runs in that game came from hits that stayed in the yard. Relying on homers to score can be very difficult. The White Sox now have had their first loss in the postseason. It is now up to them to find a way to regroup and get their minds ready for another closeout game. This is a team that had no expectations and isn’t expected to do anything. They should be playing loose, but just because there is no expectation doesn’t mean there is no pressure. Chicago has turned this game into a bullpen game. Hagen Smith will open the game for them, but this will be the third time in the series he has faced the Guardians. They will need to find a great combination in order to prevent this series from heading back to Cleveland. The bright spot for Chicago is the White Sox offense’s success. The Guardians have to be encouraged that they finally beat them. Which team will win tonight? Use promo code FOXNEWS on Underdog to wager $5 and earn a $10 bonus token. Repeat that process for ten days and receive $100 in bonus bets. How to Watch Guardians vs ChicagoGuardians vs Chicago OddsOdds subject to change 

A violent thug was caught on tape assaulting an innocent man in Philly and walked away laughing after the incident. Credit: Philadelphia Police
Philadelphia’s criminals clearly think they can get away with various felonies, as a sudden and shameless attack occurred right in broad daylight earlier this week on the city’s streets.
As FOX 29 Philadelphia reported, the Philadelphia Police Department is searching for a man who was captured on video assaulting an unsuspecting stranger on Sunday morning at roughly 8:30 a.m.
The police released a video showing the exact moment the individual in question committed the crime.
The footage shows a Black man in a blue shirt marching toward a White man in blue jeans and a dark jacket at the intersection of 10th and Reed Street.
Then, just as the White man is about to enter the crosswalk, the suspect suddenly slugs him across the face. The victim falls to the ground due to the force of the blow.
The suspect laughs as he continues walking northbound on 10th Street.
WATCH:

Police did not say if the victim suffered any injuries from the assault.
No arrests have been made at this point.
People who know anything about this incident or recognize the suspect are being encouraged to contact the Philadelphia Police Department.
Garbage like this is happening because Soros-backed Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner would rather go after President Trump rather than prosecute violent murderers and r*pists.
Krasner’s determination to free criminals is so immense that he and his attorneys are now being accused of crimes.
This includes suborning perjury after they received a court petition to overturn a 2009 second-degree murder conviction.
A federal judge last month referred Krasner for a federal criminal investigation to determine whether he should be charged with conspiracy or obstruction of justice in his efforts to overturn a murder conviction.

The post SICK: Thug Launches Unprovoked Attack on Man in Broad Daylight on Streets of Philly – Bursts Out Laughing as He Walks Away (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Your Stake In The Biggest Economic Bet In US History

Authored by Peter Reagan via Birch Gold Group,

Americans love a good story about somebody betting on himself.

One of my favorites involves FedEx founder Fred Smith.

Back when Federal Express was still struggling to get off the ground, the company reportedly found itself with just $5,000 in the bank – not enough to cover a roughly $24,000 fuel bill. Smith had already been turned down for additional funding. So instead of flying home, he went to Las Vegas.

And gambled the company’s last $5,000 playing blackjack.

That sentence makes me cringe every time I read it.

Fortunately for Smith, he came back with $27,000. It wasn’t enough to solve FedEx’s problems, but it bought the company a little more time. Smith later described the money less as a solution than as a sign that things might turn around.

They certainly did.

Today, that story gets told as an example of entrepreneurial nerve.

But imagine it had gone the other way. Think, for a moment, about how many other entrepreneurs tried exactly the same strategy and lost. You won’t hear their stories, though. Because they didn’t get famous.

That’s the thing about a bet: No matter how smart you are, how much research you’ve done or how strongly you believe in the outcome, you don’t actually know how it ends.

Which brings me to a much, much larger bet.

America’s enormous bet on AI

The Wall Street Journal recently called the artificial intelligence buildout “the biggest economic bet in U.S. history.”

That isn’t just colorful language.

Economist Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh estimates investment in data centers, power systems, networking infrastructure, specialized chips and other AI-related equipment will total an astonishing $10.3 trillion from 2025 through 2032. That works out to an average of 3.63% of U.S. GDP every year.

Put into historical context, that’s where things get really remarkable. Take a look:

Source: WSJ

These are the biggest infrastructure projects in American history.

The construction of the interstate highway system? About 1.13%. Telecommunications and fiber during the dot-com boom? About 1.1%. The projected AI buildout: 3.63%.

In other words, relative to the size of the economy, America is preparing to spend far more on AI infrastructure than it did building the railroads, highways or telecommunications networks that fundamentally reshaped the country… after (in many cases) bankrupting millions of investors.

Now, that doesn’t mean the money is being wasted.

Those earlier infrastructure booms changed America for the better. Railroads connected markets. Highways transformed transportation and commerce. Telecommunications infrastructure eventually became part of the foundation of everyday life.

AI could prove equally transformative.

But I think there’s another lesson hiding in those historical comparisons:

A technology can change the world and still cost too much money, too quickly.

Those two ideas aren’t contradictory.

AI doesn’t have to fail to become an economic problem

I’m not an AI luddite. I’m also not going to tell you artificial intelligence is definitely a massive speculative bubble that’s about to burst.

AI is producing useful tools and becoming embedded in businesses throughout the economy. And the potential productivity gains are almost always described as “enormous,” even though we haven’t actually seen them yet.

The question isn’t Is AI useful? It’s this: What happens when so much of the economy starts depending on one new technology meeting extraordinarily high expectations?

That’s a different question.

And increasingly, it’s an important one because we’re beginning to pay some of the costs of the AI buildout before we know exactly how large the eventual payoff will be.

Federal Reserve Governor Michael Barr pointed to this problem recently.

Barr said the surge in AI-related investment has increased demand for certain high-tech goods, raising prices for businesses and consumers. He remains optimistic that AI will eventually increase productivity and allow the economy to grow faster without generating as much inflation.

There’s just one rather important problem:

We don’t know when those productivity gains will arrive.

Barr said AI-related demand, along with higher energy prices, has helped knock inflation progress “off course.” He argued that additional monetary-policy tightening may be needed to bring inflation back toward the Fed’s 2% target.

Fed Governor Lisa Cook raised a similar concern this week.

She called the inflationary pressure from the AI buildout one of her principal concerns for 2027, specifically pointing to the possibility that supply bottlenecks could linger even while everyone waits for AI’s promised productivity gains.

That’s worth thinking about.

The data centers have to be built before they generate their hoped-for economic benefits. The chips have to be manufactured, the electrical grid upgraded, the workers hired… The money has to be spent first, up front.

In other words, many of AI’s costs arrive today. The productivity payoff comes tomorrow – maybe.

And that gap matters.

Someone has to pay for all that electricity

You can see the problem particularly clearly with electricity.

Huge data centers require enormous amounts of power. Serving them can require new power plants, transmission lines and other grid infrastructure.

And that has led to an increasingly practical question: Who pays for it?

This week, the Senate considered legislation requiring state utility regulators to consider whether large electricity users such as data centers should bear the additional infrastructure costs required to serve them rather than shifting those costs onto ordinary households.

The proposal had already passed the House 417-3. It received 57 votes in the Senate, three short of the 60 required to advance.

There was disagreement over the legislation itself – some Democrats argued it didn’t go far enough to shield consumers, while Republicans described it as a way to hold data centers accountable for the costs they create.

But look past that political disagreement and notice what both sides were arguing about: How do we keep ordinary families from getting stuck with the bill?

That’s when an abstract $10.3 trillion technology buildout starts becoming a kitchen-table economic issue.

Maybe your family never buys an AI service.

Maybe you couldn’t name the company operating the nearest data center.

You still use electricity.

And if additional generating capacity and grid infrastructure have to be built to accommodate enormous new industrial demand, somebody eventually has to pay those costs.

That’s why I don’t think AI can be dismissed as simply another technology story anymore.

It has become a macroeconomic story.

We’ve seen this pattern before

Again, none of this means AI won’t succeed.

History gives us plenty of examples of genuinely revolutionary technologies accompanied by periods of excessive enthusiasm and overbuilding.

Consider railroads.

Nobody today would seriously argue that America’s railroad system wasn’t transformative. Railroads connected cities, reduced transportation costs, opened markets and helped build the modern U.S. economy.

But railroad investment also repeatedly went too far.

New York Fed economists have documented how enormous railroad investment booms contributed to financial instability during the 19th century. Railway Mania in Britain during the 1840s was built around extravagant expectations for a genuinely revolutionary technology.

Those expectations weren’t entirely wrong.

The railroads really did change the world.

That didn’t mean every railroad project made economic sense.

The New York Fed has made essentially the same observation about the American experience: Railroads powered tremendous economic growth, but they also required enormous amounts of upfront capital devoted to risky projects. Railroad investments that went wrong helped contribute to several 19th-century financial panics.

That’s the distinction I think matters today.

The question isn’t: Will AI change the world? It very well might. But it’s not a question we can answer in advance.

The better question is: Does AI changing the world guarantee that every trillion dollars we’re committing to the buildout today will eventually produce the economic payoff we’re expecting?

Those are very different propositions.

Washington is making the AI bet, too

And here’s where this story gets much bigger than Silicon Valley.

Washington increasingly has reasons to hope AI delivers extraordinary economic growth.

When the national debt crossed $40 trillion, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said:

“We’re going to have to grow our way out of this.”

Reuters recently examined that strategy and described an AI-driven productivity boom as central to the hope that stronger economic growth can improve America’s fiscal position.

There is sound logic behind part of that idea.

A larger, more productive economy can generate more income and more tax revenue. Faster GDP growth can also make a given amount of government debt smaller relative to the overall economy.

I’d certainly rather have a rapidly growing economy than a stagnant one.

But growth doesn’t erase the underlying arithmetic.

The Congressional Budget Office currently projects federal debt held by the public will rise from about 101% of GDP in 2026 to 175% by 2056 under its extended baseline.

And here’s the part I find particularly sobering.

The CBO recently modeled what would happen if interest rates eventually ran just one percentage point higher than its baseline assumption.

Under that scenario, debt rises to 222% of GDP by 2056.

That’s an enormous difference from what sounds like a relatively small change.

Which brings us back to AI.

We are hoping AI generates higher productivity and faster economic growth.

At the same time, Fed officials are warning that today’s AI buildout is contributing to inflationary pressure.

Persistent inflation can make it harder for the Fed to lower interest rates. Higher borrowing costs, meanwhile, make an already difficult government-debt problem harder to manage.

That’s an awfully complicated chain of assumptions:

Spend trillions today
Build the infrastructure now
Pay the price of the added demand for power, equipment and labor
Wait for productivity gains
Hope those gains arrive quickly enough to increase economic growth
And hope that stronger growth improves the nation’s fiscal position faster than rising debt and interest costs make it worse
Could that work?

Absolutely. But I wouldn’t call it a sure thing…

The real risk is concentration

And that’s really my point.

The problem isn’t AI, or even the $10.3 trillion projected buildout by itself.

The concern is concentration.

More economic growth is based on AI investment. More electricity infrastructure is being built around AI demand. Meanwhile, Fed officials are already considering AI’s effect on inflation.

And everyone’s hoping an AI-driven productivity boom can help a country struggling beneath an enormous and growing government debt burden.

The better AI performs, the easier some of these problems may become.

But the more we depend on that outcome, the greater the consequences if productivity arrives later than expected, costs run higher than forecast or the economic benefits simply aren’t as large as hoped.

Fred Smith’s famous trip to Las Vegas worked.

But I don’t think the lesson from that story is that betting everything is a brilliant financial strategy.

The lesson is that sometimes a big bet pays off.

Sometimes it doesn’t.

And when the future is uncertain, it makes sense not to have everything riding on a single outcome. That’s just another way of describing diversification.

The same principle applies to your personal savings. Physical precious metals offer one way to diversify a portion of your savings outside a chain of assumptions about new technology, corporate growth forecasts or government economic projections.

AI may transform the world. (I hope it does.)

But your family’s financial future doesn’t have to depend on America’s biggest economic bet going exactly according to plan.

Tyler Durden
Thu, 10/08/2026 – 16:20

Iran Says More Tankers Struck By Mines, After Trump Declared He Won’t Bomb Before Midterms

Summary

Late night ‘heavy explosions’ reported in southern Strait of Hormuz, Fars says result of vessels hitting mines.
Oil plunged after Trump said on Truth Social the US will not attack Iran before the November midterms.
Late Wednesday reports said Pentagon was ordered to prepare Iran attack options for before midterms.
Iran expanded tanker attacks beyond the Strait of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman.
In Saudi Arabia, Riyadh airport suffers direct missile attack from Iran-aligned Houthis.

US announces end of Iranian blockade by October 31, 2026?
Yes 22% · No 79%View full market & trade on Polymarket *  *  *

More Vessels Attacked in Hormuz Strait in Evening Hours

In late night hours (Tehran time), Iranian state media has announced more attacks on ships in the southern part of the Strait of Hormuz. According to Fars:

Military sources shows that several heavy explosions occurred minutes ago in the southern passage of the Strait of Hormuz, which was caused by violating oil tankers hitting mines spread in the area from the sea; Fars reports

At the same time Iran’s President Pezeshkian stated Thursday that negotiations with the US are not completely dead yet. “We exchanged proposals with America through intermediaries and introduced some amendments,” he said.

And importantly, “despite US attacks, we never left the negotiating table,” he said. “We are currently compiling proposals, and after the final text is prepared, we will review it through mediators and convey all proposals.”

Oil Plunges As Trump Says No Attacks Before Midterms

President Trump just issued a new Truth Social Post Thursday just after noon time (eastern), wherein he declared “we will not be attacking Iran at any time prior to the Midterm Elections” in November. Oil dropped on the statement (though is still up on the day)…

The full Trump post below, wherein Trump also claims that active discussions with the Iranians are still happening, and that oil is “flowing in record numbers”…

Quick Iranian rection:

U.S. and Israeli officials say Iranian leaders are deeply suspicious of Trump’s statements. The officials said Iranian leaders want to avoid a third surprise attack, reports Axios.

To recall, The Atlantic reported late Wednesday that the Pentagon is preparing strike options for the Commander-in-Chief to consider, and that Trump may actually pull the trigger before the midterm elections – though the report emphasizes that the decision was still being debated:

After months of on-again, off-again fighting, the United States hasn’t struck Iran in several weeks. The stretch of relative tranquility is coinciding with the final phase of the midterm-election campaign, and the assumption has been that President Trump will want to keep it going through November 3 so as not to remind voters of an unpopular war that is dragging Republican candidates down nationwide.

But that may not be what happens. The White House has asked the Pentagon to develop strike options against Iranian targets that could be exercised ahead of the midterms, according to two administration officials. The planning underscores just how much the president wants to reduce gas prices and demonstrate progress in the conflict before the vote, administration officials told us.

And yet a renewed outbreak of direct bombing would likely actually serve to do the opposite, given oil prices have tended to shoot up on headlines of major direct escalation.

Reports out of Iran confirmed earlier Wednesday that negotiations are ‘stalemated’ – also as the Iranians have ramped up targeting tankers with drones in the Strait of Hormuz over the last week.

Iran Expands Tanker Assaults Beyond Narrow Confines Of Strait Of Hormuz

Iran has significantly widened its maritime operations by shifting attacks beyond the narrow confines of the Strait of Hormuz into the broader waters of the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Over a recent 24-hour window, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) may have struck two commercial ships outside traditional chokepoints, including a vessel off Qatar, as well as a Very Large Crude Carrier near the United Arab Emirates. The latter instance has less confirmation at this point.

This escalation indicates a tactical shift, given the IRGC is no longer waiting for vessels to explicitly violate its designated maritime enforcement corridors. Instead, any ship suspected of trying to bypass Iranian blockades now faces active targeting across the entire regional waterway. This at least is what Tehran is likely seeking to demonstrate to Washington and its Gulf allies, and comes after record numbers of vessels have been making it through so far this month under US naval watch and protocol.

Source: UKMTOThe first of these incidents, which was widely reported overnight and is now being given greater confirmation Thursday, occurred 51 nautical miles north of Madinat ash Shamal, Qatar. The vessel was struck multiple times, in what appears an effort to specifically to kill crew members. An unknown amount of casualties has been reported:

It said there were multiple casualties as a result of the attack. The extent of the casualties is unknown, however, in previous UKMTO warnings the word “casualties” has been used to describe seafarer deaths rather than injuries.

The Guardian details further of the unusual location of the attack:

The vessel was in the Gulf, about 500km (300 miles) west of the strait of Hormuz, when it reported being struck “by multiple projectiles”, the UK Maritime Trade Operations said on Wednesday. The UK authority did not specify the origin of the ship.

Wednesday’s attack comes as strikes on tankers sailing through the strait of Hormuz hit their ⁠highest weekly level since the Iran war began, according to maritime security firms, as oil prices climbed above $100 per barrel.

Oil Price writes, “A tanker has been struck by multiple projectiles north of Qatar’s tip in the first such attack deep within the Persian Gulf in nearly a month.” Not only have drone and missile attacks on vessels picked up over the last nearly two weeks, but casualties as well.

“In the ‌week to 5 October, there were at least 12 attacks ‌on oil, liquefied natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas tankers around the strait, according to data from three security sources,” continues The Guardian. “On Tuesday, India’s ​foreign ministry said 12 crew members were injured after an attack on a Panama-flagged oil tanker passing through the strait of Hormuz.”

Tanker Fire Off UAE: Second Vessel Attacked?

The second of these events, off UAE, has been less confirmed. Newsquawk notes:

Oil tanker assembly site reportedly explodes near UAE, Mizan reports; “Ocean sources reported the detection of a fire in the Gulf of Oman, approximately 30 nautical miles east of Fujairah”

And via DropSite News:

Possibly second vessel hit near UAE’s Fujairah bypass port.
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) October 8, 2026
Maritime and satellite open source channels have been observing a fire, with potential US military assets circling the area, at the below location:

If this second attack is confirmed, it marks a serious escalation in terms of Iran’s efforts to extend its own blockade and ‘answer’ to so many ships getting through under the US Navy’s protocol.

Houthis Attacking Saudi Airports

From bad to worse in the Saudi-Houthi war…

WATCH: Footage confirms a Houthi strike hit a stationary aircraft at Riyadh Airport, Saudi Arabia. https://t.co/0FLJXDyA4U
— Clash Report (@clashreport) October 8, 2026
More Latest Regional Developments

via Newsquawk

The White House has asked the Pentagon to develop strike options against Iranian targets that could be exercised ahead of the midterms, according to two administration officials. The planning underscores just how much the president wants to reduce gas prices and demonstrate progress in the conflict before the vote. The Atlantic
The US military has been ordered to be ready for possible Iran strikes as President Trump weighs the timing, with the Pentagon said to have instructed CENTCOM several days ago to conclude preparations for resuming major combat operations in Iran; any campaign is expected to be a joint US-Israeli one including large bombing of Iranian energy, infrastructure and nuclear targets. Axios
US President Trump stated that he doesn’t think an Iran deal is something he wants to do. It was separately reported that Trump said the Iranians are ready to offer us anything to stop what’s happening, even though an agreement with them is not the option he truly wants, while Trump was also reported to say that Witkoff is now working on reaching an agreement with Iran and is making very good progress, according to Al Jazeera.
The US military has been ordered to be ready for possible Iran strikes as President Trump weighs the timing, with the Pentagon said to have instructed US CENTCOM several days ago to conclude preparations for resuming major combat operations in Iran, according to Axios. The directive didn’t include a specific date for launching strikes and President Trump hasn’t made any final decisions, although US and Israeli sources said it could happen before the US midterm election. Furthermore, it was stated that if major combat operations resume, they are likely to be a joint US and Israeli campaign and expected to include large bombing of Iranian energy, infrastructure and nuclear targets.
US President Trump and his national security team have discussed possibly resuming large-scale US military operations in Iran in the coming weeks, including the option of launching strikes before the midterm elections next month, according to NBC.
The US is stepping up preparations and has completed operational plans in case President Trump orders strikes against Iran, i24 News reported citing sources. The report added that forces at Fort Bragg are ready to deploy to any theatre within 18 hours.
Iran’s working assumption is that there will be a US attack, according to Jerusalem Post’s Stein, citing two regional diplomats, while the debate in Tehran is if they should attack first.
US CENTCOM rejected IRGC claims that the Strait of Hormuz is closed and that Iran has full control over it, while it stated that traffic is flowing through the strait carrying commercial goods and energy supplies, including 20mln bbls of crude.
 Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Baghaei said Iran’s considerations and conditions for ending the war on all fronts and restoring security to the Persian Gulf region and the Strait have been clearly and firmly explained, and the necessary response to US proposals will be provided through mediators. He also stated that Iran will continue its efforts to strengthen trust and interaction between regional countries, while he stated that Tehran has spared no effort, in consultation with Oman as another coastal state, to restore security to the Strait of Hormuz, and the two sides had agreed on the geographical coordinates for safe transit routes and on how the agreement will be presented internationally, while the agreement between Iran and Oman on the safe routes of Hormuz will soon be reflected in international references.
Iranian intelligence services are reportedly targeting the US Ramstein and Spangdahlem air bases in Germany, WiWo reported. The report added that Iranian intelligence services are reportedly also targeting other US bases in Europe and planning complex attacks, with the UK also said to be a potential target.
Pakistan’s Army Chief said they are working to reduce the differences between the US and Iran, according to Nour News.
Reports of explosions heard and fires visible in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, according to Sabereen News. Satellite images also showed smoke rising from the Abqaiq oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, and a fire at both Abqaiq facilities and Tanjib gas plant.
Oil tanker assembly site reportedly exploded near UAE, Mizan reported; “Ocean sources reported the detection of a fire in the Gulf of Oman, approximately 30 nautical miles east of Fujairah.”
 Yemen’s Houthis said they attacked King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh with a ballistic missile and stated Saudi airspace will be a target of operations except over Mecca and Medina.
Syria officially denied reports of sending troops to Yemen, with its presidential media advisor stating the reports are lies with no truth, and affirmed that Syria stands with Saudi Arabia’s security.

Tyler Durden
Thu, 10/08/2026 – 16:30

The action for tonight kicks off at 8:15 ET on Amazon Prime as Thursday Night Football brings us the Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. the Dallas Cowboys. Kick off some betting action of your own with Betr as their offer for new users gives you $200 in bonus bets when using promo code FOXNEWS.Everyone gives a lot of love to the quarterback, but we’ve seen the importance of running backs over the course of this season. Multiple teams like the Ravens, Falcons, and even the Chiefs have seen a noticeable lift from their backfield. Tonight we have two teams who are searching to get their running backs rolling. The Buccaneers have Bucky Irving leading the way, and he has been solid throughout his first four games. His first week of the year was the one where he was least involved, but it also saw him score his lone touchdown for the season. Irving hasn’t been involved much in the passing game, and temporary quarterback Jalon Daniels didn’t even target him in his start against the Packers. Kenneth Gainwell gives Irving a break, but he hasn’t been successful with just 2.0 yards per carry. The Dallas Cowboys aren’t exactly known for their backfield. Instead, Dak Prescott tends to lead the way, but their running game isn’t exactly dormant. Javonte Williams has run the ball 62 times over his first four games and has averaged 3.7 yards per carry and found the end zone five times already.The team has found him out of the backfield for some catches as well. Williams has hauled in 15 of his 18 passes and scored another touchdown there, giving him six total for the year. Even Dak Prescott has scrambled a bit for some good yardage this year. Who will be more effective on the ground tonight? Will Williams get his first 100-yard game of the season? Can Bucky Irving keep the chains moving, so the Buccaneers can control the football? Betr has your back tonight with an offer for $200 in bonus bets when you use promo code FOXNEWS.Buccaneers vs Cowboys Running Backs Comparison