Isaias nears hurricane strength with watches up from Mississippi to Florida; FBI says it stopped an ISIS-inspired Mall of America attack plot
Evening: Houthi strikes on Saudi airports kill three; Iran calls enrichment a ‘red line’ after Vance’s demand; Trump marks 70 million Trump Accounts; ICE launches a statewide California operation; Trump signs the Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act; justices question finality in the Guam case.
Tropical Storm Isaias had top winds near 65 mph at 4 p.m. CT, about 500 miles south-southwest of the mouth of the Mississippi River, and is forecast to become a hurricane by Thursday morning and make landfall on the northern U.S. Gulf Coast late Friday or early Saturday, the National Hurricane Center said. A Hurricane Watch covers Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, to Indian Pass, Florida, and a Storm Surge Watch runs from the mouth of the Mississippi River to Yankeetown, Florida; the center said 3 to 6 inches of rain, locally up to 10, is possible from far southeastern Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has declared a state of emergency for 25 counties and staged generators, fuel, water and sandbags in Tallahassee and the Santa Rosa area.
Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority said three people were killed in attacks Tuesday and Wednesday on Abha International Airport and Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport, after Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis claimed to have fired a ballistic missile at the Riyadh airport, AFP reported. Yemen’s government said Houthi missiles and drones also targeted Aden’s airport, with one missile landing near the runway minutes before a flight from Cairo was due, forcing it to divert to Jeddah. The Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted and destroyed a Houthi ballistic missile north of Riyadh, AP reported.
A senior Iranian official told Reuters on Wednesday that U.S. recognition of Iran’s right to enrich uranium is a “red line” and that Iran would “never give up its right to enrich,” though the details and scale could be discussed later, Iran International reported. The official said there have been no U.S.-Iran negotiations on the nuclear program and called Vice President JD Vance’s recent proposals Washington’s “ideas and requests.” Vance told Reuters this week Iran must make a “meaningful” reduction in enrichment capacity and questioned why Tehran needs uranium enriched to 60% if it is not building a weapon.
Federal prosecutors say Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud, 18, a U.S.-born Twin Cities resident, was arrested Tuesday in Richfield after taking possession of an AK-47-style rifle and ammunition supplied in an undercover operation, and that he planned an attack at the Mall of America intended to kill 30 to 60 people, MPR News reported. According to the complaint, the FBI had investigated him since December 2024, and he told a confidential source he would attack in Minnesota after lacking money to travel to Somalia to join a terrorist group; Oct. 24, the date of the mall’s Hmong Arts Celebration, was mentioned as a possible attack day. AP noted the weapon came from FBI agents, and a preliminary hearing is set for Oct. 19.
President Trump held an Oval Office event Wednesday celebrating automatic enrollment of every eligible child under 18 with a valid Social Security number in Trump Accounts, about 70 million accounts according to the White House, Fox Business reported. Trump thanked Michael and Susan Dell for donating roughly $6.25 billion, enough for $250 to 25 million account holders, and said more than 70 companies have agreed to contribute for employees’ children; family and friends can add up to $5,000 a year. A White House official said an estimated 80% of the accounts are linked to families earning under $200,000 a year.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has begun an operation across California, known internally as Operation Safe California, that started several days ago around San Diego and is expected to last at least 45 days, working north through Los Angeles to San Francisco by November, the Washington Examiner reported, citing sources. Officers were told to arrest all illegal immigrants they encounter regardless of criminal history, the sources said. DHS would neither confirm nor deny the operation, saying ICE does not discuss operations for officer safety, and pointed to recent California arrests of men convicted of homicide and drug trafficking.
President Trump signed two bills into law on Wednesday, the White House said. S. 766, the Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act of 2025, requires an annual report on federally funded projects that are more than five years behind schedule or more than $1 billion over their original cost estimate. H.R. 5345, the Improving Social Security’s Service to Victims of Identity Theft Act, sets up a single point of contact at the Social Security Administration for people whose Social Security number has been misused or whose card has been lost.
In about 75 minutes of argument Wednesday in Department of the Air Force v. Prutehi Guåhan, the justices questioned whether the Air Force’s application to renew a permit to detonate hazardous munitions on a Guam beach is a final action a group can sue over now, SCOTUSblog reported. Justice Clarence Thomas called the dispute “odd,” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson suggested a “finality problem,” and Justice Amy Coney Barrett asked whether ruling for the group would open the floodgates to lawsuits over permitting decisions. After the Columbus Day holiday Monday, the Court hears Beaird v. United States on Oct. 13 and Salazar v. Paramount Global on Oct. 14, according to its argument calendar.
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