At 4 a.m. CDT Friday the National Hurricane Center put Hurricane Isaias about 200 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River with 110 mph winds, moving north-northeast at 15 mph, and said it is likely to become a major hurricane this morning before slight weakening. A hurricane warning covers Ocean Springs, Miss., to the Bay/Gulf County line in Florida, with storm surge of 5 to 7 feet possible from Dauphin Island, Ala., to Indian Pass, Fla. Forecasters expect 4 to 8 inches of rain, locally up to 15, across southern Alabama, the Florida Panhandle and southwest Georgia, plus a tornado risk starting late this afternoon.
The White House confirmed that envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will meet Ukrainian representatives in Miami on Oct. 9 to discuss a new joint proposal covering all aspects of the war, followed by a broader session with national-security advisers from the UK, France and Germany plus NATO and the EU, RFE/RL reported. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called it "a very dangerous war" and said, "we do not believe that there will be military solutions." Zelenskyy said his team would raise air defense, and President Trump said this week he plans to speak with Vladimir Putin by phone soon.
Trump wrote on Truth Social late Thursday that "we are having productive discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran" and that the U.S. will not attack Iran before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, and oil prices fell early Friday, Al Jazeera reported. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran is reviewing the U.S. response to its seven-day plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and will reply within the "next few days." Iranian media also reported "massive explosions" in the southern Strait on Friday, citing military sources who said tankers on "unauthorised" routes may have struck sea mines.
The Supreme Court's Friday conference has 100 cases and applications on its docket, 14 of them relists, SCOTUSblog's Relist Watch reported. They include the government's petition in U.S. DOGE Service v. U.S. District Court over court-ordered discovery into DOGE, Hershey v. City of Bossier City over a man told to stop handing out Christian pamphlets outside a concert, and Hadley v. City of South Bend, where police tear-gassed an innocent family's home while hunting a fugitive who was never there. Orders from the conference would typically follow on the next order list.
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