Evening Update: Russia pounds 9 Ukrainian regions as energy truce collapses; press secretary Zacharia out after four days; deficit hits $1.99 trillion
Also: Trump denies ordering Ukraine's Starshield slowdown; 12 ships hit near Hormuz this week; armed father stopped the Bend school shooter; administration asks the Court to curb nationwide rule vacaturs.
Russian attacks on nine regions of Ukraine knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of households and wounded at least 15 people, officials said Friday, the Associated Press reported; Ukraine's Defense Ministry said two people were killed and 17 injured in Kharkiv, according to the Washington Examiner. Ukraine abandoned a brief energy truce on Thursday, saying Moscow ignored it, while the Kremlin said terms had not been set, and Russian military chief Gen. Valery Gerasimov reported to Vladimir Putin that the military has the means to knock out Ukraine's energy facilities and that attacks on bridges, railways and data centers will continue. The U.N. human rights office in Kyiv reported at least 328 civilians killed and 2,105 wounded in September, 85% more than in September last year, as Zelenskyy told EU leaders in Brussels the war will cost Ukraine 155 billion euros ($174 billion) next year and it needs at least 70 billion euros ($79 billion) from Europe.
The U.K. Maritime Trade Operations Centre said Friday that 12 ships reported being attacked around the Strait of Hormuz this week, 10 of them in the strait itself, with one vessel lost and two disabled, Fox News reported. Iranian Army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia said on X that "if America leaves the region, the Strait of Hormuz will reopen" and "if it doesn't leave, we'll expel it," while U.S. Central Command chief Adm. Brad Cooper said that apart from humanitarian aid the U.S. has allowed, "Iran has no exports and no imports by sea." The Saudi-led coalition said Friday it intercepted three drones, two cruise missiles over the Red Sea and a ballistic missile fired toward Yanbu, Fox News reported.
Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said the people killed Thursday at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, were a 5-year-old, an 8-year-old, an 11-year-old and a teacher, and police identified the shooter as 16-year-old John Griffin, armed with a shotgun, the Washington Examiner reported. The bystander who entered the school and shot and killed the gunman was identified by his brother to NBC News as Kaylub Giamanco, 36, a carpenter and father of two girls at the school who has a concealed weapon permit; Gov. Tina Kotek said he "heroically intervened to stop further loss of life," and police arrived three minutes after the first 911 call to find the shooter dead. Democrats renewed calls for tougher gun laws after reports the shotgun was bought by the shooter's mother, while Gun Owners of America noted the school was a gun-free zone, Fox News reported.
Katie Zacharia is leaving her post as White House press secretary less than a week after starting Monday, the New York Post and the Washington Examiner reported Friday, after President Trump told reporters before leaving for a Georgia rally that he had asked her, "Katie, is this for you?" and said, "I'm going to let her make that decision." A senior administration official told the Post she is moving to a new role to be announced later, and a senior White House official confirmed to the Examiner that she is "transitioning" out of the job. The Examiner reported her public tenure of four days broke the previous record of 11 days set by Anthony Scaramucci, following a 14-minute first briefing on Tuesday and a Thursday night Fox News interview in which host Sean Hannity grilled her.
The federal government ran a $1.992 trillion deficit in fiscal year 2026, which ended Sept. 30, the Treasury Department's final Monthly Treasury Statement showed Friday, about 12% more than the $1.775 trillion gap in fiscal 2025, CNBC reported. CNBC said it was the third-largest annual deficit in U.S. history behind 2020 and 2021 and the 25th straight year of deficits, with Social Security costing nearly $1.7 trillion, Medicare almost $1.1 trillion and net interest topping $1 trillion. The Washington Examiner reported interest on the debt ran $1.1 trillion, more than the $965 billion spent on national defense, and noted the national debt recently passed $40 trillion.
President Trump told reporters Friday he did not order the slowdown of Starshield, the military version of SpaceX's Starlink service used by Ukraine's forces: "I didn't do that. No, we didn't do that at all," he said, according to the New York Post, adding, per the AP, "I don't think it was Elon." Reuters had reported Thursday, citing officials, that the order came from inside the White House; an administration official told the Post the White House gave no such instruction and blamed "Pentagon freelancing," while Elon Musk wrote on X that "any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS," the Washington Examiner reported. In Brussels, Zelenskyy called the limits "a dangerous and unpleasant surprise" and said speeds are coming back but have not returned to previous levels, the AP reported.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer has asked the Supreme Court to decide whether and when a federal court can throw out an agency rule in its entirety, in a 29-page petition docketed Wednesday, SCOTUSblog reported Friday. The case involves rules from HHS, Labor and Treasury implementing the No Surprises Act on surprise medical bills, parts of which the full Fifth Circuit vacated; Sauer argued that, as with the universal injunctions the Court limited in 2025's Trump v. CASA, vacatur lets "a handful of plaintiffs" erase regulations "as to everyone." The challengers' response is due Nov. 13; separately, the Court's website says the justices met in private conference Friday and will release an order list at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 19.
At Tuesday's argument in Beaird v. United States, the justices appeared disinclined to upset the Court's 1993 Stinson v. United States rule giving weight to the U.S. Sentencing Commission's commentary on the federal guidelines, SCOTUSblog reported Friday. Chief Justice John Roberts said he did not see how deferring to non-binding advice from "an agency in the judicial branch" had much to do with the Court's 2024 Loper Bright decision, a point Justice Brett Kavanaugh echoed, while Justice Neil Gorsuch pressed questions about Loper Bright. The case arises from a firearm guideline that raises the recommended range when an offense involved a "semiautomatic firearm that is capable of accepting a large capacity magazine."
Verified facts only. Every item is supported by the reporting or official records it links to.
Every source linked. Wire services, national news outlets, and primary documents such as whitehouse.gov releases, Supreme Court opinions and court filings.
Analysis labeled. Our point of view appears only in the Our Opinion box under each story, never mixed into the facts.
Corrections in the open. Mistakes are fixed quickly and noted publicly.
