Morning Brief: Trump waives new Russia sanctions; Iran says supertanker hit Hormuz mine; Houthi missiles land near Aden airliner
Also: Pope Leo asks Putin for an Oleshky ceasefire; DOJ warns California officials over suspected noncitizen ballots; the Court's next order list is Monday.
6 AM CT video brief · 1:54Presenter voice and image generated with AI tools.Read transcript
I'm Nora Vale with your 6 AM World Brief for Saturday, October 17. Trump waives Graham Act tariffs and sanctions on Russia; earlier sanctions stay. IRGC says supertanker hit a mine in Hormuz; CENTCOM: strait remains open. Two Houthi missiles land near a passenger jet at Aden airport; no casualties. Pope Leo asks Putin for Oleshky ceasefire; Kremlin agrees to cooperate. DOJ warns California officials over ballots from suspected noncitizens. In national weather, from the National Weather Service: Well below average temperatures spread across much of central, southern and eastern U.S. with widespread frost and freezing temperatures from the Plains to the East through the weekend. Nor'easter develops along the Carolina coast this weekend, bringing potential coastal flooding and beach erosion along portions of the Mid-Atlantic coast into early next week. Our opinion. Explain the sanctions pause; enforce freedom of the seas; only citizens vote. Full stories and sources are at WorldBriefNow.com. I'm Nora Vale. Thanks for watching.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard navy said a supertanker carrying more than 2 million barrels of crude oil struck a naval mine in the Strait of Hormuz, causing a "massive explosion" and a "fierce fire," claiming the ship had switched off its navigation and radar systems and taken an "unauthorised route," Euronews and Anadolu reported; the statement did not name the vessel, its owner or flag or say whether anyone was hurt. On Friday, U.S. Central Command chief Adm. Brad Cooper said "the Strait of Hormuz is controlled by the United States and our regional partners, not Iran" and "remains open for business," while NBC News reported attacks on shipping in and around the strait have surged to a record high.
Two missiles fired by the Iran-backed Houthis landed about 500 meters (1,640 feet) from Flight 612, which was preparing to take off from Aden International Airport for Cairo, and 100 meters from the middle of the runway on Friday, Yemen's Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani said; no casualties were reported. The Houthi-run Saba news agency said the group targeted a military headquarters and weapons depots inside the neighboring Badr Camp, and sources told Anadolu a third missile hit the Saudi-led coalition camp in al-Buraiqah. The attack came a day after ballistic missiles hit Aden's Maashiq presidential palace, killing five people and injuring 16, Yemen's health minister said.
Pope Leo XIV phoned Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday and called for a ceasefire in Oleshky, a Russian-held town in Ukraine's Kherson region, to let in food and medical aid and allow civilians to leave safely, the Holy See press office said. The Kremlin said it had "agreed to cooperate" on supplies and residents' safety but did not mention a ceasefire, Reuters reported; the head of the U.N. human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine says about 1,700 residents, including 47 children, remain in a town that had some 24,000 people before the war. The 71-year-old pope is recovering at Rome's Gemelli hospital after lung cancer surgery, and the Vatican said he is showing steady improvement.
President Trump signed an executive order Friday waiving the new duties and a long list of sanctions provisions in the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, which he signed into law Sept. 18, telling Congress the waiver is "in the national interests of the United States." The law called for raising duties on Russian goods by 500% and on goods from the top five buyers of Russian crude oil or gas, such as China and India, by up to 100%; the order says sanctions under earlier executive orders on Russia stay in place, and the waivers last until the president or secretary of state decides further action is appropriate. CNBC reported the move came two days before the law's implementation deadline and a week after a temporary waiver on Russian diesel exports; Putin envoy Kirill Dmitriev called it "truly historic," while Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who also drafted the act, condemned it.
The Justice Department warned California election officials Friday that "if persons knowingly tabulate ballots cast by individuals identified by federal agencies as noncitizens, they risk becoming aiders and abettors to a federal crime," in a letter from Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter to the Los Angeles County Counsel's office, the Associated Press reported. The letter came a day after the department, working with DHS, sued California over more than 20,000 registered voters it says are likely noncitizens; California mails a ballot to every registered voter, and Secretary of State Shirley Weber has said the administration provided no evidence for the claim. Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan said "it is best for this to be addressed in court," and President Trump wrote on Truth Social, "They will all go to jail for a long period of time!!!"
SCOTUSblog's court calendar shows the Supreme Court's next scheduled action is an order list on Monday, Oct. 19, at 9:30 a.m. ET (8:30 a.m. CT), with no new rulings posted since Friday. The November sitting opens Nov. 2 with arguments in Maxwell v. Dinis and Younge v. Fulton Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office, followed Nov. 3 by St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy. SCOTUSblog's tracker shows 33 cases granted for the October 2026 term, six arguments held and no decisions yet, with five interim-docket applications pending.
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