Morning Brief: U.S. warns Iranian plots against Americans are 'advanced'; Rubio calls on Cubans to work with the CIA; 9th Circuit sets Saturday deadline on noncitizen ballots
Plus a deadly Tibet earthquake, a second Ebola death in Kenya and a new U.S. travel rule, Hegseth's campus crackdown on Chinese programs, an arrest in the Atlanta ICE firebombing, and a pending immigration fight at the Supreme Court.
6 AM CT video brief · 1:44Presenter voice and image generated with AI tools.Read transcript
I'm Nora Vale with your 6 AM World Brief for Saturday, October 24. DNI: Iranian plots against Americans abroad at "advanced stages." Iran vows to bar U.S. ships from the Gulf. Rubio urges Cubans to partner with the CIA; Trump says Rubio could "finish up the deal." 9th Circuit: California must answer by noon on about 20,000 suspected noncitizen ballots. Magnitude 7 quake in Tibet kills 16, injures 76. Trump administration and Texas urge justices to keep their deal ending a rule that paused deportation cases. In national weather, from the National Weather Service: There is a Slight Risk (level 2 of 4) of excessive rainfall over parts of the Central/Southern High Plains and Central/Southern Rockies on Saturday and Sunday. Severe wind/hail and a tornado are possible across portions of New Mexico and far west Texas today, a level 2 of 5 severe storm risk. Our opinion. Protect Americans abroad; freedom for Cuba; only citizens should vote. Full stories and sources at WorldBriefNow.com. I'm Nora Vale. Thanks for watching.
Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton warned Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a memo sent Friday that Iran has "substantially increased efforts to target U.S. personnel," with lethal plots at "advanced stages" in the Middle East and other countries, Fox News and CBS News reported. The State Department said it will reduce staffing at the U.S. embassies in Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar and the UAE, which remain open, CBS reported. On Saturday Iran's armed forces chief of staff Ali Abdollahi said U.S. military ships would not be allowed in the Persian Gulf "under any circumstances," according to Iranian state television.
A magnitude 7 earthquake centered near Nagqu in northern Tibet killed 16 people and injured 76, local authorities said Friday, according to Reuters as published by The Straits Times. It is China's strongest quake since January 2024; more than 12,000 people have been relocated, 413 aftershocks have been recorded, and officials warned that cracked homes could collapse in aftershocks.
Kenya's Health Ministry said Friday that a 65-year-old woman, a close relative of the country's first Ebola patient, died after developing symptoms in quarantine; seven other patients are being treated and no new infections were reported, the AP reported. U.S. health officials said all passengers boarding international flights to the United States must sign a statement that they have not been in Congo in the previous 21 days, and travelers who were there, including Americans, will not be allowed to board, according to the AP. Congo's outbreak has killed at least 4,000 people since May.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X Friday that Cubans seeking change should "seize this opportunity to create the change you desire through a discrete partnership with the CIA," without describing any specific operation, Fox News reported. At a rally in Fort Myers, Florida, President Trump said U.S. ships returning from Iran could stop off Cuba and "we're going to send Marco Rubio in to finish up the deal," giving no details of any plan.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered California to respond by noon Saturday to the Justice Department's emergency request to set aside mail-in ballots tied to roughly 20,000 people it suspects are noncitizens, after U.S. District Judge David Carter did not rule by the department's deadline, Fox News reported. California officials say counties lack the authority and federal records to verify citizenship and that ballots already processed cannot be separated; Los Angeles County alone has processed 331,000 ballots. A hearing before Judge Carter remains set for Tuesday.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said in a video on X Friday that the Pentagon has dismantled 80 Chinese "propaganda cells" at American colleges and universities over the past two months, the Washington Examiner reported. He said organizations similar to the Chinese-backed Confucius Institutes kept appearing under new names after Congress restricted them, and that the War Department designated them threats to national security.
The FBI arrested Inique Hinton, 31, of Douglasville, Georgia, on Thursday on charges of attempted arson of a federal building and depredation of government property over a Molotov cocktail thrown at the ICE building in downtown Atlanta on Tuesday, Fox News reported. U.S. Attorney Theodore Hertzberg called it "an act of terrorism"; the arson charge carries a five-year mandatory minimum and up to 20 years in prison.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer and Texas asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to reject a request by Baltimore, New Haven, Columbus and the group Centro Legal de la Raza to pause a consent judgment that threw out the 2024 "administrative closure" rule, which let immigration judges suspend some deportation proceedings, SCOTUSblog reported. A district judge ruled the challengers lacked standing to join the case; the applicants filed their reply on Friday, and the application (No. 26A500, submitted to Justice Alito) is pending, the Court's docket shows.
The Supreme Court's orders page lists no new orders after Oct. 21, and its latest order-related opinion was the Oct. 22 New Hampshire student-ID stay. SCOTUSblog's calendar shows the next arguments on Monday, Nov. 2 (Maxwell v. Dinis and Younge v. Fulton Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office), followed by St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy on Tuesday, Nov. 3, and Guerrero v. Johnson on Nov. 4.
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