Morning Brief: Trump says Vance's Iran letter was about medical supplies; Hegseth fires top war planner; DOJ appeals in California ballot fight
Plus North Korea's missile barrage, Israel's interference probe, 613 drones at Moscow, Spain's deadly train crash, Bolsonaro in Miami, a nuclear-site fire, the DHS data leak and the Big Bend border-wall deadline at the Court.
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I'm Nora Vale with your 6 AM World Brief for Thursday, October 29. Trump: he did not direct Vance to restart Iran talks; says outreach was about medical supplies. Hegseth fires top Pentagon war planner Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia; no reason given. Judge refuses DOJ bid to set aside 20,000 California ballots; DOJ appeals to the 9th Circuit. DHS probes leak that may expose about 40,000 employees, including ICE and Border Patrol. North Korea fires about a dozen short-range ballistic missiles, South Korea says. Supreme Court: Big Bend border-wall responses due today; November sitting opens Monday. In national weather, from the National Weather Service: Snow will develop over parts of the higher elevations of the Cascades, Northern Intermountain Region/Northern Rockies on Thursday, tapering off on Friday. There is a Slight Risk of excessive rainfall over parts of the Southern High Plains on Thursday and over parts of the Southwest on Friday and Saturday. Our opinion. Straight answers on Iran, citizens-only voting, and protection for border officers. Full stories and sources at WorldBriefNow.com. I'm Nora Vale.
Asked at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday whether he had told Vice President JD Vance to begin peace talks with Iran, President Trump said, "No. Iran needs help with medical supplies. Basically, it's getting supplies in to help people that are not well," Iran International reported. The Wall Street Journal had reported earlier Wednesday that Vance sent a letter to Iran's Supreme National Security Council secretary, Mohsen Rezaei, at Trump's direction to revive negotiations, and the Washington Examiner reported Trump denied that account.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth removed Army Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia as director of strategy, plans and policy (the "J5") on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a defense official said Wednesday, the Associated Press reported via the New York Post; no reason was given and no replacement was named. Sylvia is the second J5 ousted under Hegseth and among nearly two dozen senior military leaders to depart during his tenure, AP said, as a third U.S. aircraft carrier and thousands of additional troops head to the Middle East.
North Korea fired about a dozen short-range ballistic missiles from the Wonsan area toward the East Sea at around 12:30 p.m. local time Thursday, and they flew about 250 kilometers, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said, according to Yonhap. A South Korean military official said the launch is believed to have involved the KN-25 600-millimeter multiple rocket launcher, which Pyongyang claims can carry tactical nuclear warheads; Seoul's presidential office said the tests directly violate U.N. Security Council resolutions.
The head of Israel's Central Elections Committee asked the Shin Bet to investigate alleged funding by "foreign entities against the Israeli interest," requesting findings within the week, the Associated Press reported Thursday; results must be certified by Nov. 4 and the new Knesset is set to be sworn in Nov. 10. Neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc nor Gadi Eisenkot's opposition reached the 61 seats needed for a majority, Fox News reported, with the Arab-led Joint List projected at 12 seats and Ra'am at seven, while Likud says it has given police, the Shin Bet and the committee hundreds of testimonies alleging fraud at Arab polling stations.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defenses downed most of 613 drones headed toward the Russian capital between Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, Reuters reported via Al Jazeera, and Russia's defense ministry said it destroyed 1,214 Ukrainian drones across Russian regions. Russia attacked Kharkiv, damaging an educational institution, the city's mayor said, and a Russian strike in the Rivne region killed one man; Reuters said peace talks are set to resume next month with U.S. mediation.
Sixty-eight people were killed when one high-speed train struck another from behind in central Spain on Wednesday, and search teams with sniffer dogs were still looking for victims Thursday, the Associated Press reported. A Castilla-La Mancha regional spokesperson said 53 people remained hospitalized, 15 in critical care, and called the death toll provisional; the government declared three days of mourning.
Flávio Bolsonaro and his family arrived in Miami on Wednesday after he refused to concede Brazil's presidential election to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and left the country by way of Argentina and Ecuador, the Associated Press reported; the Trump administration approved U.S. visas for the family this week. The senator is under investigation by Brazil's Supreme Court on corruption, money laundering and tax-evasion accusations, and on X he called himself a victim of electoral fraud and political persecution, AP said.
The Savannah River Site near Aiken, South Carolina, declared a Site Area Emergency at 5:39 p.m. Wednesday after a fire at the Savannah River National Laboratory, and ended it at 9:45 p.m. after the fire was put out and radiological surveys found no detectable contamination, Fox News reported, citing the Energy Department. One employee was taken to a hospital with minor injuries, and workers were told to return as scheduled Thursday.
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter on Wednesday denied the Justice Department's emergency request to make California hold mail ballots linked to more than 20,000 suspected noncitizens until their citizenship is verified, the Washington Examiner reported, writing that "once a vote is segregated, lasting harm has occurred." First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said the Solicitor General authorized an immediate appeal and the department would seek an emergency order from the 9th Circuit, the New York Post reported; a 9th Circuit panel rejected an earlier emergency appeal 2-1 on Monday, with Judge Patrick Bumatay dissenting.
The Department of Homeland Security is investigating a suspected breach that may have exposed names, titles, locations and in some cases phone numbers and emails of about 40,000 employees and contractors, including roughly 10,000 ICE personnel and more than 20,000 Customs and Border Protection employees, Fox News reported, citing sources. Fox said it confirmed the records include names of several undercover ICE agents; a group calling itself the "Department of Peace" claimed responsibility, the site Distributed Denial of Secrets said it released the data, and DHS said it is "actively working to address the situation."
President Trump campaigned Wednesday night in Chillicothe, Ohio, for Sen. Jon Husted and governor candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, touting that he "terminated" Obama's Iran nuclear deal and defending his White House repairs, which he said he "paid for" himself, the New York Post reported. At the same time in Atlanta, former President Barack Obama, rallying for Sen. Jon Ossoff and Keisha Lance Bottoms, called the Iran war "unnecessary," the Post said; the midterm election is Tuesday, Nov. 3.
Responses to the Trump administration's Oct. 21 request to let it resume border-wall construction in Texas's Big Bend region are due by 4 p.m. EDT Thursday, SCOTUSblog reported. The Court's orders page lists no orders since Tuesday, Oct. 27, and the November sitting opens Monday, Nov. 2, with Maxwell v. Dinis, on whether a federal inmate can use habeas corpus to speed a move to a halfway house or home confinement, SCOTUSblog said.
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