Morning Brief: Tanker bombed in Hormuz by small boat as Iran claims four mine strikes; U.S. weighs Iran options; ICE nets 4,170 in Texas
Plus Houthi strikes on Saudi oil, a record $6.3 billion North Korea-linked crypto hack, Russia's strikes on Kyiv and Dnipro, GDP and inflation, Alaska's Senate fight, Trump's tele-rallies, the FCC and China, and the Supreme Court week ahead.
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I'm Nora Vale with your 6 AM World Brief for Friday, October 30. UKMTO: small boat attached 2 explosives to a tanker in Hormuz; crew safe. Iran claims 4 tankers hit mines. WSJ: Adm. Cooper briefs Trump on Iran options; Qatari mediators back in Tehran. Binance: $6.3B hit in record hack; analysts link it to North Korea. Q3 GDP: +3.4%. September PCE inflation: 3.6% from a year earlier. DHS: ICE's Lone Star Mission arrested 4,170 illegal immigrants in Texas in 10 days. Supreme Court: November sitting opens Monday; Big Bend request still pending. In national weather, from the National Weather Service: Heavy rainfall continues across parts of the Plains today; threat increasing over the West this weekend. Our opinion. Defend Hormuz, nuclear limits first, stop Pyongyang's theft, tame inflation, enforce the law. Full stories and sources at WorldBriefNow.com. I'm Nora Vale.
The U.K. Maritime Trade Operations agency said a small boat attached two explosive devices to a tanker's hull about 25 nautical miles northeast of Khasab, Oman, on Thursday, sparking an engine-room fire that temporarily disabled the ship; the crew was safe and the vessel continued to its next port, Reuters reported. Seatrade Maritime said security firm Vanguard Tech identified the tanker as the Panama-flagged Louise 1 and that a second vessel was struck by an unknown projectile hours earlier, while Reuters said it was not immediately clear who was behind the attack. Iran's Revolutionary Guard said four tankers hit mines and demanded the U.S. "prove" its claim that the main shipping lanes had been cleared of mines, CNBC reported.
Adm. Brad Cooper, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, briefed President Trump on military options for Iran in a rare in-person White House visit, the Wall Street Journal reported, according to CNBC. Separately, Qatari mediators returned to Tehran on Friday in a push for a U.S.-Iran deal coordinated with Washington, Reuters reported; a senior Iranian official had dismissed Qatar's draft peace plan as unacceptable, with Washington wanting nuclear issues included from the start and Tehran demanding an end to the U.S. port blockade and oil sanctions first.
Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree said the group targeted the Ras Tanura and Rabigh refineries, an Aramco facility in Abqaiq, airports in Riyadh and Dammam, and a Saudi military headquarters in Najran, Al Jazeera reported, adding there was no independent corroboration. The Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted two ballistic missiles fired toward Riyadh, and Saudi Civil Defence said falling shrapnel wounded one citizen and damaged a house and a vehicle. The attacks came days after Saudi and Iranian officials met in Tehran and agreed to resolve differences through dialogue.
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance said $6.3 billion in digital assets were affected by a hack, about half of which has been frozen, and that it will "cover all losses," the BBC reported. Analytics firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis linked the attack to a North Korean hacking unit called TraderTraitor, which Check Point said is also known as Lazarus Group. Western security agencies have previously said stolen crypto funds help pay for North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile programs, the BBC noted.
Russian forces attacked Kyiv with ballistic missiles late Thursday, killing one person and setting fires, Ukrainian officials said, according to Reuters. Russia and Ukraine both praised first lady Melania Trump for helping broker a truce around the Russian-held town of Oleshky so food and medicine can be brought in, but a drone strike killed 13 people crowding onto a commuter train in Dnipro, local officials said, Reuters reported. President Zelenskiy said Ukraine has intelligence that Russia is preparing new ballistic missile strikes.
Around 2,000 Salvadoran soldiers were in Haiti as of Wednesday night, a security official told Reuters, and two sources said the force would for now be capped at 2,500. The deployment came days after four Salvadoran members of a UN-backed force went missing in a gang ambush and is the first major overseas test of President Nayib Bukele's anti-gang tactics, Reuters reported. Authorities have not clarified the troops' command or rules of engagement.
Real GDP grew at a 3.4% annual rate in the third quarter, up from 2.2% in the second quarter, led by investment, consumer spending and government spending, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said Thursday. In a separate report, the PCE price index rose 0.5% in September and 3.6% from a year earlier, or 3.1% excluding food and energy. Real disposable income fell 0.3% in September and the saving rate was 3.8%, the bureau said.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced in Dallas that Lone Star Mission, a coordinated operation by ICE's five Texas field offices from Oct. 19 to Oct. 29, led to the arrests of 4,170 illegal immigrants, DHS said. The department said those arrested included murderers, sexual assailants, drunk drivers and alien smugglers, among them a twice-deported Mexican national with a capital murder arrest and a La Linea cartel member arrested in El Paso. Mullin credited Texas law enforcement and federal partners.
The Justice Department filed a revised lawsuit Thursday seeking to block certification of Alaska's Senate results if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses narrowly, citing a New York Times report that Democratic operatives recruited another candidate named Dan Sullivan, Reuters reported. "They orchestrated his sham campaign for the purpose of misleading Alaskan voters and getting Peltola elected," DOJ lawyers wrote, according to Al Jazeera. Peltola's campaign denies involvement, and Gov. Mike Dunleavy has ordered a criminal investigation.
President Trump on Thursday canceled weekend campaign stops in Kansas and Iowa, and the Republican National Committee announced tele-rallies broadcast to nearly 20 states instead, Al Jazeera and Reuters reported. "He is doing very well," Trump said of Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, adding, "We are going to have a strong Tuesday night." His Friday rally in Daytona Beach, Florida, is going ahead as planned ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
The Federal Communications Commission said it will vote Nov. 19 on a proposal to ban China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom and other internet-based voice providers from direct access to U.S. phone numbers on national security grounds, Reuters reported via CNA. "With this decision, the FCC will be strengthening our first line of defence against bad actors and illegal robocallers," FCC Chair Brendan Carr said. The FCC also said it plans to bar providers that use equipment from companies on its national security list, including Huawei or ZTE.
The Supreme Court on Oct. 27 requested a response in Trump v. Clinton, No. 26-518, after Clinton and the other respondents had filed a waiver of their right to respond, the Court's docket shows. The response is now due Nov. 27, 2026. Trump's petition, filed Oct. 9, seeks review of an 11th Circuit decision; asking for a response does not mean the Court has agreed to hear the case.
The Court's November session opens Monday, Nov. 2, with Maxwell v. Dinis and Younge v. Fulton Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office, followed Tuesday by St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy, the Colorado preschool religious-liberty case, and Wednesday by Guerrero v. Johnson, according to the Court's argument calendar. The Court has posted no new orders since Oct. 27, and the administration's emergency request to resume border-wall construction in Texas's Big Bend region remains pending after challengers filed their response Thursday, SCOTUSblog reported.
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