Morning Brief: Iran's supreme leader orders a 'geographically unrestricted' response to any new attack as Tehran claims a fourth tanker fire; judge blocks DOJ threats to election workers; Poland's court standoff
Plus oil at a six-month high, a Saudi drone intercept over Riyadh, a $2.1 billion Patriot sale to Ukraine, Lavrov at the G20, the Alaska 'Decoy Dan' surge, an ICE arrest in New York, the Omar citizenship question and the Supreme Court's November sitting.
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I'm Nora Vale with your 6 AM World Brief for Saturday, October 31. Khamenei orders 'geographically unrestricted' response to any attack. IRGC claims 4th tanker fire. Iran's reply to Qatar draft expected this weekend. Brent settles at $117.64, a 6-month high; up 13.6% in October. State Dept. approves $2.1B sale of 500 Patriot missiles to Ukraine; delivery may take years. Poland: President Nawrocki forces his way into the Constitutional Tribunal; calls crisis talks. Judge temporarily bars DOJ and DHS from threatening election workers over suspected noncitizen ballots. Alaska: feds surge agents in 'Decoy Dan' Senate probe. Supreme Court: November sitting opens Monday; Catholic preschool case argued Nov. 3. In national weather, from the National Weather Service: Heavy rain threat renews over southern California and Desert Southwest this evening; impactful flash flooding expected in the Great Basin and Four Corners Sunday. Locally heavy rainfall shifting gradually eastward from the southern Plains to the Gulf Coast states this weekend. Our opinion. No Iranian bomb, open seas; citizens-only voting with fair process; courts change by law; faith schools deserve equal treatment. Full stories and sources at WorldBriefNow.com. I'm Nora Vale.
Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei told top military officials on Saturday to prepare "an immediate, impactful, and geographically unrestricted response" to any threat, saying Iran will set the "timing and terms" for ending any new conflict, the Jerusalem Post reported; a statement on his Telegram channel warned the U.S. against resuming attacks, CBS News and AFP reported. Iran's Revolutionary Guard said a supertanker carrying more than 2 million barrels was the fourth "violating" tanker to catch fire Friday after hitting mines on what it calls an unauthorized route, and claimed it intercepted a U.S. MQM-170 Outlaw drone over Qeshm Island, Xinhua reported; the AP said it could not verify the tanker claims. A response from Iran to the Qatari peace draft is expected by the weekend, a source told CBS News.
Brent crude for December settled up $2.76, or 2.4%, at $117.64 a barrel on Friday, its highest since the end of April, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate settled at $104.12, Reuters reported via CNA. Brent finished the month 13.6% higher and WTI 15.2% higher, as traders braced for a potential escalation in the Iran war after the Nov. 3 U.S. midterm elections. ExxonMobil said its third-quarter profit more than doubled to $15.4 billion on higher oil prices and refining margins, CBS News and AFP reported.
Saudi air defenses intercepted and destroyed a drone in the Riyadh region on Saturday, and debris fell without causing injuries, Saudi-led coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki said; he did not say who launched it, CBS News and AFP reported. Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis have stepped up attacks on Saudi Arabia in recent weeks, including strikes on Riyadh airport that forced its closure for two weeks. More than 1,600 people have been killed and over 275,000 displaced since Yemen's fighting reignited over the summer, according to U.N. figures cited by CBS.
The State Department said Friday it approved the sale of 500 Patriot PAC-3 missiles to Ukraine for an estimated $2.1 billion, Reuters reported via the New York Post; Ukraine will pay with contributions from Canada, Germany and Norway routed through the US JUMPSTART program plus EU-backed loan funds. Two people briefed on the decision said the missiles, not yet built, are not expected to be delivered until a couple of years into the 2030s, and Zelensky said deliveries "may begin ONLY IN A FEW YEARS," The Guardian reported. The approval goes to Congress for review.
At the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Atlanta, the EU's Kaja Kallas accused Russia's Sergei Lavrov of "lies" about Ukraine, and the traditional family photo was called off after some European officials objected to appearing with him, The Guardian reported. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke briefly with Lavrov on the sidelines, and fresh talks among Moscow, Kyiv and Washington are expected in November. In Russian-held Oleshky, a relief convoy began evacuations Friday, and first lady Melania Trump said it could safely evacuate more than 750 people.
Riot police surrounded Poland's Constitutional Tribunal on Friday night after judges elected by the current parliament suspended its president, Bogdan Swieczkowski, and his deputy; police detained three protesters, The Guardian reported. President Karol Nawrocki turned back his plane to Senegal, pushed through the police cordon shortly before 1 a.m. Saturday, and in a statement said "a constitutional body was seized by force," then called urgent talks with party leaders, AFP reported. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said "restoring the rule of law is our duty," while U.S. Ambassador Tom Rose warned that the last thing Poland needs is a confrontation "that spirals into something far worse."
U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson on Friday issued a temporary restraining order finding that DOJ and DHS likely violated the Voting Rights Act's ban on voter intimidation by threatening election workers with prosecution for processing ballots from voters the administration says are ineligible, Fox News reported. The order bars federal officials from pressing officials to halt ballot processing, purge voters or set ballots aside based solely on those allegations; the suit was brought by groups including the SEIU and the NAACP. The administration says its efforts aim to prevent noncitizen voting, and at least three Los Angeles County election officials have been asked to appear before a grand jury on Nov. 4, CBS News reported.
U.S. Attorney Michael Heyman said Friday that a New York Times report on the alleged involvement of Mary Peltola's campaign and the DSCC in recruiting a second "Dan Sullivan" has "resulted in a significant surge of law enforcement assets to Alaska," the New York Post reported. Peltola's former campaign manager told the Times aides were told to look for people named Dan Sullivan to confuse voters; Peltola said she "knew nothing" about any other candidate and is "not interested in tricking voters." Heyman said DOJ's separate lawsuit only seeks to preserve ballots and plans to ask for expedited discovery by Monday.
ICE officers arrested Alpha Bah, an illegal immigrant from Guinea, at about 3:25 p.m. Friday in New York City without incident, a DHS official told Fox News Digital. Bah was arrested Oct. 7 on charges including aggravated assault on a police officer with a deadly weapon, and ICE lodged a detainer, but he was released without federal authorities being notified, DHS said. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin had called on Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani to end sanctuary policies.
Federal investigators are examining whether Rep. Ilhan Omar improperly obtained U.S. citizenship through allegedly fraudulent paperwork; Omar denies wrongdoing and no finding that she lacks citizenship has been made, Fox News reported. Trump has urged her resignation or expulsion, saying Monday in Mississippi, "Let's get her the Hell out of there." John Yoo and Cully Stimson told Fox the Powell v. McCormack ruling bars Congress from adding qualifications but does not stop it from enforcing the Constitution's citizenship requirement, and Rep. Randy Fine said he would demand expulsion if she is found not to be a citizen.
A Ninth Circuit panel on Friday rejected the Justice Department's request for California to set aside ballots from about 20,000 people the administration says may be noncitizens, with Judges Mark Bennett and Gabriel Sanchez in the majority and Judge Patrick Bumatay dissenting, CBS News and the AP reported. California says the list is highly unreliable, and DOJ did not immediately say whether it would appeal. SCOTUSblog noted that the California dispute "may soon arrive at the Supreme Court."
The justices hear Maxwell v. Dinis and Younge v. Fulton Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office on Monday, and the administration's request to resume border-wall construction in Texas's Big Bend region is still pending, SCOTUSblog reported. On Nov. 3 the Court hears St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy, in which Catholic preschools argue Colorado unlawfully excludes them from its universal preschool program by refusing a religious exemption from its nondiscrimination rules. The 10th Circuit ruled for Colorado, which says the preschools are welcome if they follow the same rules as all publicly funded preschools.
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