https://time.com/7324968/qatar-idaho-air-force-facility-hegseth-trump/
A new Qatari air force facility will be built in Idaho, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Friday.

“Today we’re signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatar Emiri air force facility at the Mountain Home Airbase in Idaho,” Hegseth told reporters. “It’s just another example of our partnership.”

Hegseth said that the facility would host a contingent of Qatari F-15s and pilots.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for more details about the arrangement.

The announcement came as Hegseth thanked Qatar for its role in peace talks between Israel and Hamas. Qatar, along with the United States and Egypt, helped mediate the cease-fire negotiations that were held in Egypt this week. President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that Israel and Hamas had agreed to the first phase of a cease-fire deal.

“No one other than President Trump could have achieved the peace—what we believe will be a lasting peace—in Gaza, and Qatar played a substantial role from the beginning, working with our folks to make sure that came about,” Hegseth said on Friday.

By Friday, Israel pulled its troops back to agreed positions in the Gaza Strip. Hamas has 72 hours to release the remaining 48 Israeli hostages, 20 of whom are thought to still be alive, under the terms of the deal.

https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-voting-rights-race-louisiana-348260f08099d087bcde4a93140aa8b2
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Republican attack on a core provision of the Voting Rights Act that is designed to protect racial minorities comes to the Supreme Court this week, more than a decade after the justices knocked out another pillar of the 60-year-old law.

In arguments Wednesday, lawyers for Louisiana and the Trump administration will try to persuade the justices to wipe away the state’s second majority Black congressional district and make it much harder, if not impossible, to take account of race in redistricting.

“Race-based redistricting is fundamentally contrary to our Constitution,” Louisiana Attorney General Elizabeth Murrill wrote in the state’s Supreme Court filing.

A mid-decade battle over congressional redistricting already is playing out across the nation, after President Donald Trump began urging Texas and other Republican-controlled states to redraw their lines to make it easier for the GOP to hold its narrow majority in the House of Representatives. A ruling for Louisiana could intensify that effort and spill over to state legislative and local districts.

The conservative-dominated court, which just two years ago ended affirmative action in college admissions, could be receptive. At the center of the legal fight is Chief Justice John Roberts, who has long had the landmark civil rights law in his sights, from his time as a young lawyer in the Reagan-era Justice Department to his current job.

“It is a sordid business, this divvying us up by race,” Roberts wrote in a dissenting opinion in 2006 in his first major voting rights case as chief justice.

In 2013, Roberts wrote for the majority in gutting the landmark law’s requirement that states and local governments with a history of discrimination, mostly in the South, get approval before making any election-related changes.

The Pam Bondi Justice Department continues its anti-Second Amendment engagements, this time instructing a court to deny universal relief to all gun owners and, for perhaps the first time ever, asking a court to force a plaintiff to hand over its private membership list.

The complaint in Reese v. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, originated in 2020 when gun rights groups and individual plaintiffs challenged Louisiana’s prohibition on handgun purchases for adults under 21. In January of this year, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit overturned a previous District Court ruling and sent the case back down for review, as we reported.

In that process, the ATF, under the Department of Justice, issued a 16-page brief to the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana in anticipation of the revised ruling, and as requested by the court. In this brief, the ATF/DOJ made two main arguments attempting to sway the court’s decision:

No universal relief should be entered.
The court’s judgment should be limited to the three individual plaintiffs and to any identified and verified member of the organizational plaintiffs who was a member when the suit was filed.

>https://www.news2a.com/national/bondi-doj-denies-universal-relief-and-requests-gun-rights-group-private-membership-list/

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5543054-colorado-conversion-therapy-ban-supreme-court/amp/
The Supreme Court appeared open to a Christian counselor’s free speech challenge to Colorado’s conversion therapy ban for minors during oral arguments Tuesday.

Several members of the court’s conservative majority expressed concern about accepting the blue state’s assertion that it is regulating professional conduct, not speech.

“Just because they’re engaged in conduct doesn’t mean that their words aren’t protected,” Chief Justice John Roberts said.

“It looks like blatant viewpoint discrimination,” Justice Samuel Alito quipped at one point.

Not all the conservative justices were so vocal, including Justice Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s second appointee to the court, who remained quiet Tuesday. The court’s liberal wing, meanwhile, questioned whether the counselor had the right to bring the challenge.

The case is set to have national implications, with more than 20 states having enacted similar bans to the one in Colorado. A decision is expected by next summer.

In 2019, Colorado prohibited licensed mental health counselors from engaging in “any practice or treatment” that “attempts or purports to change” a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Violations can carry $5,000 fines, and counselors can be suspended and stripped of their license.

Colorado contends it is a lawful regulation of health care treatment, pointing to major professional medical associations that suggest conversion therapy is ineffective and can be harmful to minors.

“Every theory that it’s relied on has been debunked and debunked and debunked,” Colorado Solicitor General Shannon Stevenson told the justices.

Alito questioned that assertion, pointing to when many medical professionals once believed people with low intelligence shouldn’t be permitted to procreate.

Biden undergoing radiation therapy for prostate cancer
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5550935-biden-prostate-cancer-treatment/
President Biden is receiving radiation therapy as he battles an aggressive form of prostate cancer, a spokesperson told The Hill on Saturday.

“As part of a treatment plan for prostate cancer, President Biden is currently undergoing radiation therapy and hormone treatment,” the spokesperson said.

A source familiar told NBC News that the former president’s treatment will span five weeks.

Biden, 82, was diagnosed with cancer in May. A spokesperson at the time said the disease was “characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone” and appeared “hormone-sensitive,” allowing for management.

Last month, he underwent a procedure to remove skin cancer from his forehead. A spokesperson told The Hill that Biden had a Mohs surgery to remove signs of cancer, which left a scar on his forehead.

After his initial diagnosis this spring, Biden took to social media to express gratitude for the outpouring of support following his announcement.

“Cancer touches us all. Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places,” Biden wrote on social platform X, sharing a photo of him, former first lady Jill Biden and their cat, Willow.

Political foes — who have long been critical of his health — and Biden’s allies alike spoke out in support of the former president after his diagnosis, including President Trump.

“Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Biden’s recent medical diagnosis,” Trump wrote on social media in May. “We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.”

Since leaving the White House in January, Biden has largely stepped back from the spotlight after decades in public office. The diagnosis raised questions about whether it could have been caught earlier.

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/trump-covid-vaccine-flu-shot-second-check-up/3930760/

The White House released a memo Friday from President Donald Trump’s physician summarizing his visit to Walter Reed Army Medical Center earlier in the day, which included a Covid vaccine booster and a flu shot.

Trump’s doctor, Sean P. Barbarella, said in the one-page document that Trump “remains in exceptional health, exhibiting strong cardiovascular, pulmonary, neurological, and physical performance.”

Trump’s visit to Walter Reed Friday was described in the memo as a “scheduled follow-up,” which White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday had characterized as a “his routine yearly check-up” — despite being Trump’s second such visit after undergoing an annual physical exam in April.

The memo said Friday's check-up was part of Trump’s “ongoing health maintenance plan.” The president underwent “advanced imaging, laboratory testing, and preventative health assessments,” his physician wrote.

https://fortune.com/2025/10/12/trump-inflation-why-coffee-groceries-so-expensive-tariffs/

Inflation has risen in three of the last four months and is slightly higher than it was a year ago, when it helped sink then-Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign. Yet you wouldn’t know it from listening to President Donald Trump or even some of the inflation fighters at the Federal Reserve.

Trump told the United Nations General Assembly late last month: “Grocery prices are down, mortgage rates are down, and inflation has been defeated.”

And at a high-profile speech in August, just before the Fed cut its key interest rate for the first time this year, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said: “Inflation, though still somewhat elevated, has come down a great deal from its post-pandemic highs. Upside risks to inflation have diminished.”

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c89d4zw8704o
Nineteen people are missing after a blast at a military explosives manufacturing facility in Tennessee on Friday.

Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis said four or five people were taken to a nearby hospital after the enormous explosion that levelled a factory, and that several are deceased.

"There's nothing to describe, it's gone," he said.

The plant in Bucksnort, Tennessee - roughly 56 miles (90km) south west of Nashville - specialises in the development, manufacture, handling and storage of explosives. The cause of the blast remains unclear.

Aerial video from the scene showed charred debris, smouldering vehicles and little remaining of the facility, which is owned by Accurate Energetic Systems.

Sheriff Davis, who was visibly emotional during his first media briefing of the day, declined to say exactly how many people died.

But he noted that the plant had been up and running when the explosion happened and that secondary blasts forced first responders to keep their distance from the site.

Workers who had just started their day "now may be missing or deceased".

"A lot of times, when I have these types of situations, I refer to them more than just a person...we're missing 19 souls," Davis said.

During a second briefing hours later, Davis confirmed that 19 people were still unaccounted for and that the explosion happened in a large building. It flung debris across a half square mile, he added.

"This was a massive enough explosion that I can tell you that folks in Waverly felt and heard this explosion," he said, referring to a town about 15.5 miles (25km) north west of the facility.

Davis declined to answer whether he believed the explosion was accidental or intentional, saying that "we have to make the worst assumption in order to find the truth".

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee in a social media post said his office was monitoring the ongoing situation, and referred to it as a "tragic incident".

https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20251013/us-warns-sanctions-against-caribbean-countries-vote-imos-net-zero-shipping

WASHINGTON, CMC – The United States has issued a warning to countries, including those in the Caribbean, that plan to vote later this month in support of measures being pushed by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) for a Net-Zero Shipping Framework (NZF) aimed at reducing reducing emissions in the maritime sector.

“The United States will be moving to levy these remedies against nations that sponsor this European-led neocolonial export of global climate regulations. We will fight hard to protect our economic interests by imposing costs on countries if they support the NZF. Our fellow IMO members should be on notice,” according to a joint statement issued by the Secretary of State Rubio, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, and Secretary of Transportation Sean P Duffy.

The measure, which was approved in April 2025, is set for adoption in October 2025, during the Marine Environmental Protection Committee that is meeting that takes place until October 17.

IMO officials say 108 members are eligible to vote, including 10 from CARICOM and, if adopted, it will come into effect in 2028.

But Washington has said that President Donald Trump has made it clear that the United States will not accept any international environmental agreement that unduly or unfairly burdens the United States or harms the interests of the American people.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/13/us-veterans-protest-ice-raids
US military veterans increasingly face arrest and injury amid protests over Donald Trump’s deportation campaign and his push to deploy national guard members to an ever-widening number of American cities.

The Guardian has identified eight instances where military veterans have been prosecuted or sought damages after being detained by federal agents.

The latest incident occurred in Broadview, outside Chicago, where 70-year old air force veteran Dana Briggs was charged with felony assault on a federal officer on 29 September.

A widely shared video on social media shows a masked US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agent advance on and knock over the elderly veteran during a protest outside an Ice detention center.

Federal prosecutors claim Briggs committed assault when he “made physical contact with an agent’s arm while the agent attempted to extend the safety perimeter”.

Briggs pleaded not guilty and was released on an appearance bond.

Jose Vasquez, a former US army staff sergeant and executive director of the progressive veterans’ organization Common Defense, which counts Briggs as a member, said veterans like Briggs “have stood up at Ice protests and faced arrest because we recognize a pattern of state-sanctioned abuse”.

Another veteran, John Cerrone, was arrested while protesting outside the Broadview Ice detention the day before Briggs. A social media video shows a group of masked agents tackle the 35-year-old marine corps veteran, who served as a combat infantryman in Afghanistan, as teargas floats in the air.

Cerrone says he was held for nine hours at the Broadview facility, alone in a cell with walls covered by blood, hair and mucus. He says that while he was behind bars he was visited by an Ice agent who boasted that he had shot Cerrone in the head with rubber bullets and exclaimed: “Where is that pussy!”