Political Guyentist

1usUpdatecontestedCourts and the adminis…

Supreme Court hears Exxon and Suncor's bid to end Boulder's climate suit; Roberts, Gorsuch and Barrett press the companies

The Trump administration argued for the oil companies, and several justices asked whether the court can review the unfinished case at all.

On Sept. 28, the Court's clerk told lawyers that Justice Samuel Alito would sit out the case, leaving eight justices to decide whether Colorado climate-damage suits against Exxon and Suncor can proceed. On Oct. 3, Alito, 76, said in a CBS interview that he weighed retiring after last term and will reconsider every year.

ContextBoulder sued Exxon Mobil and Suncor in 2018 under Colorado state law, about eight years before Monday's argument (Oct. 5). The complaint cites more than 700,000 acres of Colorado land hit by a mountain pine beetle outbreak. The Colorado Supreme Court let the suit go forward. The companies say federal law blocks it. The justices also asked both sides a narrower question: whether the court has jurisdiction (the legal power to hear the case) to review the Colorado ruling at all while the suit is still at an early stage. With Justice Samuel Alito recused, a 4-4 tie would leave the Colorado ruling in place, and Boulder's suit would proceed.

CBS NEWS10 sources

2usUpdateIran war

Trump says threats drove all 12 B-1 bombers out of a UK base, hours after Rubio called it a routine rotation

U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal the threat was an Iranian plot to hit the jets with drones and kill American pilots.

- Sun., Sept. 27 — British counterterrorism police arrested five UK men with three vans in Whelford, about 2 miles from the RAF Fairford runway. - Wed., Sept. 30 — Police said the vans held petrol, not explosives, freed the five on bail, and complained that U.S. commentary was stoking fear. - Thu., Oct. 1 — Police arrested a sixth suspect, a 27-year-old British-Iranian, in Westminster on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts. - Sat., Oct. 3 — He was released on bail too, leaving all six suspects free. - Sun., Oct. 4 — The Pentagon flew every deployed B-1 home without giving a reason; one U.S. official cited an Iranian threat to the base.

ContextThe U.S. sent home the 12 B-1 bombers it had at RAF Fairford, every one deployed there, though The Guardian counts at least 10. British police have arrested six people in the Fairford investigation. Five U.K. nationals were picked up with three vans on Sunday, Sept. 27, in Whelford, a village about 2 miles from the base. A British-Iranian dual national was arrested Thursday, Oct. 1. All six have been released on bail. Asked whether Iran had smuggled attack drones into Britain, Trump said, "If they did, they'll suffer greatly." David Dunn, a University of Birmingham professor, called the pullout "historic, unprecedented, and an indication of the sense of vulnerability" of U.S. forces abroad.

BBC NEWS11 sources

3uscontested

Trump signs order easing limits on tax-exempt red diesel, which skips the 24.4-cent federal road-fuel tax

The order also tells the Transportation Department to work with states on waiving their own diesel taxes; only Ohio, Georgia and Kentucky have suspended theirs.

Road diesel carries a federal highway tax of 24.4 cents a gallon, about 4 percent of the $6.32 national average the Washington Examiner reported on Monday, Oct. 5. That price sat just below the $6.38 weekly average the Energy Information Administration posted for Sept. 28. So far, only three states, Ohio, Georgia and Kentucky, have paused their own diesel taxes.

ContextRoad diesel carries a federal highway tax of 24.4 cents a gallon, about 4 percent of the $6.32 national average the Washington Examiner reported on Monday, Oct. 5. That price sat just below the $6.38 weekly average the Energy Information Administration posted for Sept. 28. So far, only three states, Ohio, Georgia and Kentucky, have paused their own diesel taxes.

BLOOMBERG6 sources

4us

US monitors suspected pneumonic plague death of a 28-year-old Siberian lab worker; Trump offers Russia help

Russia lists the cause as pneumonia of undetermined origin, but has quarantined a hospital and put nearly 200 contacts under watch.

Pneumonic plague is the form of the bacterial disease that infects the lungs. Russia's official cause of death is pneumonia of undetermined origin. Officials say tests found no microbes tied to her lab work in her samples, and no other institute staff have reported illness. Even so, a hospital is under quarantine. Russian media report that nearly 200 people who had contact with her are under medical watch. Ashish Jha, the former White House Covid coordinator, said a lab would worry him far more if it ran biological weapons programs.

ContextPneumonic plague is the form of the bacterial disease that infects the lungs. Russia's official cause of death is pneumonia of undetermined origin. Officials say tests found no microbes tied to her lab work in her samples, and no other institute staff have reported illness. Even so, a hospital is under quarantine. Russian media report that nearly 200 people who had contact with her are under medical watch. Ashish Jha, the former White House Covid coordinator, said a lab would worry him far more if it ran biological weapons programs.

TIME11 sources

5not newslongform

Gross federal debt passes $40 trillion, above CBO's $39.4 trillion forecast for the end of fiscal 2026

The fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 ran a deficit of about $2 trillion, or 6.2% of GDP, per a preliminary Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimate.

Of the total, $32.3 trillion, about 100% of GDP, is held by the public: Treasury bills, notes and bonds sold to banks, pension funds, the Federal Reserve and foreign governments. The rest is owed to federal trust funds such as Social Security and Medicare, an internal IOU that does not borrow from private markets.

ContextTreasury's $40.2 trillion gross debt works out to $117,208 for every U.S. resident, and it equaled 122% of GDP in 2025. Debt held by the public, which skips what Washington owes its own trust funds, is $32.3 trillion, about 100% of GDP. The fiscal 2026 deficit, about $2 trillion or roughly 6.2% of GDP by a preliminary estimate, is just one year's gap between spending and revenue, while the debt is the running total of every past gap. CBO expects gross debt to reach $43.3 trillion by the end of 2028.

REASON2 sources

6not newslongform

Pentagon says it has stopped using Anthropic's Claude AI, after missing its own late-August phase-out deadline

People familiar with the matter say Claude was still used in Iran operations as recently as last week; Google, xAI and OpenAI now hold Pentagon AI contracts.

Where Claude ran inside Pentagon systems before the ban: Claude ran inside the Maven Smart System, Palantir's intelligence and targeting platform, analyzing satellite, drone and signals data. Maven's five-year contract ceiling grew from $480 million to $1.275 billion, as planned users grew from hundreds to thousands. Anthropic was the first frontier AI company deployed on classified U.S. government networks, starting in June 2024.

ContextA supply-chain risk label marks a vendor as unsafe to build into defense systems. It has historically been reserved for foreign-linked firms such as Russia's Kaspersky and China's Huawei and ZTE. Anthropic's Pentagon deal carried a $200 million two-year ceiling, the same as Google's, OpenAI's and xAI's. For scale, U.S. national defense spending ran $894.4 billion in fiscal 2025 (about $871.4 billion in 2024 dollars). On Sept. 25, a divided panel of the D.C. Circuit, the federal appeals court in Washington, sided with the Pentagon 2–1. Anthropic's challenge to the label continues.

BBC NEWS1 source