Political Guyentist

Both parties condemn Trump's waiver of the Graham Act's Russia tariffs and sanctions; Rep. Don Bacon says he won't fund Trump's agenda

The Senate passed the law 86-11, but its Section 115 lets the president waive it by certifying to Congress that a waiver serves the national interest.

- Sept. 24 — Zelensky urged countries to limit trade with Russia to cut off its war funding. - Oct. 4 — Putin added a sale of Lukoil's foreign oil assets to U.S.-Russia talks; the buyers include Witkoff and Kushner business partners. - Oct. 10 — Treasury lifted U.S. sanctions on Russian diesel until April 7, 2027; Zelensky called it "a happy birthday present for Putin." - Oct. 11 — Russian glide bombs killed 20 in Zaporizhzhia; Trump said Ukraine needs "a new president" and announced a refinery-only energy ceasefire that Moscow never confirmed. - Oct. 12–14 — 12 senators, six from each party, asked Trump to rescind the diesel deal. - Oct. 15–16 — Ukraine struck a Russian refinery, ending the pause; EU leaders said they "regret" the diesel deal and Trump called Zelensky "not a good guy."

ContextCongress wrote the off switch into the law itself: Section 115 requires only a written national-interest certification and a report explaining it, and the White House says Trump submitted both. The penalties never took effect for a single day. The White House has named no Russian concession received in exchange. Bacon's leverage runs through the Dec. 11 government funding deadline: if every House Democrat votes no, he needs only two more Republicans to sink a party-line bill.

POLITICO12 sources

2usUpdate

Justice Department denies agents broke a judge's limits when they searched Rep. Ilhan Omar's home

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (Rep-R Minnesota) says Omar should be jailed and deported if fraud is proven; she has not been charged with anything.

- Oct. 12 — Homeland Security Investigations agents searched Omar's Washington home in a criminal immigration-fraud probe, 22 days before her Nov. 3 election. - Oct. 13 — Federal prosecutor Jeanine Pirro opened a review of Omar's financial disclosures; Trump said he takes "no position" on deporting her. - Oct. 14 — Reports said agents seized her phone and a Minnesota grand jury subpoenaed relatives over whether her age and family filings were falsified. - Oct. 16 — Homeland Security Secretary Mullin said the case is headed to a grand jury; her lawyers demanded the seized items back.

ContextOmar came to the U.S. in 1995 and became a citizen in 2000, through her father's naturalization, per Fox News. Taking away citizenship (denaturalization) requires a federal court to find it was illegally obtained or won by hiding or misstating a material fact, and the Supreme Court held in Maslenjak v. United States (2017) that the lie must have mattered to getting it. Under the law then, a child derived citizenship only if the parent naturalized before the child turned 18, so the reported age theory would require showing she was already 18.

CBS NEWS10 sources

3usUpdateMail-ballot rules

Trump says Los Angeles election officials 'will all go to jail' if they count the mail ballots of 20,000 people DHS flagged as likely noncitizens

Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan answered that the Justice Department is litigating "unverified assertions" and the fight belongs in court.

- Oct. 13 — The Justice Department gave California 48 hours to check citizenship on a list of mail voters and hold their ballots. - Oct. 15 — After the deadline passed, it sued the state and Los Angeles County to keep about 20,000 ballots uncounted. - Oct. 16 — It warned that officials who count those ballots risk federal prosecution, and California called DOJ's matching method sloppy.

ContextTo convict an official as an aider and abettor, prosecutors would first have to prove a noncitizen actually voted, then that the official knowingly meant to help; a database flag shows neither. The 20,000 flags are about 0.09% of California's 23,164,977 registered voters on Sept. 4. In July, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin suggested the state had some 190,000 noncitizen voters, per the Los Angeles Times. Past lists missed badly: Texas flagged 95,000 voters in 2019, and its elections director later testified that more than 25,000 were citizens.

THE HILL9 sources

4usUpdateRussia-Ukraine war

Zelensky says Ukrainian road tests show Starlink and Starshield cut out above 161 km/h only inside Ukraine

Before the cap the network handled drones flying 400 km/h, Axios reports; the fighter jets now filling in hit about half their targets, Zelensky says.

- Oct. 14 — Ukraine's military Starshield terminals stopped working above about 160 km/h; Musk blamed the U.S. military and Trump, and a senior U.S. official denied it. - Oct. 15 — Two U.S. officials and a Western official said the order came from the White House; Thom Tillis (Sen-R North Carolina) asked the Pentagon inspector general to investigate. - Oct. 15 — A Ukrainian official said service briefly returned to full capacity after more than a day. - Oct. 16 — Trump said neither he nor Musk ordered the caps; nine senators asked the Pentagon watchdog who did.

ContextA speed cap on a satellite link matters because Ukraine's interceptor drones fly far faster than a car: the network carried drones at 400 km/h before the limit, Axios reports, and now cuts out at 161 km/h. SpaceX has limited Ukraine's service at least six times since 2022. Elon Musk refused coverage toward occupied Sevastopol in September 2022, 1,300 unpaid military terminals went dark that October, and SpaceX curbed drone control in February 2023. The closest precedent came in February 2026, when a cutoff above 80 km/h grounded a drone unit. A whitelist of registered terminals restored service within days. This time the cap is twice as high, and it applies only inside Ukraine.

WASHINGTON EXAMINER9 sources

5usIran war

Iranian attacks on Strait of Hormuz shipping hit a record high, NBC News reports; Iran's Guards say two tankers hit mines

CENTCOM says about 400 merchant ships crossed in the past seven days, and about 97% of those that tried got through without being hit.

Before the war, about 20 million barrels of oil a day moved through the strait, roughly a quarter of the world's seaborne oil trade, per the International Energy Agency's 2025 figures. UNCTAD and Clarksons counted about 903 crossings a week from Feb. 1–27, just before the fighting. CENTCOM has not said which vessel types its count includes, so its 400 may not compare with either baseline. War-risk insurance ran 6–10% of a ship's hull value in early October.

ContextBefore the war, about 20 million barrels of oil a day moved through the strait, roughly a quarter of the world's seaborne oil trade, per the International Energy Agency's 2025 figures. UNCTAD and Clarksons counted about 903 crossings a week from Feb. 1–27, just before the fighting. CENTCOM has not said which vessel types its count includes, so its 400 may not compare with either baseline. War-risk insurance ran 6–10% of a ship's hull value in early October.

FOX NEWS5 sources

6not newslongform

FEC enters the midterms with two of six commissioners, too few to open investigations or answer campaigns' legal questions

The Senate's first scheduled chance to confirm the two pending nominees is Monday, Nov. 9, six days after Election Day.

What the Justice Department can still prosecute without the FEC: Knowing, willful violations totaling $2,000 or more in a year carry up to one year in prison. At $25,000 or more, the maximum is five years. Turning campaign money into personal spending, or deliberately falsifying reports filed with the FEC, remains a federal crime the Justice Department can charge.

ContextThis is the fourth time the Federal Election Commission has lost its quorum, the minimum number of commissioners needed to vote. The first three lapses ran about six months (2008), about nine months (2019–20) and about five and a half months (July to December 2020). The 2020 lapse spanned that November's presidential election. The current lapse began May 1, 2025, and has run about 17½ months as of mid-October 2026, through the run-up to the Tuesday, Nov. 3 midterms. The FEC is not the only enforcer of campaign-finance law: the Justice Department can still bring criminal charges for knowing and willful violations, with or without the commission.

THE WASHINGTON POST2 sources