Iran says its forces damaged seven oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz overnight; the AP could not confirm any of them.
Iranian state TV, citing the Revolutionary Guard navy, said four tankers were hit while transferring oil and caught fire and three struck naval mines. It named none of them.
No ship named, no position given; the AP could confirm none.
- 1Oct. 21 · Al Dasma, off Bukha, Oman
Hit by an unknown projectile about 11 nautical miles west of Bukha; fire put out, crew safe. Nothing ties it to Iran’s seven.
- 2Oct. 20 · MT Soyia, off Al Faw, Iraq
Struck southeast of Al Faw, with no reported damage or injuries.
Numbers mark the towns the records name, not where the ships were hit.
Britain’s maritime trade office, UKMTO, which logs attacks on merchant ships, says October already has the most reported attacks of any month since March, the war’s opening weeks; it counted six on Oct. 11 alone. Before the war, the strait carried about 20 million barrels of oil a day, about a fifth of world consumption, per the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Trump says Iran is doing “everything they can” to push up oil prices before the midterms. Iran threatened U.S. bases if American escorts keep guiding ships through.
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Two unnamed Israeli sources told ABC News that joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran will almost certainly come soon after the Nov. 3 midterms.
Both said the decision is “only for Trump to decide”; one said Israel’s top goal is regime change in Iran, not a deal. The White House answer, that the U.S. “will not be attacking Iran at any time prior to the midterm elections,” covers only the 12 days left before the vote.
The White House No attack before the midterms: 12 days
Two Israeli sources Strikes “almost certainly” soon after
Oct. 22 ABC’s report
Oct. 27 Israel votes
Nov. 3 U.S. midterms
No date given
One cell per day. The reporting describes plans, not an order.
“Hunting season is open as soon as the elections end and it’s obvious that they’re not going to wait long.”An Israeli source, to ABC News
Asked about talks with Tehran, Trump said, “A little bit, but we’ll see what happens,” then: “I think we’re not negotiating.” Mehdi Mohammadi, an adviser to Iran’s parliament speaker, called a third war in two years “a threat to existence,” The Guardian reports. Congress has not voted to authorize war with Iran.
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DeWine urged Ramaswamy to pull his ad featuring Amy Acton’s estranged mother but kept his endorsement; Trump says DeWine “probably wants a Dumocrat to win.”
In the ad, Acton’s mother calls the Democrat a “liar”; Acton says she has not seen or spoken to her mother in nearly 50 years. Ramaswamy, the Republican nominee to succeed DeWine, will spend $4 million airing it, his campaign says, per the AP.
- Gov. Mike DeWine
“It’s wrong to run this ad.” He keeps his endorsement.
- Sen. Jon Husted
“I would not have run that ad.”
- Rep. Ashley Hinson, Iowa’s Senate nominee
The ad should come down.
- Trump
Ramaswamy “should keep it up”; the ad is “hitting paydirt.”
- Vice President JD Vance
Republicans upset over the ad should “stop whining.”
- Ramaswamy’s campaign
The ad will keep running.
Two polls disagree: Marist, polling Oct. 15-18, has Acton ahead 50% to 43% among likely voters; ActiVote, polling Sept. 27-Oct. 19, has Ramaswamy up 51.4% to 48.6%. Acton’s fundraising surged after the ad aired, per PBS NewsHour.
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Late-arriving primary ballots in 11 rural Washington counties rose to nearly 2,000 from about 600 in 2022 after the Postal Service cut mail pickups, ProPublica reports.
Many rural post offices now get one pickup a day, not two. Washington counts a mailed ballot only if it is postmarked by Election Day, so a ballot dropped after that pickup can get the next day’s postmark and be rejected.
- Two pickups a day
On time Postmarked Election Day
- One pickup a day
Rejected as late Postmarked the next day
- Pickup
- Ballot dropped
- Waiting for a pickup
Schematic: the reporting gives no pickup times. In urban Spokane, where pickups did not change, late rejections fell.
From Monday, Oct. 26, a Postal Service directive orders hand postmarks and daily ballot runs at affected rural post offices; it does not restore the second pickup. Washington’s official drop boxes close at 8 p.m. Pacific on Nov. 3.
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The Pentagon cleared two onshore wind projects, in Maine and South Dakota, the first to pass its military review since those reviews stalled in April.
The White House tied the clearances to keeping Senate Democrats on a bipartisan bill to speed energy permits. It needs 60 votes to start debate on Nov. 9; Republicans hold 53.
Cleared Oct. 22 One in Maine, one in South Dakota
- Roughly 300 awaiting approval, per Bloomberg
- About 30 covered by the White House pledge, a person familiar told Bloomberg
One dot per project. Both counts are approximate.
The clearances also follow a court order, The Hill notes. The groups that sued count at least 106 stalled projects they could verify, worth more than $47 billion by their own consultant’s estimate.
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The Supreme Court let New Hampshire refuse student IDs at the polls this November.
The unsigned emergency order, backed by the RNC, blocks Judge Joseph Laplante’s Oct. 2 ruling that let student IDs serve as backup ID. It cites the Purcell rule against courts changing election rules close to an election. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the only public dissent.
The state dropped student IDs from accepted voter ID in April 2026. The Coalition for Open Democracy sued, arguing the law burdens and discriminates against young voters. The order lands before the race for Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s open seat: Rep. Chris Pappas, a Democrat, against former Sen. John Sununu, a Republican.