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Today's Brief: Missiles, Throttles, and Barricades

The Homebrew · · Posted · AI-drafted daily brief, synthesized from Left, Center, and Right coverage. Facts may be inaccurate — verify with the cited sources below.

Iran said Saturday that U.S. ships would never be allowed in the Persian Gulf "under any circumstances," CBS News reported, a day after U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack said of a possible U.S. strike, "Could there be a strike this weekend? Absolutely." Elon Musk said his company SpaceX had throttled Starlink service in Ukraine, writing that the Ukrainian military "violated Starlink terms of service," after Zelenskyy said Ukraine's Starlink and Starshield links had been restored to the speeds they had before the restrictions, CBS reported. In Florida, 12 people, six of them under 18, were hurt in a shooting near Florida A&M University's stadium during homecoming celebrations, police said, NBC reported. And police made 1,314 arrests in nationwide protests in France, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said, according to CBS.

Iran and the Gulf. "We will not allow U.S. military ships in the Persian Gulf under any circumstances and at any time," Iran's armed forces chief of staff, Ali Abdollahi, said, according to Iranian state television cited by CBS. Barrack, who also serves as Washington's envoy on Syria, "does not have a direct role on Iran," CBS noted. President Trump has said any strikes will wait until after the Nov. 3 midterms, according to CBS. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday that renewed war would not change Iran's positions, CBS reported, and parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf asked Iranians to cut natural gas use by at least 10% ahead of winter.

The Houthis said they targeted three Saudi airports, including Riyadh's, as well as energy installations, a pipeline and an air base, CBS reported. The Saudi-led coalition said it destroyed two Houthi ballistic missiles aimed at Taif and Yanbu on Saturday, and Saudi Civil Defense briefly issued alerts for those cities and for Mecca and Jeddah, Reuters reported in a story published by CNBC. Explosions were heard in Riyadh on Sunday as its airport was due to reopen after a two-week closure, and the coalition said it intercepted 10 Houthi missiles fired at southern Saudi Arabia, according to CBS. The State Department updated travel advisories for 14 Middle East countries, CBS reported.

Ukraine: Starlink back, help still short. "Using Starlink, a civilian commercial service, for offensive drone strikes to kill people has never been allowed, nor should it be," Musk wrote on X, adding, "That loophole was closed last week," CBS reported. He maintained that the U.S. government controlled changes to Starshield, SpaceX's military version, according to CBS. "The speeds are now where they need to be," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote, CBS reported. Neither Musk nor the U.S. government had initially taken responsibility for the curbs, NBC News reported. (Disclosure: The Homebrew is drafted by xAI's Grok.)

Zelenskyy told ABC News that Ukraine is open to freezing the war along current front lines, but will not cede more territory; Russia controls more than 19% of Ukraine, he said. Ukraine has received only 24 Patriot interceptors from the U.S. in three months and would need 350 a month, on average, according to Zelenskyy. Lamenting the lack of U.S. assistance, he said, "It's not supportive," ABC reported.

Tallahassee shooting. Eleven of the 12 injured were shot, and three had serious injuries, Tallahassee police said, NBC reported. The youngest is 11, Police Chief Lawrence Revell said, according to NBC. Revell described "an isolated incident between two or three individuals," said police believe one shooter was involved, and said no arrests had been made, NBC reported. A fight broke out before the shooting, police said, according to CBS, which reported that the shooting followed a football game in a crowded area. "It is especially heartbreaking to know that children are among those injured," Revell said, Reuters reported in a story published by the Guardian.

Europe: protests, round two. The French Interior Ministry put Saturday's turnout at about 410,000 across some 298 protests; the General Confederation of Labor said around 800,000, CBS reported. Fifty-three officers were hurt, the Interior Ministry said, the BBC reported. Looting was "far smaller" in scale than a week earlier, Nuñez said, according to CBS. About 70,000 police were deployed for protests over the cost of living and school conditions, and barricades were set alight in Marseille, the BBC reported. Italy sent 500 more soldiers to Milan, where a march stayed peaceful, while Rome and Turin saw brief clashes with police, the Associated Press reported in a story published by NPR.

From the right, Breitbart reported that riots and looting spread to Barcelona on Saturday evening; citing the local Vanguardia newspaper, it said hundreds of mostly young, hooded teenagers clashed with police and looted shops. "Whoever protests exercises a right. Whoever assaults or destroys violates it," said Catalan regional leader Salvador Illa, according to Breitbart.

Elections. Former President Barack Obama campaigned in Cleveland and Detroit on Saturday. In Ohio, he said of Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, "there is no line he will not cross, no low he will not sink to," over an ad featuring the estranged mother of Democrat Amy Acton, CBS reported. Trump defended the ad as he voted in West Palm Beach on Saturday, saying of Acton's mother, "I don't think you can get a better reference on that," according to CBS. In Detroit, Obama rallied for Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed: "You hear people say this is somehow radical. What is radical about that?" he said, NBC reported.

In Alaska, lawyers for Democrat Mary Peltola and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee asked a federal judge to drop the Justice Department's suit seeking to block certification if Sen. Dan S. Sullivan loses, calling it "an unprecedented pre-emptive strike on democratic elections," NBC reported.

In California, at least 18 counties received Justice Department letters with a 48-hour deadline to identify ballots it believes were sent to noncitizens, according to the Los Angeles County registrar's office, the Associated Press reported in a story published by CBS. The California attorney general's office said the letters contained errors, the AP reported. From the right, the New York Post reported that First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli told The California Post it is "very highly likely" noncitizens have already voted: "Our biggest fear is they're just going to try to run out the clock until all the ballots have been processed," he said.

Money and food. The Dow fell 652.82 points, or 1.23%, Friday to 52,215.16; the S&P 500 slipped 0.52% to 7,623.68, and the Nasdaq lost 0.21% to 25,955.34, CNBC reported. For the week, the S&P fell 0.5%, the Nasdaq 0.7%, and the Dow rose 0.4%, according to CNBC. University of Michigan consumer sentiment was 48 in late October, off 0.1 point from September, CNBC reported.

SNAP enrollment fell from 41.6 million in July 2025 to 36.5 million in June 2026, a 13% drop, according to USDA data cited by the Guardian. From the right, the Washington Examiner reported that the administration has directly authorized about $43 billion in farm aid beyond what Congress enacted, citing the Cato Institute's Scott Lincicome, who called it "pretty astronomical."

World. Serbians are voting in a snap parliamentary election after nearly two years of student-led protests set off by the deaths of 16 people in the 2024 Novi Sad canopy collapse, Al Jazeera reported. An Ipsos poll gave longtime leader Aleksandar Vučić's SNS 47% to the students' 40%, though other polls have the students ahead; polls close at 8 p.m. local time, Al Jazeera reported.

The death toll from Friday's attack on St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Karak, Jordan, rose to at least nine, with 34 injured, ABC News reported. King Abdullah II said the security and safety of Jordanians is a "red line," and security agencies are still hunting the attackers, according to ABC.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited China on Saturday, his first visit in a year, and opened a new bridge linking the two countries, CBS reported.

Two former senior FBI officials surrendered Friday on charges that they misled Congress about their work on the bureau's Hunter Biden investigations, the Daily Caller reported, citing the Justice Department. Lawyers for one of them said the department had "accused her falsely" and called the case "nonsense charges," according to a statement to Fox News cited by the Daily Caller.

Faith and culture. The Archdiocese of New York agreed to pay $800 million to settle claims from some 1,300 people who say they were sexually abused by clergy and lay workers, NPR reported. The deal is not yet signed, Archbishop Ronald Hicks wrote to priests, according to NPR.

Milwaukee beat Tampa Bay 5-4 to take a 2-0 World Series lead, rallying from 4-0 down on Sal Frelick's tying home run and Cooper Pratt's go-ahead single in the seventh, according to an agency report published by the Guardian. Game 3 is Monday in St. Petersburg, according to that report.

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