Seven tankers were reported damaged in the Strait of Hormuz as Washington and Israel were said to be planning a possible new strike on Iran, a federal judge ordered President Trump to sit for a deposition in his BBC lawsuit, and Israel moved to close the West Bank after a deadly attack near Hebron. In Virginia, a senior state senator was indicted over an alleged illegal cannabis business and a Quantico monument was badly damaged, while Nepal was promised $20 million from a UN climate fund and Milwaukee and Tampa Bay prepared to open a World Series that will crown a first-time champion.
In This Roundup
- Iran Says Seven Tankers Hit in Strait of Hormuz as Fears Grow of Return to War
- Judge Orders Trump to Sit for Deposition in BBC Lawsuit by Dec. 11
- Israel Orders West Bank Closure After Soldiers Kill Two Men Near Hebron
- Virginia State Sen. Louise Lucas Indicted Over Alleged Illegal Cannabis Business
- Man Arrested After Iwo Jima Statue at Quantico Is Beheaded With Sledgehammer
- Nepal to Receive $20 Million From UN Climate Fund After Deadly August Flood
- Brewers and Rays Open World Series With a First-Time Champion Guaranteed
- Rajinikanth’s Jailer 2 Passes Rs 606 Crore Worldwide as Udta Teer Opens in Cinemas
1 Iran Says Seven Tankers Hit in Strait of Hormuz as Fears Grow of Return to War
Seven oil tankers caught fire or were damaged in the Strait of Hormuz overnight after being hit by Iran or striking naval mines, Tehran said on Thursday. The Associated Press said it could not independently confirm the claim, which was carried by Iranian state television and attributed to the Revolutionary Guard navy. October has already seen the most reported attacks on commercial shipping since March, in the opening weeks of the war that began on Feb. 28, according to the British military monitor UK Maritime Trade Operations.
The tanker reports landed as concern grew that U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran could resume. Reporting overnight said Washington and Israel have drawn up plans for a short, intensive operation after the Nov. 3 U.S. midterm elections, and oil prices pushed to their highest levels since May, with Brent crude above $113 a barrel on Friday morning. Iran’s Guard again threatened to strike U.S. military bases in the region if the United States keeps helping to guide commercial ships through the strait.
Netanyahu wants to attack Iran, that’s not even a question.
Source: Associated Press
2 Judge Orders Trump to Sit for Deposition in BBC Lawsuit by Dec. 11
A federal judge on Thursday ordered President Donald Trump to sit for a deposition in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC by Dec. 11. U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett issued the order after lawyers for the British broadcaster complained that Trump had delayed his appearance in his own case. BBC attorney Charles Tobin told the court that, with about two months left in discovery, “we still haven’t been able to depose the plaintiff.”
Tobin said an agreed date of Oct. 16 was cancelled by Trump for a “matter of national importance,” and that the president was campaigning in Georgia that day. Lett said Trump must appear by Dec. 11 or face sanctions up to dismissal of the lawsuit, unless the discovery period, now scheduled to end Dec. 18, is extended. Trump filed the suit last December over a BBC documentary that spliced together parts of his Jan. 6, 2021 speech; the BBC has apologised for the editing but denies defamation.
Source: Associated Press
3 Israel Orders West Bank Closure After Soldiers Kill Two Men Near Hebron
Israeli soldiers shot and killed two men who the military said had launched an attack near Hebron in the occupied West Bank on Friday morning. At least five people were injured, some critically. The army said it prevented a “terror attack against Israeli civilians” and that the gunmen carried an M16 rifle and a handgun. It did not identify a target for the alleged attack, and there was no immediate word on the identities of the dead or the injured.
A few hours later, Israel ordered the army to prepare for a full closure of the West Bank. The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it had instructed security forces to cordon off Hebron immediately and prepare to close the whole territory starting Friday. The shooting comes days before Israeli voters decide on Tuesday whether to give Netanyahu another term, three years after the Hamas-led attacks that triggered the war in Gaza.
Source: Associated Press
4 Virginia State Sen. Louise Lucas Indicted Over Alleged Illegal Cannabis Business
Virginia State Senator L. Louise Lucas, 82, a senior Democratic lawmaker, was charged with racketeering conspiracy, money laundering and other offences for allegedly running an illegal cannabis business with members of her family, according to an indictment made public on Thursday. Lucas was charged along with two of her daughters, her grandson and three other people. Prosecutors allege the group arranged for the distribution and sale of large amounts of marijuana at a time when recreational cannabis dispensaries are not yet legally authorised in Virginia.
Attorney General Todd Blanche said the investigation had been under way for several years and rejected suggestions it was politically motivated, saying the charges reflected a public servant who put her own financial interests before the people she was elected to serve. In a statement on social media, Lucas did not address the allegations directly but said the case resulted from her standing up to “people in power,” adding that she would not be intimidated or bullied. The indictment comes less than two weeks before the midterm elections, though Lucas is not up for re-election this year.
Source: Reuters
5 Man Arrested After Iwo Jima Statue at Quantico Is Beheaded With Sledgehammer
The Battle of Iwo Jima monument at Marine Corps Base Quantico suffered hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage after a man beheaded one of its statues on Wednesday evening, police said. Officers responding to a report of destruction of property at about 10:31 p.m. found a suspect actively damaging the statue with a sledgehammer and detained him without incident, Prince William County Police said.
The suspect, identified as Maldonado Soriano of Stafford, Virginia, has been charged with felony destruction of property, trespass with intent to damage, and felony injury to a monument, and is being held without bond pending a court appearance. Authorities have not said why the monument was targeted. The limestone statue is a smaller replica, carved by sculptor Felix de Weldon, of the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, depicting the flag raising photographed by Joe Rosenthal on Iwo Jima on Feb. 23, 1945.
Source: CNN
6 Nepal to Receive $20 Million From UN Climate Fund After Deadly August Flood
Nepal will receive $20 million from the United Nations’ climate loss and damage fund after the devastating flood along its border with China’s Tibet region in August, the government said late on Thursday. The Aug. 26 flood killed about 1,500 people, with more than 5,000 still missing, and affected about 60,000 people from 15,000 families, according to official data. Losses to roads, bridges, schools and 13 hydropower plants were estimated at about $2.7 billion, and early estimates put reconstruction costs above $4.7 billion.
The support from the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage was to “help address the severe damage caused by climate-related disaster,” Nepal’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forests and Environment said. Nepal sought the help in a letter sent less than a week after the flood, and the $20 million amounts to less than 1% of what the country needs. Prime Minister Balendra Shah, in his maiden speech to the United Nations in September, called the disaster a warning to the world and blamed climate change for a flood in a country with negligible emissions.
Source: Reuters
7 Brewers and Rays Open World Series With a First-Time Champion Guaranteed
The World Series opens on Friday night at American Family Field, and whoever wins it will be a first-time champion. The Milwaukee Brewers, back in the Fall Classic for the first time since 1982, host the Tampa Bay Rays, who lost their previous appearances in 2008 and 2020. Milwaukee swept the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers to win the National League pennant and finished the regular season 103-59 as the league’s top seed.
Milwaukee will start Jacob Misiorowski, who led the majors with a 1.80 ERA and 252 strikeouts, in Game 1. Tampa Bay will turn to Nick Martinez, holding Drew Rasmussen back for Game 2 and Freddy Peralta for Game 3 after heavy workloads in the American League Championship Series. “When Nick pitches, we win,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said on Thursday. First pitch is at 8 p.m. Eastern on Fox, with Game 2 in Milwaukee on Saturday before the series shifts to St. Petersburg.
Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
8 Rajinikanth’s Jailer 2 Passes Rs 606 Crore Worldwide as Udta Teer Opens in Cinemas
Rajinikanth’s Jailer 2 kept its run going at the box office, with its worldwide gross reaching Rs 606.05 crore by its eighth day, according to figures tracked by Sacnilk and reported in Friday’s entertainment coverage. The total follows a first week reported at Rs 549 crore in seven days, a pace described as a first-week record for Tamil cinema.
Friday also brought a crowded set of new releases. Ayushmann Khurrana and Sara Ali Khan’s spy comedy Udta Teer opened in cinemas worldwide, alongside Sonakshi Sinha and Zaheer Iqbal’s psychological thriller Tu Hai Meri Kiran and the Hollywood horror film Clayface among nine films listed for Oct. 23. On streaming, the weekend lineup includes Manoj Bajpayee’s crime thriller Gajab Raat on Netflix and the return of The Legend of Hanuman for a seventh season.
Source: Filmibeat
Editor’s Note: This roundup was prepared with the assistance of AI tools. Virginia Times gathered the source material from multiple sources and thoroughly reviewed the information before publication.
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