🚨 HAPPENING RIGHT NOW 🚨
A Gulfstream G100 medical transport jet carrying six people vanished early Saturday after departing Bermuda for Boston, losing contact with air traffic controllers over open water. The Coast Guard has since located a debris field south of Nantucket and continues searching air and sea for the six people aboard, though nothing conclusive on their fate has been recovered. The FAA and NTSB have not yet commented publicly on what caused the mid-flight disappearance, and investigators have not said whether weather, mechanical failure, or another factor is suspected in the loss of the aircraft.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4th, 2026
Before we get to today's news, here's what happened on this date in history: a young American who'd traveled to Afghanistan and taken up arms with the Taliban was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on October 4, 2002, after pleading guilty to supplying services to the group in the aftermath of 9/11. John Walker Lindh, raised in Marin County, California, had been captured months earlier by U.S.-backed Afghan forces during a prison uprising at Mazar-e-Sharif that killed a CIA officer, and his case became an early test of how the government would handle an American citizen who fought alongside the enemy. He was released from custody in 2019 after serving most of his sentence.
The Soviet Union kicked off the space race on October 4, 1957, by launching Sputnik 1, a 184-pound aluminum sphere that became the first man-made object to orbit the Earth. The beach-ball-sized satellite circled the globe every 98 minutes, transmitting a steady radio beep that amateur operators — and alarmed U.S. military officials — could pick up from the ground, shattering American confidence in its technological edge over Moscow. The surprise launch pushed Washington to create NASA within a year and pour billions into the effort that eventually put astronauts on the moon.
⚖️ Tennessee Prisons Chief Frank Strada Resigns as Governor Orders Independent Review of Botched Christa Pike Execution
Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada is stepping down just days after the state's botched lethal injection of death row inmate Christa Pike, in which staff tried at least seven needles before administering two doses of pentobarbital that left her unconscious on a ventilator rather than dead.
Strada said resigning was “in the best interest of Tennesseans” while an independent review determines “exactly what occurred” during Wednesday's execution attempt
Gov. Bill Lee praised Strada's “willingness to put the interests of Tennesseans first during this difficult moment” and ordered the outside review
Pike's legal team called the failure “a systemic failure that goes far beyond any one person” and is weighing further legal action over the state's execution protocol
🗳️ Trump Rallies Ohio Crowd for Husted and Ramaswamy, Touts “Golden Age” Ahead of Midterms
President Trump returned to Ohio over the weekend, headlining a rally in Vandalia alongside former NFL coach Jon Gruden to boost Sen. Jon Husted and gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy just over a month before the midterms.
Trump opened by needling Iowa over Ohio State's Saturday win, then pitched the crowd on manufacturing investment and economic wins since his administration began in January 2025
Gruden, an Ohio native who played up Husted's days as a University of Dayton football player, vouched for his “work ethic, commitment and day-to-day mental toughness”
The stop was part of a packed multi-state travel push Trump says he'll keep up through Election Day, insisting “I never get tired”
🏀 Sen. Eric Schmitt's Jack Smith “Perjury Trap” Unravels After Texts Show No Mention of Hawks or Hawkeyes
Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt's bid to catch former special counsel Jack Smith in a lie during a Senate Judiciary hearing has collapsed further after a review of the actual game-day texts found they never referenced the Atlanta Hawks or Iowa Hawkeyes at all — the exact team mix-up Schmitt accused Smith of covering up.
Schmitt had pressed Smith over texts he claimed placed him at a Hawks NBA game, implying a secret trip to Georgia to coordinate with then-Fulton County DA Fani Willis
Smith's team said the texts actually referred to the Iowa Hawkeyes women's team, and the newly reviewed messages show no team name at all, undercutting Schmitt's theory from the start
Schmitt has refused to apologize or back down, insisting he made “no mistake” even as colleagues on both sides of the aisle mocked the exchange
🛂 Rubio Expels Iranian Diplomats After They Defy Order to Leave Following Tense UN Visit
The State Department moved this week to expel members of Iran's delegation after Secretary of State Marco Rubio's order for them to leave New York went unheeded, capping a bruising UN General Assembly visit in which Rubio said Tehran's negotiators had “overstayed their welcome.”
Rubio told Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his team on Monday to leave after weekend talks stalled over sequencing on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, nuclear steps and sanctions relief
Iran disputed the expulsion, with its UN mission calling U.S. reports “baseless” and insisting the delegation's departure had been scheduled all along
President Trump, asked whether he'd ramp up strikes on Iran after the midterms, called it “possible,” saying “we've been stocking up” on weapons for six months
📵 Trump Posts Sen. Tom Cotton's Phone Number, Urges Arkansans to Pressure Him Over Daylight Saving Bill
President Trump published Sen. Tom Cotton's personal cell phone number on Truth Social, urging Arkansas voters to flood the Republican senator with calls after Cotton single-handedly blocked a Senate vote on making daylight saving time permanent.
Trump wrote that Cotton, “a friend of mine,” was the lone holdout stopping what he called a “GREAT Bipartisan WIN,” noting the House passed the bill 308-117 in July
Cotton has defended his opposition by citing concerns that permanent daylight saving time would bring “absurdly late sunrises in the winter” for Arkansas schoolchildren
Trump argued golfers, hunters, farmers and tennis players alike are eager to end the twice-yearly clock change