🚨 HAPPENING RIGHT NOW 🚨
President Trump addressed the mysterious death of a 28-year-old researcher at Russia's Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute, where pneumonic plague killed Darya Shipilova after she allegedly broke a test tube of live bacteria, triggering the quarantine of roughly 189 people. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the situation merits close monitoring but is not yet cause for alarm, even as former CIA officer Dan Hoffman warned that Moscow's information blackout mirrors the Kremlin's historic Chernobyl-era secrecy, calling official assurances "propaganda" aimed at domestic audiences rather than the truth about what is really happening inside the lab.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6th, 2026
Before we get to today's news, here's what happened on this date in history:
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was gunned down during a military parade in Cairo on October 6, 1981, shot four times by Islamic extremists disguised as soldiers who stormed the reviewing stand with rifles and grenades, killing ten others and wounding dozens more. The attackers, linked to a militant group backed by Libya's Muammar Qaddafi, targeted Sadat largely over his Nobel Peace Prize-winning 1977-78 negotiations with Israel; Vice President Hosni Mubarak survived the attack and took power days later, while the lead gunman and four accomplices were later executed for the assassination.
A hushed Warner Bros. audience at a Times Square theater erupted when Al Jolson spoke the first words ever heard in a feature film — "Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain't heard nothing yet" — during the October 6, 1927 premiere of "The Jazz Singer," the movie that pulled Hollywood out of the silent era almost overnight. Built around Vitaphone sound technology that synchronized Jolson's musical numbers and dialogue to the picture, the film later earned Warner Bros. an honorary Oscar for pioneering "the outstanding talking picture which has revolutionized the industry," though it is remembered today just as much for Jolson's extensive blackface makeup throughout.
🪖 Trump Clears Way for Fort Hood Terrorist Nidal Hasan to Face Army Firing Squad Nearly 17 Years After Massacre
President Trump has approved executing 2009 Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan by Army firing squad, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced Monday, nearly 17 years after Hasan killed 13 people and wounded 32 others while shouting "Allahu Akbar" during the deadliest mass shooting ever on a U.S. military base.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth recommended the execution to Trump, with the Army secretary now left to determine its timing and location
Parnell told reporters "judgment day for Hasan has finally come," ending nearly 17 years since the 2009 attack
Hasan, who was shot and paralyzed by responding officers during the rampage, has spent the years since in military custody at Fort Leavenworth while appeals played out
🏛️ Dennis Hastert, Longest-Serving GOP House Speaker and Convicted Child Molester, Dead at 84
Dennis Hastert, who served as House speaker from 1999 to 2007 — the longest tenure of any Republican to hold the post — died of natural causes over the weekend at his Illinois home, the Kendall County Coroner's Office said, closing out a legacy defined as much by his conviction in a hush-money scandal as by his years in GOP leadership.
Hastert became the highest-ranking U.S. official ever to serve federal prison time after pleading guilty in 2015 to violating banking laws while paying hush money to conceal decades-old sexual abuse of teenage wrestlers he had coached in Illinois
He was sentenced to 15 months in prison in 2016 and was released early in 2017
Tributes and retrospectives Monday largely focused on the contrast between his once-powerful Capitol Hill role and the scandal that ended it
⚔️ Yemen's Government Claims Recapture of Bab el-Mandeb Strait, Launches "Operation Yemen Dawn" on Houthi-Held Sanaa
Yemen's internationally recognized government announced Monday it had seized the Dhubab airstrip and cut off Houthi fighters near the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait, launching "Operation Yemen Dawn" as a renewed push to retake the Houthi-held capital of Sanaa.
Yemen's information minister said government forces are now "effectively in control" of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a chokepoint for global shipping traffic
The head of Yemen's exile government declared the country will "march towards a new dawn of freedom, peace," while Houthi media dismissed the government's claims as "completely untrue"
The announcement came as Houthi fighters claimed a rocket strike on a Saudi Aramco facility in Riyadh that killed a Bangladeshi worker, and separately pushed toward the city of Taiz
🗳️ Steve Hilton Narrows Gap With Becerra in Fresh California Governor's Race Poll
A new Hilton-campaign poll shows Republican Steve Hilton closing the gap on Democrat Xavier Becerra in California's governor's race, with Becerra's lead shrinking to 45.7%-40.1% among 1,020 voters surveyed Oct. 1-2 — down sharply from a 52%-37% Becerra advantage in the campaign's prior internal survey.
Hilton, invoking his own background, argued "Unlike Xavier Becerra, I am an immigrant ... Becerra's policies have destroyed the California Dream"
Becerra countered that "the cost of living was already big. Donald Trump just made it worse," and sparred with Hilton over immigration in a recent debate exchange
The RealClearPolling average of all public surveys still shows Becerra ahead by a far wider 21.8 points, underscoring how much the race's apparent trajectory depends on whose poll is used
😔 Luxury Fashion Brand Founders Found Shot Dead Outside Oakland Home, Murder-Suicide Suspected
Bryn Walker luxury clothing co-founders Bryan Walker and Michelle Min were found shot to death outside their Oakland Hills home on October 2, in a shooting police say they have not ruled out as a murder-suicide involving the couple themselves.
Michelle Min's brother, Paul Min, said he believes Walker shot his sister before turning the gun on himself, describing a "decline" in Walker after he allegedly lost millions in risky financial ventures
Paul Min said Walker had suggested "the three of them end things," prompting Michelle to arrange a psychiatric admission for Walker on the very day of the shooting
Bryn Walker, a Berkeley-based women's apparel brand founded in 1992, runs six company-owned stores and supplies roughly 1,000 boutiques nationwide; Oakland police call it "an active and ongoing investigation"
— Fox News