Black Smoke Reported Over Critical Aramco Refinery As Saudis Weigh Major Assault On Houthi Rebels

Unverified reports and footage circulating on X early Saturday morning appear to show smoke rising from Saudi Aramco's Riyadh refinery. The cause and any impact on operations remain unclear. Separately, Axios reports that Saudi Arabia is preparing a major offensive against Iran-backed Houthis in the coming days. President Trump's comments last week that a bombing campaign against Tehran could resume after the midterm elections add to signs that the Gulf conflict remains far from any near-term resolution.

Turkish news outlet Türkiye Today cites NASA's FIRMS satellite monitoring system, which shows higher-intensity VIIRS thermal hits across Aramco's Riyadh refinery, one of Saudi Arabia's most important refining assets, with a capacity of about 130,000 barrels a day.

A separate report by Axios overnight states that the Saudis are preparing for a major operation against the Houthis in the coming days, targeting coastal areas that give the rebels leverage over the critical maritime chokepoint of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. The report cites two US officials.

More color from Axios:

Behind the scenes: A U.S. official said the Saudis have been planning the operation for weeks and that plans were approved by Saudi leadership several days ago.

The operation will include ground forces loyal to the internationally recognized government in Yemen with Saudi air cover.

On Thursday, Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid Bin Salman called Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to brief him on the planned operation and ask again for U.S. airstrikes against Houthi targets, the U.S. official said.

A U.S. official said that the U.S. "is not going to take kinetic action for now."

President Trump reiterated to TIME last week that he may escalate attacks on Iran after the November midterms if an acceptable deal can't be reached.

Separately, University of Chicago political scientist Robert Pape has warned that Oct. 1 could mark a new phase in the conflict. He writes that "Iran's 45-day deadline to the United States expired today."

"On August 16, Iran's Supreme National Security Council decided that if Washington did not lift its naval blockade of Iranian ports within 45 days, Tehran would retain the option of launching renewed attacks against U.S. forces," Pape underscores. "That clock has now run out."

https://x.com/IranObserver0/status/2106273809942671651

https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/black-smoke-reported-over-critical-aramco-refinery-saudis-weigh-major-assault-houthi-rebels

Trump Announces One-Time $90 Payments To 20 Million Seniors In Medicare

Trump said the payments were meant to help seniors cover Medicare premiums and would come from the Medicare Improvement Fund, which Congress has allocated $2 billion to improve Medicare's fee-for-service program but has never been used, according to a White House fact sheet.

"We are finally using this Fund, along with my Most Favored Nations Deals, to substantially lower costs for our Seniors," the president wrote in a Truth Social post.

Eligible Medicare recipients will receive the payment in early October by direct deposit or by check sent to the mailing address they registered with Medicare, the White House said.

Most Medicare Part B enrollees are eligible for the payments, except those whose premiums are already paid by Medicaid or who pay an income-related monthly adjustment amount, the White House said.

"With this action, President Trump is the first President to ever use the Medicare Improvement Fund to directly lower costs for senior citizens," it stated.

Medicare is federal health insurance for Americans 65 or older and some with disabilities. Medicare Part B covers doctors' services, outpatient care, and some preventive services such as flu vaccinations and diabetes screenings.

Trump said in his post that the $90 payments are separate from the $500 rebate checks his administration planned to send to nearly 1 million people who were overcharged for their coverage through the Affordable Care Act - President Barack Obama's healthcare law, known as Obamacare - under the previous administration.

The one-time payments for seniors, Trump said, also demonstrated his commitment to carry out a plan to give every American adult a $5,000 dividend check if Republicans retain control of Congress in the November election.

The president first announced the $5,000 payment during a Sept. 9 Republican event in Dallas, Texas, calling it the Trump dividend. He promised the payment if Americans return Republican majorities to both the House and Senate in the upcoming midterm elections on Nov. 3, which he said could be made possible by his tariff policies.

The Census Bureau's American Community Survey estimated that there were 245 million adult U.S. citizens in the country as of 2024, meaning the payouts would cost about $1.3 trillion.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/trump-announces-one-time-90-payments-20-million-seniors-medicare

Federal Judge Rules Warrantless Flock Search Unconstitutional After Deputy Pulls Month of Driver’s Travel History — Calls System ‘Indiscriminate Mass Surveillance’

A federal judge in Oklahoma just threw out a drug case after ruling that police violated the Fourth Amendment when they used Flock Safety’s automated license-plate cameras to pull a driver’s travel history for roughly a month, without a warrant, and without probable cause.

U.S. District Judge Sara E. Hill of the Northern District of Oklahoma ruled that Tulsa County sheriff’s deputy Freddie Alaniz conducted an “Unconstitutional Warrantless Search” when he queried Flock and other automated license plate reader systems on a Mazda SUV simply because it had a California plate.

According to 404 Media, the search returned more than 50 records of the driver’s whereabouts across the country. Hill suppressed the Flock records and everything that came out of the later search of the vehicle.

The defendant is Melisa Kyle, 46, of Crane, Missouri, charged with possessing methamphetamine with intent to distribute.

According to Law Commentary, the case began in May when Alaniz, who also served as a DEA task force officer, was parked along Interstate 44, saw the California plate, pulled onto the highway, and started following the SUV.

He later stopped Kyle for changing lanes without a signal, then used the Flock history to question her about her travel and to justify searching the car.

Authorities said they found about 91 pounds of methamphetamine packed in luggage, marijuana, and roughly $7,000 in cash. Hill ruled the constitutional violation happened earlier, when the deputy reached into the historical location database.

“The Fourth Amendment requires courts to draw a line when the cost is too great,” Hill wrote.

“Alaniz’s search in just the ALPR system provided him with more than 50 individual records of Kyle’s whereabouts across the country for an entire month.”

She went further. The systems, she wrote, “intruded on her reasonable expectation of privacy in the whole of her physical movements.” And the only reason for the query, based on the record, was the out-of-state plate.

Hill called the technology “a type of indiscriminate mass surveillance.” It is not aimed at one suspect. It logs vehicles that pass any camera on the network, then hands the history to law enforcement on demand.

The judge said Flock’s nationwide network is quickly “approaching dragnet-type law enforcement practice.”

https://www.404media.co/federal-judge-rules-a-flock-search-was-indiscriminate-mass-surveillance-and-unconstitutional/

Former Congressman Sentenced To 10 Years In Federal Prison After Secretly Lobbying For Foreign Regime And Laundering Millions

A former U.S. congressman will now spend a full decade behind bars after being handed a 10-year federal prison sentence on Friday.

Former Florida politician David Rivera was slapped with the decade-long sentence after being convicted of secretly acting as an unregistered foreign agent for a hostile regime, failing to register under FARA rules, and conspiring to launder tens of millions of dollars tied to the illicit scheme.

As The Gateway Pundit previously reported in May, Rivera and Nuhfer were found guilty by a federal jury following a trial that exposed the secret Venezuela-linked lobbying arrangement.

The previous Gateway Pundit report detailed prosecutors’ allegations that Rivera and Nuhfer accepted millions connected to the Maduro government while concealing the relationship and using Rivera’s political connections to pursue Venezuela’s interests in the United States.

Rivera had faced a statutory maximum of as much as 60 years behind bars following his conviction.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Melissa Damian handed down the 120-month sentence on October 2 following Rivera’s conviction on conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), violating FARA, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and four counts involving transactions in criminally derived property, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.

Rivera, 61, represented Florida as a Republican in the U.S. House from 2011 to 2013.

Federal prosecutors said Rivera and political consultant Esther Nuhfer secured a staggering $50 million contract with a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, or PDVSA.

But prosecutors said the arrangement went far beyond ordinary consulting.

According to evidence presented at trial, Rivera and Nuhfer secretly worked to advance the interests of the Venezuelan government in Washington while failing to register as foreign agents as required by federal law.

The pair allegedly leveraged Rivera’s political relationships to lobby American officials, including then-Senator Marco Rubio and Congressman Pete Sessions, and helped arrange contacts between U.S. policymakers and senior Venezuelan officials, including Nicolás Maduro and Delcy Rodríguez. Prosecutors also said Rivera and Nuhfer used coded language in their communications while conducting the operation.

Rubio testified during the trial that he was unaware Rivera was working under the Venezuelan-linked consulting agreement, according to the Associated Press.

Rivera’s attorneys have maintained that his work was commercial rather than political and have indicated they intend to appeal his conviction.

Federal prosecutors said the money did not simply remain inside a consulting operation.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/10/former-congressman-sentence-10-years-federal-prison-after/