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湖北烟花店爆燃12人死亡 调查报告指顾客违规试放引发

2026-10-10 07:50 / 联合早报

中国湖北襄阳宜城市烟花爆竹店爆燃事故致12人死亡，官方调查报告显示，事故直接原因是顾客违规试放标识为“震天雷”的双响，引起店外店内烟花爆竹连环爆炸燃烧。

湖北省应急管理厅官网星期五（10月9日）公布《湖北襄阳宜城市千和百货店“2·18”重大烟花爆竹爆燃事故调查报告》。

湖北省政府事故调查组调查认定，该事故是一起因顾客在烟花爆竹零售店前违规试放超标烟花爆竹，零售店安全主体责任缺失，违规店外摆放、超核定储量存放、销售超标烟花爆竹、安全出口不畅，属地党委、政府及有关部门履职不到位，导致的重大生产安全责任事故。

事故直接原因为顾客谢威龙在千和百货店选购烟花爆竹时，违规在店前试放标识为“震天雷”的双响，第二响爆炸引燃店外大量摆放的烟花爆竹，后引起店外、店内的烟花爆竹连环爆炸燃烧；店外人员逃至店内躲避，前门被爆燃的烟花爆竹封堵，后门关闭，未能及时逃生，最终造成重大人员伤亡。

对事故的责任处理，调查报告建议：千和百货店实际经营者、26岁男子林辰飞对事故发生负有直接责任，鉴于其已在事故中死亡，建议免予刑事责任追究。

延伸阅读

【视频】湖北宜城烟花爆燃12死包括五名未成年

消费者、26岁男子谢威龙，因违规店前试放烟花爆竹导致事故发生，对事故发生负有直接责任，目前涉嫌过失以危险方法危害公共安全罪被公安机关逮捕。

千和百货店共同经营者、48岁女子杨波，长期违规店外摆放、超量储存烟花爆竹，销售超标烟花爆竹等，对事故发生负有直接责任，建议予以行政处罚，并对其涉嫌犯罪行为移交公安机关处理。

在公职人员追责问责方面，报告建议，对于在事故调查过程中发现的地方党委政府及有关部门的公职人员履职方面的问题等线索及相关材料，移交省纪委监委追责问责审查调查组。

同时，责成襄阳市委、市政府分别向湖北省委、省政府作出书面检查；责成宜城市委、市政府分别向襄阳市委、市政府作出书面检查；责成郑集镇党委、政府分别向宜城市委、市政府作出书面检查。

湖北省襄阳市宜城市郑集镇一烟花爆竹零售店今年2月18日发生爆燃事故，造成12人遇难，其中七名成年人、五名未成年人。中国国务院随后对事故的查处挂牌督办，并派出明查暗访组，督促各地严格排查，加强烟花爆竹全链条安全监管。

Democrats eye ambitious Senate map that was once unthinkable as anti-Trump backlash grows

2026-10-09T20:34:50.262Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/09/politics/democrats-kansas-senate-midterms

For weeks, top Democrats in Washington have watched with cautious restraint as Republicans dumped millions into red states like Kansas and South Carolina to defend an increasingly shaky Senate map.

But Democrats increasingly believe they have a real chance to win seats deep in Trump territory as Republicans face their worst midterm environment in decades and the Senate map abruptly expands.

Democrats are now adding Kansas to a growing list of unlikely targets as they also try to flip Texas, Alaska and Iowa – all four states that Trump won by double digits in 2024. With just 22 days to go, Senate Democrats’ top super PAC surprised some in its own party by investing $5 million in Kansas – a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate in nearly a century.

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“The gap is closing in Kansas,” Senate Majority PAC spokesperson Lauren French said in a statement.

The investment marks a stark shift for Democratic campaign officials in Washington, who – until now – have insisted they are clear-eyed about their own realities in this midterm election. With Democrats badly outspent by the GOP, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his campaign arm have been careful to keep their focus strictly on the core battleground seats that are most likely to flip the Senate, according to nearly a dozen people familiar with internal discussions.

But inside the party, there’s a fierce debate about how far to expand the map when Democrats are already battling for so many expensive toss-up races, with anxiety about how much to spread their limited cash without costing winnable seats.

Privately, Senate Democrats had been planning to keep their limited pool of cash in what they see as must-win races in North Carolina and Georgia — even as the GOP has sharply reduced its spending in both states — as well as holding Michigan and flipping seats in Maine, Ohio, Iowa, Alaska and Texas.

But now, voters’ anti-Trump backlash is driving Democrats to gamble in even redder seats. In recent days, there’s a growing sense that their party has a real shot in Kansas, in particular, where Republicans are spending almost $10 million on air to defend incumbent Sen. Roger Marshall.

It’s a strategy that would have been once unthinkable for Democrats, who just weeks ago were dismissing the idea that they would seriously spend in Texas – let alone Kansas.

Recent public polling showed a tied race between Marshall and Democrat Adam Hamilton in a state that Trump won by 16 points two years ago. Democrats’ own internal polling in Kansas, too, showed Hamilton in a true position to compete.

“Democrats expanded the map deep into GOP territory and created new opportunities to flip seats – putting us in the strongest position yet to win the Senate majority,” Schumer’s campaign arm, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, spokesperson Maeve Coyle said. “Between now and Election Day, we will keep all options on the table and pursue every strategic path to victory as resources allow.”

In Kansas, Methodist megachurch pastor Hamilton has been careful to distance himself from Washington Democrats. Self-described as an “independent-minded Democrat,” Hamilton has previously told CNN he won’t support Schumer for leader. And recently, when one sitting Democratic senator offered to campaign for Hamilton, the candidate’s team turned the senator down, according to one person familiar with the discussions.

Inside the cash-strapped Democratic party, there’s an increasingly fierce debate about how much to expand the Senate map — and how far to push into Trump country as the environment worsens for Republicans. With Kansas now on the map, and optimism abounds, Democrats are privately talking seriously about having a real shot of defeating Republicans in states like South Carolina, Mississippi and Nebraska. Sen. Bernie Sanders is spending some of his own money in Florida.

But there’s also plenty of fear that Democrats’ decision to put money in a red state like Kansas could divert resources from a crucial battleground state like Michigan or Ohio. And among the most anxious Democrats, some are still privately pressing the party to put more money into New Hampshire or even Minnesota, two traditionally blue seats with well-known GOP candidates backed by heavy GOP spending. North Carolina Democrat Roy Cooper has been clear that the national party can’t ignore his race, either.

“People are getting really excited about these expansion states. We have not won Iowa, Ohio, Texas or Alaska yet,” one Democratic operative who works on Senate races said in recent days.

Some in the party, for instance, are privately raising alarms about Minnesota, with progressives like Sanders trying to direct resources there in the final days.

“I worry there aren’t enough resources being invested in Minnesota …. People take it for granted as a blue state,” one Democratic operative closely tracking the Senate race there said. “You’re trying to put Maine and Texas on the map, but you also gotta play defense too.”

Republicans, too, are sensing an opportunity in the state. They feel good about Republican Michele Tafoya, a well-known former NFL sideline reporter, going up against Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan. Top Senate Republicans have told donors that last-minute contributions could go far in Minnesota, according to two people familiar with the conversation – and that they believe the race winnable with more money.

While Democratic officials in Minnesota aren’t publicly sounding the alarm about holding their open Senate seat, party leaders believe they have something of a built-in insurance policy: Sen. Amy Klobuchar is running for governor and will be on the top of the ticket and could help lift other Democrats over the finish line. Still, some in the party point out that Kamala Harris only won the state by 4 points two years ago and it shouldn’t be ignored this fall.

The complicating factor for Democrats is money. While Democratic candidates and groups have raised record sums, Senate Republicans have benefited from even more massive spending from GOP super PACs aligned with President Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Top Democrats have been clear that they simply don’t have enough money to go after every potentially competitive seat.

In the final weeks, top Senate Democrats’ mindset had been to “stay the course” in their current battlefield rather than expanding it at the last minute into places like South Carolina, according to one person granted anonymity to discuss internal conversations.

“This is not the time that we need to do anything differently,” that person said, noting that top Democrats are stressing caution in the final weeks: “There’s going to be some turbulence between now and Election Day.”

Even so, Senate Democrats are not dismissing the chances outright of an upset in these states. Schumer’s campaign arm has encouraged senators to play up the expanding map, including tightening races like Mississippi or South Carolina, and has told senators directly, “We don’t take options off the table,” according to one person familiar with the discussions. And Schumer has personally told donors that Mississippi’s Senate race deserves attention, another person familiar with the discussions told CNN.

But campaign officials have also been clear that they can’t take their attention off the other toss-up races that they need to flip control of the Senate, or even traditionally blue seats that have seen unusual amounts of spending.

“Everything feels really good right now. The question is, can that hold?” another Democratic operative working on congressional races said.

CNN’s David Wright, Manu Raju and Jeff Zeleny contributed

Kash Patel announces arrest of suspected ShinyHunters co-conspirator after FBI jobs portal breach

ShinyHunters previously claimed it stole personal information belonging to nearly all FBI agents and job applicants

October 9, 2026 4:04pm EDT / Fox News

By Brittany Miller Fox News

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6405591274112

Retired FBI agent breaks down bureau’s jobs breach risks, warns of sophisticated scams

Jason Pack, a retired FBI supervisory special agent turned CEO of Media Rep Global Strategies, explains how stolen personal and assignment information could be exploited while stressing there is no evidence hackers accessed classified FBI systems.

NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

FBI Director Kash Patel announced Friday that agents arrested another suspected co-conspirator linked to the ShinyHunters hacking group earlier this week during the bureau’s investigation of a cybersecurity incident involving its jobs website.

The arrest is the latest in a series of FBI actions against the hacking network in recent days, according to Patel, who said investigators are pursuing additional leads and evidence.

“Earlier this week, our agents in the field arrested another suspected co-conspirator of the ShinyHunters group, the group believed to be responsible for the recent FBIjobs.gov incident, which occurred on a platform managed by a third-party vendor,” Patel said in an Oct. 9 statement.

FBI INVESTIGATES AFTER SHINYHUNTERS HACKERS CLAIM THEFT OF AGENTS’ PERSONAL DATA

FBI Director Kash Patel speaks during a news conference Oct. 23, 2025, in New York City.(Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Patel said the FBI is working with its partners to dismantle the group and its associates.

“This arrest demonstrates the strength and reach of our efforts to protect Americans from cybercrime. We will continue to work closely with our partners to disrupt what’s left of the ShinyHunters group and their associates, no matter where they operate.”

ShinyHunters, a criminal hacking and extortion group, previously said it obtained sensitive personal information belonging to FBI employees and applicants through the bureau’s jobs portal.

16-YEAR-OLD ALLEGEDLY LED RANSOMWARE GANG BEHIND HUNDREDS OF ATTACKS

The group said it stole information belonging to nearly all FBI agents and people who applied to work for the bureau, Reuters previously reported. A sample of data shared with the outlet contained agents’ names, home addresses, Social Security numbers, assignments and, in some cases, names of family members.

The FBI previously said it was investigating whether the breach originated within its own systems or through a third-party provider supporting FBIJobs.gov. The extent of the alleged breach has not been independently confirmed.

Jason Pack, a retired FBI supervisory special agent and CEO of Media Rep Global Strategies, previously told Fox News Digital the distinction between stolen personnel information and access to classified investigative systems is critical.

FBI HACK CLAIM RAISES FEARS OVER SENSITIVE PERSONAL DATA

FBI investigators monitor digital threats as questions remain over how the FBIJobs.gov incident occurred and what information may have been exposed.(FBI)

“There is a meaningful difference between somebody obtaining personnel information and somebody gaining access to classified investigative systems,” Pack said. “Based on what we know right now, there is no indication they have the keys to the kingdom.”

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A representative for the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Brittany Miller is a Fox News Digital breaking news writer and former Independent reporter who graduated from Syracuse University in 2023.

Inside Trump and Mamdani’s 2-hour phone call after the New York City ICE shooting

2026-10-09T22:38:12.602Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/09/politics/trump-mamdani-phone-call-ice-shooting

The friendly relationship between President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani hit one of its toughest tests yet Thursday after a series of calls over a shooting involving immigration agents in the Bronx.

Mamdani, who keeps an open line of communication with Trump, has argued that maintaining a working relationship with the president is a matter of pragmatism. Despite their stark ideological and political differences, Mamdani has suggested that direct engagement gives him a better chance of securing results for New Yorkers.

On Thursday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents shot and wounded a man driving his car while his 5-year-old child was in the back seat during a targeted enforcement operation in the Bronx.

The incident set up an opportunity for the mayor: Pressure Trump on an issue central to Democrats and a large swath of New Yorkers, try to get the victim released from federal custody and use the outcome to prove why his unlikely relationship with Trump is beneficial.

In the end, the victim — a 28-year-old undocumented immigrant — remained in federal custody.

Mamdani held multiple calls with the White House on Thursday night in what turned into an hourslong attempt to negotiate that the victim, Oscar Belgal, be released from custody. The Department of Homeland Security said Belgal has ties to the Trinitarios gang, a prior criminal conviction for grand larceny and prior arrests for assault, robbery, drug possession and weapons possession.

As the hours passed, protesters descended on the neighborhood, getting into skirmishes with police.

A person familiar with the talks described them as cordial in nature but said the two sides were extremely far apart in terms of what should happen next. A White House official confirmed the president had a lengthy conversation with Mamdani.

Mamdani has maintained that his diplomatic approach to Trump has benefited New Yorkers, but Thursday’s shooting could strain his relationship with Trump and test just how much the mayor can actually leverage from it.

At one point during the talks, Trump, Mamdani and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin tried to hash out a compromise that would allow the injured driver to be released from federal custody.

Mullin and Trump were willing. But only if Belgal was transferred to the custody of the New York Police Department. The Dominican national suffered a superficial neck wound when officers opened fire as they approached his vehicle.

Mullin said that during the call, Trump suggested to Mamdani the NYPD had enough reason to hold him given his criminal record, but the mayor refused.

“He was wanting us to release this individual back onto the streets,” Mullin told reporters Friday. “If NYPD wants to take the charges and pursue the charges, we’ll be happy to release him into the custody of NYPD. I shared that with the mayor. The mayor once again said we will not be detaining him.”

Mullin also said he spoke with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Belgal was the subject of a DHS investigation into the shooting of a Customs and Border Protection agent and was part of a gang “known for theft using weapons,” according to Marcos Charles, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations executive associate director, who added that he had previously evaded federal immigration agents in September.

Mamdani offered to have the NYPD take the lead on an investigation into the incident, he told Trump and Mullin. The NYPD would take over as long as federal agents left the area of the incident that evening.

Trump pressed Mamdani to let the NYPD arrest Belgal, but Mamdani would not budge.

A source familiar with the conversations told CNN there was no legal reason to hold Belgal without a warrant.

“There was no warrant out for his arrest, no legal basis for the NYPD to take him into custody,” the person said.

Negotiations broke down after that.

https://www.cnn.com/

“The mayor was being cordial, but unrealistic,” Mullin said Friday on Fox News.

Aides to the mayor argue his relationship with the president has yielded significant results. Although ICE has ramped up enforcement, the agency has not carried out large-scale operations like those in Michigan or Minnesota.

Mamdani arrived near the scene of the incident for a late-night press conference, during which he accused ICE of being “rotten to its core.”

“Today’s shooting is only further devastating confirmation of what we have long known: that ICE operates with impunity, that they sow chaos and terror across our country, that they have killed far more of our neighbors than they could ever have claimed to save,” Mamdani said.

https://www.cnn.com/

In a press conference Friday morning, Mullin tied Mamdani and New York City’s sanctuary policies, which set limits on cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, to the incident.

ICE operations in New York have been ongoing for months. An immigration enforcement operation that took place from late July to late August yielded more than 2,100 arrests, according to DHS. Mullin traveled to New York to announce the results of the operation, known as Operation Rotten Apple, and applauded ICE agents, while again criticizing Mamdani and Hochul.

“Over the course of this operation, we arrested murderers, rapists, pedophiles, drug traffickers and violent assailants. And we did it with no help from Mayor Mamdani and Governor Hochul. The Trump administration is committed to protecting the American people in every city and every state, and we won’t let sanctuary politicians stand in our way,” he said.

Federal data reveals that arrests in the state increased over the summer. In May, ICE took 922 people into custody in New York. That jumped to 1,190 people in June and to 1,552 in July, according to the Deportation Data Project.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and Alayna Treene contributed to this report.

DOJ says it won’t enforce provisions of 1934 firearms law that were gutted by court ruling

2026-10-09 16:20:35 / CBS News

By

October 9, 2026 / 4:20 PM EDT / CBS News

Washington— The Justice Department said on Friday it will no longer enforce certain provisions of a 1934 law that was passed by Congress to regulate the types of firearms often used by mobsters, after a federal judge declared large parts of the law were unconstitutional.

The new guidelines released by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were issued to current and future gun owners. The Justice Department determined last month it would not appeal the judge’s ruling.

Under the new guidelines, the federal government will no longer require individuals to apply and receive regulatory approval before making or transferring short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, suppressors and other various types of concealable firearms.

The Justice Department also said its new legal guidance does not supersede state and local laws that restrict the sale of those categories of weapons, adding that because many state laws still require people to register those firearms, it will continue to process those applications voluntarily.

CBS News exclusively reported last month that President Trump had ordered the Justice Department not to appeal the court ruling in Texas that loosened the limits on what used to be called “gangster weapons.”

The ruling impacted large parts of the National Firearms Act, which mandated that anyone wishing to sell, possess or make a firearm or device covered by the law had to submit a detailed written application to the ATF, among other requirements.

The law was aimed at addressing the most dangerous and easily concealable weapons that were often used by mobsters during the Prohibition era.

But in August, U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix, a Trump appointee in the Northern District of Texas, ruled that most of the restrictions on all but two categories of specialized firearms regulated under the National Firearms Act are unconstitutional after Congress last year eliminated a $200 tax imposed on them.

“Because today’s NFA does not generate any revenue from untaxed firearms, its regulatory provisions cannot be upheld under the taxing power,” the judge wrote at the time.

The decision came in two consolidated cases brought against the government by 15 red states and a number of Second Amendment gun rights groups and individuals, including the Gun Owners of America and the Gun Owners Foundation.

Many lawyers within the Justice Department recommended that the decision should be appealed, saying it was already adversely impacting ongoing criminal cases and that it ran afoul of the government’s duty to defend the laws passed by Congress.

Although the court’s ruling blocking the ATF from enforcing large parts of the law only applied to the parties in the lawsuit, its wording had created challenges for prosecutors.

That’s because the judge said his ruling would also extend to any “current or future” members of the gun groups that sued over the rules. A basic membership to the Gun Owners of America is only $25.

Given that loophole, the ATF said on Friday that going forward it will not enforce the provisions of the National Firearms Act at the heart of the lawsuit against “any person as applied to the domestic manufacturing, possession, and transfer of short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, silencers” and other applicable devices or weapons.

Trump deal for Russian diesel sparks anger in Ukraine, doubts among analysts

2026-10-09T22:34:15.727Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/09/politics/trump-putin-russian-diesel

President Donald Trump said on Friday he secured an agreement from Russian President Vladimir Putin to supply markets with Russian diesel fuel as he works to bring down energy costs ahead of the midterm elections.

Energy industry analysts, however, say the agreement — which sparked anger in Ukraine — isn’t likely to lower diesel prices in any meaningful way.

Trump wrote on social media that Putin agreed to “immediately supply” more than 300,000 tons of diesel to global energy markets, with another 500,000 tons promised in November. Together, the amounts — equal to 6 million barrels of diesel fuel — would cover about a day and a half worth of US demand, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

Trump said millions more tons of Russian diesel would be supplied following the first tranches “based on the condition of their Diesel Refineries.”

“We are talking PERHAPS a 5-6% increase in supply between now and year end,” Dan Pickering, founder and chief investment officer at Pickering Energy Partners, said about the the president’s announcement in an email.

“Bottom line — this is helpful but not a needle mover for global diesel markets,” Pickering said. “Sidenote — there is a reason Trump talked about volumes in tons instead of barrels. The tons number looks bigger to a general observer. This is more politics than a game changer.”

Russia banned exports of diesel in early July, after Ukrainian drone strikes on its refineries triggered widespread fuel shortages across the country. This cut roughly 800,000 barrels per day from the global market — at a time when supplies were already tight because of the US war against Iran.

The ban was extended last month, aggravating cost pressures on energy.

According to the Kremlin readout of the phone call between the two leaders, Putin told Trump that Russia was “ready to supply oil and petroleum products to the US and global markets.”

“I am confident that this will have a positive impact on the entire global economy,” Putin said, according to the Kremlin.

Trump echoed that statement later on Friday, telling reporters at the White House that “oil prices are already dropping like a rock. So, we’re very happy to get it.”

But analysts — and commodities traders — raised doubts that Russia would be able to live up to that promise.

At the close of trading on Friday, diesel futures were down by about 4%.

But Trump’s announcement was met with anger in Ukraine. Kyiv has long advocated for tougher sanctions on Russian energy exports, arguing that oil and gas revenues are a major source of funding for Russia’s war machine.

Ukraine has also stepped up its attacks on Russian oil infrastructure over the past few months, refusing to stop despite calls from Trump to do so. Just this week, Kyiv has claimed strikes on four different refineries across Russia.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky called the move to allow Russia to export diesel “a weak decision of strong partners.”

“This is additional money for this war, for the suffering, and of course against us. This is only fuels Putin and gives him the possibility to fight more,” he said on social media.

The past few months have been exceptionally deadly for Ukrainian civilians as Russia has managed to take advantage of Kyiv’s critical shortage of air defense missiles, launching near non-stop aerial attacks against Ukrainian cities. One such strike on a bus stop in eastern Ukraine killed more than 30 people on Thursday.

Zelensky has made it clear the timing of the announcement — just as a top-level Ukrainian delegation arrived to Miami for talks with US envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner — makes it all the more painful for Kyiv.

“In this exact moment when our team is talking to the American team in Florida, the US President has a conversation with Kremlin leader, with the leader of this war, the leader of this aggression,” he said.

Former US officials say it is unclear if Putin even has the amount of diesel that Trump cited to sell.

Richard Nephew, a former principal deputy coordinator for sanctions policy at the State Department, noted that “the message it sends and the damage it does to the broader sanctions regime is very significant.”

“How does anyone take the sanctions regime seriously?” he questioned, noting that if the US is going to say that they need to use sanctions relief to address an economic issue, “how can we convincingly argue that anyone else shouldn’t use the same excuse?”

A former senior State Department official said it doesn’t matter if Putin can actually deliver the diesel because “now he’s achieved the result he wants” which is Trump thinking he’s gotten a pre-election bump and it might have an impact on the markets.

The timing of the call with the start of the talks with Ukraine is no coincidence.

“Putin is a lot of things, but he’s not stupid,” they said.

Trump has been working to identify ways to bring down costs, including by temporarily lifting restrictions on “red dye” diesel used in farm equipment.

Trump did not mention raising during his call with Putin the still unexplained death of a plague lab researcher.

Instead, the US president focused solely on diesel supplies, which have concerned Republicans as higher energy prices drive up other costs.

“Between our TOTAL CONTROL of the Strait of Hormuz, and this great announcement on Russian Energy, Diesel Prices for Americans and, indeed, the World, will be COMING DOWN, IN RECORD NUMBERS, AND FAST!” Trump wrote.

Energy analysts quickly cast doubt on that assertion.

“So assuming this happens and Putin delivers — which would mean reversing the ban on diesel exports that has been in place for several months now — it would be a bandaid, nothing more,” Gregory Brew, an analyst with Eurasia Group’s Energy, Climate & Resources team, said in an email.

“I also have a strong suspicion Putin expects Ukraine to cease its attacks on refineries in exchange for doing Trump the favor. I have a hard time seeing Zelensky cooperate on that front,” Brew said.

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Victoria Butenko contributed reporting.

Will social media platforms allow Fort Hood shooter’s execution to be livestreamed? Here’s what their policies say.

2026-10-09 17:01 EDT / CBS News

Washington — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s revelation that the execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan will be streamed live has drawn fierce criticism and calls for him to reconsider his plan. But it has also put the spotlight on whether social media companies will allow government accounts to stream the death by firing squad on their platforms.

Hegseth has not provided additional details about the Defense Department’s plans to livestream the execution of Hasan, who was convicted of killing 13 people and injuring more than 30 at Fort Hood in 2009. Hasan is set to die by firing squad at 1 p.m. on Dec. 3 at the Texas Army installation, the defense secretary said.

“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public, because people need to understand that there’s consequences for these types of things,” Hegseth said.

The defense chief did not say how the execution would be streamed, and whether the Pentagon would provide that content through its social media accounts or on its website. But his comments Thursday, made to far-right political activist Jack Posobiec, provide advance warning to social media companies that the content could be posted to their platforms.

“If this were a private entity who said, ‘we’re going to be executing someone at this date,’ I think platforms would just say, ‘you can’t use our platform,’” David Greene, senior counsel at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told CBS News. “The only reason this is even a little bit more difficult of a decision for the platforms is because this is the government doing it, and there is some interest in the public understanding and being able to witness barbaric acts of its government, and there will also likely be pressure from the government to carry it.”

Google, Meta, TikTok and X, which operate the nation’s most popular social media platforms, all have policies governing violent or graphic content. Google, Meta and X did not respond to questions about whether they would allow the Defense Department to livestream Hasan’s execution on their platforms or whether that content would violate their rules.

A spokesperson for TikTok U.S. pointed to its policy on “shocking and graphic content,” which states that the platform does not allow “anything extremely gory, disturbing, or violent, especially when it could cause psychological harm.”

“Some content that’s less graphic or shared in the public interest may be allowed, but it may be viewable only for users 18 and older or ineligible” for its For You Feed, TikTok’s policy states. That includes “graphic footage of events that would otherwise violate our rules but are in the public interest to view, such as wars and major disasters.”

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, explicitly states in its “violent and graphic content” policy that it does not allow “live-streams of capital punishments.”

“We recognize that users may share content in order to shed light on or condemn acts such as human rights abuses or armed conflict,” Meta’s rules read. “Our policies consider when content shared in this context and allow room for discussion and awareness raising accordingly.”

YouTube, operated by Google, has guidelines covering violent or graphic content, as well as harmful or dangerous content.

YouTube’s harmful or dangerous content policy bars “acts performed by adults that have a risk of serious harm or death,” or “content that encourages dangerous or illegal activities that risk serious physical harm or death.”

The violent or graphic content policy states that YouTube does not allow “violent or gory content intended to shock or disgust viewers.”

The company tells users not to post content that includes “footage or imagery showing bodily fluids, such as blood or vomit, with the intent to shock or disgust viewers” or “footage of corpses with massive injuries, such as severed limbs.”

YouTube also has rules specifically governing content that involves guns and says it prohibits “live streams that show someone holding, handling, or transporting a firearm.”

X, which is owned by billionaire Elon Musk, prohibits “violent media that we consider high in severity and likelihood of harm.” Its policy covers “gratuitous gore” and “moment of death.” Violent content is barred “within areas that are highly visible” on the platform, including live video.

The social media platform considers “gratuitous gore” to be “media of humans or animals that depicts excessively graphic or gruesome content related to death, violence or severe physical harm,” including “dismembered or mutilated humans.”

X says it may request the removal of “images or videos that were taken at the point of, immediately before, or after an identifiable individual’s death, if we receive a request from their family or an authorized representative.”

Some social media companies like Facebook and YouTube tightened their policies on harmful content in the wake of the 2019 attack at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, when a gunman livestreamed the massacre. Years earlier, they scrambled to take down graphic videos of brutal executions by Islamic State militants. But social media companies have also been encouraged to ensure content showing human rights abuses or war crimes is preserved.

Greene said it would be up to the platforms to decide whether to allow content like an execution by firing squad to be streamed, even if it may violate their policies. And because the Defense Department has telegraphed its plans to show the killing, Greene said he expects people inside the companies to decide whether to allow the footage on their platforms, rather than waiting for it to be flagged by automated systems.

Executions outside of the military justice system are typically observed by members of the media, who serve as representatives of the public and provide a look into what capital punishment entails, Greene said.

But he stressed that when deciding whether to allow Hasan’s execution to be streamed live, social media companies should consider the U.S. government’s motives.

“This seems to be the government wanting to broadcast the execution for propaganda purposes and wanting to glorify its ability to execute people,” he said.

If Hegseth follows through with his plan to livestream Hasan’s execution, it would place the United States in a small group of nations that are carrying out public executions. There were at least 17 known public executions in 2025: six in Afghanistan and 11 in Iran, according to Amnesty International.

In the U.S., it appears the last public execution took place in 1936. Then, a crowd of an estimated 20,000 gathered to watch the hanging of Rainey Bethea, a Black man who confessed to the rape and murder of a 70-year-old White woman, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

The last military execution took place in 1961, when U.S. Army Private John Bennett was hanged. Hasan’s death by firing squad would be the military’s first since 1945, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

美俄元首通话 俄承诺向美及全球提供柴油

2026年10月10日 07:13 / 联合早报

美国总统特朗普与俄罗斯总统普京（左）2025年8月15日在美国阿拉斯加会晤。 （路透社档案照片）

俄罗斯总统普京与美国总统特朗普通电话后，双方就俄罗斯向美国及全球市场提供柴油达成一致；华盛顿未来几个月会放松针对俄柴油贸易的制裁，从而缓解美国内柴油供应紧张。

综合新华社和法新社报道，美俄元首星期五（10月9日）通电话，重点讨论乌克兰危机解决前景、伊朗局势及美俄双边关系。

两人也谈及全球能源局势。普京在通话中确认，俄方会向美国及全球市场提供石油和石油产品。他认为，此举将对全球经济产生积极影响。

根据俄总统官网的声明，双方还确认俄美两国元首会继续保持联系，两国相关部门也将继续开展合作。

俄罗斯自2022年全面入侵乌克兰以来，一直受到美国及其盟友的多轮制裁。然而美国与以色列2月底对伊朗开战，引发油价上涨，美国人对油价高企和生活费承压日益不满，特朗普持续低迷的民调支持率已波及共和党选情。这些压力促使特朗普放松对俄罗斯的制裁。

美国财政部外国资产控制办公室星期五发布公告称，将在未来几个月放松针对俄罗斯柴油贸易的制裁，以便缓解美国内柴油供应紧张、平抑油价。宽限期到2027年4月截止。

特朗普在社交媒体上说：“俄罗斯会立即向美国及全球市场供应超过30万公吨柴油燃料。”

他表明，俄方会在11月供应50万公吨柴油，随后供应100万公吨，并承诺未来释放更多供应量。

这个举动引起乌克兰不满。乌克兰总统泽连斯基告诉记者：“这肯定不厚道，不是我们盟友应有的作为，在我看来，这是个软弱的决定。”

Judge strikes down DOJ’s policy of reviewing state voter rolls, saying it would “run roughshod over longstanding laws”

2026-10-09T18:44:00-0400 / CBS News

By Jacob Rosen

A federal judge has struck down the Trump administration’s plan to check state voter rolls against federal immigration databases, a blow to the administration’s election-related efforts in the run-up to the midterms.

In a 78-page ruling, D.C.-based U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan wrote Friday that the Justice Department “cannot run roughshod over longstanding laws that were carefully crafted to protect the rights of the American people.”

The Trump administration has mounted a nationwide push to obtain complete voter rolls from every state, including sensitive information about registered voters. The Justice Department has argued the information is needed to ensure states are complying with two federal voting laws — the Help America Vote Act and the National Voter Registration Act — which aim to ensure states have programs in place for maintaining accurate voter rolls.

Eighteen states fully cooperated with the Justice Department’s request for voter files, Sooknanan said. The department has brought lawsuits against most other states, and has lost almost all of the suits, according to a CBS News analysis. One state settled with the federal government.

The ruling applies to the voter files that the Justice Department has already received, as well as the files it is still litigating over.

Sooknanan rejected the Justice Department’s argument that it has legal authority to demand voter lists, compare those lists against citizenship databases and urge states to remove voters who it claims are ineligible to vote. The judge also said the policy violates the Administrative Procedure Act and the Privacy Act, and said the federal databases could contain “inaccuracies.”

“Today’s decision does not prevent the federal government from taking lawful steps to support states’ efforts to maintain accurate voter rolls. Neither does it prevent states from maintaining their own voter rolls. And to state the obvious, the Court’s decision does not pave the way for ineligible voters to vote in our elections,” Sooknanan wrote. “Rather, the Court vacates a policy that has removed United States citizens from the voter rolls in their home states and risks disenfranchising many more — a policy that flies in the face of duly enacted laws designed to protect Americans.”

She continued: “The challenged policy represents the federal government’s attempt to decide who gets to vote. But Congress has left that authority where our Constitution has always placed it: with the states.”

The legal challenge against the voter roll policy was brought by advocacy group Common Cause and individual voters.

Common Cause CEO Virginia Kase Solomón called the ruling “a victory for voters and yet another loss for the Department of Justice” in a statement Friday.

A Justice Department spokesperson said the agency is reviewing the decision.

Under the Trump administration, the federal government has sought a larger-than-usual role in elections, which are typically administered by states with some regulation by Congress. President Trump argues more federal scrutiny is necessary in order to prevent noncitizens from voting and curb fraud — though most election experts say fraud and noncitizen voting are extremely rare.

The government’s push to run state voter rolls through the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database has faced court setbacks, as more than two dozen judges have denied the Justice Department’s requests to compel individual states to share their voter lists.

Sooknanan also ruled in June that the Trump administration’s overhauled SAVE database — which includes data from the Social Security Administration — was created unlawfully. The Supreme Court temporarily paused that ruling last month.

In practice, the impact of recent court rulings on the November midterms could be limited as federal law bars states from systematically removing ineligible voters from their voter registration lists within 90 days of an election.

Another Trump administration policy that set new rules for the U.S. Postal Service’s handling of mail-in ballots was also blocked in the courts, with the Supreme Court declining the government’s request to allow the rules to take effect.

Justice Department ran ‘roughshod’ over civil rights with plans to audit state voter rolls, judge says

2026-10-09T20:47:20.112Z / CNN

A federal judge accused the Justice Department of trying to subvert civil rights laws with a voter roll audit plan that would run “roughshod over longstanding laws that were carefully crafted to protect the rights of the American people.”

The new ruling from US District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan halts the department’s sweeping project to obtain non-public data and audit nearly every state’s voter rolls, a major legal setback to President Donald Trump’s effort to insert the federal government into election administration.

Her 78-page opinion is a stinging rebuke of how the administration has shifted the priorities of the Justice Department, specifically its Civil Rights Division.

She described the division, which has been dramatically transformed during Trump’s second term, as historically standing at “the forefront of the federal government’s efforts to protect Americans’ right to vote.”

When Trump returned to the White House last year, the DOJ abandoned several high-profile voting rights cases as political appointees pushed out career staff from the division. For the last year, much of the public work of the voting section has been focused on obtaining state voter rolls in a hunt for non-citizen voters—which has long been a fixation of Trump’s mass election fraud beliefs.

“Generations of Civil Rights Division attorneys and staff have worked to protect that right – a sacred right that gives our citizenry a say in its government and secures all other individual rights against government interference,” wrote Sooknanan, who was appointed to the bench by President Joe Biden.

“Against that backdrop, this case is anomalous,” Sooknanan added.

She concluded that the Trump administration violated federal laws in how it demanded that states produce non-public voter data, for the purposes of finding alleged non-citizens on the rolls and then instructing states to remove them.

“The challenged policy represents the federal government’s attempt to decide who gets to vote,” Sooknanan wrote. “But Congress has left that authority where our Constitution has always placed it: with the states.”

https://www.cnn.com/
Attorney General Todd Blanche to pursue mail-in voting reforms even after Court ruling

Sooknanan’s order blocks the Justice Department’s voter list review program head-on, after several states have had success in fending off lawsuits from the administration that sought their sensitive voter data.

While most states resisted turning over their unredacted rolls, at least 18 states have produced the registration records to the Justice Department, according to filings in the case. It is unclear what the administration has done with the data since obtaining it.

Sooknanan’s ruling leans on language the DOJ inserted into agreements it offered states to encourage them to produce their rolls. The agreements said that after the department completed its audit, states would then be required to “clean” their rolls within 45 days.

The judge concluded Friday that Congress did not give the administration the power to direct state voter roll purges. The Justice Department had pointed to two federal laws that govern certain aspects of voter registration, as well as to the 1960 Civil Rights Act, to justify its data-collection.

“They are wrong,” Sooknanan wrote Friday. “In fact, it would turn these voter-protection laws on their head to find that they authorize DOJ’s unprecedented actions.”

Her ruling noted that she was joining 25 other district judges who have ruled in lawsuits DOJ brought against recalcitrant states in finding that the Civil Rights Act did not empower the agency the voter records it was seeking.

The law gave the attorney general certain investigatory powers to respond to Jim Crow-era voter restrictions, and Sooknanan said that the DOJ’s arguments about the law would “subvert” its text.

She wrote that “the Defendants make other startling arguments.”

“They suggest that every American citizen who registers to vote is the subject of a voter fraud investigation underway in the Civil Rights Division simply because they registered to vote,” she said.

For the review, the administration planned on comparing the voter rolls with a citizenship records data system known as SAVE – or Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements – well as with other federal databases, in a hunt for ineligible voters.

However, the plaintiffs in the case – the voter advocacy group Common Cause, as well as some individual voters – noted that SAVE has a reputation for producing false positives. They argued that the collection and review of the data was chilling political participation – particularly for naturalized citizens, who were more likely to be wrongfully investigated because of the flawed data matches – and that it would lead to mistaken removals of eligible voters from the rolls. The voters also alleged their privacy rights were violated by the disclosure of the data.

Sooknanan, in a separate case, had concluded the administration had violated federal privacy protections in how it revamped the SAVE data program to be used more aggressively in voter purges. However, the Supreme Court recently reversed that ruling, reviving that program for states to use voluntarily to verify voters’ citizenship status.

The Justice Department did not respond to CNN’s inquiry about the new ruling.

Common Cause President and CEO Virginia Kase Solomón said in a statement that it was “victory for voters and yet another loss for the Department of Justice.”

“It’s time the Trump administration stop these desperate attempts to seize voters’ private data and take control of our elections,” she said.