Trump waives Russia and Iran sanctions law.
Today's events
Russia sanctions waived.
Duties on Russian goods rise 500 percent, and 100 percent on the five largest buyers still purchasing Russian oil; the same order then waives the Russia and Iran sanctions Congress enacted in September.1Oct 16 · WHGoogle ad tech ruling.
A federal court in Virginia imposed interoperability and data-sharing requirements on Google, barred self-preferencing in its ad auctions, and ordered close integration with rivals including the open-source Prebid.2Oct 16 · DOJCritical-mineral mines.
Auditors traced 32 companies operating critical-mineral mines on federal land and found 14 are foreign subsidiaries, two with Chinese financial interests in their foreign parents; no law requires Interior to collect ownership data.3Oct 16 · GAORemote-support flaw exploited.
CISA added an authentication-bypass vulnerability in BeyondTrust Remote Support to its exploited-flaws catalog, warning that attackers are using it for initial access, persistence, privilege escalation, and lateral movement.4Oct 16 · CISASaudi nuclear deal.
A Senate joint resolution introduced October 15 would disapprove the agreement for civilian nuclear cooperation between the United States and Saudi Arabia.5Oct 15 · CongressSuperintelligence incidents.
NIST, the National Security Agency, and CISA published ten voluntary practices for organizations training highly capable AI agents — covering containment, evidence preservation, and shutdown when an agent acts uninstructed.6Oct 16 · CISAFighter commands a drone.
An F-22 pilot issued tactical directives to an uncrewed YFQ-44A, whose onboard autonomy flew the maneuvers in real time; the service plans 500 combat-ready by 2032 toward a 1,000-aircraft fleet.7Oct 16 · Air ForceForeign interference at NIH.
Auditors found the health agency logged 697 allegations of foreign interference involving award personnel from 2017 through 2025 and confirmed disclosure violations in 264 cases, while rarely verifying researchers' disclosures.8Oct 16 · GAOVisa-hiring settlement.
Cloudera will pay $1.4 million in back pay plus $600,000 in penalties and lose access to the permanent-labor-certification program for two years, settling claims it passed over U.S. workers.9Oct 16 · DOJ
This week
Blockade in its third month.
A U.S. fighter jet disabled the Panama-flagged cargo ship Ocean Molica in the Gulf of Oman on October 10 after its crew ignored warnings and tried to run the naval blockade of Iran.3 Monday's brief led with it. The economic side tightened in the same days: Treasury extended asset freezes to Iran's automotive and rail sectors,4 and the State Department sanctioned Cuba's Banco Internacional de Comercio for serving a blacklisted Iranian bank since 2022.5Oct 10 · CENTCOMSpanish ships hit with fees.
The Federal Maritime Commission proposed a $200,000 per-voyage fee on every Spanish vessel calling at U.S. ports, plus limits on imports of certain Spanish goods, after Spain barred U.S.-flagged ships carrying cargo bound for Israel. Thursday's brief led with it. The measure targets a NATO member and EU state over a third country's conflict.6Oct 15 · FMCNorth Korean laptop farms.
The Justice Department charged 14 people, arrested two Americans, and seized about 187 devices from more than 40 Texas “laptop farms” that let North Korean workers pose as employees at over 70 U.S. companies. Wednesday's brief led with Operation Lonestar Roundup. Prosecutors tie the scheme's revenue to Pyongyang's weapons programs.7Oct 13 · DOJAutonomous warfare command.
The War Department will stand up a four-star Autonomous Warfare Command, Secretary Pete Hegseth said on October 14, with hundreds of thousands of one-way attack systems planned this year.8 Two days later an F-22 pilot issued tactical directives to an uncrewed YFQ-44A that flew the maneuvers on its own autonomy; the Air Force wants 500 combat-ready by 2032 toward a 1,000-aircraft fleet. Both ran in Thursday's and Saturday's briefs.9Oct 14–16 · DODThree exploited edge flaws.
CISA flagged an actively exploited authentication bypass in Ivanti Connect Secure on October 13,10 ordered agencies to patch five flaws in Palo Alto firewalls, a Cisco email gateway, Ahsay backup servers and Atlassian products within two days,11 then added a BeyondTrust Remote Support bypass on October 16. All are perimeter products, where an authentication bypass gives direct entry. The items ran Wednesday through Saturday.12Oct 13–16 · CISA
Allied Governments
British-German strike programme.
Britain's defence-industry minister hosted his German counterpart at Lancaster House to advance Deep Precision Strike, a joint long-range strike programme, under the Trinity House Agreement.aOct 16 · UK MoDBritain in Washington.
Defence Secretary Wes Streeting used a Washington speech to press the U.S.–UK partnership on Russia, calling Ukraine “the frontline for freedom today.”bOct 15 · UK MoDSudan at the Security Council.
Britain marked a year since El Fasher's fall, citing more than 33 million people needing aid and a fresh famine warning, and urged the Council to toughen Sudan sanctions.cOct 16 · UK FCDO
Voices
“As described further in section 4 of this order, I am hereby waiving the application of such sanctions, restrictions, and duties provided for in the Graham Act.”
Presidential order implementing the Graham Act · Oct 161
“The Court's ruling in the Google ad tech case marks a significant victory for this Department's efforts to protect and restore competition.”
Assoc. Atty. Gen. Stanley E. Woodward Jr., DOJ · Oct 162
“A SI control incident occurs when one or more SI agents takes uninstructed actions that conflict with or compromise policies, controls, or security measures that scope the task…”
NIST, NSA Super Intelligence Security Center and CISA · Oct 166
“Cyber threat actors are actively exploiting the vulnerability to gain initial access, then establishing persistence, escalating privileges, and moving laterally.”
CISA alert on BeyondTrust Remote Support · Oct 164
“This achievement demonstrates what is possible when we are aligned with industry on a shared imperative: delivering capability to the warfighter at unprecedented speed.”
Sec. of the Air Force Troy Meink · Oct 167
“There are no exceptions: the Justice Department will hold accountable employers who discriminate against U.S. workers.”
AAG Harmeet K. Dhillon, DOJ Civil Rights · Oct 169
Sources
- White House, “Implementing the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026,” October 2026. whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/…/graham-act
- U.S. Dept. of Justice, “Department of Justice Again Wins Substantial Relief Against Google,” October 2026. justice.gov/opa/pr/…/relief-against-google
- U.S. Government Accountability Office, “Critical Minerals: Limited Available Information on the Full Extent of Foreign Investment in Mining on Federal Lands” (GAO-27-108094), October 16, 2026. gao.gov/products/…/gao-27-108094
- CISA, “CISA Urges Patching Critical Vulnerability in BeyondTrust Remote Support” (CVE-2026-102764), October 16, 2026. cisa.gov/news-events/…/beyondtrust-remote-support
- U.S. Senate, “S.J. Res. 221 — Providing for congressional disapproval of the agreement for civilian nuclear cooperation between the United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” introduced October 15, 2026. govinfo.gov/app/details/…/119sjres221is
- NIST, NSA Super Intelligence Security Center and CISA, “Key Practices for Incident Readiness and Response in Super Intelligence Training and Evaluation,” October 16, 2026. cisa.gov/resources-tools/…/super-intelligence-incident-readiness
- U.S. Air Force, “F-22 directs Collaborative Combat Aircraft in airborne tactical-control demonstration,” October 2026. af.mil/News/…/f-22-directs-collaborative-combat-aircraft
- U.S. Government Accountability Office, “Research Security: NIH Action Needed to Strengthen Foreign Interference Risk Management” (GAO-27-107848), October 16, 2026. gao.gov/products/…/gao-27-107848
- U.S. Dept. of Justice, “U.S. Departments of Justice and Labor Secure Settlement with Cloudera, Enforce Two-Year PERM Debarment & Back Pay Following Discrimination Against U.S. Workers,” October 16, 2026. justice.gov/opa/pr/…/cloudera-perm-debarment
- UK Ministry of Defence, “UK and Germany strengthen defence ties in London talks,” October 16, 2026. gov.uk/government/news/…/uk-germany-defence-ties
- UK Ministry of Defence, “Defence Secretary Wes Streeting Speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies,” October 15, 2026. gov.uk/government/speeches/…/streeting-csis-speech
- UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, “UK statement at the UN Security Council on Sudan,” October 16, 2026. gov.uk/government/speeches/…/el-fasher-unsc-statement