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Trump's Diesel Deal Leaves Ukraine Hanging & Chicago's Billionaire Rat Overlord

Feds Raid Ilhan Omar's House & Musk Spends $366M On The Midterms

Author

Marcus Gee-Lim
October 13, 2026

Hi readers, happy Tuesday! Today we’re covering the DOJ raid on Ilhan Omar’s house, Trump making bad deals for Ukraine, the attacks on Saudi airports, the aftermath of the RAF Fairford plot, Musk’s midterm spending, the Pentagon’s livestreamed execution plans, and a Chicago billionaire that is actively causing a rat infestation (literally).

“If a little dreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less but to dream more, to dream all the time.” – Marcel Proust

DOJ Gets Down And Dirty

Early Monday morning, federal agents conducted a raid on the home of Ilhan Omar, the Democratic Representative for Minnesota’s 5th congressional district. According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), the raid was part of a larger federal investigation into the congresswoman, who’s become a personal target of the president over the past few years. “Today in the Washington DC area, Homeland Security Investigations [HSI] executed a judicially authorized search warrant secured by the Department of Justice. This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation,” said a representative for the DOJ. In an effort to avoid influencing electoral politics, the DOJ has historically abstained from taking public investigative steps against politicians within 60 days of an election, making this high-visibility raid particularly unusual.

It’s unclear what the investigation is about, though Fox News reported that HSI is looking into Omar’s immigration paperwork, which was filled out by her father when she was a child (she immigrated to the U.S. from Somalia). Trump has frequently taken aim at her with various attacks on her race, her immigration status, and her relationships. At a rally on Monday, he piled on more vitriol after the raid, saying that the progressive lawmaker “comes from one of the worst countries ⁠anywhere on the planet … What a mess they have done - Somalia.” The crowd responded by chanting “Deport, deport.” In her response to the raid, Omar said, “For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation. I will not be silenced.”

Leaving The Donbas Out To Dry

Trump is going all-in on diesel. Last Friday, the president announced a deal with Russia aimed at lowering global diesel prices, which he hopes will ease Americans’ affordability problems heading into the midterm elections. Under the agreement, the U.S. will lift sanctions on Russian oil exports in exchange for Moscow immediately selling the U.S. 300,000 tons of diesel; that sale will be followed by a 500,000 ton shipment in November, 1 million tons “immediately thereafter,” and 3 million more tons “within a short period of time” after that, according to Trump. The deal was criticized by U.S. politicians on both sides of the aisle (as well as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy), who say it weakens the credibility of U.S. diplomacy and future U.S. sanctions. 

On Sunday, the president continued his pursuit of diesel by announcing an “energy ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine. “Effective immediately, there is an ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine. Both parties have agreed. Do not break it!,” the president wrote on social media. Zelenskyy responded that the ceasefire “was news for me. But if Russians agree to an energy ceasefire, Ukraine will agree.” According to multiple outlets, the U.S. threatened to end the procurement system that brings American arms to Kyiv by way of Europe, and even threatened to pull out of an information-sharing pact with Ukraine unless it promised to comply with the ceasefire. On Monday, Zelenskyy told the press that Russia had struck at least six Ukrainian energy facilities just hours after the ceasefire was put in place. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov later stated that Ukraine does not deserve the “respite” provided by Trump’s ceasefire.

The Kingdom Is Crumbling

CCTV from inside Riyadh airport via social media

  • On Saturday and Sunday, Yemen’s Houthi rebels landed attacks on King Khalid international airport, Saudi Arabia’s main aviation hub. The attack on Saturday hit a passenger terminal at the airport, killing 13 people and injuring over 300 others; the Sunday strike hit the same terminal, killing one person and injuring 11 more. The airport, located in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, has suffered multiple attacks over the past few days and will remain closed until next Saturday.

  • The strikes were a response to the Saudi kingdom leading a military campaign against the Houthi rebels in Yemen. According to the rebel group, Saudi-led coalition forces have killed 91 Yemeni people (60% of whom were women and children) over the past five weeks, injuring 168 others. The Houthis are exploiting the Saudi kingdom’s air defense problem: the petrostate is running short on missile interceptors, and is likely to push the U.S., France, and other Western nations to sell it more air defenses, even as those countries are running out of supplies as well. 

The Evidence Has Flown Away

  • Late last month, the U.K.’s RAF Fairford air base — which the U.S. military has used to launch bombing campaigns in its war with Iran — was put on alert after apparently being targeted in a suspected terror plot. Seven men were arrested in relation to that alleged plot, but all were released on bail with no charges filed against them. Despite that, the U.K. government is now claiming that the plot was “almost certainly” directed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

  • “I can confirm our assessment that it is highly likely to have been coordinated in Iran, almost certainly directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard,” U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham told lawmakers on Monday. “We will not tolerate these threats on our soil.” Iran’s ambassador to the U.K. was summoned by the British government to discuss the incident — he encouraged the U.K. to provide concrete evidence supporting Burnham’s claims. 

Additional World News

How A Trillionaire Spends His Pocket Change

  • Since July, Elon Musk has funneled at least $276 million into Republicans’ midterm campaigns. $158 million of that massive sum has gone to the Senate Leadership Fund, the main Republican PAC aimed at getting Republicans elected to the upper house of Congress. $76 million has gone to Musk’s own America PAC, an advocacy group he founded to help the GOP during the 2023-2024 campaign season.

  • While Musk’s spending during 2024 was considered eye-watering at the time, the Tesla billionaire has already outspent himself this election cycle. Across the 2025-2026 midterms, Musk has donated a whopping $366 million to various Republican PACs, which in turn spend that money on political advertisements and canvassing programs. That sum is just a drop in the bucket when compared to his net worth (roughly $1 trillion), but even a small fraction of Musk’s spending could easily tip multiple elections in the GOP’s favor.

The Society Of The Bloody Spectacle

  • Last Thursday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that Nidal Hasan, a former U.S. Army psychiatrist who shot and killed 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009, would be executed via firing squad in a livestreamed public broadcast on December 3. The announcement was met with widespread opposition — the U.N. stated that a livestreamed would be “tantamount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition of torture.” 

  • Experts also expressed doubts that Hasan’s execution could legally be made public. The execution still has to undergo appellate review, which involves a high court giving a judgement on the legality of the execution. “Seeking to make it livestreamed, a firing squad execution, is little more than attention-seeking by the Trump administration and is unlikely to occur, much less deliver any semblance of justice,” said one lawyer who works with people sentenced to death, adding that the decision to livestream the event was “unprecedented in the modern era.” 

  • On Monday, the archbishop of the U.S. military even condemned the plans. “The US military generally enjoys a good reputation in the world,” said Archbishop Timothy Broglio, adding that Catholic soldiers called up for the firing squad should ask to excuse themselves from the assignment. “Is there really a value to throwing them in the same boat with terrorists by broadcasting the image of the execution of a man in a wheelchair to the whole world?”

Additional USA News

 

The Rat-Feeding Billionaire Of Lincoln Park

  • A Chicago billionaire has been accused of running a rodent-feeding operation that’s fueled a rat infestation near Green City Market, a local farmer’s market. According to city government documents, “For more than three years,” Chicago billionaire Barre Seid has “hired individuals to place nuts, seeds and other foods around” in the area surrounding his home near Chicago’s Lincoln Park; that operation has since expanded into the park, where those individuals place food “around and in trees and throughout the park,” leading to a boom in the park’s rat population.

  • According to multiple locals, workers wearing identical satchels have been spotted in the park dumping piles of nuts across Lincoln Park. “It’s like a luxury mélange of really nice nuts: I’m talking Brazil nuts and walnuts…these are not acorns,” said one resident. Others have complained that the infestation has made the park unsafe for children. A local official told a news station that the operation was traced back to Seid’s house — apparently, the billionaire has been paying people to scatter the luxury nuts, and has also been paying for the citations that the city has been giving the workers for violating dumping laws. 

  • Making things even more interesting is the fact that Seid, 94, is behind the largest political advocacy donation in history; in 2022, he donated his entire company (Tripp Lite) to a PAC run by conservative activist Leonard Leo. The transaction essentially netted the PAC over $1.6 billion. At the moment, though, it’s not clear if the 94-year-old is behind the rat-feeding campaign — when local media knocked on his door, an unnamed woman answered before declining to comment on the operation.

Additional Reads

Peanut For Your Thoughts

Just had a really great breakfast burrito at Macheen in LA. Never thought a breakfast burrito could taste that good

Editor + Writer: Marcus Gee-Lim

Designer: Joe Stella