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Execution to be
livestreamed
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon says the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan will be livestreamed after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the execution would be “public.”
Hegseth, speaking to the conservative TV outlet Real America’s Voice News on Wednesday, said the execution of Hasan will take place at Fort Hood on Dec. 3. Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in a shooting at the military base in 2009.
“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public,” Hegseth said. Officials in the Pentagon clarified Thursday that the execution will be livestreamed and that more details would follow.
Microsoft
stands accused
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Trump administration is suspending tech giant Microsoft from a program to apply for green cards for workers who come to the U.S. to live and work using H-1B visas, accusing the company of fraud.
Vice President JD Vance said Thursday, “If you do the math, for every worker that Microsoft laid off, they replaced that worker with one and a half foreign indentured servants.” Vance spoke in a White House news conference announcing the decision. The H-1B program has long been a target of President Donald Trump’s supporters who say the program undercuts American workers and is rife with abuse. Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft hasn’t responded to a request for comment.
Iran strikes
stay on hold
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump says the U.S. will not resume military strikes on Iran before the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
Trump has hinted that was confident that an end game to the war cold come in the days before or after the election, while also suggesting he remained open to resuming full-scale military operations against Iran.
But Trump in a social media post on Thursday said the U.S. “will not be attacking Iran at any time prior to the Midterm Elections to be held in the United States on November 3rd.”
Mortgage rates
are up again
(AP) -- Mortgage rates marched higher for the seventh week in a row, driving the average long-term U.S. home loan rate to its highest level in nearly three years. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage climbed to 7.40% from 7.28% last week.
One year ago, the average rate was 6.30%. The average rate is now the highest it's been since Nov. 16, 2023, when it was at 7.44%. The housing market has been stuck in a rut this year in large part because of rising mortgage rates, which can add hundreds of dollars a month in costs for borrowers, limiting homebuyers' purchasing power and prompting many to put off buying a home.