Independent newsroom

Monday, October 5, 2026

The File

Every claim traces to a primary source. Uncertainty is labeled. Corrections are public.

Edition

Monday, October 5, 2026

Monday edition

Supreme Court

Supreme Court opens its term today with Boulder’s climate suit against oil companies

Confirmed

The justices return to the bench at 10 a.m. Eastern. The first case asks whether Boulder, Colorado, and Boulder County can use state law to sue Suncor Energy and Exxon Mobil for harm from climate change. Justice Samuel Alito will not take part. On Sept. 28 the Court’s clerk wrote the lawyers to say so, and the docket gives no reason. The second argument is from a Florida veteran. He asks whether federal trial courts can still hear a constitutional challenge to a law that caps disability pay for veterans in prison for a felony.

Full story and sources · 8 primary sources

Nobel Prize

Nobel Prize in medicine goes to three scientists who found a light switch for brain cells

Confirmed

Three scientists won this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for optogenetics. The method lets researchers turn single nerve cells on or off with light inside a living brain. Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel found the key protein, channelrhodopsin, in a one-celled pond alga. Karl Deisseroth turned it into a light-controlled switch for nerve cells, first in cells from rats in 2005 and then in living mice two years later.

Sources · 3 listed

Supreme Court

On Tuesday, workers must say what a lagging retirement plan should have done

Confirmed

On Tuesday the Supreme Court hears Intel employees who say the managers of their retirement plan picked investments that underperformed. The question is what those workers must claim to get past the first stage of the case. Must they point to a “meaningful benchmark,” a comparable fund that did better?

Sources · 2 listed

Supreme Court

Supreme Court agrees to decide whether people never legally admitted must be held

Confirmed

On Thursday, Oct. 1, the Supreme Court took three new cases. The biggest is an appeal by the federal government. It asks whether federal law requires immigration officers to detain people who live in the country but were never legally admitted, for as long as their deportation cases last. The other two cases involve a Kentucky church group’s building plans and a North Dakota divorce over a veteran’s retirement pay. The Court has not set argument dates.

Sources · 6 listed

NFL

NFL suspends 49ers owner Jed York for six games and fines him $500,000

Confirmed

The NFL suspended San Francisco 49ers owner Jed York for six games on Friday and fined him $500,000 for breaking the league’s

. NFL.com says York was arrested Aug. 23 in East Palestine, Ohio, and has since pleaded no contest to two misdemeanors, disorderly conduct and possessing criminal tools. The three games he already missed count toward the suspension. NFL.com says he can return after San Francisco’s Week 6 Monday night game against Washington on Oct. 19.

Sources · 1 listed

Justice Department

Accused ATM-hacking leader on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list pleads not guilty in Nebraska

Confirmed

Federal prosecutors say Anibal Alexander Canelon Aguirre, 50, of Venezuela, wrote the Ploutus malware, which forces ATMs to spit out cash. They tie him to the Tren de Aragua gang. He appeared in federal court in Nebraska on Friday, Oct. 2, and pleaded not guilty to four conspiracy counts, including bank fraud, money laundering, and material support to terrorists. He will stay in custody until trial. Treasury sanctioned him on Sept. 30, which The File reported that week.

Sources · 2 listed

Justice Department

Brooklyn day-care owner pleads guilty in a $65 million Medicaid fraud

Confirmed

Ahsan Ijaz, 29, of Brooklyn, pleaded guilty Friday, Oct. 2, to conspiracy to commit health care fraud. Prosecutors say his two adult day-care centers and a home-care company paid cash to Medicaid patients to sign up, then billed New York’s Medicaid program for services that never happened. Some of those patients were out of the country at the time. He is the 10th person to plead guilty in the scheme. Sentencing is set for March 10, 2027, and he faces up to 10 years.

Sources · 1 listed

Google

Google’s test satellite for computer chips in space is in orbit

Confirmed

Google said its Project Suncatcher prototype satellite, built with Planet, reached orbit on SpaceX’s Transporter-18 rideshare and is working as expected. Over the coming weeks the company will collect data on how its Tensor Processing Units, its in-house AI chips, handle launch stress, radiation, and heat swings in space. On Sept. 25, The File reported the planned launch.

Sources · 2 listed

NFL

Vikings, Chiefs, and 49ers reach 4–0. Patriots beat the Bills in Buffalo.

Confirmed

Three teams are still unbeaten after Sunday. Minnesota beat Miami 15–10. Kansas City won 30–27 at Las Vegas. San Francisco beat Denver 24–14. New England beat Buffalo 29–26. In London, Indianapolis beat Washington 30–13. On Sunday night, Carolina beat Detroit 32–26. Week 4 ends tonight when Atlanta plays at New Orleans at 8:15 p.m. Eastern on ESPN.

Sources · 2 listed