This Week in the World Affairs Brief
TRUMP REJECTS IRAN’S CEASEFIRE PROPOSAL
The big question is “what is Trump up to?” On the same day that Secretary of Defense (or War) Hegseth made his speech justifying purging one-fifth of US “woke” general officers, President Trump told reporters that he was at a decision point on the Iran War; “Do we blow them up or make a deal?” Coupled with Donald Trump’s threat to “annihilate” Iran, it looks like Trump is planning on becoming the worst war criminal in history. But why “after the midterm elections?” Perhaps what he’s planning is so horrific that it would guarantee a Republican defeat in the midterms, so he’s holding off until then. Some are worried that Trump is planning on using nuclear weapons to finish off Iran, but if he’s so unhinged to consider this, I think it’s unlikely the top military generals would go along with it, lest they be complicit in a war crime. To receive a free, one-time copy of the Brief, along with options on how to subscribe, click on Request a sample on the left.
Also:
- Europe Rearms and Ukraine Keeps fighting
- Russia and China’s Nuclear Facilities Growing Rapidly
- Israeli Influence in the Trump Administration
Late night 'heavy explosions' reported in southern Strait of Hormuz, Fars says result of vessels hitting mines.
Oil plunged after Trump said on Truth Social the US will not attack Iran before the November midterms.
Late Wednesday reports said Pentagon was ordered to prepare Iran attack options for before midterms.
Iran expanded tanker attacks beyond the Strait of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman.
In Saudi Arabia, Riyadh airport suffers direct missile attack from Iran-aligned Houthis.
The administration’s efforts received praise from Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., who spent years pushing legislation giving Treasury permanent access to Social Security death records.
“Unless you were playing Frisbee in the quad during Econ 101, you know the federal government shouldn’t be sending taxpayer money to dead people,” Kennedy said.
His opinion piece titled "The Blue-State Model for Education has Failed, and the Public has Caught On" states early on that one of the reasons the public schools have gone down the drain is because of the teachers’ unions. Early in the article, Turley states, “New polling shows that K-12 education has now reached a record low in the number of people who are even “somewhat satisfied” with the state of education in the U.S.” He then talks about the “education cartel,” a self-sustaining, self-perpetuating alliance between unions and politicians. The cartel has rendered families and students irrelevant.
The Omsk Oil refinery and industrial complex is located well over 1500 miles from the Ukrainian border. Regional Governor Vitaly Khotsenko announced Telegram that several drones were shot down by air defenses, but that one made it through to impact.
A legal battle over school vaccines has some Amish families considering whether they can remain in New York.
The NMESIS has a range of about 115 miles, putting it within striking range of vessels patrolling the eastern coast of Taiwan. According to The South China Morning Post, China has stepped up coast guard and naval activity in the area in response to maritime boundary talks announced in May between Japan and the Philippines.
Exporters have adapted through pipelines, bypass ports and extensive ship-to-ship transfers, but the system is more expensive, inefficient and increasingly stretched, with elevated freight and security costs.
"An Egyptian cleric, Dr. Talat Zahran, proclaimed that it is 'obligatory to cheat at elections, a beautiful thing' -- meaning that voting is a tool, an instrument, the only value of which is to empower Sharia." — Raymond Ibrahim, Gatestone Institute, May 22, 2012.
The same tactic applies to the Islamist project of nonviolent conquest of the West.
The mass drill involved tens of thousands of personnel from SCO countries to apply lessons from Ukraine war, Moscow says
The authors, including epidemiologist Nicolas Hulscher and cardiologist Peter McCullough, say the pattern survived a long list of statistical controls and rose with dose count.
Their conclusion is blunt: COVID-19 vaccination of children should cease immediately.
A California labor-and-delivery nurse says her Fresno hospital went from a handful of stillbirths a year to more than 20 in a single month once COVID shots were pushed on pregnant women, then answered the pile-up with an email on how to handle the dead.
The Justice Department's Weaponization Working Group released a report Monday concluding that former Attorney General Merrick Garland's Oct. 4, 2021 school board memo grew out of pressure from the Biden White House and turned the department's law enforcement powers on parents.
Quebec's separatists are returning to government with a promise to take the province out of Canada, reopening a battle over the country's future while Ottawa is already locked in a trade war with Washington.
Unlike in prior Black Sea incidents where authorities were quick to name Russia's military as behind the attack, it is curious that in this case the Bulgarians have not been quick to make allegations as the origin of the drones has not been established.
PM Radev continued, “As a state responsible within our exclusive economic zone for the health and lives of anyone navigating in this area, regardless of who is responsible, we are obliged to conduct emergency search and rescue operations."
"What is happening is seriously disrupting shipping in the Black Sea, driving up insurance costs even further and making shipping extremely difficult," he added.
Colorado’s Boulder sued oil companies seeking compensation for alleged damage from climate change. It’s among dozens of similar suits in the United States.
Saudi-backed forces launch major counteroffensive with roughly 100 Saudi fighter jets supporting attacks along the Red Sea coast.
Mocha's status remains disputed: Government forces claim to have retaken the strategic port, while Houthis deny the loss.
Houthis announce major missile & drone attack on Saudi territory, including against international airport in Riyadh.
Houthi fighters reportedly seize homes of senior government figures, including Parliament Speaker Sultan al-Barakani's mansion.
Bab el-Mandeb is increasingly at risk, raising concerns for Red Sea shipping and the wider Suez trade route.
There's no doubt that the tit-for-tat war on Black Sea shipping is getting nastier. For several months now, both Russian and Ukrainian forces have traded drone and missile attacks on ports and ships, disrupting vital Black Sea trade.
For Ukraine this national transit lifeline is even more important amid its war time economy. A major incident has unfolded Monday after an alleged direct hit by Russian drone on a Turkish cargo ship carrying grain from a Ukrainian port.
An internal investigation has uncovered widespread failures at the Internal Revenue Service after dozens of employees were flagged for suspiciously accessing confidential taxpayer records, including those belonging to government officials, business leaders and entertainers.
Syria's religious minorities continue to be targeted by extremists linked to the new government in Damascus
The legislation would help protect Americans from complicity, advocates said.
A federal law prohibiting noncitizens from voting in elections is unconstitutional, the judge concluded.
Despite high track records for accuracy, these tools shouldn’t replace human judgment, attorneys and tech insiders say.
"As long as I’m around, he’s going to be fine," Trump continued. "You know why? He respects me."
By this strange logic, Pyongyang - which has on many more occasions (than Iran) directly threatened the United States going back literally decades - possessing nukes is just fine. Or in other words Kim="friend"/Good, Ayatollah= Rogue Bad Guy, according to the simplistic equation. The inconsistency of the obviously self-defeating 'moral high ground' narrative advanced by the administration is baffling.
Corporate media describes the rioters as "French students" or "high school students," while alternative media outlets such as Remix News and Visegrád24 claim the rioters are migrant kids.
On Friday there are reports of another foreign tanker which has been struck and damaged in the Strait of Hormuz. Several similar drone attacks have occurred this week, and over the last few days - however unlike with prior attacks these latest are not being heavily featured in the media, and have also made surprising little impact on oil prices.
China’s recovering crude demand is colliding with collapsing Iranian supplies, intensifying competition for replacement barrels and driving up refiners’ costs.
Discounted Iranian oil is giving way to expensive long-haul alternatives, squeezing independent refiners’ margins as record freight rates compound higher crude prices.
Tehran’s shrinking export revenues raise the risk of renewed disruption to Hormuz, threatening 13 million b/d of oil flows and a fresh global price shock.
Local sources reported that a 2.5 million barrel capacity supertanker that was traveling through the Strait of Hormuz illegally was hit 8 kilometers off the coast of Oman and is burning
The night prior, The Wall Street Journal was the first to report that "President Trump has rejected Iran’s proposal for a seven-day ceasefire and has told aides he expects to resume bombing Iran after the November midterms, U.S. officials said." Here's how the president responded to a reporter's question Saturday morning:
Reporter: Will you strike Iran after the midterms?
The corridor adds a return leg to the Syrian route Baghdad turned to after the US war on Iran cut off Hormuz
Iran recently vowed that it would use ‘new weapons’ against ‘new targets’ if it came under a renewed attack
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