Saudi-Israeli-U.S. war on Yemen heats up, U.N. cutting Gaza food

• The UN’s World Food Program says it will cut monthly food assistance to 500,000 people in Gaza due to funding shortages.

• The IRGC Spokesman stated on Twitter that 'Seven Strategic Undersea Cables' located beneath the Strait of Hormuz will be destroyed during the next war. “All Internet and financial traffic in the region passes through these cables”.

• Ahmed Eldin: I worked at Al Jazeera on and off for a long time. I’ve sat in its newsrooms, logged onto its networks, and flew to Doha for the Al Jazeera Forum and dozens of other work events. I learned that Israeli spyware had been sitting inside 45 of the network’s computers, having arrived through banner ads for phones and earbuds, bought on the open market and shown on everyday websites. Nobody had to click. The ad loaded and the computer was taken. Every newsroom security training teaches people to avoid strange links, and that training was useless here. The infections ran through 2024 and 2025. Those were also the years Israel killed at least a dozen of Al Jazeera’s journalists in Gaza. In the same period an Israeli military intelligence unit, which +972 Magazine called the Legitimization Cell, built files casting Gaza reporters as Hamas operatives. Anas al-Sharif was named in those files. The army’s Arabic spokesman attacked him by video. Then Israel killed him in a tent outside al-Shifa hospital, along with his colleagues. While Israel hunted Al Jazeera’s reporters in the field, someone was reading over the shoulders of the people at their desks.  

• Several delegations including the delegation representing the Islamic Republic of Iran, walked out of the summit venue in Baku, "Republic of Azerbaijan", on Oct 15 during the speech by Isaac Herzog, the president of the Zionist regime, at the 7th summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA). In addition to Iran, 12 other delegations out of the total 28 left the hall in protest. The delegations from Iran, Palestine, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iraq, Egypt, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangladesh among those that walked out. 

• World Socialist Web: Ukraine attacked Russia with more than 1,000 drones overnight last Saturday, in the largest bombardment of St. Petersburg since WW2. The attack, in which Russia’s Defense Ministry counted 1,015 drones across 15 regions, Crimea and the Black Sea, was one of the heaviest bombardments of Russian territory since the war began. These strikes are directly funded by the NATO powers, which have provided Ukraine with over $100 billion in weapons, and are carried out on the basis of targeting data provided directly by their militaries. Since 2022, these wars have merged into a single global conflagration. It includes the US-NATO war against Russia in Ukraine; the Israeli genocide in Palestine and Lebanon, armed and defended by Washington; the bombing of Iran in June 2025; and the war against Iran launched on February 28 of this year. The objective is the redivision of the world among the old imperialist powers. This violent and ongoing project includes the breakup of the existing Russian state, which will open up the vast Eurasian landmass to unfettered capitalist exploitation. For the oligarchs of finance capital, the loss of a few hundred million lives would be a small price to pay for this rich prize. In 2014, the US funded, armed and supported the coup that overthrew the pro-Russian government of Ukrainian President Yanukovych and installed the present regime, a dictatorship ruling under martial law. Since then the US and NATO surged money and weapons to Ukraine, turning it into a frontline state for war against Russia.  

• The Department of War has created the US Prayer Force, a new joint military initiative designed to integrate battlefield prayer, strategic supplication, and faith-based force multiplication into America’s national defense posture. The Prayer Force, informally known inside the Pentagon as “the Kneeling Eagles,” will operate under the newly created Office of Spiritual Superiority and will coordinate with combatant commands, chaplain corps personnel, defense contractors, and selected congressional faith-leadership caucuses. 

• Two US-based activists have been ordered by the Department of Justice to testify in mysterious grand jury proceedings, even after they served two months in jail for impeding production of one of Israel’s biggest arms suppliers. They’re not the only ones, they say — and are urging anyone slapped with a similar subpoena to seek free legal counsel. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has begun quietly subpoenaing American activists who disrupted operations at an Israeli weapons manufacturing facility in New Hampshire responsible for arming the Israeli army amid its ongoing ethnic cleansing campaigns in Gaza and southern Lebanon, according to documents reviewed by The Grayzone. Prosecutors originally sought to jail both of the young women and a third activist, Calla Walsh, for 37 years each, for helping deface the exterior of Israel’s Elbit Systems weapons manufacturing facility in Merrimack, New Hampshire, and using bike locks to temporarily impede access to the main entrance. The subpoenas insist that Ross and Shergalis appear before a grand jury in New Hampshire on October 21. Though the subpoenas are dated October 5, they were only issued to the young women on October 16, just five days before the date on which the US government is compelling them to appear — an unusually brief window which Ross and Shergalis say was likely intended to coerce their testimony and jeopardize their civil liberties.

• Egyptian President El-Sisi on October 17 called for an emergency parliamentary session to authorise a possible Egyptian intervention to defend Saudi Arabia if requested by the kingdom. Egypt is the latest country to publicly signal support for Saudi Arabia as the kingdom faces escalating missile and drone attacks by the Houthis, who control much of Yemen. El-Sisi said Cairo would take the necessary measures to protect Saudi Arabia, adding that it was “absolutely unacceptable” for the kingdom’s security and stability to be undermined. Saudi Arabia has secured defensive military support from Pakistan and Turkey through the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, which the three countries agreed to activate on October 5. More recently, the kingdom also received defensive support from the United Kingdom and France.  Egypt confirms it will support Saudi Arabia and deploy troops to help them fight against Yemen. Sisi is about to drag his country into a war for Saudi Arabia.

• Brian Berletic: 'Mecca Alliance' quickly and predictably reveals itself as more US 'Burden Sharing'. The 'Mecca Alliance' has recently announced mobilization against Ansarallah in Yemen as part of wider US proxy war on Iran. While Western media (and some alt media) presented the 'Mecca Alliance' as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkey 'distancing' themselves from the US, the alliance/pact was obviously the US extending its 'Burden Sharing Network' over these nations as part of waging war on Iran and its alliance network; Ansarallah in Yemen is part of Iran’s strategic depth across West Asia and US proxy war on the group has played out for years as the US seeks to isolate and topple Iran itself; Ansarallah’s actions are a direct, defensive response to this US aggression, simply laundered through Saudi Arabia; The only question now is to what extent the 'Mecca Alliance' mobilizes – while nations may be captured or influenced by the US, there is the possibility of commitments being more symbolic than substantive – as was/is the case with Egypt vs Ansarallah amid US pressure to expand its proxy war on Yemen; Finally, the US admits hundreds of its advisers have been involved in facilitating the war on Yemen as Saudi Arabia itself lacks the capabilities to wage such a war. It is a US war in all but name. The US is an over-extended empire increasingly draining its own proxies to compensate for its own growing limitations. This recent development is just another symptom of this process. 
• The US used 19 years worth of Patriot missile stockpiles in just 7 months in the war against Iran.
• Slovakia refused to participate in financing a new €70 billion loan for Ukraine for 2027, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico announced after the EU summit in Brussels. Fico stated that Hungary took a similar position. Fico reported that Ukraine requested an additional €70 billion from the European Union. Meanwhile, the EU had previously already agreed to a €90 billion loan to Kiev for 2026-2027.

• Air Force Maj. Jason Watson was arrested July 1 on the steps of the US Capitol after calling for the impeachment of Donald Trump. According to his lawyer, he’s now being held in solitary confinement 24 hours a day in what some legal experts say could amount to illegal pretrial punishment. The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) contains provisions barring officers from engaging in public political activities that are typically protected for civilians, including criticizing the president and other elected officials. Before he was charged, Watson gave a CNN interview on August 17 in which he continued to criticize Trump, accusing him of “flagrantly violating the Constitution” and “breaking the law.” Rachel Van Landingham, a former Air Force judge advocate and professor of law at Southwestern Law School, told Common Dreams that this “seems to be a blatant case of illegal pretrial punishment given that the nature of his pretrial restraint does not seem necessary to either ensure his presence at trial or to prevent foreseeable serious criminal misconduct.”

• Pete Hegseth is facing an internal party rebellion as Republican Representative Thomas Massie has publicly called on Donald Trump to fire him. Massie first introduced eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth in September 2026, accusing him of waging an unauthorized, illegal war in Iran and overstepping his authority. The friction escalated on October 15, following reports that Trump is considering removing Hegseth after the upcoming midterm elections due to the unpopularity of the conflict. Massie responded publicly via social media, stating that Trump firing Hegseth immediately to avoid a formal House impeachment would be "the honorable thing to do."

• Israel & the CIA are helping Saudi Arabia by sending them military assistance (Uganda mercenaries and/or military equipment) to fight the Yemenis. A transport aircraft, owned by Israeli businessman and arms dealer Barak Orland, flew from Uganda to Sharorah Airport in southern Saudi Arabia near the Yemeni border. Ukraine seems to be assisting Saudi Arabia to counter Yemen’s drones. Ukraine had previously assisted the Persian Gulf Arab countries as well against Iranian drones during the 40-day war.

Looking back Coal Miners Need Justice

 

I wrote this article for the blog on January 5, 2006. It's an important and meaningful article for me that I wanted to re-share.

I was drawn to the TV much of yesterday like a moth is drawn to a flame. I watched the broken hearted families of West Virginia coal miners react to the news that 12 of their loved ones had died deep in the Sago mine in Tallmansville, West Virginia. I was touched by the intense emotion recorded by the cameras as people learned of the deaths, three hours after they had been told that their prayers had been answered and a "miracle" had saved the trapped miners.

One woman screamed "they don't care about us," referring to the International Coal Group, Inc. who owns the mine. Another woman wailed that they had been abandoned by God.

I heard one man, whose father was killed in the mine, say that his dad did not like the working conditions but had to do the job so he could "put food on the table." Then just moments later, I saw one journalist say that the miners loved the work so much that "they'd work for half the pay" if they had to in order to stay in the mines. (Do they think we are that stupid - really!)

The Sago mine is a non-union operation that had 200 fines in 2005 for violations of the Mine Health and Safety Act. The Bush administration has cut 170 jobs from the mine safety program in recent years making enforcement of the act more difficult to administer. The man now in charge of the program is a former coal company manager who Bush appointed to monitor the very industry he worked for. The highest fine received in 2005 by the Sago mine was for $800, indicating that the mine safety program was quite lenient on their industry pals.

This was for me something personal. When I was a kid, living in England, we heated with coal. It was delivered to our home and we saw the blackened faced chimney sweeps go door to door in the neighborhood looking for work. It was my job to bring in the coal each day from the outdoor bin. I had tasted coal dust. For me the coal miners strike had some point of reference. I've paid attention to the issue over the years.

In 1989 I went to Carbo, Virginia during the year-long Pittston coal strike by the United Mineworkers Union. Nestled in the mountain hollows (pronounced "hollars" by the locals), I sat on the picket line for two full days with the striking workers. At first they were a bit suspicious of me, but after I explained that I worked in the peace movement and had been an organizer for the United Farmworkers Union, they made me feel at home.

The men displayed great dignity and fierce determination to protect what little gains they had made after many years of struggle. In that particular instance, they were striking because the Pittston coal company was planning to discontinue medical benefits for pensioners, widows and the disabled.

Remembering that many miners suffer from black lung disease, the cut-off of medical benefits at the very time they most needed them would be devastating. I will never forget the sadness I felt when I left the picket line to return home.

So America's eyes and many hearts turned to the coal miners in West Virginia the last couple of days. There are now calls for an investigation from the politicians in Washington. But until we deal with the fact that the coal corporations have unlimited power, and the workers have virtually none, then nothing much changes. Even with a mine safety program, as long as the industry runs the show the law is nothing but a cruel hoax.

Working people in America are being screwed left and right. The Sago coal tragedy is one more warning sign that we are returning to a feudal society. The haves are getting richer and the have-nots are getting poorer -- and dying. 

We need more than prayers for the dead. We need to mourn for them, and in their memory, we need to organize like hell.

Bruce 

U.S. seeks space superiority & domination

By Bob Anderson

Pentagon, Space Force and aerospace industry language, ideology, is important.  Without a doubt space is the high ground of all warfare now, space satellites are key.  When they say space domain awareness like in Vision 2020 they now openly declare space is U.S. sovereign territory including the moon and Mars. Some of the military actually use this language in forums as a comparison to when Britain and Spain fought over marine dominance. 

There is no discussion anywhere of sharing the cosmos with any other country.  In fact the main competitor China is described in terms of total removal from space activity.  The Chinese lander on the far side of the moon has them somewhat worried, it is a pretty significant accomplishment.

Coming off Ukraine and Iran the U.S. plan is to rebuild the domestic war manufacturing infrastructure focusing on one way attack cheap drones, Patriot type interceptor missiles and hypersonic interceptors for the Golden Dome.  Directed energy weapons are still not a reliable weapon.

The goal is to integrate earth and space into a seamless fabric of high-tech war. The big rush to build data centers and AI are part of this. Hegseth is moving all military branches to a model of autonomous war from sea to space, assuming many command centers may be lost in a coming war and the task of rebuilding in time of war will require super capabilities.

And nuclear reactors to power all these far flung missions from drones to the moon and Mars.

China and Russia are the imagined aggressors which supply the immediate rational for more spending, driven by the old guard war profiteer class.  A number of Zionist war profiteers are relocating to the U.S. rebranding themselves to get in on this flow of money. The NDAA is just a formality for what is already in process.

One current scenario propagated is that the U.S. lacks in everything compared to Russia and China.  We are so victimized.  Therefore what we must prepare for is that Russia might think they are going to lose if they don’t act soon so they will launch multiple nuclear weapons into space at low earth orbits to destroy the U.S. satellite communications and control capabilities. Bit of a contradiction there but it serves to get funding.

To that end the Space Command is rushing thousands of satellites into orbit, thanks a lot to Elon Musk with a plan to also integrate commercial satellites into military control.  Redundancy is the current counter to a possible detonation of nuclear weapons in low earth orbit.  A large number of space launch facilities are being build worldwide for getting more satellites up in space.  And the Kessler Effect is starting also.

But overall China is the main target.

~ Bob Anderson (Albuquerque, New Mexico) is a retired college teacher of economics and political science. He served in the U.S. Air Force and saw combat during the 1967-68 Tet Offensive in Vietnam. Later, he helped form the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. He traveled to Wounded Knee, S.D. in 1973 to support the indigenous struggles for sovereignty. He is co-director of Stop the War Machine which has organized major demonstrations opposing Star Wars and the wars of empire.  

TPUSA goes full zionist

In this episode of 51/49, James breaks down the viral moment between Ben Shapiro and the TPUSA audience — diving deep into what the Seven Noahide Laws actually state, the true impact of 1991's Public Law 102-14, and the broader shift happening across modern political commentary platforms.

What is AI doing to healthcare?

The Trump admin is using AI to analyze Medicare prior authorizations, and companies get 25% of the "savings" the system generates.

We found Carlyle Group and Patient Square Capital, private equity firms, backing this process.

It's the latest oligarch attack on healthcare. 

History lesson: Resisting Washington's divide & conquer tactics in Okinawa

 

This post originally from April 24, 2018 about a VfP solidarity trip to Okinawa to resist support citizen opposition to a new US airfield on top of pristine Oura Bay

About 700 people came for the daily construction gate blockade yesterday (Tuesday) at the US Marine Base Camp Schwab here in Okinawa.  Usually they bring in legions of dump trucks full of big rocks and gravel three times a day but on Monday and Tuesday they only did it twice because it took so long to clear the blockades from the gates.

On Monday the gates were shut down for five hours but on Tuesday lots more Japanese police from the mainland were brought in so they were able to clear the gates after about 90 minutes during the two different blockages.

As they drag people away from the gates they put them in well-guarded pens that they create by parking police buses next to the sidewalk near the gate.  The base fence serves as another barrier and they close off each end with portable fencing and lots of police.  I got stuck in there for a couple hours once and have made sure not to fall into that fly trap again.

It seems abundantly clear to me that the Japanese police and government in Tokyo have been completely outsourced to US interests.  There can be no doubt that ‘democracy’ in Japan (and Okinawa) does not exist except in a rhetorical sense.

The amount of construction going on at Camp Schwab is massive.  Just inside the gates heavy machinery are constantly preparing the ground for new buildings – likely more barracks as the US ‘pivot’ to the Asia-Pacific requires more facilities to house the transfer of 60% of all Pentagon forces into this region.  

So, in addition to the operations in Oura Bay to build the twin-runways on top of the water (killing coral, fish and the endangered sea mammals called Dugong) there are other construction projects everywhere there is vacant space on Camp Schwab.

I took delight several times when huge Marine Corps military vehicles were passing by us to step out in front of them and refuse to move.  The police were so busy with the gate blockades that they left me alone. I wanted the Marines in the vehicles to see my Veterans For Peace T-shirt and know that fellow Americans are also at these protests.  Some of them might easily dismiss the Okinawans for protesting but I want them to have to think about why these VFP guys are here.  Dud Hendrick joined me twice when I did this in the road.

At 5:00 pm on Tuesday as people were leaving the base I stood by the gate again wanting to have the GI’s driving off the base to see my shirt.  I got to make eye contact with quite a few Marines.  At one point a bus full of Marines with windows open pulled up trying to enter the base but they had to wait for traffic to clear so I ran out into the road and went up and down the side of the bus saying, “You work for a fucking police state.  This is not a democracy.”

I did this because by 5:00 pm I was filled with disgust and anger watching and thinking about how the Okinawan people’s demand that this new airfield not be built on top of pristine Oura Bay is totally ignored.  I felt intense rage watching as police are brought in to overwhelm people’s honest and heartfelt non-violent protests; hearing how several mayors who oppose the base have been defeated in recent elections by heavily funded and manipulated campaigns orchestrated by Tokyo and Washington; seeing the massive environmental destruction currently underway at Camp Schwab (and other bases on the island); and the general disrespect for the people.  

In that moment when I could come face-to-face with the Marines on the bus I was channeling all this pent-up emotion.  You should have seen the wide eyes of the guys on the bus.  The last thing they ever expected to see was an old guy with a VFP T-shirt and a Baltimore Orioles baseball cap in the middle of the road in Okinawa.  For me it was a priceless moment.  (One of the simple joys in the life of a peacenik.)

Today (Wednesday) there was an action in the bay with more than 100 kayaks and other boats directly confronting construction operations going on in the water.  We were taken out in a glass bottom boat owned by a man who lives by Oura Bay and for years has made his living by renting kayaks to people who want to enjoy the beauty of this sacred place.  He now has become a leader in the movement and his face carries the sad look of a man whose heart is breaking.

While on the boat we learned that in Okinawa fishing licenses are given to villages. The government went to several Oura Bay fishing communities and offered them a deal.  If the village would give up their license then the fisherman would be paid $500 a day each to sit on their boats and spy on any protest activity in the water.  In some of the small villages a majority of fisherman voted to take the money even though not all of the others agreed. This has caused widespread conflict dividing communities and even families.  If a majority of the fishermen voted to accept the money then those who voted not to do so have lost their license and their income.

These kinds of divide and conquer tactics are manipulative and evil and have no place in a truly democratic society. But Tokyo and Washington are not interested in fostering democracy. In fact their only interest is in dividing the people of Okinawa and creating the feeling of inevitability - that the construction of the twin-airfields on top of Oura Bay is unstoppable and thus should not be resisted.

Fortunately there are many that still maintain their deep connection to nature, justice and true democracy and continue to daily resist these crimes that are ultimately coming from the corporate oligarchies that dominate politics in Washington.

I am proud to stand and sit with these true heroes.

Bruce 

An artist against war

 

AN ARTIST RESPONDS TO WAR is a vibrant portrait of Peter Schumann, the visionary founder of the Bread & Puppet Theater, whose six decades of radical political performance have been forged from a single, searing childhood question: how do we as humans respond to the madness of war and violence?

​Born in Nazi Germany and shaped by the brutal reality of war via the aerial bombardments he experienced as a child, Schumann channeled this trauma into one of the most boundary-breaking landmark theater companies in the world.

Bread & Puppet is an iconic theater group that has helped to redefine political theater and public art in the U.S. for over 60 years. Founded in New York City in the early 1960s, the troupe revolutionized street protests against the Vietnam War by utilizing gigantic paper maché puppets.​

The Bread & Puppet Theater grew into its full form on a 250-acre Vermont farm in the 1970s, where the landscape itself became a stage that continues to draw thousands to its epic outdoor spectacles. 

​​Decades later, as international norms collapse and atrocities unfold in Gaza in plain sight, Peter Schumann — now 92 and still working with fierce urgency — finds his life's central question more pressing than ever. Peter continues his relentless work using paintings and large-scale performances to show audiences the true cost of war. 

Drawing on originally-shot footage and a remarkable archive spanning 60 years, film director Robbie Leppzer offers an intimate window into the man, his art, and his unbroken faith that creativity can stand against the brutality of power. 

AN  ARTIST RESPONDS TO WAR is a testament to the radical, enduring idea that art is not a retreat from the world — it is a way of fighting for it.  

Sunday song