- Sarah Lazare, In These Times: Dockworkers unions in France, Greece, Basque Country, Turkey, Morocco, and Italy are calling an international day of action “against war and militarization” on October 30. They are demanding an end to “the genocide of the Palestinian people” and the “US-Israeli wars of aggression in the Middle East and against Iran.” “Each union will decide the most appropriate form of mobilization according to its national circumstances, starting from strike action and from a shared commitment to prevent the loading of death and destruction,” reads a joint statement from the unions, which was sent to Workday Magazine and In These Times. Together, the unions represent workers at 40 ports in Europe and the Mediterranean. Their call for an escalation emerged from a meeting of the port workers unions held in Istanbul in May. The announcement also expresses “full solidarity with the peoples of Cuba, Venezuela and Sudan,” and declares that “ports must not be used for the transport of arms, ammunition, military equipment or troops destined for war zones.” “No to the war economy, government rearmament plans, and the project of militarization of ports and strategic infrastructure from [the] EU,” the unions assert in their statement. “Public resources must be used to meet people’s social needs, not to finance war.” Signatories include CGT FNPD in France, ENEDEP in Greece, LAB in Basque Country, LIMAN-IS in Turkey, ODT in Morocco, and ORSA Porti and USB in Italy.
- By Antonio Mazzeo a teacher, peace-researcher and essayist committed to the issues of peace disarmament, the environment, human rights and the fight against mafia crime. He focused his work and his denunciations on US and NATO military bases in Italy: "In the coming weeks — I foresee a military escalation of the US armed forces on the African continent, not only in East Africa, where offensive operations in Somalia continue, but there is talk, the US press has revealed, that there are already plans for a massive intervention in the SAEL area, particularly in Mali. And I want to point out that, among other things, the US, with the support of Sigonella and Italian military bases such as those in Vicenza and Naples Capodichino, operated directly by bombing territory in Nigeria."
- OrinocoTribune.com: Venezuelan grassroots and Palestine solidarity organizations have condemned the Venezuelan government’s controversial decision to initiate consular ties with the Zionist entity of “Israel,” warning that the measure contradicts the Bolivarian Revolution’s historic anti-imperialist principles and solidarity with the Palestinian people. The latest condemnations from the Brigada 13 de Abril and the Venezuelan Movement in Solidarity with Palestine Al Awda add to an earlier condemnation by the Canaan Palestinian People’s Relief Association, which described the rapprochement as a painful blow to the Bolivarian revolutionary struggle. The Brigada 13 de Abril declared its firm, categorical, and irrevocable opposition to any attempt to resume diplomatic, consular, or commercial relations with the Zionist regime. For these organizations, accepting emergency earthquake assistance cannot become a pretext for rehabilitating Zionism, abandoning Palestine, or shaking hands with a regime whose hands remain stained with Palestinian blood.
- Lebanon has received messages indicating that Israel is preparing to launch an offensive to seize the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge, Al Joumhouria reported on August 14, citing a senior security official. The report said Israel is ready for the operation in southern Lebanon and is awaiting a green light from the US, which brokered a ceasefire, between the two countries last June. The security official told the Lebanese newspaper that the US side had informed Beirut that it could not completely prevent the Israeli operation, but had requested that it be a precise, surgical move with minimal civilian casualties and that it not harm the framework agreement. [Don't count on that.]
- Economist Michael Hudson on The Regime Change at Home: Iran prepared for punishment, America prepared for spectacle, the war is exposing which system can endure. Higher diesel prices squeeze truckers, fertilizer shortages hit farmers, expensive aviation fuel cuts routes. Beneath the stock market, the chain of payments is tightening across the productive economy. Trump sought regime change abroad, delayed the reckoning until November, and brought the crisis home.
- Iran has unveiled a large collection of US & Israeli aircraft & UAV wreckage recovered during the recent war, displayed inside an underground IRGC Aerospace Force base. Iran says some UAVs were also recovered largely intact despite multiple methods to evade air-defense detection and interception. Iran also displayed the remains of a US F-15 shot down on April 3. According to the IRGC, the aircraft was shot down using a new domestically produced air-defense system and missile combined with unconventional tactics, leaving its crew only seconds to react before impact. The IRGC says more than 85% of its air-defense production infrastructure survived the war, allowing production and deliveries to continue without significant interruption. Production rates for several missiles and systems that proved effective during the fighting have reportedly since risen above pre-war levels. Also displayed are Starlink terminals, which Iran says were associated with communications involving US and Israeli UAV operations and networks inside Iran. 171 aircrafts (majority drones) were hit during the war, including 10 crewed aircraft, alongside numerous UAVs and cruise missiles. Iran says the wreckage displayed at the underground facility represents only a portion of the aircraft and drones it has brought down.
- Atul Chandra is a co-coordinator of Tricontinental Asia: This summer, students marched through Delhi, India, in cockroach masks. The masks were a response to India’s Chief Justice Surya Kant calling the country’s unemployed youth ‘cockroaches’. India’s youth reclaimed the insult, naming their movement the Cockroach Janta Party. After a medical entrance examination was leaked, a wave of students committed suicide and Indian educator and activist Sonam Wangchuk went on a twenty-six-day hunger strike. These events culminated in the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on 25 July – the first cabinet resignation forced from Prime Minister Modi’s government in twelve years. The mainstream media has filed these events under the simplistic label of ‘Gen Z’. However, the ‘cockroaches’ are not a generation but a stratum of people whom the economic system treats as disposable – an unwanted surplus of humanity. The young people in Delhi were not protesting their age; they were protesting a socioeconomic system that had failed them. In 2022, graduate unemployment in India stood at 29% – nine times the rate among those who never went to school. In other words, a more educated Indian is more likely to be unemployed. We at the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research call this a class struggle, rather than a struggle between generations. Similar conditions can be found across the region – from Sri Lanka to Nepal. Genuine anger is everywhere, but the outcome is decided by which forces have the organizational capacity to capture it.
- Washington Post: American anxiety about AI is becoming a political force in the midterms. More candidates talk about artificial intelligence or data centers on their campaign websites than mention Israel or manufacturing, according to a Post analysis.
- Yahoo: US intelligence officials were skeptical of an Iranian assassination threat against Trump that was relayed by Israel and prompted an extraordinary clandestine maneuver that saw him secretly fly out of Turkey in an alternate military aircraft, current. The assassination threat was relayed by the Israeli government to the CIA, where analysts did not view the intelligence as compelling and conveyed that skepticism to Trump administration officials. [In other words Trump knew it was not a real threat but used it to try to rebuild his MAGA base and distract from other pressing issues.]
- ProPublica: General Dynamics wasted half a billion dollars to produce shells for Ukraine and delivered zero. The factory located in Texas spent $533 million on unproven Turkish robotic machinery in hopes to automate the process. However, robots caught fire regularly, smashed into equipment, and dropped steel parts. Giant presses required nightly sledgehammer beatings to function. The US Army halted two production lines in 2025, but never made General Dynamics pay back a dime. Since the shutdown, the General Dynamics unit responsible has received $2.5 billion in new contract awards.

- After Japan's recent outburst about Russia's ownership of the four southernmost Kuril Islands, Vladimir Putin held a strategic meeting with Godzilla to discuss a plan on how to deal with Japan's ever increasing aggressive behavior and militarism. (BTW look at that stack of papers Godzilla brought with him, the guy really does his homework.)






























