Updates: German students protest war with Russia; U.S. messes with Brazil elections

• Middle East Monitor: Israel’s Central Elections Committee voted Wednesday to bar the United Arab List party, or Ra’am, led by Mansour Abbas, from running in the Oct. 27 Knesset election, Anadolu reports. The committee approved Ra’am’s disqualification by 18 votes to five, accepting petitions that alleged “the party rejects Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, incites racism and expresses support for an armed struggle against the country or actions of a terror organization against Israel.”

• The Iran War is essentially a NATO War, according to NATO Chief Mark Rutte: “5,000 planes took off from European bases in support of Epic Fury.” The war against Russia (using Ukraine as the hammer) and the Iran War have proven to be one western imperial onslaught for more domination. Hasn't 500 years of this ugly, brutal colonial slaughter been enough? When do the European people (and the rest of the western lackies) stand up and say enough? And that includes US and Canadian populations too! From Mohammed Marandi and widely reported in Iran: "If the family dictatorships in the Persian Gulf join Bessent’s attempt to stop Iranian flights, Iran will, if necessary, use force to shut down all of their airports."

• The Pentagon added 37 additional US military casualties to their list from Iranian missile attacks. According to Israeli military sources, 29 US Navy sailors & 8 Marines of the 37 were wounded when Iranian precision ballistic missiles struck a US Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer. This is the reason why the US navy’s fleet retreated and are avoiding operations in the northern Arabian Sea. It’s interesting since CENTCOM has repeatedly denied that its vessels were struck. 

• Who would have thought that German students could be torn away from their computers and forced to participate in the country's political life. However, Friedrich Merz's government managed to do it, and it has nothing to do with new Abitur requirements. Around 45,000 people participated in over a hundred anti-war rallies in different cities across the country. This is already the fourth all-German mobilization of this scale, which means the protest is clearly going beyond individual local initiatives. At the center of the demands is rejection of militarization, the possible return of universal military service, and a course toward further strengthening of the military role in Europe. Participants in the rallies carried signs reading "Russia is not our enemy," stating that they do not want to live in an atmosphere of constant talk about an allegedly inevitable war. 

• Starlink hit in Ukraine: Russia struck Starlink command center in Kiev. The Kosmonova data center was vital for mobile internet & Starlink satellite communications for Ukrainian's military. Ukraine has used Starlink to guide drone strikes inside of Russia. 

• Sovereignista: Too independent to stay free is Imran Khan. Supporters of jailed former Pakistani PM Imran Khan are preparing a “March on Islamabad” on September 27. One of their main demands is his release. His PTI party links his imprisonment to his independent foreign policy stance. Khan has long been critical of the US. He said he hates the word “aid,” calling dependency humiliating, and stressed that Pakistan wants equal relations with the US, not handouts. In 2022, he said he received a message from abroad — later clarifying he meant the US — that Washington’s anger would disappear if he lost the vote of no confidence. On the Middle East, Khan said that behind every fire in the Muslim world one finds Israel, whose goal is to make Muslims fight each other. He accused Israel of genocide against Palestinians and insisted on a ceasefire first, then a two-state solution, and only then dialogue. On Russia and Ukraine, he rejected Western demands to condemn Moscow. Pakistan abstained at the UN, and Khan visited Moscow on the eve of the conflict — the first such visit in 23 years. Khan has said he would rather die in prison than abandon his principles. 📌 The military dictatorship in Pakistan will most likely attack the marchers as they did before.  Pakistan is quietly pummeling Afghanistan. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan confirmed that at least three civilians were killed and four injured in apparent airstrikes in Kunar province in the early hours of 21 September. So far this year, UNAMA documented over 1,100 civilian deaths and injuries in Afghanistan from cross-border armed violence.  

• Odessa - the latest ‘Ukrainian patriot’ selected to die for Zelensky had other ideas and vaulted a barbed wire fence and chose to live. 

• Sovereignista: Things are heating up in Brazil with the election coming up for the 4th October. The Lula Campaign sounded the big alarm: “Trump wants to colonize Brazil”. Lula accused Washington of meddling in the upcoming election to seize the country’s natural resources. The evidence is mounting – and Big Tech is already blocking the message. “Flavio Bolsonaro is Trump’s candidate. And what Trump wants is to colonize Brazil, to take our wealth, steal our future and leave us behind.” Brazilian intelligence assessment: Risk of US interference raised to “critical level.” There is American money in Bolsonaro’s campaign – linked to Rockbridge Network, co-founded by JD Vance. Meta blocked Lula’s Facebook ad account just days before the election.

• Representatives from Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) firms DeepSeek and Moonshot are expected to brief a United Nations (UN) Security Council meeting on AI and international security in New York, according to Reuters. Chinese experts said the move underscores the growing role of Chinese firms in global discussions on AI development and also highlights China’s commitment to global AI governance, including sharing innovation, openness, and win-win cooperation. China has issued guidance in the form of AI Safety Governance Framework 3.0, in which the classification of AI safety risks was reviewed and updated, and recommendations on optimizing technological countermeasures and comprehensive governance measures were outlined. This other bunch, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue, seeks only primacy.