Hack, disrupt, deny U.S. votes underway: 'Bye, bye democracy', US-Israel ready to strike Iran

• An Iranian senior security official in Tehran told Fars News that Iran has instructed its various operational units that, should another round of large-scale war occur, including a wave of assassinations targeting officials and the killing of civilians, Iran will consider political targets associated with the US and other participants in the war, as well as their infrastructure, legitimate targets.
• US keeps moving out its assets from its Al Udeid US base in Qatar. If they are indeed evacuations, then once Al Udeid is empty, the possibility of renewed attacks on Iran will be very high.
• Simplicius: As Europe’s daily warnings about an impending Russian attack on the quivering continent grow louder each day, it is the Europeans themselves that continue to posture toward war, accusing Russia of the most sensational absurdities imaginable. European tabloids and politicians alike have essentially merged into one multi-headed hydra, spewing its excrescence of propaganda at every turn. Some of the latest claims would be difficult for even children to believe. Take, for instance, last week’s offering that Russian “KGB” lavatory lurkers broke into the houses of Finnish MPs in order to “defecate” in their toilets as some kind of a mobster-like message. At the same time, UK news blamed Putin for costing the British taxpayers billions per year. 

• Iran’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araqchi: There is no reason to believe in progress in negotiations with the U.S. at this time.  We have absolutely zero confidence in the U.S. government’s stated desire for peace with Iran.
• The Cradle: Nearly half of all US active-duty service members oppose the military’s role in the US-Israeli war on Iran, according to a poll conducted by Change Research for veteran-led advocacy group Common Defense between 15 and 28 September. The poll surveyed over 730 active-duty US soldiers, immediate family members, and veterans and found that 49 percent of all respondents opposed the war, against 44 percent who backed it. Beyond Iran, a majority of respondents also opposed deploying US forces to back Israel’s military aggression against Gaza and Lebanon.

• Colonel (Ret) Ann Wright, Popular Resistance: While Palestinians are exhausted from the Israeli genocide and ethnic cleansing and the coordinators and volunteers of the Gaza Flotillas are tired, they like the Palestinians, will never give up challenging the immoral, criminal actions of the Israeli state. The latest of the boats on the journey to Gaza is the Kate/Tenacity. After a two-month journey from northern Europe, the Kate/Tenacity arrived in Sicily on October 14, 2026 with 12 persons onboard. The Kate left Bristol, United Kingdom on August 17, 2026 and participated in Palestine solidarity community events in Ireland, France and Spain before arriving in Sicily. 

• Korea Update: “Expel Gen. Xavier T. Brunson for acting like a Colonial Governor and Violating Korea’s Sovereignty!" Since taking office as commander of U.S. Forces Korea, Brunson has repeatedly made outrageous remarks that turn our country into a war base and trample on our sovereignty. The university students took action to protest and demand the immediate expulsion of Brunson, who acts as Trump’s envoy of war, repeatedly disrespects our sovereignty, heightens the threat of war on the Korean Peninsula, and provokes the anger of our people. The students’ struggle demanding Brunson’s expulsion was entirely justified and patriotic. However, the police violently arrested the university students who took part in this courageous and righteous struggle. We will continue to fight back until the patriotic students are released and the occupying force, Brunson, is expelled! We ask everyone to join forces and help secure the students’ swift release. Brunson, occupying force who violates Korea’s territorial sovereignty, leave this land! Expel Brunson, the occupying force opposing the transfer of wartime operational control! Expel Brunson, who is turning Korea into a war base! Release the patriotic student activists immediately! October 22 Korea University Student Progressive Federation reported that “More than 350 civil society organizations across South Korea condemned U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Xavier Brunson for remarks and military actions they said violated Korea’s territorial sovereignty, and called for his immediate dismissal.” 

• Politico: SpaceX is by far the dominant player in the rocket business and indispensable to the military, dwarfing competitors and accounting for 85% of U.S. launches in 2025. The company is phasing out its Falcon 9 rocket to make way for Starship, a massive new vehicle that SpaceX says will be more efficient and profitable, but which many military satellites aren’t designed to fit. The situation leaves the Space Force in a launch crunch that could affect the military’s ability to put its advanced satellites in orbit — and on time. The Pentagon has few alternatives to ferry its equipment, and SpaceX’s competitors are likely years away from being able to offer comparable services. “Everybody’s having problems, so the Space Force is freaking out a little bit about launch,” said one former Space Force official, who, like others, was granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue. 

• On Thursday, the first day of early voting in North Carolina, more than 100 students from North Carolina A&T and UNC Greensboro marched together to cast their ballots. They had to. The Guilford County Board of Elections denied both [predominately black] schools on-campus early voting sites, even though students had used them in 2024. So they walked. In 85-degree heat, A&T students made the trek to the closest early voting site at Union Square. It took about 45 minutes. Parts of the sidewalk were missing or blocked by branches, forcing students to walk in the street. When they got there, the line stretched outside the building. One UNCG freshman joined the march straight from class. It was her first time voting, and she said she wanted to make sure her voice was heard. Student organizer Xavier Jones had a message for the officials who pushed their polling sites off campus: "No matter how far away they put it, we will organize. We will march." Think about that. They made it harder. The students showed up anyway. Thank you, A&T and UNCG students, for walking 45 minutes in the heat to cast your ballots after your campus polling sites were taken away.

• Early voters in several states say their touchscreen ballots registered a different candidate than the one they selected, fueling a wave of complaints as midterm voting continues ahead of the November 3 election. In Nashville, Jackie Herrud told WSMV she ran into the problem while voting early at the Hermitage Library. “I kept punching for the Democrat, Jerri Green, and it kept punching back to Marsha Blackburn,” she said, describing three attempts before the machine accepted her intended choice. Stella Parton, the singer and sister of Dolly Parton, raised a similar complaint. She wrote on Facebook that her selection at the same library kept defaulting to Blackburn, the Republican candidate for governor, and that it took her three corrections before the machine registered her actual vote.

• The Press Bureau of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service reports that, according to information received by the SVR, a new cause for panic has emerged in Kyiv. The Office of the President of Ukraine has learned that US law enforcement agencies, while investigating the illegal activities of Mexican drug cartels, have received information about their collaboration with representatives of the Zelensky regime. The Americans discovered that criminal groups had been sending their fighters to Ukraine for a long time to train them in the assembly and combat use of unmanned aerial vehicles. At least 80 individuals were identified who had received this training in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Payment for this "training" was transferred to officials close to Zelensky from funds earned by drug traffickers from the sale of illegal substances in the United States. 
• Andrei Martyanov: Trump "latest shift" didn't materialize out of the thin air or because of Trump's good intentions. It is not Russia "sensing victory", which already has been won, it is the US "sensing defeat", which produced this shift. Well, Moscow will get it one way or another--it doesn't matter now. It is all about saving Washington's face, nothing more. The scale of catastrophe for the US (and combined West) in 404 [Ukraine] is monumental. History's turning point. Combined with defeats on several other fronts--from getting beaten up by Iran to Saudis facing a defeat--it adds up to a geopolitical earthquake of unparalleled power. Mr. Lavrov stressed it: "The West will never again be the main player, dictating terms." Lavrov stated that in its attempts to maintain dominance, the West is engaging in "unprecedented adventures" - citing the kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro as one example. According to him, the world is approaching a turning point - the end of the era of hegemony and the beginning of the formation of a multipolar, polycentric world order. Difficult to disagree.

• In the past days, the Yemeni army seized 14,000 Saudi vehicles of various types from the Al Saud mercenaries who likely ran off abandoning their gear. 

• How’s it going for Zelensky these days? Does he have the Colombian flu or is that him spitting on the ground in front of the Swedish king after what looks like the king refused his handshake? What do you think? All this with new massive marches in Kyiv opposing the Zman. 

• Defense One: A few months into President Trump’s second term, political appointees at the Department of Homeland Security made an unusual request of its agency focused on cybersecurity: Secretly acquire a voting machine and hack it. The appointees wanted the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to procure the machine, examine it and report back the findings so they could be given to the White House, according to two former administration officials with knowledge of the request. The proposition was shocking to CISA’s career staffers, according to one of the former officials. CISA typically worked to thwart hackers. Moreover, the agency had been directed not to alert the voting machine company if it uncovered flaws, contrary to its standard practices. The request made the CISA employees fear they were being asked to take part in political interference. “My thought was they could keep it in their back pocket to invalidate any [election] results they don’t like,” one of the former officials said. “This goes against everything CISA represents.”