Hegseth impeachment, New Dems threatened by leaders, Gaza underwater, U.S. threatens Iraq, Saudi's turn to ISIS

 

• Pepe Escobar: After spending 95 minutes on the phone with Mohsen Rezaee, the secretary-general of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) and number two of the Iranian government, three days later President Putin sent his private plane to Tehran to bring Rezaee and a small Iranian delegation to Moscow for a face-to-face meeting at the Kremlin. The meeting lasted near 3 1/2 hours. And crucially, Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was in the room, via encrypted phone. The end game is that Moscow now ranks its strategic partnership with Tehran at the level of its strategic partnership with Beijing, its highest. Significant technology assistance and transfer is under way. Russia has already delivered 12 advanced attack helicopters; a wide range of offensive and defensive equipment; and increased targeting capability, via satellite and fiber-optic drone technology. That means in practice that Tehran is even more prepared than before to absorb a US and/or death cult attack and to answer it with overwhelming force.  In parallel, the pathetic Iraqi Quisling government and the Islamic Resistance in Iraq have seriously started threatening each other, in advance of what is now ominously in the open: imminent invasion plans of southern Iran, in the Ahwaz region, crammed with oil fields, by American troops deployed in Iraqi soil. The Islamic Resistance has already warned Prime Minister Al-Zaidi that any attempt to arrest Shi’ite leaders would mean the fall of his government. As if all of the above was not dire enough, some sort of shaping rhythm has been established by CENTCOM, which is now bombing Qeshm island for 2-3 nights running.   

• Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) reading the part of his impeachment resolution how Hegseth ordered US military to bomb Minab elementary school in Iran, 3 times killing at least 170 children, school staff and parents. Tuesday’s vote was a procedural attempt by Republicans to stop the impeachment push by sending the matter back to committee, the Associated Press reported.  The motion passed 211-204, with multiple Democrats and Republicans missing the vote. Massie was the lone Republican to cross party lines. Eleven Democrats refused to vote at all - they could have ensured the impeachment was a success.

• UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese describes children in Gaza remaining in tents flooded by freezing rainwater as “the shame of our time.” 70,000 displaced families’ tents were flooded during the first 12 hours of the storm, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office. Displaced families continue to suffer amid widespread destruction and Israeli restrictions on the entry of shelter supplies.

• Tasnim News Baghdad: Disclosure of the details of the anti-Iranian mission sent by Trump to Iraq. Abdullah Ahmed Al-Dulaimi, a member of the Iraqi Parliament, claimed that Tom Barak, Trump’s special envoy to Baghdad, pressured the al-Zaidi government to close all the border crossings between Iraq and Iran, cut ties between Tehran and Baghdad, stop the import of goods between the two countries, and move towards establishing trade relations with the Persian Gulf countries. He added that during this visit, Barak told Iraq not to settle its debts to Iran with dollars, and that transactions between Tehran and Baghdad should be done only with Iraqi dinars, and that the country’s airspace should remain closed to passengers and goods from/to Iran. Al-Dulaimi stated that Barak threatened the Al-Zaidi government that if it refused to implement the American orders, it would suffer dire consequences. The Al-Zaidi government has agreed to the demands made by Washington so that this process can be implemented gradually and according to the schedule desired by the parties.  

• Tehran’s mayor made public transport in Tehran FREE since the war. It’s been 8 months and Iranians are still enjoying free metro, even before the war, metro tickets cost almost nothing. 

• US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee claims that anyone who opposes Trump’s war with Iran is being blinded by Satan. During an incredibly sycophantic recent interview on The Anchor Podcast, Huckabee was asked by the host if he believed European opposition to the US war on Iran was the result of mental problems. “I think it’s a spiritual issue,” Huckabee replied. “I know it sounds a little funny for an ambassador to be talking like this, but look, I see this as spiritual darkness, spiritual blindness,” adding that “Satan has blinded the minds of those and has captured their thinking.”
• Ahead of the election, thousands of Mississippians were moved to inactive status because the secretary of state's office paid $50,000 to use unverified data from credit bureau Experian to clean out voter rolls. Secretary of State Michael Watson told Mississippi Today that the rollout of the commercial data was "wildly successful." This unprecedented number of inactive voters led to more affidavit ballots, prolonging the count. These ballots must be 'cured', meaning to correct issues with voter identification or mail-in ballots, by Nov. 10. "Mississippi is one of the hardest, if not the hardest, state to vote in," one voter said. "As a lifelong Mississippian, I am used to us living in a legacy of constantly fighting back, and this is just in alignment with our legacy. And people ask folks from Mississippi, why do we live down here? Why do we stay out here with everything that we're facing? But we're fighters, and we won't ever stop fighting."

• Sludge: The nonprofit that helped get Professor Cornel West on presidential ballots in 2024 received all of its funding that year through a conservative political network that has been bankrolled by Elon Musk, tax records reviewed by Sludge show. People Over Party helped pay for petition drives to get the left-wing West onto state ballots in 2024 as Democrats warned he could play spoiler by drawing votes from Kamala Harris and helping Trump. A nonprofit called Interstate Priorities disclosed a $7.7 million grant to the group on its 2024 tax return, accounting for all of the revenue that People Over Party reported raising that year. 

• La Catrina Norteña: Now in Ecuador, people are calling for the ouster of the Miami-born Trumpist junior @DanielNoboaOk, who has his country mired in its worst security and economic crisis and who had the former left-wing presidential candidate Luisa González thrown in jail two weeks ago. "Out with Noboa, out, out with Noboa, out"...  
• Yemen military: Thousands of ISIS fighters have arrived to battle our forces in Yemen. Saudi Arabia is amassing mercenaries from every corner of the globe to kill us. We shall make an example of them—a lesson for every mercenary who has sold out his own homeland. Yemen has hit Saudi Aramco headquarters as a warning that more can come if they don't end their long war against the people of Yemen. 

• Ryan Grim: Incoming Rep. Don Leonard, a Democrat who flipped a deep red district in Ohio, said in a video he posted online that allies of Hakeem Jeffries had threatened “to make [his] life a living hell” if he didn’t get in line and support Jeffries [for House Majority leader] without conditions. Leonard's conditions: (1) A vote on a constitutional amendment to end Citizens United and (2) “end U.S. support for the war in Iran and the country, Israel, that led us into it.” Leonard said he was told he would never be re-elected if he didn’t play ball. Meanwhile, nobody has risen in opposition, though members can vote for someone whether they’re running or not. The situation presents something of a catch-22: Hakeem Jeffries isn’t vulnerable unless a challenger emerges, and a challenger won’t emerge as long as Jeffries is seen as invulnerable.