Iran's final warning to hosts of U.S. bases, Canada outlaws trade with Iran, Trump claims Nicaragua a threat

• It’s public now. Iran’s top security chief, Mohsen Rezaei, has warned European countries that US military bases in European countries will be targeted on their soil if they facilitate the US in attacks on Iran. Rezaei says he advises all countries that host US military bases on their soil not to cooperate with any US military attacks against Iran. This specific warning was briefed to Europe about a month ago, but is now public. He also says if the US make the mistake of attacking Kuh Kolang (Pickaxe mountain), we will not only target nearby bases, we will also target all American bases, even those located far away. Iran may target certain islands [Diego Garcia] that they believe are beyond the range of Iran’s missiles. He says Iranian armed forces have removed previous limitations, and in the event of a new war, “we will lift these limitations even further.”
• Trump claims he could “end the war with Iran right now but at the request of Arab countries,” he will, “continue the path of economic pressure.” According to him, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE, and Bahrain also prefer that the US does not attack and apply strong economic pressure on Iran. 

• Pepe Escobar explains the latest US strategy to take down Iran.  

• The Cradle: US efforts to pressure Iran’s neighboring states to close their land borders had failed, stalling Washington’s campaign to cripple the Iranian economy, the New York Times reported on 11 November. According to three Iraqi officials and a US official cited by the US daily, Washington has spent weeks urging Turkiye, Iraq, and Pakistan to close their border crossings with Iran. The US military has since launched Task Force Iron Gate, a Central Command (CENTCOM) unit tasked with blocking weapons, sanctioned goods, and illicit revenue from crossing Iran’s land borders and the Caspian Sea, thereby escalating Washington’s economic war on Tehran. Several of Iran’s neighbors have warned that cutting off trade routes vital to businesses and communities on both sides of the frontier could provoke “civil insurrection,” according to the US official. 

• Jennifer Rubin: Just as Democrats were resigning themselves to another (at least) two years of Sen. Charles D. Schumer (D-NY) as Senate Majority Leader, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) has stepped forward to offer a rare opportunity: a fresh start for a body sagging under the weight of history and a Democratic caucus badly in need of a revamp. On Thursday night, Van Hollen released a statement that set out the stakes: “In this election, the American people called for change. They called for a change from Donald Trump’s disastrous policies — but even bigger than that, a change from the status quo that isn’t working for working people.” He continued, “It’s now on us to meet this moment, and to do that we need new leadership. This is not about any one person — it’s about answering the call of the American people. That is why I’m running for Senate Majority Leader.”  Momentum for a challenger got a lift from organized labor this week. The 600,000-member International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers sent Schumer an open letter urging him “not to seek another term” as Senate Democratic leader, Politico reported.  

• On Tuesday Global Affairs Canada sanctioned the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). People in Canada and Canadians abroad are now prohibited from transacting with the second largest oil firm in the world after Saudi Arabia’s Aramco. The entirely state-owned firm has some US $200 billion in assets and annual revenue of over $50 billion. NIOC is responsible for about half of the government’s income and manages 10% of global recoverable liquid hydrocarbon reserves. NIOC’s 1951 creation was an important moment of resource nationalism and anti-colonial sovereignty. The first (quasi) former colony to reclaim its oil, Iran’s nationalization would lead to the US and Britain overthrowing the country’s first popularly elected prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh. 

• LA Progressive: On November 3, President Trump extended for another year the national emergency concerning Nicaragua, first declared in 2018, citing what the White House continues to describe as an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security and foreign policy. Here are some key figures by which to judge the scale of the “threat” posed by Nicaragua. First, some basics. The US population is nearly 50 times Nicaragua’s and its economy is 1,400 times bigger. Nicaragua has one of the smallest defense budgets in the Americas, devoting just 0.6% of its GDP ($116 million) to its military. The US, of course, has the world’s biggest “defense” budget at $1.5 trillion. Nicaragua deploys around 12,000 military personnel, under 1% of its northern neighbor’s 1.3 million. Its military has little or no offensive capability. Its principal duties include preventing drug trafficking, protecting borders, and conducting maritime patrols. The military also responds to emergencies such as hurricanes and earthquakes and protects the nation’s vital coffee harvest, of which the US is the biggest consumer. So, the notion that Nicaragua, 1,200 miles from the south Texas border, threatens US security is clearly absurd. 

• Chris Hedges: The belief that Democrats will dismantle a system designed to serve the rapacious greed of the war machine and the ruling billionaire class is a mirage. Power does not rest in the Congress. It does not rest in the courts. It does not even rest in the imperial presidency. It rests in the hands of Wall Street financiers, Silicon Valley, private equity firms, the fossil fuel industry, the predatory health care and pharmaceutical giants, agribusinesses and, most of all, the war industry. No mainstream politician, including Bernie Sanders, dares utter a word against our entrenched militarism. If you do, you end up like Ralph Nader, who was turned into a pariah by a compliant media and our corporate-indentured political parties. Nader spoke the truth. He paid for his honesty. We must mobilize to defeat these forces. This means organized mass disruptions of government and commerce as we have seen in France, Spain and India, and with organizations such as Palestine Action and Just Stop Oil. If we remain supplicants, if we hope desperately for a feckless political class to save us, the barbarians will triumph. 

• Sovereignista: The Argentine economy went into technical recession because estimates from major private consultancies confirmed an economic contraction during the third quarter of 2026, chaining two consecutive periods in negative territory. Analysts cut their projections, following the IMF’s trend. Under Milei: 32,300 businesses closed, Industry, construction & retail wiped out. Only growth sectors are financial speculation & sale of natural resources – 1/3 people in poverty. On Nov 6 a protester in Paraguay said: “The whole mafia structure in all of South America has to fall, Argentina is next, Milei has to be swept out.”  

• Ukrainian Cartel Outplayed by Cambodian Scam Rivals: Pressure from Ukrainian law enforcement on scam call centers is pushing their owners to new markets, with Southeast Asia emerging as the top destination. The Ukrainian narco-cartel Khimprom, which runs  scam centers in Myanmar, has been expanding in the region as Kyiv's crackdown mounts. But the newcomers fell for the same tricks they run at home. The group transferred over $50 million in cryptocurrency to Chinese money launderers who have long served Cambodian scam operations. When the Ukrainians tried to withdraw $20 million, the intermediaries said the funds were frozen. Cambodian groups and their Chinese backers see the Ukrainians, still newcomers with a modest footprint, as potential rivals muscling in on their turf. With local infrastructure built for local players, Cambodia is playing dirty. Score for now: 1:0 to the Cambodian scammers. Or $20 million to nil, depending on how you count.

• US should spend its money to fund its air traffic control (and other domestic needs like Medicare for All) instead of spending it on endless war$ which satisfy the zionists and Wall Street, while the public gets no benefit. The US had to ground all plane flights, about 8000, because air traffic control was 'outdated and they don’t have funding to upgrade it', according to the US transportation minister.