🇺🇸🇺🇦🇷🇺🇮🇷⚡️ — The U.S. Senate voted 86-12 to advance the bipartisan bill championed by the late Senator Lindsey Graham that would impose tougher sanctions on Russia and Iran. I wonder if the message is now clear to China. The US will never negotiate in good faith, its not about whats good for citizens, or even whats good for the state of a country, its decisions made for multi national oligarchs. ➡️ The procedural vote came hours after senators honored Graham's memory and immediately following a closed-door meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky, who watched the vote from the Senate chamber. ➡️ The bill would authorize 100% secondary tariffs on countries that continue purchasing Russian oil and natural gas, target Russia's "shadow fleet" of oil tankers used to evade sanctions, and renew U.S. sanctions on Iran that are due to expire at the end of the year.

Iran is expected to receive 300–400 Chinese MANPADS (QW-12 and FN-16 models) in a $60–70M deal, with first shipments due within weeks via Urumqi through Pakistan. The contract runs through a Hong Kong intermediary, Zhongqing Baoshang. China and Pakistan deny the report. Source: Reuters

🇪🇺🇪🇸🇵🇹🇺🇦 SPAIN, THE FIRES AND SANCTIONS AGAINST RUSSIA The European Commission has refused to ease sanctions against Russia to allow maintenance of Russian Ka-32 helicopters, used to fight forest fires in Spain. Madrid authorities had requested an exemption but were refused. In Spain, more than 121,000 people have been forced to abandon their homes due to the spread of the fires. The burned area in Madrid and Ávila alone exceeded 45,000 hectares. Portugal was also unable to provide assistance, having transferred its six Ka-32s to Ukraine.

🇧🇷 Brazilian President Lula calls for a long-term national defense strategy to protect Brazil’s territory, oil reserves, pre-salt fields and critical minerals: “If we have no defense, we cannot protect what belongs to us. One day, someone may decide to invade us, and we will be unprepared. Who is going to protect our oil? Who is going to protect the pre-salt fields?” Lula argued that Brazil must modernize its Armed Forces, strengthen its domestic defense industry and invest in science and technology rather than remain dependent on the military capabilities of foreign powers. “You think I want to fight China? I’m not crazy. You think I want to fight the United States? I’m not crazy. I don’t have the aircraft they have. I don’t have the tanks they have. I don’t have the bombs they have. I don’t have the money they have, and I still don’t have the scientific and technological knowledge they have. Instead of fighting them, I want to defeat them by studying more, investing more and conducting more research than they do.” Lula made the remarks during the 78th Annual Meeting of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science in Niterói.

🇮🇱🇺🇸Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: I have just finished an excellent meeting with President Trump. When I say excellent, it's not just lip service. A conversation with full partnership, with mutual support, with an understanding of the common goal of ensuring that Iran will not have nuclear weapons, as well as other goals. One of the best conversations I've ever had with a President of the United States, our friend Donald Trump. His entire senior team was there, as was our senior team, and here too was an opportunity to exchange ideas and also to coordinate things that are important for the security and future of the State of Israel.

—🇮🇷/🇺🇸/🇯🇴 Ballistic missile launches from Iran, targeting U.S. bases in Jordan

— 🇮🇷/🇺🇦 Iran’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araqchi, says he was assured by Ukraine that the attack against an Iranian ship was ‘unintentional’ and that Ukraine seeks no military escalation He says that Ukraine will pay damages for the losses incurred.

🇮🇱🇱🇧 — Lebanese banker Antoine Sahnaoui and former US envoy to Lebanon Morgan Ortagus were seen at the same table dining with Netanyahu and his wife Sarah.

🇮🇷🇺🇸⚡️ — Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Gharibabadi: Economic pressure has no place in Iran's decision on whether to accept proposals for talks. Venezuela's experience showed that countries can collapse within 48 hours under U.S. pressure, but Iran has stood firm for 45 years.

🇸🇩❌🇸🇩 — RSF general Khala Rabih Ibrahim, known by his nom de guerre Dabi al-Layl, was among the captured following the successful army operation in northern Khordofan against the UAE-backed group.

🇩🇿🇦🇪 Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, UAE IS VERY VERY SAVAGE “We have begun preparing to help resolve some of the problems. Sometimes we talk about a little state [UAE] because it has become very, very savage. Wherever they put their foot blood flows.”

🇯🇵 - Following the M7.1 earthquake in southwestern Japan, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi says injuries, and multiple deaths have occured amongst collapsed buildings. Initial footage shows injured shoppers and damage inside a Costco in Kumamoto. An explosion has also been reported at Aeon Mall in Kumamoto following the earthquake. Additionally, the earthquake triggered a landslide on Mount Mayu in Shimabara, Nagasaki Prefecture.

Netanyahu spent weeks trying to secure his White House meeting with Trump today, with US officials accusing the Israeli side of trying to "will a meeting into existence" through media leaks. Trump was resistant and Netanyahu was initially "blocked," with the sit-down only locked in after he announced he'd attend Sen. Lindsey Graham's funeral. It's his first face-to-face with Trump since the joint US–Israel campaign against Iran began five months ago. Netanyahu wants to press Trump against diplomatic concessions to Iran and secure coordination ahead of Israel's 27 October election, but the relationship is visibly more transactional than in the war's early months. Source: CNN

Israeli Minister of Energy Eli Cohen: We will not accept Türkiye's entrenchment in Syria. If Türkiye establishes bases in Syria, we will also act to establish bases within Syria itself.

NATO Scrambles to Rebuild Domestic Explosives Supply Chains Western governments are launching at least 24 new projects across NATO territories to rebuild domestic production of critical explosives and propellants. The industrial pivot aims to eliminate supply chain vulnerabilities exposed by recent ammunition shortages.

🇮🇱🇵🇸 — Israeli Defense Minister Katz on Gaza: Today there is no Shuja'iyya; there is no Jabalia. All of these terrible places you remember no longer exist. The Southern Command chief told me, "I don't see any houses—I see the seashore." We destroyed Gaza.

🎬 Benedict Cumberbatch, Benedict Wong & Alan Cumming have written an op-ed together, asking for the UK Government to block the Warner Bros/Paramount merger. “A TV and cinema calamity could be disastrous for what you watch and what you know. Act now to stop that.” they stated

Argentina's Milei: A company that pollutes the river... And where is the damage? Where is the damage? That company can pollute the river as much as it wants.

🇨🇺 America Is Underestimating the Cost of War With Cuba The Pentagon is reportedly examining military options against Cuba, including an air assault involving troops from the 101st Airborne Division. Turning such plans into regime change would open a war far harder to control than Washington suggests. 🇨🇺Cuba is not Venezuela. The January operation against Nicolás Maduro targeted a system centered on one dominant figure. Cuba distributes authority across the Communist Party, government, armed forces and territorial defense bodies. Killing senior officials would not automatically paralyze the state. 🇮🇷Iran has already exposed the weakness of the “decapitation” theory. U.S.-Israeli strikes killed the supreme leader and senior commanders, yet Iran replaced them and continued fighting. Cuba has spent decades preparing for the same threat. Its “War of the Whole People” doctrine is designed to preserve command, mobilize territorial forces and turn occupation into a war of attrition. Airstrikes could destroy fixed sites, but controlling cities, mountains, roads, ports and power infrastructure would require a ground force facing decentralized units embedded in local communities. Cuba lies only 90 miles from Florida. War could trigger mass migration, disrupt Caribbean shipping and leave Washington responsible for occupying an island of more than 9M people. The consequences would not stop at America’s coastline. A war would become a national political crisis across the large Cuban and wider Latin American diaspora. Washington’s own State Department now alleges that Cuban intelligence spent decades penetrating the highest levels of the U.S. government and building networks based on espionage, infiltration, sabotage and proxies. Havana rejects the report as propaganda, but if U.S. officials believe even part of their own assessment, an invasion would also expose military logistics, government institutions and critical infrastructure inside the United States to cyberattacks, disruption and covert retaliation. A raid might produce dramatic footage. Regime change would demand years of troops, money and casualties. Iran has already shown why killing leaders does not guarantee the collapse of the system beneath them.