The Iran war and the ‘terrible power of the purse’

October 26, 2026
Alastair Crooke

Netanyahu is telling Trump that he needs now to finish the job of destroying Iran

Trump Doesn’t ‘Give a Damn’ About Iran War Price Hikes—His Oil and Gas Holdings Are Up to $81.6 Million

October 26, 2026
Jessica Corbett
“Trump’s Iran War has forced Americans to pay much more at the pump while Big Oil rakes in profits and the president’s own stock wealth in the oil and gas industry continues to balloon.”

The graph published by the congressional Joint Economic Committee on October 26, 2026 shows US President Donald Trump's stock holdings in oil and gas companies.

Trump Says US Oil Companies Are Making a ‘Fortune’ Due to the Iran War

October 25, 2026
Dave DeCamp

The president dismissed concerns over higher gas prices at a rally in Georgia

Iran says won’t allow US warships to get close as Trump ponders new attacks

October 24, 2026
Iranian officials, media and analysts sense war is closer, but signal there will be no backing down.

A billboard depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the empty hall of the United Nations, on a building in Tehran, Iran, October 13, 2026 [Majid Asgaripour/WANA via Reuters]

Slouching toward Kaliningrad, NATO dismisses a nuclear threat

October 23, 2026

Anatol Lieven

As it encroaches on the western Russian enclave on the Baltic Sea, the alliance continues to underestimate Moscow's red lines

A new 'Danube' approach to the Hormuz Strait is in order

October 21, 2026

While going back to the status quoante- free transit through the waterway- seems unlikely, there’s a proven way ahead that won’t breash sovereignty or shut off acces

Iran war live: Tehran calls for diplomacy but is ‘fully prepared’ to defend itself

October 21, 2026

• Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says “while ‌‌Iran is firmly committed to seeking a dignified peaceful resolution to the conflict, we ⁠⁠are also fully ⁠⁠prepared to defend ourselves”.
  
• Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian says the US cannot expect dialogue with Iran while blockading and threatening it.
• US Secretary of State Marco Rubio tells US media that reaching a peace deal with Iran is extremely difficult and economic pressure will continue until Tehran stops targeting commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
• Rockets target Al Rayyan Airport in the city of Mukalla and Aden international airport, as the Houthis say they fired a ballistic missile at the Badr camp in the southern Yemeni city.

 

El Niño is threatening California’s fragile coast again – the 1982‑83 El Niño opened eyes to the serious erosion risks

October 21, 2026
Fritz Holznagel
California’s coastal bluffs and beaches look rugged, but they can be surprisingly fragile in the face of a powerful El Niño.

Pacific Ocean waves generated by Hurricane Marie crash over a seawall protecting homes in Long Beach, Calif., on Sept. 7, 2026. El Nino’s warm water was already fueling powerful storms in the Pacific. Mario Tama/Getty Images

سیاست

تعریف سیاست چیست؟ در ویکی‌پدیا سیاست بدین طریق تعریف شده است: "سیاست فعالیتی است که به سامان‌دهی و حل‌وفصل امور در یک جامعه سازمان‌یافته می‌پردازد. سیاست معمولاً با حل مسائل و اختلافات درون جامعه از طریق حکومت سروکار دارد. افرادی که به فعالیت‌های سیاسی اشتغال دارند، سیاستمدار نامیده می‌شوند. شاخه‌ای از علوم اجتماعی که به مطالعه سیاست و حکومت می‌پردازد، علوم سیاسی نام دارد."ا

Minab Girls’ School Massacre: Hegseth’s “Maximum Lethality” Doctrine makes us all Unsafe

October 20, 2026
Alex Poppe
Chicago (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Back when I was an actor, I used to wait tables at the Divine Bar in Manhattan. We had a location right near the World Trade Center. One day after September 11, 2001, we had to evacuate the restaurant during lunch service. A human ear had been found on the building’s scaffolding.

Israel prepared to attack Iran without US – Netanyahu

October 19, 2026
The Israeli prime minister has pledged to overthrow Tehran’s government and made striking first a central principle of his security doctrine

Portents of Yet Another U.S. Debacle in Iran?

October 19, 2026
Eve Ottenberg
Donald “Blockade Everybody” Trump has said he is waiting till after the midterms to attack Iran again. This assault, he vows, will be the biggest blitz of the Iran War (though more recently he downplays the whole putative project), and he even rumbles that U.S. forces may invade (Ho! Ho!) But if it is the biggest, so will be Tehran’s response: so Israel would get barbecued, the remaining U.S. bases in the region would be obliterated, zero, zilch, nada, zip oil would leave the region and maybe an American aircraft carrier or two would be sunk. For all these reasons, Trump’s threatened blitzkrieg would be lunacy, and is very unlikely ever to happen. It’s such obvious lunacy, especially given that Tehran has defeated Washington pretty consistently so far, that one must wonder if this appearance of insanity isn’t the point, namely Richard Nixon’s “madman” approach to foreign policy.

Araghchi Says Iran’s Proposal To Open Strait of Hormuz Within Seven Days Is Still on the Table

October 18, 2026
Dave DeCamp

The Iranian diplomat also responded to Trump saying that he wanted to 'finish the job' against Iran

Exclusive: The Iran war is going to go ballistic after midterms

October 18, 2026
Francis Kapper
U.S. military strikes on Iran could rapidly intensify soon, a senior military official exclusively told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Exclusive: Iran, a coiled cobra ready to strike

October 17, 2026
Pepe Escobar
Iran and Pakistan are deep into building a post-American financial order in the intersection between West Asia and South Asia.

 

Iran will respond ‘immediately’ to any US threats to its energy facilities

October 16, 2026
Ali Mustafa and Mahmoud Sayed

• Acting Oil Minister Hamid Bovard says Iran “will take precise, appropriate retaliatory measures at the right time to counter enemy threats” to its energy facilities.
• The ⁠Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen says it intercepted a ballistic missile launched towards the Saudi city ⁠of Yanbu, two cruise ⁠missiles over the Red ⁠Sea, and ⁠three ⁠drones in the southern and Riyadh regions.
  
• Iran’s navy says a “violating tanker” has “caught fire” after it “turned off its tracking systems and attempted to cross the prohibited area in the Sea of Oman”.
• Washington Post calls for investigation after its photojournalist was among several people injured during a pogrom by settlers amid multiple attacks on olive pickers in villages in the occupied West Bank.

 

Iranian Negotiator Insists US Keep the Deal

October 15, 2026
Dave DeCamp
The Iranian Parliament speaker essentially asked the U.S. to fulfill its obligations under the agreement the two nations signed back in June, Dave DeCamp reports.

Trump’s war on Iran is poised to sink his party in the midterms

October 14, 2026
Michael Arria 

Trump's war on Iran is broadly unpopular among Americans, and it's poised to sink the GOP in the upcoming midterms

Social Security benefits will rise 3.6% in 2027, but that may not be enough to offset healthcare costs

October 14, 2026
Pankaj Agrrawal

Monthly checks for the nearly 76 million Americans who receive Social Security benefits will rise by 3.6% in 2027. The increase, announced on Oct. 14, 2026, is the largest since the one that took effect in 2023.

West’s death cult in a theater near you

October 14, 2026

Capitalism, fascism, wars, the Epstein class, endemic poverty and suffering – it’s a death cult in a theater near you.