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The Trump administration is warning Gulf allies to prepare for another round of bombing Iran—conveniently scheduled for after Americans finish voting in the midterms.
U.S. Prepares for Another Major Attack on Iran—But Not Until After the Midterms
The United States has warned several Gulf Arab nations to prepare for a possible short but intense military campaign against Iran following the November midterm elections. According to The Wall Street Journal, American officials have delivered the warnings through diplomatic and military channels as the U.S. add Israel prepare for potentially renewed combat. President Donald Trump has not made a final decision but reportedly favors a large post-election assault targeting Iranian infrastructure and nuclear facilities. Trump has publicly ruled out attacking before the elections, even while acknowledging that another bombing campaign remains an option.
The military buildup suggests Washington is doing considerably more than keeping its options open. The Pentagon is moving an additional Patriot missile defense system from Texas to Israel, relocating vulnerable American troops, replenishing ammunition supplies, and preparing bombers and fighter jets for possible strikes. Another aircraft carrier strike group and a Marine expeditionary unit could join approximately 20 American warships already operating in the Middle East next month, although some vessels may rotate out. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also developed plans for additional attacks, hoping to weaken Iran’s military capabilities and potentially topple its government. The war, now in its eighth month, has already cost an estimated $47.1 billion through mid-October, including approximately $29 billion spent on munitions alone.
The potential offensive would represent a shift away from the administration’s existing strategy of economic strangulation. American sanctions and a naval blockade have largely shut down Iranian oil exports, severely restricted air travel, disrupted overland commerce, and deepened the country’s economic crisis. Some national security experts question why Washington would abandon that pressure campaign when its effects are already being felt. Others warn that further bombing could strengthen Tehran’s determination to rebuild its missile and nuclear capabilities rather than force it into submission. Iran has already endured more than 20,000 American and Israeli strikes during the war’s most intense phase without capitulating.
Iran’s nuclear program remains central to the confrontation, although international inspectors have reported no identified reconstruction activity at facilities damaged during the current conflict or the shorter war in June 2025. Rafael Grossi, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the United Nations Security Council that inspectors still lack access to the damaged sites and cannot verify whether Iran has diverted nuclear material. Meanwhile, Tehran reportedly retains hundreds to thousands of missiles and has been assembling additional ballistic weapons from stockpiled components. Iranian officials have warned that another American or Israeli attack would trigger severe retaliation against economic and civilian targets throughout the region. Gulf nations remain especially vulnerable because their missile defense inventories have already been depleted by previous Iranian attacks.
Diplomatic efforts to prevent another escalation continue, but regional mediators have made little progress toward restarting negotiations. Washington insists that Iran’s nuclear program must be addressed, while Tehran has imposed difficult conditions for returning to talks. Some analysts believe Trump could launch another offensive, declare that Iran’s nuclear capabilities have been further degraded, and then attempt to reduce American involvement regardless of whether the strikes achieve a decisive result. The administration maintains that its objective is preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, but the risks include Iranian retaliation, regional instability, and another costly military escalation. For now, the decision rests with Trump—and the timing reportedly rests on getting through Election Day first.
Editor: Another round of war can wait until the votes are counted. Nearly $50 billion spent, thousands of strikes launched, and Iran still isn’t backing down. But sure, maybe the next bombing campaign will finally do the trick.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Israeli voters appear ready for a change after three years of war, but Benjamin Netanyahu isn’t conceding anything yet (and probably won’t—EVER)—and the country’s fractured opposition may struggle to show him the door.
Netanyahu Suffers Election Setback, but Israel’s Opposition Faces a Coalition Nightmare
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suffered a significant electoral setback Wednesday, with exit polls indicating that his far-right and religious coalition lost its parliamentary majority. But the country’s first national election since Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack produced no clear winner, leaving Netanyahu’s political future unresolved. Exit polls suggested his Likud party would fall from 32 seats to approximately 27, although it would remain Israel’s largest party. Former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu’s principal centrist challenger, celebrated what he described as a public demand for change. Final results, including hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots, are still being counted.
The biggest obstacle to replacing Netanyahu may be the opposition’s inability to agree on who belongs in the next government. Exit polls indicated that Netanyahu’s bloc and Eisenkot’s potential partners each secured approximately 51 seats in Israel’s 120-member parliament, while Arab-led parties captured roughly 18 seats in a potentially historic showing. That gives Netanyahu’s opponents a possible path to the 61 seats needed for a majority, but only if they can overcome deep disagreements about cooperating with Arab political parties. Eisenkot has expressed conditional openness to such an arrangement, while other opposition figures have rejected it. Netanyahu, meanwhile, denounced the prospect of a government dependent on Arab parties as dangerous and treasonous, despite Arab citizens representing approximately 20% of Israel’s population.
The election amounted to a referendum on Netanyahu’s nearly uninterrupted 17 years in power and his handling of three years of devastating regional warfare. His supporters credit him with protecting Israel against existential threats and standing firm against international pressure. His critics accuse him of prolonging the Gaza conflict for political survival, weakening judicial independence, and protecting military draft exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jewish men. The wars in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran, along with escalating violence in the occupied West Bank, have damaged Israel’s international standing and deepened divisions at home. Netanyahu also remains on trial for corruption and faces an International Criminal Court arrest warrant over alleged crimes against humanity in Gaza, allegations he denies.
Arab-led parties emerged as potentially decisive players, with their strong electoral showing giving them considerable influence over Israel’s next government. Mansour Abbas, leader of the United Arab List, declared that Arab voters were no longer willing to remain politically marginalized. His party briefly participated in an Israeli governing coalition in 2021, demonstrating that cooperation across the country’s Jewish-Arab political divide is possible, even if highly contentious. Eisenkot’s supporters hope his military background and promises of national unity can bridge some of those divisions. The former military chief, whose son and two nephews were killed in Gaza, has pledged to form a government and usher in what he calls a new era of hope.
Israel now faces potentially weeks of coalition negotiations, with its president expected to invite the party leader considered most capable of assembling a government to try first. Netanyahu could receive that opportunity if Likud finishes with the most seats, but he would still need enough parliamentary support to govern. Eisenkot faces the equally difficult challenge of uniting opposition parties that disagree on fundamental questions of national identity, religion, and political representation. If neither side succeeds, Israel could return to the polls early next year, repeating the political paralysis that produced five elections between 2019 and 2022. Netanyahu has already made clear he intends to fight for another term, leaving Israelis with an election that may have changed the parliamentary arithmetic without settling who will lead the country.
Editor: Netanyahu lost ground, Eisenkot claims a mandate, and nobody has enough seats to run the place. After three years of war, Israelis may now get weeks of political trench warfare. Voting for change sometimes doesn’t guarantee you’ll get it.
Source: Associated Press
Flavio Bolsonaro lost Brazil’s presidential election, promised he wouldn’t flee, and then reportedly headed straight for the United States—where the Trump administration says he’ll be welcome.
Bolsonaro Flees Brazil After Election Loss as Trump Administration Offers Him Refuge
Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro has reportedly fled to the United States just days after losing Sunday’s presidential runoff election to incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Three sources told Reuters that Bolsonaro departed Brazil on Tuesday despite a Supreme Court order requiring him to surrender his passports. The order stems from a money-laundering investigation in which Bolsonaro denies wrongdoing. A senior U.S. State Department official confirmed that Washington would issue entry visas to Bolsonaro, his wife, and their two daughters. One source said the family had reached Florida, although their precise whereabouts remained unclear.
The departure came barely a day after Bolsonaro publicly insisted he had absolutely no intention of leaving Brazil. On Monday, he promised to surrender his passports and fight what he described as politically motivated persecution. Instead, authorities canceled his passports after he missed the court’s 24-hour deadline, and a senior Brazilian Federal Police official said he had not departed through any regular immigration checkpoint. The Supreme Court had cited both his financial resources and the risk of flight in ordering the passports seized. Bolsonaro’s Senate term expires in February, when he will also lose his parliamentary immunity from prosecution.
Are we going to find out (later, of course) that Trump put him on a US military plane and flew him out of Brazil on the US taxpayers’ dime? Yeah, probably.
Bolsonaro’s departure threatens to deepen tensions between Brazil and the United States, particularly given the Trump administration’s reported efforts to return the Bolsonaro family to political power. Reuters previously documented a State Department campaign supporting the family’s political comeback ahead of Sunday’s election. President Donald Trump has repeatedly defended former President Jair Bolsonaro, Flavio’s father, portraying him as a victim of judicial persecution. On Monday, Trump described Brazil’s presidential vote as apparently rigged, although the younger Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party had already acknowledged Lula’s victory. Flavio himself has refused to concede and says he will seek to annul the election over alleged voting irregularities.
The family history makes the latest developments particularly contentious. Jair Bolsonaro also refused to concede after losing Brazil’s 2022 election to Lula and subsequently traveled to the United States. He eventually returned to Brazil, where he was later sentenced to 27 years in prison for plotting a coup following his election defeat and the storming of government buildings in Brasília by his supporters. Flavio had been widely expected to win Sunday’s election but instead lost to Lula, receiving approximately 60 million votes. His sudden departure reportedly caught even his campaign manager, Senator Rogerio Marinho, off guard, since they had discussed Flavio becoming the country’s leading opposition figure just the previous day.
Brazilian President Lula condemned Bolsonaro’s departure, saying he should have remained in the country and defended himself against the allegations. Meanwhile, Flavio’s younger brother Eduardo, who lives in the United States, had already suggested before the election that his brother should leave Brazil if he lost. The circumstances surrounding Flavio’s departure remain unclear, particularly how he managed to travel internationally while facing a passport surrender order. The State Department’s decision to welcome him adds another complication to relations between Washington and Brasília. With a criminal investigation continuing in Brazil and the Trump administration offering entry to the defeated candidate, the political and diplomatic repercussions could extend well beyond the election itself.
Editor: Lose an election, claim it was rigged, promise not to flee, then head for Florida while Washington rolls out the welcome mat. The Bolsonaro family has turned refusing to accept election results into a multigenerational business model.
Source: Reuters
Anthropic wants to power the AI revolution, but its own IPO filing warns that America’s data center boom could send natural gas prices soaring—and ordinary consumers will wind up footing the bill.
Anthropic Warns AI Data Center Boom Could Drive Up Natural Gas Prices and Household Energy Bills
Anthropic is warning investors that America’s exploding demand for AI data centers could create natural gas shortages, drive up energy costs, and threaten its own ambitious expansion plans. In its IPO filing Monday, the artificial intelligence company identified rising natural gas prices and potential supply disruptions as significant near-term business risks. Technology companies are increasingly building private gas-fired power plants to run enormous data centers rather than waiting years for connections to the electrical grid. According to energy research firm Cleanview, planned behind-the-meter gas generation projects ballooned from 20 gigawatts in July 2025 to approximately 110 gigawatts by October 2026. That’s a more than fivefold increase in just 15 months.
The AI industry’s appetite for natural gas is growing at the same time American energy supplies face increasing pressure from exports and competing industrial demand. BloombergNEF estimates that grid-connected data centers alone could require an additional 15 billion cubic feet of natural gas daily by 2035, roughly a 15% increase in overall demand. Planned private gas plants could add another 3 billion cubic feet per day. Meanwhile, American natural gas export demand is projected to double over the next decade, creating competition between domestic consumers, international buyers, and technology companies. Anthropic specifically warned that competition for limited gas supplies and pipeline capacity could increase operating costs and make reliable fuel contracts more difficult to secure.
Anthropic’s growing exposure to energy markets reflects a significant change in how the company operates. Traditionally, it rented computing capacity from technology giants including Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, but it has increasingly moved toward directly leasing and developing its own data centers. Its $50 billion partnership with infrastructure developer Fluidstack includes facilities in Texas and New York, while other projects linked to the company involve major gas-powered installations in Louisiana, Texas, and West Virginia. One proposed West Virginia facility could eventually rank among America’s largest natural gas power plants. These investments give Anthropic greater control over its computing infrastructure but also expose it more directly to fuel shortages, regional price swings, and competition for pipeline capacity.
Texas and Louisiana are particularly vulnerable to rising demand because both states are major centers for data center development and liquefied natural gas exports. Enrique Gonzalez, BloombergNEF’s head of gas research for the Americas, warned that growing competition could push natural gas prices higher in those markets. And the consequences may extend well beyond Silicon Valley’s balance sheets. Higher wholesale natural gas prices can eventually affect residential heating and electricity bills, depending on utility pricing and regulatory protections. Gonzalez noted that producers responded to the 2022 energy crisis by increasing output, helping bring prices back down, but future price increases could still reach consumers.
Renewable energy could help reduce dependence on natural gas, but Anthropic’s IPO filing offers little indication that solar, wind, and battery storage will provide a near-term solution to its enormous electricity requirements. The company argues that renewable generation, nuclear power, geothermal energy, and storage technologies may not be available quickly enough, in sufficient quantities, or at acceptable costs. That leaves natural gas playing a major role in the company’s expansion strategy, despite the financial risks it acknowledges. The situation presents an uncomfortable contradiction for the AI industry: Companies are racing to build ever-larger computing facilities while recognizing that their collective energy demands could undermine the economics of those same projects. And if natural gas prices climb, the financial consequences may not stop with the companies building the data centers.
Editor: Silicon Valley wants unlimited AI, unlimited electricity, and unlimited profits. Anthropic now admits the energy bill could become a problem. Here’s a thought: If billion-dollar AI companies want their own power plants, maybe the rest of us shouldn’t have to subsidize the consequences through higher utility bills.
Source: WIRED
A conservative CNN commentator accused a progressive streamer of advocating lynchings. Now he’s facing a federal defamation lawsuit alleging he removed crucial context and turned sarcasm into a political weapon.
Hasan Piker Sues CNN’s Scott Jennings Over Edited Video and False Lynching Allegations
Progressive political streamer Hasan Piker filed a federal defamation lawsuit Tuesday against conservative CNN commentator Scott Jennings, accusing him of falsely portraying Piker as an advocate for lynching Black Americans. The 38-page complaint, filed in Washington, D.C., centers on an August 11 episode of “The Scott Jennings Show,” during which Jennings aired an edited video of Piker’s remarks. According to the lawsuit, the segment falsely attributed statements supporting racial violence to Piker when his original comments were sarcastically criticizing another commentator. Jennings subsequently accused Piker of supporting the return of lynchings, allegations Piker says were fabricated and damaging to his reputation.
At the heart of the lawsuit is an edited clip that Piker’s attorneys say fundamentally reversed the meaning of his original statements. The footage came from an October 2024 Twitch livestream in which Piker reacted to a debate between two Black political commentators, one liberal and one conservative. After the conservative participant criticized progressive prosecutors, Piker sarcastically suggested the speaker wanted to return to an era of racial discrimination, saying, “He said, ‘We need more Klansmen, okay? Can we go back to a better time when lynchings were happening?’” According to the complaint, the edited version removed the introductory words “He said,” along with Piker’s laughter and surrounding commentary. Piker’s attorneys argue those omissions transformed criticism of racist attitudes into what appeared to be an endorsement of them.
Jennings allegedly compounded the misleading presentation by adding accusations that Piker had advocated lynching Black voters. During his broadcast, Jennings warned Black Americans to pay close attention before playing the edited footage, which included an on-screen caption attributing an inflammatory statement to Piker. He subsequently described Piker as “calling for Black voters to be lynched” and referred to what he called a plan to bring back lynchings. Piker’s lawsuit contends that Jennings did more than misunderstand sarcastic remarks, alleging he used manipulated footage and an invented quotation to make accusations the original recording could not support. Those allegations have not yet been established in court.
The controversy also became entangled in Michigan’s closely watched U.S. Senate race, where progressive Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed faced criticism over his association with Piker. Jennings posted the segment on X, describing Piker as El-Sayed’s close friend and campaign partner while repeating the accusations about racial violence. According to the lawsuit, the post had accumulated approximately 2.5 million views by Tuesday, giving the allegations substantial exposure during an election campaign. Piker’s attorneys say Jennings refused to retract the statements despite receiving a formal written demand on August 31. They also argue that the accusations threatened Piker’s livelihood by damaging his relationships with viewers, advertisers, and potential sponsors.
The case now raises questions about the legal consequences of editing political commentary in ways that allegedly change its meaning. Piker argues that Jennings knowingly presented a distorted version of his statements rather than making an innocent mistake about sarcasm or context. His legal team maintains that the resulting accusations were false, reputationally damaging, and particularly inflammatory because they involved alleged support for racist violence. The lawsuit will require the court to examine the original livestream, the edited material, Jennings’ statements, and the evidence surrounding his knowledge and intent. For now, the central dispute is whether the broadcast amounted to protected political commentary or actionable defamation.
Editor: Cutting “He said” from a sarcastic quotation can turn someone condemning racism into someone supposedly endorsing it. That’s not a minor editing choice. Whether it was deliberate is for the court to decide, but two missing words are doing an awful lot of work here.
Source: The Hill
The Justice Department tried to prosecute a former White House aide over her January 6 testimony, but a federal grand jury refused to indict her—another setback for prosecutors pursuing Trump’s political adversaries.
Grand Jury Rejects Justice Department’s Attempt to Indict Key January 6 Witness Cassidy Hutchinson
A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., has refused to indict former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson over her testimony about President Donald Trump’s actions during the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The decision, reported Tuesday by The Washington Post, represents another setback for Justice Department prosecutors pursuing criminal cases against people Trump has publicly criticized. During a brief court appearance, Justice Department attorney Neville Hedley acknowledged that grand jurors had not approved the proposed indictment. Two people familiar with the proceedings identified Hutchinson as the intended defendant. The Justice Department did not immediately comment.
The rejection is particularly significant because federal grand juries rarely refuse prosecutors’ requests for indictments. Prosecutors generally need only establish probable cause that a crime occurred, a considerably lower standard than proving guilt at trial. The unsuccessful attempt followed months of pressure from Trump’s Republican congressional allies, including Representatives Jim Jordan and Barry Loudermilk, who referred Hutchinson for possible prosecution over allegations that she lied to Congress. The investigation was handled by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, an unusual assignment for a case involving allegedly false congressional testimony. In February, another Washington grand jury similarly declined to indict six Democratic lawmakers over statements they made to military service members.
Hutchinson became a nationally recognized witness in June 2022 when she testified before the House committee investigating the Capitol attack. Then 25 and formerly an aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, she described Trump’s conduct as his supporters gathered in Washington and ultimately stormed the Capitol. Hutchinson testified that Trump encouraged supporters to march toward Congress despite being aware that some were armed. She also recounted what another White House official, Anthony Ornato, had told her about Trump allegedly reaching for the steering wheel of his presidential vehicle and lunging toward a Secret Service agent after being told he could not accompany the crowd. Her televised testimony drew approximately 13 million viewers.
The account involving Trump’s presidential vehicle subsequently became a central point of dispute. A Secret Service agent who drove the vehicle contradicted Hutchinson’s description in an interview whose transcript was released in 2024. No other witnesses corroborated the alleged physical confrontation, although several described Trump as visibly angry that day. Hutchinson had attributed the vehicle incident to information relayed by Ornato rather than claiming to have witnessed it herself. Republican critics have cited the disputed testimony as grounds for investigating her credibility, but the grand jury’s decision means prosecutors did not obtain an indictment on the case presented.
The failed indictment comes amid several other Justice Department investigations involving prominent Trump critics. Federal prosecutors recently filed criminal charges against former FBI Director James Comey for a third time, alleging he leaked sensitive government information, accusations he denies. Authorities have also searched Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar’s home in connection with an immigration-related investigation and brought charges against Virginia Democratic state Senator L. Louise Lucas. Separately, two former FBI officials face charges involving allegedly false congressional testimony, which they contend are politically motivated. The Hutchinson decision adds to questions about the strength of these cases and the Justice Department’s handling of investigations involving the president’s perceived opponents.
Editor: Grand juries are famously reluctant to turn down prosecutors, but this one wasn’t buying what the Justice Department was selling. You’d think clearing the relatively low probable-cause hurdle would be the easy part. Nope.
Source: The Washington Post
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