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Nov 2, 2026 - World

Independent journalist Ken Klippenstein reports that a military source of his gives even odds that the U.S. will strike Iran after the midterms — but says any attack would be smaller than first planned.Klippenstein writes that President Donald Trump’s plan for a decisive attack on Iran is now in doubt. Trump said last month the U.S. would not attack before the election, but Klippenstein says target sets were drafted and forces were being positioned, including a third aircraft carrier and two amphibious groups carrying about two dozen additional F-35s.Gulf Arab allies, he says, told Washington they would help defend themselves but would not join an offensive.He reports the plan frayed further when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lost his majority, leaving planners unable to count on Israel until a new government forms.In his account, Hegseth told the White House that a sea-based strike without Israel or Gulf bases remained workable. Gulf states objected to hitting energy infrastructure, and some military leaders warned that strikes on power production might violate the law of war. Hegseth responded by firing Army Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia, the top Joint Chiefs war planner, Klippenstein says.Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said last week, “Their plan is insane,” and predicted “devastating escalation.”Klippenstein says Murphy was referring to classified briefings. Citing military sources, he writes that Trump has criticized the proposed attack as “uninspired, worthless, and weak” and wants Iran’s nuclear program as its focus. He says Trump hinted on Halloween at hitting one or two remaining nuclear sites.Additionally, Iran has threatened retaliation beyond the Middle East, and people in Trump’s orbit have discussed responding at home with a national emergency, wrote Klippenstein.

Nov 2, 2026 - World

Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers of Michigan was paid more than $420,000 while serving on the board of the MITRE Corporation, a consultancy that is now working with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on the future of U.S. warfare, according to tax filings reported by Drop Site News.Rogers sat on MITRE’s board of trustees, at one point as chair, for six years until 2023, when he stepped down to run for Senate, the outlet says.IRS records show his yearly pay, and MITRE’s CEO has said Rogers was recruited for his “vast national security expertise.”MITRE is coordinating Project Meridian, which Hegseth announced Sept. 30 as a study of future warfare. Hegseth named tech tycoon Elon Musk, former GOP congressional leader Newt Gingrich, and defense entrepreneur Palmer Luckey as top officials.Drop Site says some have raised conflict-of-interest concerns, noting that former defense officials told NPR the project could push the military toward drones and space systems built by Musk’s and Luckey’s companies. Musk is one of Rogers’ biggest backers through his America PAC.Rogers’ support for the Iran war has been a liability as he has navigated his fight against Democratic opponent Abdul El-Sayed, the report noted. A poll cited by the outlet shows up to 67 percent of Michigan voters disapprove of the war.In March, Rogers said the war’s end “should be conditional,” but in recent weeks he has been trying to downplay his old hawkishness, even telling Fox News “we need to start wrapping it down.”

Nov 2, 2026 - World

Chemical tests on Aratasaurus bone identify presence of heme, the organic compound that allows haemoglobin in blood to carry oxygen around bodyIt could be the opening of a Jurassic Park rip-off: scientists examining ancient dinosaur bones find what appear to be fossilised red blood cells, and traces of the molecule that gives the beast’s blood its distinctive crimson hue.But that is what researchers are claiming to have discovered after analysing the hind leg bones of a small, meat-eating dinosaur called an Aratasaurus that lived and died in what is now north-eastern Brazil 115m years ago. Continue reading...

Nov 2, 2026 - World

Brent crude drops by more than 6% to $105.55 a barrel, the lowest level in more than two weeksThe oil price has fallen to its lowest level in more two weeks amid new hopes of a breakthrough to end the Iran war.Brent crude, the international benchmark, dropped by more than 6.5% to as low as $105.55 a barrel on Monday, the lowest since 16 October, sending shares in airline companies higher and pushing down government borrowing costs. Continue reading...

Nov 2, 2026 - World

Panic spread late Sunday as a prominent conservative figure with deep ties to the Donald Trump administration warned that the president was just days away from deciding whether to use nuclear weapons in his deeply unpopular war against Iran.That conservative figure was Tucker Carlson, formerly a staunch ally of Trump who has since broken with the president over the U.S. war against Iran. Sunday night, Carlson issued a warning that Trump, under pressure from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, may be “within days of launching a nuclear strike on Iran,” citing an “informed observer” and other inside connections.“We’ve been sleepwalking toward this moment for months,” Carlson warned in a statement published on social media that had been viewed more than 34 million times as of Monday morning.“Since February, the administration has quietly rewritten America’s nuclear doctrine to make first use of so-called ‘battlefield nukes’ easier and therefore more likely. No one in Washington in either party seems bothered by this. Now we’re on the brink of it.”“Now I can’t sleep,” reacted Hunter Biden, son of former President Joe Biden, in a social media post on X Sunday night.Citing “close observers,” Carlson claimed that Trump was “likely” to decide “by next weekend” whether to authorize a nuclear attack, with a “cornered and desperate” Netanyahu, fresh off a rebuke from Israeli voters, aggressively pushing to escalate the U.S. war against Iran in an effort to cling to power.“Tucker is extremely well sourced in the Trump administration and shouldn’t be ignored if this is what he’s being told,” warned journalist Ryan Grim, founder of Drop Site News.The target of the U.S. nuclear strike allegedly under consideration would be Pickaxe Mountain, an Iranian site frequently mentioned by Trump that Israeli intelligence has claimed is being used by Tehran to restart its nuclear program.“Fallout from a ground explosion at Pickaxe Mountain would contaminate the Persian Gulf, poisoning the water supply for 100 million people,” Carlson warned. “And those are just some of the immediate consequences for the region. The rest of the world is every bit as exposed… After the first nuclear strike, World War Three is inevitable. That war would be short and final.”Former Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene argued that such a strike would constitute “crimes against humanity,” and geopolitical analyst Brett Erickson warned that it would “lead to global economic devastation.”Defense journalist Tyler Rogoway, editor-in-chief of The War Zone, argued that, were Trump to authorize the use of nuclear weapons, it would be the United States’ greatest foreign policy error in history.“If a nuclear weapon were used on Pickaxe Mountain in Iran by the US or Israel or an empty field in Ukraine by Russia etc, it doesn’t matter, it would open up Pandora’s box and would make the U.S. and the world dramatically less safe,” Rogoway warned. “This isn’t even a question of how big of a disaster the use, in any manner, of a nuclear weapon would be. It would represent the largest foreign policy error ever by the United States if we were involved. We can only hope this claim isn’t accurate in any way.”