Summary

No talks: Trump confirms US-Iran negotiations are off.

Hormuz attack: Tanker hit, injuring a crew member.

Houthis escalate: Attacks shut Yemen’s Mokha port.

Diplomacy stalled: Qatar says not mediating until Oman-Hormuz deal finalized.

Iran hardens: Tehran says it maintains an offensive posture.

Moscow Swarmed By 600+ Ukrainian Drones In Massive Overnight Barrage

Ukraine has launched another massive overnight drone wave on Russia. While this is nothing new or unusual, the number of drones concentrated specifically on the Moscow region was much larger than prior attacks.

Over 600 drones were sent on Moscow and the surrounding region overnight into Tuesday morning, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. It ranks among the single largest assaults on the capital of the war. Regional reports say it's the largest drone attack on Moscow of the last two years.

At least 180 of the drones were confirmed downed over the Moscow region alone - possibly more - with emergency crews responding to several crash sites, including at another Wildberries warehouse near Moscow.

Authorities cited that at least three people were injured in the assault, including a 10-year old girl. Smoke has been seen rising over residential and construction areas in social media photographs.

At least 5,000 homes or businesses are reported to be without power in the wake of the overnight strikes, regional energy provider Mosoblenergo has said.

The Associated Press has cited at least 800 Ukrainian drones launched across the whole country, as part of the same broader attack. The report further indicated:

The overnight attack started a fire at a warehouse of Wildberries, Russia’s biggest online retailer, in an industrial zone. Ukraine has repeatedly targeted the company, which it says helps supply the Russian military, an allegation Moscow denies.

Wildberries said its facility sustained "insignificant damage."

The online retailer, widely seen as the 'Russian Amazon', has seen its logistics hubs frequently targeted over the past month.

https://twitter.com/i/status/2089514557660069909

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/moscow-swarmed-600-ukrainian-drones-massive-overnight-barrage

NSA Blocked Reports Of China Interference In US Elections From Reaching Trump: Declassified Docs

Newly declassified intelligence emails reveal that decisions were made by National Security Agency (NSA) leadership to block reports of Chinese influence in American elections from reaching President Donald Trump.

Four pages of emails, all dated March 13, 2020, were released on Aug. 18 by the White House Government Transparency Task Force.

According to one email—written by an unidentified NSA employee following a meeting about intelligence reporting foreign efforts to target the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections in the United States beginning in 2014—internal concerns were raised about the agency’s suppression of the reports.

“We did not know why we were here, trying to defend the election and identify threats to it, if we were unable to actually report what those threats were because of issues like this,” the NSA employee wrote.

According to another email, NSA analysts had proposed releasing the reports in 2018.

Task force officials are digging through files to determine why evidence of the Chinese Communist Party’s attempts to influence the elections was not passed on to the president, Congress, and some intelligence leaders, including then Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, now CIA director.

Certain aspects of the reports on the Chinese election influence were censored because “it was judged that some of the details regarding the 2016 election were ‘sensational’ and so required a limited distribution [redacted],” an NSA analyst wrote, noting that colleagues tried for 16 months to get the information published.

“People higher in the chain than us—including but not limited to people at ODNI [Office of the Director of National Intelligence]—time and again failed to make real decisions in a timely manner,” they said.

Intelligence officers were told in February 2020 that the office approved the report, and analysts prioritized its delivery, but the NSA deputy director blocked its release, according to the documents.

George Barnes served as NSA deputy director from 2017 to 2023.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/nsa-blocked-reports-china-interference-us-elections-reaching-trump-declassified-docs

US Issues Rare Condemnation Of Israeli Strikes On Syrian Airbase: 'Unnecessary Escalation'

A top regional Trump envoy has said the US is "deeply concerned" after major new Israeli airstrikes on Syria overnight, following months of an absence of such attacks, and in the context of the broader Iran conflict.

The Syrian government and US Envoy to Iraq and Syria Tom Barrack said the attacks hit Abu al-Duhur military airfield in Idlib province in northwestern Syria. Barrack blasted it as an unnecessary escalation that threatens regional stability.

Additionally the Syrian Foreign Ministry of the new Sharaa/Jolani government blasted the "unjustified act of aggression" and "flagrant violation of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity."

While the Israeli government has not officially owned up to the operation, or provided any details, an unnamed senior Israeli told Fox News that "Highly sensitive intelligence was shared with the United States in advance, at the most senior levels of the various agencies and bodies."

"Al-Sharaa understands that he cannot operate like the previous Syrian regime, which maintained proxy forces. It's possible that he didn’t understand what was going on, or didn't know." Fox added that the official could not provide additional details "due to the highly classified nature of the intelligence."

The statement is odd given its suggestion is that Iran-linked forces were still operating inside Syria (based on the reference to the "previous Syrian regime" and its proxy forces).

However, Idlib had throughout the entirety of the war been a hotbed of Sunni al-Qaeda linked activity. The post-Assad ruling faction in Damascus previously had the northwest province as its very headquarters, where Jolani got his start commanding Nusra Front which morphed into Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham.

The idea that Iran-linked militias would somehow be operating there 19 months after Assad's exit in December 2024 is strange and unlikely.

But ultimately it remains unclear why Israel conducted the strikes, and what the precise high level target may have been.

Amb. Barrack added to his statement: "The United States continues to believe that restraint and engagement offer the more constructive course. We encourage all parties to prioritize logical discourse over further military incidents."

https://twitter.com/i/status/2089680168684048823

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-issues-rare-condemnation-israeli-strikes-syrian-airbase-unnecessary-escalation

🚨🚨 My TikTok account was just PERMA BANNED me after I posted 2 clips from my burqa report in Minneapolis.

TikTok says the videos were ELECTION MISINFORMATION. Yesterday I received a warning saying my account was at risk, I never posted again and today it was banned at 780k.

This is very saddening as my account was verified and I have worked with TikTok corporate and politicians to prevent the app from being banned in the name of free speech. I built a strong relationship with the company, today that company chose to ban ME.

I was also banned from the platform in 2021 on Biden’s Inauguration Day when the app was my primary income. TikTok repeatedly told me that I didn’t violate their guidelines. My account would be unbanned, and then banned again a week later repeatedly until it was wiped from the system.

https://x.com/camhigby/status/2089722424526827972

Sep 21, 2025

How Israel Captured TikTok

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/how-israel-captured-tiktok/