Summary

Houthis reportedly mine Bab al-Mandab: Saudi media reports 'dense' mining in the strategic Red Sea shipping route, with demining operations underway.

Iran escalates tanker attacks & threats: The IRGC claims it struck an LPG tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, causing a major fire, and threatens further action against violating vessels.

Vessel struck near UAE: UKMTO reports an unknown projectile hit a vessel west of UAE's Al Jazeera, sparking a fire that has since been extinguished.

Trump signals temporary restraint ahead of midterms: Trump rules out attacking Iran before the November midterms, while diplomatic talks reportedly remain stalled.

Massive 8.0-Magnitude Quake Strikes Panama

Tsunami Info Stmt: M8.0 General Area of Panama 1056 PDT Oct 9: Potential to generate destructive tsunamis; CA,OR,WA,BC,and AK

Notable quake, preliminary info: M 8.0 - 14 km SW of Pitaloza Arriba, Panama

https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/pt26282000

US Hits 'Rogue' International Criminal Court With Sweeping Sanctions

Importantly, the top American diplomat then turned to pressuring Americans allies, from European countries to Japan, to join the US-led sanctions and efforts to dismantle the ICC.

"We expect our allies, many of whom are part of the ICC and that rely on American service members for their defense, to rein in this rogue court," he said.

"If they do not, the United States will continue its campaign to dismantle the ICC, piece by piece, until Americans are threatened no longer," he added.

Ironically all of this stems in part from ICC action related to the US invasions and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, where yes - real US war crimes took place. These Bush-launched wars remain deeply unpopular among the American population - and even President Trump has long derided Bush's infamous war of choice.

The Associated Press writes on Friday:

U.S. believes has become politicized and attempted to unfairly and illegally prosecute Americans and Israelis on war crimes charges.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions on Friday, after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to South African prosecutor Navi Pillay, who had led investigations into potential ICC charges against U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The move, however, long predated the Nobel Prize announcement.

The Trump administration imposed targeted sanctions last year on several ICC officials such as prosecutors and judges, citing the ICC’s 2024 decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime ​Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over what the court alleged were improper actions carried out by the Israeli government during its war in Gaza.

Earlier in 2026, three sitting ICC judges sued Trump and his administration over the sanctions, arguing that they were unlawful.

And then again in August, the US imposed additional targeted sanctions, namely against International Criminal Court President Tomoko Akane and Senior Trial Lawyer Abdoulaye Seye.

Washington has scoffed at the court and sought to erode its influence stretching back multiple administrations, all the way back to the George W Bush era itself. But all this was renewed as the ICC began targeting Israel and its leaders in the wake of the Gaza war.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-hits-rogue-international-criminal-court-sweeping-sanctions

Guilfoyle Donor Scandal Explodes As Vance Balks, Rubio Dodges And The Donor Calls It Quid Pro Quo

The allegation, reported by the WSJ late Wednesday - is that six days before her July 9, 2025, Senate confirmation hearing, Guilfoyle texted Trump donor Eric Deters on Signal and asked him to wire $100,000 to her American Express account in a way that would not leave a paper trail, while he was seeking her help getting the new administration's attention on personal tax and legal problems. She promised, he says, to be his "Trump ride or die, forever and ever." He did not pay. Her lawyer, Jesse Binnall, disputes that the messages are authentic and says any earlier money was for speaking fees. Deters says he owed her nothing.

Since Wednesday, the people who could shut it down have not. Vice President JD Vance, asked about selling access to a high-level official, said "obviously, I don't love that," then said he did not know the details.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with Guilfoyle standing at the foot of his plane in Athens, refused to discuss it: "Guys, I'm not playing this game with you." Deters went on MS NOW, CNN, TMZ and NewsNation and called the ask "absolutely a quid pro quo." House Oversight ranking member Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) asked her for financial records and two years of communications, deadline Oct. 22. President Donald Trump has not commented. Guilfoyle's only public post was about a speech.

What the texts say

According to messages the Journal said it reviewed, Guilfoyle wrote Deters, a former Kentucky congressional candidate, on July 3, 2025: "It won't show up anywhere if you wire money to American Express." She attached a PDF of American Express payment instructions. In a follow-up: "Honey please I need you to get this done for me today," with a prayer-hands emoji. She told him she needed the balance paid down before the hearing. Background checks routinely look at a nominee's debts.

Deters declined. He told her, the Journal reported, that paying would cost him his marriage. The Independent, citing the Journal, reported that she had dangled a meeting with then-IRS Commissioner Billy Long, whom Trump fired that August. She also told Deters to stop creating a record: "Eric, I really wish you would stop papering all these things. It's really dangerous and not helpful to you or me while you could simply just call me on signal."

The relationship was older than the ambassadorship. Deters says he paid her three $100,000 appearance fees, about $300,000 in all, for events he organized in Kentucky starting in 2020, and later discussed as much as $1 million more if she could move his cause inside the administration. In a June 2025 message he complained he had "not received one favor." What he wanted, he has said since, was help extraditing an Ohio doctor, Atiq Durrani, from Pakistan, in a case involving hundreds of former patients. NewsNation published that account Friday morning.

Binnall's account is the mirror image. He told The Washington Times the Signal messages are not authentic, that payments from Deters were for speaking at events before the nomination, and that she "was owed a balance for traveling to and supporting these patriotic events." Deters says there was no balance.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/guilfoyle-donor-scandal-explodes-vance-balks-rubio-dodges-and-donor-calls-it-quid-pro-quo

Palantir’s Thiel slams Pope Leo’s AI warnings

The billionaire has claimed the pontiff is using fears of the technology to distract from the Catholic Church’s child sex abuse scandals

The warnings have fueled demand for the tougher oversight of AI, with rival tech giants calling for safeguards against a technology they fear could evade human control.

During a series of closed-door lectures in Nashville, Thiel singled out both leaders while stepping up his warnings about the Antichrist, a prophesied figure traditionally associated with deception and opposition to the teachings of Jesus. Thiel has argued that such a figure could exploit fears of AI and other catastrophic threats to halt technological progress and impose a heavily regulated “one world government.” His remarks, delivered on September 28 and October 5, were revealed by Politico on Thursday.

“Many people know that AI is politically unpopular and want to leverage that to boost their own popularity,” Thiel said. “Both Obama and the pope fall into this category. Obama knows the Democrats have no ideas, but they can at least oppose AI.”

Obama recently urged Democrats to develop a more comprehensive strategy on artificial intelligence.

The openly gay Republican surveillance company billionaire went on to accuse Leo XIV of using the debate over AI to shift attention away from decades of sexual abuse scandals within the Catholic Church.

“He needed something politically popular to distract from the church’s child sex abuse scandals, and he found it in AI,” Thiel said, referring to the pope’s first encyclical, published in May.

Leo XIV has made AI a major focus of his papacy, warning about the dangers of unchecked development and its impact on human dignity, individual freedoms and the concentration of power.

Earlier this week, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told Politico that the world should accept some “bad things” from AI, including hacks, scams and misuse, in exchange for its benefits. However, he drew the line at “the really catastrophic risks,” including “a serious loss of control to AI.”

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has also called for government regulation, warning that AI in the hands of malicious actors could trigger events causing “a billion deaths.” Nobel Prize-winning computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton has similarly warned that increasingly powerful systems could eventually escape human control, with catastrophic consequences for humanity.

https://www.rt.com/news/646990-thiel-pope-ai-pr-stunt/

RFK Jr. Announces New Clinic For People Injured By Vaccines

The new National Institutes of Health (NIH) clinic is located on the agency's campus in Bethesda, Maryland. It was opened on Oct. 5, officials disclosed on Thursday. Reporters were not invited to the opening.

The Make America Healthy Again Commission, led by Kennedy, recommended in 2025 starting a new vaccine injury research program at the NIH as part of an effort to investigate vaccine injuries with better data collection and analysis.

The clinic is "dedicated to developing the science of preventing vaccine injuries, making vaccines safer, and most important of all, listening to the voices of people who have suffered vaccine injury, so that we can learn from them and learn from their experience to make vaccines safer," Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the NIH's director, said in an Oct. 8 video statement.

NIH doctors and researchers will use the clinic to evaluate patients, identify potential causes of health problems, and try to figure out the best treatments, the Department of Health and Human Services, which Kennedy leads and is the NIH's parent agency, said in a statement.

Some NIH researchers studied patients with alleged or confirmed COVID-19 vaccine injuries during the pandemic, but received pushback from NIH leadership. Patients said they were later abandoned by the researchers.

https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/rfk-jr-announces-new-clinic-people-injured-vaccines

The reality that many still refuse to believe!

https://twitter.com/i/status/2108208461313876268

Treason’: Opposition demands criminal probe of PM, after ex-military aide’s Oct.7 revelations

Leaders of anti-Netanyahu bloc call on attorney general to investigate allegations Prime Minister’s Office tampered with records from Oct. 7 to cover up failures, lied to comptroller

According to Gil, Netanyahu’s chief of staff Tzachi Braverman sought to have a 6:40 a.m. call between him and the premier recorded as having been placed at 6:29 a.m., the minute the attack started. Additionally, Netanyahu’s ex-secretary told Channel 12 that there were times when the prime minister opted to preserve his government rather than agree to a deal that would have secured the release of hostages, some of whom later died in captivity.

Netanyahu denied the allegations, and claimed that Gil knew about the impending onslaught but “chose not to wake the prime minister up in time,” echoing his previous unsupported assertions that security chiefs deliberately declined to alert him for fear of his hawkish response. Gil’s remarks, Netanyahu alleged, were “an attempt to obscure the simple and painful truth about his failure.”

In an overnight post to X, Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot – responding to both the Channel 12 interview and a separate report by the Ynet news site – shared a letter his legal team had written to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, accusing the premier of being dishonest in a December 2025 report to the state comptroller.

Matanyahu Englman, whose term ended earlier this year, had launched his own investigation into the failures surrounding October 7, in the absence of a state commission of inquiry. In February, Netanyahu publicly released the 55-page response he’d provided Englman, which referred to various original sources outside the public record.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/treason-opposition-demands-criminal-probe-of-pm-after-ex-military-aides-oct-7-revelations/

Trump says anyone who uses the term ‘Artificial Intelligence’ is ‘THE ENEMY’ of the state

All Americans must hereby refer to Trump’s god-like technology as ‘Super Intelligence’ or get added to the government’s enemies list. Are you prepared to genuflect?

The emperor has spoken!

Donald Trump says if you do not call artificial intelligence by the name he has chosen for it, you are an enemy of the people!

Yes, you read that right. The president of the United States just issued a threat to all Americans who defy his orders by continuing to refer to AI as AI.

Business Insider writes:

“Trump’s statement suggests the White House may punish companies or individuals who do not abide by its preferred speech, which would be a potential textbook First Amendment violation if enforced.”

Even if this edict is not “enforced,” it’s still reprehensible because it will have a chilling effect on speech. There will be companies and individuals who were not planning to use the term “Super Intelligence” but now they will use it out of fear that the heavy hand of government could come down on them if they don’t.

Trump may be throwing this out there as a test of his power. And it will be interesting to see how many people and corporate entities bow down to Trump on this issue and start using his rebranded name for AI. I will not.

https://www.theburningplatform.com/2026/10/09/trump-says-anyone-who-uses-the-term-artificial-intelligence-is-the-enemy-of-the-state/

Agenda 2030, Accelerationism, & the Push for Total World Control

Researcher Sandi Adams discusses the progression of global governance and the UN’s Agenda 2030. Adams recounts her background in the corporate world, where she witnessed early “smart city” mock-ups and rubbed shoulders with Bill Gates and Eric Schmidt, which eventually led her to investigate the shift toward technocratic dictatorship. COVID1984’s true purpose was to catalyze digitalization, the elimination of cash, and the implementation of biometric surveillance. They are behind schedule and accelerating their plans.

Adams expresses deep concern over the post-human future promoted by the elite, highlighting how technology and AI are being used to centralize power and bypass traditional democratic accountability. The dialogue further explores the detrimental impact of Net Zero policies on farming and local sovereignty, particularly within Airstrip One (UK). But are the elites standing on a house of cards?

https://www.theburningplatform.com/2026/10/09/agenda-2030-accelerationism-the-push-for-total-world-control/

Viral Meme Mocking MAGA Hardliners Was Made By America First Conservative

A grotesque, beer-guzzling caricature created to mock unquestioning MAGA influencers has become an unlikely mascot in conservative corners of the internet, and the anonymous creator behind it is himself a conservative who considers himself “America First,” he revealed to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The creator of Forbidden HQ, a viral political satire account, spoke exclusively with the DCNF about the character widely known as “MAGAtard,” an exaggerated MAGA hardliner who reflexively rationalizes whatever new political talking point comes his way. The creator drew a distinction between the political principles he associates with America First and what he sees as an increasingly personality-driven MAGA culture — a divide that has become more visible as conservatives clash over issues including the Iran war.

My values are conservative,” the creator, who was granted anonymity due to privacy concerns, told the DCNF.

The DCNF independently verified the creator’s identity.

“Forbidden HQ is, it’s mostly satire. It’s entertainment,” he told the DCNF. “We take politics, internet culture, memes, public figures, politicians, celebrities, and turn all of that into basically ridiculous cinematic worlds. Nobody’s really safe from it, whether it’s left, right, establishment, anti-establishment.”

https://dailycaller.com/2026/10/09/exclusive-the-viral-meme-mocking-maga-hardliners-was-made-by-a-conservative/

Mike Rogers Now Says He Welcomes AIPAC Support After Allies Previously Told Group To Butt Out

Republican Michigan Senate nominee Mike Rogers said during a Thursday debate that he welcomed support from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) after allies previously reportedly discouraged the group from spending in the race.

Rogers’ allies told AIPAC in August not to advertise on his behalf after his rival Abdul El-Sayed defeated his primary opponent, Democratic Michigan Rep. Haley Stevens, who received backing from AIPAC, Axios first reported. The Republican nominee said during the debate that he welcomed all the help he could get to defeat El-Sayed.

'Do you welcome AIPAC’s public support given that you do support many pro-Israeli positions?” moderator Rick Albin, a west Michigan-based WOOD TV8 political reporter, asked.

“Anybody that wants to help my campaign, stop a guy who can’t condemn terrorism in our own country because he’s so close to the people who are supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, I’ll take all of that help,” Rogers said.

https://dailycaller.com/2026/10/09/mike-rogers-abdul-el-sayed-aipac-michigan-senate-race/

As Midterms Approach, the FBI Was Just Caught Manufacturing Another Terror Plot

The agency groomed 18 year old Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud to commit an attack on the Mall of America, providing him with weapons and ammunition to carry out a mass casualty event.

It is October Surprise season, time to roll out the phony terror plots ahead of the midterm elections. The FBI is accomplished at the practice, having cooked up a number of fabricated terror incidents in the wake of September 11, 2001. The latest episode unfolded on October 7, a week into October Surprise season.

Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud, an 18-yer old American of Somali descent, was charged in an alleged plot targeting the Mall of America. Prosecutors say Mohamud planned an Oct. 24 attack on the Hmong Arts Celebration at the mall, according to Donald Trump’s favorite propaganda outlet, Fox News.

The FBI groomed Mohamud, as it has groomed dozens of other supposed Islamic terrorists. The FBI used a “confidential human source” to exchange “hundreds of bi-directional messages through multiple social media and encrypted messaging applications” with the target. The FBI said Mohamud allegedly “expressed his desire to travel to Somalia” to join al-Shabaab and “fight on its behalf and/or commit a mass casualty attack” in Minnesota.

It is documented that the FBI manufactures terror plots. “Critics say the FBI is running a sting operation across America, targeting—to a large extent—the Muslim community by luring people into fake terror plots,” writes Paul Harris for The Guardian.

FBI bureaux send informants to trawl through Muslim communities, hang out in mosques and community centers, and talk of radical Islam in order to identify possible targets sympathetic to such ideals… FBI entrapment is a widespread tactic. Within days of the 9/11 terror attacks, FBI director Robert Mueller issued a memo on a new policy of “forward leaning—preventative—prosecution.”

“Mohamud allegedly sought martyrdom in carrying out his plans to murder innocent civilians,” the FBI declared. In order to make this appear authentic, the agency provided the mark with a Norinco AK-47, four magazines, 200 rounds of ammunition, and also a Mac-90 Sporter rifle with 7.62x39-caliber ammunition.

CBS News, founded by David Ellison, the son of Oracle’s Larry Ellison, a “Zionaire” who has donated millions of dollars to the IDF, reported:

Authorities allege Mohamud “knowingly received a firearm and ammunition” with reasonable cause to believe they would be used to commit a felony and a federal crime of terrorism, including providing or conspiring to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.

https://thefreethoughtproject.com/government-corruption/as-midterms-approach-the-fbi-was-just-caught-manufacturing-another-terror-plot