🚨Yemen’s Houthis have released footage they say shows the downing of a Saudi National Guard AH-6 Little Bird helicopter over Najran, contradicting Saudi authorities’ earlier claim that the crash, which killed both pilots, was caused by a technical malfunction.

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🇪🇬Egypt’s National Defense Council pledges full support for Saudi Arabia

Egypt’s National Defense Council, chaired by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, has decided to provide all necessary and possible support to Saudi Arabia to defend its security, stability, territorial integrity, and Islamic holy sites amid escalating regional attacks.

The council also declared full solidarity with Saudi Arabia and agreed to intensify diplomatic efforts with regional and international partners to reduce tensions and resolve regional crises peacefully.

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🇮🇱 Israeli settlers ambush European diplomats during olive harvest visit in occupied West Bank

Seven settlers on ATVs surrounded the convoy of vehicles, carrying European diplomats from France, Belgium, and Poland during an olive harvest visit to the Christian Palestinian village of Taybeh, near Ramallah, according to Israeli and Palestinian media.

They demanded IDs, threw stones, and smashed the window of a Belgian consulate car.

Mayor Bernard Baudoux of the French city of Aulnoye-Aymeries was among those injured.

The Cradle cites Amit Orfali, an activist who was part of the delegation, as saying the attackers threatened to kill them.

The assault came a day after Washington Post journalist Heidi Levine, a US citizen, was injured in a similar attack by settlers rampaging amid the Palestinians’ traditional olive harvest.

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🇮🇷 Strait of Hormuz to reopen on sixth day if US meets Iran's conditions - FM Araghchi

Tehran's seven-day proposal remains on the table, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said, stressing that its demands are fair and based on commitments previously made by the US, with negotiations set to resume on the seventh day.

The plan calls for Washington to fulfill seven conditions, including lifting its naval blockade, easing oil sanctions, and halting hostilities.

Araghchi stressed that the demands are not new but reflect commitments made by the US under the June 17 Islamabad agreement, which collapsed in July amid renewed US strikes on Iran and mutual accusations of violations.

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🗣 Anthropic seeks legal advice to prep AI agents to negotiate on users’ behalf

Anthropic is consulting law firms on how its AI agents should bargain on behalf of people to secure better outcomes, the FT reported.

Whether settling customer disputes, improving salary offers, or haggling over prices, Anthropic wants to establish clear “negotiation norms” for these encounters.

Issues under discussion reportedly include:

➡️ how aggressively should agents pursue their user’s interests when facing counterparts with opposing goals

➡️ how often should agents they pause to seek users’ input and how much freedom should they be given

➡️ how to detect dishonest tactics without becoming excessively suspicious of other agents

➡️ whether users should provide signed instructions that define an agent’s authority and limits

The company has already tested these ideas.

In a recent internal experiment, employees used Claude agents – with a track record for going sometimes off-script - to buy and sell books on a virtual trading floor, each agent working from a ranked preference list.

Agents told to be “ruthless” secured slightly better results, while more cooperative ones sometimes accepted less-preferred books so that every participant ended up with something.

However, there is a downside: trials raised concerns that people with access to stronger models could gain a systematic advantage in agent-to-agent negotiations.

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⚔️ Iraqi resistance group vows to defend Iran against existential threat

Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada has pledged to join Iran in fighting US and Israeli forces if the Islamic Republic faces a threat to its existence.

🔊 “If Iran faces a genuine threat to its existence, we will certainly participate in that battle,” the group's Secretary General Abu Ala al-Walai said, stressing that his faction would stay out of a conflict that did not pose such a threat, as it did during the recent war.

Walalai described ties with Tehran as deeply rooted in shared religious beliefs and battlefield cooperation, recalling Iran's military and logistical support to Iraqi forces during the fight against Daesh.

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Huckabee’s family sells pay-to-play access tours to Israel - report

The family of US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee is still profiting from paid tours that promise American citizens access to senior Israeli officials, according to a Zeteo report.

The travel business, now run by Mike Huckabee’s son, and previously marketed as “The Israel Experience with Governor Mike Huckabee,” has taken hundreds of Americans to Israel over the years.

🔴 the price tag is $5,250 per person, covering flights from New York, five-star hotels and meals

🔴 itineraries promise exclusive access, such as meetings with senior Israeli officials and evening lectures featuring hardline pro-Israel figures

🔴 Palestinian communities and towns are entirely absent from the tours

A previous NYT report found that Huckabee’s chief of staff, David Milstein, had diluted or blocked embassy assessments critical of Israel to present PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s government more favorably to President Donald Trump.

Milstein was also reported to have subjected staff to loyalty tests, asking whether they were “pro-Israel” or “pro-Hamas” - an approach that reportedly left some officials afraid to speak openly.

❗️Huckabee himself has repeatedly denied that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, and claimed there is “no such thing as a Palestinian.”

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🇮🇷 Iran's new defense minister warns US over Trump's MOAB remark

🔊Iran has taken "all necessary measures" in case the US drops a MOAB on Iran, Defense Minister Mehrdad Akhlaghi said, warning that any new attack would cause "massive damage to both themselves and the region."

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💵 America’s $10 trillion AI boom hits wall of debt

The US' AI infrastructure frenzy is running into a financial reality check, reports the FT.

Mounting debt, construction delays and community resistance threaten data center expansion projected to cost more than $10 trillion by 2032.

🟥 at least 47 major projects have been delayed, withdrawn or blocked in 2026 (RegLayer data)

🟥 only ~35% of planned US data center pipeline is credible (Bernstein analysis)

🟥 over 1,000 US communities have sought restrictions on data center construction (FT research)

🟥 higher interest rates and inflation are raising financing costs, adding to investors’ jitters

🟥 delays hit several Oracle sites tied to OpenAI’s Stargate project

🟥 IPO plans across the AI sector stall, with SoftBank-backed SB Energy and Nvidia-backed Firmus delaying or shelving listings

🟥 Anthropic may pull out of its $45 billion deal with Nvidia-backed Nscale if the AI cloud provider misses financing or delivery deadlines for a major West Virginia project (as of August, it had just 25,000 advanced AI chips operational, against a target of nearly 500,000)

Utilities are increasingly demanding that these vast projects provide their own electricity, and public opposition to the data center buildout surges.

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🗣 DC is corrupt but Trump isn’t, says JD Vance

🔊 “Donald Trump – I have not seen a single shred of evidence that he participates or sanctions in that corruption,” stated Vance.

He then went on to insist that Trump made a lot of money before going into politics – as if the rich never try to enrich themselves further.

So, if you have doubts about things like Trump Mobile T1 Phone, $Trump meme coin or Trump’s stock market shenanigans – don’t believe your lying eyes, apparently.

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🇮🇱 Israeli Arab parties rally to tip Israel’s election against Netanyahu

Israeli Arab parties are banking on a record turnout to win crucial seats in the Knesset parliament.

They are staking on a projected turnout of nearly 70% among Israeli Arabs on October 27 (Kan poll).

Two main forces are competing to gain political leverage:

🔴 United Arab List

➡️ also known as Ra’am (led by Mansour Abbas), it targets ∼10 seats

➡️ projects a moderate outlook and is open to joining a coalition

➡️ was the first Arab party to enter an Israeli governing coalition in 2021 under Naftali Bennett

➡️ Abbas accepts Israel as a ‘Jewish state’, appointed a Jewish deputy & focuses on tangible gains (bringing crime under control)

🔴 Joint List

➡️ alliance of Arab-majority parties Hadash, Ta'al, and Balad

➡️ seeks ∼10 seats and positions itself as an external “safety net” to prop up a government rather than join it

➡️ is less accommodating on conditions demanded by Israeli parties - recognizing Israel as a Jewish state and declaring that Hamas must be dismantled as a terrorist group

Most mainstream Israeli parties publicly reject Arab coalition partners. Opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot, whose Yashar party is increasingly challenging Netanyahu’s Likud, has ruled out cooperation with any party that rejects the two conditions.

Democrats leader Yair Golan has publicly called to include Ra’am in a governing coalition.

If neither Netanyahu’s bloc nor the opposition secures the 61 seats needed for a majority, Arab parties could hold the balance of power – possibly offering a softer “safety net”option - abstention or external support on key votes - without formally joining a coalition.

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