Iran’s US and Israeli election strategy is ramping up in the final days.

As the Pioneer Press reported yesterday morning in its Associated Press coverage, Iranian state television claimed that seven oil tankers were struck or hit naval mines overnight in and around the Strait of Hormuz.

A U.S. Air Force F-15EX Eagle II flies over the Gulf of America, September 16, 2025.

War again seems to be in the air in the Middle East. An explosive October 21 report from NBC News documents how, according to two unnamed US officials familiar with the matter, Washington has ordered American troops to withdraw from forward bases in Jordan, Qatar, and Kuwait.

The troop movements coincide with additional security measures at American embassies and diplomatic facilities throughout the region.

F-35 Fighters Ready. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

F-35 Near the Flag. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

For the last few months, the war in the Middle East has been in a quiet phase as the U.S. and Iran have refrained from attacking each other.

While Iran has continued attacking civilian ships in and around the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. has not launched any retaliatory strikes in some time.

B-2 Bomber Sitting in Museum National Security Journal Photos. All Rights Reserved.

B-2 Stealth Bomber July 2025 National Security Journal Photo.

However, as midterm elections in November approach, there are signs that Trump and Israel may resume attacks against Tehran in early November.

On arguably the worst day in the Marine Corps’ glorious history, Steve Reuss celebrated the birth of his first child.
Reuss, who then was a master sergeant in the Corps, was in Lebanon as part of the United States Multinational Force (USMNF) to maintain peace in the country. He returned to the U.S. to be there when his wife delivered their daughter Gina. That meant Reuss was not at the Marines barracks at Beirut International Airport on October 23, 1983, when a suicide bomber drove a truck bomb into the complex.

From Duke Forrest in “M*A*S*H” to Viper in “Top Gun,” Tom Skerritt knew how to play a military role and he became known for them. After all, before breaking into Hollywood, the iconic American actor served in the Air Force. According to a statement released by his family, Skerritt died on Oct. 21, 2026 at the age of 93.
Also Read: 6 war movie legends who died in 2025
Born in Detroit, Mich., Skerritt enlisted after graduating high school in 1951.

This video describes the military situation in

This video describes the military situation in

Satellite imagery has revealed four of China’s new KJ-3000 airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) system at facilities operated by Xi’an Aircraft Company in Xi’an-Yanliang, confirming prior reports that the aircraft has entered serial production.

FT Anduril’s co-founder and entrepreneur Ben Lamm conceived of company to clone and genetically edit working canines

Alison Bath, Stars and Stripes Increased attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz persisted this week as the U.S. and Israel reportedly were preparing for renewed strikes on Iran.

M. Scanlon, Military T. The Defense Department and Lockheed Martin agreed to a 10-year framework that the Pentagon says guarantees at least 850 F-35 Lightning II fighters for the U.S.

Joseph Trevithick, The WarZone Bombers are now being viewed as another potential air-to-air asset on top of growing the fighter fleet and establishing a CCA force.

Josh Luckenbaugh, NatDef The Defense Department’s Golden Dome for America program is building a next-generation missile defense shield to protect the United States from a variety of aerial…

France and the United Kingdom have conducted their first joint airborne nuclear strike exercise, with British Royal Air Force Eurofighters escorting French Rafale fighters during a simulated nuclear strike mission over the Mediterranean Sea. The exercise, codenamed RUMMY, took place on the evening of October 20, with the French aircraft departing Saint-Dizier Air Base in northeastern France. Announced by the two countries on October 23, the drill has been portrayed by local media outlets as marking a new stage in Franco-British cooperation on nuclear deterrence.

Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Department of War have reached a preliminary ten-year framework agreement covering the production and sustainment of at least 850 F-35 fifth generation fighters for the U.S. Armed Forces, alongside aircraft for international customers. The agreement aims to maintain production at a rate of 156 fighters annually, with Lockheed Martin committing at least $7 billion of its own funds to support manufacturing capacity, supply-chain resilience and the wider F-35 program.

On the morning of October 22, Russia and Ukraine again traded blows with each other as the war in Eastern Europe shows no sign of slowing down.

Kyiv launched another large-scale attack against the Moscow region.

Su-57 Felon from Russian Air Force. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Su-57 Felon Fighter from Russia. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

According to Russian authorities, more than 600 attack UAVs were launched against Russian territory on Thursday morning.

Initial reports suggest the attack may have struck a repair depot in the Moscow region.

The safest place on a Ukrainian battlefield may now be underground. As The Atlantic recently reported, the drone saturation over Ukraine has driven both armies beneath the bloody battlefields. On parts of the front today, the most valuable terrain may be a rusting Soviet gas pipe about four and a half feet across.

In four and a half years, this war has moved from the trenches of 1916 to the Cu Chi tunnels.

Neptune Missile. Image Credit: Government of Ukraine.

Ukraine War Map. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Now the tunnels come pre-built, courtesy of Gazprom.

France is experiencing widespread demonstrations that have reportedly escalated into rioting, vandalism, arson, and looting.

More than half a million demonstrators reportedly took part in protests last weekend, and authorities have reported more than 2,500 arrests and thousands of attacks on local businesses.

Meanwhile, an arson attack reportedly devastated the historic town hall in Limoges.

The unrest began innocently enough, with student protests over educational conditions — but quickly expanded to include broader economic and political grievances.

Among the numerous, interlocking theories that Donald Trump has claimed cost him the 2020 presidential election was the idea that some foreign power had interfered.

In July, almost six years after that election, Trump suddenly claimed that China had intervened in 2020.

President Donald J. Trump greets Ambassadors David Perdue and Xie Feng, Executive Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Ma Zhaoxu and Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi at Beijing Capital International Airport, China on Friday, May 15, 2025, before boarding Air Force One en route Washington, D.C.

In all his election campaigns, Donald Trump has done well in rural areas, including among Americans who live in farm country or are farmers.

But now, heading into the midterm elections, there are many indications that farm country is beginning to lose faith in Trump and Trumpism.

President Donald Trump meets with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Tuesday, May 6, 2025, in the Oval Office. Vice President JD Vance attends. (Official White House Photo by Emily J. Higgins)

President Donald Trump meets with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Tuesday, May 6, 2025, in the Oval Office.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a memorandum this week barring Pentagon and military personnel from placing financial wagers — specifically “including traditional betting platforms and prediction markets such as ‘Polymarket’ or ‘Kalshi’” — using non-public, government information.
The directive, dated Oct. 20, was obtained by DefenseScoop on Thursday. A source confirmed its authenticity. It comes as the U.S. government and federal law enforcement officials are responding to a rise in insider trading tied to sensitive military operations.

Lib Dem MP and former Army officer Mike Martin

Ukrainian forces appear to have struck a Russian military repair facility near its capital city of Moscow during a massive overnight drone offensive.

The strikes involved hundreds of uncrewed aircraft launched toward Moscow and other regions across Russia.

Putin with a Rifle. Image Credit: Russian State Media.

President Donald J. Trump participates in a bilateral meeting with the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin during the G20 Japan Summit Friday, June 28, 2019, in Osaka, Japan.

After losing fellow marines in Iraq, Jeff Lindquist struggled with post-traumatic stress that was steadily destroying his life. Years later, an innovative technology helped him reclaim it. This is the story of Jeff and Erik Won, two veterans who served together, and how efforts to help Jeff recover was the first step on a mission to help others suffering from post-traumatic stress do the same, using Magnetic e-Resonance Therapy (MeRT) and synchronized transcranial magnetic stimulation.

A new poll CNBC released on Thursday, October 22, only reinforces the perception that an unmitigated electoral disaster is coming for the Republican Party this Midterm election cycle.

The election is just 13 days away.

Donald Trump speaking to supporters at an immigration policy speech at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona. By Gage Skidmore.

President Donald Trump holds a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy, Thursday, April 17, 2025, in the Oval Office. Vice President JD Vance attends. (Official White House Photo by Emily J. Higgins.

According to The New York Times, U.S. and Israeli military planners are preparing a new operation that would place substantially more pressure on the regime in Tehran after nearly eight months of war, even after Iran warns that it will begin targeting more Gulf-region military and political sites connected to the United States.

Among the potential targets being considered are Iranian oil and energy infrastructure, its nuclear sites, including the famed Pickaxe Mountain facility, ballistic missile production sites, and drone stockpiles.

The Iran war has jacked up oil prices dramatically, and Trump has few ways to bring it back down: The average gasoline price in the United States, as of GasBuddy’s weekly report on Monday, was $4.24 per gallon, down slightly from the previous week and month but still high by historical standards, up more than a dollar from a year ago.

Some of the recent decline, analyst Patrick De Haan wrote, was due to some states suspending their gas taxes.

A U.S. Air Force B-52H Stratofortress bomber, deployed from Barksdale Air Force Base, La., lands at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, July 4, 2020.

A proposed summit between President Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping has once again drawn parallels to the 1945 Yalta Conference.

The summit, which took place in the Ukrainian resort city on what is now Russian-occupied Crimea, saw the leaders of the US, Britain and the Soviet Union negotiate the future of postwar Europe – ceding swathes of Europe to Moscow.

President Donald J.

Sometimes the most important airborne strike packages never drop a bomb.

On Monday night, dozens of Israeli Air Force fighter jets and their refueling aircraft flew more than 800 miles east, crossed Syrian and Iraqi airspace, and pushed right up to the Iranian border before turning around and heading home.

Iron Dome from Israel. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

F-15I Ra’am from Israel. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

11 million sold.

If Democrats have a big night in the midterm elections in early November, President Donald Trump’s decision to launch a war in Iran will be a major reason why.

The war has been unpopular since it began, for several reasons.

U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptors assigned to the 27th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron and Philippine Air Force FA-50PH light jet fighters conduct joint combined exchange training, above Basa Air Force Base, Phillipines, on Aug. 9, 2024. Joint combined exchange training is critical to enhancing U.S. and Philippine Air Force interoperability in a free and open Indo-Pacific.

President Donald Trump continues making his bold promises in the last two weeks before the Midterm elections here in the United States.

He promised to give us 5,000 dollars extra if Americans just turned out to vote for the GOP.

The forty-seventh president, acting less like a statesman and more like a carnival barker, is throwing goodies at anyone who will listen to his increasingly desperate pleas for support.

U.S. Special Operations Command is conducting market research as it looks to fulfill a requirement for a common platform-as-a-service environment near its headquarters.
The command is eyeing an “integrated contracting vehicle” for the initiative, according to a draft performance work statement published Wednesday night on a government contracting website.
A common PaaS environment is needed near MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, to enable collaboration among traditional and non-traditional vendors, users, and government program teams, per the draft PWS.

Ukraine has made no secret of its desire to join NATO, viewing the alliance as the strongest hedge against future Russian aggression.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is still advocating Ukrainian accession today, even as negotiations to end the war loom.

F-16 fighter from Lakeland, Florida Air Show. National Security Journal Original Photo.

Yet despite years of advocacy, NATO membership remains highly unlikely for Ukraine in the foreseeable future.

While NATO has repeatedly affirmed that Ukraine belongs in the alliance, significant obstacles to accession remain.

Raytheon UK has secured contracts from Sweden’s Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) to supply its GPS anti-jamming systems for use across multiple Swedish military platforms.

Global Ordnance has signed a master supply agreement with battery manufacturer Sparkz for the production of drone battery packs for the US military.

BFBS Forces News has discovered that the MOD is

President Donald Trump has run out of options to lower gasoline and diesel prices before Americans vote on November 3, as Republicans face a high likelihood of losing control of Congress.

With less than two weeks to go, fuel prices remain significantly higher than a year ago, and energy analysts overwhelmingly agree that the administration’s most recent interventions will do little to improve the situation, at least before election day.

Gas Prices on May 9 outside of Orlando, Florida. Image Credit: Harry J. Kazianis for National Security Journal.

After a 10-month deployment that was extended twice, including 40 days of combat operations against Iran that kept sailors at sea for 265 days without a port call, the crew of the USS Abraham Lincoln and their families are preparing to move to a new base just weeks after arriving home. 
By the end of this year, the aircraft carrier will shift its home port from San Diego, California, to Bremerton, Washington, for long-planned maintenance, a Navy spokesperson told Task & Purpose. The Navy has set Dec. 31, 2026, as the administrative date for the change.
As of Oct. 22, the Navy’s Dec.

Russia has claimed that its air defense system shot down 808 Ukrainian drones overnight, as a munitions factory near Moscow was apparently targeted in a major blow to its air defense capability.

Airports Closed as Moscow Shot Down Hundreds of Drones, Mayor Claims

Lancet Drone. Image Credit: Russian State Media.

Lancet Drone from Russia. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Mayor Sergei Sobyanin claimed that 163 drones were brought down by air defense systems near Moscow.

The United States and Israel could be set to launch a fresh wave of strikes against Iran in early November, according to a source brief on military planning who spoke to NPR.

U.S. President Donald Trump previously ruled out any further military action before the midterm elections, which are due to take place on Tuesday, 3rd November.

An A-10C Thunderbolt II sits under a sun shade July 29, 2014, at Moody Air Force Base, Ga. The A-10’s primary weapon is a single 30mm GAU-8/A seven-barrel Gatling gun.

The Northern Ireland Troubles – MPs back

Iran’s floating piggy bank, its shadow fleet of oil tankers, is empty.

For much of this conflict, the Iranian regime had a cushion that never showed up on a balance sheet. Dozens of tankers sat in Asian waters holding millions of barrels of crude, and the regime sold that oil to Chinese refineries one tanker at a time.

USS John C. Stennis Aircraft Carrier. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

An HH-60H Seahawk, from the “Eightballers” of Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron (HS) 8, flies past Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) during flight operations.

Airmen training to join the Air Force’s special operations roles are moving through the service’s training courses months faster and with less downtime, officials said. 
Over the last year, the Air Force has changed its training pipeline for airmen who want to join pararescue, combat control, Tactical Air Control Party (TACP), or special reconnaissance fields, which the Air Force refers to as its special warfare roles.

The Islamic Republic of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) claimed seven boats have been attacked or mined in the Persian Gulf and the vicinity of the Strait of Hormuz.

The IRGC is listed as a foreign terrorist group by the U.S. government.

An F/A-18C Hornet, assigned to the “Stingers” of Strike Fighter Squadron 113, transits over the haze of southern Afghanistan. VFA 113, part of Carrier Air Wing 14 aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan is supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

As Russia looks set to return to negotiations with the United States and Ukraine, and as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy indicates he is willing to freeze the front lines in a new ceasefire, Moscow authorized a massive missile strike campaign against the Ukrainian capital city overnight into Thursday, October 22.

The strikes came only hours after Putin agreed to resume U.S.-mediated talks.

Su-35 Fighter from Russia. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Su-57 Felon Screengrab from Russia. Image Credit: X Screengrab.

Russia launched a major ballistic missile attack overnight into the morning of Thursday, 22nd October, killing two people and injuring 34 others.

The strikes, which saw at least 21 ballistic missiles launched towards Kyiv in three separate waves, damaged buildings and infrastructure across a dozen Ukrainian regions.

Putin in August 2021 Russian Federation Photo

Putin at a Conference 2026. Kremlin Handout Photo.

The strikes came hours after U.S.

Today, the Royal Navy ensures that one of its V

Iran is threatening to launch strikes against U.S. military bases and other U.S.-linked targets across the Middle East if President Donald Trump goes ahead with rumored plans to launch pre-emptive strikes against Iran ahead of the November 3 midterms.

The warning was issued by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on October 22, and comes as attacks against commercial shipping continue to intensify.

The Democrats have sued U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration amid ongoing accusations of electoral fraud.

The lawsuit alleges that the Trump administration has tried to pressure state election officials to remove eligible voters from voter rolls, refuse ballots, and comply with federal demands based on questionable claims of noncitizen voting.

Both the White House and the Department of Justice reject the allegations, insisting that their actions are lawful efforts to prevent election fraud.

A Lengthy Lawsuit
The 44-page lawsuit was filed on Tuesday, 20th October.