600,000 hit French streets in growing protests against Macron's policies
Around 600,000 people (Interior Ministry estimate; unions claim higher) took to the streets across France on Thursday. What began as student actions over education and living conditions expanded into a broader revolt involving workers, trade unions, pensioners, and Yellow Vest activists. Demands center on higher wages and pensions, better public services, and rejection of the 2027 austerity budget, which the National Assembly has already unanimously rejected.
Strikes disrupted schools, universities, and transport. Clashes occurred in Paris, Lyon, Marseille and other cities; police used tear gas and acoustic weapons, with more than 400 arrests reported. Further protests are planned this weekend, and the prime minister is scheduled to meet union leaders on Monday.
https://t.co/8PmamQvKna
#France #Protests #Macron #Austerity
Paraguay's president resigns amid Ueno Bank crisis, millions of depositors in the streets
Paraguay’s central bank seized Ueno Bank after its solvency ratio collapsed. The bank held $800–850 million in public funds (including ~$380 million from the state pension/health fund) and locked out an estimated 1.7–3 million customers. Regulators alleged large unsecured loans to related companies, simulated transactions, and reserve shortfalls.
President Santiago Peña, a former business partner of Ueno’s owners until March 2025, faced immediate protests in Asunción demanding his and the vice president’s removal. Police used water cannons and tear gas. An impeachment request with 35 signatures was filed. Peña canceled a foreign trip, promised accountability, and ultimately resigned. Prosecutors have charged dozens, including senior executives, with some placed in pretrial detention.
https://t.co/mhvphbfSFy
#Paraguay #BankingCrisis #UenoBank #Peña
Democrats prepare to unleash political rage in Congress: “Lawyer up”
Jonathan Turley: After retaking the House, Democrats are signaling an aggressive investigative and impeachment posture. Expected Oversight Committee chair Robert Garcia posted “Lawyer up.” Far-left figures and influencers are already naming targets, including calls for investigations into Trump family members and a possible focus on Pete Hegseth as an early impeachment subject. A third Trump impeachment remains debated within the caucus.
With a House majority insufficient to override vetoes, the practical output is expected to be a wave of subpoenas and hearings aimed at satisfying the base rather than producing legislation. The result, Turley argues, is likely to be prolonged partisan conflict and a windfall for lawyers, with limited concrete policy movement.
https://t.co/kfdOG2jask
#Congress #Democrats #Impeachment #USPolitics
Aaron Maté: CIA still running 12 secret border bases in Ukraine, even as Trump breaks with Zelensky
Aaron Maté (on Judging Freedom): The CIA continues to operate a network of 12 secret bases along Ukraine’s border with Russia, established over years after 2014 and documented in a February 2024 New York Times investigation. The agency effectively rebuilt Ukrainian intelligence from scratch and has remained deeply involved in targeting and operations, including a drone campaign against Russian energy facilities.
Maté states that these activities have continued “as normal” even as Trump has publicly distanced himself from Zelensky and opposed further strikes on Russian refineries. Funding and influence channels outside formal government budgets (including foundations) are also noted. The claim is that CIA and MI6 priorities can diverge from White House policy on Ukraine.
https://t.co/52ackQhnl3
#Ukraine #CIA #Trump #AaronMate
SOTT Earth Changes Summary – October 2026: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval, Meteor Fireballs
October brought a coherent set of signals: solar flares (including an M6.7 from AR4549) produced a G3 geomagnetic storm; a strong El Niño was confirmed, framed as the Pacific unloading stored heat as solar output declines. Heavy rains and floods hit multiple continents (Spain’s Storm Adam dumped 24.9 inches in 36 hours; major events in Istanbul, Senegal, India, Mexico, and elsewhere), accompanied by early snow, hail, and tropical systems. Seismic activity included an M7.7 in Panama and an M7.0 in Tibet. Multiple bright fireballs were reported over North America, Europe, and North Africa.
The summary places these events in the context of cyclic, solar-driven processes rather than a purely anthropogenic narrative.
https://t.co/SHKzEbFPKk
##EarthChanges #ExtremeWeather #ElNino
After Ukraine, Poland? NATO's next frontline against Russia
Uriel Araujo: Poland is rearming at the highest rate in NATO (4.8% of GDP in 2026) while facing a constitutional crisis over the Constitutional Tribunal. The dispute is not about whether to rearm, but who controls the process; a more U.S.-aligned vision (Nawrocki/PiS) versus deeper European/German integration (Tusk).
Berlin and Warsaw have signed defense agreements; German engineers are helping fortify the eastern border (East Shield); and the EU has allocated €43.7 billion in SAFE loans to Poland. Relations with Ukraine have cooled over historical disputes and competing interests. If Ukraine weakens, pressure on Poland as the eastern flank increases.
The paradox: the more indispensable Poland becomes to containing Russia, the more constrained its autonomy may become. Frontline status strengthens deterrence but raises exposure.
https://t.co/DDktBpwAMB
#SOTT #Poland #NATO #Russia #Geopolitics
Trump claims funding to Israel ending in 2026 as merger of Israeli-US armies looms
Trump stated that he and Netanyahu agreed to end the roughly $4 billion in annual U.S. aid to Israel by the end of 2026, saying Israel “doesn’t need it.” The current MoU providing ~$3.8 billion yearly is set to expire in 2028; Netanyahu has previously indicated that continued aid at prior levels is unlikely because “America has changed.”
At the same time, Section 224 of the NDAA advances a U.S.-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative for joint research, co-production, and industrial cooperation. Bipartisan attempts to block the deeper military integration were rejected in Congress. Ending formal aid while expanding institutional military fusion marks a shift in the relationship.
So the underlying strategic alignment continues, and in some respects deepens.
https://t.co/E7PePSExHT
#SOTT #Israel #Trump #USMilitary #Aid
Ukraine's hidden torture system is the West's shame too
A scandal near Kiev has exposed systemic practices under the Zelensky government: mass forced conscription (“busification”), street and home abductions, extortion of thousands of dollars for release, and torture, including by Azov-linked National Guard personnel. Locals recently besieged one holding facility.
These abuses are not new; credible reports of torture predate the current war. Western funding and political cover have enabled them. Cases such as the torture death of U.S. citizen Gonzalo Lira were known yet produced no meaningful accountability. Amar argues that NATO-EU Europe’s continued support reveals the actual values being defended: those of a regime that treats its own population as expendable for a proxy war.
https://t.co/58ewEJCx1B
#SOTT #Ukraine #Torture #WesternComplicity #Zelensky
Israel - A Genocidal Democracy
The Israeli electorate has voted for the continuation of policies in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon that are genocidal, and has done so democratically. With 77.9% turnout (up 7.3%), major candidates and parties (Netanyahu, Eisenkot, Bennett and others) share a hard line on Gaza; none of the leading non-Arab lists acknowledge the actions as genocidal. The result is 101 of 120 Knesset members aligned with that consensus.
Hanseler contrasts this openness with the Nazis’ concealment of their crimes and notes the absence of meaningful Western opposition, with critics routinely labeled antisemitic. The election, he argues, shows that human-dignity protections have been set aside in practice, even in states that formally enshrine them.
https://t.co/79f2im5qYR
#SOTT #Israel #Palestine #Elections #Gaza
Germany's attempted takeover of Poland by proxy is to prepare Europe for war with Russia
Andrew Korybko: Germany is using Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s judicial moves in Poland to pursue economic and military control ahead of a possible conflict with Russia by 2030. Tusk’s actions against the Constitutional Tribunal are linked to plans to adopt the euro and transfer Poland’s 550-tonne gold reserves (the world’s 10th-largest) to the European Central Bank in Germany, more than doubling the ECB’s holdings.
This would also facilitate subordinating Europe’s largest NATO army to Berlin. Germany’s €800 billion militarization program and EU SAFE loans are framed as preparation for war; integrating Poland accelerates EU federalization under German dominance. The parallel drawn is to Nazi Germany’s seizure of Czechoslovakia’s gold and industry before World War II.
Poland’s internal crisis therefore carries larger stakes for the European security order.
https://t.co/4IRsJe6PWi
#SOTT #Poland #Germany #Russia #Geopolitics
What the American midterm elections say about America
Scott Ritter: The midterms will turn on the economy — rising gasoline and diesel prices have burst the “cocoon of comfort” that defines American life. Voters will punish Trump’s policies because they feel poorer, not because of the unwinnable Middle East war, facilitation of Israel’s actions in Gaza, support for Ukrainian nationalists with Nazi ties, or the concentration of wealth in the top 1%.
“It’s the economy, stupid” remains the decisive frame. The deeper problem, Ritter argues, is the abdication of citizenship: a consumer society that ignores the exploitative global system (debt, resource extraction, coercion) sustaining its lifestyle and treats moral questions as secondary. The election will reject the current administration without defining or solving the underlying condition.
https://t.co/4z5yJn3Tzz
#SOTT #Midterms #USPolitics #Economy #ScottRitter
Yet another financialised initiative from the Witkoff-Kushner stable
Alastair Crooke: The latest Witkoff-Kushner Ukraine proposal (outlined by David Ignatius) is another exercise in “Money Diplomacy.” It offers reconstruction funding for Zelensky, NATO-style security guarantees, an energy pipeline with profits split between Russia and Ukraine, and a ceasefire along the current line of contact.
The plan treats territorial and security questions as secondary to creating long-term financial benefits for Western banks, investors, politicians, and Ukrainian officials. It is culturally deaf to Moscow’s stated priorities. Lavrov and Peskov have rejected freeze-style solutions; Russia insists on a comprehensive settlement that addresses security for future generations, not a financial sweetener that leaves Ukraine as a permanent pressure tool.
The fatal flaw, Crooke argues, is that for Witkoff and Kushner it is “all about the stuff that really matters — money.” That is not the case for Russia.
https://t.co/TCY2ZfrSjA
#SOTT #Ukraine #Witkoff #Kushner #Geopolitics
Tel Aviv fears US will abandon war on Iran before Israeli goals are met: Report
Israeli planners worry that a short U.S. bombing campaign after the midterms will leave the Iranian government intact and fail Netanyahu’s maximalist aims of regime collapse and full nuclear destruction. Past strikes did not achieve those goals; Iran rebuilt missile production and roughly doubled its arsenal to ~2,500.
Washington’s objectives are narrower (nuclear concessions and Hormuz passage). Commanders have warned that without aligned goals the U.S. could walk away once its terms are met, leaving Israel in a prolonged war it may struggle to sustain. Iran is assessed as able to endure war and blockade for at least another two years.
https://t.co/V5Sy9C33Mb
#SOTT #Iran #Israel #MiddleEast #Geopolitics
Poland Is the Symptom and Europe Is the Patient
Larry C. Johnson: The midnight confrontation at Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal is not a Polish problem. It is the local flare-up of a continental disease in which elections are treated as advisory and final say rests with unelected courts, intelligence services, and EU funding levers.
Tusk’s government ignores Tribunal rulings, appoints rival judges, and faces a physical standoff with President Nawrocki. Parallel tactics appear elsewhere: Romania’s court annulled an election won by an outsider; France’s courts convicted and restricted Marine Le Pen; Germany’s intelligence service labeled the AfD extremist while ban efforts continue; and the EU froze then released large funds for Poland once the preferred government took power.
The project is sold as defending democracy from “illiberal” nationalism. The result is domestic division, weakened NATO cohesion, and elites who cannot accept their own voters. Moscow did not have to lift a finger.
https://t.co/IVyfIAaemn
#SOTT #Poland #Europe #Democracy #NATO
🚨 WHAT THE HELL WAS HAPPENING INSIDE THAT BUILDING NEAR KYIV?
A SHOCKING torture chamber, made for men who were forcibly conscripted by President Zelenskyy to go to war against Russia but went AWOL, has been discovered in Kyiv.
Allegations of over 40 men, including a g14-year boy seen below, being held in a basement and tortured.
Four servicemen currently still in the hospital.
One has a severe spinal injury, one cannot speak and many are traumatized.
Crowds clashing outside a National Guard facility.
Now a criminal investigation.
Who controlled that building? How were those men injured? Who knew what?
Open the doors. Release the records. Follow the chain of command.
“Trust us” doesn’t cut it.
Western Europe is falling apart - Russia needs to prepare for what comes next
Timofey Bordachev (Valdai Club): Europe’s postwar model is exhausted, privileged global position gone, genuine sovereignty absent under NATO, and establishments paralyzed by migration, energy, and anti-Russia crises. Youth-led unrest in France, Spain, and Portugal reflects deeper failure.
Historically, such upheavals have often turned outward (French Revolution → Napoleonic wars; German crises → 20th-century aggression). Russia cannot assume new European leaders will choose peace. Preparation for possible confrontation, not hope for reconciliation, must be the priority.
https://t.co/KRAw7buX7J
#SOTT #Europe #Russia #Geopolitics
Ukraine has ended the Trump-imposed pause on strikes against Russian oil refineries. A major drone swarm hit the Novokuibyshevsk refinery in Samara, causing multiple large fires.
Zelensky had agreed to a 72-hour halt (and a broader pause under U.S. pressure) but said it brought no reciprocity from Russia. During the lull, Russian refineries raised processing by ~25%. The targeted facility produces jet fuel.
https://t.co/I0FNNAzj6A
#SOTT #Ukraine #Russia #Oil
Tense U.S.-Israel-Iran ceasefire ahead of the midterms: Iran is dictating the pace.
By raising retaliation costs (“no limits”), rebuilding missile/drone stocks, and pressuring Hormuz via proxies (oil at $114–117), Tehran is forcing Washington and Jerusalem to weigh every next step. CENTCOM is constrained; Israel’s desalination plants remain a red line neither side has crossed. Trump has deferred further strikes until after November 3.
The pause is preparation, not peace.
https://t.co/hkowrKChJ8
#SOTT #Iran #MiddleEast #Ceasefire