🇫🇷🗳 France's Le Pen launches presidential bid as protests rattle the nation

"We are not living through the end of the world but the end of a world, their world," she said of her political ​opponents.

Le Pen chose to make her first campaign address in Orléans, home to Joan of Arc, the 15th-century warrior ​heroine revered by nationalists as a symbol of patriotism and sovereignty.

Addressing a crowd of cheering supporters, she ⁠promised "zero tolerance" policing and said restoring security was the state's first duty.

Seeking to ​project optimism, Le Pen built her speech around the theme of a national "Renaissance". She said France was living through a period ​of upheaval but would emerge stronger if it embraced her vision of security, prosperity and renewal.

"We say: 'Things were good before, they will be better ‌tomorrow!'," ⁠she said.

Le Pen promised a hard line on immigration, pledging to restore border controls, automatically expel foreign criminals and crack down on gangs and drug traffickers.

Le Pen herself could have to campaign wearing an ankle tag after she was convicted of embezzling European Parliament funds. She is appealing the court verdict.

On the economy, Le Pen pledged spending restraint, lower business taxes, reduced bureaucracy and support for ​industry, innovation and artificial intelligence. She ​rejected further increases in the ⁠retirement age.

The congress was designed to showcase unity at the top of the National Rally party, with Jordan Bardella re-elected party president and presented as Le Pen's choice for prime minister.

Bardella's speech ​was interrupted by activists from a Jewish student union, drawing attention to recent accusations he ​made antisemitic comments in ⁠his youth, which he denies.

On Europe, Le Pen stopped short of advocating ⁠a French ​exit from the European Union, but said she would roll back Brussels' ​influence, restore national control over borders and laws, and put French interests first, including avoiding foreign wars.

🔗 https://www.reuters.com/world/frances-le-pen-launches-presidential-bid-protests-rattle-nation-2026-10-25/

🇪🇬🇸🇦🇾🇪⚡️ — NEW: Egypt’s parliament has authorized the military to provide support to Saudi Arabia amid escalating Houthi (Ansarallah) attacks on the kingdom.

Egypt’s potential involvement is limited to defending Saudi territory and borders, ruling out any offensive operations in or against Yemen.

🇺🇸⚔️🇮🇷 US forces in the Middle East are prepared to launch new, potentially major, military operations against Iran “within 96 hours of receiving” an order from President Donald Trump, according to two US officials.

Sufficient forces are now deployed in the region to carry out the potential attacks, the sources said. The scope of new US military operations would likely go beyond efforts to simply “mow the lawn” or maintain the status quo by striking radars, launchers and other Iranian assets that can be quickly reconstituted — as has been the case since Trump halted full combat operations earlier this year, the sources added.

“It will be a big effort,” one of the officials told CNN. That view has been echoed by other current and former US officials familiar with internal military planning discussions — some of whom say it is a question of when, not if, Trump will issue a go-order. They believe it could come any time before the end of the year, though most likely after the US midterm elections.

Iranian forces are now more familiar with US tactics, and it would therefore be harder for the American military to effectively destroy all potential intended targets. However, leaders in US Central Command and the Pentagon have been developing a wide-ranging target list, which includes Iranian energy infrastructure, military sites and nuclear facilities.

Officials say that Trump has not made up his mind on what he will do after the midterms but that he appears to be leaning toward ordering major action. But officials also caution that Trump has appeared in the past to lean toward certain actions only to back off at the last moment.

US intelligence officials believe Iran and the Houthis are unlikely to carry out preemptive escalatory attacks against American personnel or Israel at this point but would not hesitate to respond if Iran is targeted first by US or Israeli forces, one of the sources familiar with the latest American intelligence assessments noted.

Additionally, nonessential US military personnel who were expected to deploy to the Middle East as part of the next troop rotation have been told they are no longer being sent, according to a US official, underscoring the possibility of looming regional escalation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been pushing to carry out new attacks against Iran, but US officials have requested he delay until the Trump administration is ready to conduct joint operations, according to two US officials and an Israeli security source.

“Netanyahu really wanted and tried to convince Trump for a joint attack in Iran before the elections, and Trump did not give a green light,” the Israeli security source told CNN. The prime minister’s office said this was “fake news.”

One reason Trump declined is because Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Eyal Zamir told US Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, that it would harm the elections in Israel and lead to their postponement, the Israeli security source added.

Israel’s Channel 12 News reported Sunday there was an “unprecedented” confrontation between Zamir and Netanyahu fewer than 48 hours before Tuesday’s vote. According to the report, Zamir received a directive from the political echelon related to Iran but requested an in-depth discussion and legal authorizations before carrying it out, fearing the action could lead to a miscalculation that could trigger an immediate conflict.

🔗 https://edition.cnn.com/2026/10/26/politics/us-iran-strike-plans-trump

🇮🇷🇸🇦🇹🇷🇵🇰 Deputy SNSC Secretary Ali Bagheri:

Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman, Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir, and Turkish Intelligence Chief Ibrahim Kalin will visit Tehran for a joint meeting with SNSC Secretary Mohsen Rezaei and to advance endogenous regional security.

🔗 Iran Nuances (@IranNuances)

🇸🇦⚔️🇮🇷🇾🇪 Saudi journalist and correspondent for Arab News, Hamdan al-Shehri, says the visit of the Saudi defense minister, Turkish intelligence chief and Chief of the Pakistani Army to Tehran represents a "final collective warning" from the Mecca Alliance that in the event of renewed US-Israeli bombings on Iran, if Iran decides to attack the KSA, the Royal Saudi Air Force will not sit idle and responds to Iranian missile strikes.

The meeting between the representatives of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan and Iranian officials is currently underway.

🔗 Hamdan Shehri

🇺🇸🌾🇧🇾 US lifts sanctions on Belarus potash chief as Minsk seeks help with EU

The US has lifted personal sanctions on Andrei Rybakov, general director of state potash giant Belaruskali, as Minsk looks to Washington to help soften European sanctions on Belarus, the Kyiv Independent reported.

The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) removed Rybakov from its Specially Designated Nationals list on October 21, according to a notice on the department's website. He had been under US sanctions since 2021. Potassium fertiliser is Belarus' main export, and Belaruskali its main producer.

The delisting is the latest step in a slow-moving trade of sanctions relief for political prisoners. It comes a month after President Donald Trump's special envoy John Coale visited Minsk and secured the release of 25 political prisoners in exchange for lifting sanctions on two Belarusian companies, a smaller result than expected. Talks have so far freed about 500 prisoners in return for relief on the national airline, the banking sector and potash, but the pace has slowed this year as Minsk's demands have widened to include Europe.

"Given the decisions the US has already taken regarding Belarus, such as removing certain sanctions, the United States can influence European Union states to improve our relations with European states," Valentin Rybakov, Belarus' permanent representative to the UN and one of Minsk's lead negotiators with Washington, told state media after reporting to Alexander Lukashenko on the talks.

The first shipment of Belarusian potash has already arrived at the port of New Orleans and the next is under way, the UN envoy said. "In the near future, obviously, the next shipment will be directed to the US market."

The US issued a general licence in December 2025 authorising virtually all previously prohibited dealings with Belaruskali, and delisted the three entities that produce potash in March. EU and national sanctions in Europe still close the shortest and cheapest export route, through the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda. After visiting Minsk, Coale travelled to Vilnius and Riga to discuss potash transit, he told the New York Times, but Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budris has insisted that no EU member can be party to such a deal while EU sanctions stay in place.

🔗 https://www.intellinews.com/us-lifts-sanctions-on-belarus-potash-chief-as-minsk-seeks-help-with-eu-478832/?source=eu-today

🇮🇷🇸🇦🇹🇷🇵🇰 Iran wants a seat inside the Mecca pact

Alliances usually form against an enemy that has attacked a country, or that's how they used to work. However, the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, signed on August 7 by Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan, took shape amid the fallout of a war in which Iran is the principal target. What makes the meetings even more bizarre is that Iran appears to be on the cusp of joining the grouping.

President Masoud Pezeshkian said on October 17 that Iran is willing to join the alliance, drawing a mix of guffaws and confusion. On October 26, Saudi, Pakistani, and Turkish officials met Iran's security chief, according to Iranian officials, putting to rest the idea of a flurry of Persian confusion. No terms have been announced, and no agreement exists. The idea still deserves attention, because every party has reasons to want it and reasons to fear it.

The text of the pact makes the arithmetic awkward, since it treats an attack on one member as an attack on all, which would bind Turkey, a NATO member, and nuclear-armed Pakistan to regard an American or Israeli strike on Tehran as an attack on themselves. Neither capital is likely to sign that, so the more plausible outcome is a lesser instrument, such as an associate status or a non-aggression undertaking, that gives Tehran a place at the table without a guarantee.

Saudi Arabia and Iran restored diplomatic relations in 2023 in a deal brokered by China, an arrangement that the war has tested ever since, and the Saudi-Pakistan accord of September 2025 had widened into the Mecca pact within a year, as IntelliNews reported. A third widening, to include the war's target that shaped the first two, would be the quickest turn in the region's recent diplomacy.

Riyadh has the clearest reason to talk, with its crude exports running about 74% below the pre-war baseline in August, a commodities newsletter, and the Strait of Hormuz open to fewer than 10 vessels a day. The 746-mile East-West pipeline to Yanbu on the Red Sea was meant to be the answer, until the Houthis entered the war in mid-July and claimed a strike on an Aramco facility there on September 16.

Air defence has not stopped the Houthis, a Yemeni movement aligned with Iran, but a Saudi-Iranian understanding that covered the Red Sea might, and it would be worth more to Riyadh than another battery of interceptors.

Tehran has an equally clear interest, having been at war with the US and Israel since February with few friends who control oil terminals, and a seat beside Riyadh, Ankara and Islamabad would make it harder for Washington to treat the kingdom as a platform at a cost to Iran of nothing more than an offer.

Pakistan and Turkey carry the greatest risk because both border Iran and both would pay first if talks collapsed into a quarrel inside the pact. Any new member would presumably need the consent of all three founders, giving each a veto and Ankara and Islamabad a reason to prefer the slow track.

The three governments that drew up the pact hold different views of Iran, with Turkey buying its gas and Saudi Arabia coming under fire from its allies in Yemen. A unanimous decision is possible, but the text would have to be very short.

🔗 https://www.intellinews.com/tehran-blog-iran-wants-a-seat-inside-the-mecca-pact-478852/?source=blogs

🇷🇺⚔️🇺🇦 Missile War Monitor: Ukrainian drones damaged an industrial facility in Russia's Perm region and injured five workers.

Governor Dmitry Makhonin said 11 drones were downed and that the facility in the north of the region suffered "minor" damage but kept operating normally, without naming it, the Kyiv Independent reported. The Exilenova+ monitoring channel said the target was the Avisma plant in Berezniki, part of VSMPO-AVISMA, one of the world's largest titanium sponge producers and under US sanctions since 2023. Berezniki is more than 1,400 km from the border.

Russia strikes an 330 kV electrical substation in Kamenets-Podolsk, Proskurov (Khmelnitsky) Oblast and the Zalyutino 330kV substation on the edge of Kharkov. War monitor account, AMK Mapping, claimed Russian drones hit a dam on the Dniester river in the Chernovtsi Oblast.

On October 25th, the Russian MoD claimed to have struck a vessel heading for Ukraine's Chernomorsk port near Odessa with more strikes on Odessa's port infrastructure as part of Russia's campaign to cripple Ukrainian trade.

🔗 https://www.intellinews.com/missile-war-monitor-drones-injure-five-at-russian-plant-in-perm-that-channels-name-as-titanium-maker-avisma-478791/

🛢 IEA chief Fatih Birol says there is no credible pathway back to pre-conflict conditions. Oil is flirting with $120/bbl, while diesel and gasoil tightness could persist into mid-2027.

🔗 https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/ieas-birol-does-not-expect-energy-markets-return-pre-war-levels-2027-2026-10-26/