🗳 🇺🇸 📊 There's this concept called the God Gap. Republicans are pretty religious. Democrats are less so. But here's a very important caveat.

The God Gap only exists among white Americans. Huge differences in beliefs, attendance, and affiliation. Almost none among nonwhites.

📎 Ryan Burge

🇺🇸 The Real Architect of the Iran Mess and its not Pete Hegseth

Yesterday, the military command for the Middle East unveiled its new podcast, “Inside CENTCOM,” featuring its commander, Navy Admiral Brad Cooper — the man most responsible for the Strait of Hormuz crisis and skyrocketing gas prices.

The timing couldn’t be more hilarious. The entire country just voted against his Iran war, and there’s Cooper, the architect, grinning and chatting up his workout routine, love of french fries and basketball. Asked about Operation Epic Fury, he says only that “I just couldn’t be prouder” and how even amidst the war he guards the “sanctity” of his workouts.

Considering that Cooper never bothered to make keeping the Strait of Hormuz open an objective of the war — which sent oil prices soaring — maybe he should’ve spent less time working out. But judging from his breezy podcast appearance, Cooper sleeps like a baby.

“Let me be clear: the Strait of Hormuz is controlled by the United States and our regional partners, not Iran, and it remains open for business,” Cooper said last month in a video infomercial for the war. It was on the same day oil hit $110 a barrel. It was his George W. Bush “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED” moment. But Bush, at least, was a politician. Cooper is a uniformed officer, and the whole point of a uniformed officer is that they are supposed to stay out of politics.

Meanwhile, all the knives are out for Pete Hegseth. Good riddance.

But Cooper is even more responsible for your gas prices. He wrote the war plan, oversaw the strategy and the implementation, and even directed the day-to-day operation.

“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist,” the saying goes. Cooper is a perfect example. Most Americans couldn’t pick him out of a lineup, and these days, that’s how the Pentagon brass likes it.

No matter what the mess in the White House or the nation’s capital, the uniformed military likes to say that it is above politics. Generals and admirals, the story goes, give their best “military advice” and just report the facts about their area of responsibility.

When the brass wants the public to like them, they roll out PR, like a podcast about French fries and free throws. But behind the scenes, they’re keenly aware of who’s in power and what their bosses want to hear, and they have politics of their own. (If you have any doubt that the brass has politics, look at Vice Adm. Nancy Lacore, fired by Hegseth in August 2025. On Tuesday, she won a House seat in South Carolina as a Democrat.)

To understand how Cooper could pass off ‘Hormuz is open for business!’ as objective fact, rather than what it plainly was — a nakedly political statement defending the Iran war, and one backing Trump and burnishing his own record — you have to understand what his position as CENTCOM commander entails.

While the Secretary of Defense is responsible for overseeing war plans, it’s the uniformed military that’s responsible for writing them. By law, this task falls to the “combatant” commander, which in the case of Iran, is Brad Cooper.

🔗 https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/the-real-architect-of-the-iran-mess

🇺🇸✡️🗳 Democrats' margins are so large that it will deny Israel-critical lawmakers leverage over the AIPAC-owned leaders of the Democratic Party, according to Jewish Insider's Josh Kraushaar.

"There was a worry that if Democrats only had a narrow majority, Hakeem Jeffries would be held hostage to this dozen or so Squad-like block of virulently anti-Israel, outspokenly socialist members of Congress that got elected in these very deep blue districts," Kraushaar tells David Zalik of the pro-Israel IF NOT US podcast.

"Now the margin is so large that they're not going to have the same leverage and the same power that they could have if it was a much closer margin."

"So paradoxically, the bigger the wave, the more decisive the victory for Democrats, means there are a lot more Democrats representing conservative-minded areas where extremism does not sell."

Are Democrats going to accept being ruled by AIPAC Shakur and Chuck "My Job is to Keep the Left Pro-Israel" Schumer?

📝Anon: "So you voted to end the war and stop aid to Israel? Here's why that won't happen." - Jews

🔗 InfoLibNews

🇺🇦⚔️🇷🇺 Over the last few weeks, Ukrainian forces have expanded their counteroffensive on the Krasnolimanskoe Front to the neighbouring Borovaya direction, where they have been conducting a new series of coordinated counterattacks, resulting in significant advances being made:

According to my information, Ukrainian forces have been making progress in two different areas here, slowly pushing the Russians back away from the Oskol River and alleviating pressure on the town of Borovaya from the north. This could also open up opportunities to unblock the northern Oskol bridgehead from the south in the future, where-in they could potentially reach Kupyansk-Uzlovoy from the south.

In the west, Ukrainian forces were able to clear out the approaches to Boguslavka and Novoplatonovka from earlier Russian infiltrations, and initiated counterattacks eastwards towards the village of Borovskaya Andreyevka. They also advanced south from the Novaya Kruglyakovka area towards Borovskaya Andreyevka, recapturing a series of trench fortifications, and officially eliminating the Russian salient between the Lozovaya and Oskol Rivers.

In the east, Ukrainian assault groups recaptured the village of Zelyoni Gai after a little over a week of fighting, and began pushing further north. They also secured the forested gullies east of the settlement and began infiltrating Vishnyovoe, which, according to Russian channel Rybar, is currently in the grey-zone, along with the fields north of the village.

Important disclaimer: this is only the information I have been explicitly told by my sources that I am allowed to make public. There have been a number of additional advances made in this sector that I have to wait before publishing in order to comply with Ukraine's OPSEC measures, or until open source information about them surfaces. The frontline shown on this map is very approximate and delayed, in order to prevent giving away targeting data about Ukrainian positions to the Russians.

Contrary to the main Lyman counteroffensive, there is almost no open source information to map these counterattacks with, which means I have to comply with Ukraine's OSPEC and informational campaigns as I am using exclusive information from sources on the ground to map this. The only open source information I used for this update was the recent geolocations showing Ukrainian soldiers being hit east of Zelyoni Gai, and Rybar's recent map update portraying Vishnyovoe as in the grey-zone.

🔗 AMK Mapping

🇺🇦⚔️🇷🇺 After nearly 3 months of intense battles, the Russian offensive into Orekhov has failed, and the city is now back under full Ukrainian control.

Fighting has since shifted to the Novodanilovka area, where Ukrainian forces are attempting to increase their presence within the grey-zone and dislodge Russian forces from the southern half of the village. A stalemate remains in Malaya Tokmachka, with Ukrainian forces controlling approximately half of the town.

🔗 AMK Mapping

🇷🇺⚔️🇺🇦 Residents in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, are spending 19-22 hours without power/day due to Russian attacks on energy infrastructure.

Local officials also warn that problems with sewage and water may soon arise as the water and sewage pumps just like every other residence, business and administrative building rely on backup generators hidden in basements which run on diesel or gasoline

@CIG_telegram

🇸🇦❌🇾🇪 — A Royal Saudi Air Force airstrike targeted a market in the Al-Wazi'yah District of Yemen's Taiz Governorate earlier today.

At least 40 dead and wounded civilians have been reported by Houthi-run Al-Masirah.

🇨🇳❌🇦🇫 China has quietly downgraded its relationship with the Taliban government

Sources inside the Chinese Communist Party told French outlet, Intelligence Online, that the CCP has downgraded the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan to an "ordinary trading partner" but hasn't made public this decision yet.

This choice comes in response to long-standing grievances held by Beijing against Kabul. Chief among these is Kabul's refusal to hand over Uyghur refugees in Afghanistan. The CCP was also deeply irritated by the Taliban regime's decision in recent years to cut ties with several Chinese investors, whose performance was deemed below expectations in relation to their contractual commitments. For example, in June 2025, Kabul terminated the 25-year contract signed with Xinjiang Central Asia Petroleum and Gas (CAPEIC). This $540m contract focused on oil extraction in the Amu Darya basin in the north of the country.

Meanwhile, while Russia became the first country to officially recognise the Taliban regime in July 2025, sources at Intelligence Online have confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been considering going back on that recognition, at the request of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, in order to heighten pressure on Kabul. Putin and Xi now both share the view that the Taliban serve solely their own interests and that nothing can compel them to act against their will.

In recent months, the CCP and the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS, or Guoanbu) have authorised several attempts at tripartite dialogue with Kabul and Islamabad, involving academics, military personnel and civil servants, and including online meetings in cases where face-to-face meetings were impractical.

The CCP also brought together the Pakistani and Afghan delegations in Ürümqi, the capital of Xinjiang from 1 to 7 April, under the leadership of Liu Jinsong, then director general for the department of Asian affairs at the foreign ministry, and the special envoy for Afghan affairs, Yue Xiaoyong.

But according to several Afghan and Pakistani sources, China does not have a reputation in the region as a good mediator. The country's calls for harmonious coexistence and mutual understanding are not backed by the kind of economic incentives required to justify significant efforts. Meanwhile, as recently as March, Foreign Minister Wang Yi was still referring to Afghans and Pakistanis as inseparable brothers, a narrative that is beginning to be seen as counterproductive in the region.

The case of the Wakhan Corridor, a strip of land in the far north-east of Afghanistan, has been pivotal in fuelling this impasse between them. For the CCP, this road leading to Xinjiang has never been merely an infrastructure project, but a means of securing concessions on security matters.

By February 2025, the Chinese government was already making its investment conditional on three requirements, namely new mining rights, the protection of its nationals by its own forces, and the repatriation of the Uyghurs. The Taliban refused to concede on any of these points and merely provided information on the number of Uyghurs present in the country.

In the absence of a deal, Kabul has chosen to continue alone with the project. On 4 October, the regime inaugurated a 121-kilometre road between Sarhad-e Broghil and the Wakhjir Pass, financed from its own funds to the tune of €5.5m. On the Chinese side, no development has followed. In other words, the CCP is refusing to open the trade route until its security conditions are met, and thus the road effectively ends at the border.

Pakistan is profiting from the souring of relations between Beijing and Kabul and is now discreetly urging the Chinese to establish contact with the Afghanistan Freedom Front (AFF) of former Afghan defense minister and Chief of Staff, Yasin Zia. The AFF is known to operate in Badakhshan Province bordering China.

🔗 https://www.intelligenceonline.com/asia-pacific/2026/11/05/beijing-discreetly-downgrades-kabul-to-status-of-trading-partner,110914244-art