Houthi tribal mobilization shows long lines of armed Toyota technicals in the desert, the classic Yemen war image.

Bani Hashish tribes pledge readiness to march on Marib, the last major government stronghold in the north.

Toyota pickups with mounted guns remain the backbone of Houthi ground power.

Sweden is voting today.

The left bloc under former PM Andersson leads by maybe 1–3 points, but that's within the margin of error.

But the big story is the Sweden Democrats.

They're polling around 19–20%, making them the second largest party in the country.

Åkesson told a Stockholm rally last night:

They have destroyed our country. They have made Sweden unrecognizable. I want Sweden to become Sweden again.

If the right wins, PM Kristersson has said Åkesson would get a cabinet seat, likely the migration portfolio.

That would be historic.

The party has roots in Sweden's neo-Nazi movement of the late 1980s, was a fringe outfit polling under 3% as recently as 2006, and has been treated as untouchable by every other party for most of its existence.

They entered the Riksdag in 2010 with 5.7%, hit 17.5% in 2018, became the second largest party in 2022, and have been propping up Kristersson's government from outside through the Tidö Agreement without actually sitting in cabinet.

Formal government participation would be the final step in their mainstreaming.

Jared Kushner on Ukraine:

The difference between somebody saying the right thing and then doing the right thing is that those are two different things.

But if they’re not saying the right thing — that they want to get to that — then you have no chance of getting to the actual right thing.

At least for now, the Russians are saying the right thing, which is that they want to discuss a way to resolve this.

Jared Kushner on Ukraine:

President Trump’s very, very committed to finding a way forward. Steve and I are very committed to this. President Zelensky is very committed to this.

And from what we heard, President Putin’s very committed to this as well.

Turkish Navy SeaHawk helicopter live-fired ROKETSAN's L-UMTAS GM and IIR TEMREN missiles against both ground and air targets off Antalya.

Türkiye is turning its naval helicopters into a multi-role platform using the same domestic anti-tank missile family with a new infrared fire-and-forget seeker, replacing foreign munitions and adding an anti-drone/anti-helicopter capability it didn't have before.

Kremlin:

Lithuania does not understand that hosting nuclear weapons on its territory would, on the contrary, create a major danger rather than provide a safeguard for its security.

Jared Kushner:

One thing I’ve learned in politics is that any expert you talk to will give you a ton of ideas, but nobody has any idea what’s actually going to happen.

Jared Kushner on postwar Ukraine:

If we get the right governance structure, the right incentive structure, we can make sure there’s no corruption.

Really make it very attractive for capital to come into it. I mean, this country should rock.

That ingenuity and that spirit that’s allowed the Ukrainians to defend themselves — if they put that into figuring out how to build an incredible country, I think Ukraine becomes something that is so unbelievably impressive.

I think it could become a real leader in the world in so many different ways.

Jared Kushner on postwar Ukraine:

One of the lines of effort we’ve been doing with President Zelensky and his team has really been putting together the prosperity plan.

And they’ve been working with Ajay Banga from the World Bank and Larry Fink and Charles from BlackRock — a great team.

And so that’s been very, very interesting to do, which is to understand the full potential of Ukraine.

And the more time everyone spends on it, the more excited they become.

Jared Kushner on Gaza:

Israel did the strike in Doha, which was a terrible thing. It was unsuccessful as a military operation, and that led to Israel being globally isolated.

And we used that dynamic in order to push them into a deal that now, today, they’re quite happy with.

At the time, they were a little uncomfortable with kind of what we were pushing them to do.

But ultimately, it turned out to be great for them, and it turned out to be great for the people of Gaza.

Q: When are you coming back to Kyiv?

Jared Kushner: Well, hopefully very soon… We’re not really into performative diplomacy.

US Senator John Curtis on Ukraine:

We could be at full production and we cannot give you enough interceptors to deal with the amount coming out of Russia.

But if you can be creative and think of other ways in the asymmetric aspect of this, that’s how we’re going to win.

This is where I think Ukraine has so exceeded and done so well.

Iran asked Russia this year for advanced Geran drones for use in its conflict with Israel and the US, according to western security officials and a person close to the Kremlin.

Source: FT

Rep. Jim Costa on Russia:

Modern-day Russia is a syndicate masquerading as a country.

You’ve heard me say that: masquerading as a country with a mob boss called Putin.

That’s the bottom line. It’s good versus evil.

US Senator John Curtis on Ukraine:

Four or five years ago, as Ukraine began this situation, there was not a lot of leverage coming from Ukraine, and it was more hat in the hand: "We need help."

I’m massively impressed, as I visit over here, how Ukraine has changed that situation, where Ukraine now has a lot of leverage because you’ve developed better technology in some cases.

You bring a lot to the table.

Ukraine has a lot to offer the United States, and maybe learning better how to articulate that and use that as a leverage point, I think, changes the relationship.

I don’t want to say too transactional, but the reality of it is, to some degree, a transactional relationship.

Rep. Don Bacon on Ukraine:

We need to be helping them get even more long-range precision weapons so that Ukraine can take the fight to Moscow and St. Petersburg, Vladivostok — heck, even maybe North Korea, since they’re sending all these weapons over here and people.

And we’ve got to show Russia that the world’s sticking together with Ukraine. We’re going to help them shoot down these missiles. We’re going to help them hit Moscow and St. Petersburg back.

And maybe at some point Putin, the war criminal, will say, "You know what? I don’t have a good hand. I am not going to win this fight."

Because that’s the only way he’s going to negotiate with any good faith at all.

Rep. Salud Carbajal on Ukraine:

I would tell Trump, "continue to support Ukraine. Quit slow-walking the assistance that Congress passed."

I would tell Putin to go fuck himself again.

And I would tell Mr. Zelensky, "keep the faith."

Rep. Don Bacon blasts Trump:

Trump should be doing a lot more, and he has failed in this area with Ukraine, and it bothers me.

We’re going to take some heat for this, and I think rightfully so, because he has not stood on the right side and too many Republicans have been too fearful to push back and speak truth to power.

Rep. Don Bacon on Ukraine:

Seventy percent of Americans are clear they support Ukraine. So to oppose Ukraine, first of all, it’s philosophically, spiritually, morally wrong.

You’ve got to stand on the right side. Ukraine’s on the right side. It’s good versus evil.

So even if the polls were 30–70 the other way, we should stay on Ukraine because they’re on the right side of this fight. Russia’s the invader.

But politically, it is 70–30. So why do we have a president dragging his feet on this? And it makes me angry.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian:

America claims to defend human rights. They want to starve our people to death or bring about some other problems for them.

They want us to yield and surrender. This is not humane. This is the most savage thing they can do.

They are blocking the routes of medicines and goods. We are doing business and trade, but they block our money. What is the logic behind that?