🇩🇪🏴‍☠️ The German Chancellor, Mr. Merz, stated that the war in Iran has already cost Europe more than €100 billion due to rising energy prices:

"The increase in energy prices as a result of the conflict with Iran has already led to additional costs for Europe, exceeding €100 billion. Germany is interested in a swift end to the war.

I can only appeal to all parties involved in the conflict: this conflict cannot be resolved through military means."

It's a shame, really – Europe could have avoided losing so much money if it had an alternative supplier of energy resources. But where would it find one, right? 🙂

However, the European Commission wagged its finger, shook its head, and said that they will not lift sanctions on the supply of Russian gas. But that's their problem.

🇺🇸 The White House delivered a warning to conservative groups on Thursday: We’re watching you.

Two days after voters rebuked President Trump and his party, the administration moved to hold together a coalition that was beginning to splinter.

The White House Office of Public Liaison, which works with outside groups, sent a memo to more than 3,000 conservative organizations that laid out a list of Trump’s accomplishments in office and pledged to prevent newly ascendant Democrats from reversing them. The memo concluded with a sentence that was highlighted in yellow.

“As always, we are monitoring statements, press releases, and media engagements from your organizations,” the memo said. Leaders of two prominent conservative organizations confirmed that they had received the memo.

The memo came after Republican leaders and well-known conservatives publicly blamed Trump’s policies for the election outcome. A White House official said the memo was meant to keep the conservative coalition unified during the final two years of Trump’s presidency.

Asked for comment, a White House spokeswoman said the email wasn’t a threat and was part of a larger effort to mobilize outside supporters. The spokeswoman said the Office of Public Liaison has sent out messages with similar language in the past.

Previous emails from the liaison’s office reviewed by The Wall Street Journal encourage grassroots organizations to share their pro-Trump messaging with the White House, but don’t include language about monitoring the groups’ statements.

“As always, please continue to flag any statements of support, press releases, op-eds and media engagements on the topics outlined above,” reads an Oct. 1 email to conservative groups.

After Republicans lost the House and Senate, several conservatives made pointed statements about the scale of the GOP defeat.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who unsuccessfully challenged Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, laid the blame for the losses squarely on Trump’s shoulders. “This midterm, no question, was a rebuke of the president and the Congress by Democrats, independents and some Republicans that crossed over,” he told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz described the losses as “a Watergate-level repudiation” in a social-media post, writing Trump’s “tariffs have made everything too expensive” while “the Iran war has dragged on too long.”

🔗 https://unwall.app/www.wsj.com/politics/elections/white-house-warns-conservative-groups-it-is-monitoring-their-statements-087b07d0

Did he just explain how they spiritually attack you through the movies?

@awakenedspecies

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🇮🇷☢️🇺🇸 The U.S. is offering $20 million and a visa to any Iranian willing to point out where Iran’s enriched uranium is stored, a final admission that in spite of the massive US-Israeli intelligence apparatus, they were and have been unable to locate Iran’s stockpile of uranium all this time.

📝Thus the plan to attack Pickaxe Mountain not only will not destroy the stockpile as it might not even be there, it will break the taboo on using tactical nuclear warheads and it will be all for nothing.

🔗 CENTCOM

🗳 🇺🇸 🇮🇱 "The Israeli finance ministry [is] now reportedly telling local media here that they were entirely unaware of any intention by the U.S. to cancel that $4 billion in aid."

📎 Chris Menahan

🇺🇸⚔️🇮🇷 Military strikes have degraded Iran’s nuclear infrastructure without resolving the underlying uncertainties. The program may be smaller and less operationally capable, but also more dispersed and opaque. Destroying Pickaxe would not, by itself, change that.

With renewed US strikes against Iran looking increasingly possible, attention has again turned to Pickaxe Mountain, the deeply buried complex near Natanz. What would another strike actually accomplish?

Pickaxe is believed to extend 80-100 meters (on the conservative side) beneath bedrock, considerably deeper than Fordow. Iran began developing the complex after sabotage at Natanz in 2020 as an effort to protect its nuclear infrastructure from US and Israeli strikes.

Israeli intelligence reportedly assessed that Iran moved thousands of advanced centrifuges and components into Pickaxe after the June 2025 war. This remains unverified publicly. Satellite imagery cannot establish what is underground/whether the equipment has been installed.

CSIS documented extensive construction and reinforcement in 2026, but imagery showed blocked entrances and little apparent activity. There is no public confirmation that enrichment has begun or that the site is operational.

Regardless of the activity at Pickaxe, it hardly represents the final or sole remnant of the Iranian nuclear program. Iran likely has dispersed some its centrifuges and there’s much we don’t know.

The main US option for deeply buried targets is the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP). Weighing 30,000 lb, it is GPS-guided and designed to penetrate hardened structures before detonating. But its effectiveness depends heavily on the material it encounters.

The GBU-57’s publicly cited penetration capability of roughly 60 meters needs qualification. This is not a demonstrated ability to penetrate 60 meters of granite. Its performance varies with the geological medium, and detailed assessments of its effectiveness remain classified

Fordow provides a useful but imperfect comparison. The US employed GBU-57s against the facility and its ventilation shafts in June 2025 but the extent of underground destruction is uncertain Pickaxe’s structural characteristics may differ considerably.

Another weapon recently discussed is the GBU-43/B MOAB. Unlike the GBU-57, the roughly 21,000-lb MOAB is principally a large air-blast weapon, carrying approximately 18,700 lb of explosive. It is not designed to penetrate deeply buried facilities.

But Pickaxe is not synonymous with Iran’s nuclear program. The 2025 strikes devastated its declared enrichment infrastructure, yet the location of its nuclear material, surviving centrifuge inventories and capacity to reconstitute enrichment remain uncertain.

🔗 https://fxtwitter.com/NicoleGrajewski/status/2118762688897589623

🇮🇱 Israeli President Isaac Herzog announces he will task Gadi Eisenkot with forming the next government after securing the backing of 67 lawmakers, compared with 46 for Netanyahu. Eisenkot will formally receive the mandate on Sunday at 5 p.m., with 28 days to form a government.

🔗 Faytuks News Network