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The balance of power in Congress is up for grabs on Tuesday. If Democrats end up taking the Senate, rural voters—through a combination of staying home and switching sides—will have played a major role. Republicans are at risk of losing Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Texas, Alaska, and even Florida and Mississippi. The race for the House, too, will likely come down to 21 tossup districts.

Throughout the midterms, Drop Site and Barn Raiser have been partnering for rural coverage, and below is a cheat sheet election guide to keep with you as you watch returns on Tuesday. (Breaking Points and Drop Site will be going live together starting at 6 pm ET Tuesday, so tune in there.)

This week, Drop Site’s Ryan Grim and Julian Andreone sat down with Barn Raiser’s Suzan Erem for a conversation on some of those rural races.

Read more:

00:00 Iowa’s Senate Race and the Democratic Strategy00:49 Are Democrats Ignoring Rural Voters’ Real Concerns?05:01 Cancer, Water Pollution, and Big Agriculture in Iowa12:12 Ethanol, Farm Subsidies, and Contaminated Water15:47 Corporate Power and Rural Economic Decline20:11 Why Kansas Is Becoming Competitive26:59 Gas Prices and Roger Marshall’s Controversial Remarks32:23 What Rural Voters Value in Candidates35:37 Corporate Donors and Money in Politics38:24 Nebraska: Farmers, War, and Dan Osborn44:15 Epstein Files and Disillusioned Trump Voters

UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s new report argues that the destruction of truth has become integral to the destruction of the Palestinian people. The report, “Truth Under the Rubble: Media in the Time of Genocide,” documents the killing of nearly 300 journalists and media workers in Gaza since October 2023, Israeli state censorship and incitement, and the role of Western media and digital platforms in reproducing Israeli narratives.

Drop Site’s Sharif Abdel Kouddous spoke with Albanese, an Italian international lawyer who has served as the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories since 2022. They discuss what she calls “mediacide,” Israel’s killing of journalists including Drop Site contributor Hossam Shabat, incitement on Israeli TV, bias in Western coverage, and the New York Times’ response to her report.

Albanese has faced sustained backlash for her work. When she presented the report to the UN General Assembly on Monday, the Israeli and US representatives called her a “liar,” a “fraud,” and a “lunatic,” and the chair asked speakers to focus on the report’s contents. The US, Israel, and several European governments opposed her reappointment last year. Soon afterward, Secretary of State Marco Rubio imposed economic and travel sanctions on her, citing her efforts to push the International Criminal Court to investigate US and Israeli officials and companies. Albanese, who is unpaid in her UN role, says the sanctions have cut her off from banking, and that her US-citizen daughter could commit a felony simply by having financial dealings with her. Her family is now suing the Trump administration.

Read the full UN report: https://docs.un.org/A/81/249

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(0:00) Intro: “Truth Under the Rubble”

(1:15) Israeli and US reps attack Albanese at the UN

(3:35) Why a report on the media?

(8:30) What is “mediacide”?

(10:10) Silencing the witnesses: Israel’s killing of journalists

(14:00) Information as Israel’s “eighth front”: censorship and platforms

(19:10) Why killing journalists is a war crime

(22:40) Incitement on Israeli TV and international law

(24:40) Western media bias in coverage of Gaza

(28:20) The New York Times responds to the report

(31:50) What US sanctions mean for Albanese and her family

(36:05) Documenting Gaza as resistance against colonial erasure

_________

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Yemen’s war has reached Riyadh. Ansar Allah has repeatedly struck the Saudi capital’s main airport in the past week, killing 13 people in the deadliest attack on Saudi soil in over a decade, while Saudi jets pound northern Yemen and the ground offensive Riyadh backs stalls. Ryan Grim talks with Dr. Shireen Al-Adeimi, a Yemeni-American scholar at Michigan State University, and Dr. Annelle Sheline of the Quincy Institute, a former State Department official who resigned over US support for the genocide in Gaza. They discuss how Ansar Allah turned an 11-year war back on Saudi Arabia, a century of Saudi meddling in Yemen, why MBS is unwilling to walk away, what the war means for Vision 2030, Yemen’s north-south divide, the myth of Ansar Allah as an Iranian proxy, and whether Trump will join the fight.Subscribe on YouTube and wherever you get podcasts.

00:00 Intro2:32 How Ansar Allah Is Bringing the War to Saudi Arabia7:33 A Century of Saudi Intervention in Yemen12:19 MBS and Washington’s Role in the War21:53 Why Ansar Allah Is Done With Truces26:33 Why Saudi Arabia Is Unwilling to Walk Away30:46 What the War Means for Vision 203036:26 Ansar Allah, the South and Yemen’s Ideological Divide43:46 How the War Could End in Yemen’s South46:20 The “Iranian Proxy” Myth55:34 Will Trump Join the War?58:55 Closing_________➡️ FOLLOW Drop Site News for more independent news on war and politics

Stay INFORMED on our latest reporting: DropSiteNews.com

LISTEN to the show as a podcast on Apple, Spotify, RSS, or wherever you get your podcasts.

SUBSCRIBE to Drop Site News. Our reporting is FREE, and we are committed to keeping it that way. To help support our work, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription, it’s what fuels our reporting: https://www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe

DONATE to support Drop Site's independent journalism. Help us continue our work with a tax-deductible contribution at donate.dropsitenews.com.

Don’t like social media? We’ve got you covered. We launched a daily weekday newsletter, Drop Site Daily, which compiles the top stories our team is tracking throughout the day on social media, into one convenient, place: https://www.dropsitenews.com/s/drop-site-daily

Three years into Israel's genocide in Gaza, Palestinian human rights lawyer and legal scholar Noura Erakat argues that Donald Trump's Board of Peace is about more than Gaza: it's a blueprint for a new world order.Drop Site's Sharif Abdel Kouddous speaks with Erakat, a professor at Rutgers University, about her Boston Review essay, "Exit and Exception." Erakat argues that the Board of Peace matters less for whether it succeeds than for what it reveals: a political project, driven by market fundamentalists and a tech elite, to exit international law and popular democracy altogether. She traces that project from the charter cities and special economic zones championed by figures like Peter Thiel to Gaza, which the Board's charter designates as a special economic zone and where Palestinians are described as "Gazans" rather than a people with a right to self-determination.

Israel, she argues, has long been the model, claiming that Palestine is a legal exception where the rules that apply everywhere else do not. Erakat also traces the Board's roots in the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, whose militarized aid sites became death traps for starving Palestinians.

She also describes her arrest last month at a Palm Beach County public hearing, where she came to testify against the county's more than $1 billion investment in Israel bonds.

Read "Exit and Exception" in Boston Review here. _________➡️ FOLLOW Drop Site News for more independent news on war and politics

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SUBSCRIBE to Drop Site News. Our reporting is FREE, and we are committed to keeping it that way. To help support our work, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription, it’s what fuels our reporting: https://www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe

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Don’t like social media? We’ve got you covered. We launched a daily weekday newsletter, Drop Site Daily, which compiles the top stories our team is tracking throughout the day on social media, into one convenient, place: https://www.dropsitenews.com/s/drop-site-daily

On this week’s episode of the War Brief, hosts Sarmad Jawad and Murtaza Hussain break down the most critical military and foreign policy developments across the Middle East and Eastern Europe over the past week.

In Yemen, Ansarallah, also known as the Houthis, continue their rapid advances across western Yemen, moving to encircle the city of Taiz and firming up their control control over the vital Bab al-Mandab Strait. As Saudi Arabia reportedly plans a major military offensive against the group with the support of regional countries, Ansar Allah is establishing facts on the ground in their battle to control Yemen.

In Gaza, the Israeli military has continued to carry out strikes killing Palestinian civilians in Gaza—including deadly strikes targeting journalists and members of Gaza’s small Christian community. According to most recent figures, Gaza’s Health Ministry has recorded at least 1,431 Palestinians killed and 5,026 wounded since the October 2025 ceasefire.

In Europe, Moscow has issued a direct warning to NATO, threatening the use of its full military arsenal—including nuclear weapons—if Western operations isolate the militarized exclave of Kaliningrad.

Meanwhile in Iraq, U.S. allies in Iraq feel betrayed by Trump's withdrawal of forces from the country, even as many ordinary Iraqis celebrate the withdrawal.

Despite claims from Donald Trump, Tehran firmly maintains control over the Strait of Hormuz, striking eight oil tankers in just five days. Iran is preparing contingency plans for an escalated conflict, including likely targeting of naval and aerial support bases like those on the Indian Ocean island Diego Garcia.

LISTEN to the show as a podcast on Apple, Spotify, RSS, or wherever you get your podcasts.SUBSCRIBE to Drop Site News. Our reporting is FREE, and we are committed to keeping it that way. To help support our work, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription, it’s what fuels our reporting: https://www.dropsitenews.com/subscribeDONATE to support Drop Site's independent journalism. Help us continue our work with a tax-deductible contribution at donate.dropsitenews.com.

From leaked reports showing the U.S. Army preparing potential options around Cuba to the U.S. Navy’s strategic tactical shift away from the Iranian blockade line, Murtaza Hussain and Sarmad Jawad analyze what’s driving these moves—and what Trump’s post-midterm foreign policy strategy could look like.

Plus, a look into Iran’s updated terminal guidance missile capabilities, the human toll aboard US naval deployments, and how $100+ oil prices are shaping negotiations over the Strait of Hormuz.

Then a deep dive into the rise of China in the Trump era as Xi Jinping pays a state visit for the first time in 10 years.

Drop Site News is an independent news outlet covering war and politics. Support our work: https://www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe

Eight months into the US-Iran war, the Strait of Hormuz is still contested—and the oil shock nearly everyone predicted never arrived.

Gregory Brew, senior energy analyst at Eurasia Group and a historian of modern Iran, explains why crude sits in the $90–$110 band instead of $250: alternative pipeline routes, high global inventories, a steep cut in Chinese imports, and an oil market practiced at absorbing shocks. He also breaks down the US escort operation moving 9 to 10 million barrels a day through the strait—supertankers running dark through the Omani channel—and why he calls it a Band-Aid.Also: the attack on Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline, Iranian production down to 2 million barrels a day, record US diesel prices ahead of the midterms, and why Brew expects Tehran to escalate rather than capitulate.

Drop Site News is an independent news outlet covering war and politics. Support our work:

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Chapters:

0:00 Intro: Gregory Brew on the Oil War

0:22 Why the $250 Oil Catastrophe Never Came

4:59 7-Day Regional Oil Exports Average ~17 Million Barrels

9:18 Supertankers Going Dark Through the Omani Channel

11:41 How Long Can US Navy Keep Up Its Escort Operation Through Strait?

15:08 Qatar's LNG Problem

17:46 Yemen and the Attack on the East-West Pipeline

22:47 Iran's Oil Is Running Out — Will It Capitulate?

30:42 How Iran May Escalate

35:13 Diesel at Record Highs and PossibleExport Ban

39:37 Global Economy: Can it Absorb Another Year of This?

43:55 The Future of US-Iran Relations

48:55 A Divided GCC and the Case for Accommodating Iran

51:25 Closing

➡️ FOLLOW Drop Site News for more independent news on war and politics

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LISTEN to the show as a podcast on Apple, Spotify, RSS, or wherever you get your podcasts.

SUBSCRIBE to Drop Site News. Our reporting is FREE, and we are committed to keeping it that way. To help support our work, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription, it’s what fuels our reporting: https://www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe

DONATE to support Drop Site's independent journalism. Help us continue our work with a tax-deductible contribution at donate.dropsitenews.com.

Don’t like social media? We’ve got you covered. We launched a daily weekday newsletter, Drop Site Daily, which compiles the top stories our team is tracking throughout the day on social media, into one convenient, place: https://www.dropsitenews.com/s/drop-site-daily

In this week’s episode of The War Brief Murtaza Hussain and Sarmad discuss the steady stream of leaks coming out of the War Department, the real number of deaths to U.S. personnel, the high and ongoing price of war against Iran, Saudi Arabia potentially turning to Israel for aid, how Ansarallah managed to shoot down a F-15A fighter jet, and more. Murtaza then discusses why Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf Arab states, cannot put together an effective fighting force.

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Ryan Grim interviews Yemeni journalist Hussain Al-Bukhaiti on the state of the conflict in Yemen. Al-Bukhaiti told Drop Site that Saudi-backed forces in eastern areas of Al-Jawf are essentially driving around empty desert for the cameras and presenting it as an advance.“They just go to an open area and keep shooting at a hill or a small mountain, and there’s no one there,” he said, adding that the forces are also “sitting ducks” for Ansarallah fighters who hold all the key high ground in the west of the province.Albukhaiti also predicted that oil- and gas-rich Marib province will fall “exactly like Mocha,” saying it “could be easier” because Ansarallah has already sharply limited Saudi air cover.

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00:00–01:01 — Saudi Arabia and Ansarallah Escalate

01:02–03:09 — Advice for MBS & Why Saudi Arabia Broke the 2022 Truce

03:10–05:52 — Ansarallah’s New Demands for Riyadh

05:53–09:22 — What’s Happening in Al-Jawf

09:23–16:10 — Why Saudi-Backed Forces Collapsed on Yemen’s West Coast

16:11–20:41 — Why Ansarallah Went on the Offensive

20:42–26:00 — The Battle for Marib and Ansarallah’s Strategy

26:01–34:39 — Could Saudi Arabia Lose Territory?

34:40–35:52 — Iran, the U.S. and Ansarallah’s Regional Strategy

35:53–38:19 — Red Sea Shipping and Bab al-Mandab

38:20–43:17 — Why Ansarallah Is Detaining UN Aid Workers

43:18–43:42 — Journalism and Closing Remarks

In the first episode of War Brief, Murtaza Hussain and Sarmad Jawad dig into the latest military updates from around the world, including China's positive overtures to Iran, Donald Trump once again threatening Iran with tactical nuclear weapons, Iran's successful attack on a U.S. military base in Jordan, and more.

We then deep dive into what went into making Ansarallah's drive to capture western Yemen successful. The War Brief is a new show by Drop Site News that covers all things related to major armed conflicts and wars around the world.

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