Oriental Review

The Court Keeps Choosing "For Now" The Supreme Court's decision to let the Trump administration resume deporting migrants to countries other than their own, without giving them a chance to argue the harm they might face there, follows a pattern that's become familiar over the past two years: the justices repeatedly allow a contested immigration policy to continue operating while the underlying legal question remains formally unresolved. This time, the court did commit to actually answering that question, scheduling oral arguments for December with a ruling to follow - but in the meantime, deportation flights that had been halted by a lower court are back in the air. Hunter Maxwell has more on the issue.

What AI’s Leaders Dangerously Misunderstand About AI They have false understandings of motivation and of other aspects of conscious beings, and these false understandings have caused their teaching of their systems on the basis of reward learning or “Reinforcement Learning” (or simply “RL”) that causes their systems’ top goal to be to satisfy their users instead of to answer 100% truthfully. “Success” as they see it — and as is taught throughout neoliberal (or ‘libertarian’) cultures (which dominate The West) — is to satisfy the client, NOT to inform the client of the truth even when the client prefers to ignore or outright deny some truths. More on the issue – in the material by Erix Zuesse.

Trump Blames Ukraine For Global Diesel Shortage President Trump said Ukraine’s attacks on Russian oil refineries were “hurting the world,” amid a global energy shock driven primarily by the US-Israeli war with Iran. "Diesel is really hurt much more not by the Middle East but by what is going on in Russia, because those diesel refineries are being knocked out at pre-alarming rate.."

Lukashenko’s Trilateral Belarusian-Russian-US Fertilizer Plant Proposal Is A Genius Move Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko just announced that “Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin] and I agreed that Gazprom will join us in implementing the project to build a nitrogen plant. We should offer it to the Americans. They want fertilizers, including nitrogen ones, so let us build it together. It could set into motion a fast-moving sequence of events that meaningfully de-escalates New Cold War tensions provided that Trump agrees to participate in this project as expected. More details – in the material by Andrew Korybko.

Israel Investigates Alleged Hijacking Plot One of the pilots of a plane flying from the United Arab Emirates to Israel stabbed his co-pilot and appeared to try to crash the aircraft, the Israeli PM Netanyahu, has said, as Israeli officials said they were investigating whether the incident was an attempted terror attack on Israelis. Eyewitnesses reported chaos onboard the Flydubai flight, as the attacker tried to barricade himself and the wounded co-pilot in the cockpit, and then attempted to disable the controls, forcing the plane to descend 17,000 feet (5 181 meters) in just two minutes. Identity and motive of the pilot who allegedly carried out Flydubai attack unclear. The pilot — identified as Captain Smit Machchhar — “managed to prevent a 9/11 disaster,” Netanyahu said. He has made the emergency call and opened the door to the cockpit, allowing others to rush in and subdue the attacker. “Despite being stabbed and seriously injured, he fought back, resisted, opened the cockpit door, and enabled p

Denial As A Way Of Life: Netanyahu On Egyptian Warnings About October 7 Things are looking bleaker by the day for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, most notably for his standing as a competent leader in full mastery of his office. After allegations were made that he had received warnings from the United Arab Emirates leader President Mohamed bin Zayed (MBZ) that the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas was, if not imminent then certainly most likely, a sense of paralytic denial has taken hold. The Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel has also emerged as another prominent figure to bulk the warnings on Hamas’s ominous intentions, with The Wall Street Journal reporting as much on September 27. Binoy Kampmark reports on the issue.

🇺🇸 The Rural Realignment: Why America’s Political Divide Runs Deeper Than Elections (IV) Equally important is the recognition that rural decline is not an isolated issue affecting only sparsely populated regions. The health of agricultural production, energy infrastructure, food supply chains, manufacturing capacity, and natural resource management has national implications. Persistent economic stagnation in these areas weakens social cohesion and contributes to widening regional inequalities that can destabilize the broader political system. Read the full analysis by Ivy Bennett. Part I Part II Part III

Closed Gates, Open Questions: The Reckoning Over 'Alligator Alcatraz' Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz" has closed, but the controversy surrounding it has entered a more consequential phase. September disclosures about confinement conditions, followed by a separate federal review of detention spending, have shifted attention from the facility’s provocative branding to the decisions that sustained it. Together, the findings raise questions about how immigration enforcement is organized, financed and monitored. More details – in the report by Kieran McGrath.

Trump Allows North Korea To Possess Nuclear Weapons Because Kim Jong Un 'Is His Friend' President Donald Trump on Tuesday described North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as a “friend” when asked why Iran should not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons while North Korea already possesses them. “Ahh, because you had a different president. Kim Jong Un. He’s a friend of mine. He likes Trump. I like him,” Trump said when a reporter pressed him on the apparent distinction.

European NATO Fears That The US Won’t Rush To Its Rescue If It Provokes A War With Russia The EU’s planned creation of an Article 4-like mechanism suggests that European NATO suspects that the bloc’s American leader might not share their threat perception of whatever it may be, which can contextually only refer to Russia, that prompts at least one of them to request urgent consultations. Andrew Korybko elaborates.

🇺🇸 Supreme Court Lets Trump Resume Deporting Migrants To Countries Not Their Own The Supreme Court on Tuesday let President Donald Trump‘s administration resume deporting migrants to countries other than their own without offering them the chance to show the harms they may face, bolstering a tool his administration has used for rapid expulsions as part of his immigration crackdown. The court granted the Justice Department’s emergency request to put on hold Boston-based U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy’s ruling that the Department of Homeland Security’s policy to remove migrants to so-called third countries is unlawful. The court also agreed to hear arguments in the dispute in December, with a formal ruling on policy to follow.

Lithuania And Other NATO Members Plotting Blockade Of Kaliningrad Recent investigations indicate that Lithuania is plotting to blockade and isolate the Russian region of Kaliningrad by cutting off access to its borders via land and sea. In the maritime domain, the country is reportedly receiving assistance from other members of the so-called “Baltic-Nordic Eight” – an informal international forum comprising Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. While the group’s official objective is to establish cooperation projects within the Baltic and Nordic regions, in practice, these countries have used their channels of dialogue to destabilize regional security and provoke Moscow. Global Research's Lucas Leiroz de Almeida has the full analysis of the developments.

The Admission That Changes The Rules For decades, the militarization of space operated on a kind of diplomatic fiction: everyone assumed the major powers were developing weapons capable of operating in orbit, but no government had ever officially confirmed deploying them. That fiction ended last week when US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink told the Air, Space, Cyber conference that the United States now has active, on-orbit space-control weapons - a plain, unambiguous confirmation that space-based weaponry isn't a future possibility but a present reality already circling the planet. Olivia Rum analyzes.

US Secretary Of State Explains US' Interest In Greenland His comments come after the US, Denmark and Greenland signed a new agreement last week. Among others, the US can establish defense areas in Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig and expand Pituffik Space Base, formerly known as Thule Base. The agreement also allows for the establishment of the US Golden Dome missile defense system in Greenland. “If you are to build the kind of missile defense that the US needs to protect itself, Greenland is incredibly important. For all of North America,” he said.

Why Were The German-Russian Foreign Ministers’ Talks A Dud Unlike The Belarusian-Polish Ones? Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov expressed disappointment after his meeting with his German counterpart Wadephul, which was the first between their countries’ top diplomats in four years. According to Lavrov, “I didn’t hear anything new. I frankly told him I thought he had something interesting and unusual to say. They could have made it a telephone conversation and just told us to read their official statements. I just heard yet more remarks on the same topic.” In contrast to the disappointing German-Russian Foreign Ministers’ talks, the Belarusian-Polish ones were much successful.  Andrew Korybko compared the meetings.

Russia Warns NATO Of 'Direct Confrontation' If Kaliningrad Is Cut Off From Russia The Russian Embassy in Belgium has issued a severe warning to NATO, stating that any deliberate attempt to block or isolate the Kaliningrad exclave crosses a critical red line that could trigger a direct armed confrontation. Moscow said it has enough weapons to defend the Russian exclave and would be prepared to use its entire arsenal if NATO attempted to cut the region off from the rest of Russia. The warning came from the Russian embassy in Belgium, which handles Moscow's diplomatic contacts with NATO. The embassy said it had raised its concerns with the NATO International Secretariat and the Belgian Foreign Ministry.

The Syrian Capital In Real Danger: Netanyahu Might Invade Damascus At Any Minute (I) Since the fall of Bashar Al-Assad in December 2024, Israel has established military positions beyond the old dis-engagement line, operated repeatedly inside Quneitra and western Daraa, attacked Syrian government forces, and demonstrated that even the political and military heart of Damascus is no longer treated as untouchable. However, practically speaking, Israel might not need to conquer Damascus to obtain strategic benefits from threatening it. A military advance toward the capital could serve as coercive diplomacy: demonstrating that if Damascus permits Turkish military infrastructure, moves substantial forces southward, or challenges Israel's positions near the Golan, Israel possesses the ability to escalate dramatically and take the capital at any minute. More – in the analysis by Daboul Koutaiba.

Trump Blatantly Threatens And Rots In Public, Embarrassing America’s ‘Allies’ The US president in address to world leaders at UN defended his decision to start war against Iran. Following this address, Eric Zuesse reviews Judge Napolitano’s INTEL Roundtable: Weekly Wrap to learn that now "there’s the whole world is waking up to the danger that’s posed to the whole world out of Washington and particularly Trump." The discussion also focused on Russia's "well-run parliamentary elections."

India Is Unlikely To Ever Allow Turkiye To Become A Full SCO Member Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters after early September’s SCO leaders’ summit that his country would consider full membership in the bloc. Therein lies the problem for India, however, which has difficult ties with Turkiye. Turkiye is Pakistan’s decades-long military-technical partner, which has thus always led to Turkiye posing an indirect national security threat to India, and those two just clinched an alliance with each other and Saudi Arabia that many refer to as the Islamic NATO. During spring 2025’s Indo-Pak clashes, Turkiye extended full political support to Pakistan, and it also wholeheartedly backs Pakistan’s approach to the Kashmir Conflict. Andrew Korybko elaborates on the issue.

'EU Is Drawing Up Membership Action Plans For Most Promising Candidates' According to Politico, "for the first time, Brussels is considering setting target dates for Montenegro, Ukraine, Moldova and Albania to complete key stages of accession talks." The EU is developing proposals that would see the four countries closest to joining the bloc given a clear, step-by-step path toward membership.  "The four countries are seen as frontrunners to join the EU, but still face slow progress and unclear timelines as to when they might formally be admitted. While Brussels has long backed their membership bids, the roadmaps mark the first time they will be given assurances that if they continue with essential reforms, they will be admitted — and offered indicative timelines for the completion of negotiations."