The Economist foresees war, pestilence and economic collapse in 2026 The British news magazine known for its enigmatic and terrifying ‘The World Ahead’ covers has released its predictions for the coming year. 👉 Its 2026-themed cover features tanks firing, missiles launching and drones attacking, trade wars, a US arms buildup, and a Zelensky caricature with binoculars standing beside what look like Vikings with vases in a boat sailing on top of a big fish. Around them are syringes and pills, a brain connected to a videogame controller, humanoid robots, melting ice cubes, trade war ‘shots across the bow’ and crossed swords against the backdrop of a chart indicating an economic collapse. 🔴 The cover may be significant. Past ‘World Ahead’ issues predicted things like the coronavirus (2019 cover featuring a pangolin, initially cited as an intermediary host of COVID-19), Trump’s lost Presidential Election (2020), mass vaccinations and massive global wildfires (2021), and the US-China battle for critical minerals (2024).

Cloudflare down latest: Websites such as Twitter not working amid technical problems with the internet Outage comes around a month after Amazon Web Services outage also took much of the internet offline... Parts of the web appear to have stopped working amid a technical problem at Cloudflare. Visitors to websites such as X, formerly known as Twitter, and film reviewing site Letterboxd saw an error message that indicated that Cloudflare problems meant that the page could not show. Cloudflare is an internet infrastructure that offers many of the core technologies that power today’s online experiences. That includes tools that protect websites from cyber attacks and ensure that they stay online amid heavy traffic, for instance. “Cloudflare is aware of, and investigating an issue which potentially impacts multiple customers,” the company said in a new update. “Further detail will be provided as more information becomes available.” Tracking website Down Detector, which monitors outage, was also hit by the technical problems itself. But when it loaded it showed a dramatic spike in problems. Affected users saw a message indicating there was an “internal server error on Cloudflare’s network”. It asked users to “please try again in a few minutes”.

WW3 WATCH: Poland declared it is in a "pre-war state", prepares for attack The Chief of the General Staff of #Poland announced preparations for an attack on the country. The Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Army, General Wiesław Kukuła, declared that the country is in a "pre-war state" and warned of preparations for a possible attack. According to him, sabotage and cyberattacks documented by intelligence agencies are intended to undermine public trust in state institutions and create favorable conditions for potential aggression. "The enemy is creating an environment that should be conducive to aggression on Polish territory," he stated, comparing the current situation to the events of 1939. Kukuła also referred to an incident in which damage was caused to railway tracks that occurred the previous day. The general noted that the event resembles hybrid warfare. "Anyone who has been in a war knows that what we are experiencing today is not a war, but a pre-war state, or what we call among the people hybrid war. Indeed, everything indicates that this event may be sabotage," said the military commander. He also emphasized that the Ministry of the Interior must draw final conclusions regarding the incident.

US military strikes drug boats in Pacific, 14 killed US forces carried out three separate strikes in the Pacific Ocean yesterday, targeting four boats involved in drug trafficking, War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced. The attacks resulted in the deaths of 14 people aboard the vessels. According to Hegseth, one person survived the operation and was rescued by Mexican authorities. The Pentagon described the strikes as part of an ongoing campaign to disrupt transnational criminal networks operating across maritime routes in the region.

[BREAKING-Oct. 12] HEAVY FIGHTING ON PAKISTAN-AFGHANISTAN BORDER #Taliban forces just launched a massive attack on Pakistani military posts after Islamabad reportedly carried out airstrikes inside Kabul. #Pakistan says it "won’t tolerate any aggression." Taliban says "sovereignty was violated."

#NATO invokes Article 4 of North Atlantic Treaty over #drone incursion in #Poland The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, at Warsaw’s request, has invoked the use of Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty and launched consultations over the violation of Polish airspace by unmanned aerial vehicles, government spokesman Adam Szlapka told the Polsat TV channel. "NATO has invoked Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty," he said. Later, the spokesman wrote on the X social network that, at Poland’s request, consultations were held within the framework of Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty. Articles 4 and 5 of the treaty outline response measures by NATO countries in the event that one of them is threatened as well as the steps of the bloc’s collective defense. According to their provisions, a threat to one NATO country is perceived as an attack on all the alliance’s members. That said, the document does not indicate what exactly NATO may perceive as an attack or a threat, hence the consultation mechanism to talk over how to respond. Early on September 10, Poland’s Armed Forces Operational Command reported the destruction of several objects identified as drones that had violated the country’s airspace. The search for the downed objects is underway. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk reported that overnight from September 9 to September 10, 19 violations of the country’s airspace were recorded, with all drones entering from Belarusian territory. So far, three drones have been shot down. In response to the incident, the Polish authorities decided to temporarily close airspace over part of the country, including Warsaw Chopin Airport.

The six victims of today’s attack in Jerusalem: 🕯️ Levi Yitzhak Pash, 57 🕯️ Yaakov Pinto, 25 🕯️ Yisrael Matzner, 28 🕯️ Rabbi Yosef David, 43 🕯️ Rabbi Mordechai Steintzag, 79 🕯️ Sarah Mendelson, 60

Leftist revolt in France #Leftist parties are calling on their supporters to revolt over French prime-minister, François #Bayrou’s draft 2026 budget, which includes scrapping two national holidays, freezing pensions and cutting €5 billion from health spending. The French Left are organising under the slogan “Block everything” (“Bloquons tout”) and seek to repeat the scale of the Yellow Vest protests of 2018-2019 but if the Yellow Vests were led by rightwing parties, this wave of social unrest is left-coded. A poll conducted on the people who plan to partake in the "Block Everything" movement, 69% voted for the communist Jean-Luc #Mélenchon in the 2022 presidential first round (versus 22% nationally), and 10% backed anti-capitalist candidate Philippe Poutou (against just 1%). By contrast, only 2% supported President Emmanuel Macron (28% nationwide) and 3% for rightwing leader Marine Le Pen (23%). More than half of respondents (51%) placed themselves at the far left of the political spectrum, compared to just 3% of the French public. "If you broaden the scope, 86% describe themselves as belonging to the radical left," the study said. Telegram chat groups linked to the campaign are filled with calls for a general strike and attacks on "ultra-rich capitalists", the foundation said. The study showed that 54% of supporters cited rising inequality as a top concern, compared with 13% nationally. Other priorities included the environment (43% vs. 23%) and the health system (30% vs. 19%). Immigration and crime – frequent themes in French politics – ranked low, with just 4% and 3% citing them, compared with 21% and 22% nationwide.

Macron under pressure from Left and Right as French government faces collapse 'Is it just a coincidence that #Macron attacks #Israel while his #government is failing? We think NOT!' France is bracing for a major political shakeup as calls from both the right and the left grow for Macron to resign. The pressure comes ahead of what many believe will be the imminent collapse of the government in September. Far-left leader Jean-Luc #Mélenchon announced he will submit a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister François #Bayrou’s government, following Bayrou’s unveiling of a series of austerity budget cuts. Analysts note that unlike past attempts, this no-confidence vote appears likely to succeed, as discontent spreads across party lines. The looming crisis raises the possibility of early elections and an uncertain political landscape in France, with Macron facing his toughest challenge yet to maintain control.

Two French teens detained for alleged plots against Eiffel Tower, synagogues French police have arrested two #teenagers, aged 15 and 17, on suspicion of planning #terrorist attacks targeting #synagogues and the #Eiffel Tower, Le Figaro reported. Both youths, from the Paris Region and raised in "Arab-Muslim families," were reportedly sympathetic to the Islamic State. Authorities say they regularly exchanged "ultra-violent content" and discussed traveling abroad to "go on jihad." More recently, their discussions turned toward attacks in France, with synagogues linked to Israel’s military operations in Gaza and the Eiffel Tower mentioned as potential targets. Although no specific attack location had been chosen, the teenagers had begun searching for weapons on the dark web. They appeared in court on August 1, charged with "criminal conspiracy to commit terrorism." Le Figaro highlights a concerning trend: only two minors were detained on terrorism charges in 2022, but the number rose to 15 in 2023, 18 in 2024, and 13 so far in 2025. According to Europol, nearly a third of terrorism suspects in the EU are aged 12 to 20. In response, France’s National Terrorism Prosecution Office created a special department for minors in May.