Aynaz Cyrus

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Egypt today as the regional crisis surrounding Bab el-Mandeb intensifies.

According to The Jerusalem Post, regional diplomatic sources said Saudi Arabia and Israel held talks mediated by U.S. Central Command to help the Saudis defend themselves.

The Saudi-led military coalition fighting the Houthis reports that the Iran-backed terrorist group targeted the Saudi cities of Khamis Mushait, Abha, and Taif with ballistic missiles and drones on Monday. Thirteen civilians were wounded in the attacks carried out by the Houthis

🚨 BREAKING: Iran-backed Houthi terrorists have seized Greater and Lesser Hanish Islands after taking Mokha, Mayyun Island, and the Yemeni side of Bab el-Mandeb. They are now positioned to threaten one of the most important shipping corridors on earth.

The trick is not a complicated recipe. It is how you treat the potatoes before they ever touch the pan. liveuptofreedom.substack.com…

The first batch is signed, packed, and ready to go! 📚❤️ Thank you so much for your support 🙏 If you haven’t ordered yours yet, now is a good time! 😎

An eyewitness who participated in the January 8–9 protests in Rasht told Iran International that Islamic Republic forces opened fire on people trying to escape a burning market. Describing the crackdown, he said: “They gunned people down. They burned the market. It felt like a holocaust. Like people trapped in gas chambers, either die inside from the fire and smoke, or step out and get shot.”

In a statement released Saturday, January 10, 2026, the Iranian legal coalition Yek Kalameh (One Word) warned that new directives from Ali Khamenei, alongside recent statements by top judicial officials, have significantly increased the risk of show trials and death sentences for detained protesters. Following Khamenei’s call for a harsh crackdown on recent demonstrations, Iran’s judiciary chief, the attorney general, and the Tehran prosecutor each issued separate declarations calling for “extraordinary,” fast-tracked proceedings and maximum punishments in protest-related cases.

What you’re about to read is a highlight reel of contradictions, fantasy numbers, selective memory, and the kind of strategic blindness that gets entire regions burned to the ground. open.substack.com/pub/liveup…

When You Justify Political Assassination to Get Your Deal! ABC News asked Mohammed bin Salman the simplest question in the world: What about the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post journalist murdered and dismembered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul? And Donald Trump rushed to answer for him. According to Trump, the Crown Prince “didn’t know anything about it,” has done a “fantastic job,” and Jamal Khashoggi himself was “very controversial.” As if being “controversial” is now a legitimate reason for a state-ordered execution. Let’s be clear about what this response really means. The CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence publicly concluded that MBS approved the operation to capture or kill Khashoggi. The assassins were part of the Crown Prince’s own security apparatus, flown in on government jets, reporting up the same chain of command every other Saudi operation uses. But none of that matters when there’s a deal on the line. This is the new doctrine: If a foreign ruler has the right oil, the right military purchase, or the right political usefulness, then even a political assassination, carried out inside a diplomatic building, recorded by Turkish intelligence, and confirmed by U.S. agencies, becomes something we’re supposed to shrug off. “Whether you like it or not, it happened,” Trump said. Translation: we’re willing to excuse anything if the money is right. Call it what it is: Justifying murder for geopolitical convenience. Trading moral clarity for a handshake and a contract. And the world watches, including every other regime that now knows exactly how far America’s silence can be bought.

Ahmad al-Sharaa Arrives in D.C. Once the target of a $10 million U.S. bounty, al-Sharaa is now the first Syrian president to ever visit the White House.

As a refugee and a human rights activist myself and a proud American citizen today, I say: No. The refugee cap should be zero for the next five years because a nation drowning can’t be a lifeboat. #AmericaFirst