AI Summary
5 min readBreaking Afternoon Updates with Ben Meiselas - 10/13/2026
Ben Meiselas opens with a grim assessment: multiple regional wars are escalating simultaneously, and he argues the common thread is what he calls "Donald Trump's weakness." Over the course of the episode, he walks through developments in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and beyond, connecting them to what he presents as a pattern of U.S. retreat and incompetence under the current administration.
Escalation in the Middle East
The most urgent developments involve Iran and the Houthis. Meiselas reports that Iran struck two more tankers in the Strait of Hormuz on the day of recording, bringing the total to eight tankers hit in the past 48 hours and roughly 20 to 25 over the past ten days. He describes this as a sustained campaign against commercial shipping that the U.S. appears unable to stop.
Simultaneously, the war between Saudi Arabia and Ansar Allah (the Houthis) has intensified dramatically. Saudi-backed forces struck hard in Sanaa and other Houthi-controlled cities. The Houthis responded by hitting Riyadh and Aramco facilities in Duran. Saudi officials claimed the strikes were minor and involved only debris, but Meiselas says video evidence shows otherwise. He notes that this follows a Houthi attack on Riyadh's King Khalid Airport over the weekend that killed at least 14 people and injured close to 350.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:50) **War Escalation Across Multiple Fronts** - Ben opens with a sweeping overview of deteriorating global security, arguing that Donald Trump's weakness has triggered simultaneous escalations in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere.
- 2 (04:10) **Trump's Bizarre Social Media Behavior Amid Global Crises** - Ben highlights Trump's online activity during the escalating wars, contrasting it with the gravity of the situations.
- 3 (05:04) **New Maritime Strikes in the Black Sea** - Two tankers were struck in Bulgaria's economic zone, following a pattern of Russian drone attacks on shipping near NATO member states.
- 4 (07:08) **NATO Commander's Rhetoric vs. Russian Action** - The Supreme Allied Commander for Europe gave a defiant speech in Warsaw, only for Russia to strike tankers off Bulgaria shortly afterward.
- 5 (09:23) **North Korea and Ukraine Developments** - Ben briefly covers ballistic missile tests by North Korea and Ukraine's successful strike on a Yandex data center in Russia.
- 6 (10:04) **Ukraine's Early Warning System Disabled** - Ben reports that the U.S. has apparently shut down Ukraine's access to its ballistic missile warning system, coinciding with Trump's diesel deal with Putin.
- 7 (11:28) **Is This a World War?** - Ben defends his framing that Trump is causing a world war by detailing conflicts in Central/South America and Africa, in addition to the Middle East and Europe.
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Show Notes
MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on breaking news from the day.
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