X is producing excellent Iran coverage but also lots of slop. Ninety percent of what passes for “analysis” on the platform is recycled footage, unverified claims, and engagement-farming slop. Most of mainstream media is too focused on political theater to cover the military and economic dimensions that actually matter.

As founder of the most visited naval and maritime website on earth, @gCaptain, here's who I'm tracking on X

A 🧵

OFFICIAL PENTAGON & GOVERNMENT

Primary sources. When CENTCOM or 5th Fleet posts, that's ground truth. Start here.

@RapidResponse47 @DOWResponse @WhiteHouse

★ @CENTCOM (U.S. Central Command) — The combatant command running Gulf operations. Every strike, every statement starts here.
★ @US5thFleet (U.S. Naval Forces Central Command / 5th Fleet) — Headquartered in Bahrain. Daily Gulf naval operations, carrier movements, task force actions.
★ @DeptofWar (Department of Defense) — Official DoD announcements. Slower than CENTCOM but carries full institutional weight.
★ @thejointstaff (The Joint Staff / CJCS Gen. Dan Caine) — 22nd Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. First non-4-star nominee. Advising POTUS on Iran escalation risks. When CJCS speaks publicly, maximum signal.
★ @USSOCOM (U.S. Special Operations Command) — SOF strategic messaging. When SOCOM goes public on Gulf ops, signal is maximum.
@USAFCENT (U.S. Air Forces Central) — Air operations in the CENTCOM AOR. Strike packages, sortie counts, BDA.
@aircombatcmd (Air Combat Command) — All active duty fighter/bomber operations funnel through ACC.
★ @DOTMARAD (U.S. Maritime Administration) — MARAD advisories on Gulf transit safety. Official U.S. government maritime safety voice.
@US_TRANSCOM - Logisitics wins wars

OFFICIAL PENTAGON & GOVERNMENT PEOPLE

@SecWar @PeteHegseth (Secretary of Defense) — High-level policy and strategy.

@PressSecDOW (Pentagon Press Secretary) — Official DoD spokesperson. Press briefing clips and statements.

@SeanParnellASW - assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs

@USAmbUN (Mike Waltz) UN Ambassador

@USNavyCNO (CNO Adm. Daryl Caudle) — 34th Chief of Naval Operations. Took over Aug 2025 after Franchetti removal. Gulf naval operations go through CNO.

Service Secretraries - @SECNAV @SecArmy @SecAFOfficial

USCG (unofficial) Secretary - @SeanPlankey

US Merchant MArine Secretary - @SecDuffy

@DNI_GOV (Director of National Intelligence) — Strategic intelligence assessments. Rare posts but maximum signal.

@PressSec - White House Press Secretary

@StevenCheung47 - White House Director of Communications.

@JerryHendrixII - Navy Vet. White House shipbuilding

@maphumanintent - Commerce

@Kristinawong - Department of War

@Liam_Holman99 Hey @Liam_Holman99 that's an odd way of describing blackmail. Here's what happened: Britain, Greece, Turkey sat around a table. Cypriots weren't invited. Afterwards they sent a message: the UK would "retain" 3% of Cyprus. If we didn't agree they'd rethink the independence thing.

@Liam_Holman99 Meantime, the UK plotted with Turkey to invade & divide Cyprus at least 10yrs prior to 1960 independence until 1974 Turkish Invasion. In fact, Britain said it was fine if Turkey took 1/3 of the island. They took 37%. Then Britain said: ok, you got what we promised, time to stop.

@Liam_Holman99 When Britain occupied all of Cyprus for 100yrs, it raped & tortured Cypriot men, women & children. Britain called our freedom fighters "terrorists", executed the leaders, hung them in Nicosia prison, threw them in graves, two to a grave - to save space.

@rossiadam @JaredDHardin Sadly, Minneapolis Minnesota has established the precedent that groups of concerned citizens can and should seek to confront active law enforcement if they disagree with the laws being enforced.

Sadly, Virginia has a history of groups of concerned citizens surrounding jails

1/

@rossiadam @JaredDHardin to express their concerns about persons detained pursuant to active, pending legal proceedings.

I strongly encourage @GovernorVA to uphold the Rule of Law by honoring federal detainer requests so that concerned citizens need not congregate outside the jail at all hours.

2/2

@rossiadam @JaredDHardin @GovernorVA @threadreaderapp please unroll

The Green Party deputy leader insists he does not support the evil Tehran regime. Why, then, did he attend a hateful rally *for* the regime? Learn more about how low he goes.

Let's start with Mohsin Abbas, an arch loyalist and deranged antisemite. Iran's political system... 1/11

...is fantastic! You can say what you like, you know. Never mind the bullets, the torture, and the executions. It's brilliant! Hey, they're good at drones and ballistic missiles. Even better!

Why, the ayatollahs are so learned. So what's the problem? "The Epstein class." 2/11

Well, they are obsessed with Epstein. More on that in a moment. 3/11

🚨 American Law Professor Eulogizes Iran’s Supreme Leader as a “True Anti-Imperialist Revolutionary” and Says “There are millions… calling for revenge, frankly.”

This isn’t coming from Tehran state TV. It’s coming from Nina Farnia, an Albany Law School professor.

“For many, Ayatollah Khamenei was an important figure of revolution and resistance… to all the peoples of the world that support the liberation of our peoples.”

Farnia says Iran is holding its own in a “struggle against the most powerful, vile empire in world history,” and argues that “getting rid of Israel,” which she calls a “military base” and a “genocidal entity,” is an “existential matter” for anti-imperialists.

She describes his assassination as “an incredible loss” and calls it “a tragic, tragic loss for the resistance, for the region, and I think for the world.”

Farnia also worries people in the diaspora will “complicate” Khamenei’s legacy, which she treats as a shame because “he was brilliant.”

Then it starts sounding like cope. She frames his death as “martyrdom” and suggests he may be more powerful now that he’s gone.

“A martyr never dies… a martyr can be more powerful after life than while living… and in the case of Ayatollah Khamenei, it seems like that actually may be true.”

Here is her official school bio. It’s wild how often the “anti-imperialist” apologia and the critical race theory lane overlap in academia.

She moves in telling circles. She’s appeared at Samidoun-linked events and shared platforms with Khaled Barakat the Samidoun figure some may remember from “Resistance 101” and a PFLP member.

$SE Q4 2025 Earnings in Charts

Here are 7 standout visuals from the quarter:

1. Gross Merchandise Volume

Growth showing no signs of slowing down.

2. Loans Outstanding

Monee growth accelerated and remains the fastest growing business segment.

$SE

3. Quarterly Paying Users

Despite double digit YoY growth, largest QoQ decline since 2023.

$SE

What you're looking at is not a sunrise — it's the Russian LNG tanker ARCTIC METAGAZ (IMO 9243148) struck by a massive explosion in the Mediterranean this morning. Photographed by crew aboard a merchant vessel, via Vanguard Tech.

Photos were taken ~04:00 local (03:00 UTC), looking towards Libya. ARCTIC METAGAZ had been running dark (AIS off, see @MarineTraffic screenshot) but had traveled southeast of Malta before the explosion (150NM per Maltese media, h/t @malte_humpert @sanjanamv @DefMon3).

At the time of the suspected (naval) drone attack, the ARCTIC METAGAZ was fully loaded near Murmansk with about 4 tanks of LNG, per @Kpler data. That's probably about $50 to $60 million worth in Russian gas.

🚨 At this evening’s Westminster Hall iftar, Keir Starmer proudly tells “the Muslim community” that Britain played no role in the offensive against the Iranian regime — which left RAF Akrotiri exposed. The Muslim Vote is lost but Labour still keeps going. 🧵1/

2/ Surprise, surprise — with racist Palestinian Ambassador Husam Zomlot, as “Allahu Akbar” blares out.

3/
Sir Jim Ratcliffe was right.

1/ If I hear one more public official call indoor air filters a "band-aid," I'm going to explode! It's so logical, yet so readily dismissed. Filtering indoor air should be as standard as filtering water. Full stop. 🧵

2/ Measles, flu, COVID-19, norovirus—most infectious diseases spread through the air we breathe. We just accept that everyone gets sick indoors. It doesn't have to be this way.

3/ And it's not just pathogens. Wildfire smoke, heavy metals, toxic gases, soot—all flowing into your lungs, heart, and even your brain with every single breath you take.

Keep a handkerchief on hand for this one.

Your eyes produce three types of tears:
- basal tears
- reflex tears
- emotional tears 🧵⬇️

Basal tears keep your eyes lubricated and are present all the time.

They help protect your corneas, keep away debris, and help you see clearly.

Reflex tears form when you get dirt or debris in your eyes.

They help wash away irritants and have antibodies to fight bacteria.

Now is a good time to learn American history if you were not taught it and if you are not old enough to remember that in 1979 Iran took American hostages. It was why Jimmy Carter lost the election to President Ronald Reagan. My family was glued to Nightline.
1)

The Iran Hostage Crisis began on November 4, 1979
when Iranian students seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking 53 Americans hostage—later reduced to 52 after some were released. The crisis lasted 444 days, ending on Jan 20, 1981, just after Ronald Reagan's inauguration.
2)

President Trump never forgot that Iran never paid a price for this nor for any of our service people & civilians they killed themselves or through their terrorist proxies ever since. They still say, "Death to America" & call America the "Big Devil"...
3)

For anxiety, my 2 biggest tips, one body-based and one mind-based:

Body: Make sure you don't have any sleep disorder like apnea, sleep disruptions huge contributor and hard to detect b/c well, you're asleep when they happen

Mind: Read the essay "Nothing Works", excerpted below

https://twitter.com/vtrivella/status/2028548652365422767

This and the book "A Life At Last" both point to the same thing: there is nothing "to do" about anxiety, especially in the mind. The brain can get trapped into a cycle of fear of fear itself, keeping this loop going for years in some

Thus, doing nothing about it aka full acceptance of the states you are experiencing in the present moment is a way to slowly but surely unwire the anxiety / fear response to the sensations in the body itself. The essay puts it far better than I can: nothingworks.weebly.com