Two Egyptian truck drivers were killed, and a third was wounded in Khartoum, Sudan, after a gunman opened fire on them, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said Monday, 12 October.
Sudanese police said the suspect had been arrested and had confessed, telling investigators he acted to avenge his brother, who died in an alleged airstrike on Saturday, 10 October, along the border of Egypt and Sudan.
Police identified the suspect as Ibrahim Abdullah Adam, 23. A Sudanese police officer was also wounded in an exchange of fire before the arrest, they said.
“The investigation is continuing to establish the circumstances of the incident and its motives,” police said in a statement late Monday.
Egypt’s foreign minister, Badr Abdelatty, instructed the Egyptian ambassador, Yasser Sorour, to contact Sudanese authorities and check on the wounded driver. He also ordered steps to return the bodies to Egypt as soon as possible. Sorour met with the governor of Khartoum, who traveled to offer condolences, and doctors told the ambassador that the wounded man needed urgent surgery, the ministry said.
Did Ukrainian strikes on Yandex data centres cause Russian bot activity to plummet?
Story by Sasha Vakulina
• 1d
Ukrainian strikes on Russian technology giant Yandex’s data centres have been followed by a dramatic decline in automated online activity, raising questions about whether the attacks may also have disrupted Moscow’s influence operations abroad.
The sudden drop fuelled speculation in Europe and the United States about just how much of the political debate on social media might have been driven by Russian bots.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy weighed in on Monday, saying social media platforms had become noticeably less hostile.
The Yandex outage probably didn’t blitz Russian bots
At least, not the troll traffic that blights social media.
by Jess Weatherbed
Oct 12, 2026, 4:43 PM GMT+1
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images
Jess Weatherbed
Multiple Ukrainian drone strikes over the last week have taken Russian data centers offline and reportedly caused online bot traffic to plummet — but in reality it’s probably not the kind of bot activity most people associate with Russia.
Over the past week, Ukrainian drones struck three data centers belonging to Yandex, the tech giant often called “Russia’s Google.” The first strike happened on Oct. 8, followed by a second attack on Oct. 9. On Sunday, Oct. 11, a third strike damaged a Yandex data center in the Vladimir region, east of Moscow. The company said operations at that facility were completely suspended and some of its services were unavailable, according to the BBC.
The attacks disrupted Yandex services, from its AI chatbot to its smart home devices. Per the BBC, the military strikes were meant to target “places that provide revenue streams for Moscow’s war machine.”
Speaking at the Warsaw Security Forum on Monday, Zelenskyy said “everyone noticed” a drop in Russian bot activity on social media after the strikes. On X, Reddit, and elsewhere, users in several Western countries reported seeing less right-wing activity in their feeds, from pro-GOP accounts in the U.S. to supporters of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. Czech member of the European Parliament Tomáš Zdechovský also pointed to claims that online support for the AfD had dropped after the strikes.
Hackers turn supermarket fridges into ovens in ‘unprecedented’ cyberattack across France
An unprecedented cyberattack struck hundreds of supermarkets across France after hackers remotely manipulated internet-connected refrigeration systems.
According to French media, hackers raise temperatures in fridges at hundreds of supermarkets, sparking fires and spoiling food in ‘large-scale’ cyberattack.
A cyber incident disrupted a small UK power generation facility for about four days in July 2026, raising concerns over the security of operational technology (OT) used in energy sites.
The event did not cause consumer power outages, and the wider UK electricity network continued to operate normally.
The incident became public on August 22 after media reports claimed that hackers believed to be linked to Iran had affected a British energy facility.
The UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero later confirmed that a cyber incident had impacted a small-scale power generator. However, authorities have not named the operator or the affected plant.
Energy Minister Michael Shanks said the generator was very small when compared with major UK power stations. Financial Times reporting identified the affected site as an approximately 15 MW gas-fired peaking plant.
Such facilities provide additional generation during high-demand periods, but the loss of one small site did not create a national electricity-supply risk.
Still, the four-day outage is significant. A small plant may not threaten grid stability, but it relies on digital systems to monitor, start, stop and manage physical equipment.
A cyber incident affecting engineering workstations, remote-access systems, industrial control networks or supporting IT can force operators to suspend production while they investigate and validate the environment.
Terrorists could use AI to target UK with drones and bioweapons, MI5 chief warns
Sir Ken McCallum said UK was entering ‘new era of national security’ with most threats since the Cold War, as he warned against rising danger from Russia and Iran
Terrorists could exploit artificial intelligence to target Britain with drones or biological weapons, the head of MI5 has warned.
Speaking after his annual speech at MI5 headquarters in London, Sir Ken McCallum said the UK had entered a “new era of national security” and the security service was directing more resources to keeping Britain safe now than in the Cold War, warning that essential services such as banking, flights, and healthcare were at risk of being disrupted by adversaries, including Iran and Russia.
He warned about the growing threat of AI provoking real fear that terrorists could use the technology for warfare, saying “we’ve caught terrorists seeking to exploit AI to improve their reconnaissance and attack methodologies”.
He said the possibility of AI-enabled drones added “a new twist” for bad actors and warned the greatest concern is “AI’s potential to change the stakes on existing or even new bioweapons”.
Russian and Iranian crude is being blended into Kazakhstan’s CPC oil exports, allowing sanctioned barrels to reach Europe under Kazakh documentation.
Discounted Iranian oil is financing Russian military supplies to Tehran, including missiles and surveillance technology, through an alleged oil-for-arms arrangement.
Russia and Iran are reportedly preparing to exploit the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline from 2027, potentially routing 600,000–750,000 bpd through the corridor to circumvent Western sanctions.
Money man, Graham Edwards, Director , CX Tech Limited, seizes an opportunity to destroy a beautiful area in Scotland by building ‘the biggest datacentre in the world’.
Graham Edwards, a Tory Party Treasurer, has donated £5.5million to the Tories since 2011
The Tory Party Treasurer’s water company which he co-owns via an offshore trust in the British Virgin Island has won a £1.2m contract with HMRC, the Mirror can reveal.
……..
Graham Edwards, who has donated £5.5m to the Tories since 2011, is a director of independent water company Castle Water. Castle Water has profited from the deregulation of water supply to business customers by DEFRA in 2017, growing from a turnover of £2.9m in 2016 to £436m last year.
It is not currently profitable and runs thanks to £150m in loans from its offshore parent company in the BVI, our investigation with the Good Law Project found. Castle Water says it is UK tax resident but accounting expert Professor Richard Murphy says the offshore ownership arrangement means there could be “significant tax savings” for Castle Water’s owners, including majority shareholder Mr Edwards, if they ever sold the company.
Where companies are owned in tax havens, the new buyers typically acquire the shares in the offshore parent company rather than directly buying the UK subsidiary.
Prof Murphy, professor of accounting practice at Sheffield University Management School, said: “Castle Water Limited is owned by an offshore structure based in the British Virgin Islands which appears to exist for the benefit, at least in part, of one of its directors, Graham Edwards. The structure would be of greatest benefit if Castle Water Limited was sold.
“In that case the sale proceeds received in the British Virgin Islands would likely be tax free, subject to HM Revenue & Customs scrutiny. There could be significant tax savings arising in that case.”
John Reynolds, CEO and minority shareholder in Castle Water, told the Mirror: “You are correct that Castle Water Holdings is registered in the BVI but you should note that it is tax domiciled in the UK, so there is no tax structuring going on. Our funding structure is not unconventional and we comply with all tax legislation.
CX Tech Limited has submitted an application for Planning Permission in Principle (PPiP) for the proposed CX Technology Campus at the former Chapelcross nuclear power station site near Annan, Dumfries and Galloway………
work indicates that it could support approximately 1000 jobs during construction and create well over 100 permanent skilled roles, bringing long-term careers in engineering, technology, facilities management and security to a rural economy.”
The project, they noted, will be subject to an environmental impact assessment, further community consultation and “independent scrutiny” through the planning process.
The Scottish and UK Conservatives did not respond to a request for comment.
CX Tech Limited has submitted plans for a £16.5bn data centre campus at Chapelcross, led by Chief Executive Graeme Anderson in the south of Scotland
Plans have been formally submitted for a 1GW data centre-led technology campus in Scotland, in what could become one of the UK’s largest new digital infrastructure developments.
CX Tech Limited has lodged an application for Planning Permission in Principle for the CX Technology Campus at Chapelcross, near Annan in the South of Scotland, a site once home to one of the country’s first commercial nuclear power stations.
If the plans are accepted, CX Tech would invest a total of £16.5 billion in the project, equivalent to US$21.83bn.
Scottish Green MSP calls for rejection of data centre at former nuclear plant
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The site of a former nuclear plant could become home to a massive data centre if plans are approved.
The facility at Chapelcross was the first in the country when it opened near Annan in 1959 on what had been a World War II airfield.
Production stopped in 2004 and decommissioning began. Now plans have been submitted to build a £16.5bn data centre at the site.
With a capacity of 1GW, it would be amongst the biggest in the world with annual power consumption equivalent to that of up to two million homes.
The application comes amidst debate over data centre strategy in Scotland, with new national guidance expected by the end of the year.
Developers claim the Dumfries and Galloway project could result in 750 jobs during the construction phase and support 500 full-time posts thereafter. If approved, it would take up to eight years to complete.
Graeme Anderson, chief executive of applicant CX Tech, called the scheme “a once-in-a-generation opportunity” for the region and the country.
He said: “Chapelcross has the potential to bring together our renewable energy strengths, digital infrastructure and high-value jobs in a way that few other sites can.
“We have an opportunity to seize that potential now, creating a new economic future for a site that has played an important role in Scotland’s energy story for generations.”
However, there is opposition to the development, with concerns raised over the environmental impact and effects on local communities.
South Scotland MSP Laura Moodie, of the Scottish Greens, has called for the bid to be rejected. She said: “The site at Chapelcross should be the best place to put a data centre by utilising a decommissioned brownfield site.
“But the proposal which has been lodged is reckless and endangers our energy supply and natural environment.”
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The site is not on the old nuclear site and most is greenfield
The proposed data centre is at least half on green-fields used for grazing and not on brownfield land.
The 2024 prospectus for development at the site notes that the area which is now being proposed for the data centre (the larger purple area in the map below) is outside the nuclear licenced site. On p23 of the prospectus it says about these purpule areas: “Unlicensed NDA Landholding – this land is owned by NDA but is outside of Nuclear Licensed area and therefore potentially available for development in the short-medium term. It comprises a mix of brownfield land (former airfield) and greenfield land to the north, south and east of the former Power Station which is currently in low intensity agricultural use (grazing).”
The brownfield land being referred to as brownfield comprises the old RAF airfield, this is species-rich grassland and the request for a scoping opinion from D&G council notes that “The uncultivated areas at Chapelcross are known to be extremely valuable for biodiversity having been sympathetically managed since the 1940’s. We understand that these areas now support some of the best examples of species rich grassland in the region, supporting rarities such as butterfly orchid and dingy skipper butterfly. Within the footprint boundary for this consultation, the land around NY21507045 and NY21927054 is likely to be important for nature and therefore thorough survey and assessment will be required to determine if these areas are suitable for development or whether they should be more appropriately managed to deliver positive effects for biodiversity in line with NPF4.”
The two grid references referred to, denote the grassland within the old airfield site. So although this could potentially be referred to as brownfield, because there is a portion of old runway but the remainder of the site is species rich grassland that the scoping reports says ‘supports some of the best examples of species rich grassland in the region’
Extract from a Scottish voice, Maggie Sale on FB, protesting against the advance of data centres for AI:
Imagine what our communities could look like if we put more money into public libraries instead of offering huge incentives to big tech companies.
Libraries give people a place to learn, read, study, use computers, and access resources they might not have at home. They welcome children, students, families, and older adults. They help people find jobs, learn new skills, and connect with their communities. And they do all of this without requiring anyone to buy a subscription.
Meanwhile, data centers are expanding across the country to support cloud computing, AI, and the digital services we use every day. These facilities serve a purpose, but they also require enormous amounts of electricity. Some use significant amounts of water for cooling. Their construction can also affect nearby land, wildlife habitats, and local communities.
The question is not whether we need technology. We clearly do. The question is whether taxpayers should help pay for private data center projects while many communities are still fighting to fund schools, libraries, parks, and other essential services.
When a company wants to build a massive facility, it should have to show that the project benefits the community, not just its bottom line. Public money should come with public benefits.
We should be able to embrace new technology without ignoring the needs of people, wildlife, and the environment.
An attorney for the far-right Oath Keepers group exchanged text messages about election fraud with Andrew Giuliani, the son of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, in November 2020. The general counsel for the Oath Keepers, Kellye SoRelle, who has been charged in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, said she was in […]
The general counsel for the Oath Keepers, Kellye SoRelle, who has been charged in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, said she was in touch with Andrew Giuliani while he was a White House public liaison assistant in the Trump administration. The texts were only related to allegations of election fraud and not the attack on the Capitol two months later, SoRelle said.
“None of that was like, ‘Hey, we should go storm the Capitol,’” SoRelle told NBC News. “It was like, ‘We have this affidavit,’ or whatever.”
Andrew Giuliani, who recently ran for the Republican nomination for New York governor, confirmed the interaction and said his last contact with SoRelle was on Nov. 10, 2020, according to his phone records.
“Until you mentioned her, until I looked it up, it didn’t really ring a bell,” Andrew Giuliani told the outlet.
SoRelle additionally tried to send a text message to the White House in December, according to a new book by former Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-VA), and journalist Hunter Walker. However, the message failed to be delivered because it was sent to a White House switchboard line. For Riggleman, the connection between Andrew Giuliani and a member of the Oath Keepers was not surprising.
“The phone data my team compiled makes clear the militant aspect of the Capitol attack and high-level associates of the former president were inextricably linked together,” Riggleman said. “It is so important for the American people to be aware of the direct links between the Trump White House and militant groups including this newfound connection between Kellye Sorelle and a former White House aide.”
SoRelle was photographed with Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes outside the Capitol during the insurrection, along with several other leaders of the far-right militia. She has been charged with four counts, including conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of justice, obstruction of an official proceeding, and one misdemeanor count of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, according to a three-page indictment. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
This book makes a simple case. There is a growing militant, farright, Christian nationalist movement that is being fueled by online disinformation. That movement now constitutes an extremist wing of the Republican Party—the party that I once belonged to—and it poses a serious danger to our democracy. Fringe movements of any political stripe can turn violent. The Left is not immune and certainly not blameless. However, at the moment, the Far Right is more organized and more militant. My story lays out the concrete proof and data showing the scope of this threat and what I hope is the beginning of a blueprint for how we can confront it.
Steve Bannon and The Movement:
The movement: How Steve Bannon is spreading populist Trump-style politics across Europe
After being forced out as White House chief strategist, former Breitbart News chief determined to ignite his brand of nationalism in the rest of the world
DOJ grand jury investigating former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson
What Happened: The Justice Department is investigating Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide who testified against Trump during the January 6 investigation. Prosecutors have presented evidence to a federal grand jury and are investigating allegations that she lied to Congress, along with possible civil rights charges. The case is being handled by the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division under Trump ally Harmeet Dhillon.
Why It Matters: The Justice Department is investigating a key witness who testified about his actions during the January 6 insurrection. The investigation puts other witnesses on notice that testifying against Trump can lead to federal harassment.
Let’s rewind the clock a couple of months to Congress passing the Lindsay Graham sanctions bill. I said back then that I assessed it as extremely unlikely that Trump would ever implement the provisions in the bill. Why? Because Trump’s close ties to Russia and Putin that have evolved since the 1990s simply run too deep. If it hadn’t been for Russian money, Trump would have gone broke and I doubt his business empire would have ever come off the ground, if it hadn’t been for Russian oligarchs and mobsters directed by Putin and his intelligence services.
Therefore, in reality Trump is a Russian asset as I concluded in the book “Subverted” which was released in February this year. Many intelligence professionals, researchers, academics and journalists have concluded the same, not least my good friend Black Man Spy – Malcolm Nance. This is not conspiracy theory. The “Russia, Russia, Russia hoax” was no hoax. The relationship is documented and if you understand how the Russian agencies operate, Trump’s status as a witting asset is quite obvious. That’s why I like many others have repeatedly said, there was not a snowball’s chance in hell that Trump would “get tough with Putin” or make “a pivot to Ukraine” and whatever enonsense has been peddled over the last year and a half.
Hope you like the front page:-) Subverted isn’t out in English yet, but it will be soon. Read it and you will understand the diesel deal and much more. You can pre-order by sending me DM.
On Friday, Trump showed his true colours under the guise of ending the soaring diesel prices for US voters. Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries have a very limited impact on the price of diesel and especially global oil prices. The blame on Ukraine is simply false. The soaring prices are overwhelmingly the result of Trump’s own making due to his disastrous Iran war.
Another important aspect is the fact that the amount of diesel covered by the deal are far too low to have a significant impact. The first shipment amounts to less than US consumption for 24 hrs (as far as I can tell 15 or 16 hrs). Increasing US diesel imports from Canada by only 4% would give the US the same supply. Obviously, the Canadians have been branded “super villains” by the Trump regime, so a deal with a terrorist like Putin is preferable. The logic makes a ton of sense in the world of super villains.
There are other aspects that make this deal rather odd. Due to Ukrainian strikes Russia has passed a diesel export ban. 90% of the Russian regions report shortages and 75% of the regions have passed laws rationing sales of diesel. Due to the shortages, Russia has even imported diesel from South Korea.
Then why do the deal at all? Firstly, the Russian have wrapped a treasonous web of “kompromat” around Trump since the 1990s and especially during the 2000s. From Putin’s perspective this deal is likely seen as a way to strengthen the treasonous web. Why? That’s how the Russian agencies think and operate. We’ve seen Putin’s operatives, namely finance czar, Kirill Dimitriev, do this again and again. And by the way, Dimitriev was in Trump Tower, New York, on election night back in 2016, so this is no news at all. These relationships and thereby also “kompromat” have evolved even more since then. Former Goldman Sachs banker Dimitriev is always lurking in the shadows with billion dollar deals in hand. Always. You can check out the photos yourselves from all the meetings. I guarantee you, Dimitriev was there with deals.
Secondly, Putin sees this as a way to get Trump to put more pressure on Ukraine and end US intelligence support for Ukraine. Now, we know that this is precisely what Trump’s lackeys threatened the Ukrainians to do during the Miami “negotiations” on Friday. No surprise at all.
Regarding the Miami “negotiations” at Steve Witkoff’s estate were another “string along exercise”. That’s what it’s been all along. It started with the US-Russia meeting in Jeddah in February 2025. Again, if you check the photos, Dimitriev was there too, even though this meeting was portrayed as a meeting to start peace talks. Essentially, the alleged peace talks have been an exercise of smoke and mirrors with nothing to show. It was hardly a coincidence that Trump chose to announce the diesel deal while Kyrylo Budanov and the Ukrainian delegation were at Miami.
To underline the point, petroleum tanker “Minerva Zen” departed Saint Petersburg, Russia, already on 22 September. According to Vesselfinder the Minerva is destined for Wilmington, North Carolina. Whether this means that the diesel deal had already been made two weeks prior, we can’t conclude with certainty. On the other hand, it’s a distinct possibility that shouldn’t be overlooked. What’s the chance that a tanker carrying Russian diesel or other petroleum products would drift around the Atlantic for a couple of weeks waiting for a port call? And why would it drift close to US ports given the fact that Russian diesel has been banned in the US since 2022, if the shippers didn’t know the paperwork was forthcoming? It certainly doesn’t look random. Coincidence takes a lot of planning.
Now let’s turn to what else has been going on of late, which makes “the true colours” even more obvious. Behind the curtains of “the string along exercise” which took Witkoff and Kushner to Moscow (again) and a visit to Kyiv for once, it has been documented that there were intensive talks with not least Dimitriev (of course) about several energy deals. Again, peace talks were but a smokescreen.
One of these is the longstanding ambition of both the Trump inner circle and obviously the Russians to reestablish the Nord Stream pipelines transporting cheap Russian natural gas to Germany. For this to work, Trump and Putin’s men need a German counterpart. And who would that be? The radical right wing party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) that’s surging in the polls. AfD also champions the reestablishment of Nord Stream thereby promising Germans access to cheap energy and obviously also an end to aid for Ukraine.
So besides filling the coffers of Trump, Putin and their lackeys, the Nord Stream initiative would have the added benefit of increasing the election prospects of a fellow fascist party in Germany. Dimitriev (again) is scheduled to meet the AfD leadership early next year.
Another prospective deal involves buying Russian Lukoil’s foreign assets where Witkoff and Kushner have involved investors from the UAE and Qatar. A USD 20 billion deal would undercut the sanctions imposed by the US in 2025 on Lukoil. Obviously, the Lukoil sanctions were due to US domestic pressure and not a Trump preference.
Finally, there’s also the potash deal with Putin’s vassal in Belarus. Belarus has been under US sanctions since Lukashenko’s violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2021. By why keep up sanctions on Belarus when you can help a fellow dictator?
So there you go. This was to be expected. Trump wants his buddy and terror mastermind Putin out of the cold. Putin has wrapped a treasonous web around Trump that will only be tightened. It will only be if – and that’s a big IF – Congress finally shows balls and stops the treasonous path. I hope the latter, but as a European I urge decision-makers to take matters into our own hands. Then we can hope America comes to its senses. As long as the GOP is a cult run by a mobster, we cannot run the risk.
Special Reuters report about Russian influence in Germany:
Pro-Putin operatives in Germany work to turn Berlin against Ukraine
REUTERS/Stringer. Illustration by Eve Watling
In Germany some are clamouring for a change in course on Ukraine. Key figures in the campaign have links to the Russian state or far right, a Reuters investigation has found.
In a square beneath the twin spires of Cologne’s gothic cathedral, around 2,000 protesters gathered in September to urge Germany’s government to break with the Western coalition backing Ukraine and make peace with Russia.
“We must stop being vassals of the Americans,” right-wing German politician Markus Beisicht said from a makeshift stage on the back of a truck. The crowd clapped and waved Russian and German flags.
A lean man in camouflage trousers stood at the side of the stage, obscured from the crowd by a tarpaulin. A few metres away, a burly man in dark sunglasses stood guard. The rally’s organisers did not welcome questions. Most declined to speak when approached by a Reuters reporter. One protester tried to persuade a police officer to arrest the reporter as a Ukrainian spy.
The rally was just one of many occasions – online and on the streets – where people have clamoured that Berlin should reconsider its support for Ukraine. That message taps into deep connections between Germany and Russia, with several million Russian speakers living in Germany, a legacy of Soviet ties to Communist east Germany, and decades of German dependency on Russian gas.
Trump appears to want to vilify Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky after striking a deal with Russia this week, as he now claims the Ukrainian leader “does not want to make a deal” to end the war.
The president also reiterated his age-old claim that the war would never have been started if he were in power at the time, when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday about Zelensky, Trump said, “He could’ve settled this war many times, and he chooses not to …” adding, “If the election weren’t rigged and I would have been president, that war would have never started.”
“He wants to make problems for the world, he wants to make problems for our farmers, our ranchers, with diesel fuel, because Russia supplies a large portion of the diesel fuel throughout the world….”
“… he better damn well stop,” he growled. He also claimed it was time for Ukraine to get a “new leader”.
In a separate interview later at night, Trump told reporters, “Russia would like to make a deal,” adding, “This is something that could have been solved many times, but for whatever reason, Zelensky does not want to make a deal.”
When asked what Russia’s President Putin told him during their phone call, Trump responded, “He’d like to see a settlement.”
Trump’s comments did not impress many people online, as users were eager to point out the realities of the war in Ukraine that the president seemed unaware of.
“Ukraine was invaded. Russia is the aggressor. But he’s blaming the victim? Wild,” replied one account.
“If I remember correctly….Russia started the war. Trump started the war in Iran,” another person acknowledged. “The fact that Trump is conspiring with Russia and China should be enough for Americans to reality check what is happening on the surface, but undoubtedly behind the scenes. The Trumps are growing their personal wealth at the expense of the American people.”
Someone else added, “Yeah, because it’s totally that simple, just give up your entire country and let a dictator roll right through because standing up for your people is apparently the real problem here, make it make sense.”
Upon hearing the news that the U.S. had struck a deal with Russia to import millions of tons of their oil, Zelensky expressed frustration, slamming Trump as “weak.” He described the deal as a “gift to Putin”.
Meanwhile, in stark contrast, the Ukrainian leader met with U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham over the weekend, as the British leader pledged his “complete solidarity” with Ukraine.
On Saturday, Zelensky wrote on X, “British leadership is always significant, and it matters that the U.K. will continue to ramp up sanctions pressure on Russia for its escalation. We discussed this and what could truly help diplomacy work. We are preparing the right joint steps and a meeting.”
Zelensky sets one condition for halting refinery strikes as Trump threatens intelligence cutoff
Story by IdahoPublicPress Editorial Team
• 2h
The dispute over Ukraine’s drone campaign against Russian oil refineries has spilled into open friction between Kyiv and Washington, with diesel prices, sanctions policy, and Zelensky’s own political fate now tangled together.
President Volodymyr Zelensky is standing by Ukraine’s strikes on Russian oil refineries, rejecting President Donald Trump’s demand that Ukraine replace him as its leader. In a statement Sunday, Zelensky said Kyiv would halt the refinery campaign only if Russia stops attacking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and only with real guarantees behind any deal.
The tanker MINERVA ZEN, which, according to social media reports, is carrying Russian diesel fuel, left St Petersburg on 22 September — 17 days before Donald Trump announced an agreement with Vladimir Putin regarding diesel supplies. Vessel data indicates a route towards the US, but there is no documented link between this specific voyage and the agreement.
Briefly about the main points
MINERVA ZEN left St Petersburg on 22 September at 20:32 UTC.
VesselFinder forecasts that the vessel will arrive in Wilmington on 11 October.
TankerMap shows a different declared destination — Lake Charles.
OFAC has authorised certain transactions involving Russian diesel until 7 April 2027.
There is no documentary evidence to link the flight to the agreement between Trump and Putin.
CNN gained rare access by joining a convoy of residents permitted to move through that occupied territory to reach their homes in three predominantly Christian villages. They have been spared the fate of the surrounding Shia Muslim villages that now resemble a wasteland.
Israel invaded southern Lebanon in March after Hezbollah, a Shia Lebanese militant group backed by Iran, resumed strikes on Israel to avenge the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Since then, the Israeli military has occupied a band of territory about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) deep to establish what it calls a “security zone” to protect Israel’s northern residents from the threat of rocket attacks from Hezbollah.
Most villages have been systematically flattened by Israeli forces, and residents of the remaining Christian villages described hearing daily controlled demolitions in neighboring communities.
According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, more than 4,300 people have been killed by Israeli strikes since March 2, and the United Nations says more than 350,000 remain displaced since Israel’s occupation began.
As our journey continues, the road twists through apocalyptic terrain until, out of nowhere, life reappears. Buildings stand intact, cars move through the streets and children ride their bikes, as life appears to go on as normal.
A policy document is only as significant as the people behind it, and this is where the story moves from the abstract to the concrete. The lead author of the Free Alberta Strategy is a man named Rob Anderson.
Anderson is not a fringe figure. He is a former Wildrose MLA, a lawyer by training, and a long-time fixture on the hard-right flank of Alberta conservative politics. He has spent years inside the province’s political machinery, building relationships, honing arguments, and positioning himself at the intersection of policy and power.
The path from the publication of the Free Alberta Strategy in 2021 to Anderson’s current role reads like a political operative’s dream sequence. In 2022, he chaired Danielle Smith’s campaign for the leadership of the United Conservative Party. When she won, he chaired her transition team — the group responsible for shaping the new government’s structure, priorities, and personnel. And then, in the move that completes the circle, he became the chief of staff in the Premier’s office.
Follow the arc: a man co-writes a detailed strategy for prying Alberta out of Confederation. He then runs the leadership campaign of the woman who becomes Premier. He then takes over her office. The person who authored the separation playbook now holds the pen at the highest level of provincial power.
This is not a conspiracy theory. It is a matter of public record. Anderson’s role in Smith’s orbit has never been hidden. On her own podcast, recorded before she became Premier, Smith sat with Anderson and talked enthusiastically through the Free Alberta Strategy he had co-written. She called him one of the smartest policy minds in Alberta. She was not tricked into an agenda. She embraced it openly.
Trump Team Secretly Met With Group That Wants to Separate From Canada
January 29, 2026/11:14 a.m.
Senior Trump administration officials have held meetings with the Alberta Prosperity Project, a fringe separatist group that seeks to split the province away from Canada.
The Financial Timesreports that State Department officials have met representatives from the group in Washington, D.C., three times in the last nine months. The group’s counsel, Jeff Rath, told the publication, “We’re meeting very, very senior people leaving our meetings to go directly to the Oval Office.
“The U.S. is extremely enthusiastic about a free and independent Alberta,” Rath said.
The Times, citing unnamed sources, said that the group was hoping for another meeting in February to request $500 billion in credit to prop up the province if an independence referendum, which has not yet been called, were to pass. The State Department confirmed the meetings to the publication but said, “No commitments were made,” and a White House official added that “no such support, or any other commitments, was conveyed.”
Last week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent played up Albertan independence, calling the oil-rich province “a natural partner for the U.S.”
“They have great resources. The Albertans are very independent people. Rumor that they may have a referendum on whether they want to stay in Canada or not,” Bessent said to right-wing podcaster Jack Posobiec.
Podcaster and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon discussed Alberta breaking away from Canada in an episode in November, saying that President Trump sees Canada like Ukraine.
“The Chinese and the Russians are up there and they see the undefended northern territories of Canada, they’re going to take a bite,” Bannon said. His guest, right-wing commentator Brandon Weichert, expounded further.
“I know a lot of the people in charge of the Alberta separatist movement,” Weichert said. “The Albertans are ready to vote in the next six months. They’re going to get out of the Canadian union. They’re going to become an independent country. We’re going to recognize them, and that’s going to put them on the pathway to becoming the fifty-first state.”
In reality, polls show that the majority of Albertans would prefer to stay in Canada. Canadian leaders have denounced the APP’s meetings, with British Columbia Premier David Eby calling them “treason” and Ontario Premier Doug Ford saying that “going behind Canada’s back and negotiating is unacceptable.”
The U.S. is growing increasingly unpopular in Canada, thanks to Trump’s threats to make them the “fifty-first state.” The idea that his team would try to engineer a breakup of the country will only worsen the relationship, especially considering that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is already seeking to make Canada financially independent from the U.S.
In the end of July 2018, Steve Bannon made headlines when he announced “to boost populist parties enough to create a right-wing ‘supergroup’ following EU Parliamentary elections next May.”1 As the official vehicle for the project an already existing private foundation called “The Movement / Le Movement” was chosen, founded on January 9, 2017, by the Belgian far-right politician and lawyer Mischaël Modrikamen, his wife Yasmine Dehaene-Modrikamen and Laure Ferrari, an aide to Nigel Farage.2 The Brussels-based organization is to be staffed with 10 full-time employees in the forthcoming months, who will preliminarily focus on data analyses and surveys.3 According to Bannon the number might grow to 25, depending on the outcome of the 2019 European parliamentary elections.“4
“Bannon told Reuters The Movement will serve as a ‘clearing house’ in Brussels, at the heart of the EU, for the ‘populist, nationalist movement in Europe’, with the objective of boosting the anti-EU presence in the European Parliament…”5
The populist bloc could gather up to a third of the 705 deputies’ seats in the European Parliament in next year’s European election.4 “‘Everybody agrees that next May is hugely important, that this is the real first continent-wide face-off between populism and the party of Davos,’ he said, referring to the yearly economic summit of heads of state and business in the Swiss mountain resort.”1 “Right-wing populist nationalism is what will happen. That’s what will govern,” he told the Daily Beast. “You’re going to have individual nation states with their own identities, their own borders.”
That Bannon has made the right alliances to form such an EU parliamentary supergroup can be seen on the attached network map. Bannon has strong ties to Nigel Farage, co-leader of the right-wing, Euro-sceptic European parliamentary group Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD), of which politicians of UKIP, AfD, Débout la France, and the Five Star Movement are members. AfD’s Beatrix von Storch became a member of the EFDD in April 2016, forestalling her imminent expulsion from the European Conservatives and Reformists group, and remained active in the EFDD until her entry into the Bundestag in September 2017.
Bannon’s contact to Matteo Salvini constitutes a direct link to another important right-wing European parliamentary group, Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF), which gathers MEPs from Rassemblement National, FPÖ, The League, and FPÖ. Via his DHI network, Bannon should have also access to contacts in the European Christian Political Movement (ECPM), such as Nirj Deva.
According to his description the organisation was founded in the beginning of last year as a side-project of the Belgian Parti Populaire to “unite the populist forces in Europe.” “Its goals, stated in a constitution lodged with Belgian authorities, were ‘to promote the rule of law, free enterprise, national sovereignty, effective national borders, popular consultation, the fight against radical Islam, a scientific and not dogmatic approach to climatic phenomena and the defense of Israel as a sovereign state on its historic land.’”7 But instead of embarking on these challenging goals, the project with an initial capital of a mere 2500 Euro, and registered at Modrikamen’s home address, was subsequently “put on ice”. Modrikamen stated, at the time he had sent a memo to likeminded parties in Europe and the United States, but it was not until sometime in July 2018 that Bannon got back in touch.5 The contact had been established by Nigel Farage, who told Modrikamen that Bannon would like to meet him. At a luncheon in London on July 15,5 Modrikamen stated it “clicked”, that they “absolutely shared the same convictions […] to give back to the whole world the sovereignty of the people and to be the voice of their voice, such as Trump is the voice of the ordinary man in the United States…”
. . . For more than 40 years, Canada has been a wellhead of Koch’s burgeoning fortune in oil, refineries, pipelines, petroleum products and financial trading as well as an expanding list of diverse interests — producing an estimated $115 billion in revenues last year, according to Forbes.
In Canada, Koch presides over an interlocking empire of interests, from the Alberta oil sands to fibre and fuel-additive producer INVISTA in Ontario and building products distributor Georgia-Pacific in Quebec. It employs, by its own account, 2,000 people, donates to charitable causes and supports the influential pro-oil Fraser Institute.
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