US embassies across the entire Middle East issued identical security alerts on Monday, warning their citizens in Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the UAE, Yemen and Iran to exercise heightened vigilance.
The alerts warn all US citizens of potential flight cancellations, airspace closures and travel disruptions due to the risk of military escalation linked to Yemen’s Houthis and Iran.
The warning covering 12 countries states that “the hostilities have the potential to escalate rapidly beyond that immediate area” and to “develop contingency plans in advance.”
“Iran and groups supportive of Iran may target other US interests overseas or at locations associated with the United States and Americans throughout the world, including US businesses and other institutions,” the alert said.
In Saudi Arabia, the embassy warned of a “complex security environment,” as “Iranian-supported Houthis have engaged in hostilities against Saudi Arabia, including attacks on civilian airports and other critical infrastructure resulting in civilian casualties and severe travel disruptions.”
The alert also states that “Iran and groups supportive of Iran may target other U.S. interests overseas or at locations associated with the United States and Americans throughout the world, including US businesses and other institutions.”
In Qatar, the US embassy urged its citizens on Sunday to monitor official alerts and local media, avoid demonstrations and large gatherings, and follow instructions from local authorities.
Qatar Airways announced on Monday that it will suspend its Saudi-bound flights to and from Riyadh and Dammam until 24 October and reduce flights to Jeddah from seven to four per day.
Theoretically, the article builds upon the recent use of interactionist approaches to explain the emergence of violence during protests and other forms of contention (Bramsen, 2018; Nassauer, 2018, 2019, 2021; Tiratelli, 2018). Grounded in Collins’ (2008) micro-sociological work on violence, such research focuses on the emotional dynamics of situational encounters and how specific patterns of interaction enable actors to overcome the tension and fear that otherwise inhibits the onset or persistence of violence. It has highlighted that situational encounters can acquire their own violence-favouring logics, distinct from the wider struggles of which they are a part (Nassauer, 2018, 2022), and proved effective at predicting the occurrence of violence (Nassauer, 2019).
This article also addresses questions that interactionist approaches address less well, however, about: (a) how such violence-favouring situations arise, (b) what can inhibit their emergence, and (c) why some violence-favouring situations do not give rise to violence. To do this, the article brings situational analysis into dialogue with three intersecting strands of political violence research: on the relational dynamics of conflict escalation and de-escalation (Alimi, 2024; Alimi et al., 2015), on processual approaches to conflict (Malthaner, 2017), and on the restraints on violence within radical milieus (Busher & Bjørgo, 2020). This approach follows calls to explore how we can augment interactionist approaches by integrating “upstream” structural and contextual factors (Nassauer, 2022; Tiratelli, 2018; Unverdorben, 2023; Whitehead et al., 2018) and reflects a long tradition of research on political violence and civil unrest that emphasises the value of integrating macro-, meso-, and micro-level analyses (Della Porta, 1995; Waddington et al., 1989). It also reflects a practical intent: our aim is to enhance the ability of state and civil society actors not just to manage far-right violence as it unfolds, but to anticipate and inhibit its emergence.
Our focus on far-right protest reflects the recognition that assertive far-right protests across the Global North and beyond represent a social issue that warrants attention. Such protest is also of particular theoretical interest. It remains relatively under-studied in comparison with other forms of protest (Gattinara & Pirro, 2019); is imbued with a deep logic of violence against perceived out-groups (Karapin, 2002), making variance in violence use particularly interesting; and is often characterised by the co-presence of counter-protestors.
Hundreds of thousands are protesting in France against the high cost of living and poor schools. Violent groups are looting stores and attacking public buildings. Riots also broke out in Milan over two days. Seven answers about the weekend.
S. Ziegler, F. Berner, N. Agostini
Today at 09:18•Today at 09:27
Here’s what it’s all about
In France, more than half a million people demonstrated on Saturday, mostly peacefully.
At the same time, serious riots broke out—including in Italy. In Milan on Sunday, more than 200 young people were taken to police stations, about 80 percent of whom were minors.
Behind the protests are a variety of causes and groups.
Summary created with
Smashed storefronts in Paris, a burned-out city hall in Limoges, and looted stores in Milan: Social protests over the weekend were marred by serious riots.
But who is protesting, and why? And who is using the rallies as an opportunity to commit acts of violence and theft? blue News provides the key questions and answers about the weekend.
The unrest has sharpened the political confrontation between the radical Left and the nationalists. Marine Le Pen accused Jean-Luc Melenchon’s movement of having “legitimised the violence” and said sh…
One of child-rapist Jeffrey Epstein’s many roles was as a powerbroker and connector of far-right and fascist individuals globally. Messages now show how former Trump advisor Steve Bannon sought the sex-trafficker and paedophile’s help to support the European far-right.
The messages mostly date from 2018 and 2019, when Bannon, after being sacked by Trump, regularly visited Europe in his quest to forge a movement in the European Parliament uniting ultra-right wing and Eurosceptic forces from several countries including Italy, Germany, France, Hungary, Poland, Sweden and Austria.
Italy’s Matteo Salvini and France’s Marine Le Pen, both leaders of far-right and fascist-adjacent political parties, were among those Bannon wanted to see flourish:
Bannon especially set his sights on Matteo Salvini, the Italian deputy prime minister and leader of the far-right League party, who at the time was at the height of his political power.
Opposition parties in Italy have called for investigations:
to clarify whether Epstein influenced the rise of the League after Salvini’s name was cited several times in messages exchanged between Bannon and Epstein.
Then, at around 1:30 p.m. Eastern, No Kings’ Instagram account was taken offline. It left the organization without its biggest megaphone during the height of the protests.
Look back to emergence of ‘black clad rioters’ on May 1st 2018 in Paris:
Politics Fascism. pic: April 1934. Sir Oswald Mosley walks down an avenue of saluting Blackshirts as he arrives at the Albert Hall for a meeting. Sir Oswald Mosley, (1896-1980), was founder and leader of the British Union of Fascists in the 1930’s. Politics, Fascism, pic: April 1934, Sir Oswald Mosley walks down an avenue of saluting Blackshirts as he arrives at the Albert Hall for a meeting, Sir Oswald Mosley, (1896-1980), was founder and leader of the British Union of Fascists in the 1930’s (Photo by Bentley Archive/Popperfoto via Getty Images/Gett
Frozen Russian Assets: Europe Rejects US Control Plan – FT
In brief: The Trump administration proposed placing part of Russia’s frozen sovereign assets in Europe under Washington’s oversight to help revive peace negotiations, according to the Financial Times. European representatives rejected the idea. US envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner raised the proposal during talks involving Ukrainian and European officials in Miami, where control of the funds became another point of disagreement.
A Russian national tricolor flag flies atop the Russian Central Bank headquarters in downtown Moscow on February 13, 2026. (Photo by HECTOR RETAMAL / AFP)
Report: Arab states poured nearly $15 billion into US universities
New data show Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have funneled billions into American higher education over five decades, much of it undisclosed, raising concerns of foreign influence
Daniel Edelson, New York | published: 09.05.25 | 08:51
Witkoff and Kushner keep their teams small when negotiating major business deals and approach the world stage in a similar way. One of the administration officials noted that real estate deals begin at the top with a select few who have a vision.
“Then after that comes constructive managers and coordinating with engineers and architects and so forth,” the first official continued. “So I just think that we’re very good at understanding what the complicating features of a deal are. We talk about it, we address it, then we figure out how we’re going to solve it.”
Global negotiations, like development deals, have “similar rhythms for transactions,” said the second administration official.
“Some of these conflicts, they all move the same way,” said the first administration official, noting that the “game plan” receives input from Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and chief of staff Susie Wiles. There is also a working relationship with Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine.
“We’ve had people say, ‘How can you have such a small team?’ Well the beginning of the decision-making here on the game plan doesn’t require a big group,” the first administration official said.
Witkoff and Kushner’s one-size-fits-all approach was most evident last month in Geneva when the duo met with the Ukrainians, the Russians and the Iranians in one day, attempting to secure separate deals to end the four-year war in Ukraine and halt Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
President Trump with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak in the Oval Office, May 10, 2017. Alexander Shcherbak/TASS/via Getty Images.caption…
See Ruth Ben-Ghiat Substack, Oct 19th:
Just months after his inauguration, Trump hosted Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergei Kislyak in the Oval Office, with only a Russian state photographer from TASS present. This told the world that the White House would be a Russian-friendly space with Trump in power, with Kremlin views of politics and the world amplified by Washington.
And now, as the mid-terms approch;
Of course, Trump of all people should know that in fact his debt will never be repaid, that for autocrats loyalty is earned every hour of every day. The more autocrats fear losing power and influence, the more volatile they become, and while we know Trump is growing desperate to avoid the rout of the midterms, this essay reminds us that he is also under pressure from abroad. This is why he is escalating his assistance to Russia and his attempts to make America submit to his will, with much more to come before his time in power ends.
Taybeh , the West Bank ‘s fully Christian town and community
Church
Taybeh: West Bank Christian town under renewed settler incursion
Israeli settlers escalate their incursions into Taybeh, the West Bank’s last fully Christian town, raising concerns over further land appropriation. The parish priest, Father Bashar Fawadleh, appeals for international intervention, as residents face mounting restrictions and call for peace, justice, and protection.
Fear and attacks grip Taybeh, the last all-Christian town in the West Bank
Historic Taybeh, a Palestinian Christian town in the occupied West Bank, targeted by settlers in coordinated attacks.
A statue of the Virgin Mary in Taybeh, occupied West Bank [Al Jazeera]
14 Aug 2026
Taybeh, occupied West Bank – Underneath a painting of Jesus and his disciples, Sandra Basir brought out what she and her husband, Roland, now keep to protect their home: a couple of fire extinguishers.
They keep them because the last time Israeli settlers set fire to a neighbour’s car outside their house, no one else came. “Civil defence – when did they even show up? After everything was already over,” Roland says.
The couple’s nightly routine in their Palestinian Christian town is now similar to the majority-Muslim rural Palestinian communities besieged by settler attacks and nighttime military raids for years. Sandra checks the doors more than once before bed. They got a dog to stay outside to alert them of any trespassers. Sandra is, by her own description, always half-awake – listening for whoever might be coming for her four small children while they sleep.
Their seven-year-old son has stopped playing outside, Sandra says, and for months, the little boy told his father not to go to work – scared he might not return. “That’s what our life has become,” says Sandra, who was on the verge of tears throughout the conversation. “A child that age should just be playing.”
For more than 20 years, Roland built up a stone quarry and concrete-block factory on the edge of town, investing an estimated $5m in the business. After employing 40 local Palestinians, he has found his life’s work snatched by marauding settlers, both armed adults and some barely teenagers.
In the past three years – and with the situation deteriorating even more severely this past year – he and his workers were frequently chased off by settlers at gunpoint, with his quarry’s heavy-machinery equipment set on fire. The most brazen attack came in March, when Roland says some 30 to 40 settlers stormed the quarry site in a coordinated mass incursion. Videos and photos show them raising Israeli flags over the grounds and performing prayers on the land. Before leaving, they smashed his office, destroyed electrical panels, and pulled cameras from the walls.
Damage after a settler attack on Roland Basir’s quarry in the town of Taybeh in the West Bank [Courtesy of Roland Basir]
Roland documented everything on video, filed complaints with the liaison office, the police, and every institution he could reach. All his efforts to mobilise help to protect his land, however, were for naught. The settlers were back the next day, with their attacks continuing ever since.
Israeli settlers attack European diplomats and French mayor in West Bank, Belgium says
Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine was hospitalised after she was violently assaulted by Israeli settlers
18 Oct 2026, 14:38 | Updated: 53m ago
According to an October 17 post by Maxime Prevot, a number of people including the Belgian Consul General, French and Polish diplomats as well as Catholic representatives were attacked by Israeli settlers in the largely Christian city of Taybeh.
These attacks come days after Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine was hospitalised from a violent assault by Israeli settlers on her and Palestinians she was with.
The attack on Levine garnered international condemnation, including from the United States, with Marco Rubio calling it “disturbing”.
Trump invoked the Graham Act’s national-interest waiver to suspend new duties on Russian goods and major Russian energy buyers, along with other sanctions and restrictions.
The waiver came two days before the law’s implementation deadline and follows a separate temporary easing of sanctions on Russian diesel exports.
The moves have drawn praise from a Russian envoy and criticism from Democrats.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order late Friday waiving parts of a recently enacted package of sanctions aimed at curbing Russia’s ability to prosecute its war against Ukraine.
“I have submitted to the Congress a certification that the issuance of such a waiver is in the national interests of the United States,” Trump wrote in Friday’s order.
The House passed the Russia sanctions bill on Sept. 16, and Trump signed it into law two days later. The bill was introduced over a year ago, and its primary backer was the late Lindsey Graham, a veteran Republican senator who represented South Carolina.
The act required the president to increase duties on all Russian goods imported into the U.S. by up to 500% no later than 30 days after enactment. It also required Trump to impose tariffs of up to 100% on countries including China and India that are among the top five purchasers of Russian crude oil or gas.
Trump’s latest order waives these two parts of the Graham Act and comes two days before the law’s implementation deadline. However, the order preserves existing sanctions on Russia under earlier executive orders.
The law could also sanction Russian leaders, officials, and financial institutions, and expand sanctions on Iran.
The move also comes a week after the Trump administration temporarily waived sanctions on Russian diesel exports through April 2027 to ease a supply crunch caused by the war in Iran.
High fuel prices are a sensitive issue for voters ahead of midterm elections on Nov. 3. Trump’s Republican Party holds a narrow majority in both chambers of Congress.
A ‘historic moment’
“The suspension of some of the provisions of the Graham Act marks an important and truly historic moment,” Kirill Dmitriev, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s economy envoy, said in a post on X.
“The U.S.-Russia economic dialogue and peacemaking efforts will continue,” Dmitriev added.
Houthi missiles strike Yemen presidential palace, killing five
Attack was the first on Aden’s Al-Maashiq palace in the latest fighting between the Iran-aligned Houthis and Saudi Arabia
Guardian staff and agencies
Fri 16 Oct 2026 01.27
Yemen’s Houthis fired missiles at the presidential palace complex in the southern city of Aden on Thursday, killing five people, the government said, as the Saudi-led coalition listed dozens of Houthi attacks on Saudi infrastructure in recent weeks.
The attack was the first on Aden’s Al-Maashiq palace in the current conflict between the Iran-aligned Houthis and Saudi Arabia. The palace is the seat of Yemen’s Saudi-backed and internationally recognised government.
Yemen’s prime minister, Shaya al-Zindani, and cabinet members were safe following the attack, Yemeni information minister Moammar al-Eryani said. Witnesses told Reuters they heard loud booms near the palace. Yemen’s cabinet said the attack involved missiles and drones.
Yemen’s health minister, Qasim Buhaibeh, said five people were killed and 16 wounded in the attack, with casualties including guards and civilian employees.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said its fighters had bombed what he described as the Saudi military operations headquarters in Aden, as part of the group’s declared policy of targeting “Saudi reinforcements wherever they were located”.
Agence France-Presse reported that a Yemeni government minister said on condition of anonymity that the palace attack had hit a command centre for the Saudi-led coalition. The official added that the command centre was hit by three missiles, and the headquarters of the coalition forces at the presidential complex with two missiles, adding that there were Yemeni and Saudi casualties, without providing a specific toll.
Fighting has escalated between the Houthi rebels and a Saudi-led coalition as part of clashes linked to the US and Israeli war on Iran, and aid agencies have warned of rapidly worsening conditions in Yemen.
The clashes have complicated efforts to end the wider Iran war and further rattled global markets as Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s top oil exporters, faces repeated attacks. Regional aviation is affected, too, as the rebels have warned airlines about their use of Saudi airspace for attacks. Thousands of flights across the kingdom have been disrupted.
Saudi Arabia is being urged to reconcile with the United Arab Emirates over Yemen as the price Riyadh must pay to form a military alliance capable of driving the Houthis back.
Relations between the UAE and Saudi Arabia in Yemen, where both had backed anti-Houthi forces, plummeted in January this year when a force with which the UAE had been aligned – the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) – was attacked and defeated by Saudi Arabia in a move intended to squash its attempt to recreate a separate southern state. The UAE subsequently in effect quit Yemen.
But the unexpected success in mid September of the Iran-aligned Houthis’ drive to the narrow Bab al-Mandab strait against pro-government forces has transformed the geopolitics of the region again. The push south defeated the previously UAE-backed National Resistance Forces led by Tareq Saleh, whose front rapidly collapsed.
The future role of the UAE in Yemen was discussed at a meeting in Abu Dhabi on Sunday attended by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the UAE president, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and a group of other Arab states, including representatives of Saudi Arabia.
Netanyahu reportedly offered to help Saudi Arabia defeat the Houthis, an offer that Riyadh would probably find near impossible to accept, even though Donald Trump has failed to answer the Saudi call for US help in Yemen.
A further meeting to discuss Yemen took place on Tuesday in Riyadh between Prince Khalid bin Salman Al Saud, the Saudi defence minister, and Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE vice-president.
It is part of a range of signs from the two sides suggesting they may want to find a path to reconciliation, even if only on energy.
Following the Houthis’ push to the Bab al-Mandab strait, a chokepoint on Saudi oil exports, their forces are now trying to consolidate their gains and take the south-western city of Taiz.
“The Houthi forces are mounting simultaneous waves of attacks on the city, trying to exhaust the Taiz Axis force defending the city,” said Baraa Shiban, a Gulf and Yemen specialist at the defence thinktank Rusi who has just spent a week in Taiz. “The Houthis are pushed back, but then the next day they come again on a different front.
“Efforts are being made to try to end the rift between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and there may be some confidence-building measures. But the UAE has left Yemen, and it is unlikely that Riyadh would let them back in since they are aligned with the STC, and that would spell trouble … the UAE and Saudi Arabia are fundamentally on opposite sides.”
In a detailed report published on November 25, the Financial Times revealed information about Russia’s recruitment of hundreds of Yemenis to fight in Ukraine, luring them with promises of high-paying jobs and even Russian citizenship.
According to the newspaper, the recruitment operations are led by a prominent Houthi political figure, using a company linked to the Houthis that deceived recruits with job offers in Russia.
Upon arrival, however, it became clear that they had been forcibly enlisted into the Russian military and sent to the front lines in Ukraine.
The Financial Times reviewed some of the recruitment contracts, finding that they were connected to a company founded by Houthi politician Abdulwali Abdo Hassan al-Jabri.
Registered in Salalah, Oman, the company is listed as a tourism and medical supply retailer.
Al-Jabri, a member of the Yemeni parliament and a brigadier general in the Houthi-aligned army, was among 174 Houthi leaders sentenced to death in absentia by a military court representing Yemen’s internationally recognized government.
On November 27, investigative researcher Lou Osborne from the Swiss Organization Impact stated that the contracts between Houthi mercenaries and the Russian army pass through the company of Houthi politician al-Jabri, who is “involved in the arms trade between Russia and the Houthis”
According to Osborne, some fighters are recruited in Jordan’s capital, Amman, while working in restaurants, with little to no actual military experience.
According to information from the British newspaper, recruitment operations began in July 2024.
While some of the fighters were experienced in combat, the majority had not received any formal training.
The report claims that many were deceived into traveling to Russia, where they unknowingly signed recruitment contracts they were unable to read.
The newspaper reported that it spoke to several Yemenis from a group of 200 individuals, who confirmed they were promised a $10,000 bonus and a monthly salary of $2,000 when they were asked to travel to Ukraine, along with the prospect of Russian citizenship in the end.
Sokolov has been working as an investor for more than 20 years, including in multinational infrastructure and telecommunications projects. His personal biography also notes his background offering strategic counsel to governments and major companies.
A second former USAID administrator said plenty of wealthy political donors used to run the boards of US enterprise funds – including private equity founder Michael Granoff, a major Democratic donor appointed by President Clinton to serve as chairman of the Albanian-American enterprise fund in the 1990s.
Asked about Sokolov, they said: “The question is, does he have the ability to personally benefit from investment decisions? The answer should be no.”
The Trump administration has already taken unprecedented steps to deepen its ties with Armenia since the White House helped broker a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan last August, committing $9bn to boost its nuclear energy sector and selling $11m of US-made reconnaissance drones to its government, marking America’s first-ever military technology sale there.
The Development Finance Corporation, a government investment arm led by the private equity scion Ben Black, has also announced plans to incorporate the “Tripp Development Company” to build railways and other infrastructure on the proposed route linking Azerbaijan to its contested exclave, Nakhchivan, and to Armenia and Turkey.
Sokolov’s appointment to lead the Tripp+ enterprise fund is only the latest indication of America’s commitment to bolstering development in the strategic corridor linking west Asia to Europe.
The US has operated 13 enterprise funds since 1989, when Congress sent $300m to fund investments in Hungary and Poland after the fall of the Soviet Union. Three years later, Congress authorized the executive branch to create new enterprise funds in any eastern European state. The Tripp+ enterprise fund was set up under the auspices of this post-Soviet legislation.
The Trump administration has asked Congress to expand its authority to create enterprise funds anywhere in the world, according to its 2027 budget request.
There are some indications that Sokolov’s funding pool will grow. Jeremy Lewin, a senior foreign aid official at the state department, told the Council of Foreign Relations in April that the agency had secured $400m to put towards the Tripp+ fund.
“I think that’s, like, one test case of many about how we’re trying to reorient foreign assistance, especially in the sort of economic investment space,” Lewin said.
Both guests added a sixth name. Lautman has published an investigation into Konstantin Sokolov, the Trump ballroom donor the State Department put in charge of a $201 million Caucasus fund; Reuters reported Thursday that he holds major Armenia assets and a history of Russian business. Parnas said he worked with the Reuters reporters on it.
Reported on Zev Shalev’s Substack Oct 16 2026
See Reuters Report:
Reuters: Investigation into Trump Donor Konstantin Sokolov
Back in March of this year this was reported, but I missed it. Seems it has been under reported:
Inside the Supply Chain Funneling Irish Alumina to Russian Rockets
Investigation
Leaked transaction data reveals how a major refinery in Ireland feeds into the aluminum supply chain of Russian weapons manufacturers arming Putin’s forces as they attack Ukraine.
Key Findings
Europe’s largest refinery of alumina — the main raw material used to make aluminum — has been sending the majority of its exports to Russian smelters that feed into the supply chain of EU-sanctioned arms manufacturers.
The Ireland-based plant, Aughinish Alumina, has increased its exports to Russian smelters since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Once in Russia, the alumina is processed into aluminum and sold to clients that include a Moscow-based trader which has supplied hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of aluminum to Russian arms manufacturers, leaked transaction data shows.
These arms manufacturers include more than 40 firms that have been sanctioned by the EU, and whose weapons have killed thousands of civilians and caused widespread damage in Ukraine.
Despite the EU’s calls for member states to stockpile alumina due to its importance in industry and defense, the bloc has not placed restrictions on the raw material’s export to Russia.
Along a rugged, wind-swept shore in western Ireland stands Aughinish Alumina, the hulking industrial complex that is Europe’s largest alumina refinery.
Inside the sprawling plant, heat and pressure are harnessed to transform bauxite — a reddish rock mined oceans away — into alumina, the main raw material needed to produce aluminum.
Strong and resistant to corrosion, aluminum is vital for manufacturing military hardware like missiles, drones, and aircraft. That’s one reason why the European Commission has called on member states to stockpile alumina as a defense against hostile powers.
Yet rather than remaining in the European Union, the majority of the Aughinish factory’s exports are shipped to Russia’s largest aluminum smelters. Those smelters, in turn, feed into a supply chain of sanctioned defense contractors whose weapons have killed thousands of civilians in Ukraine, a new investigation by OCCRP and partners has found.
Reporters could not track the final destination of a specific batch of Aughinish’s alumina, as the powdery substance is typically mixed together with alumina from other sources in the smelting process.
However, customs and trade data show that since 2023, more than half the Ireland-based refinery’s alumina exports have gone to smelters in Russia owned by the plant’s Russian parent company, United Company Rusal.
After processing the alumina into aluminum, the smelters have sold more than $650 million worth of the metal to a Moscow-based trader, Aluminium Sales Company (ASK), which supplies aluminum to clients that include dozens of EU-sanctioned Russian weapons manufacturers, according to leaked transaction data. (The data does not detail the volume of aluminum sold.)
Weapons made by these firms have leveled entire city blocks in Mariupol, struck a children’s hospital in Kyiv, and blown open an apartment building in western Ukraine, according to EU sanctions listings, Ukraine’s military intelligence, and the London-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).
When reached for comment, Aughinish told OCCRP that it operates “in strict compliance with all applicable European Union laws, including sanctions, export control measures and trade regulations.” The company said it had implemented “robust sanctions compliance and due diligence framework covering its entire supply chain,” though it did not respond to specific questions about whether its products might be used to build Russian weapons.
The firm emphasized that alumina and aluminum are basic commodities serving “broad general purpose societal needs…vital for countless civilian industries.”
Alex Prezanti, a U.K. barrister and sanctions specialist, said the lack of restrictions on the alumina trade reflects the tightrope the EU must walk as it tries to stem the flow of money and materials to Russia without compromising the bloc’s own economic interests.
“EU policymakers have to draw a balance between potential impact of sanctions on Russia and potential impact of sanctions on their domestic economies,” said Prezanti, a co-founder of the State Capture Accountability Project non-profit.
No further action was taken on alumina “either because the EU didn’t think that it would have sufficient impact, or because one or more member states decided that this ban was not in their national interests.”
The European Commission did not respond to requests to comment.
Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade stressed that alumina is “not a sanctioned good” and “therefore its export to other countries, including Russia, is not restricted.”
A lack of data makes it “difficult to ascertain where Russia is sourcing its tools and weapons from,” a spokesperson said, adding that “Ireland remains unequivocal in its continuing support for Ukraine in light of Russia’s unjustified invasion.”
Yet Oleksandr V. Danylyuk, a former Ukraine defense official who is now a fellow at the think-tank RUSI, sees a concerning contradiction. In his view, supplying Russia with EU-made alumina “could undermine NATO’s stated goals of supporting Ukraine and deterring Russia.”
Pavlo Shkurenko, a Sanctions Research Fellow at Kyiv School of Economics Institute, also warns that Europe’s “entanglement” with Russia’s metallurgical sector carries serious risks for the continent.
It enables “not only direct daily attacks on Ukrainian civilians, but also potential confrontation with Europe itself, as the development of Russian military industry suggests.”
Attack by Black Sea Vessel Halt Ukrainian Corridor and Raise Trade Risks
Published: July, 29 2026
Between July 20 and 27, 2026, increasing attacks on merchant vessels in the Black Sea caused shipping to be suspended on Ukraine’s maritime corridor and disrupted tanker operations around Russia’s Novorossiysk port. Ukrainian and international officials reported rising risks to crews and cargoes that led to calls for UN Security Council action and scrutiny of regional maritime security and trade flows.
Shipping Suspended on Ukraine’s Black Sea Maritime Corridor
Ukrainian officials recently reported that shipping on Ukraine’s dedicated maritime corridor in the Black Sea has been suspended, with no vessel traffic recorded for the first time since 2023. This came about following recent attacks against commercial vessels and seafarers in the area; ship operators therefore decided to assess voyage risk more thoroughly and temporarily cease transits along this corridor. Ukrainian authorities stated that all ports remained operational while this decision by individual companies or operators reflect an heightened threat environment.
This incident coincides with Ukraine’s peak agricultural harvest season when outbound grain shipments usually increase dramatically. Ukrainian officials stated that on affected days no ships passed through the Black Sea corridor, underscoring how security incidents directly impacted export flows. Charterers and commodity traders who depend on predictable access to Ukrainian ports for grain cargoes, as well as route planners and insurers operating voyages in the northwestern Black Sea region, expressed serious concern over this disruption to operations and made additional assessments more complex for journeys in that part of the sea.
Market participants now face increased uncertainty regarding near term scheduling and utilization of the corridor. Its suspension comes amid evolving risk guidance in the region, such as existing advisories on military activity, mines and drone operations. Shipowners and charterers are monitoring official updates, security advisories and insurance conditions closely as they assess whether to resume voyages to Ukrainian Black Sea ports.
Tanker catches fire off Romania after reported drone strike, 8 crew missing
Romanian authorities launch search and rescue operation after reported explosions aboard San Marino-flagged vessel; Romania, Bulgaria to discuss possible NATO consultations
Aysu Bicer
15 October 2026•Update: 15 October 2026
ArchiveLONDON
Eight of the 12 crew members aboard a San Marino-flagged tanker are missing after the vessel caught fire following reported explosions off Romania’s Black Sea coast, Romanian naval authorities said Thursday.
The Wine Trader reported several explosions and a fire at around 7 am local time (0500GMT) while sailing from Tunisia to Romania, according to information provided by the authorities.
The tanker was located 13 nautical miles (24 kilometers) east of the mouth of the River Danube near Sulina when the incident occurred.
A search and rescue operation is underway for the missing crew members, with two Black Hawk helicopters and two rescue boats deployed, Romanian authorities said.
The immediate priority is to reach the four crew members confirmed to be alive, while ensuring the safety of rescue teams amid reports of very high waves in the area.
The Romanian Interior Ministry released video footage showing a helicopter hovering above the vessel.
The incident came amid a series of reported drone attacks on vessels in the western Black Sea region.
On Tuesday, two merchant ships were struck by drones farther south along the coast of Bulgaria, Romania’s neighbor.
One of the vessels sank, leaving 11 crew members missing. Bulgaria said it suspected Russia was behind the attack and summoned the Russian envoy.
Russia said two cargo ships carrying military cargo bound for Ukraine’s Odesa port had been hit during a sea crossing but did not identify the vessels.
Meanwhile, the presidents of Romania and Bulgaria are due to discuss Thursday whether to invoke Article 4 of the NATO treaty.
Romania’s pro-European Prime Minister-designate Siegfried Muresan has failed to win a parliamentary vote of confidence, prolonging a political crisis seen as a boost for the rising far right.
Muresan, a liberal European Parliament member who was the latest of three designated prime ministers, secured only 182 votes out of the 233 required to secure the confidence motion on Wednesday, according to the official count.
The far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) largely boycotted the vote.
Președintele AUR, George Simion, s-a întâlnit la CPAC 2024 cu Steve Bannon, omul care a condus campania victorioasă, din 2016 a lui Donald Trump pentru președinția Statelor Unite.
Mercenary group helping quell Haiti gangs, Erik Prince says
A pedestrian walks near the Bank of the Republic of Haiti, right, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 21, 2019.Associated Press / Photo by Dieu Nalio Chery, file
Prince, a Hillsdale College graduate and the founder of mercenary security business Vectus Global, said Tuesday that some of his employees were successfully fighting gangs in Haiti. They were supporting a task force of Haitian national police, he said. The former U.S. Navy SEAL shared a video clip from CNN depicting a gang leader asking Prince’s mercenaries to cease operations. In addition to boots-on-the-ground support, Prince’s Vectus Air Defense Systems is known to carry out drone strikes.
Haiti has been mostly controlled by gangs since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. The police task force and its partners, including Prince’s group, have focused on fighting gangs in the capital city of Port-au-Prince. Violence has continued across the country—for instance, a farming community’s church was burned in August, and dozens were reported dead. A United Nations-backed, multinational gang suppression force has deployed to Haiti and reported some success. But after months of operations, the UN said Sept. 29 that the force hadn’t yet reached its target size of 5,500 troops.
Prince said he recently saw evidence of better security conditions on a trip to Port-au-Prince. Combined security forces halted gangs’ advance in the capital and made progress in pushing them back, he added. Some markets reopened, children were once again walking to school in uniform, and police were patrolling the streets, he claimed.
However, the latest UN report on violence in Haiti noted that security forces sometimes killed bystanders while targeting gangs, especially during operations using explosive drones. At least 95 people not associated with gangs were killed from April to June, and the drones killed or hurt six children, according to the UN report. The report also said that while security forces curbed gang activity in some areas of the capital, violence worsened in other neighborhoods as rival gangs clashed.
Dig deeper: From the WORLD archives, read a feature profile of Erik Prince and his evangelical Christian roots in the Midwest.
After multiple sources previously told the Guardian that Erik Prince – Maga ally and founder of the now defunct mercenary company Blackwater – was looking to work with Ukraine’s invaluable drone sector, recent Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) documents confirm he now is.
Swarmer, which bills itself as a battle-tested Ukrainian startup specializing in autonomous drone software, filed for an initial public offering and has recruited Prince to help sell the company as non-executive chair.
“Swarmer is a software-first defense technology company focused on collaborative autonomy and intelligent swarming, originating from the cauldron of modern combat in Ukraine,” said Prince in a letter to prospective stockholders in the filing, released earlier this month.
“Since April 2024, Swarmer’s platform has been deployed in Ukraine with more than 100,000 real-world missions in active combat environments, informing the software and machine-learning models that feed into it.”
Defense industry hawks have eyed the battlefield intelligence the Ukrainian military has accrued in over four years of combat with Russia. The war has caused close to 2m casualties, but global military elites, like Prince, are also seeing glimpses of what a future war between world powers might look like and what products the US or its geopolitical rival China will need to buy.
On its website, Swarmer lauds endorsements from the newly installed Ukrainian defense minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, who is aggressively lobbying the US and other Nato allies to buy into his country’s weapons industry. Swarmer products, powered by artificial intelligence, are on the cutting edge of the future of war, with software enabling pilots to control drone swarms.
Swarmer mentions the potential profits in drone warfare in the same filing, noting to investors that “defense forces, including the US Department of Defense [and] Nato allies”, see “autonomous drone operations” as “requiring immediate investment”.
In a July announcement on the grounds of the Pentagon, the US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, declared that the US was “Unleashing US Military Drone Dominance” in a memorandum calling for the mass production, purchase and adoption of all unmanned vehicle platforms.
“Drones are the biggest battlefield innovation in a generation, accounting for most of this year’s casualties in Ukraine,” he said.
“Erik is trying to network with companies here, for Congo,” said an executive at a multinational defense contractor with business in Ukraine. “He poached some operators who served here too.”
Through a spokesperson, Prince declined to comment on his work in Ukraine and about recruiting drone operators from there to serve in the DRC. Swarmer did not respond to a request for comment regarding its relationship with Prince.
In the fall, Swarmer, which advertises several “mission templates” for drones ranging from surveillance to something it calls a “Killbox”, secured millions in investment.
Prince and a legion of Silicon Valley executives, including former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, have descended on Kyiv in recent years looking to score government contracts and access to both the software powering combat drones and the Ukrainian operators pioneering their flight.
But even as a frontman, Prince comes to Swarmer as a highly controversial figure who is also a known associate of Donald Trump’s longtime adviser Steve Bannon. Blackwater – Prince’s former company that made millions in contracts with the Pentagon and the CIA – has become synonymous with the corruption and failures of the war in Iraq. A 2007 massacre in Baghdad at the hands of some of Prince’s mercenaries led to prison sentences, congressional inquiries and the company changing its name.
Prince eventually resigned as the CEO in 2009, but hung around the defense contracting world and pursued ventures in China, the United Arab Emirates, Ecuador, South Sudan and Ukraine, where in 2020 he pitched Volodymyr Zelenskyy on a multibillion-dollar private army to help settle what was a frozen war in the eastern Donbas region.
In September, multiple sources described to the Guardian how Prince was making several trips to Kyiv, courting Ukrainian drone makers who might be eager to sell him into their business – Swarmer fitting the profile of the type of company with which he was looking to do business.
“I guess he finally found the company to invest in, in Ukraine,” said a former American special forces soldier with experience in Ukraine and knowledge of the defense companies operating there.
Swarmer has featured in western media since its founding in 2023, along with several other Ukrainian tech companies emerging from the flurry of Pentagon and Nato weapons transfers to Ukraine and the rush to continue resisting Russia’s full-scale invasion by any means necessary.
Mostly outgunned against the Kremlin’s vast arsenal and coffers, Ukraine has turned to drones and homegrown solutions as asymmetric equalizers. Recent remarks by Zelenskyy puts Swarmer among hundreds of other Ukrainian drone companies that are now active in the country.
“As of today, we have 450 companies producing drones, 40 to 50 of which are top-tier,” said Zelenskyy in a recent speech. “Everyone wants to invest, so 2026 will be a year of investment in our technologies, primarily in drones.”
Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning
Since 2011, the UAE has regularly resorted to using mercenaries to wage its wars in Libya and Yemen. Its small population of 2.7 million leaves it unable to recruit enough troops. It is also risk averse in deploying them abroad where casualties for an unsupported cause are unacceptable to the population. Hence, the oil-rich state started hiring contract soldiers from abroad to fight for it in Yemen against the Houthi rebels.
This leads to a rather strange situation. Colombians hired by an Abu Dhabi based company employed by the UAE are fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The involvement of Erik Prince, the controversial ex-founder of Blackwater, should hardly come as a surprise at this point. Especially given his role as a mercenary captain for the UAE. These mercenaries have manifested in multiple different organisations and groups with their own operating procedures/character. (Source)
The most notable are as follows:
Reflex Response Security Consultants (Headed by Erik Prince and filled with ex-Colombian special forces)
Spear Operations Group (Delaware-based company led by a Hungarian-Israeli Abraham Golon, specialised in targeted assassinations)
Black Shield Security (Involved in a forced conscription scandal tricking Sudanese migrants with misleading jobs)
Erik Prince is an American businessman best recognized as the founder of the controversial private security firm Blackwater, which became a symbol of US abuses during the war in Iraq. Prince, who now heads up a private equity firm, quietly advised the Trump transition team on intelligence and security issues.
On April 3, 2017, The Washington Post reported Prince had traveled to the Seychelles islands around January 11th to attend a secret meeting with a Russian close to Vladimir Putin set up by the United Arab Emirates. The alleged purpose of the meeting was to establish unofficial backchannel communications between Moscow and the incoming Trump administration. While Prince had no formal role on the Trump transition team, he was a high-dollar campaign donor whose sister, Betsy DeVos, now serves as Trump’s Secretary of Education. Both former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer and a spokesman for Prince refuted the allegations by saying Prince had “no role” on the Trump transition team.
![Damage after a settler attack on Roland Basir’s quarry in the town of Taybeh in the West Bank [Courtesy of Roland Basir]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Tanks-slashed-by-settlers-at-Rolands-factory-1-1786654242.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80)
You must be logged in to post a comment.