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.
Amid Midterm Crunch, Trump Advisers Took Time to Help Russia-Aligned Government
What Happened: James Blair and Chris LaCivita, two of Trump’s top midterm advisers, traveled to Bosnia’s Republika Srpska to advise its government ahead of elections. The New York Times reported that each was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars through a D.C. law firm hired by the government run by Milorad Dodik’s Russia-aligned party.
Why It Matters: Two of Trump’s top midterm advisers were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to work for Putin’s allies in Bosnia. Trump has already lifted sanctions on Dodik and his associates. What else was happening behind the scenes between Trump, his cronies and Russia?
Photo shows top Trump aide’s daughter with pro-Russia politician in Bosnia
What Happened: Katie Wiles, daughter of White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, was photographed with pro-Russian politician Željko Budimir, interior minister of the pro-Russian Republika Srpska, during her visit to Bosnia. Wiles works for a lobbying firm representing Republika Srpska. Two senior Trump political advisers also traveled to Bosnia to help Milorad Dodik’s party in local elections.
Why It Matters: Trump’s inner circle has extensive ties to Russia and its proxies. The connections to Dodik’s circle are another example of how deeply these relationships extend into Trump’s family, advisers, and cronies.
The State Department fired Paolo Zampolli on Thursday afternoon, hours after Politico printed a year of emails in which his boss ordered him to stop doing business in the Balkans. Zampolli, the modeling agent who brought Melania Knauss to New York and says he introduced her to Donald Trump, had been special envoy for global partnerships for a year and a half. At 5 p.m. a U.S. official told Politico his status “as an envoy has been terminated and he is no longer a government employee.” He is the second Trump intimate out of a diplomatic post this week. Kimberly Guilfoyle resigned as ambassador to Greece on Monday at the White House’s request.
Zampolli said he had “absolute zero surprise.” His statement called serving Trump “the greatest honor of my life” and announced the next chapter, “back to business, building relationships and closing deals.” He said Trump once asked him why he wanted to work in government “when you can close all these deals.” Trump said it himself: the deals were the point.
Christopher Landau, Marco Rubio’s deputy and Zampolli’s supervisor until July, wrote to him on Nov. 14, 2025: “I am hereby ordering you–once again–to immediately stop all work on ANY issues not directly tied to cultural diplomacy.” The next day, with 15 colleagues copied, Landau wrote that Zampolli intended to keep “undertaking unauthorized and possibly unlawful ventures in commercial and economic matters.” In February Landau emailed Serbia’s foreign minister that Zampolli “has absolutely no authority to speak for our Administration beyond the realm of cultural affairs.” Zampolli answered that his boss was the president. In June he accused Landau, on a chain with a dozen officials, of leaking the New York Times story that he had asked ICE to deport Amanda Ungaro, the mother of his son. Landau called the accusation “bizarre, defamatory” and told him to stop sending “unhinged emails.”
Zampolli ran the business through Putin’s backyard. In February he met the government of Republika Srpska, the Serb half of Bosnia that sides with Moscow, and discussed financing solar farms and dams; Srpska’s press release called him “an extremely important and influential diplomat.” He posted himself with Romania’s energy minister and working nuclear energy in Hungary. In September he went to Albania after Landau blocked a trip there, as the guest of the Bektashi Order, and spoke for its plan to carve a sovereign Sufi micro-state out of Tirana, a Vatican of its own. The U.S. Embassy arranged none of it.
IAEA’s Grossi urges uninterrupted diesel supply for Zaporizhia NPP generators
18:09, 02.10.2026
2 min read
The Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) is considering a further reduction in the number of emergency diesel generators (EDGs) kept in automatic standby as diesel fuel supplies at the site continue to be a concern, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said.
“The availability of sufficient and reliable emergency electricity generation capacity to supply safety-related equipment is essential for the safety of any nuclear facility. The continued lack of diesel deliveries to the ZNPP is exacerbating an already precarious situation,” his statement was quoted as saying in an agency statement.
“The prompt delivery of fuel to the ZNPP would have a large positive impact on nuclear safety at the ZNPP. I call on all sides to work with the IAEA to achieve this goal,” Grossi added.
According to the agency, diesel fuel reserves at the ZNPP remain low following an extended loss of off-site power in August and September, when the plant relied on EDGs for nearly three weeks. Efforts to replenish the reserves have been hampered by military activity in the area. The ZNPP has experienced 10 such losses since June alone and currently relies on a single off-site power line, the 330 kilovolt (kV) Ferosplavna-1 line.
On 29 September the IAEA team at the ZNPP was informed that planned maintenance of electrical equipment in the 750kV switchyard had been delayed due to the security situation. Maintenance of an EDG was also delayed due to the late arrival of contractors.
On 30 September the IAEA was informed of repair work required at the Zaporizhia Thermal Power Plant to increase the robustness of the power supply to the ZNPP. The IAEA is working with the Russian Federation and Ukraine on a ceasefire that should allow for the maintenance work to be carried out.
The ZNPP is Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, with six VVER-1000 reactors. The plant has not generated electricity since September 11, 2022. All six ZNPP reactors are in cold shutdown.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said the United States will begin importing significant amounts of diesel fuel from Russia after an agreement reached with President Vladimir Putin, an extraordinary reversal of U.S. policy that lifts sanctions on Moscow in a bid to lower fuel prices before the midterms.
The move, announced less than one month before the Nov. 3 midterm election, comes as high fuel prices caused by the war in Iran pose major liabilities for Trump and Republicans as they try to hold onto power in Congress. The agreement upends years of U.S. efforts to cut off Russian energy from the global markets after Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Trump, in an Oct. 9 post on Truth Social, said the deal came together during a “highly successful discussion” with Putin. He said Russia will supply U.S. and global marketplaces with 300,000 tons of diesel fuel “immediately” and an additional 1 million tons in November. Trump said Russia will then deliver 3 million tons of diesel fuel “within a short period of time,” though he suggested it will be based on the condition of Russian diesel refineries.
“That is a big deal,” Trump later told reporters at the White House on Oct. 9, thanking Putin by name. “We have massive amounts of oil coming into our country, and it’s diesel, which is what we want.”
President Donald Trump said on Friday he secured an agreement from Russian President Vladimir Putin to supply markets with Russian diesel fuel as he works to bring down energy costs ahead of the midterm elections.
Energy industry analysts, however, say the agreement — which sparked anger in Ukraine — isn’t likely to lower diesel prices in any meaningful way.
Trump wrote on social media that Putin agreed to “immediately supply” more than 300,000 tons of diesel to global energy markets, with another 500,000 tons promised in November. Together, the amounts — equal to 6 million barrels of diesel fuel — would cover about a day and a half worth of US demand, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
Trump said millions more tons of Russian diesel would be supplied following the first tranches “based on the condition of their Diesel Refineries.”
“We are talking PERHAPS a 5-6% increase in supply between now and year end,” Dan Pickering, founder and chief investment officer at Pickering Energy Partners, said about the the president’s announcement in an email.
“Bottom line — this is helpful but not a needle mover for global diesel markets,” Pickering said. “Sidenote — there is a reason Trump talked about volumes in tons instead of barrels. The tons number looks bigger to a general observer. This is more politics than a game changer.”
Russia banned exports of diesel in early July, after Ukrainian drone strikes on its refineries triggered widespread fuel shortages across the country. This cut roughly 800,000 barrels per day from the global market — at a time when supplies were already tight because of the US war against Iran.
The ban was extended last month, aggravating cost pressures on energy.
According to the Kremlin readout of the phone call between the two leaders, Putin told Trump that Russia was “ready to supply oil and petroleum products to the US and global markets.”
“I am confident that this will have a positive impact on the entire global economy,” Putin said, according to the Kremlin.
Trump echoed that statement later on Friday, telling reporters at the White House that “oil prices are already dropping like a rock. So, we’re very happy to get it.”
But analysts — and commodities traders — raised doubts that Russia would be able to live up to that promise.
At the close of trading on Friday, diesel futures were down by about 4%.
But Trump’s announcement was met with anger in Ukraine. Kyiv has long advocated for tougher sanctions on Russian energy exports, arguing that oil and gas revenues are a major source of funding for Russia’s war machine.
Ukraine has also stepped up its attacks on Russian oil infrastructure over the past few months, refusing to stop despite calls from Trump to do so. Just this week, Kyiv has claimed strikes on four different refineries across Russia.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky called the move to allow Russia to export diesel “a weak decision of strong partners.”
“This is additional money for this war, for the suffering, and of course against us. This is only fuels Putin and gives him the possibility to fight more,” he said on social media.
The past few months have been exceptionally deadly for Ukrainian civilians as Russia has managed to take advantage of Kyiv’s critical shortage of air defense missiles, launching near non-stop aerial attacks against Ukrainian cities. One such strike on a bus stop in eastern Ukraine killed more than 30 people on Thursday.
Zelensky has made it clear the timing of the announcement — just as a top-level Ukrainian delegation arrived to Miami for talks with US envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner — makes it all the more painful for Kyiv.
“In this exact moment when our team is talking to the American team in Florida, the US President has a conversation with Kremlin leader, with the leader of this war, the leader of this aggression,” he said.
Former US officials say it is unclear if Putin even has the amount of diesel that Trump cited to sell.
Richard Nephew, a former principal deputy coordinator for sanctions policy at the State Department, noted that “the message it sends and the damage it does to the broader sanctions regime is very significant.”
“How does anyone take the sanctions regime seriously?” he questioned, noting that if the US is going to say that they need to use sanctions relief to address an economic issue, “how can we convincingly argue that anyone else shouldn’t use the same excuse?”
A former senior State Department official said it doesn’t matter if Putin can actually deliver the diesel because “now he’s achieved the result he wants” which is Trump thinking he’s gotten a pre-election bump and it might have an impact on the markets.
The timing of the call with the start of the talks with Ukraine is no coincidence.
“Putin is a lot of things, but he’s not stupid,” they said.
The Social Reckoning, Aaron Sorkin’s sequel to The Social Network, asks how we got here. It is not about Twitter or The Odyssey, of course. It’s about Facebook and how it fueled the January 6th insurrection that attempted to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden.
See also
The Legacy of the “Facebook Revolution”: How did the Arab Spring shape citizen use of social media?
By Joud Walid, Researcher, Media and Journalism Policy Centre
#BlackLivesMatter; #AllEyesOnRafah; #MeToo. While the relationship between social media and activism may seem obvious and inextricable today, the use of digital platforms to organise and mobilise on a mass scale is a recent phenomenon, one that only solidified itself in the early 2010s, following the Arab Spring. But how did these digital platforms, once considered nothing but engaging social diversions, evolve into such powerful tools for mobilisation, especially in times of political upheaval? Furthermore, if social media was truly so central to the Arab Spring, to what extent has its legacy shaped our use of social media today?
The Arab Spring: A Case Study of Mobilisation
Often dubbed the “Facebook Revolution”, the Arab Spring is credited as the first instance where social media platforms were employed on a mass scale for the mobilisation and rallying of people across the Arab World. Widespread dissatisfaction, anger and frustration over the state of political repression, corruption, and economic hardship saw a series of pro-democracy uprisings and protests erupt in countries such as Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria, as Arab populations took to the streets to voice their grievances.
The call for liberty quickly seeped into the digital world. Erupting at a time where social media was beginning to play a more ubiquitous role in everyday life, protestors filmed themselves chanting at demonstrations, voicing their demands and capturing unfiltered footage of the injustices they were experiencing, all the while broadcasting it to the world on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Youtube. This citizen journalism, delivering real-time content on the ground, unedited and uncensored, transformed regular citizens from observers of activism to activists themselves, with a greater stake as leaders of unfolding events (Alterman, 2011).
The trend in citizen documentation was also monumental in invigorating protest. Notably, the fate of Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouzizi- who self-immolated in protest of the violence and corruption of Tunisian government officials and law enforcement- was initially suppressed and censored by state television.
However, the harrowing images were captured by citizen journalists and shared widely on social platforms, triggering the very first protests of the Arab Spring in Tunisia (Lageman, 2020). Similarly in Syria, the brutal death of thirteen-year-old Hamza Al-Khatib, who was tortured and killed at the hands of the Syrian regime, sparked massive outrage that galvanised the Syrian protest movement in May of 2011- but only after pictures of his disfigured corpse began circulating on social media (Macleod and Flamand, 2011).
In facilitating this circumvention of state censorship, online platforms allowed the world to see the horrors of authoritarianism in the Arab world. Indeed, though these images were poor in quality, they were strong in content, and social media successfully disseminated them to audiences worldwide.
Another key role that social media played in the Arab Spring was the facilitation of mobilisation and organisation. In Egypt and Tunisia in particular, the ‘when’, ‘where’, and ‘how’ of mobilisation was planned on Facebook prior to major demonstrations. The instantaneous communication allowed for the sharing of critical, time-sensitive updates and for rapid mass coordination, which citizens had found extremely difficult, if not impossible, to do in the past (Smidi and Shahin, 2017, 204).
For this same reason, social media campaigns such as the Facebook group ‘We Are All Khaled Said’ and ‘#Jan25’ were able to become viral, helping raise awareness of stories of injustice- such as the death of 25 year old Egyptian Khaled Said due to police brutality. This rapid spread of stories helped internationalise the conflict on an unprecedented scale, forming international solidarity ties and global activist networks.
A protester holds a placard in Tahrir Square, Cairo, highlighting the role of Facebook during the 2011 Egyptian revolution (Source: Wikimedia Commons / Essam Sharaf)
Key Takeaway: DRC President Félix Tshisekedi’s special envoy undertook a regional tour to rally support for the DRC’s plan to demobilize the Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda (FDLR).Three of the African Union mediators for the DRC peace process visited Goma and Kigali to meet with regional stakeholders.Pro-Congolese government forces retook Remeka town and claimed control of other areas in southern Masisi district in North Kivu as significant fighting continued into early October. The US-backed Ruzizi hydropower plant project is reportedly back in limbo after a Chinese firm withdrew from the project’s consortium.
Ex-UFC fighter Tim Kennedy among injured in Congo as Blackwater founder Erik Prince’s forces suffer heavy casualties
An ambush in the Democratic Republic of Congo has reportedly left former UFC middleweight contender Tim Kennedy wounded, according to emerging reports.
Tim Kennedy was reportedly among three personnel caught in a firefight last month, according to the outlet. He suffered several gunshot wounds and was subsequently flown to the United States for medical care, with his condition described as stable.
GOMA, Congo — In a makeshift nightclub in the hull of the overnight ferry from Goma to Bukavu, a handful of teenage boys are trying out some new moves. Some land, some don’t. When they don’t, the elderly man on the bench next to us nudges us and rolls his eyes, amused.
The DJ, who has so far been playing the usual Afrobeats hits and Congolese rumba, whips out a more unexpected Communist crossover: the Russian Internationale — the pre-1944 Soviet national anthem — mixed with a Congolese beat. People immediately pack the dancefloor.
Here in eastern Congo, enthusiasm is palpable for the “Russians,” a catch-all term for the roughly 1,000 Eastern European mercenaries stationed in Goma as well as actual Russian mercenaries embedded in other fragile states — and the Russian government, which said in March that it approved a tentative military cooperation agreement with Kinshasa.
The reason is simple. Since 2022, this area has been mired in one of the world’s most catastrophic conflicts. With Rwanda’s help, the M23 militia has raped and massacred its way through the North Kivu province and is edging nearer to the regional capital Goma — close enough that, the night before, we could hear the rumble of explosions outside the city.
The conflict has displaced millions, wrecked lives and livelihoods and destroyed the modest tourist industry. Even the endangered mountain gorillas, the area’s most lucrative draw for visitors, have fled the besieged Virunga National Park to neighboring Rwanda.
With international attention taken up by the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, there is little interest in the crisis here and no hope of support from the West. The East African Community sent some soldiers early on, but the alliance quickly soured. Even the UN peacekeepers are packing up to leave.
Congo is desperate for help, and the only groups keen to step in are mercenaries, Russian and otherwise, circling to see what they can gain.
Wazalendo protesters are detained after a banned rally in Goma, North Kivu Province, Republic of Congo.Moses Kasereka / EPA / TASS
Increasingly, too, a complex web of military and commercial actors from Russia, China, UAE, the U.S., France, Bulgaria and Romania — the interests of which on paper should not overlap — appear to be working together to maximize this extraction.
Historically, inviting in foreign militaries and especially mercenary groups has gone spectacularly badly throughout Africa.
And while Russia may have pulled off an impressive PR feat by convincing Congolese citizens that it will be a genuine ally, its mercenary forces’ actions elsewhere on the continent tell a very different story.
“The Wagner Group and other emerging Russia-backed forces and ‘advisers’ exploit the resources and people of African countries for their personal gain. They are a threat to stability and prosperity in countries where they are present,” a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said in an emailed statement.
“These forces do not lower terrorism but rather exacerbate the threat by pursuing draconian, violent tactics. This results in dramatic increases of cyclical violence,” the spokesperson added.
As Western countries sanctioned Moscow following its 2014 annexation of Crimea, the Kremlin began frantically pushing to sign military cooperation deals with various African nations. This included a May 2019 military agreement with Congo’s neighbor, Congo-Brazzaville/Republic of the Congo, that saw Russia send military specialists to the country and help maintain its Soviet-made equipment. The Kremlin claimed it inked a similar agreement with Congo earlier this year.
Since 2017, Russia has also aggressively expanded its military presence across Africa through the Wagner Group, a collection of front companies and Russian mercenary outfits formerly owned by the late businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Once a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, Prigozhin launched the Wagner Group following the annexation of Crimea to further the Kremlin’s foreign policy goals even as sanctions piled up and the country became diplomatically isolated.
The U.S. designated the Wagner Group as a transnational criminal organization in January 2023, and the Treasury sanctioned connected individuals and companies.
But by May last year, it was believed to have around 5,000 mercenaries stationed in Africa — many of whom were former Russian soldiers and convicts.
Wagner troops have been detected in Mali, Sudan, Central African Republic, Libya and Mozambique, and its mercenaries have been accused of torture, rape, child abduction and summary execution of civilians. Wagner-linked companies are allegedly involved in gold smuggling and illegal mineral exploitation, using Cameroon as a logistics and transport hub. The group also engaged in election meddling (through AFRIC, Prigozhin’s fake election monitoring organization) in Congo, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Mozambique and South Africa.
Ukraine Joins the Fight Against Russian Mercenaries in Africa
In brief: Ukraine is boosting ties with Africa by offering military training, aiding refugees, and countering Russian influence through diplomacy, humanitarian aid, and food security efforts.
light of this incident, the company has rebranded twice: once to Xe Services, and then to Academi.
The Wagner Group was recently identified as the perpetrators of a massacre in Mali, which killed at least 500 people. They have also been involved in questionable recruiting practices since the start of the War in Ukraine, such as recruiting convicted felons and criminals.
And we see thousands who have mobilised to protest in current times, many receiving right wing aggressive crushing of their efforts, but many succeeding within a democracy to let the people choose.
Egypt’s Talaat Moustafa Group (TMG) launches global Sylvester Stallone campaign for EGP 1.6 trillion SouthMed project
Egypt’s Talaat Moustafa Group Holding (TMG) has launched a global promotional campaign fronted by Hollywood actor Sylvester Stallone for its SouthMed tourism project, a development with investments nearing EGP 1 trillion and anticipated sales of EGP 1.6 trillion (approximately $35bn).
The campaign for the 23m square metre (5,500 feddan) project in El Dabaa on the North Coast accumulated millions of views on digital platforms within hours of its release for the summer 2026 season. The marketing push coincides with a new sales phase featuring 15-year payment terms, aimed at leveraging TMG’s leading 38 per cent market share in the region.
In the promotional video, Sylvester Stallone provided a testimonial for the development, stating: “I’ve visited many destinations on the Mediterranean, but from time to time you discover a place that is different in all its details, and SouthMed is one of those rare places.”
Abu Dhabi wealth fund ADQ announced on Saturday that it will acquire a 40.5% stake in ICON, the listed hospitality arm of Egypt’s Talaat Moustafa Group (TMG), allowing the ADQ to take part ownership of several luxury hotels across the country.
The value of the acquisition was not disclosed.
Under the deal, a special purpose vehicle owned by ADQ and its unit Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company (ADNEC), with respective 49% and 51% holdings, will carry out a capital increase to acquire the ICON stake.
EFG Hermes is acting as the sole financial advisor to TMG Holding on the transaction, which is currently under the customary closing conditions.
In December, TMG’s ICON finalized an $882 million deal to acquire a 39% stake in Legacy Hotels, which owns seven historical state-owned hotels.
The seven hotels are Sofitel Legend Old Cataract Aswan, Mövenpick Resort Aswan, Sofitel Winter Palace Luxor, Steigenberger Hotel Tahrir, Steigenberger Cecil Hotel Alexandria, Marriott Mena House Cairo, and Marriott Omar Khayyam Zamalek.
ICON owns four operational hotels, which are Four Seasons Cairo at Nile Plaza, Kempinski Nile Hotel Cairo, Four Seasons Sharm El-Sheikh, and Four Seasons Alexandria at San Stefano.
“The transaction represents a major foreign direct investment in Egypt and marks a strong vote of investor confidence in the Egyptian tourism and hospitality sector,” ADQ said in a statement.
Post-transaction, ICON will have a combined portfolio of 15 luxury and upscale hospitality assets with a total of around 5,000 keys in prime locations including Cairo, Luxor, Aswan, Sharm El Sheikh, and Alexandria.
The acquired hotels in Egypt are managed by best-in-class operators and will continue to benefit from the synergies, resources, and in-country expertise of TMG Holding, according to ADQ.
“The investment in ICON is an important strategic step for ADNEC Group, as we deliver on our global expansion strategy and will provide ADNEC Group and its portfolio companies with access to Egypt’s rapidly growing tourism market and reaffirms our commitment to enhance our hospitality and tourism platform,” said Humaid Matar Al Dhaheri, managing director and group CEO of ADNEC Group.
“We will work closely with TMG Holding to enhance and grow ICON and create additional value for our shareholders,” he added.
ADQ said that this transaction reinforces its interest in investing in assets that can provide continued upside growth and sustainable returns. ADQ is a long-term investor in the Egyptian economy.
Meanwhile, Hisham Talaat Moustafa, CEO and Managing Director of TMG Holding noted: “We are delighted to have ADQ and ADNEC join us as strategic partners and shareholders in this landmark transaction and provide for an exciting outlook going forward. Through this partnership, we will pursue substantial growth opportunities in Egypt’s tourism sector and beyond and will unlock further value for our shareholders.”
In the past years, ADQ has made investments in market leaders across different sectors, including the acquisition of Amoun Pharmaceutical Company., one of Egypt’s leading pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors, and exporters.
ADNEC Group has evolved into a full-service tourism solutions provider by creating Tourism 365, a leisure tourism arm, that has existing operations in Egypt and hence offers significant synergistic potential with the investment in ICON.
Europe fortifies itself against Russia’s hybrid war
Europe’s allies strengthen security as the Kremlin’s sabotage and hostile actions increase
Rescue teams carry the body of a woman killed in a Russian attack on a residential neighborhood in Zaporizhzhia, last Saturday.Kateryna Klochko (AP/LaPresse)
Russia is stepping up its hybrid war against Europe. From sabotage, drone incursions, and arson to plots (mostly foiled) to assassinate pro‑Ukraine activists and Russian dissidents on European soil, the Kremlin is testing the allied response, and incidents against NATO’s European partners are becoming more serious, such as the explosive‑laden drones found this summer at Leipzig Airport in Germany. That gray line between a hybrid attack and a conventional one is blurring, and several European intelligence sources warn of the risk that one of those incidents could escalate — either by a deliberate Kremlin decision or a miscalculation.
“What would have happened if the explosives at Leipzig Airport had detonated?” asks a senior EU source. Senior European and NATO officials consulted over the past week share the concern — not because of a conventional military assault but because that gray boundary is becoming ever more fragile. “The greatest danger now is that the hybrid war will accidentally cross a red line,” says another veteran source, who points to an incident two weeks ago in which flares were fired from a Russian frigate at a Danish helicopter as an example.
In fact, Emily Ferris, a researcher at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), says the serious episode involving explosive drones in Leipzig — which Germany clearly attributed to the Kremlin on September 1 — “showed that Moscow, and probably NATO itself, still lacks clarity on the current red lines that would trigger a military response.”
The Kremlin is furious at the stalemate in its war against Ukraine — which is approaching its fifth anniversary — and is moving to undermine allied support for Kyiv while testing the West’s response capacity, which so far has been relatively mild. The uptick in attacks is also occurring at an especially vulnerable moment for Europe, as it considers how to operate without the security umbrella of the United States and on the eve of a key super election year for the European project.
In recent weeks the alarm has risen sharply and Europe is beginning to bunker down against a threat that is becoming less and less hybrid. “We are preparing to face and survive a new kind of war,” admits a European intelligence source. One that does not necessarily involve missiles or tanks but could paralyze a country and undermine society through cuts to water and energy supplies, disruptions to computer systems, or weeks‑long closures of its airports, the source stresses.
Temperatures are rising in European capitals and the secret visit by CIA director John Ratcliffe to Moscow on August 25, the mystery over its purpose, and the messages he received there, has fed concern. The trip revived an unsettling precedent: the last time a CIA director traveled to Moscow was in November 2021, when William Burns tried to dissuade the Kremlin from invading Ukraine. Vladimir Putin launched the full‑scale war on February 24, 2022. As such, Keir Giles, a researcher at the Chatham House think tank, says the comparison is inevitable — and the parallel, he adds, shows how seriously the U.S. appears to view the current Russian threats.
Hybrid warfare is not episodic, but a permanent feature of Russia’s strategy, rooted in Soviet “active measures” and enhanced by modern tools like artificial intelligence–enabled information manipulation and cyber operations. It exploits the seams of open societies — disinformation, cyber, sabotage, coercion — below the war threshold.
Defensive measures such as cybersecurity and critical infrastructure protection mitigate damage but do not deter Russia, which exploits ambiguity and inaction in the gray zone.
Western responses must go beyond resilience, imposing credible costs — through sanctions, cyber countermeasures, diplomatic expulsions, and legal actions — that outweigh the benefits Russia gains from hybrid operations. Resilience alone will not stop hybrid warfare; allies should pair deterrence-by-denial with deterrence-by-punishment.
Deterrence principles must address clear credibility, capability, and communication, and all these measures must remain grounded in the rule of law to ensure legitimacy, allied unity, and stability.
Practical countermeasures to Russian hybrid threats should include public attribution and naming-and-shaming, enhanced NATO and European Union (EU) intelligence sharing, stronger maritime and infrastructure security, targeted sanctions against Russian elites and networks, expulsions of intelligence-linked diplomats, and dismantling of disinformation networks.
A coordinated NATO-EU approach is essential, aligning the EU’s economic and legal levers with NATO’s military and cyber capabilities to prevent Russia from exploiting divisions.
Instead of warning Russia of the possible ramifications of its actions, allies should be proactive by imposing timely, coordinated costs to make hybrid aggression a losing bet for the Kremlin.
This is part of an article from back in March of 2026. The Israeli settlers have continued to demolish mosques, homes, farms of the Bedouins who have lived on this land for countless generations.
Bedouin communities – Dispossession and entrapment
From desert nomads to displaced people: The Ongoing Nakba of the Bedouins
March 17, 2026 at 7:27 pm
Israeli army continue attacks on the El-Halayil Bedouin community, forcing 11 Palestinian families to leave their homes in Ramallah, West Bank on February 21, 2026. [Issam Rimawi – Anadolu Agency]
As the war in Gaza continues to devastate Palestinian life, and the ongoing confrontation involving Iran, Israel, and the United States deepens regional instability, another quieter tragedy unfolds on the margins of the conflict. The Bedouins – long-standing desert communities whose lives have been intertwined with the fragile ecosystems of the Middle East – find themselves caught in the crosscurrents of militarization, displacement, and geopolitical rivalry.
While global attention focuses on the spectacle of war, Bedouin communities across the Naqab (Negev), the occupied West Bank, and parts of Sinai endure intensifying dispossession, settler violence, and forced displacement. Their struggle, largely invisible in global headlines, reflects a deeper pattern of erasure that has accompanied the Palestinian catastrophe since 1948 and which now risks accelerating under the cover of wider regional war.
Bedouins (from the Arabic badawi, “desert dweller”) are traditionally nomadic, Arabic-speaking tribes who have inhabited the deserts of the Middle East and North Africa for centuries. They are pastoral nomads, traditionally raising camels, goats, and sheep, and living in portable black goat-hair tents.
Palestinian Bedouin communities – both within the occupied West Bank and in the Naqab – are facing accelerated displacement, sometimes described as a “slow-motion genocide” or “spaciocide” aimed at erasing their presence.
Historically, they moved across arid landscapes in search of water and grazing land for their livestock.
Bedouin society is patriarchal and tribal, who place a strong emphasis on community, honour, loyalty, and hospitality. While many still live in the desert, others have settled into permanent modern homes.
Today, while some Bedouins continue to herd and live in desert environments, others have adapted to more sedentary lifestyles. Their cultural traditions are often highlighted in tourism sectors in countries such as Jordan, Egypt, and the UAE.
In 1948, over 110,000 Bedouins were displaced from the Negev/Naqab, reducing the population to around 11,000 who were subsequently confined to a designated area. The ongoing post-1948 context is often described as an “ongoing Nakba,” where the Bedouin community in the Naqab is caught between state-driven dispossession and efforts to secure legal rights to their ancestral lands. The remaining Bedouins were placed under strict military rule until 1966. During this period, the state used the “Absentee Property Law” to declare Bedouin lands as “unregistered” or “absentee” property, enabling large-scale land confiscation. To further limit land claims and centralize control, the government later concentrated Bedouin populations into seven state-established townships.
Despite being a subaltern minority, Bedouins have engaged in both resistance and, at times, tactical legal or economic engagement with Israeli authorities to maintain their presence.
Post-Nakba (1948), the political background of the Bedouins in Israel and the occupied territories has been characterized by forced displacement, rapid sedentarization, marginalization, and ongoing struggles over land rights.
Bedouin youth face extreme stress, experiencing both anger toward Israeli policies and fear of violence, while often lacking basic protection such as bomb shelters in unrecognized villages. Many struggle daily without running water, electricity, or adequate schools. Communities are frequently threatened by military training exercises and settler violence. In places like the Muarrajat village, settlers have forced families off their land, destroying their traditional and sustainable ways of life.
In the Sinai Peninsula, Bedouin communities face a different but equally severe form of marginalization. Many are trapped in poverty with limited economic opportunities and an inability to register land ownership. The collapse of tourism and continuing instability have further weakened their livelihoods. Despite these hardships, Bedouin individuals have demonstrated remarkable courage and solidarity.
Independent international commissions, UN experts, and various human rights organizations have accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023, characterized by mass killing, forced displacement, and the systematic destruction of life-sustaining infrastructure. In this broader context, Palestinian Bedouin communities – both within the occupied West Bank and in the Naqab – are facing accelerated displacement, sometimes described as a “slow-motion genocide” or “spaciocide” aimed at erasing their presence.
Since October 7, 2023, there has been a sharp increase in settler violence and military actions leading to the displacement of numerous Bedouin communities in the Jordan Valley and the South Hebron Hills. Bedouins are being pushed off their land through mechanisms such as 48-hour expulsion orders and the designation of areas as “closed military zones,” which then enable the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements. In one documented incident, residents of the Bedouin village of Wadi as-Seeq were forced out by armed soldiers and settlers, marking a clear example of a systematic policy to seize Palestinian land.
Human rights defenders argue that Israel is exploiting global focus on the war in Gaza to intensify what they describe as the “de-Palestinisation” of other areas, including East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Bulldozers, demolitions, and forced removals – methods visible in Gaza – are increasingly being applied in the West Bank to target Bedouin communities
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York City on Sept. 24, 2026. Photo by Bing Guan/Reuters
![Israeli army continue attacks on the El-Halayil Bedouin community, forcing 11 Palestinian families to leave their homes in Ramallah, West Bank on February 21, 2026. [Issam Rimawi - Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/AA-20260221-40631406-40631404-ISRAELI_FORCES_DISPLACE_11_PALESTINIAN_FAMILIES_FROM_IN_RAMALLAH.jpg?fit=920%2C613&ssl=1)
You must be logged in to post a comment.