European diplomats attacked by Israeli settlers amid rising violence in occupied West Bank

Masked Israeli settlers attacked a group of European diplomats on Saturday during a visit to the occupied West Bank on Saturday, Belgium’s foreign minister Maxime Prevot said.

The attackers targeted Belgium’s consul general, French and Polish diplomats and Catholic representatives in the village of Taybeh, 5 kilometres northeast of Jerusalem, according to Prevot.

“A French mayor was assaulted and a Belgian vehicle damaged. Our team is safe,” Prevot said.

He blamed what he called Israel’s “illegal settlement policy” for the attack and pledged to push for further European Union sanctions.

Sanctions? Israel has and continues to commit genocide. The situation has moved well past the sanctions stage.

Israeli settlers attack US photographer covering West Bank violence

Israeli settlers attack European diplomats, beat French mayor

Jerusalem (AFP) – Israeli settlers on Saturday attacked a convoy of European diplomats in the West Bank and beat up a visiting French mayor, witnesses said, a day after an American photographer was similarly set upon as violence escalates ahead of bitterly fought elections.

Netanyahu claims “no compelling evidence of the attack”

Of course.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed on Saturday night there was a lack of “compelling evidence” surrounding a violent settler attack on European diplomats in the West Bank earlier in the day, appearing to suggest the incident was part of a “coordinated smear campaign.”

There are photographs of the assault-

Image included with this article

Since I’ve been covering the diesel situation here in a few previous pieces.

“The Iran war has pushed fuel prices to record highs, and the head of America’s second-largest oil company says the world has run out of easy ways to absorb the shock.

Who started the Iran war?

“Those are all buffers in the system that have bought us time, but they’ve been drained,” Chevron CEO Mike Wirth told CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe on Oct. 7. “And so we’re at much lower levels of inventory right now, and it makes the system more vulnerable to disruption.”

Wirth said the world entered 2026 well supplied. “We came into this year with high inventories,” he said, pointing to commercial stocks held by companies and strategic reserves held by governments worldwide. Since the war began in late February, those cushions have been steadily depleted: Companies have drawn down commercial inventories, governments have released emergency stocks, and sanctioned barrels have been allowed to reach buyers.

This is of course the Iran war, started by Trump and Bibi.

He called it “a very serious situation.”

Wirth was blunt that stockpile releases are only a stopgap. They “buy time,” he said, but the underlying problem is “constrained flows out of some of the biggest producing areas in the world.”

Diesel relief isn’t coming soon

Nowhere is the squeeze sharper than diesel, the fuel that moves trucks, trains, and farm equipment. The U.S. average hit a record $6.53 a gallon on Sept. 22, according to AAA data cited by CBS News, up from about $3.76 before the U.S. and Israel launched the war in late February. In California, the statewide average has topped $8 a gallon.

Don’t expect that to change quickly. In its October Oil Market Report, released Wednesday, the International Energy Agency said the diesel market will stay tight well into 2027 and hinges on a recovery of fuel supply from the Middle East. Benchmark diesel prices have eased from September’s records above $200 a barrel, but remain nearly double both crude prices and their precrisis levels, and the IEA said depleted diesel stocks are unlikely to be rebuilt beyond normal seasonal swings before the second half of 2027.

The agency expects global oil supply to fall by an average of 5.8 million barrels a day this year, to 100.7 million barrels a day, before rebounding in 2027, and sees the market staying in deficit through year-end. It also forecasts that high prices will cut global oil demand by 2.6 million barrels a day in 2026, with diesel accounting for about a quarter of the drop.

Trump could bring the Iranian situation to an end- But he can’t. Ego? Blackmail? A bit of both? He’s a danger to more than just Iranians at this point in time..

Trump’s scramble for supply

With the Nov. 3 midterms less than three weeks away, fuel costs have become a political liability for the White House. An AP-NORC poll published Oct. 1 found that Americans disapprove of President Donald Trump’s handling of the Iran war and blame him for higher prices, Fortune reported.

Trump has tried several levers.

In late September, he floated a ban on U.S. diesel exports, telling a Fox News reporter on Sept. 27, “We’re thinking about it very seriously,” while acknowledging it could push gasoline prices up. Refiners warned the policy would backfire, arguing it could force plants to cut output and ultimately tighten domestic supply.

Three days later, he signed an executive order letting truckers and farmers use red-dyed diesel—normally reserved for off-road equipment and exempt from highway fuel taxes—on public roads. The order defers, rather than eliminates, the 24.4-cent-per-gallon federal excise tax

Few levers left

Trump’s latest move came Oct. 9, when he announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to supply more than 4 million tons of diesel to global markets in stages.

Last paragraph from the linked article

That brings matters back to Wirth’s warning. Stockpile releases, sanctions waivers, and tax breaks can buy time, but they can’t replace the oil and fuel that isn’t flowing out of the Middle East. And with the buffers already spent, there’s little left to cushion the next disruption.

Trump can end the attack on Iran. Reign in Bibi. Stick to agreements he, himself made with Iran. But he won’t.

Because he hasn’t so far..

Keep in mind this is a VERY LIMITED release of information.

Large excerpt from the Maple- It’s a big read, so check the link

After 40 years the Canadian government has finally released a nearly fully unredacted version of historian Alti Rodal’s investigation into alleged Nazi war criminals in Canada.

The previously redacted sections reveal that the CIA was actively involved in resettling alleged Nazis in Canada after the Second World War, that the CIA deceived Canadian officials, and that a leading CIA officer in charge of resettlement operations was later the CIA’s representative in Ottawa.

“It was a ratline,” said historian Jared McBride, referring to the escape routes used by the Nazis and their collaborators to flee Europe in the aftermath of the Second World War. “In an operational sense, this is what a ratline is.”

While the newly unredacted version of the Rodal Report doesn’t name the specific individuals who gained entry into Canada, it does reveal that Canadian visa control officers posted in Stockholm were aware of falsified documents coming from American sources as early as 1953.

Further, former RCMP deputy commissioner W.H. Kelly was informed in early 1954 of suspicious applications for security screenings coming from the U.S. zone of occupation in postwar Germany.

Kelly was subsequently contacted by a U.S. intelligence official named George McManus, who requested Canadian security personnel accept certain immigrants recommended by U.S. authorities without conducting background checks.

In March of that year, Kelly reported to Ottawa that nearly 40 people had already been accepted into Canada in 1953 alone based on American recommendations. Some of those people, the Rodal Report alleged, were known to be Nazi collaborators.

“This isn’t old news; this is new,” said McBride in an interview with The Maple. Among others, McBride pointed to the revelation that the Americans provided individuals slated for resettlement with false documentation.

“It’s not surprising they did this,” said McBride, “but where are the records? We really need to see the U.S. documentation on this.”

One previously redacted section of the Rodal Report tells of an individual who had been rejected by Canadian officials in 1953, yet who was presented again three months later — with a completely different set of documents and a new identity — by an American intelligence officer working for U.S. Armed Forces Europe (USAREUR) named Oscar Holtz.

Holtz is also identified in the unredacted sections as having supplied Canadian officials with a list of 35 individuals who had made it to Canada in 1953 with the assistance of USAREUR.

Another four had been identified by Canadian officials separately. USAREUR is also said to have advanced another 52 applicants for resettlement to Canada who were rejected by the RCMP, mostly on security grounds.

“Not only did the Canadian government know at the time that it was being deceived by U.S. intelligence, but Canadian officials learned of this again in the 1980s,” McBride said.

McBride noted that the Canadian government has consistently sought to bury the story rather than demanding transparency from the United States.

No Canadian government is going to demand transparency from the US. Neither Conservative or Liberal.

“The lack of self-respect amazes me,” said McBride.

The new version of the Rodal Report is not completely unredacted: there remains one censored line that appears to explain why, according to Oscar Holtz, the United States wouldn’t accept known Nazi collaborators, even though there was a standing provision to permit entry to as many as 100 per year at the time.

McBride told The Maple he wonders what individuals would have been so disreputable they would be considered inadmissible for entry to the United States, but still valuable enough — or such a security risk — they merited resettlement in Canada instead.

The report has been gradually unredacted over the course of the last few years.

The US settled Nazis aplenty into their country–

In September, the Federal Court ordered the government to publish sections of the report that had been redacted for 40 years. The Maple received a copy on October 8 after the federal government chose not to appeal the court’s ruling.

Officially titled “Nazi War Criminals in Canada: The Historical and Policy Setting from the 1940s to the Present,” the Rodal Report was written in the context of the Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals in Canada, also referred to as the “Deschênes Commission,” which investigated the subject of war criminals in Canada in 1985 and 1986.

The second part of the Deschênes Commission’s final report, which lists the suspected war criminals identified and investigated by the commission, remains secret.

CTV News

The study says that, according to that U.S. official, a number of these people had criminal records, some arising from cases involving “moral turpitude” — a category in which Nazi collaborators were included.

The USAREUR official provided the Canadians with a list of 35 people who had already gone to Canada with the assistance of the agency, the study says. It adds that subsequent RCMP checks led to the conclusion that nearly all of these individuals would have been “rejectable” on security grounds.

Rodal said the USAREUR episode suggests that in the years following the war — and particularly during the period before the RCMP’s discovery of irregularities in USAREUR’s activities — “American Intelligence personnel could well have assisted persons with war criminal background to immigrate to Canada.”

“They were in a position to provide such persons with false documentation and to report to Canadian Visa Control Officers in the course of their routine checks that there was nothing adverse about these prospective immigrants,” the study says.

Rodal concluded it would appear that large numbers of former agents were being resettled by the Americans, “and it was perhaps the less desirable ones, for whatever reason, whom they would have wished to resettle in another country, such as Canada.”

Saudi Arabia faces economic strain as Yemen war escalates

The Riyadh attacks and the fragility of regional security: Implications for global politics, oil markets and the world economy

The recent attacks on Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital, particularly the strikes against King Khalid International Airport, represent a significant escalation in the security crisis affecting the Middle East. Beyond the immediate loss of life and disruption to civilian aviation, these incidents raise fundamental questions about regional deterrence, the internationalisation of the Yemen conflict, the security of global energy supplies and the resilience of the international political and economic order.

According to reporting by Reuters and Al Jazeera on 12 October, 2026, a strike on Saturday killed 12 people and injured more than 300, while a subsequent attack on Sunday killed one person and injured 11. Saudi authorities and regional governments have attributed the attacks to Yemen’s Houthi movement, which is aligned with Iran. The attacks have also prompted renewed diplomatic and security cooperation among Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Turkiye and Egypt.

The significance of these developments lies not only in the immediate damage but also in their potential to connect several existing conflicts: the war in Yemen, the confrontation involving Iran and the United States, insecurity around the Red Sea and the vulnerability of Gulf energy infrastructure.

Three security implications deserve particular attention.

• First, the vulnerability of strategic infrastructure. Airports, oil facilities, ports and logistics centres are essential to Saudi Arabia’s security and economic development. Attacks against such facilities can disrupt transportation and commerce even when the attackers do not achieve their wider military objectives.

• Second, the danger of reciprocal escalation. Saudi Arabia faces pressure to demonstrate that it can protect its territory and population. However, extensive retaliatory operations could provoke further Houthi attacks, expand the geographical scope of the conflict and increase civilian suffering in Yemen.

• Third, the regionalisation of collective defence. On 12 October, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Turkiye and Egypt jointly condemned the attacks. Their declaration signalled diplomatic solidarity and support for Saudi Arabia’s legitimate defensive measures. Reuters also reported that Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkiye had agreed to implement collective-defence commitments under their defence arrangement.

Read entirely at link

Houthi missile attack targets Saudi capital Riyadh for third day in a row

Saudi Arabia says it intercepted a ballistic missile fired towards Riyadh, as Houthis say they targeted the King Khalid airport.

Saudi-led coalition orders evacuation of oil facility in Houthi-held Sanaa ahead of military operation

The Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemen’s internationally recognized government on Tuesday called on civilians to evacuate an oil facility in the Houthi-controlled capital, Sanaa, ahead of a planned military operation.

Trump criticizes Yemen’s Houthis while offering no specific response

US President Donald Trump criticized Yemen’s Houthi group Monday but did not outline any specific measures that his administration might take in response to its actions.

Speaking to reporters as he departed the White House for Ohio, Trump was asked what he planned to do about the Houthis.

“Well, the Houthis are misbehaving very badly. No good,” he replied.

MbS is more at risk internally than from AnsarAllah attacks

Bankers used to say that countries, unlike companies, can’t go bust. They repeated that comforting slogan until a wave of Latin American countries defaulted in the 1980s. Might a similar shock soon puncture the rich world’s hubris?

Five years ago borrowing costs were so low that public debt looked almost costless. Today, with investors dumping their bonds, many big rich-world governments pay more to borrow than at any time since the 1990s or 2000s. Because the public debts of big advanced economies are about double, relative to GDP, what they were at the turn of the century, the result is immense pressure on budgets.

Turbulent bond markets threaten some countries more than others

Even before the latest bond sell-off, their governments were forecast to spend 8% of tax revenues on net debt interest this year, as ageing populations and the threat of war are creating pressure to raise spending. Now they must pay still more to refinance their past debts, while many continue to borrow with little restraint. At some point investors will revolt.

Ironically, some of this year’s bond-market sell-off is good news, as we report. America’s economy is booming. Jobless claims are low; economic growth may be running at an annual rate greater than 3%; and productivity growth appears strong. This is encouraging investment. As artificial-intelligence firms clamour to build data centres, they compete with governments for capital in global markets. Higher interest rates are the result. (Much to be concerned about regarding the AI data bubble, never mind the data centre issue)

That has intensified less welcome upward forces on bond yields. The energy shock from the war in Iran has raised inflation, and there are creeping doubts about the credibility of economic institutions in the age of populism. President Donald Trump has recently mused that inflation can reduce debts “very rapidly” and renewed his attacks on the Federal Reserve for failing to cut interest rates. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a populist-left candidate for the French presidency, has accused the governor of the Bank of France, absurdly, of treason. Bond investors, gazing far into the future, perceive the growing danger that governments will use inflation to pick their pockets.

Your pocket and mine- Inflation is a hidden tax

Inflation acts as a "hidden tax" because it erodes purchasing power and transfers wealth from citizens to the state without requiring explicit legislative approval or a formal public vote

The immediate impact of the bond-market sell-off varies greatly across countries. America is learning that its AI-fuelled expansion will not much help it cope with its debts, because interest costs rise in tandem with growth. The federal government’s annual budget deficit of about 6% of GDP is unsustainable. Fortunately, Uncle Sam still has the immense advantage of issuing the world’s reserve currency. As bond yields have risen in recent weeks the dollar has soared in value. A fiscal reckoning must eventually come—but not yet.

Japan, another perennial source of worry, is so far coping, too. Its ten-year bond yield has breached 3% for the first time since 1996 and it is planning an ill-advised spending spree. But inflation has risen alongside interest rates. With inflation-adjusted rates still low, and the government’s deficit small, debts are shrinking as a share of the economy. That may change. And if the Japanese begin to sell their enormous stock of overseas assets, financial tremors will rattle the rest of the world. But the Japanese government does not yet face the prospect of a run on its bonds.

Europe is where the danger of a debt crisis looms largest. The AI boom is raising its cost of capital but, in contrast with America, it is enjoying far less of a boost to economic growth. Its energy-importing economy is suffering from high fuel prices, and will suffer more if the winter is cold, owing to a probable global shortage of liquefied natural gas. Though some prudent governments—including those in Germany, Scandinavia and Switzerland—have their budgets in order, Britain, France and Italy are wobbling.

Britain already suffered a bond-market revolt in 2022. Chastened, it corrected course, but its debt-to-GDP ratio is still rising and its politicians specialise in postponing spending cuts, as with a recently promised pension reform. Italy’s net debts are fairly stable, but, at 129% of GDP, too high. It is fragile and could break in a panic.

France is under the greatest pressure. Its budget deficit is forecast to be 5.4% of GDP this year. Given today’s economic growth, The Economist calculates, were France to refinance all its borrowing at current yields on five-year bonds, stabilising its debts would require a belt-tightening of more than 4% of GDP. Yet it is gripped by student protests and its parliament is struggling to pass a budget with cuts worth just a tenth of that.

Investors recently forced France to pay 1.5 points more than Germany to borrow for a decade—the highest spread since the euro-zone debt crisis. Ahead of a presidential election in 2027, Marine Le Pen of the populist-right National Rally party is leading the polls. On October 6th she pledged to trim budgets by 3% of GDP by 2032 and to cut debt to gdp in half. Bond yields fell slightly, but Ms Le Pen lacks credibility. She still vows to lower the retirement age even as lifespans lengthen, thus failing to confront the biggest single item in France’s public spending.

A run on French bonds could happen. If it does, the government might respond not with belt-tightening, but by demanding a bail-out from the European Central Bank (ECB). Countries are supposed to get their budgets in order before the ECB buys their debt, but in practice the guardrail against bail-outs is weaker than a decade ago. In a game of chicken with the ecb, a populist president would probably win; for without France, the European Union could not survive.

Overheating

It would be a mistake for central banks to bail out governments which refuse point-blank to balance the books. Their job is to unblock financial plumbing, not to underwrite decades of reckless borrowing. If central banks become cash machines for finance ministries, not guarantors of stable prices, long-term bonds will sell off even more. Voters will exact revenge. The best path forward in France and elsewhere is for politicians to explain to their electorates that public debt must be under control, and that together they must do whatever it takes.

On the Russia-US diesel arrangement This arrangement (or “deal”) could be read as a narrow transaction within an escalatory relationship: the US obtains a marginal supply buffer, maybe a slight political reprieve; while Russia obtains revenue, tactical relief, and temporary market access. Nonetheless, this episode also illustrates the still transactional and incomplete character of consolidation of states resisting US pressure. On the other side, it shows how the US-led core can use selective access, waivers and market management alongside military escalation. A form of armed trade, a characteristic of capitalism as is.

Now, I am not implying either that anti-hegemonic resistance has failed, and, neither implying that this is an inflection point for multipoarity.

Almost every country on earth still is part of this multilayered cage, they face US (and transatlantic) pressure. At the same time they are embedded in a field of domestic (differing) interests and (global) infrastructural dependencies. This, coupled with the incomplete formation of a counterforce, leads to tactical bargains.

Now, the United States may manage an energy problem in a very narrow and short-term manner; Russia may gain some room for manuevre, and Iran may face a temporary strategic disadvantage. The very divergence of these consequences shows us that a shared adversary does not yet amount to a shared horizon or project.

Multipolarity (and hence, the development of autonomous capcacities by different countries) is becoming more visible in the distribution of bargaining power. But a counter-hegemonic order would require something more: institutions capable of converting separate national survival strategies into durable mutual commitments, common capacities and a positive project for the international order.

Until then, selective deals may increase national autonomy while weakening collective solidarity. (After all, there are optics to these bargains. The US power elites knows this and uses this feature.)

The same principle holds domestically: shared hardship must be politically organized, there must be shared solidarity.— Nel B. (@noirnen) October 10, 2026

I’ll share a few of the recent news articles

• Trucking Industry Hit by String of Bankruptcy filings due to surging diesel fuel costs

• PEI Fire Departments face tough choices amid skyrocketing diesel costs and tariffs

• ENERGY SNAPSHOT: Inside the Global Squeeze on Diesel

Trump’s deal with Russia- millions of tonnes of diesel to US and Global markets after successful talks with Putin

Moscow to “immediately release” 300,00 tonnes of diesel into the global market, followed by 500,000 tonnes in November and another million afterwards.

Trump is claiming he’s allowing this, actually, he’s desperate for this.

Meanwhile…

Putin says Russian diesel supplies to US, global markets will benefit world economy

That’s true.

Russian president reaffirms Moscow’s readiness to supply oil and petroleum products following phone call with Trump

“In discussing the state of the global energy sector, the Russian side reaffirmed its readiness to supply oil and petroleum products to the US and global markets. I am confident that this will have a positive impact on the global economy as a whole,” Putin said.

Hopefully he’s correct? If Russia can provide enough fuel to to make an impact

Washington grants temporary sanctions relief for Russian diesel

The US Treasury Department on Friday authorized Russian diesel exports to global markets under a temporary sanctions exemption, following a telephone conversation between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on measures to ease energy prices.

At Trump’s direction, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a temporary general license allowing Russian diesel to enter international markets immediately.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticized the sanctions relief, warning that easing pressure on Moscow without commitments to reduce hostilities would strengthen its ability to continue the war against Ukraine.

“Allowing Russia to sell petroleum products is an investment in a war that must be ended, not prolonged,” Zelenskyy argued, urging Washington to make the exemption conditional on reciprocal measures to halt attacks on energy infrastructure.

This deal with Russia comes after a G-7 emergency diesel reserves release

The G7 Is Releasing Emergency Fuel Reserves. How Much Will It Help Americans?

Trump dug a big, big hole for himself and his nation.. And the rest of us. He looks the fool for all of this. A dangerous fool.

Read on my friends, read on.

Plague in the USA

Plague cases still occur in the US, here’s where

However, Arizona reported a pneumonic plague-related death last year, and a New Mexico woman died from plague this year.

Between 2000 and 2023, between zero and 17 cases of human plague were reported in the U.S. each year, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Adding up to a total of 122 cases between 2000-2023. That’s more than 5 cases a year on average!!!

Fifteen of the 122 cases confirmed during that time period were fatal, the data shows.

When cases do occur in the U.S., they’re primarily in the West, with most reported in New Mexico and Arizona. Cases have also appeared near southern Oregon, far western Nevada, and California.

Plague never went away- Cases are reported yearly in the US and Africa

There are an average of about seven human cases per year in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, mostly in rural areas of the American West.

Wow!

Lastly, the CDC

Trump putting America first, always, is of course going to have a call with President Putin to discuss a possible plague case in Russia…

President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he has a call scheduled with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss a possible case of plague at a Siberian research institute.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said he would be talking with Putin about the case “very soon.” Health authorities are investigating after the death of an employee at an anti-plague institute, which authorities attributed to pneumonia with an unknown cause.

Asked what the U.S. intelligence community was saying about the case, Trump said the U.S. is in “very deep discussions” on the topic. “We’ll be able to report about it, probably tomorrow,” Trump said.

On Monday, Trump said the U.S. would be willing to help Russia with the situation. “It’s a rough disease. You know, that’s a disease we used to be able to control, but somehow those microbes have gotten stronger and smarter. They’re like an army,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

Perhaps Trump should address the many cases of plague in the US? Every year. Perhaps he should help Americans with this “rough disease”

Last observation- Strange how it is we hear and read nothing about all these American cases..Why is that? Does America sweep it’s plague cases under the rug?

I will include some highlights from the piece directly below MY relinked post on this subject

Foreign interference has already been acknowledged- Dutch you tube video creators promoting separation. Lots of disinfo accounts on social media. Endless demonization.

Trump being one of the worse promoters of all sorts of disinfo- which you would have seen and heard many, many times over many destabilization actions. Targeting any number of nations.

Globe and Mail

Alberta separatists have gone to D.C. offering fresh water and oil in exchange for American support – and Republican operatives have provided tactical assistance inside the province. Behind the cross-border effort to sway Alberta’s secession vote

The Alberta Prosperity Project chose the location to accommodate its guests, Republican political strategists from Michigan who helped Donald Trump win the state in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

The American delegation travelled to Calgary to sell them on software developed for Republicans to get out the vote – and how it could be used to wrench Alberta from Confederation.

“They were young Christians. Capable, intelligent people,” Mr. Sylvestre said. “We prayed before we started the meeting.”

David Parker, an organizer for Alberta separation, brokered the meeting and championed the software. Known as 10X Votes, it mines voter lists to identify communities of like-minded people that could be mobilized to potentially swing elections.

“I was blown away by what this can do,” Mr. Parker told a separatist meeting in Edmonton in April, according to video footage of the presentation, where he demonstrated a version adapted for use in Alberta.

He called it “the most effective way I have ever come across to win a campaign.”

The Christian angle is disturbing to me- these are mostly the zealous Christian zionist types–I’m not big on theocracy– Oddly I find the US and Israel to be theocracies masquerading as democracies.

Doug Wilson, an influential Christian nationalist pastor who has been invited to the Pentagon by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, said earlier this year that Alberta independence would be “wonderful.” Mr. Wilson leads a conservative Reformed Christian denomination that has several churches in Alberta – in Coaldale, Cochrane and Grande Prairie – some of them led by pastors who have expressed support for secession.

The software in question?

The Centurion controversy

A few weeks after the meeting with the Americans, Mr. Parker launched the Centurion Project, a new political organization that used the 10X Votes technology, adjusted for Alberta.

“The Centurion Project is going to be a force to be reckoned with in the coming months. We have the backing, we have the momentum, and now we have the tool,” he wrote on social media in April.

“Using this tool is going to transform how politics is done, I think, in the Western world,” he said in a podcast.

“But for now, Alberta.”

The tool was a scaled-down version of what 10X created in Michigan. It was intuitive, and once approved, users could search for Albertans using partial names or fragments of addresses. Queries that did not yield precise matches would instead show the first 50 possible results. Included were legal first and last names, addresses, electoral divisions and polling subdivisions. A search of a partial address would reveal the names of all eligible voters living at that residence.

During online demonstrations of the new Alberta tool, the Centurion Project representatives claimed the data was publicly available, no different than information contained in the phone book. They also insisted the data was secure.

It was not.

The Globe and Mail, which registered for the Centurion Project using a company e-mail address, discovered a security vulnerability that gave users access to the main directory that the whole system was based on.

It was, according to The Globe’s analysis, the master list of eligible voters for the province – or very close to one.

As The Globe first reported in April, the Centurion Project’s database contained names and addresses for 2,957,857 Albertans, once apparent duplicate entries were removed.

By way of comparison, Elections Alberta’s list of electors tallied 2,966,192 eligible voters across the province in May, 2025, when the head count was last updated.

Further, The Globe found the Centurion Project’s underlying database contained a trove of highly sensitive personal information beyond what casual users could easily access, including middle names, unique electoral identification numbers and 2,083,175 phone numbers.

It was a massive privacy breach – one of the largest that the province had ever seen.

Malicious actors could use the tool, and the data contained in it, to find sensitive personal details for private citizens, police officers, judges, politicians and public figures.

The data breach had real-world consequences. Edmonton city councillor Aaron Paquette said his phone rang with calls from constituents scared for their safety, including a woman who feared her violent ex would learn where she was now living.

Canada’s security agencies were also concerned, according to an intelligence brief on May 21 from the federal Integrated Threat Assessment Centre, a specialized unit that works with CSIS to assess national security threats.

The document, obtained by The Globe through access to information and marked “Secret / Canadian Eyes Only,” is heavily redacted but indicates alarm at the situation.

“There remains a period of heightened sensitivity and awareness as public officials, law enforcement and other stakeholders work to understand the full extent of the incident and its potential consequences,” the brief said.

You get the idea? Read the rest at the link provided.

French Bond Crisis

French 10-year yield hits highest since 2002, nearing 5%; French-German spread heads for biggest weekly jump since 2007; ECB not expected to step in for France, though analysts say heavy selling raises pressure

As the premium investors demand to hold French 10-year bonds over safer Germany shot above 150 basis points on Friday, talk began to grow about how severe the selloff could become and whether neighboring countries can be shielded with the help of the European Central Bank (ECB).

France’s 10-year bond yield rose to near the 5% mark, hitting its highest since 2002. The premium investors demand to lend to France, rather than Germany, was set for its biggest weekly jump since at least 2007, with a rise of at least 40 basis points, according to LSEG data .

“The speed at which the spread has got here is what is concerning,” said Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management.

While some investors hope the ECB will intervene, the central bank is “caught between a rock and a hard place” as it would have to consider buying bonds while tightening monetary policy, she said.

The ECB’s Transmission Protection Instrument allows it to buy an unlimited number of bonds from any euro zone country experiencing an “unwarranted, disorderly” tightening of its financing conditions.

US Debt Now larger than China, Japan, UK and France Combined

U.S. Debt Is Now Larger Than China, Japan, UK and France Combined

U.S. national debt has climbed above $40T, exceeding the combined government debt of China, Japan, the UK and France as global debt hits a record $365.5T.

Europe’s Diesel Woes Just Got Even Worse

Europe’s diesel supply crunch is worsening, with imports hitting a record September low as China suspends fuel exports and Russian supplies remain constrained. Europe is heavily dependent on imported diesel, after decades of diesel-focused demand and the closure of roughly 30% of EU refineries since 2009. – Strategic stock releases may become unavoidable, particularly if the U.S. restricts diesel exports before Persian Gulf fuel flows recover.

China this week announced it will suspend all fuel exports this month to keep its domestic market supplied. Also this week, President Donald Trump demanded that Germany and France release 120 million barrels of diesel from their storage or get hit with a U.S. diesel export ban. Europe is running out of options to stay well supplied with a critical fuel.

Diesel is the fuel, on which any economy runs. While it may feature less commonly in passenger cars these days, diesel is the default fuel for heavy machinery, agriculture, and freight transport. This makes import-dependent nations especially vulnerable to the kind of shock that the world is experiencing right now, and Europe is full of import-dependent nations.

According to Euronews, gasoline prices in the European Union have added some 29% since the start of the year, while diesel fuel prices have swelled by 40%. ECB officials expected diesel margins to peak this month, citing peak gasoline margins in August, after which they declined, but it does not seem like their prediction will come true as China just imposed a fuel export ban on its refiners. Chinese refiners are canceling gasoline and jet fuel shipments as well.

Tanker Explosions Of Yemen’s Coast

A tanker reported multiple explosions near the vessel off Yemen’s coast on Sunday, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO).

In a warning, UKMTO said the incident occurred 60 nautical miles south of the port city of Mokha.

The tanker’s company security officer reported seeing multiple explosions in close proximity to the vessel, the agency said.

One of the men involved in the diesel fuel theft reported the incident to the police, prior to party goer report

One of the men involved in the suspected plot on a Royal Air Force base reported the incident to police himself, it has emerged…

Officials previously said they had received a call relating to three “suspicious vehicles which appeared to be travelling towards the air base” at 12.45am on Sunday.

So was the party goer story created, to present a specific narrative and to cover up the fact that one of the diesel thieves already reported the theft?

Possible Plague death in Russia scrutinized by the US

I see tons of headlines this morning

A State Department spokesperson told CNN on Sunday that the US is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the matter.

“We are monitoring the situation closely with the CDC and our other interagency partners,” the spokesperson said. “We encourage Russian authorities to share accurate information quickly and openly”, he added.

The White House is also aware of the case and weighing its options, Axios reported, citing a Trump administration official.

Daria Shipilova, 28, worked at a research institute in Russia’s Irkutsk region that deals with plague. Local media, cited by Axios, reported that she broke a test tube containing the pneumonic plague pathogen on 25 September.

She was hospitalised four days later with severe pneumonia and died overnight on 1-2 October.