The European Commission’s attempt to bolster its “digital sovereignty” and reduce reliance on US technology has fallen flat, with its chosen “backup”internal communications app facing sharp criticism from EU officials, Politico has reported.

Dubbed ‘Element Pro’, the new app was described by the Commission as a “sovereign back-up to Teams” – the body’s main communications tool developed by US software giant Microsoft – according to an internal memo seen by the news site. Element Pro was introduced in July to help “ensure… business continuity” in the event of a potential “disruption.”

For months, we were told that this moment was approaching. At first a lot of people didn’t want to believe it, and those that were sounding the alarm were mocked. But now even the mainstream media is being forced to admit the truth. When the war with Iran began, the world was sitting on vast stockpiles of oil that we could chew through to keep the global economy operating normally. Unfortunately, those stockpiles have rapidly dissipated and the conflicts on the other side of the planet are intensifying. As a result, we now find ourselves in unprecedented territory.

Even The Mainstream Media Is Admitting That “The Great Fuel Crisis” Is Here

BY MICHAEL SNYDER

The world is using a lot more oil than it is currently producing.

Nearly 1,000 armed private security guards are being deployed into United States Postal Service facilities in the final weeks before the November 3 midterm elections. Frank Albergo, president of the Postal Police Officers Association, told Raw Story that the union had been notified of about 39,000 work hours per week for 972 full-time armed guards across 54 USPS facilities, including 18 that previously did not have them.

Asked to explain the purpose of the operation, Brian Benson, a Postal Inspection Service spokesman in Denver, was unusually blunt. The guards, he said, are deployed “to provide security and act as a deterrent to criminals or employees who may wish to compromise the mailstream.”

American forces are completing their withdrawal from Iraq, yet the country that Washington once promised to turn into a model of democratic transformation in the Middle East is still facing questions that years of military presence never managed to answer.

Washington’s Iraq project ends where it began: in failure

The troops are going, but fractured power, sectarian distrust and armed rivalries still haunt the state Washington promised to remake

BY Murad Sadygzade

For Iraq, this is a long-awaited political milestone, but the end of a foreign military mission does not magically fix the fragmentation of power it created. The consequences of the intervention, sectarian distrust, and competition among armed centers of influence are likely to remain part of Iraq’s political landscape for years to come.

European NATO members should have been able to attack Iran instead of relying on the US and Israel, according to Secretary-General Mark Rutte, the head of the self-described defensive alliance.

Iran has been attacked twice in two years, both times over allegations that it seeks to develop nuclear weapons, which Tehran rejects as false. Speaking at the Euronews Defence & Space Summit on Friday, Rutte endorsed the idea that European nations should acquire the military capabilities needed to carry out such wars of aggression themselves.

In the future, “the Europeans will be able to take care of their backyard themselves. It should be us doing this, not the Americans,” he said.

On paper, the United States should be the world’s safety valve in this fuel crisis. American refineries make far more diesel than Americans burn. But every one of those barrels is already spoken for. Between rising domestic demand, heavy export commitments and refineries running near their limit, the U.S. is drawing down its own stocks, not sitting on a surplus. And as Karl W. Miller shows in his latest assessment, dated September 29, the shock from the Gulf hits the world’s fuel supply twice: it starves refineries abroad of crude and removes finished fuel from the Gulf’s own refineries. America has no spare diesel to offer a world that has lost 1.6 million barrels a day of diesel exports from the Gulf and Russia combined. Until finished-fuel supply recovers, the gap will be closed by higher prices, less economic activity, or both.

Sydney academics John Keane and Nick Riemer have finally been able to file a defence against their accusers. What’s the scam?

The scam is that for almost two years, John Keane and Nick Riemer have spent thousands of dollars and hours defending themselves against accusations of antisemitism by pro-Israel operatives, while their accusers regularly changed the details of their complaints.

In a statement, Nick Riemer told MWM the case is about lawfare, “intended to harass and silence opponents of Israel’s genocide.”

Alex Krainer joins Pascal to discuss the financial interests behind geopolitical conflict. Drawing on his hedge fund background and research for Grand Deception, Krainer challenges Bill Browder’s account of Russia and examines post-Soviet privatization, debt and oligarchic power.

They explore Russia’s relations with the West, diplomacy and historical ties between Russia and nineteenth-century America. Krainer argues that British imperial influence persists through financial networks, connecting his “undead empire” thesis to sovereignty, contemporary wars and the mechanics of wealth extraction.

How to cope. The question people have to answer more or less on a daily basis. True to an even greater extent in politics. Just take a look.

Trump must cope with Trump. The world must cope with Trump.

The United Nations must cope with the World. Sane people must cope with idiots, regardless of nationality, religion or upbringing.

The idea appears to be letting the AfD get into power and make a mess of things and a fool of themselves at the same time.

BY George Austerfield

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has treated an accusation from a BBC correspondent with the contempt expected of a veteran diplomat. 

The British state broadcaster’s Steve Rosenberg asked Lavrov if he would admit “that Russia is waging a covert hybrid war against European countries?”

“Are you referring to when we destroy the drones and missiles that Britain and continental Europe supply to Ukraine, which are then fired at us?” the Russian foreign minister retorted. “Is that what you mean by hybrid war?”

Rosenberg then dropped his line of questioning and switched to criticizing Russia for its use of “brute force” in Ukraine. 

The Planetary Health Check (PHC) provides an annual assessment of the state of the Planet. It is structured around the Planetary Boundaries: the nine critical processes that regulate stability, resilience, and the conditions that support life on Earth. For each boundary, one or two indicators, known as control variables, are used to assess its status.

PLANETARY HEALTH CHECK 2026

A Scientific Assessment of the State of Our Planet

In 1927, Augusto Cesar Sandino began an insurgent campaign against the U.S. occupation of Nicaragua. 

Under orders from President Calvin Coolidge, the U.S. Marines had intervened in Nicaragua to settle a civil war between a conservative government and liberal rebels. In his manifesto, Sandino responded by effectively declaring war on the United States. He also specifically denounced former liberal leaders who had agreed to put down their arms in the face of U.S. intervention. 

BY ANTONIO DE LOERA-BRUST

David Shoebridge has declared he wants the Greens to replace Labor and has accused the government of creating the circumstances for One Nation’s rise in his first remarks after being elected the Greens’ federal leader.

The party’s 10 senators and lone MP met to decide the new leadership team during a pre-planned two-day retreat in Sydney, after the shock resignation of Larissa Waters on Monday due to ill health.

David Shoebridge says ‘we’re here to replace Labor’ in first remarks after being elected new Greens leader

In the formal rooms of the University Club of Chicago the loudest applause was not reserved for celebrity. It was reserved for refusal. 

The refusal to accept an official story merely because it was official and trade editorial independence for access; refusal for leaving wrongdoing concealed because disclosure might end a career and invite prosecution or fracture and upend a life. 

Integrity in Media Is Possible

Can the words “integrity” and “media” even be mentioned in the same breath? ask whistleblowers Coleen Rowley and Tom Drake.