Edward Hopper Hotel lobby 1943
💯
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) October 31, 2026
America should watch what the globalists are trying to pull in Poland. Another warning to us. pic.twitter.com/G9hKRf1pDB
What just happened in Poland is something every Western citizen should look at squarely. Because it's the trailer for what's coming to the rest of us.
— Brivael Le Pogam (@brivael) October 31, 2026
Friday night in Warsaw, the president of the Constitutional Tribunal and his vice-president were "suspended" for a month. The… https://t.co/n7SGYfhpJV
This is quite simply brilliant. pic.twitter.com/4l4WHHYYuL
— David Atherton (@daveatherton) October 31, 2026
Iran is still threatening the US:
“..Iran’s Retaliation Will Have ‘No Geographical Limits’ If Attacked..”
Tomorrow’s the US midterms. After that Trump is free to attack Iran. He doesn’t appear to have much choice.
The Iranians attempt to drag him along, as they can do like no other.
Iran puts itself on equal footing withe the US. Trump does not, and never will.
Trump wants to make sure they have no nukes, and no control over Hormuz.
They know this, but still haven’t given in on either point.
The IRGC has murdered at last 40,000 of its own people in the recent past.
They don’t care about thesee lives, onl;y about their own.
Bibi threatened to nuke Iran, and Trump said no, we will take care of this.
And now he has to. He didn’t want them to have nukes, anyway.
• Qatar Signals Talks ‘Breakthrough’ As Khamenei Warns (ZH)
Could this be the actual breakthrough coming after many months of prior claimed negotiation ‘breakthroughs’ and false starts? Just when the prospect of even getting back to the negotiating table seemed as remote as ever, Qatari newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed is reporting that planned direct talks are back on.Read more …
Regional sources are indeed calling this a “breakthrough” in hitherto indirect negotiations between Washington and Tehran, with an American delegation soon expected to join Iranian officials for direct talks in Doha.The midterm election in the US is just a handful of days away, and President Trump has strongly signaled he might renew a major bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic.Picking up on the Saturday Qatari report, Times of Israel writes, “Citing sources close to mediation efforts led by Qatar and Pakistan, the report says the sides have agreed on preliminary measures concerning Iran’s nuclear program, navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and financial incentives for Tehran, with China and Russia set to serve as guarantors of an agreement.”
The closer we get to the midterms, the faster Araghchi suggests Hormuz can reopen.
— Gregory Brew (@gbrew24) October 31, 2026
From 7 to 5 to 4 and now to 2 days. https://t.co/UHmm9TXsd6
“The reported progress follows what Axios describes as more than 12 hours of talks between Qatari mediators and Iranian officials in Tehran yesterday, aimed at averting renewed US strikes on Iran after the November 3 midterm elections,” it adds.Al Arabiya English says it has obtained key points from the preliminary draft framework for restarting US-Iran negotiations and has published the following list:
• Iran could transfer its highly enriched uranium stockpile to an agreed third country or reduce its enrichment level
• The Strait of Hormuz could reopen to international maritime traffic within seven days of an initial understanding
• China could potentially serve as a guarantor of the implementation and sustainability of any agreement
• Direct US-Iran negotiations could be held in Doha instead of Istanbul
• Iranian measures on the nuclear file and maritime security would be matched by clearly defined US measures to ease sanctions, blockades and economic restrictions
• An independent verification mechanism would assess compliance before each subsequent phase of implementation
• Neither side would be required to make substantial concessions without receiving corresponding, independently verifiable commitments
• A dispute-resolution mechanism involving mediators and guarantor parties would address delays or violations to help prevent renewed military escalation
But none of this means that Iranian leadership is going to sit idly by and let the Trump administration dictate the terms, as it continues sticking by its seven conditions for ending the war. By now it should be clear that Tehran does not trust Trump or Netanyahu when it comes to efforts to achieve peace.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei ordered the armed forces to respond immediately to any enemy threat, without geographical restrictions.
— Clash Report (@clashreport) October 31, 2026
He ordered commanders to bring all U.S. and Israeli assets within range, warning that if attacked again, Iran would “determine the… pic.twitter.com/rbnZx0708a
Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has on Saturday put his military on heightened alert, ordering military commanders to ensure an immediate and desvastating response to any threat, and notably without geographical limitation. “Any level or type of threat must be met with an immediate, impactful, and geographically unrestricted response,” the Ayatollah – who has not been seen in public since the war began – has stated.This was reportedly the result of a meeting with senior military commanders – itself a very rare thing if indeed happened, again given that he’s not so much as been seen in public since the assassination of his father. Al Jazeera describes the significance further, writing that “Iranians have been emphasising that if a new wave of war comes, Iran is going to go beyond the locations that it has hit in the previous rounds.”
“Khamenei is also saying that if the war restarts, then it’s going to be up to Iran to determine when it’s going to end and on what terms,” the regional commentary adds. “This is quite a huge thing because it’s saying that the terms of diplomacy will be up to Iran now.” So these planned next Qatari talks could be the last big diplomatic effort at restarting a peace and dialogue track, or else it could be bombs away and runaway escalation.
He’ll get his rationality.
• Iran’s Araghchi Hopes For ‘Rationality’ From US (ZH)
On Sunday Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi weighed in on current peace discussions which are being mediated via Qatar. He expressed that Tehran is ready to egage in serious diplomacy but hopes to see ‘rationality’ from the US side. We previously featured details of a draft framework being offered and examined.Read more …
“We are making our efforts in this direction and hope that there is rationality on the other side to prefer diplomacy to other paths,” Araghchi said. The statement comes amid widespread reports that the Trump White House could order a new major bombing campaign soon after Tuesday’s midterm elections.But he also alluded to the fresh orders that Iran’s supreme commander-in-chief, which is the Ayatollah, conveyed to senior military officials.“Our armed forces also have a very clear mission and, drawing on the experiences of the past t
wo wars, are much stronger than before,” the FM stated. Iran says Hormuz could be reopened within two days if conditions met… Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei had on Saturday put his military on heightened alert, ordering military commanders to ensure an immediate and desvastating response to any threat, and notably without geographical limitation. “Any level or type of threat must be met with an immediate, impactful, and geographically unrestricted response,” the Ayatollah – who has not been seen in public since the war began – stated.
OIL TANKER SINKS IN STRAIT OF HORMUZ AFTER IRAN STRIKES pic.twitter.com/208K6rKXrG
— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) November 1, 2026
This was reportedly the result of a meeting with senior military commanders – itself a very rare thing, given that he’s not so much as been seen in public since the assassination of his father. Al Jazeera described the significance further, writing that “Iranians have been emphasising that if a new wave of war comes, Iran is going to go beyond the locations that it has hit in the previous rounds.” Meanwhile some alarming videos have surfaced over the weekend showing results of some of the latest Iranian attacks on tankers.
🇮🇷⚔️
— Iran Press (@ATLAS_PULSEe) November 1, 2026
🔴 A video has emerged showing the moment a massive ship caught fire in the Strait of Hormuz after being targeted by Iran earlier.
Qatar Gas Transport Company announced today that its liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker was attacked by unidentified objects while sailing in…
As for the status of indirect negotiations between Tehran and Washington, Araghchi also said, “Consultations are ongoing but we have not yet reached a definitive conclusion because this conclusion depends on the answers the other side gives to our questions. There was no plan to negotiate with the American side during this trip.” So the talks are still not yet ‘direct’ and it’s unclear on if there are plans to engage in such.
Coup.
What I did notice is the people protesting in the street all seem to be pro-President.
• Polish PM Tusk Says He Won’t Back Down (ZH)
Pro-EU Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk defended his decision to suspend top court judges and accused the opposition of resorting to violence in an attempt to destroy the rule-of-law. As Bloomberg reports, Tusk said in a TV address on Saturday that the Constitutional Tribunal in its current form isn’t independent and his government’s attempts to fix it have been sabotaged by the Law & Justice party and President Karol Nawrocki.Read more …
“We have waited too long to be intimidated and to back down now,” Tusk said. “I’m confident that the Constitutional Tribunal will begin to function as it ought to – independently, autonomously, and in accordance with the Constitution.” Tusk went on to accuse conservative nationalist opposition leaders of wanting to “destroy democracy and rule of law” in a speech addressing the ongoing constitutional crisis.“Let’s call things by their name,” he said. “For years in Poland there exist organisations and politicians who wish to destroy democracy and rule of law.” As a reminder, the pro-European government said the suspension is necessary to restore judicial independence, while critics from the opposition have likened it to a “coup d’etat.”
~~~~~
It is approaching 24 hours since Poland was dramatically plunged into a Constitutional crisis. Starting Friday night, Prime Minister Donald Tusk staged a forced takeover of one of the country’s top courts, prompting Polish President Karol Nawrocki to abrubtly turn back his plane which was en route to Africa for a scheduled state visit.
“At a moment like this, the President must be in Poland. I am cutting short my flight to Senegal. I am returning,” he wrote on X. The globe’s attention then turned to Warsaw and site of the Constitutional Tribunal, where police had surrounded it, and prevented the independent body’s leaders from entering its grounds.
Protesters also soon descended, after it was revealed that the court’s longest-serving judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska had suspended Bogdan Swieczkowski, the tribunal’s president. The country’s main anti-Tusk opposition decried the blatant judicial power-grab. President Nawrocki, an ally of the previous nationalist and Right-wing government is now in a desperate battle against Tusk’s pro-EU government for ultimate control of the judiciary.
Tusk’s ruling coalition has been trying for weeks to remove judges appointed under the previous PiS government, and now the trigger has been pulled in the most obvious of ways – with the clash literally spilling into the streets amid a stand off with police. After disembarking his plane upon his abrupt return to Warsaw Friday night, President Nawrocki physically attempted to gain entry amid unpredented displays of scuffles breaking out at the top court:
— Maciej Berek (@MaciejBerek) October 30, 2026
Outside the court the Associated Press observed clashes with police as the crowds grew and security blocked all entrances, even to top court officials:“Hundreds of anti-government protesters rallied overnight around a top court in Poland to denounce the suspension of the tribunal’s president, for which they blame the country’s pro-European government. Police said they detained three protesters after some threw objects at the officers and tried to break through the security fence around the court.”
The primary responsibility of the tribunal is conducting judicial review to verify that Polish statutes adhere to constitutional standards. The Friday night chaos started when it was the Polish official agency PAP which was the first to report that court chief Bogdan Sierczkowski and his number two, Bartlomiej Sochanski, were suspended for a month by order of Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska.
Putin is Satan. No talking to him.
“Alexander Stubb has said it was important for him and Norwegian PM Jonas Gahr Store to hear the Russian leader’s stance on Ukraine firsthand..”
• Finland’s President Defends Calling Putin (RT)
Finnish President Alexander Stubb.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb has defended the phone conversation he and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store had with Russian leader Vladimir Putin earlier this week following criticism from some Moscow hawks in Europe.Read more …
The two Nordic leaders made the rare phone call on Tuesday, with discussions focusing mainly on the Ukraine conflict, as well as security in Northern Europe and the Baltic Sea. The conversation followed US special envoy Steve Witkoff’s meeting with Putin in St. Petersburg last week and subsequent consultations in Oslo involving Stubb, Store, and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky.Both Moscow and Kiev have since agreed to take part in a fourth round of US-mediated trilateral talks that is expected to take place in Abu Dhabi in November, with European countries excluded from the peace process, according to the Kremlin.
Appearing on Yle’s Ykkosaamu (Morning One) program on Saturday, Stubb noted that Tuesday’s call was the first time since becoming Finland’s president that he had spoken with Putin. Stubb emphasized the importance of hearing firsthand the Russian leader’s view of the root causes of the Ukraine conflict, describing the direct exchange of opinions as a “turning point.”
Stubb said he and Store reopened the “channel of communication” with Moscow at Kiev’s request and relayed Zelensky’s messages to Putin after consultations with US and Ukrainian representatives. He emphasized, however, that Helsinki was “not acting as any kind of peace mediator here.” Both Nordic leaders earlier specifically pointed out that they were not speaking on behalf of Europe.
The Finnish president clarified that aside from the Ukraine conflict, he and Store brought up the security of their respective countries, which both share an extensive border with Russia.Among other things, the two Nordic leaders used the opportunity to “clear up some misunderstandings” regarding the Baltic Sea, reaffirming their adherence to international maritime law and the principle of freedom of navigation.
Stubb defended what he described as the “first confidence-building measure” by noting that “Russia is our neighbor now and will remain our neighbor in the future,” with bilateral relations liable to resume at one point. In the wake of their call with Putin, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen accused the two Nordic leaders of breaking European ranks, claiming the conversation had “not been coordinated with the rest of us” – an objection echoed by Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.
Responding to these criticisms, Stubb stressed that he and Store extensively briefed Zelensky and multiple EU leaders afterward. Most Western European leaders shunned direct contact with Moscow after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022 in an attempt to diplomatically isolate Russia. However, in recent weeks they have mounted an effort to secure a seat at the negotiation table as Moscow and Washington ramp up diplomatic work aimed at resolving the conflict.
Commenting on his phone conversation with the two Nordic leaders, Putin stated on Thursday that Russia supported “any steps aimed at restoring full-fledged and comprehensive relations” with European countries.“After all, there are people in Europe who, unlike some others, do not want to inflict a ‘strategic defeat’ on Russia but instead want to establish some kind of constructive dialogue,” the Russian president explained.
He also reiterated that Moscow is not seeking a broader conflict with the EU or NATO.
How Macron can say with a straight face that there are no invaders.
• Macron’s Riot Problem Isn’t the Mystery He Says It Is (Eric Florack)
The French republican tradition insists on one national identity, so the government largely refuses to sort its citizens by ethnicity, and INSEE, the French statistical agency, operates under real legal restrictions on the subject. A French citizen is French. No hyphens, no ethnic boxes. No worries about who you import and no worries, either, about those who decide they don’t want to be French at all, but foreign invaders.Read more …
As ideals go, it’s worthwhile, if you ignore reality. Declaring everyone part of the same national community doesn’t make them participate in it. You can decree national unity. You can’t manufacture social cohesion by pretending the question doesn’t exist. And refusing to count makes the hard questions harder, not easier.The truly maddening part is that Macron knows this. In the very same speech, he blamed the violence on “far-left groups” that, along with plenty of ordinary criminals, unleashed violence without restraint. So he identified the arsonists by name and then pretended to be baffled about who lit the match. That isn’t leadership. That’s a man reading two different speeches at once.
And if you want to know what those groups stand for, look at what they set on fire tonight: American and Israeli flags. Not even French flags. Ask yourself what American and Israeli flags have to do with French school budgets, or the price of a liter of diesel. Not a blessed thing, of course. But it has everything to do with the worldview of the people throwing the Molotov cocktails. In their eyes, the Judeo-Christian West is the villain. America and Israel are the West at its most confident, so those flags burn first, and the cost-of-living grievances are just the costume.
There are real complaints underneath all this. No question of that. Energy prices in France were 21.3% higher in September than a year earlier, pushing overall inflation to 3.1%. A government that can’t keep schools staffed has earned some anger. But Macron’s answer has been a speech, a “crisis unit,” and a promise that lessons will be learned. He also had to answer for being spotted with his wife at a Céline Dion concert the night the riots broke out. Meanwhile, about 70,000 police and gendarmes had to be deployed nationwide to keep the lid on.
The French voters see it. Far-right presidential hopeful Jordan Bardella called Macron’s speech “lamentable” and “cowardly,” and said the government can no longer even protect its own people. Over on the left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon says the government alone is responsible for the destruction. When the far right and the far left agree you’ve failed, you’ve probably failed. France picks Macron’s successor in May, and from where I sit, the job is going to someone who isn’t confused about who is burning the place down. Assuming France exists as such by that point.
They’re not alone, though. Many countries have succumbed to the demands of Brussels on the matter of citizenship, with Spain, Portugal, Greece, and Belgium, among them. And in every single case, officials in those countries blame living costs, unemployment, extremists, or “inequality.” Immigration never makes the list. Nor does a lack of cultural assimilation. But there again, why would they admit that their own hands were a part of that mess?
Now, before anyone on this side of the Atlantic gets too comfortable sneering at the French, remember that we have our own versions of these people, and some of them are on the ballot Tuesday. (I’m looking at YOU, Michigan).
In last week’s column, I talked about the DSA’s slate of candidates and how far into the Democrat Party they’ve gotten. The ideology that burns American and Israeli flags in Paris is the same one that considers ICE a “rogue” agency and sees our own police as the enemy. The only difference is how far along each country is.
We still have time to do better. That starts Tuesday.
“The IMF has warned that Kiev’s finances are unsustainable without restructuring and continued foreign assistance..”
Kiev is beyond broke, but Euope wants to fight Putin.
Kiev’s debt is Europe’s debt.
• Ukraine’s Public Debt Has Surged 130-Fold Since 2006 (RT)
Ukraine’s state and state-guaranteed debt has surged roughly 130-fold in national currency terms over the past two decades, according to figures from the country’s Finance Ministry. In recent months, Kiev has been struggling to plug multi-billion-dollar holes in its budget while pleading with its reluctant backers in the EU for more assistance.Read more …
The ministry released the updated figure on Tuesday, putting debt at 9.54 trillion hryvnias ($212.61 billion) as of late September, compared with 73.29 billion hryvnias ($14.51 billion) in September 2006.The staggering increase is partly explained by the hryvnia’s depreciation, with the currency losing nearly 90% of its value against the US dollar over the same period. However, the increase remains substantial even in dollar terms, with the debt expanding 14.6-fold. It has also more than doubled from $97.95 billion at the end of 2021, just before the escalation of Kiev’s conflict with Russia in February 2022.
Foreign governments and international institutions now account for 66.4% of Ukraine’s debt portfolio, much of it on preferential terms, which helps to alleviate the financial burden. Kiev has a debt repayment schedule extending through 2061 and is obliged to pay almost $33 billion to global financial institutions in interest and servicing costs alone, on top of the principal of almost $107 billion. For comparison’s sake, Ukraine’s 2021 GDP was around $200 billion.
Ukraine’s dire financial strain did not escape the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which warned in July that Kiev’s debt “remains unsustainable” without restructuring and further preferential foreign assistance.
Kiev’s financial burden came into the spotlight in late summer when Vladimir Zelensky disclosed an unexpected $27 billion defense funding gap – which emerged after his 40-day PR ‘pressure campaign’ on Russia – and urged Brussels to frontload part of its €90 billion loan earmarked for 2027.
The EU, however, refused to validate the figure and approve further assistance, urging Ukraine to make progress on stalled governance and anti-corruption reforms to unlock funding that was already available. In early October, Kiev managed to plug the gap with austerity measures and by convincing the EU to defer some payments for weapons until the next year.
Still, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas acknowledged on Thursday that European leaders were finding it increasingly difficult to justify continued assistance to Kiev because “everyone is tired of this war,” while urging Western governments to continue supporting Ukraine.
100 schemes just like it. Corruption like maybe some African nations have seen.
• Millions Embezzled In Fraud Scheme At Ukrainian Defense Firm – Probe (RT)
A former head of a state-owned Ukrainian defense company is suspected of embezzling millions of dollars through fake mediation deals, the country’s anti-corruption bodies have said. Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) announced in a statement on Friday that the scheme had cost the government 1.1 billion hryvnia (around $43 million).Read more …
The Western-backed agencies, which frequently target Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s inner-circle, didn’t name the suspect, only saying that he used to lead a subsidiary of Ukrspecexport, a state-run company with exclusive rights to export and import military hardware. According to the investigators, the former head of the state-run firm signed a deal with a foreign company in 2015 for it to provide mediation during the sales of Ukrainian military products abroad.However, it had been established that the Ukrainian firm had conducted all of the negotiations with a customer from a Middle Eastern country on its own, and the foreign company wasn’t involved, they said. Despite this fact, the official signed falsified documents about mediation services being provided by the foreign company and transferred millions to it as payment, the statement read. The actions of the suspect are being qualified as large-scale embezzlement and forgery of government papers, it added.
Ukrainskaya Pravda reported later in the day that, according to its sources, the official in question is Taras Shiyko, who now holds the positions of the deputy director of Ukroboronprom, a state-run conglomerate comprised of Ukraine’s arms makers. The fraud scheme relates to his time as the head of Progress, a state-run export and import company. Shiyko became part of an anti-corruption case earlier this year, involving the suspected embezzlement of 32 million hryvnia (around $700,000).
Zelensky’s government has been rocked by a series of corruption scandals involving people close to him since November 2025, when NABU and SAPO accused Timur Mindich, a longtime associate of the Ukrainian leader, of masterminding a $100 million kickback scheme involving state contracts in the energy sector. Other investigations have implicated former Ukrainian ministers, diplomats, and senior officials.
NABU’s latest high-profile case targeted an alleged protection racket involving scam call centers and officials from the Prosecutor General’s Office. Although he was not personally named as a suspect, Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko left Ukraine before being dismissed by parliament last month, according to Ukrainian media.
Critics accuse Zelensky of leading a sprawling corruption network which permeates his government, allegedly helping him maintain power and enriching those involved. A poll issued by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) last month suggested that the Ukrainians consider corruption to be a bigger problem for the country than the conflict with Russia.
“.,.to Restore EU Oil Refining Capacity
They never replaced what they took away. They ignored they use energy at all.
• European Commission Begins Reevaluating Emissions Trading System (CTH)
,This is an interesting potential shift in energy position for the European Union. There has been zero investment by the EU nations in oil refining capacity. Simultaneously, Europe is now realizing they need diesel and jet fuel. Under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), refineries have an ever-diminishing cap on carbon emissions, and they receive fewer ‘free’ pollution allowances over time.Read more …
This means oil refining costs go up steadily, increasing the cost of operating the dirty carbon facilities, while these same refineries must adhere to stricter environmental rules and pollution limits under the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED). The entire regulatory system was created to eliminate gasoline, diesel and eventually jet fuel.As the EU is now discovering, their climate change policies have been executed but the global and EU drop in demand has not occurred at the same pace. The EU is now in a position where the percentage of their own oil refining production is lower than their needs. More energy dependency has been created.
With the EU energy analysts now saying they don’t have the fuel capacity to support the political demands for a war with Russia, in combination with President Trump continually affirming the U.S. will not get involved in any expanded conflict, the European Union is now reevaluating how to increase domestic fuel production.
EUROPE – Over the past couple of decades, Europe has pursued some of the world’s most ambitious clean energy policies, aiming to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. Hardly surprisingly, Europe is now further along the clean energy transition compared to its western peers, with renewables accounting for roughly half of the continent’s power mix compared to about 26% by the U.S. However, Europe is now being forced to reckon with its decision to ditch some of its fossil fuel assets as yet another global energy crisis unfolds just years after the 2022 energy crisis.
[…] the continent has been forced to rely more heavily on imported refined products, exposing it to geopolitical risks. The Iran and Ukraine wars have led to a spike in oil and gas prices, with EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen terming geopolitical instability and the prolonged diesel squeeze a “wake-up call” for the bloc.
[…] Central European nations like Poland, Czechia, and Slovakia have been pressuring the European Commission to establish a long-term protective strategy for Europe’s oil refineries. They have called for refineries to be protected from carbon leakage and given access to EU funds to upgrade.
[…] now, Brussels is looking to rethink its long-standing approach to the domestic oil-refining industry. On Wednesday, the European Commission launched the first High-Level Dialogue with the European oil refining sector. Co-chaired by Dan Jørgensen (Commissioner for Energy and Housing) and Andrius Kubilius (Commissioner for Defence and Space), the forum discussed Europe’s energy security, industrial competitiveness and defense readiness amid recurring geopolitical disruptions.
Participants mapped out short-term responses to supply disruptions stemming from ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, noting that EU refineries currently supply approximately 70% of jet fuel and 85% of diesel consumed across Europe. (read more)
I keep asking myself: How did she become worth $25 million?
Did she bring that from Somalia?
• The Ilhan Omar Immigration Fraud Case Is Bigger Than We Thought (Margolis)
When DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin sat down with Fox News on Friday, he delivered some delicious news about the federal investigation into Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).Read more …
“This isn’t just a case that’s targeting one individual,” Mullin explained. “This is a large case that we have presented to the DOJ, and the DOJ is leading the investigations.” Mullin credited the Homeland Security Investigations agents who searched Omar’s Washington, D.C., home on October 12 and hauled out boxes of material. Those agents “did a lot of investigation to be able to present the case to them,” he said.The probe dates back to 2009, when Somalia-born Omar married Ahmed Elmi. Investigators want to know whether that marriage was part of an immigration fraud conspiracy, and whether Omar lied on government paperwork to become a citizen. Elmi is a British citizen who, we recently learned, describes himself as gay, and the evidence points to him being her brother, with the marriage allowing him to remain in the country legally.
Investigators are also scrutinizing her House financial disclosures, which may have padded her net worth by tens of millions of dollars. The New York Post reported Friday that on Omar’s certified 2009 marriage license from Hennepin County, Minn., her surname was crossed out, swapped for “Elmi,” and then switched back to “Omar.” The rest of Omar’s personal history only adds to the mess. She reportedly had her staff change her birth year from 1981 to 1982 so she could appear to have obtained naturalization as a minor through her father in 2000.
The FBI and DHS examined the brother-marriage allegations back in 2016, while Omar was running for the Minnesota legislature. Now that the case is alive again, the usual suspects are crying foul. Former President Barack Obama publicly criticized the probe, apparently forgetting that the investigation first got rolling while he was still in the White House. “I’ve made this very, very, very, very clear: we’re enforcing our nation’s laws across the board equally, and we’re going to continue to do that,” Mullin said in response to Obama.
He added that political standing buys no one a pass. “I don’t care where you’re seated, and I don’t care how you’re registered to vote, I don’t care what your job title is,” he continued. “We use it equally.” Mullin also turned the weaponization charge back on the people making it, arguing that Democrats “came after their political enemies like President Trump, and they know they weaponized our DOJ and FBI.”
Earlier in the interview, he made the same point about the Omar probe specifically. “We’re enforcing our nation’s laws, and we’re going to do that. We’re not weaponizing. We’re not using political theater on this,” Mullin said. “We’re going to let the facts play out, we’re not playing politics with this — I said this from day one, we’re not playing politics with anybody’s lives.”
This is going to be fun.
“If we’ve had a foreign nationalist occupying a seat in Congress, that’s a problem,” she said, adding that Congress would be “failing to do their job.”
• Ilhan Omar’s Marriage Application To ‘Brother’ Surfaces With Bizarre Errors (ZH)
Rep. Ilhan Omar’s 2009 Minnesota marriage license application to Ahmed Elmi, the man accused of being her brother, shows her surname written as Omar, crossed out and changed to Elmi, then changed back to Omar, according to a certified copy from Hennepin County obtained by the New York Post.Read more …
Do NOT let this fade.
— Mila Joy (@Milajoy) December 31, 2025
Keep the pressure on.
Ilhan Omar and Ahmed Nur Said Elmi’s (Omar’s BROTHER) marriage certificate. pic.twitter.com/0dY92uTzXS
The name changes could matter because the Justice Department is investigating whether the Somalia-born Minnesota Democrat fraudulently obtained U.S. citizenship in 2000 by failing to use her true legal name and birthdate. That case grew out of an earlier probe into whether Omar committed immigration fraud by marrying Elmi, a British citizen.The document arrives weeks into an escalating federal effort. Homeland Security Investigations agents raided Omar’s Washington, D.C., home on Oct. 12 as part of the immigration fraud probe. In a court filing last week, the Justice Department referred to her as “Congresswoman Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar.” A source familiar with the investigation told the Post that Omar is not her real name and that her birth surname is Elmi, the same as the man she married.
The application is dated Feb. 12, 2009. One question asks whether the bride and groom are related by blood or adoption, and the couple checked “no.” The first revision on the form reads “Ilhan Omar Elmi,” a version that differs from the name the Justice Department now uses in court. The document does not identify who filled it out, though all the entries appear to share one person’s handwriting.
An image of the application has circulated online for years. Alpha News, a Minnesota outlet, appears to have first published it in August 2016. Major news outlets gave it little attention until this month. Scott W. Johnson, a retired Minneapolis attorney and former Alpha News board member, has spent ten years investigating Omar’s alleged immigration fraud. “Questions should be asked. She’s never answered them,” Johnson said. “The whole thing was a joke. The marriage was a fraudulent marriage, brazenly fraudulent… It was entered into for a fraudulent purpose.”
A Christian minister married Omar and Elmi on Feb. 12, 2009, the same date the application bears. By then, Omar already had two children with Ahmed Hirsi, whom she had married in a 2002 Islamic ceremony that never became a legal marriage. In May 2009, Hirsi listed the address on the Omar-Elmi marriage license as his own home. Omar had a third child with Hirsi in June 2012 and finalized her divorce from Elmi in 2017. She legally married Hirsi in 2018, filed for divorce a year later, and married her current husband, Tim Mynett, in 2020.
The Justice Department first opened an investigation into Omar in 2016, under President Barack Obama, into whether Omar married her brother so he could get a green card. The Biden administration closed that probe in 2021 for two reasons. The five-year statute of limitations had run out, meaning prosecutors would have had to file charges by 2014, and the FBI could not interview Elmi, who had returned to the U.K.
Legal experts told the Post that federal investigators now appear focused on a possible conspiracy involving ongoing acts, such as misstating a birthdate, which the earlier statute of limitations may not bar. Civil denaturalization carries no statute of limitations and could lead to Omar’s deportation.
In an academic paper published in August, Elmi, a doctoral researcher at the University of Bristol, identified himself as a “gay man of the East African diaspora.” Omar has broadly dismissed the allegations as a racist conspiracy theory and a politically motivated smear. Last week, MS NOW anchor Chris Hayes asked her directly whether she married her brother. “Not to my knowledge,” Omar said.
YIKES: Ilhan Omar was just asked if she married her brother on Live TV
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 22, 2026
Her answer: “Not to my knowledge…”
WHAT?!
She can’t even say “NO”?!
What other person would answer this question like that?
Things are about to get bad for Ilhan. pic.twitter.com/n8wwJb4puy
AJ Kern, a former Minnesota congressional candidate who has examined Omar’s immigration records and birthdate discrepancies, told the Post she sees the record as clear. “I think it’s pretty clear she married her brother and committed immigration fraud,” Kern said. Kern said the larger issue is the possibility of a non-citizen holding federal office.“If we’ve had a foreign nationalist occupying a seat in Congress, that’s a problem,” she said, adding that Congress would be “failing to do their job.”
If I got this right,Trump’s personal lawyer Alina Habba is married to a 25-year-old Turkish billionnaire with business interests in Venezuela and Congo?! Do I believe that?
• Alina Habba Says Grenell Blocked $5.6M Of Billionaire Husband’s Donation (ZH)
Alina Habba told President Trump in the Oval Office that Richard Grenell, the Trump ally who ran the Kennedy Center, never delivered roughly $5.6 million of a $17.6 million payment her husband wired at his direction, and White House counsel Will Scharf has been told to look into it. Grenell denies it all. The dispute has since turned toward Habba’s husband, Turkish businessman Turhan Mildon, his Venezuelan and Congolese business ties, and whose money the wire really was.Read more …
Richard Grenell and Alina Habba Mildon had once been close friends.
According to the NY Times, Habba brought the accusation to the Oval Office on Oct. 9, after the Times sent Mildon questions about his Venezuela business. She said Mildon made the payment in May 2025 at Grenell’s direction, believing about $5.6 million would be set aside for the Kennedy Center, and that the money never reached it. The wire itself went to TX-AT, a Texas security and defense equipment company, not to the Kennedy Center. Trump called in Scharf to hear her out.Her account has moved. People familiar with the discussion told the Times she described the sum first as a donation of about $17 million, then as roughly $6 million, and eventually said most of the payment was a business transaction whose details remain unclear, with the remainder meant for the Kennedy Center. The Times said it had not verified her accusations.
The Times then reported on Oct. 17 that the $17.6 million came from a bank account linked to the Congolese government, not from Mildon himself. AllAfrica’s account of that report says the commercial arrangement behind the payment “remains unclear,” and that TX-AT and Congolese officials did not respond to the Times. The first documents sent to the White House on the couple’s behalf blacked out the sender’s name, Rio Times reported.
Turhan Mildon at the iKinshasa Financial Center, December 2023
Mildon, through a spokesman, has acknowledged advising Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and holding a Congolese diplomatic passport. His company, Milvest, built the Kinshasa Financial Center. None of that establishes that Congolese state money paid for anything in the dispute, and nothing published shows Tshisekedi or his aides knew of the wire. The Justice Department’s foreign-agent registry lists no registration for Mildon, Milvest, TX-AT, Grenell or Habba, according to the Rio Times.Grenell has told the Times and Axios that he never received any payment from Mildon. “I’ve never asked for one cent to be sent somewhere else pretending it was for the Kennedy Center, and I’ve never received any payment from him at all,” he told Axios. He called the allegations “absurd” and told the Daily Beast, “Make him give proof to what he is saying.” He acknowledged consulting for TX-AT in 2024 but said he had no connection to the company when the wire was sent, and denied soliciting payments for it.
The Kennedy Center’s own records are thin. Mildon pledged $270,000 after a gala concert and paid it only the week the Times asked why he had not. The center says it is examining the relevant pledges and funds and will report to its board. Mildon’s lawyers also gave Scharf a text that allegedly shows Grenell offering to make Mildon the “American face down in V,” a reference to Venezuela. Grenell told the Times he never sent that message or anything like it.That Venezuela thread is where the scrutiny now falls on Mildon. He has extensive business interests there, and U.S. officials and intelligence officers have examined his relationship with Alex Saab, the Maduro confidant who awarded him a cement contract. Mildon says he is 29, but U.S. documents and British corporate records list him as 25; he declined to explain the difference to the Times. Grenell was at the time Trump’s special envoy for Venezuela.
Scharf is still gathering evidence, Axios reported, and has been slow to receive records from Habba and Mildon’s attorneys. A Trump insider told Axios it is the “ultimate MAGA blood feud.” What would settle it is the wire’s true sender, what the $17.6 million was for, and what Grenell actually said to Mildon. None of those questions has an answer on the public record.
“Should a Foreign Head of State Be Able to Vote in United States Elections?”
• “The Pope Doesn’t Take Sides” (Turley)
“So, the Pope doesn’t take sides. Prevost has another opinion, but we won’t do that now.” That funny quip from Pope Leo XIV (born Robert Prevost) referred to the historic game in Rome when the Villanova and Notre Dame basketball teams play each other.Read more …
However, a story this week raised a different question of when the Pope, as opposed to Prevost, can “take sides.” This month, American-born Pope Leo XIV became the first pope ever to vote in a U.S. election.A longtime Chicago native, the Pope mailed an absentee ballot to Will County, and the clerk’s office confirmed to Fox News Digital that “Robert Prevost is on the list of individuals who requested a Vote by Mail ballot.” There is no question that the Pope can vote in the Holy See. Indeed, he is the ultimate and final vote in the Vatican, but can he actually vote in Illinois races (including the governor’s race involving incumbent Democrat J.B. Pritzker)? The answer appears to be yes, but it raises some novel questions.
Now, as a threshold matter, I want to shed some bias. I was raised Catholic in Chicago. No, that is not the bias. There is that lingering conflict with the Pope coming out as a White Sox fan. Many of us on the North Side hoped for a conversion to restore our faith in papal infallibility. However, he has remained entrenched in his South Side allegiance.
This column rises above that historic rivalry and does not suggest that White Sox fans can be challenged at the polls. (Besides, I previously explained that the Pope is a Cubs fan without knowing it.) Rather, what surprised me was that the head of a foreign state could vote in U.S. elections. The Vatican is a distinct nation with a diplomatic corps, a court system, a local government, and even a military in the form of the legendary Swiss Guards.
The Holy See Press Office declared, “Pope Leo XIV has exercised his right to vote as a United States citizen whenever he was eligible to do so. The Holy See Press Office confirms that, in keeping with this long-standing practice of civic participation, he has submitted his mail-in ballot in Chicago.”
The Holy See maintains that Pope Leo retains his status as a U.S. citizen while serving as the head of a foreign nation. There is support for this position. The State Department has maintained that dual citizens do not have to choose between their countries, though it does not expect them to serve as the head of another country.
“U.S. dual nationals owe allegiance to both the United States and the foreign country (or countries, if they are nationals of more than one). They are required to obey the laws of both countries, and either country has the right to enforce its laws. Claims of other countries upon U.S. dual-nationals may result in conflicting obligations under the laws of each country. U.S. dual nationals may also face restrictions in the U.S. consular protections available to U.S. nationals abroad, particularly in the country of their other nationality.”
Notably, the State Department requires dual citizens to use a U.S. passport to enter the country. Does that mean that, when traveling as head of state, Pope Leo has to use a U.S. passport? Unlikely, but intriguing. It strikes me as odd that a person can lead another country and still vote in U.S. elections. With all of those worried about Russian interference in elections, imagine if Putin could actually vote in U.S. elections. Obviously, Pope Leo is greatly loved and represents someone whose values are aligned with this country. Yet, he is also the head of state of a foreign nation.
Under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), military personnel and citizens abroad are allowed to vote in U.S. elections. It is no longer considered an absentee vote requiring an excuse but simply a mail-in ballot. The question is whether this right should be suspended when you assume a position in a foreign nation, let alone the head of such a nation.
Dual citizenship has long been debated over the difficult questions raised by nations with opposing values and interests. However, being the head of a foreign government with potentially opposing interests and actions to the United States creates a curious status. It turns out that when Gov. Pritzker met with the Pope last year, he was actually meeting with a constituent and voter.
I am most surprised that the Vatican does not have a policy against such voting, though this is admittedly unprecedented. I would think that the head of the Catholic faith and the head of a foreign government would have a single national citizenship running to the Holy See. All popes are selected from the global faithful by the College of Cardinals and thus have national citizenship with other countries.
In assuming their positions, the cardinals “pledge and swear, as individuals and as a group, to observe faithfully and scrupulously the prescriptions contained in the Apostolic Constitution.” They also reaffirm that they are not subject to countervailing allegiances or pressures from outside of the College: “And never to lend support or favour to any interference, opposition or any other form of intervention, whereby secular authorities of whatever order and degree or any group of people or individuals might wish to intervene in the election of the Roman Pontiff.”
However, it is fascinating that, once elected, Popes do not shed that status upon assuming the head of the Holy See.
It is an uncomfortable question since it also raises whether the head of a foreign government should have dual citizenship. Most people were legitimately thrilled (including myself) by the first American Pope and can view this as an unlikely “one-off.” However, it could just as easily happen with another nation and a dual citizen.
At the risk of my own excommunication, it seems a worthy question for discussion, even though I doubt any politicians would relish such a debate. For his part, Pope Leo stated before the Villanova-Notre Dame game that the Pope will not take sides in the U.S. elections, but Robert Prevost will.
Vote against the party who wants to kill you. pic.twitter.com/Psw7EMG3fS
— Freedom Patriot (@Liberty_1783) October 31, 2026
— Garland Nixon (@TheGarlandNixon) October 31, 2026
🔥 WOW!!! Trump just now dropped this banger on what Islam will do to America: America is closed pic.twitter.com/rdFD3yanE2
— MAGA Voice (@MAGAVoice) October 31, 2026
Elon Musk just gave a massive update on Colossus 2 in Memphis, and the scale of what's being built is absolutely insane
— X Freeze (@XFreeze) October 31, 2026
Two buildings already packed with GB300s, two more are coming online within weeks, and it is heading toward roughly 860,000 NVIDIA GB300s
Here's the… https://t.co/5Ahrh4bWX7 pic.twitter.com/c3YGY4Lek5
RFK Jr: "The COVID vaccine is the deadliest vaccine ever made."
— Valerie Anne Smith (@ValerieAnne1970) October 31, 2026
This should be front-page news everywhere — and yet mainstream media STAYS SILENT.
They called it "safe and effective."
They censored the injured.
They buried the data.
They ignored all who "died suddenly."
They… pic.twitter.com/rDmjPgbONE
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