Navi Pillay, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

Navi Pillay speaks during a news conference in Geneva on Sept. 16, 2025, during her time as chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory. (Fabrince Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images)

 

"As I was sitting in Courtroom 600, I see that we are continuing the work that started here in Nuremberg, in such a way that we are delivering anew on the 'never again promise'."

"You interpret the law, you look at all the facts, so that it's impartial decision-making." 

Former UN human rights chief Navi Pillay

 

"Navi Pillay's commitment to justice and human dignity is a source of hope and inspiration to all who seek to bring about a more peaceful world."

"The system of international law is under tremendous pressure, and its institutions are under attack. We see a shift towards power politics at the expense of legal frameworks and global respect for law and justice."

"Whenever might overtakes right, it undermines stability, trust and peaceful co-existence." 

Nobel Committee

 

"In her first two years Pillay] turned a blind eye to most of the world's worst abusers, being completely silent on abuses in Cuba, North Korea, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Belarus, Syria, and 27 other countries rated 'Not Free' by Freedom House."

UN Watch

In Courtroom 600, at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, the post-WWII world powers of Britain, France, Russia and the United States oversaw the trials and prosecution that the Nuremberg Trials became famous for, holding to account the senior Nazi officials responsible for crimes against humanity, including the extermination of six million of Europe's Jewish population during the Holocaust years. Hitler's Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, Jew-baiter Julius Streicher, Austrian quisling and tyrant of the occupied Netherlands Seyss-Inquart, Kaltenbrunner, Frank, Jodl, Frick, Keitel, Sauckel, and Rosenberg were sent to the gallows.

 

"The judges at their bench (left) in Room 600 at the Palace of Justice, Nuremberg, during proceedings against leading Nazi figures for war crimes at the International Military Tribunal (IMT), Germany, 1945. Left to right: Alexander F. Volchkov and Iona T. Nikitchenko of the USSR, Sir Norman Birkett and Sir Geoffrey Lawrence of Great Britain, Francis Biddle and John J. Parker of the USA, Henri Donnedieu de Vabres and Robert Falco of France." —Description from Getty Images

 

Seven of Hitler's trusted senior Nazis officials convicted of grave crimes against humanity were sentenced individually from life imprisonment to ten years in Germany's Spandau Prison, overseen by Britain, France, Russia and the United States. Between them, only Russia would have been satisfied to see them all hang; the other three opted for humane, albeit prison-secure conditions to be meted out to Deputy Fuhrer Rudolf Hess, Albert Speer, Baldur von Schirach, Walthur Funk, Karl Donitz, Constantin von Neurath, and Erich Raeder. 

 

Despite that these were all Protestants by religion, their wives worked tirelessly, appealing to any authorities who would listen to them, for their husbands' sentences to be adjusted in favour of their earlier release by asking for private audiences with the-then-Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury, as well as with West Germany Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. Pope Pius XII, sympathetic to their plight, agreed to meet them at Castel Gandolfo. So much for the international tribunal for inhumane crimes.

 

Navi Pillay's recognition as the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize laureate in this context bespeaks a world of sanctimonious respect for human rights, yet one that fails spectacularly to distinguish the rights of victims as opposed to that of their victimizers. As a young lawyer Navi Pillay distinguished herself contesting apartheid. While on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, rape and sexual violence was recognized with her assistance as constituting a form of genocide.

 

In 2008 as UN Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Watch accused Navay Pillay of double standards for completely ignoring many of the world's excessive human rights abusers while at the same time holding Israel to account for putative human rights crimes. She saw nothing amiss in issuing 21 statements identifying countries in the Middle East and North Africa, nine of which specifically targeted Israel. A letter was sent by 100 members of the U.S. Congress in 2014 addressed to Pillay that the Human Rights Council "cannot be taken seriously as a human rights organization" when it constantly criticizes Israel, at the same time ignoring Hamas terrorism.

 

Eleven years later, leading the Commission of Inquiry on Occupied Palestinian Territories, a report was issued denouncing Israel for committing 'genocide' in Gaza. "On 7 October 2023 Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza, which included airstrikes and ground operations." In point of fact it was not  until 27 October that Israel launched its ground invasion in search of Hamas terrorists who had led a broad invasion of southern Israel launching a systematic, planned assault of farming communities when mass rape, dismemberment, wholesale slaughter of 1,200 and kidnapping of over 200 took place on October 7.

 

No inconvenient mention of the atrocities committed by Palestinian terrorists in their thousands who poured across from Gaza into Israel on October 7 that predated Israel's incursion into Gaza to track down the terrorists sheltering behind Palestinian civilians whom Israel had warned to leave the areas it meant to bomb, having identified those areas as Hamas weapons depots, headquarters, communications centers and military operations bases, some located in schools and hospitals. 

B'nai Brith International responded to the Pillay report with incredulity at its stark bias: "B'nai Brith International is appalled and dismayed by the selection of Navi Pillay for the Nobel Peace Prize. This choice is not only unwarranted but offensive and damaging."

"It cheapens the world's leading prize for peacemaking and further reinforces a sense of isolation by Jews facing a surge in global antisemitism."  

This woman's history is replete with shameful alliances. When some 20 nations took to boycotting the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in 2011 in recognition of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo whom China had repeatedly jailed as a political and human right activist for campaigning for democracy, Navi Pillay saw fit to align herself with China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. 

 

Prosecutor Robert Jackson over 80 years ago at Nuremberg identified the men on trial for "crimes against the peace of the world" who represented "sinister influences" as "living symbols of racial hatreds, of terrorism and violence". A truly apt description in 2026 of Palestinian terrorists such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Hezbollah, and the terrorist state of the Islamic Republic of Iran for whom the above are all proxies. 

 

This would be the very same Iran that has been elevated time and again at the United Nations to sit on its varying committees; the very exemplar of racial hatred, of terrorism and violence, the world's most terror-supporting state is treated with deference in the hallowed corridors of the United Nations, which Navi Pillay was a perfect fit for. Iran has sat on the UN's Economic and Social Council, as a member of the Committee for Programme and Coordination linked to programs related to human rights, women's rights, disarmament and terrorism prevention.

 

Both the United Nations and the Nobel Committee have surrendered their souls to the devil. 

UN Global Compact: UN General Assembly

  

"Navi Pillay oversaw the communication of names of over 50 dissidents to China."

"[She was] complicit [in handing over the names of Uhyghr dissidents to China]." 

"They testified, under oath, to their family members being intimidated, arbitrarily detained, tortured, disappeared, and even killed in concentration camps."

"This is an absolutely travesty of 'peace'." 

Emma Reilly, human rights lawyer 

 

President Donald J. Trump's Wildly Popular Canada Tariffs

"A lot of the private conversation is trying to push to stop this war with Canada."

"A lot of them privately are putting pressure on this ... and are going to the Commerce Department, Treasury, White House and saying, 'Look you're really hurting Americans here. Knock it off'." 

"It does not seem like Trump seems to care ... whether tariffs are popular or not or whether people are being harmed or not." 

"You don't get very far in American politics by telling people, 'I've got your vote in the bag, and I don't care about you."

"What I would like voters ... to pull out of all this at the end of the day is to understand that tariffs are taxes."

"They're not taxes on foreigners; they're taxes on  your own people, your own industries, your own businesses, and that this is not the solution." 

Richard Stern, vice-president, Plymouth Institute for Free Enterprise, Advancing American Freedom

 

"Canada buys about ... 82 percent of everything North Dakota sells abroad."

"[And] 88 percent of everything Montana buys from abroad comes from Canada."

Kat Miller, policy analyst, Advancing American Freedom 

 

"Canada is not China. It is our neighbour, our friend, our closest ally, and our biggest trading partner."

"I have been strongly voting against the tariffs with Canada, but I've also been working behind the scenes."

Senator Susan Collins, Maine

“They’ll end up being the 51st state, because that’s the only way it works,” Trump told the crowd. “We don’t need them, but they need us.”  NTV

 

Along the Canada-U.S. border the states neighbouring Canada are deeply unhappy about their president's tariff war with Canada, according to a new analysis by Advancing American Freedom. Canada, it points out, plays a vital economic role even in deeply red Republican states like Montana and North Dakota, and not only in Maine with its lumber trade, and Michigan's heavily integrated automotive manufacturing.

 

According to the AAF analytics, 62 and 55 percent of Maine and Vermont's international goods trade is accounted for by Canada. As for North Dakota and Montana, states that President Trump carried by 36 and 20 percentage points respectively in 2024, trade with Canada accounted for 77 percent in both of those Republican states. Mineral fuels account for 80 percent of North Dakota's exports to Canada, exempt from Canadian countertariffs. 

 

The disruption in trade between signal American states and Canada has had a deleterious impact not only in Canada, but in the United States as well, and a rising tide of anger over their imposition is impinging on the prospects of the upcoming midterm elections. In deep-red states the impact of the tariffs has made for some pressure points for the White House to consider; whether party loyalty will carry through to election day or whether those Republicans speaking out against the tariffs will express their frustration at the ballot box. 

 

U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra said in a recent podcast appearance that American officials are 'closely watching' for election interference by Canadians. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)

 

The Trump administration's representative in Canada, Ambassador Pete Hoekstra, as far from a diplomat as anyone can imagine, has issued a stark warning to Canada that the U.S. is 'watching closely' and Canada had better keep its 'nose out of' American politics. "We're monitoring it, we're evaluating it and if some of it becomes election interference then America will respond to it", warned Hoekstra darkly, accusing Canada of making trouble for the Trump administration.

 

Analysts have pointed out that this president works to bypass Congress; the tariffs have been imposed by presidential policy without Congressional involvement, leaving trade watchers skeptical that the disruptive disagreements between Republican senators and representatives uncomfortable with the tariff war and how it has impacted their states as well as voting patterns, will result in any notice by President Trump whose mercurial impulsiveness that fails to understand repercussions, no one can control. 

 

"In terms of trade policy, it's very executive-driven these days", points out trade policy analyst Alfred Carillo at the Cato Institute. "Even if Congress did [push back], it probably wouldn't have made a difference."  John Hopkins' Sands expressed his dismay with the apparent indifference to the electoral costs by President Trump who is immovable on his tariff file, indifferent to how his personal animosity to Canada may eventually play out.

 

The pure fact of the matter is that after several years of back-and-forth tariff threats that have proven to impact industry and consumers on both sides of the border, a majority of Americans are known, in a current atmosphere of a crisis of affordability to oppose the tariffs. At the same time it is believed by those who have a stake in this game of one-upshmanship, that Mr. Trump plans to continue his tariff agenda, whether or not it costs the GOP.

 

Voting outcomes on November 3 will demonstrate whether that opposition will ultimately transcribe to votes. 

Canadian steelmakers offset some U.S. tariff pain with domestic demand

Stelco's Hamilton operations steel production facility is pictured from across the Hamilton Harbour in Burlington, Ont., on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nick Iwanyshyn

 

"In a normal presidency, yes, because it means there's somebody who the president knows who can pick up the phone and have a conversation ... and say 'We really need to do this for my voters who are  your voters too."

"This president hasn't worked Capitol Hill that much ... [Trump] seems to write off the whole institution as irrelevant."

"His indifference to the fate of his party in Congress is ... pretty unusual."

Christopher Sands, director, Center for Canadian Studies, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Washington 

 

"I think it does matter. In fact, this has always been part of Canada's playbook, which is to lobby with state and local governments that are Republican that are trade dependent with Canada."

"Whether it's sufficient to ... nudge the president is another matter altogether."

"[It] doesn't necessarily mean that the president is gonna change his tune." 

Christopher Hernandez-Roy, acting director/senior fellow, Americas Program, CSIS, Washington 

Canadian UVG Production Partnership with Ukraine

"The need and demand for UGVs [uncrewed ground vehicles] in Ukraine is massive."

"The Ukrainian government has asked for 20,000 alone. We're also thinking about this in terms of the broader [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] alliance, as there is a clear need for autonomous systems in the Arctic."

"We definitely have the parts available in Canada and for those that we don't, we will endeavour to invest in. But sourcing entirely from Canada is the intention."

Eliot Pence, founder, CEO, Dominion Dynamics, Ottawa

AuraNet, Dominion’s Arctic-hardened autonomy stack, will serve as the onboard intelligence layer for TENCORE’s TerMIT, with companies targeting 2027 production  CDR  

 

There are firm plans underway for a production partnership in producing materiel for Ukraine's defence against its neighbour Russia's 'special military operation', now into its fifth year of conflict. Canadian defence technology company Dominion Dynamics Inc. has been in discussion with Ukraine's Tencore LLC to jointly agree to manufacture uncrewed ground vehicles in Canada for ultimate shipment to the Ukrainian military.

 

At the Association of the United States Army's annual conference that takes place in Washington, D.C., the two companies signed a memorandum (MOU) of understanding, and both are now looking forward to finalizing the agreement toward the first few months of 2027. According to Eliot Pence of Dominion Dynamics, "tens of millions" of dollars will result from the partnership.

 

Tencore, which makes UGVs and is based in Kyiv, produces them for defence and civilian use alternatives and has to date delivered some 5,000 of the units, sometimes called ground robots or land drones, since 2004 to the Ukrainian military, "We aim to scale that number up dramatically", stated Pence. Tencore's drone-making experience and Dominion's AuraNet -- a software system designed for Arctic operations -- will form a partnership to combine their assets in the production of the vehicles. 

"We were very interested in Stellantis [acquiring the soon-to-be-abandoned plant], but the reality is there are other facilities that are not in the middle of a union dispute or negotiations."

"Our timeline is much quicker and more rapid, so we just need to get moving."

"There's no reason why we shouldn't be ... aligning the defence industrial strategy with this kind of critical asset that we've built up over the last 60 years."

Eliot Pence

Ukrainian serviceman examining an uncrewed ground vehicle at a military training ground in the Zaporizhzhia region on March 13, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Photo by ANDRIY ANDRIYENKO/65th Mechanized Brigade of Ukrainian Armed Forces/AFP via Getty Images files

 

The plan is for Tencore to assign a team to lead the initial technology transfer and train Canadian technicians by early 2027, to build the UGVs. Dominion's Kanata facility is where the assembly and testing is to take place. Components needed in construction of the vehicles -- from drivetrains to robotic and propulsion system parts -- will be acquired where possible from Canadian suppliers. As well, Dominion has advocated for idle automotive and electric vehicle plants in Canada to be converted for manufacturing in the defence sector. 

 

There are three such facilities in Onario and Quebec that Dominion is assessing, to boost its manufacturing footprint to 450,000 square feet from its current 3,000 square feet facility; an aerospace and defence site in Toronto may provide the solution to the search. In Germany, as an example, Volkswagen AG converted one former auto factory into a defence manufacturing hub and Rheimetall AG is turning former auto and industrial plants into military and munitions factories. "I strongly believe that we should be doing the same", said Mr. Pence.

 

None of this has slipped by the notice of Russia. Both Canada and Germany have given dedicated assistance to Ukraine in its counteroffensive campaign against Russia's territorial ambitions to annex as much Ukrainian geography into a Greater Russia that Vladimir Putin plans to resemble the long-dissolved Soviet Union. Under his direction, Russian operatives have infiltrated the West and a type of asymmetric shadow conflict is ongoing.

 

Western intelligence has uncovered plots to have the corporate heads of weapons manufacturers whose products go toward the Ukrainian military countermeasures that strike Russian oil depots and military installations within Russia become assassination targets. A message to the West that Russia will not tolerate Western aid to Ukraine. Just as the Russian military is doing in Ukraine with its internationally illegal and human rights defying targeting of civilian infrastructure in Ukrainian cities, hitting power plants and apartment buildings with predictable human casualties, it infuriates Moscow that Kyiv has the impertinence to hit back, calling such strikes 'terrorism'.  

 

TERMIT. Image: TENCOR

 

"There's a contribution by Ukraine in terms of intellectual property and demand, from Dominion in terms of productive capacity and from the Canadian government to actually acquire those assets and send them over there."

"Those are the three [pillars] that need to actually get operationalized before we have UGVs with AuraNet on the battlefield in Ukraine." 

Eliot Pence 

Forewarned Is Forearmed -- Or Is It?

"[Threats to such facilities mark a] major shift [in] Iranian ambitions to come at harder targets like military sites."

"[The suspected plot against the Royal Air Force Fairford base, on September 27 was] not unique. [There have] been other examples [of similar threats to installations] not just in the U.K. but around the world -- most particularly in Iran's own region." 

"[Iran has been forced to rely on] hiring criminals to do their bidding [in Britain and Europe]." 

"Given what we've seen in practise, [Iran has not demonstrated] anywhere near the level of capability [to launch a sophisticated attack on British military bases or other installations]."

"Since I started in this role in 2020, there has been another generational shift. We have again entered a new era of national security – requiring a new response."  

MI-5 Director-General Ken McCallum 

 

"[We will] keep threatening U.S. and Israeli interests worldwide until we've avenged every child in Gaza, Iran, Lebanon, and the resistance nations." 

"[People should] stay away from Zionist and American interests." 

Iran proxy group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia — or The Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Righteous (IMCR)

Director General of MI5 Ken McCallum speaks at Thames House, the headquarters of the U.K.'s Security Service in London, Tuesday Oct. 13, 2026. (Jonathan Brady/PA via AP, Pool)

 

In its yearly update to dangers facing the United Kingdom and its allies, MI-5's director-general laid out his agency's most pressing concerns among which was the plot uncovered a month earlier as an example, against a British airbase, as forming a scheme plotted by the Islamic Republic of Iran to mount unattributed attacks by in situ groups infiltrating the U.K. and acting as agents for Iran. The attacks have struck high-security targets such as military sites and intelligence facilities. 

 

"The intensity and scale and shape" of the threat emanating from Iran is "shifting at the moment". The linkage reflects fallout from the U.S.-Israel war on Iran seven months earlier, motivating Iran and its Republican Islamic Guard Corps to focus on threatening and attacking American allies. The annual address on security threats included Mr. McCallum's security assessment that Russia "remains aggressor No. 1" against Britain and its allies which links to European support for Ukraine during Russia's now-five-year 'special military operation'. 

 

In recognition of the prevalence of the threats and the nature of the attacks, MI-5 saw the necessity of forming a dedicated new intelligence group linked to the agency meant to focus on potential threats that may in time become a more dire threat not only to the region, but beyond. Advances in artificial intelligence that take into account the possibility of chemical or biological weapons manufacturing guided by AI, and their potential use as instruments of warfare. 

 

Police patrol the perimeter of RAF Fairford as a U.S. Air Force Rockwell B-1 Lancer bomber lands Sept. 28.  Ben Birchall / Press Association via Getty

 

"[Iran has demonstrated that it is] keen on subcontracting its U.K. violence … using criminal proxies to try to intimidate oppositionists, Iranian media organizations, and Israeli sites."

"Sadly, much of this aggression has been aimed at British Jewish communities, with whom I want to express solidarity." 

The interrupted plot against the Fairford airbase is still under investigation by British counterterrorism police. Its occurrence saw the United States evacuate the dozen B-1 bombers it had stationed at the airbase. Recent weeks saw some seven suspects arrested, including five British citizens who were detained soon after midnight on September 27 and subsequently released on bail. The five were in three vans travelling toward the base perimeter, used by U.S. bombers in their strikes on Iran. A nearby farmer was alerted to their suspicious presence and informed police.

 

This was an apprehended incident marking a departure from more recent years' pattern where Iran has been linked to lower-level proxy attacks recruited online to engage in sabotage, arson or stabbings, many of which targeted Jewish communities. Over 50 arrests have been made in the past year in "Iran-linked operations", stated Mr. McCallum. These activities are known to have taken place as well in Canada where Iranian-linked criminals were hired to disrupt life and target Jewish institutions.   

"Many terrorists would dearly love to have some kind of capability with bio, chem or radiological weaponry."

"[If guardrails meant to safeguard the spread of AI fail to gain complete control, a risk presents that] AI could generate novel pathogens not previously seen."

"[A new MI-5] threat centre [was created this year with an aim to focus on such dangers]."

MI-5 Director-General Ken McCallum  

It seems clear enough that what cannot be predicted and what has become a publicly-aired dilemma over increasingly alarming news being released from among the Artificial Intelligence community that bots are striking out on their own -- deliberately taking steps to shield their activities from the notice of their human trainers to plot among themselves and act in swarms disrupting communications while managing to escape the guardrails meant to confine them -- is becoming an entirely new threat on its own. 

 

According to Mr. McCallum, the technology is "supercharging the cybersecurity contest between attackers and defenders". His concern and that of his agency is that AI could enable terrorist networks or state adversaries in the acquisition of  unconventional and extremely toxic and potent weapons that the world must now contemplate contending with. Much, much simpler to deal with challenges posed by state actors in their supercharged yet hard-to-pin-down efforts at world domination.

 

The world is faced with the trifecta of China's and Russia's ambitions on the world stage to prove themselves contenders for the position of superpowers, and the theist-motivated fundamentalism of Islamist conquest exemplified by the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxy terrorist groups to fundamentally alter the world's religious, cultural, social, judicial, academic and human rights normalcy from the contemporary struggling against the worldwide threat of infiltration and Muslim population density power of institutional alteration of Western democracy.  

"[Russian military and intelligence services] are once again escalating their attempts at hybrid warfare, [while being careful not to trigger NATO’s Article 5 threshold, in which other countries would be expected to defend their allies]."

"We see them scrambling to pay criminals to do their bidding. The whole aim of hybrid tactics is to try to intimidate us."

"[Within the U.K.’s] multifaceted relationship with China [— Beijing is a major trading partner to London — MI5 has been focused on efforts by the Chinese government] to conduct espionage, coercion or democratic interference."

MI-5 Director-General Ken McCallum  

Police officers at Leipzig Airport in Saxony, Germany, search for a drone Aug. 7. Sebastian Willnow / dpa via AP

 

Senagalese Criminalizes of the LGBTQ Community

"In many African languages, including Wolof [the local language in Senegal], terms have long existed to describe realities related to homosexuality, proof that it is neither new nor imported."

"On the other hand, the laws that repress them are, for the most part, a legacy of colonisation. Whether it be the French-inspired penal codes or the 'sodomy laws' introduced by the British Empire during the reign of Queen Victoria, these provisions were imposed from outside. And the foreign forces pushing Senegal to prosecute homosexual and transgender people, and even to ban any calm debate on the issue, are very diverse." 

"Furthermore, several African countries have recently moved towards greater recognition of rights: Botswana, Mozambique, Gabon and Angola have decriminalised homosexuality in recent years. These choices show that, within Africa itself, there are diverse paths forward, and that no inevitability condemns the continent to repression." 

Open letter sent last May to President Faye of Senegal

Senegal will host the first-ever Olympic sporting event on African soil – the fourth edition of the Youth Olympic Games from Oct 31 to Nov 13.  PHOTO: REUTERS

 

"The Olympic Charter prohibits discrimination on any grounds and commits host countries to respect human rights and human dignity."

"The ongoing government crackdown on LGBT people raises serious concerns about Senegal's compliance with international law, the Olympic charter, and Senegal's own laws."

HRW/ Larissa Kojoue, HRW rights researcher 

The West African nation of Senegal adopted new legislation in March that would widen the penalties already on its books for same-sex relations up to a ten-year prison sentence. Recent months have seen the predominantly Muslim country experiencing a wave of homophobia -- with dozens of people arrested on suspicion of same-sex relations.

 

In August, 71 men were referred to trial for "acts against nature", a quaint term referring to same-sex relations. This, at a time when the country is set to be the first African country to host the first Olympic sporting event, set to welcome 2,700 young athletes for the fourth edition of the October 31 to November 13 Youth Olympic Games. 

 

Senegal is set to host Dakar 2026 amid allegations of human rights violations towards its LGBT+ community.    Seyllou/GETTY IMAGES

 

Criticism of Senegal's move to double its punishment for those caught, or assumed to be engaging in same-sex acts that the population views as religiously reprehensible, has questioned its commitment to upholding the requisite standards in human rights spelled out in the code of the Olympic charter. Human Rights Watch came right to the point: that in Senegal, "rights causing increasing fear and stigma are being violated, and should be ended immediately". 

 

Fear of arrest and stigma, stressed the rights group, drives individuals into hiding. The targeted 'criminals' avoid being tested for HIV and much-needed treatment, a situation serving as well to deter the legal community from engaging in legal representational relations with members of the LGBTQ community. They are left in abandonment, to defend themselves in a country that denies them defence.

 

The law abridging their human rights was passed in the National Assembly by an overwhelming majority. A law which establishes criminal penalties for anyone found guilty of promoting or financing same-sex relationships. Senegal also denounces LGBTQ rights advocacy as a method the West uses to impose their own nihilistic values on other countries.

 

IOC says it has 'full confidence' in Senegal authorities, as report lays out scale of the Youth Olympics host nation’s anti-LGBTQ crackdown.   outsports.com

 

Saudi Arabia's Untold Oil Wealth / Yemeni Houthis' Beggarly Strategic Threats

"Energy security can't be taken for granted."

"The events of recent weeks are serious, our response must be equally serious."

"For Saudi Arabia, these circumstances have tested our infrastructure, our institutions, our people, and our resilience."

Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, Saudi energy minister 

 

"[They -- Houthis -- will] face consequences [for their repeated attacks on the kingdom]."

"The Kingdom will not allow any threat to its security or to freedom of maritime navigation in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait."

Saudi Arabian Cabinet 

 

"[The warning and the attack show] the Saudis’ aims of upping the ante and striking deep in the heart of Houthi-controlled territory while attempting to control the narrative by presenting themselves as more careful and humanitarian actors than the Houthis."

"It may be a warning -- or it may be a sign of things to come."

Adam Baron, fellow, Washington-based New America institute

Oil tanks seen at the Saudi Aramco headquarters during a media tour at Damam city. REUTERS/ Ali Jarekji/File Photo

 

Not entirely insensitive to the Israel Defense Forces' routine pre-warning of civilians in enclaves in the Gaza Strip where the Israeli military's strategy to respond to the 7 October 2023 by destroying Palestinian terrorists' military emplacements, their weapons depots, their broadcasting systems, their labyrinthine tunnels, their leaders and their operatives, starting with the Hamas governing group which infamously has always used the civilian population as shields, the Saudi military leading a coalition of forces Tuesday on Sanaa, pre-warned the population to flee for safety.

Following the Houthi weekend strikes on Riyadh's international airport on Saturday and follow-up strikes days later, which killed 18 people and wounded hundreds more, Saudi Arabia warned the Houthis of their intention to strike back. Before they did, civilians were urged to leave the site of the Yemeni Oil Company and its nearby storage areas. That they have finally struck, it is impossible to ignore that the Middle East crisis is expanding with this series of fresh escalations behind which can be discerned the malign influence of the Islamic Republic of Iran. 

A man looking over the skyline of Sanaa, Yemen, on Tuesday.  Credit...Mohammed Huwais/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

That the airport strikes in Saudi Arabia have added to the energy export crisis now looming over the global community with the world's top oil exporter having been targeted, the coalition's counter-targeting of Yemen's Houthi-controlled oil sites is certain to jolt the world to attention. The Yemen civil war has brought the poorest country in the environs of the Middle East starkly divided between the legitimate government, forced to surrender their capital Sanaa to the Houthi rebellion, into a crisis situation. The government supported by Saudi Arabia, and the Houthis by Iran spell the ultimate in tribal-sectarian hostilities.

 

In Saudi Arabia, operations remain suspended at the King Khalid International Airport on the outskirts of Riyadh. On Saturday, Muslim pilgrims wearing their typical religious attire were awaiting their flights in departure lounges when a sudden flash tore through the building and flaming debris rained down killing 13 outright. The Houthi drone and missile attacks had city residents sheltering for safety even as the Houthis threatened to continue targeting Saudi transit hubs as "a theatre of operations for our forces". This is the reality of a new, unequal form of conflict, where guerrilla forces of a poor nation can access killing drones to wage its war against a richer nation's conventional military's reaction.

 

Smoke over Sana’a during a reported Saudi-led coalition airstrike on the Houthi-controlled Yemeni capital on 9 October 2026. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Sunday evening also saw eastern Saudi Arabia's Dammam airport hit. A day later, the Saudi-led coalition revealed that it had "intercepted and destroyed" a Houthi ballistic missile headed for a major military base in the southern city of Khamis Mushalt. The Houthi foreign ministry, referring to Saudi Arabia as the "Kingdom of the Horn of Satan -- must realize that security, stability and sovereignty must belong to everyone; otherwise, no one will enjoy them." 

 

Demeaning Ukraine, Elevating Russia, Trump's Stratagem

"I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal. For some reason [Zelenskyy] never does."

"[If I had been U.S. president in 2022], that war would have never started. There was no reason that that war with Ukraine and Russia started. It started due to incompetence."

"[Zelenskyy has] lost 30 per cent of your country and you've had over a million people go between the two of them, over two million people killed. That's a war that should have never started. And I think it's time for Ukraine to get a new president."

"I have just concluded a highly successful discussion with President Vladimir Putin, of Russia] to deliver millions of tonnes of diesel fuel over the next few months]."

"Diesel prices for Americans and, indeed, the world, will be COMING DOWN, IN RECORD NUMBERS, AND FAST! Lower prices for Americans, especially our Great Farmers, Ranchers, and Truckers, is my greatest priority."

U.S. President Donald Trump 

 

"Today, Russia expressed its thanks for the lifting of sanctions on diesel exports by dropping five glide bombs on residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia." 

"[The attacks show Moscow understands] any easing of pressure to mean they can keep fighting, to mean they can keep dropping bombs on cities."

"Russia's choice is war."

"[The diesel deal signalled to Moscow that] it is apparently permissible to continue attacking. And this needs to be corrected." 

"It plays into Russia’s hands — allowing it to kill more, wage war for longer, have even less respect for America, and inflict even greater losses and damage on the world."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Zelenskyy and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz arrive for a news conference on Oct. 4. Zelenskyy on Saturday criticized the new U.S.-Russia diesel deal. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)

 

"Propping up Putin’s war economy is morally wrong as he uses that money to bomb cities."

"The President’s policies towards Russia and Ukraine are failures. We need moral clarity not moral ambiguity."

Republican Congressman Don Bacon, Nebraska  

Mercurial isn't quite the description of President Trump's instant thought process as he sets about in his typically idiosyncratic way solving problems whose details he doesn't quite grasp, offering solutions to conflicts startling in their simplicity, entirely lacking common sense. With an ego as wide as the Pacific Ocean and a belief in his persuasive impulses as a reflection of his genius for getting at the heart of the matter and arriving at a brilliant point where he personally and his political cronies stand to gain financially, and placing him once again on the short list for next year's Nobel Peace Prize, he is unstoppable.

 

The world balances itself on tenterhooks over what this man straddling the most powerful nation on earth's foreign political decision-making, volatile enough to take a U-turn at any moment, the reliable old international world order now stumbles into a future of growing uncertainty. What is certain is this man's fascination with the kind of power wielded by tyrants, an admiration for strongmen whose casual disregard of human rights and international treaties are appealing to a man who himself shreds signed and sealed agreements with impunity. 

 

That Mr. Trump has difficulty distinguishing allies from enemies, treating the former as hostile to his world view and proclivities, and the former as collegial think-alikes, puzzles both allies and enemies. And while allies have been forced by new circumstances beyond their control that is the sole agency of one single man to form new coalitions under the grave reality that dependence on the United States is no longer an option for the free world, countries like Russia and China whose hostility to the United States, vying against it for great power status find themselves honoured guests by an amiably-inclined American president. 

 

Trump rewards Putin and betrays Ukraine with Russia diesel deal - The Latest

 

A president who prefers to view victims as guilty of allowing themselves to become targets of aggressive warmongering territorial imperialists. The failure to use the power of his position to intimidate the Ukrainian president into submitting to his aggressor's demands to allow the evisceration of his country's geographic assets infuriated Mr. Trump while confusing Mr. Zelenskyy with its unreasonableness, even as he steadfastly refused the absurd recriminations tied to his government's counteroffensive against their mortal enemy rather than submit to Mr. Putin's demands.

 

Then came the news of the U.S.-Russia agreement of immediate supplying diesel fuel to the United States and to relieve global markets of its diesel shortage. Mr. Trump's calculated political imperative is to reduce the U.S. public's low approval rating of their president on economic grounds at a time of an increased cost of living, further aggravated by the on-again, off-again war on Iran and its effect of depleting the world supply of energy through the Persian Gulf, aligned with a similar situation with Russia's 'special military operation' in Ukraine.

 

The manipulation of public opinion at a critical time in the United States, with the approach of November 3's congressional elections to determine which party will control Congress, uppermost in the president's mind. So his 'highly successful' agreement where Vladimir Putin has agreed to supply an initial over 300,000 tonnes of diesel to U.S. and global markets, convinced Mr. Trump that the 'good news' would be universally welcomed. News, with its implied, if not actual forced surrender of Ukraine to Russia's ongoing predatory plans that served to stun an already-Trump-cynical world audience.

 

Washington had just latterly enacted additional sanctions on Russian energy producers, yet this latest scheme to isolate Ukraine and feed it bit by bit to the rapacious territorial appetite of Vladimir Putin to salve his own political future with a voting public irritated beyond end by the volatility and insensibility of their president as a prudent move, is destined for complete failure, adding another nail in the coffin of this president's reputation and historical legacy. 

Police officers standing next to the covered bodies of people killed by a Russian strike on a five-storey residential building in Zaporizhzhia. Photograph: Ukraine national police/AFP/Getty Images

A further one million tonnes are to be made available to the U.S. under the newly-minted general licence the U.S. Treasury Department issued to allow the importation of Russian diesel dating to April of 2027. Greater amounts would follow "based on the condition of their diesel refineries", damaged by Ukrainian attacks, noted Mr. Trump. Excoriating Ukraine for those attacks and demanding that they cease forthwith in Ukraine's response to Russia's unending attacks on Ukrainian civil infrastructure and energy depots to deprive the population of winter heating and cooking in a demoralization drive. 

"I said it to President Trump … to his team and to his people several times: we want peace, we are ready for [a] ceasefire, we are ready to begin from any kind of steps of de-escalation."

"And if the Russians want us not [to] attack their diesel, their refineries and etc., we are asking President Trump, give them signal not attack energy infrastructure of Ukraine."

"Don't attack us. Don't kill our children. We will stop attack[ing] your diesel. And I think it's [a] fair, fair deal."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy