Ukraine arrests woman who exposed Azov battalion’s ‘torture chamber’
RT | November 4, 2026
A Ukrainian court has ordered pretrial arrest without bail for the woman who raised allegations of torture at a facility in Kiev operated by the notorious neo-Nazi-linked Azov unit.
The scandal erupted on Monday after allegations emerged that dozens of men were being beaten and held for ransom at a private house outside Kiev. Furious relatives and local residents gathered outside the property, leading to clashes with the authorities.
Valentina Molodaya arrived at the house in an ambulance and livestreamed herself pleading to be allowed inside to examine men she claimed were being held there in appalling conditions.
At a pretrial hearing on Wednesday, Kiev’s Solomiansky District Court ordered Molodaya held for 60 days without bail. She is suspected of obstructing military activities, disclosing military locations and organizing mass unrest.
Molodaya denied accusations of organizing unrest and claimed that she is a medic who came to the house after being tipped off about a man who had allegedly been taken from hospital after surgery and beaten while held at the property.
However, prosecutors are calling Molodaya’s qualifications and motivations into question, accusing her of being paid to stage a provocation. She has also been added to the notorious Mirotvorets website – which publishes personal information on people it considers “enemies” of Ukraine – as an alleged “professional provocateur” and is accused of taking part in Russian “information campaigns.”
Despite early claims by Ukrainian officials that only two men were being held inside the building, an Azov representative has since acknowledged that at least 26 “mobilized men” were staying there.
The building is a “temporary deployment site” for Azov’s 1st Corps, which admitted that at least four of the men held inside were injured. All four were “detained for going AWOL,” it claimed.
Many more such facilities are scattered across Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky’s chief-of-staff, Kirill Budanov, admitted to enraged Ukrainians at the scene of the protest on Monday night.
Azov, which was formally incorporated into Ukraine’s National Guard in November 2014, has previously faced allegations of operating torture sites in Mariupol and elsewhere in Donbass. Between 2014 and 2021, Ukrainian forces arbitrarily detained an estimated 2,300 people and subjected around 1,500 detainees to torture or ill-treatment, the UN human rights office reported in 2021. Ukraine’s SBU and nationalist “volunteer battalions” were among the most prevalent perpetrators, it said.
Moscow mocks Kiev’s language hypocrisy exposed by ‘torture chamber’ scandal
RT | November 3, 2026
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has questioned Kiev’s enforcement of mandatory Ukrainian-language rules for officials after Vladimir Zelensky’s top aide was filmed speaking Russian while trying to defuse a riot over a suspected “torture chamber” site.
Kirill Budanov, the head of Zelensky’s office, was filmed on Monday evening speaking Russian during a confrontation sparked by shocking revelations about a black site operated by the neo-Nazi-linked Azov unit, which is part of Ukraine’s National Guard.
Several other people at the scene also spoke Russian, including a distressed teenager who was escorted out of the facility, the exact purpose of which remains disputed.
In a social media post on Tuesday, Zakharova asked Ukrainian language commissioner Elena Ivanovskaya whether she intended to fine Budanov, the teenager and the media outlets that broadcast their exchange.
Budanov did speak Ukrainian when addressing reporters during the same events, as required by Kiev’s language policy. However, footage from the scene shows him switching to Russian during more tense moments of the confrontation.
Ivanovskaya previously launched an official investigation into officers from Ukraine’s military intelligence agency HUR and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) who spoke Russian during a volatile argument that eventually escalated into a gunfight in September.
The Ukrainian government has pursued policies aimed at removing Russian culture from public life and promoting Ukraine’s national identity. The measures are supported by ultranationalist groups, which played a prominent role in the 2014 overthrow of the government, but have faced opposition from more moderate sections of Ukrainian society.
Many senior officials in Zelensky’s administration, including Zelensky himself, are widely believed to speak Russian in private, with occasional slips of the tongue caught on camera lending credence to that perception.
Russian is also frequently heard in recordings involving figures suspected of profiting from corruption networks within the Ukrainian government. Surveillance tapes released by anti-corruption agencies investigating members of Zelensky’s inner circle have repeatedly featured suspects discussing their alleged criminal activities in Russian.
Moscow has cited Kiev’s language policies as evidence of systemic discrimination against ethnic Russians in Ukraine and identified the issue as one of the underlying causes of the conflict between the two countries.
The riot in the village of Petropavlovskaya Borshchagovka, where the alleged secret Azov prison was located, erupted following accusations that military deserters were being detained, tortured and held for ransom at the facility.
Budanov acknowledged that there were “many” similar places across Ukraine and welcomed the exposure of suspected abuses at the site.
Azov commander Denis Prokopenko, meanwhile, accused the civilians involved in the confrontation of “sabotage” and “creating imagery that benefits Russia.” He delivered his video statement in angry Ukrainian.
The teenager’s role in the incident remains unclear. He told Budanov that he was 14 years old and had arrived at the facility “with guys” who subsequently fled, leaving him behind.
UK High Court Upholds Speech Regulator Notices To Meta, WhatsApp, X, And TikTok
By Cindy Harper | Reclaim The Net | November 2, 2026
What do you do when you want to know how many posts people make on social media, how many of those are seen by children, how many get reported and taken down, and how fast – and you want this data broken down by age group, on an ongoing basis?
You are Ofcom, Britain’s communications regulator, and you ask the platforms to hand it over, because, well, you can. And if anyone asks why, you say: we’ll know it when we see it.
And if the companies ask why – the court will say, as the UK High Court did on October 30, that you don’t actually have to have a reason. At least, not one you can share with the likes of Meta, WhatsApp, X, and TikTok.
“We reject the submission that there has to be a specific task that OFCOM has in mind before it can require information under s.100,” Lord Justice Singh and Mrs Justice Collins Rice said in their ruling.
The February notices Ofcom sent to the four companies were not the only ones – as of February 26, 2026, the regulator had issued 197 such requests to American companies alone, seeking information about their operations in the UK.
In this case, the data Ofcom wanted was the following: user activity on each service, broken down by age group; the amount of content and accounts removed or restricted, and how fast; the number of UK users who had seen content before it was taken down, including children; the number of appeals against removals, and the outcome; and the number of reports made by users.
The four companies challenged this on several grounds, but the court rejected all of them.
One was that the data Ofcom sought was not covered by section 100 of the Online Safety Act censorship law, which the regulator was invoking. The section states that the regulator can demand “any information that they require for the purpose of exercising, or deciding whether to exercise, any of their online safety functions.”
This is a very broad definition, and even includes “deciding whether to exercise” – i.e., not actually doing it, just considering it.
The same section also allows Ofcom to ask for information about “the use of a service by a named individual,” and to view “in real time the operation of systems, processes or features, including functionalities and algorithms.”
The notice Ofcom sent to the four companies said that the regulator expects to ask for this data “on a regular basis,” and told them, “we therefore ask you to consider this as part of any data retention policies you have.”
In other words, the regulator was nudging the companies to make sure they store this data, so it can be handed over when asked for.
The companies pointed out that Ofcom’s own evidence described the data as “helpful” and “nice to have” – and that this was for “horizon scanning,” i.e., looking for future, potential risks.
TikTok said in its submission that Ofcom “first decided that it wished to gather large quantities of data…and then sought to identify statutory functions which could provide an ostensible justification.”
The court, however, saw nothing wrong with this. Instead, it found that the companies did not provide enough evidence to prove that complying with the request would be a burden.
The regulator was not required to say what it would do with the data, or why it was needed, but the companies were expected to explain, in detail, why they thought complying would be difficult.
In fact, the court said, X’s estimate that it would cost “millions of pounds” and require “hundreds of hours of work across a group of ten people” was not good enough because it was not “materially further quantified, explained or contextualized.”
In other words, the regulator was free to make a vague request, but the companies were expected to go into every detail to prove their case.
The double standard is evident in the way the court treated Ofcom and the companies.
The regulator did not have to have a purpose, or at least, did not have to disclose it. But the companies had to prove that complying with the request would be a burden – and their evidence was rejected as not detailed enough.
But what’s striking is the amount of power the court has given to Ofcom, and the lack of detail in the reasoning behind the ruling.
Ofcom can fine companies up to 10% of their global revenue, and can block their services in the UK if they don’t comply with its rules.
In September, an Ofcom executive told British peers that the regulator was “operating in a highly litigious environment” – meaning, many of its decisions end up in court.
At the time, Reclaim The Net observed that while Ofcom was making this complaint, there was a hearing in the High Court, where the regulator was trying to make sure it could get even more power – and that users whose posts get removed from social media had no seat in that courtroom.
Now, the court has given Ofcom what it wanted: the power to collect a vast amount of data from social media platforms, with no apparent limit to what it can do with it, and no obligation to explain why it wants it in the first place.
The regulator can do all this on a “regular basis,” and can view data in real-time.
The four companies involved in the case are no friends of free speech, but on this particular point, they were right: a regulator should have to explain what it wants data for before it gets it.
What the High Court has given Ofcom is essentially a standing license to collect a running record of the online speech of people in Britain, broken down by age, and to do it on its own word that it might need it at some point.
There is no reason to think that the next request will not be even more extensive – and now there is nothing to stop it.
Greece bans protest over docking of Israeli cruise ship
MEMO | November 2, 2026
Greek authorities on the Aegean island of Syros banned a protest against an Israeli-owned cruise ship scheduled to dock Tuesday, daily Kathimerini reported Monday, Anadolu reports.
The Coast Guard said the planned demonstration against the docking of the Crown Iris, which can accommodate up to 2,000 passengers and 650 crew members, could lead to disturbances, including clashes between protesters and tourists.
The statement said demonstrations could still take place at alternative locations away from the waterfront.
It added that holding the protest at the initially designated locations “posed a severe threat to public security due to the potential of serious crimes being committed, particularly against human lives, bodily integrity and property … and to the area’s social and economic activity.”
The Syros Anti-War Initiative had called for a demonstration along the waterfront of the island’s capital, Ermoupoli, shortly before the ship’s scheduled arrival for a day visit Tuesday morning.
The group said the protest aimed “to express our full solidarity with the Palestinian people and all the peoples of the region.”
“We will send a clear message that genocidal war criminals and their supporters are unwelcome on our island,” the group said.
Congratulations climate skeptics — you are a ‘Hybrid weapon of war’ and a growing public health threat
By Jo Nova | October 28, 2026
Horrible people want to discuss upper tropospheric warming or their electricity bills and we can’t have that.
Careless discussion of such like, or radiosondes, cannot be permitted. Rest assured, the World Health Organization (the WHO) are here to save you from accidentally hearing any climate debates. Average voters must be shielded from climate disinformation, lest they forget to vote correctly, sorry, I mean, forget to leave burning buildings. Because that could happen to anyone, right?
The WHO (why are we still members) have produced a report titled ‘Protecting Health in the Age of Climate Disinformation’. It is said to be the ‘first instance of the health community addressing how climate disinformation harms’. This follows on from the EU declaring they would crack down on fake news, and conspiracy theories at the last COP meeting in Brazil.
The WHO has hauled out the linguistic artillery. Those who wield “climate disinformation” are not just shills of big oil, they are a “hybrid weapon of war” and a growing “public health threat”. (Don’t you feel important?)
Now obviously, if people are a public health threat, we can’t just let them wander around talking to any unguarded voters can we? Same, same, for those naughty weapons of war. What if people like that got loose on the radio?
It’s seems pretty obvious where they want this to go. You don’t just casually declare your debating opponents are a hybrid weapon of war and shake hands. Right now they are ‘only’ calling for member states to “recognize” climate misinformation as a public health threat. But we all know where this goes. Sooner or later Public Health threats get put in jail or at least a padded cell (for their own good).
At this stage the press release recommends that health agencies strengthen climate-health infodemic management and help governments identify and respond to harmful information narratives.
Perhaps a nice government will just take their computer away, or their digital ID and block them from social media?
The WHO has just effectively admitted that it’s losing the public climate debate — why else would they need to label any dissent as a threat?
‘Hybrid weapon of war’: Why climate disinformation could be a growing public health threat
By Liam Gilliver, EuroNews
“Climate disinformation is not only a problem of false rumours and mistruths; it is also a problem of power, incentives and accountability.”
WHO member states are being urged to recognise climate disinformation as a public health threat as vested interests attempt to “sow doubt and confusion”.
Health and civil society organisations have called on 194 countries to make information integrity a core part of climate and health policy, preparedness and response.
Who decides what is misinformation and what is true?
What is climate disinformation?
Climate disinformation refers to the intentional spread of false or misleading information about climate change and climate action. This includes the complete denial of global warming as well as conspiracy theories. It differs from climate misinformation, which is defined as false or out-of-context information that someone is presenting as fact.
While misinformation does not carry the same level of intent as disinformation, it can result in equally dangerous consequences.
And if the government gets its facts wrong, will they suffer the same consequences?
The harm, the harm!
The WHO highlights the awful harm these hybrid information warmongers can make. For example, when people in the Maui fires heard false claims that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) might seize their land, they ‘potentially’ might not apply for a government handout. Some may have missed out on the money! This is translated to: “Misinformation can directly obstruct access to life-saving and stabilizing support.”
Or there was the horrible case of ULEZ traffic cameras in London, where £12 charges were triggered every time they went into London in an old “polluting” car. This, of course, hurt the poor, the old and the workers, but those legitimate concerns were ‘amplified and distorted’ by misinformation (not that anyone can remember what they said that was incorrect). This turned a public health intervention (which could add as much as 13 minutes of life expectancy to Londoners), into a “culture war issue” the WHO says. We just can’t have people disagreeing with government policy can we? What do you think this is — a democracy?
“Instead of focusing debate on how to reduce pollution while protecting those least able to bear transition costs, misinformation can shift attention toward fear, mistrust, and false claims. This risks weakening public support for policies that protect lungs, hearts, pregnancies, children, and communities most exposed to polluted air.”
Other instances of misinformation might “discourage people from evacuating during wildfires or floods”. You know all those times the wall of flames is coming but you’re just not convinced the fire is caused by a coal plant 1,000 kilometers away so you stay home?
I’m sure they only want to neutralize a few newspapers and GB News — that sort of thing.
The WHO is a menace
Any international organization that writes up authoritarian, anti-democratic material like this, designed purely to censor debate, deserves to be unfunded, mocked and disbanded immediately. It’s time to get our money back.
UAE security forces tortured, killed journalist for opposing Israel normalization: Report
The Cradle | October 31, 2026
UAE security officers detained, tortured, and killed Emirati poet and news editor Habib al-Sayegh in August 2019, shortly after he published a column opposing UAE normalization with Israel, according to a newly published book.
“Princes and Thieves,” a book by investigative journalist Matthew Cole published on 25 October, alleges that UAE security officers raided Sayegh’s Abu Dhabi home shortly after the publication of the column, hooded him in front of his wife and took him to a detention facility where he was tortured to death.
His interrogators reportedly pulled out several of his teeth with pliers and beat him repeatedly with a sharp metal object.
On 11 August 2019, Sayegh criticized the UAE’s plan to normalize relations with Israel as part of the Abraham Accords in his weekly column for Khaleej newspaper. The column was titled “Israel Is Our Real Enemy and A Dangerous Project.”
Sayegh described Israel as “a real and natural enemy” while questioning “who authorized the normalizers to speak on behalf of everyone?”
Nine days after the column was published, Emirati state media announced his death, without stating a cause.
The UAE normalized relations with Israel a year later, alongside Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.
UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed (MbZ) praised Sayegh after his death. However, a source told Cole that MbZ would not tolerate criticism of the decision to normalize with Israel.
Since 2020, the UAE has proved to be a close ally of Israel, both in its bid to project power in the Horn of Africa and in the war on Iran begun by the US President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in February.
In response to the book’s allegations, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) sent a letter to three UN agencies asking that an investigation be opened into Sayegh’s death.
“The allegations that UAE security forces tortured and killed one of the country’s most prominent poets are horrifying and demand an independent investigation,” said Raed Jarrar, DAWN’s advocacy director.
“Habib al-Sayegh wrote that Israel was the enemy, and nine days later he was dead with no cause given. One year later his government, notorious for their intolerance for dissent, normalized relations with Israel. Those facts are not in dispute. What happened in between is the question, and only an independent investigation can answer it,” said Isabelle Hayslip, Advocacy Associate at DAWN.
Cole’s book generated controversy last week over its claim that Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, secretly gained access to $2 billion in slush money from the governments of the UAE and Saudi Arabia during Trump’s first administration in exchange for advancing their political interests in Washington.
Kushner denounced the book, claiming the author failed to provide evidence to substantiate its claims.
Ukraine continues recruiting people with disabilities
By Lucas Leiroz | October 30, 2026
In its relentless search for cannon fodder, the Kiev regime is recruiting even individuals with severe physical disabilities – people who should be entirely exempt from military service. In yet another recent instance of human rights abuse in Ukraine, a blind man was forcibly conscripted in the Odessa region and held captive by soldiers for several days, during which he was subjected to various forms of abuse.
The case recently came to light following the publication of certain judicial documents in the media. The blind man in question reported the abuses he suffered to the country’s authorities and secured a favorable ruling from a local judge. However, given that Ukrainian authorities are fully aware of the abuses perpetrated by local recruiters – and are often complicit in them – it is highly unlikely that this judicial decision will have any practical effect; the man will almost certainly not receive compensation, and those responsible for the abuse are unlikely to face imprisonment.
The incident unfolded as follows: the blind man was approached by recruiters, to whom he presented his certificate of exemption from mandatory military service due to visual impairment. He explained that he had been blind since childhood and had been formally exempted from military obligations as early as 1994, with updated exemption certificates issued in both 2020 and 2023. Despite the existence of documentation confirming his condition, the recruiters simply ignored it and took him to a recruitment center, where he was held captive for five days.
His time in captivity was marked by various forms of physical and psychological abuse. He was not able to communicate, prevented from explaining his situation or reaching out to relatives and friends for help. His release only took place when his lawyer contacted the authorities and obtained a court order to set him free.
However, the trouble for the blind man did not end there. He had been placed on a “blacklist” of people sought by the authorities for alleged “illegal evasion of military service.” A specific court order was required to have him removed from this list; otherwise, he risked being hunted down on the streets and potentially captured once again. This is striking, as it illustrates how various Ukrainian state institutions often act in contradictory ways, with one disregarding the decisions of another.
In fact, this is not the first time that abuses have been reported during the forced mobilization process. Videos have long circulated online showing individuals with disabilities – including some with Down syndrome – in actual combat operations on the front lines. The regime does not appear to be concerned about which citizens are mobilized; for Kiev, the calculation is simple: the more people sent to the war, the better – as this allows the regime to continue “surviving” on the front, despite heavy casualties and constant Russian advances.
Ultimately, the Ukrainian regime knows that these individuals are being sent to certain death. Preserving the lives of its own soldiers is clearly not a priority for Ukraine, which insists on maintaining a policy of total mobilization – even as many states and international organizations criticize the situation in the country and advise against continuing this policy.
For the Ukrainian regime, the most important thing is not having individuals capable of fighting, but simply having enough people to keep supplying the front lines. Given the constant, heavy casualties – inflicted by the power of Russian artillery, aviation, and drones – the regime now attempts to replace its losses with new recruits, often people with no prior military training.
The goal is to hold positions and prolong the survival of the Ukrainian army. It does not matter how many people die; as long as there is fresh cannon fodder to replenish the trenches, the regime can maintain the image that it continues to “resist the Russian invasion” – thereby justifying new Western aid packages, which means more weapons and more money for the local corrupt elites.
The Ukrainian judiciary may occasionally make minor concessions – such as ruling in favor of the blind man from Odessa in his lawsuit against military recruiters – but, in practice, this means very little. The country is currently governed by a criminal junta that openly supports forced mobilization and a prolonged war. Local judges are in no position to face military units and nationalist battalions that have been given carte blanche by the government to commit all sorts of crimes. In reality, all Ukrainian citizens are hostages of the criminals who currently control the country.
Lucas Leiroz, member of the BRICS Journalists Association, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, military expert
You can follow Lucas on X (formerly Twitter) and Telegram.
Ukraine expands minority rights under EU pressure – but Russians remain excluded
By Uriel Araujo | October 29, 2026
President Volodymyr Zelensky recently signed Bill No.16119, a law expanding educational rights for national minorities and indigenous peoples. Ukraine is thereby selectively adjusting, rather than reversing, its post-2014 Ukrainization policies.
The measure was presented as progress on minority rights and a step that could help open further EU accession clusters. Romanian President Nicusor Dan welcomed the legislation, noting that mother-tongue education for ethnic Romanians is “no abstract matter” for families living in Ukraine.
The law expands the use of eligible minority languages in schools, recognizes special institutional status for minority-language schools, and strengthens continuity of education.
Crucially, the additional protections apply only to official languages of the European Union and to indigenous languages such as Crimean Tatar. Hungarian, Romanian, Polish, Bulgarian and Slovak qualify. Russian does not. The Ukrainian Ministry of Education clarified that the additional rights “do not apply to the Russian language.”
Russian remains widely spoken, with 28% or even more Ukrainians still using both Russian and Ukrainian at home despite years of Ukrainization and wartime restrictions.
The Venice Commission of the Council of Europe flagged the problem years ago: in its 2017 opinion, it found the less favorable treatment of non-EU languages, particularly Russian, difficult to justify and raised discrimination concerns. Its 2023 opinion report on national minorities legislation reiterated that promoting Ukrainian as the state language does not justify withholding equivalent protections from Russian speakers.
Ukraine’s Constitutional Court took a different view in 2021, holding that preferential treatment for EU languages was permissible – the European advisory body’s criticism and Kyiv’s domestic position have never fully aligned.
The expanded guarantees for ethnic Hungarians and Romanians may reflect Budapest’s and Bucharest’s ability to block or delay Ukraine’s EU accession process.
It is no accident Roma inclusion follows a separate track: a national strategy running to 2030 addresses education, housing and discrimination. These measures concern the social integration of marginalized Gypsies communities, rather than reversing Ukrainization.
Similarly, Russian speakers and ethnic Russians, who cannot exercise comparable leverage inside the EU process, remain outside the new framework.
By comparison, although the ongoing war complicates it, Russia formally recognizes ethnic Ukrainians, while its Constitution and laws guarantee the preservation and study of minority languages.
In any case, Kyiv explicitly differentiates between Russian and EU minority languages, while Moscow formally has an inclusive framework.
Ukraine’s Russian minority-rights controversy predates the 2022 invasion: differential treatment has been a structural feature of post-Maidan policy, rather than just a temporary wartime measure.
After 2014, language, media and minority legislation steadily elevated Ukrainian while narrowing the public space for Russian. US political scientist Nicolai N. Petro, writing in Foreign Policy in late 2023, described policies that further relegated Russian speakers to a permanent second-class status – and warned that such approaches risk alienating a significant share of the population even once fighting ends.
Ukrainian officials have at times declared there is simply “no Russian minority”, a claim that sits uneasily with census data and everyday bilingual reality, to say the least.
Meanwhile, nationalist historical narratives persist: a Lviv’s museum dedicated to Nazi collaborator Roman Shukhevych was being rebuilt just weeks before the education law was signed. Shukhevych incited anti-Polish pogroms in 1930.
The continued public commemoration of such figures is hard to reconcile with any claim of comprehensive ideological retreat from post-Maidan nation-building. Moreover, the reforms will be viewed by Ukrainian ultranationalists as a setback forced by European partners – and are likely to generate domestic pushback.
They may also, on the other hand, encourage further demands from minority communities, including over the glorification of controversial wartime figures – an issue that still strains relations with Poland. Not surprisingly, Ukrainian tensions with neighbors have been a recurring feature of the regional landscape – Hungary being a case in point.
As part of its EU accession plans, Kyiv is reviewing chauvinistic policies regarding some minorities – while leaving the largest linguistic community outside the latest concessions.
The “macro” dimension of the conflict involves great-power rivalry, proxy dynamics and the long trajectory of NATO expansion. The micro or rather “meso”-level dimension remains the unresolved issue of post-Soviet borders and the ethnopolitics of a post-Soviet republic still consolidating its nation-building project.
In the words of Kristin Henrard (Professor of International Law at the Brussels School of Governance): “Ukraine will need to acknowledge that the Russian minority, as one of the several minorities with kinstates in its territory, is special because of that strong numerical size, and traditional presence.” This would be “in line with Ukraine’s international obligations”, she writes.
So much for the idea that minority-rights problems were ever merely “Russian propaganda.” They were real enough for Hungarians and Romanians that Kyiv had to legislate; they remain real for Russian speakers. The civil-rights issue remains.
Uriel Araujo, Anthropology PhD, is a social scientist specializing in ethnic and religious conflicts, with extensive research on geopolitical dynamics and cultural interactions.
Albania takes anti-riot crackdown cue from France
RT | October 29, 2026
Albania has imposed steep fines on people who take part in violent protests, citing a recent law imposed in France, in an attempt to quell weeks of clashes between police and protesters demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama.
Under measures adopted Wednesday, remaining at a demonstration that turns violent will be a criminal offense, even for those not directly involved in clashes. Anyone who “chooses to remain in a crowd” engaged in violence or looting, or is found “concealing their identity,” faces fines of up to 500,000 leks ($6,130), over six-times the Balkan country’s average monthly salary.
Initially sparked by student anger over education costs and deteriorating facilities, the demonstrations have evolved into nationwide protests against inequality, soaring living costs, and cuts to public services.
Citing “urban anarchy” when announcing the crackdown, Rama acknowledged France’s controversial ‘casseurs-payeurs’ (rioters pay) bill, which would hold demonstrators liable for up to €10,000 ($11,160) in damages. The bill passed the French Senate on Wednesday and is now headed to the National Assembly, following weeks of protests and riots in which over 1,300 protesters were arrested in a single day.
Italy has also followed suit. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government approved measures last week that criminalize “violent participation in a demonstration,” punishable by up to five years in prison and fines of up to €20,000.
In Albania, a “special electronic register” will track suspected offenders, while police gain powers to restrict gatherings near schools, hospitals, and government buildings over potential violence. The measures – which also provide compensation for businesses damaged in the unrest – are already in place and require parliamentary approval within 45 days to remain in force.
What’s behind the protests in Albania?
Anti-government protests in the country began peacefully in May over plans for a luxury resort in the Zvernec nature reserve, a project linked to US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
By mid-October, the protests escalated into daily clashes with police amid growing anger over corruption, economic mismanagement, unemployment, and failing public services. Demands for Rama’s resignation took center stage, but the prime minister, who has been in power since 2013 and was elected to a fourth term last year, has refused to budge.
The unrest has caused over €2 million in damage, according to official estimates, as rioters torched ministries and attacked police stations, public buildings, and businesses. Clashes flared up again over the weekend, with protesters chanting “Revolution” and “Rama in prison” and police using tear gas, rubber bullets, and water cannons in Tirana.
The Russia blame game
Despite the protests being driven by grievances over domestic matters, Rama blamed the violence on a “hybrid war” by foreign actors, specifically Russia and Iran.
Russia has dismissed the accusations. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova suggested last week that Rama should look closer to home. “These are citizens of your own country who took to the streets to protest. Don’t shift your responsibility onto others. Deal with your own domestic problems.”
Wired for War Crimes: Israeli spy-tech firm targeted Starlink users – researchers
RT | October 28, 2026
An Israeli online advertising company implicated in spyware attacks targeting internet users was heavily active on SpaceX’s Starlink service, Japanese researchers have found, bolstering claims that the firm was running a “targeting and tracking” operation masquerading as a commercial advertising business.
Earlier this month, Canadian cybersecurity watchdog Citizen Lab and New York-based ad security firm Confiant published extensive investigations identifying Discover-Tech, an Israeli advertising technology company, as a middleman helping spyware firms, including Candiru and Intelos, as well as a little-known US-linked operator known as Dark Cartographer, track internet users and potentially infect their devices without their knowledge.
Discover-Tech’s operation involved purchasing advertising space on hundreds of thousands of websites and apps, using ads to collect information about users who viewed them, and making the data available to spyware companies. Those firms could then identify specific targets and potentially install spyware on their devices through malicious advertising code.
Despite presenting itself as a commercial operation, Discover-Tech concentrated much of its advertising spending on markets that would be of limited interest to conventional advertisers. Of 228 countries and territories examined, Palestine was the most heavily targeted, despite its population having severely limited access to Western goods and relatively little purchasing power.
In more than 100 countries, Discover-Tech was the leading bidder for advertising space targeting Starlink users, according to researchers at TrendAI, a unit of Japanese cybersecurity firm Trend Micro. The company was also the largest advertising bidder in Syria, Libya, Yemen and South Sudan, and the second-largest in Afghanistan.
TrendAI published its findings on October 15, identifying the suspicious advertiser only by the codename Shadow-Earth-79. Six people familiar with the research subsequently told Reuters that the codename referred to Discover-Tech.
Noting that “the demand for legitimate Western advertising in sanctioned or active-conflict states is effectively zero,” the researchers concluded that the company was running “targeting and tracking infrastructure rather than a commercial advertising operation.”
The findings suggest that Discover-Tech may have been attempting to identify, geolocate or monitor Starlink users. However, they do not establish that the company successfully infected Starlink users’ devices with spyware.
Who runs Discover-Tech?
Founded in 2020 by Israeli entrepreneur Dekel Boni, Discover-Tech appointed Eric Banoun as its director. Banoun co-founded Circles, a surveillance company affiliated with Pegasus spyware developer NSO Group, and Senpai Technologies, a company known for developing and selling surveillance software to governments, including those of Angola, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Banoun also founded Intelos, which uses advertisements similar to those placed by Discover-Tech to surveil and geolocate individuals. He attempted to sell the technology to Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency, according to Haaretz.
Haaretz also identified Sara Hamou, through her holding company, as a shareholder in Discover-Tech. Hamou is a former manager at Intellexa, the company that marketed Predator spyware in Greece. Earlier this year, she was sentenced to eight years in prison for her role in the Predator scandal.
Is Discover-Tech linked to the Israeli government?
It remains unclear who purchased the services of Candiru, Intelos and Dark Cartographer after the companies obtained user data through Discover-Tech. However, as RT previously reported in its ‘Wired for War’ series, Israel treats domestically developed spyware as a controlled defense export and retains authority over where such technology may be sold.
According to a 2021 investigation by Haaretz, export licenses for Pegasus were often granted when sales were considered beneficial to Israeli foreign policy interests, including in connection with trade agreements or diplomatic support for Israel at the UN.
Other Israeli spy-tech companies covered in the series, including Black Cube, BlackCore and Paragon Solutions, have also been linked to activities aligned with Israeli interests, even when they were not directly contracted by the Israeli government.
Discover-Tech’s advertising infrastructure was used to target at least 45 devices at Al Jazeera with Candiru spyware in 2024 and 2025, according to Citizen Lab. Researchers confirmed that some devices were infected through malicious advertisements that required no interaction from users.
The attacks occurred during a period of heightened tensions between Israel and the Qatar-based broadcaster, which Israeli authorities have accused of threatening national security. Candiru was founded by two Israel Defense Forces (IDF) intelligence veterans and operates under Israeli defense export controls.
While the Israeli government has not been accused of ordering Candiru to surveil Al Jazeera journalists, the targeting raises questions about whether the company’s clients shared interests with the Israeli authorities. The investigations have not identified the government or client responsible for commissioning the attacks.
Is Discover-Tech still operating?
Following the investigations by Citizen Lab and Confiant, several major advertising companies took action against Discover-Tech. Google, Comcast-owned Beeswax and Eskimi blocked the firm from their platforms, while Vungle suspended its access pending a review. Industry association IAB Europe also suspended Discover-Tech from its list of approved vendors.
Discover-Tech’s website, which markets the company as a “tailored digital advertising agency,” remains active. The firm has not publicly responded to the findings reported by Citizen Lab, Confiant or TrendAI.
US kills 5 in Pacific as unproven drug smuggling claims persist
Al Mayadeen | October 28, 2026
The US military killed five people in a strike targeting a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Thursday, marking the latest operation in Washington’s expanding military campaign against alleged drug trafficking networks across Latin America.
US Southern Command said the vessel was targeted along what it described as “established narco-trafficking routes.” However, despite citing “confirmed intelligence”, the military did not publicly provide evidence that the boat was transporting narcotics at the time of the attack.
Footage released on social media showed a vessel in the crosshairs before being struck and engulfed in flames.
By media counts, the operation is one of over 70 such attacks carried out since US President Donald Trump returned to the White House for a second term, with the combined death toll now topping 240.
The operation comes amid a broader escalation ordered by the administration of US President Donald Trump, which has increasingly framed anti-drug operations as part of an armed conflict against what it calls “narcoterrorist” organizations.
Critics, however, have questioned both the evidentiary basis for many of the strikes and the classification of those targeted as “narcoterrorists”.
The US administration has yet to offer conclusive proof that the targeted vessels were carrying drugs, and the strikes have fueled a dispute over whether they are lawful.
Extrajudicial executions
The growing campaign has attracted increasing scrutiny from lawmakers, military legal experts, and human rights organizations.
Human rights organizations contend that the killings may qualify as extrajudicial executions, since the people hit appear to have been civilians who posed no imminent danger to the United States.
US senators have repeatedly called on the Pentagon to release unedited footage of the strikes, citing concerns regarding transparency and accountability.
Legal scholars have also challenged the administration’s justification for the operations, arguing that Washington has yet to clearly establish the legal framework underpinning the repeated use of lethal military force outside conventional battlefields.
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Only a Beginning… Charles Malik’s vision of an emergent Pax Judaica
By David Miller | Tracking Power | November 12, 2026
In August 1949, three months after Israel joined the United Nations, Lebanon’s envoy in Washington sent his government a long report. Charles Malik, no firebrand, had signed the UN Charter and helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. His Report on the Present Situation lay largely unread until Dar An-Nahar printed it in 2002. … continue
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