“Australian populist party Pauline Hanson’s One Nation said it wanted to create a Norway-style sovereign wealth fund and for the government to take a share of offshore production licences in federal waters as it unveiled its energy policy at the Australian Energy Producers conference in Adelaide on Thursday. One Nation has surged in popularity this year, winning its first House of Representatives seat, and has backing from Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart, who recently donated a plane and hosted dinners for the party. … Her plan would see the federal government take a 30% stake in offshore licences, share development and decommissioning costs, and retain part of production for domestic use, including fertiliser and fuels.” (05/21/26)
“The Philippine justice chief ordered authorities Thursday to enforce an International Criminal Court warrant for the arrest of a senator wanted on an alleged crime against humanity. He warned that anyone helping the senator evade a nationwide hunt would face criminal charges. Sen. Ronald Dela Rosa ‘is a fugitive from justice,’ Justice Secretary Fredderick Vida said in a news conference. ‘He should be brought to the ICC to face the charges.’ Dela Rosa is a former national police chief who enforced then President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody crackdown against illegal drugs that killed thousands of mostly petty suspects. The killings alarmed Western governments and human rights groups. Duterte, who was president from 2016 to 2022, was arrested last year and flown to the The Hague, where is he is on trial at the ICC on charges of crimes against humanity.” (05/21/26)
“In a blow to the White House, Senate Republicans will remove a $1 billion Secret Service funding request that would help President Donald Trump’s ballroom project from their immigration enforcement funding bill amid internal objections. … The decision to omit the security funding came after twin blows: Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled over the weekend that the provision didn’t comply with the strict rules governing what Republicans can put in their filibuster-skirting bill because it funded activities outside of the Judiciary Committee’s jurisdiction. And several GOP senators aired public concerns about including any ballroom funding in a bill otherwise dedicated to immigration enforcement.” (05/20/26)
“The US has charged former Cuban leader Raúl Castro with conspiracy to kill US nationals and other crimes over the downing of two planes between Cuba and Florida in 1996. The case unveiled on Wednesday – a revival of charges originally from 2003 – accuses Castro and five others in the shooting down of an aircraft belonging to Cuban American group Brothers to the Rescue and killing four people, including three Americans. Castro, now 94, was the head of the country’s armed forces and faced international condemnation over the crash.” [editor’s note: There’s significant debate over whether the aircraft were in the Cuban regime’s claimed airspace, but no debate whatsoever about the fact that they weren’t in the US regime’s claimed airspace. Also, let’s talk about the recent US regime’s publicly confessed murders of boat crews, also outside areas of US jurisdiction – TLK] (05/20/26)
“Ukrainian drones struck Russia’s Rosneft-owned Syzran oil refinery in Samara region overnight, Ukrainian military and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday. ‘Another Ukrainian long-range sanction against Russian oil refining – and we are continuing this line of action,’ Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messaging app. … Two people were killed in a drone attack on the town of Syzran in Samara region, the local governor said, without mentioning whether any infrastructure was damaged in the attack. Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces said the attack caused a large fire at the refinery, whose annual processing capacity ranges from 7 to 8.9 million tons of crude oil.” (05/21/26)
“Two police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol from rioters on January 6, 2021, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday seeking to halt President Donald Trump’s nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate victims of political ‘weaponization.’ In a complaint filed in federal court in Washington, former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn and Metropolitan Police Department officer Daniel Hodges alleged Trump has ‘created a $1.776 billion taxpayer-funded slush fund to finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name.’ The lawsuit seeks a court order blocking payments from the fund, calling it ‘the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century.’ Trump settled on Monday with the Internal Revenue Service, agreeing to drop his $10 billion lawsuit over the leak of his tax returns during his first term. As part of the settlement, the Justice Department created the fund to compensate victims of political ‘weaponization.'” (05/20/26)
“Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has said it coordinated the transit of 26 vessels through the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours, as talks between Washington and Tehran over the resumption of traffic through the narrow waterway remain stalled. ‘Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is being carried out with permission and in coordination with the IRGC Navy,’ the statement carried by Iran’s state-affiliated ISNA news agency said on Wednesday.” (05/20/26)
“A former Department of Justice prosecutor is facing felony charges after emailing herself a sealed Biden-era investigative report concerning Donald Trump and attempting to hide the documents as cake recipes, federal authorities said on Wednesday. Carmen Mercedes Lineberger, who worked as a managing assistant US attorney in Florida, is facing two counts of theft [sic] of government money or property in addition to charges related to her alleged alteration of the documents [by renaming them to obscure the emailing], according to the indictment. … Meanwhile, advocacy groups have sought to unseal the report through court appeals. It’s unclear why Lineberger sent the report to herself. She faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison if convicted of the charges.” [editor’s note: All DOJ reports are “public property” and “sealing” them is the crime – TLK] (05/20/26)
“French investigators are probing allegations of embezzlement involving high-profile presidential candidate Édouard Philippe over the allocation of a digital hub contract in the northern port city of Le Havre where he is mayor, prosecutors have said. The 55-year-old centrist, an ex-prime minister seen as one of the strongest contenders in next year’s election to replace President Emmanuel Macron, denies the accusations. Polls suggest that Philippe, a centrist with his Horizons party, could successfully take on the far right and win the vote. His team said that he took note of the probe and would ‘answer the questions put to him by the judiciary as he has always done in a very serene manner.'” (05/20/26)
“Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired the co-chairs of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force last week. The move could open the task force up to more political influence. It comes as the administration prepares to vet new applicants to the committee, a process in which the chairs would typically be involved. The expert panel recommends which health services insurers must cover at no cost to patients under the Affordable Care Act. Kennedy sent letters dated May 11 to John Wong, a professor and primary care clinician at Tufts University, and Esa Davis, a professor and primary care clinician at University of Maryland, stating that their appointments as chairs would conclude effective immediately. Wong’s term was slated to last until mid-March 2027, and Davis’s term until mid-March 2028.” (05/20/26)
