“Voters in Canada’s oil-rich Alberta province overwhelmingly backed remaining in Canada, with early referendum results Tuesday delivering a boost to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s push for national unity amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war and annexation threats. With more than 1.5 million votes counted, 76% supported remaining in Canada, while close to 24% backed beginning a process toward separation, according to unofficial results from Elections Alberta. The referendum wasn’t a direct vote on independence. Approval would have set Alberta on a path toward a future vote on separation from Canada.” (10/20/26)
“The US Department of Justice has filed criminal charges against 28 green card holders in California accused of fraudulently registering to vote and casting illegal ballots. The crackdown marks another escalation in the federal government’s ongoing efforts against alleged noncitizen voting, efforts that Democrats and voting rights groups say are part of a strategy by the Trump administration to sow doubt in the results of the upcoming midterm elections. The justice department announced Monday that 28 noncitizens from across California were facing charges, including making false statements in a naturalization application and fraudulently signing up to vote, felonies that could carry five years in prison. The defendants are lawful permanent residents, who have legal status in the US but are not citizens authorized to vote. A justice department spokesperson said 21 of the 28 defendants had cast unlawful ballots.” (10/19/26)
“The Republican Party of Florida filed suit on Friday against the Florida Democratic Party, many of its candidates, and a slew of television stations, seeking to stop the airing of a political ad that highlights the leaked grand jury presentment in the Hope Florida scandal. … State statutes ‘make it unlawful for any person to knowingly broadcast the content, gist, or import of testimony of a witness examined before a grand jury. The advertisement does exactly that,’ the lawsuit states.” [editor’s note: If I was a Republican official or candidate, I wouldn’t want the Democrats to mention that prominent people in my party misappropriated $10 million and used it to rig an election, either. But I might want to look up “Streisand Effect” before filing suit over it – TLK] (10/19/26)
“President Trump wants to hold a trilateral summit with Chinese President Xi and Russian President Putin in China next month to discuss ‘denuclearization’ — but not necessarily Ukraine. Such a summit between the leaders of the U.S., China and Russia would be unprecedented. Trump has been talking for two years about his aspiration to reach a deal with Russia and China to reduce the number of nuclear weapons. But so far Putin and Xi haven’t shown much openness to the idea. … The Kremlin has been floating the idea of holding such a meeting since July. Putin raised the issue in two phone calls with Trump, including one last week. The Chinese government hasn’t expressed willingness to hold such a summit. … When asked on Monday whether such a summit could discuss ending the war in Ukraine, Trump said he wants to hold such a trilateral meeting, but in order to discuss other issues.” (10/19/26)
“Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University demonstrator who became a flashpoint in the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian foreign students, asked the Supreme Court on Monday to take up his case, his lawyers said. … The Supreme Court turns away the vast majority of petitions to hear cases and will consider Khalil’s at a closed-door meeting in the coming months. His lawyers expressed hope it will be on track to be heard this term. Until the justices decide how to proceed, Khalil will remain free. The green-card holder has emerged as a face of the Trump administration’s [abductions] of noncitizen college students and faculty who’ve expressed pro-Palestinian support. Immigration authorities [abducted] Khalil in March 2025, and he was jailed until a federal judge ordered his release a few months later.” (10/19/26)
“Gangs in Haiti have opened fire on an armored vehicle, leaving four [gang members] from El Salvador unaccounted for in the first major attack since an international gang suppression [gang] began operations in the violence-wracked country. The attack occurred Sunday in Croix-des-Bouquets, a once peaceful community in Port-au-Prince now controlled by violent gangs. The Armed Forces of El Salvador said in a statement Monday that the four [gang members] were returning to camp when the armored vehicle was attacked with explosives and set on fire. It noted that the four men managed to flee the burning vehicle and it is working with international forces to ‘establish contact and determine the location of our [gang members].'” (10/19/26)
“Israeli police on Monday said they arrested 10 [squatters] accused of attacking a group of Palestinian olive pickers and journalists in the West Bank last week, including Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine. Some of the Israelis arrested were accused of also attacking a group of European diplomats visiting the Palestinian town of Taybeh on Saturday, CNN reported. The diplomats represented Belgium, France, Poland and the Catholic Church, the BBC reported. … On Friday, video captured the incident as dozens of masked Israeli [squatters] attacked the Palestinians gathering the harvest in Abu Falah. The attackers set the olive tree groves on fire and hurled rocks, Andrey Khrzhanovskiy, a blogger who recorded the incident, told The Washington Post.” (10/19/26)
“The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal brought by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other alleged 9/11 plotters seeking to hold the government to a plea deal it later withdrew. The court action removes one barrier to Mohammed standing trial before a military commission in 2028, where the death penalty is a possible punishment. He has been held at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 2006. Mohammed is accused of being the ringleader of the plot to crash hijacked planes into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. A fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. The other two men who appealed to the Supreme Court were Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi and Walid bin Attash, who are also held at Guantanamo and set to face trial.” (10/19/26)
“A self-proclaimed Kenyan preacher and his associates were found guilty of murdering 191 people, all but one of them children, in an infamous starvation cult by a Mombasa court on Monday. … Hundreds of bodies have been discovered since 2023 at the cult base inland from the Kenyan beach resort of Malindi, in what became known as the ‘Shakahola Forest Massacre.’ Paul Mackenzie is alleged to have incited his acolytes to starve to death in order to ‘meet Jesus.'” (10/19/26)
“A murder warrant was issued Oct. 19 in Florida for former Cuban leader Raul Castro in connection with two humanitarian planes shot down 30 years ago. The warrant, signed by Chief Judge Ariana Fajardo Orshan of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit, charges Castro with one-count of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. Castro, then Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and First Vice President of Cuba, was a final decision-maker in the chain of command that authorized the shootdown, according to the affidavit. Two planes, operated by the Miami-based exile group Brothers to the Rescue, were shot down by the Cuban Air Force in [allegedly] international waters Feb. 25, 1996. Four people were killed.” (10/19/26)
