Washington Tried to Isolate Russia. Now It Needs Russian Oil

Salman Rafi Sheikh, October 19, 2026

Four years after Washington set out to cripple Russia’s energy economy, America’s war with Iran has forced it to seek relief from the very country it tried to isolate, encircle, and defeat. [GUSNOTE: WASHINGTON HAS VOWED TO DESTROY RUSSIA, SINCE 1917]...

During a speech at the Las Vegas Sphere on Saturday, Metallica frontman James Hetfield took aim at artists like Macklemore for making political statements about the genocide in Gaza during their concerts.

“I just gotta say, Metallica is not here, like some other entertainers, to influence you with their bullshit, okay?” said Hetfield, adding, “We’re here to forget about all the outside shit, okay? Metallica’s agenda is love, energy and heavy music, baby!”

A Florida judge has issued an arrest warrant for former Cuban President Raul Castro, 95, the state’s attorney general announced on Monday. The move marks another escalation in Washington’s months-long pressure campaign against Havana.

The warrant pertains to the 1996 shooting down of two American planes operated by anti-communist Cuban exiles off Cuba’s coast. US authorities accuse Castro of ordering the attack.

“Today, we are announcing state charges against Raul Castro with an arrest warrant for conspiracy to commit first-degree murder,” Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said at a press conference in Miami. Prosecutors had gathered evidence and witness testimony linking a Cuban spy network to the operation that allegedly led Castro to order the planes shot down, he said.

Democracy must extend beyond the ballot box, with meaningful public participation, greater accountability and genuine power in the hands of citizens, writes David Higginbottom.

PARTY MACHINES decide who stands.

Democracy belongs to the people, not the political machine

By David Higginbottom

Wealth accumulates faster than wages. Lobbyists and donors obtain access unavailable to most citizens. Governments make major decisions with little public involvement. Well-funded institutions seek to shape public debate while claiming to defend it.

These are major concerns — however, diagnosis is useful only if it leads to change.

Russia “interfered” in the 2016 Brexit vote by running some “anti-EU” articles on its RT channel and promoting a few internet trolls. Even MI5 has to admit that this activity had no tangible impact on the referendum campaign.

No matter. British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has once again revived the incendiary claim that Russian disinformation is an especial threat to British democracy. At the United Nations a few weeks ago he announced plans for a National Centre for Information Defence “to detect, attribute and disrupt these kinds of hostile state information attacks.”

THE BULLSHIT FROM PETER HARTCHER IS FARAMINOUS.... MASSIVELY CONCOCTED CRAP.... WITH NOT AN OUNCE OF UNDERSTANDINGS AND A FEW HALF-TRUTHS EXUDING FROM DONALD'S SPHINCTER... BUT WHO ARE WE, AN OLD CARTOONIST WHO HAS SEEN MEGA BULLSHIT FROM THE PEDLARS OF CIA LIES SINCE BEFORE ITS INVENTION WHEN IT WAS THE OSS [Office of Strategic Services], TO CHALLENGE THE METHODICAL SCRIBE OF SUBURBAN WRITER'S PORKY CLUB TRYING HIS LUCK AT THE GEOPOLITICAL POKER GAME ... IT IS SAD TO SEE WHAT COULD BE A SMART BRAIN TRYING TO EXPLAIN WITH PSEUDO-ELOQUENCE THE EFFLUENT FLOWING INTO HIS CESSPOOL FROM A MILLION SHITTING ARSES....

Donald Trump is not only coddling Vladimir Putin. He is becoming Vladimir Putin

BY Peter Hartcher — Political and international editor [SMH]

Nearly 350 people were arrested in Paris on Sunday and overnight amid violent unrest sweeping France despite President Emmanuel Macron’s appeals for calm, the authorities said on Monday.

Hundreds of thousands protested rising living costs and education funding cuts over the weekend, with demonstrations escalating into clashes with police, arson and looting.

The violence erupted Saturday as Yellow Vest demonstrations merged with student protests that began last month at a high school in Creteil, near Paris, over teacher shortages and deteriorating facilities. The movement has since broadened into protests against inequality and rising living costs, with labor unions joining in opposition to the government’s proposed 2027 budget and spending cuts.

Most Italians oppose aid to Ukraine in the conflict with Russia, Defense Minister Guido Crosetto has said, as the country grapples with cost-of-living protests.

“We are fully aware that the majority of our public opinion, also influenced from abroad, is opposed to aiding Ukraine,” he told the BBC in an interview published on Saturday.

“It is difficult to explain that you have to help a nation resist and that helping it resist does not mean that you are opposed to peace.”

He nevertheless argued that Italy should continue to support Kiev, while acknowledging public anger over rising energy prices linked to the sanctions on Russia. He went on to claim that ‘Russian disinformation’ is fueling discontent.

Two weeks out from the first elections held in Israel since October 7, what do first-time voters envision for their country? These young people have grown up in the shadow of war; they are a reflection of an Israeli society on the brink of a nervous breakdown—united only by trauma and a desire for revenge. Charlie went to meet them.

Israeli youth: peace—never again

Ukraine’s long-range attacks on Russian civilian and energy infrastructure, including the raid on St. Petersburg, are no more than desperate attempts by Kiev to change the course of the conflict and will not succeed, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

One person was killed and five others wounded in St. Petersburg during an overnight aerial raid by the Ukrainian military, according to local governor Aleksandr Beglov. The attack also damaged over a dozen apartment blocks and caused a fire at a local oil terminal.

Peskov described the attack as “some final manifestations of agony” of Ukraine, adding that, although “the Kiev regime is fighting back, it cannot alter the course of history.”

Clashes broke out in the French capital today between police and demonstrators calling for the resignation of President Emmanuel Macron, the prime minister, and the education minister, with police using tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowds.

Al Mayadeen’s envoy to Paris reported injuries and arrests as confrontations carried on between security forces and protesters. He said more demonstrators kept arriving at the square while police continued to fire tear gas canisters without pause.

Founder Dave Donovan and managing editor Michelle Pini explore the one consistent thread in the rise of One Nation: the links between Hanson’s right-hand man James Ashby and Liberal Party Far-Right factions.

THERE is a stench about Pauline Hanson's One Nation (PHON) — the party whose pinup boy is Donald Trump.

One Nation’s James Ashby and the Liberals: Why orange is the new blue

In her new book, The Common Good Economy, Mariana Mazzucato argues governments should stop merely fixing market failures and start actively shaping economies around public purpose, shared rewards and the common good.

John Hawkins

Jewish actor and comedian Billy Crystal says a series of devastating personal losses has shaken his trust in God, including the destruction of his longtime family home in the 2025 Pacific Palisades wildfire and the killing of one of his closest friends.

In an interview with “CBS Sunday Morning,” Crystal, 78, said he no longer turns to God as he once did because too many painful events have changed his outlook.

Billy Crystal says he doesn't 'trust' God after house burned in wildfire, Rob Reiner killed

By Samantha Kamman, Christian Post Reporter