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I am hoping to make this a regular feature — on the days when breaking news hits like a tsunami, I will try to parse what is most important for our community of global newsies.
In a nose thumber at the Trump regime, which is trying to break the International Criminal Court, the European Parliament awarded the ICC and its judges the 2026 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
“The European Union is built on respect for multilateralism and international institutions,” said European Parliament President Roberta Metsola. “With the award of the Sakharov prize to the International Criminal Court and its officials, the European Parliament recognises the Court’s important work in upholding international law and justice.”
From a EuroParl press release:
The International Criminal Court (ICC) investigates and tries, when warranted, individuals charged with the gravest crimes of concern to the international community: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression.
The Court is a crucial actor in the global fight to end impunity, and through international criminal justice, it aims to hold those responsible accountable for their crimes and to help prevent these crimes from happening again. As a court of last resort, it seeks to complement national courts. Governed by an international treaty called the Rome Statute, the ICC is the world’s first permanent international criminal court.
The award highlights the ICC’s work, including investigations, prosecutions, trials and the issuance or authorisation of arrest warrants.Named after Soviet physicist and political dissident Andrei Sakharov, the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought was established in 1988. It is awarded annually by Parliament to individuals or organisations in recognition of their work in one of the following areas: the defence of human and fundamental rights, in particular freedom of expression, the safeguarding of minority rights, respect for international law, the development of democracy and the defence of the rule of law.
In other words, the award represents everything that is contrary to the criminal regimes of Trump and Putin.
Trump has been actively sabotaging the ICC, which issued arrest warrants for his allies Putin and Netanyahu, and is set to try Rodrigo Duterte for crimes against humanity on 30 November — crimes that directly match Trump’s boat killings.
Canceling Musk by Going Satellite Sovereign
Finnish tech company ICEYE announced it was pairing with Nokia to help Ukraine build its own sovereign satellite system.
The companies signed a letter of intent with Ukraine’s Defense Ministry on on Thursday, “to formalize a partnership aimed at developing Ukraine’s own satellite communications system,” according to the Kyiv Independent, which reported that “President Volodymyr Zelensky first announced the deal earlier in the day during Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s visit to Kyiv, calling the satellite agreement ‘important for our defense and for the resilience of Ukraine.’ The agreement with Kyiv comes a few weeks after Nokia and ICEYE announced plans to collaborate on building ‘broadband low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications systems for governments.’ These systems will support national defense, emergency response services, and border security, among other applications.”
This news is important because Ukraine is reliant on Starlink, which is part of Musk’s SpaceX company. Last week, Ukrainian military reported uplink speeds were restricted, affecting their defense ability. Both Musk and Trump pointed fingers at each other, each blaming the other for deliberate limits. Despite Trump saying limits have been lifted, the Ukrainian military is still reporting issues with Starlink.
The Finnish announcement is a critical reminder for Europe to continue terminating ties to American-based technology in order to protect national security and sovereignty.
Crime Bosses Malfunctioning and Glitching
Both Jared Kushner and Donald Trump appear to be suffering from programming glitches. A Vanity Fair book excerpt from “Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed’s Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East examines how bank accounts linked the president’s son-in-law—and former senior adviser—to Israel, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia.” In response, Kushner, the Son of a Felon, defended his honor by claiming the author’s allegations are “completely insane.”
In the meantime, his Felon Father-in-Law continues to burble and glitch his way through speeches, leading to exquisite schadenfreude on X.
Briefing from Paris on Russian Disinformation Aiming at US Midterms
French historian and information warfare analyst David Colon reports live from Paris:
Here in the late afternoon, Matryoshka published 8 videos and 5 fake press covers in which this informational modus operandi affiliated with the Kremlin instrumentalizes the October 17 protests in France with the clear aim of dissuading American voters from voting Democrat in the Midterms.
I add that there is alignment between the Kremlin’s narratives of informational operating modes and the speeches of Trump, Vance, and Musk, who claim that voting Democrat would lead to disturbances comparable to those that France is experiencing.—David Colon on X
Colon’s note regarding the narrative alignment between the Kremlin’s operations and speeches by US leaders is both telling and damning.
Politico reporting that US lawmakers said “that Russia launched covert influence campaign to undermine US candidates supportive of Ukraine… ‘It’s a carnival out there,’ said House Intelligence Committee ranking member Jim Himes (D-Conn.), referring to Russia’s digital election interference efforts.”
Some historic perspective here:
WhatsApp Messages Expose Russian Ties
According to an investigation by the EUObservor, leaked WhatsApps between an ex-EU commissioner, Didier Reynders, and a senior Belgian spy, Hugues Brulin, “reveal attempts to bury allegations of his possible Russia ties.”
The messages from 2022 are evidence in a Belgian police investigation into Reynders on money-laundering charges and “reconfirm that Belgian authorities were looking into wider allegations of Reynders’ possible collusion with Russia.”
According to the EUObservor report:
The 68-year-old liberal politician from Liège, in French-speaking southern Belgium, had had a glittering career before his sudden fall from grace in December 2024, when Belgian police raided his properties, and before he was subsequently charged in 2025 with having laundered some €1m via the ING Bank, using lottery tickets and cash deposits.
This news comes on the heels of the unfolding scandal of Germany’s ex-spy chief.
And off topic, it shocks me that everyone in Europe communicates through WhatsApp, which is owned by the same network used to overthrow American democracy.
Quote of the Day - Christopher Steele
“Given Trump’s latest tilt to supporting Russian dictator Putin in his failing war of aggression against Ukraine, we Europeans must step up to the plate. UK, France and Germany can’t allow Moscow to prevail. It would be the death knell of our peace and security for a generation.”—Christopher Steele on X
On a side note, I met Steele at the 2025 Byline Festival in the Green Room, where I plopped down in between Peter Jukes and Steele on a couch, where we began talking about the power of political cartoonists in taking down empires.
The ex-MI6 officer’s quote comes at a particularly precarious time — when the UK, France, and Germany are threatened on multiple fronts with pro-Putin political actors and a torrent of Russian and US-sponsored active measures.
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Bless you beloved sis!! Thank you! Prodigious work making vitally important developments accessible and digestible. Genius! Global Resistance Fighter!