Burnham confirms that intelligence services have identified clear Russian interference in the Brexit Ref.
Christopher Miller AT christopherjmiller
Russia steps up bid to kill European defence chiefs, spy agencies warn
With progress on the battlefield deadlocked in Ukraine and Russia’s economy struggling, the Kremlin has ordered an expansion of sabotage and “hybrid” operations in Europe as it seeks to fatally weaken support for Kyiv in the coming months.
Assassinations against European civilian targets — once considered taboo, even by Russia’s spy agencies — are an increasingly prominent part of those plans, European intelligence services have told the @FT.
Overnight Trump quotes
President Trump: "I could say the stupidest things and you'd clap."
"If Republicans get in power, you're going to end up in a depression. These people are incompetent"
This comes as Republican Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick says he has secured the support of at least 218 lawmakers to block the purchase of Russia oil. This is enough to pass the bill. He's calling it the "Ronald Regan Peace Through Strength Act". I suspect it's why Trump was bitching about Republicans.
It's also showing up Trump is not on collision course with the checks and balances and he's into full dictator mode at this point.
There's sort of a fairly broad conscious building that the election is either going to be won by republicans due to election fraud or the Democratic will win but Trump will refuse to accept it.
Anthony Scaramucci (former Trump Administration)
GOP Senators: Trump hates every one of you. He will stick it in your faces. He knows you won’t shut him down. Taunting. Teasing you. Provoking. Because he detests all of you and wants you and anyone else who humiliated. When will you stop him?
Stephen Webber
The Republican Party is in no way prepared for a cornered, vengeful 2027-28 Donald Trump who thinks that THEY have all failed HIM and decides to burn the whole GOP down just because he can
The Trump Administration have adjusted the number of deaths and injured in the Iran War. This is a major scandal which isn't getting traction amongst everything else. They had previously been accused of hiding deaths which they'd strongly denied. These 'additional' deaths have been classified as 'support workers' rather than front line troops. There's been a lot of talk about just how bad US casualties have been and a cover up with talk of the loss of entire bases being hidden. Something that would bring down an Administration in other times.
Elon Musk agrees with Trump says it’s “time for Ukraine to get a new leader.”
That's a suggestion that Starlink will be switched off if Ukraine doesn't do what Trump wants. There is some sort of suggestion in this that Ukrainians are only fighting for Zelenskyy and that they would somehow give up with an alternative leader rather than out of nationalism. That's a stretch. It's more likely to lead to Ukrainians supporting Zelenskyy too.
Not only that but in removing support for Ukraine, Ukraine is forced into a position where the gloves are off and the US leverage becomes less in terms of how much it can hold back on what Ukraine can do. Ukraine will have to resort to absolutely anything to destroy Russia just to survive. It would escalate not de-escalate. They've taken out a third Yanex data centre over night btw - it's network, which is basically the Russian internet, is now 78% down. The below also explains why switching off Starlink doesn't stop the Russian oil industry. Also note Europe's (UK's) role in terms of continuing intelligence.
Yaraslav Trofimov
Starlink is not used in Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries because it doesn’t work above Russia.
If Elon Musk decides to signal his dislike of Zelensky by turning off Starlink, it will lead to many thousands more Ukrainian deaths on the frontline, will severely damage the SpaceX brand internationally (countries will know they can’t rely on it in times of real crisis), but will have zero effect on Ukrainian strikes against the Russian oil and gas industry.
It will also not end the war.
Weirdly, there's reports that the activity of Russian troll farms is down massively. Ahead of the US elections. Now put my first point on this thread about the Ref in context with Yanex and the US Midterms and Trump being really pissed ATM. So much of these issues are heavily intertwined and are converging together. That's not a good thing because there will be an inevitable crunch point to it all. Fuck knows what that's going to look like.
Saudi officials have now confirmed 321 casualties of the Riyadh Airport missile (combined deaths and injuries total). The Yemenis have warned everyone to stay away from Saudi airports and that they are forcing Saudi airspace closed
In more unconnected news.
Nepal has had major flash flooding again over night but closer to home we should not forget the the impending political forces have a natural ally.
Volcaholic
UK flood taskforce
After the hottest summer on record, the government is getting ready for what could be a wet, stormy winter, made worse by a strong El Niño.
It's bringing together the Met Office, the Environment Agency, mayors and the farming, water and insurance industries. They'll meet for the first time on Wednesday.
Around 6.3 million homes and businesses in England are already at risk of flooding.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8040n4v7126o
If one thing doesn't get us, it looks like something else will!
That's your over night news dump.