#BREAKING: #Alberta government adds separation-related question to fall referendum. Albertans will vote on whether the province should remain a part of Canada when they head to the polls this fall.

They will also decide if a second referendum on Alberta’s independence should happen in the future.

Premier Danielle Smith says her government is putting a new question on an Oct. 19 provincial referendum that covers sentiments of both the successful pro-federalist Forever Canadian petition and the struck-down Stay Free Alberta separation petition.

The question: “Should Alberta remain a province of Canada, or should the Government of Alberta commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada?”

The wording captures what Smith says is a way to hear from Albertans on both sides of the separation debate while abiding by a legally binding Court of King’s Bench decision that ruled a previous separatist question unconstitutional.

Earlier this month, a judge struck down Stay Free Alberta’s petition because the group failed to consult First Nations.

In a televised address Thursday evening, Smith said that ruling “fundamentally misinterprets the nature of the duty to consult.”

“I want to be clear. I support Alberta remaining in Canada. That is how I would vote on separation in a provincial referendum. It is also the position of my government, and my caucus,” she said.

“However, despite my personal support … I am deeply troubled by an erroneous court decision that interferes with the democratic rights of hundreds of thousands of Albertans.”

Smith said a ‘yes’ vote to another referendum would allow her government to take the legal steps toward a second separation vote without falling under the recent court ruling. The outcome of the fall referendum would not trigger separation, she added.

The question would also avoid a months or years-long court appeal process Smith’s government began shortly after the ruling was announced.

“Kicking the can down the road only prolongs a very emotional and important debate, and muzzling the voices of hundreds of thousands of Albertans wanting to be heard is unjustifiable in a free and democratic society,” she said.

“It’s time to have a vote, understand the will of Albertans on this subject, and move on.”
Legislative committee approves Forever Canadian petition hours prior

MLAs part of a review committee approved a referendum petition that would ask Albertans if the province should remain in Canada hours before Smith’s address.

The committee was tasked with reviewing the next steps for Thomas Lukaszuk’s Forever Canadian petition question, which amassed more than 400,000 signatures in support of staying in Canada. It was initially unclear whether there would be a provincewide vote on the matter.

The United Conservative Party members outnumbered the Opposition in the group, swaying Thursday’s vote.

The decision comes after the UCP caucus prematurely released a statement Wednesday recommending the referendum, prompting the end of committee’s meeting which resumed Thursday afternoon.

UCP MLA Jason Nixon said the release was sent in error, but voted with other party members in the committee against discussing the matter further.

New Democratic Party members at the committee meeting pressed the UCP to elaborate on the media breach, which were continuously avoided.

Brandon Lunty, UCP MLA, said the questions posed by the Opposition were irrelevant to the motion of the day.

Opposition MLA Court Ellingson proposed that the province consult with First Nations before putting the referendum to Albertans.

“The government can’t pass the duty to consult,” said Ellingson during the meeting.

UCP committee members accused their Opposing colleagues of stalling the meeting with the consultation amendment, which the NDP refuted.

The amendment to consult with First Nations was ultimately struck down.

NDP’s Rakhi Pancholi raised concerns of a recent data breach that saw the release of more than three million Albertan’s private information leaked, saying a referendum shouldn’t be held until the investigation into the breach has been completed.

Pancholi and her party colleagues voiced their suspicion that the premier would be announcing her own referendum on separation in a televised address Thursday evening.

“She is using this committee to legitimize her desire to have a question on a referendum,” said Ellingson.

Nixon called a point of order, saying “what the premier thinks or does not think is certainly not under discussion in this motion.”

Following the meeting, Pancholi accused the UCP of “courting separatists.”

“The premier is very aware that it is the separatists in this province who got her the UCP leadership, and she owed them a debt,” said the MLA.

Forever Canadian petition leader Lukaszuk said Smith has “something else coming” if she thinks the referendum question will satisfy separatists.

“What the premier is doing right now is trying to find her way through a very, very fine crack between upsetting separatists and upsetting the rest of Alberta, and her only goal right now is saving her political skin … as opposed to doing what’s good for our province and our country,” Lukaszuk told media after the meeting.

With a question on staying in Canada now slated for the ballot, Albertans will be voting on 10 immigration and constitution-related questions this fall.

The other nine questions, which ask for a mandate on issues relating to Alberta’s jurisdiction in matters of immigration and the judicial system, were announced earlier this year.

The outlook for African currencies is mixed in the next week to Thursday, with those of #Ghana, #Kenya and #Uganda expected to weaken, while #Nigeria's could be little changed and Zambia's may strengthen, traders said.

As #Ebola cases rise, Americans returning from #DRC must enter US via Washington Dulles

South Korea's benchmark Kospi #stock index is up more than 150% over the past year, driven by a global #AI boom. But, surprisingly, the won remains one of Asia’s weakest currencies.

U.S. announces criminal case against former Cuban President Raúl Castro.

#MIAMI — Federal prosecutors on Wednesday announced charges against former Cuban President Raúl Castro in the 1996 downing of civilian planes operated by Miami-based exiles as the Trump administration escalated pressure on the socialist government.

The indictment was related to Castro’s alleged role in the shootdown of two small planes operated by the exile group Brothers to the Rescue. Castro, now 94, was Cuba’s defense minister at the time. The charges included murder and destruction of an airplane.

“For nearly 30 years, the families of four murdered Americans have waited for justice,” Blanche said. “They were unarmed civilians and were flying humanitarian missions for the rescue and protection of people fleeing oppression across the Florida straits.”

Asked to what lengths American authorities would go to bring Castro to face charges in the U.S., Blanche said: “There was a warrant issued for his arrest. So we expect that he will show up here, by his own will or by another way.”

The federal government, he said, indicts people outside the United States “all the time” and uses a variety of methods to bring them to justice.

A grand jury in Miami returned the indictment in late April before it was unsealed Wednesday, Blanche said. Five other people were also charged, including three Cuban military pilots.

Asked what will happen next for Cuba, U.S. President Donald Trump said, “We’re going to see.” He added that the U.S. is ready to provide humanitarian assistance to a “failing nation.”

The charges pose a real threat, observers said, because former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was indicted on drug-related charges before he and his wife were seized by U.S. special forces in the Venezuelan capital in January.

“He’s going to have to keep his head pretty low from now on,” said Peter Kornbluh, a senior analyst and specialist on the U.S.-Cuba relationship at the National Security Archive. “They’re going to have no choice but to take this threat extremely seriously.”

Cuban president condemns indictment

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel condemned the indictment and accused the U.S. of lying and manipulating the events of 1996. He called it “a political action without any legal basis” that only seeks to ”bolster the case they are fabricating to justify the folly of a military aggression against Cuba.”

Díaz-Canel wrote on X that Cuba acted in “legitimate self-defense within its territorial waters after repeated and dangerous violations of its airspace by notorious terrorists.”

He said U.S. officials at the time had been warned about the violations but allowed them to continue.

Marlene Alejandre-Triana, whose father, Armando Alejandre Jr, was among those who died, said the charges were “long overdue.” She said her father only wanted to bring freedom to his Cuban homeland.

Over the years, she spoke to multiple federal investigators about charging Castro. She referred to him as “one of the main architects of the crime.”

In Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood, Peter Hernandez, whose family owns a fruit and vegetable market, said he would welcome the U.S. sending its military to arrest Castro.

“He’s a criminal,” said Hernandez, whose parents moved from Cuba to South Florida before he was born. ”I think we should do that with all criminals, especially if they’re hiding behind a country that consistently has been proven that they are on the wrong side of our national security efforts and ideology.”
Trump has threatened military action for months

U.S. President Donald Trump has been threatening military action in Cuba ever since U.S. forces captured the Cuban government’s longtime patron, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. After ousting Maduro, the White House ordered a blockade that choked off fuel shipments to Cuba, leading to severe blackouts, food shortages and an economic collapse across the island.

Since Maduro’s capture, Trump has ratcheted up talk of regime change in Cuba after pledging earlier this year to conduct a “friendly takeover” of the country if its leadership did not open its economy to American investment and kick out U.S. adversaries.

Trump’s first administration indicted Maduro on drug-trafficking charges and used that to justify removing him from power during a surprise military raid in January that whisked the Venezuelan leader to New York to face trial.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday urged the Cuban people to demand a free-market economy with new leadership that he said will chart a new course in relations with the U.S.

“In the U.S., we are ready to open a new chapter in the relationship between our people,” Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, said in a Spanish-language video message. “Currently, the only thing standing in the way of a better future are those who control your country.”
Raúl Castro believed to wield power behind the scenes

Castro took over as president from his ailing older brother Fidel Castro in 2006 before handing power to a trusted loyalist, Díaz-Canel, in 2018.

While he retired in 2021 as head of the Cuban Communist Party, he is widely believed to wield power behind the scenes, underscored by the prominence of his grandson, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, who previously met secretly with Rubio.

Last week, CIA Director John Ratcliffe travelled to Havana for meetings with Cuban officials, including Castro’s grandson. Two other senior State Department officials met with the grandson in April.
The investigation into Castro stretches back to the 1990s

Starting in 1995, planes flown by members of Brothers to the Rescue, a group founded by Cuban exiles, buzzed over Havana dropping leaflets urging Cubans to rise up against the Castro government.

The Cubans protested to the U.S. government, warning that they would defend their airspace. Federal Aviation Administration officials also opened an investigation and met with the group’s leaders to urge them to ground the flights, according to declassified government records obtained by George Washington University’s National Security Archive.

But those calls went unheeded and on Feb. 24, 1996, missiles fired by Russian-made MiG-29 fighter jets downed two unarmed civilian Cessna planes a short distance north of Havana just beyond Cuba’s airspace. All four men aboard were killed.
Raúl Castro faced earlier indictment

Guy Lewis, who was a federal prosecutor, uncovered evidence linking senior Cuban military officials to cocaine trafficking by Colombia’s Medellin cartel. Following the shootdown, the investigation expanded, and prosecutors pursued charges against Raúl Castro for leading a vast racketeering conspiracy by Cuba’s armed forces.

In the end, the Clinton administration indicted four individuals, including the MiG pilots, the head of the Cuban air force and the head of a Cuban spy network in Miami — the only one to see the inside of a U.S. prison — for providing valuable intelligence about the flights.

The incident led the U.S. to harden its position against Cuba, even though the Cold War had ended and the Castros’ support for revolution across Latin America was a fading memory.

But Castro himself was spared as the Clinton administration — which had quietly sought to expand relations with Cuba prior to the incident — raised foreign policy concerns about such a high-profile indictment.

___

Joshua Goodman And Alanna Durkin Richer, The Associated Press

Durkin Richer reported from Washington. Associated Press reporters David Fischer in Miami; Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Meg Kinnard in Houston; Michael Weissenstein in New York; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed to this report.

A guard, a teacher’s husband and an indispensable elder: Mosque mourns heroes who distracted shooters from children inside.

Abdullah was one of three beloved community members who died shielding the mosque from what police have said they’re investigating as a hate crime. Two other fixtures of the centre, Mansour Kaziha and Nadir Awad, were killed while trying to draw the attackers away from the building.

“We call them our brothers in the community, we call them our martyrs and our heroes,” Taha Hassane, imam and director of the Islamic Center, said Tuesday.

The selfless actions of the victims ultimately saved lives by preventing the two attackers from penetrating deeper into the building, investigators have said.

“All three of our victims did not die in vain,” San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said Tuesday. “Without distracting the attention, without delaying the actions of these two individuals, without question there would have been many more fatalities yesterday.”
Three men distracted shooters from children inside

Like many religious institutions in America, the Islamic Center had bolstered its security after receiving vitriolic messages and worrying threats. It erected a fence, installed bulletproof windows and held regular active shooter drills at its school.

And it employed armed guards, like Abdullah, who greeted mosque members with smiles but was prepared to defend against the worst.

“He was the first face of that community to anyone who came through the door,” organizers of a fundraiser for Abdullah’s family wrote, “and the last line of defense when it mattered most.”

Abdullah immediately recognized the threat as the two armed teens ran past him on Monday, Wahl said.

The security guard exchanged gunfire with the teens as he quickly radioed the school to go into lockdown. His immediate action prevented them from gaining access to classrooms just dozens of feet away, where about 140 students and their teachers were beginning to realize something was wrong, the police chief said.

“His actions, without a doubt, delayed, distracted and ultimately deterred these two individuals from gaining access to the greater areas of the mosque,” Wahl said.

Abdullah was killed in the exchange of gunfire.

The attackers were drawn away from the building by Kaziha, who was the first to call 911, and Awad, who had heard the gunfire from his home nearby.

“When he heard the shooting, he rushed to do something to protect, and he joined Mansour Kaziha. They died together,” Hassane said.

Unable to flee, the two men were cornered and killed by the shooters, who then fled as police descended on the street, Wahl said.

“They tried to do something to protect, but unfortunately they sacrificed their lives to protect the entire community inside the Islamic Center of San Diego,” Hassane said.
Guard showed both steely resolve and friendly smile

Photos of Abdullah show the image Americans have come to expect of a security guard at places of worship and learning, which have so frequently felt threatened by deadly violence. Broad-shouldered and stocky. Hands tucked into a vest covered in tactical gear. His face, always serious.

But there was another side of Abdullah, people associated with the mosque say. A video posted to Facebook on Tuesday by the Council on American-Islamic Relations showed the 51-year-old smiling broadly and extending a vigorous handshake as a worshipper entered the mosque – with an “Armed Security Officer” patch on his vest as a visible reminder of his role that ultimately saved others’ lives.

For the past four years, Sam Hamideh had seen that side of Abdullah: the kind, excited helper who greeted his family every morning at school drop-off.

“Every single time you crossed him, he always put a smile on your face,” Hamideh told CNN. “He always brought that energy of everything’s good, you know, having that strong faith in God and always being kind.”

It was kindness that sometimes surprised Hamideh. When a homeless man who appeared to be having mental health difficulties approached the Islamic Center one day, Hamideh said, Abdullah did not shoo him away. Instead, Abdullah offered the man food and water and gently tried to answer his questions about Islam.

“I said, ‘Brother, wow. The way you treated him,’” remembered Hamideh. “(Abdullah) said, ‘Let me tell you something: There are people out there, all they need is help. And if you need help, don’t you want help? So let’s be people that help if we can.’”

The security guard’s daughter, Hawaa Abdullah, said Tuesday her father was her role model, her best friend and the “absolute best dad in the world.”

Monday afternoon, in the face of the threat he had trained for, the friendly side of Brother Amin faded. The steely-eyed man from the pictures returned. The protector.

Abdullah took his job seriously, his daughter said – so seriously that he sometimes skipped eating meals out of concern “something bad would happen” if he stepped away.

“My dad was the number one advocate for safety and keeping our community safe. He stood against any form of hate,” Hawaa Abdullah said.

Hamideh learned from his wife that Abdullah was killed.

“She said they shot Brother Amin. He was the first one. And that was crushing,” he told CNN.

“I truly know in my heart from knowing that man that he was sacrificing his life and took that bullet knowing that (he would) rather take it than the kids, and that is what makes me emotional.”

Within minutes of the shooting, the Islamic Center that prides itself on being welcoming had to turn even the faithful away, as crime scene tape surrounded the block. “We are closed for the rest of the day,” Hassane said on Instagram on Monday afternoon. “Stay safe. Stay home.”

Another safe space was violated, and a kind man would not return home to his eight children Monday – during the final month of the Islamic calendar when Muslims perform Hajj, a holy pilgrimage, and prepare for Eid al-Adha.

“Having that type of person that’s willing to put their life and protect other people’s kids so they can hug their kids, but he’s got to go home to be buried by his kids – that hurts. That hurts a lot,” Hamideh said.
Guard says he converted to Islam as a young adult

Abdullah was raised as a Christian, he said in a testimony video posted to YouTube in 2019. He became drawn to Islam, he said, from a coworker at a restaurant where he was a cook after he graduated high school in 1992: “The concept of Islam, believing that there’s only one God, one Being responsible for everything, I was like, ‘Wow, this means so much.’”

Describing himself as being “kind of lazy” in his youth, Abdullah said a spiritual awakening changed his life.

“After I took the shahada and became a Muslim, my mother saw a change in me,” he said in the video, wearing a black turban and embroidered dishdasha. “Our relationship improved.”

Abdullah acknowledged his conversion initially resulted in a “clash” among some of his relatives, but he said his mother eventually became a Muslim herself. “The bottom line is half of my family is now Muslim; half are not – and that’s their choice. We still respect each other.”

He advised people to keep their focus on helping others.

“This is what we should be doing: Do something beneficial for the next person,” Abdullah said in the video. “Let this be your legacy.”
Caretaker and neighbor’s familiar faces will be missed

Anyone walking into the Islamic Center would not be surprised to see the faces of Kaziha or Awad, whose near daily presence at the mosque means their absence will be acutely felt.

As Awad distracted the attackers, his mind undoubtedly flicked to his wife, who is a teacher at the Islamic Center’s school.

The 57-year old, who lived so close to the mosque that the imam described him as a “neighbor,” went to the centre every day to join prayers, Hassane said.

He died alongside the mosque’s 78-year-old caretaker, Kaziha, who went by AbulEzz. The community elder and “pillar” of the centre had been there since he helped it break ground in 1986, Hassane said. As director, Hassane said, “I have never done anything without him.”

“Anything that goes wrong, he was the handyman, he was the cook, he was the caretaker, he was the storekeeper, he was everything. I don’t know what I’m going to do at the Islamic Center without his assistance, his daily assistance.”

Another imam at the mosque, Saad Eldegwy, said, “I cannot imagine entering the mosque without seeing him working and serving the community in all ways that he could.”
Community grieves loss of its heroes

Friends and parents who arrived outside the Islamic Center on Monday were still in a daze, facing confusion over yet another inexplicable tragedy. Those who knew the victims were united in grief.

“Every time I brought my grandkids, or I picked them up, or I come for prayers myself during the day, (Abdullah) was always present there taking care of the center, as well as for the kids, the staff, teachers,” said one man who spoke to CNN affiliate KFMB.

Memorial flowers dedicated to the shooting victims began to appear outside the Islamic Center’s gates Tuesday, including a sympathy card from a large Baptist church three miles away.

Among the people looking on quietly was a young bearded man whom a school official identified as one of Abdullah’s children. The official gave him a hug and touched his hand to his heart before the young man walked away.

“He was beloved before. He’s even more beloved now,” Edward Ahmed Mitchell of the Council on American-Islamic Relations told CNN’s Sara Sidner on Tuesday.

There comes a day after every mass shooting when things slowly return to routine. Worship services resume, and children go back to class. But for people like Sam Hamideh and his wife, who could depend on Brother Amin every day for a kind word and a broad smile, his death leaves a hole they don’t know how to fill.

“She told me that this morning specifically he said, ‘Say hello to Sam,’” Hamideh said Monday. “I didn’t know it was his goodbye.”

Andy Rose, Alisha Ebrahimji, Kyung Lah, Norma Galeana, Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN

#Armenia made a series of actions recently that were clearly unfriendly towards Russia, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu said during a meeting of the council’s special working group.

"Over the past years, the State Duma of Armenia undertook a series of measures that were definitively unfriendly towards Russia," he said.

"This is how we view the decisions to join the International Criminal Court, to extradite Russian citizens to third countries, and to make things harder for Russian economic entities, who, by the way, create tens of thousands of jobs for Armenian citizens. And, last but not least, they gave the floor to the Kiev regime during the summit of the European Political Community in Yerevan, allowing them to make threats to Russia," Shoigu added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's two-day official visit to China has come to an end: all public and protocol events, including an informal tea party with Chinese President Xi Jinping, have been completed. As Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov previously noted, "taking a stroll and having a cup of tea" is the most important thing one can and should do in China, since it is in this environment that key decisions are made. However, the public part of the visit was also full of events: the Russian president held talks with his Chinese counterpart, both in the company of smaller and expanded delegations, opened the Russia-China Cross-Year of Education, spoke with Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China Li Qiang, and then met with a grown-up witness of his first state visit to China. He also visited a photo exhibition, organized in part by #TASS.

"It was successful, intense, and fruitful work," the Russian president himself assessed the visit.

Helping ships pass through the blocked Strait of Hormuz would represent a shift in NATO’s strategy toward the US-Israeli war with Iran.

From May 19-21, 2026, the Russian Armed Forces are conducting an exercise on the preparation and use of nuclear forces in the event of a threat of aggression. The TASS-FACTBOX editorial team has prepared a summary of Russia’s strategic nuclear forces’ (SNF) drills since 2020.
Strategic deterrence forces, SNF in Russia’s Armed Forces

Russia’s strategic deterrence forces (#SDF) are a core component of the Armed Forces. They are designed to deter aggression against Russia and its allies, as well as to defeat an aggressor in a war using various types of weapons, including nuclear weapons. The SDF consist of the strategic offensive forces and strategic defensive forces. The main component of the strategic offensive forces are the strategic nuclear forces (SNF, the nuclear triad). They include the Strategic Missile Forces, a part of the Navy – the naval SNF, and part of the Aerospace Forces – the air-based SNF. The SNF include air defense and missile defense systems, a missile attack warning system, etc.