• Gregory Timm, a 33-year-old veteran, confronted 68-year-old disabled Navy veteran Harold Powell in a wheelchair on Seattle's waterfront in July 2025, accused him of stolen valor, snatched his service patch, then shot him in the chest after Powell drew a knife and realistic replica handgun.
• Timm was convicted of second-degree assault with a firearm and third-degree theft; he received a 42-month prison sentence in April 2026, which aligned with state guidelines, while Powell survived with a bullet still lodged in his chest and forgave the shooter at sentencing.
• The X post from an anti-GOP account labels the shooting as unprovoked by a "Republican gun owner," but news reports provide no confirmation of party affiliation and detail the escalation involving the victim's actions during the public confrontation.

Heat of the moment'

He added that police initially handcuffed Nowak and started giving him first aid when he then collapsed.

He said: "Shortly afterwards Henry became unconscious, then police began to set to work to give him first aid and summon an ambulance, a doctor flew in by helicopter but there was nothing that could be done to save Henry and he was declared dead."

The court heard Nowak's phone was later found in Digwa's pocket.

Digwa's mother was later allegedly filmed removing the knife and taking it to the family home in nearby St Deny's Road, where it was recovered.

More precisely, France would begin the development work of a Mk2 version of the SCALP air-launched cruise missile in 2026, initiating a new upgrade phase for the Franco-British missile. The Mk2 configuration will likely improve guidance, target acquisition, and mission-related functions while preserving compatibility with existing SCALP-EG and Storm Shadow inventories operated by France and the United Kingdom. The program is expected to be managed partly within a cooperative framework involving OCCAr under French procurement authority (or DGA) supervision.

Statements associated with the posts reflected differing expectations, including hopes for large-scale future production, assessments that the step supports continuity ahead of the FC/ASW replacement, and views that Mk2 constitutes an interim measure given the long timelines associated with FC/ASW. 

The six shareholders own approximately 27% of the company, which is valued at $220 Million AUD ($157 Million USD), and have been given 14 days to divest from the company.

This is the second time the Australian government has intervened in Northern Minerals Ltd. In 2024, they also forced the sale of 10.4% of the company, which was also owned by Chinese-linked buyers.

The company primarily produces heavy rare earth elements such as dysprosium and terbium, both of which are in heavy demand by defence industries.

Notably, last year, the Australian government and the United States government signed a critical minerals deal that included clauses that Australia would block asset sales due to "security grounds" if needed.

However, it seems that everyone has a price, or at least everyone has a threshold of intimidation that they can accept before they either sell out or capitulate (although the same cannot be said of the heroes of the Axis of Resistance, who do not fear worldly loss).

The Venezuelan government led by Delcy Rodríguez has opened the floodgates to US neocolonialism, which had been kept firmly shut by the revolutionary stalwart and man of God Nicolás Maduro. He was ready to be captured or martyred in defence of his people.

Rodríguez, on the other hand, has spent the past few months delivering on any US demand put in front of her, whether it’s the passing of new laws that benefit US companies, rolling out the red carpet to US officials and journalists, staying silent on the ongoing imprisonment of Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, purging Maduro’s allies from the government, or even handing over the hero Alex Saab to be locked up in a US dungeon.

Whether Rodríguez had advance knowledge of the 3rd January kidnapping or not, it’s clear that the US made the correct assessment that she would be a willing accomplice to their ransacking of the country following Maduro’s departure.

Some people may wish to quote Fidel Castro in 1991, when Cuba introduced capitalist measures during the Special Period of economic hardship and he declared that Cuba had to ‘find the formulas to save the country, save the revolution’.

However, this is not a case of pragmatism and buying time to save the Bolivarian Revolution: it is an outright betrayal.

Ammar Kazmi

At the start of 2025, Sudan registered an alarming debt-to-GDP (Gross Domestic Product) ratio of 252%. This means that the country’s total public debt is 2.5 times the size of its entire annual economic output. It is not hard to understand why Sudan is in such dire straits: as we outlined in last week’s newsletter, the country has been engulfed in a conflict for decades, which has severely disrupted any possibility of economic growth and financial stability. Yet, in a way, Sudan – one of the richest countries in terms of resources but poorest in terms of household income and wealth – is also representative of what has been happening on the African continent. As of 2022, the average debt-to-GDP ratio in Sub-Saharan countries was 60%, having doubled from 30% in 2013. This rise in indebtedness is shocking.

Africa’s total debt is over $1 trillion, with debt servicing costs of $163 billion per year. Developing countries’ total debt reached $11.4 trillion in 2023, four times the 2004 total of $2.6 trillion. This extraordinary increase has induced a debt crisis in over thirty out of sixty-eight low-income countries. This ballooning debt impacts development in two primary ways:

1. Due to an increased risk of default, further credit becomes very expensive and is often only available through commercial lenders. Africa’s total commercial debt is now 43% of its total external debt – more than twice what it was in 2000.
2. High debt servicing limits fiscal flexibility, forcing many governments to cut spending on education, healthcare, industrial development, and infrastructure. In many African countries, this has led to austerity measures across the board: in 2022, twenty-two countries spent more paying interest on their debt than on healthcare and six of them spent more on debt service than on education. A high debt burden ultimately leads to austerity measures, and therefore to economic contraction.