The president of the Venezuelan polling firm Hinterlaces, Óscar Schémel, said that 82% of Venezuelans see positively the energy deal between Venezuela and the United States. According to the pollster’s latest survey, Venezuelans believe that the agreement is necessary to generate wellbeing through investments and modern technology.

During a television interview in which he addressed the new energy doctrine that mixes sovereignty and business pragmatism, the expert said, “The objective today is not the oil field per se, the objective today is to produce, for people to understand that these alliances are inevitable and necessary because they guarantee the recovery of the oil industry.”

He also stressed the importance of connecting sovereign defense with contemporary productive capacity. “Today it is about reconciling, on the basis of defending sovereignty, the capacity to produce with modern technology and with resources, with capital,” Schémel said.

“This agreement goes beyond an oil opening or a petroleum contract; it means the reconfiguration of relations with the United States and, in general, with neighboring countries,” he explained.

Noting that Hinterlaces polls show a sustained demand for political dialogue, Schémel emphasized the urgency of building a national proposal founded on agreements and practical solutions instead of confrontation.

Venezuela Is Processing 600 Tons of Debris Hourly at Key Disposal Center

Schémel also underscored the collective demand for institutional effectiveness. “For Venezuelans it is fundamentally about messages that have to do with peace, with unity and, above all, with results,” he said, stressing as a priority that political figures materialize expectations of prosperity.

(Últimas Noticias) by Yusleny Morales

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/JRE/SC

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China’s FAST telescope has compiled the world’s largest catalogue of neutral hydrogen beyond the Milky Way, replacing a long-dominant US survey as the main reference for mapping the gas that fuels the formation of stars and galaxies. The FAST All-Sky H I Survey (FASHI), conducted with the 500-metre (1,640-foot) radio dish in southwest China’s Guizhou province, released its second batch of data this week. It contains 156,411 extragalactic sources – nearly five times the number detected by the...

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By Donald Smith, World BEYOND War, September 13, 2026

The United States has monuments that honor U.S. soldiers killed in U.S. wars. What if it also had a memorial honoring all of the millions killed (mostly civilians) due to U.S. wars, proxy wars, regime change operations, and economic sanctions?

The post What if Washington D.C. Had a Memorial to Foreign Victims of U.S. Wars? appeared first on World BEYOND War.

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Carcinogenic aqueous film-forming foam at US Kadena Air Base coats the parking lot after an overhead sprinkler system in a hangar accidentally discharged on December 4, 2013. ‍ ‍

By Pat Elder, Military Poisons, September 13, 2026

Independent water testing around U.S. military installations in Okinawa has exposed a specific chemical signature—a 3M fingerprint—that strips away the Pentagon’s shield of plausible deniability. For years, the United States military and the Japanese central government have deflected requests from Okinawa Prefecture for on-base environmental inspections, citing a lack of causal evidence linking the bases to localized PFAS contamination. However, explosive reporting from the Asahi Shimbun recently revealed that U.S. officials had privately admitted to Tokyo as early as 2023 that aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) used at Kadena Air Base and Marine Corps Air Station Futenma was the likely source of pollution.

While governments actively concealed this admission from the public, definitive water testing from outside the base fences has cracked the case wide open, tracing the contamination directly back to legacy 3M electrochemical-fluorination chemistry.

Military Poisons’ 2023 sampling found 28 PFAS compounds in Okinawan environmental samples, not merely PFOS and PFOA. The profile includes PFOS, PFHxS, PFDS, PFOSA, FOSAA, N-EtFOSAA, and N-MeFOSAA—compounds and related precursor materials associated with older PFOS chemistry made by electrochemical fluorination. Before 2000, 3M was the dominant global producer of the PFOS precursor chemistry used in this legacy AFFF formulation.

This profile makes the U.S. explanation of an unspecified source for PFAS contamination implausible. Coupled with the U.S. government’s reported acknowledgment that foam at Kadena and Futenma was likely responsible for PFAS contamination in the Okinawan environment, it establishes a compelling case for what Okinawa has requested for years: independent access, full sampling, and a public accounting of PFAS use, releases, and cleanup inside the bases.

Further proof – Marine Corps Air Station Futenma

142 tons of aqueous film-forming foam from Marine Corps Air Station Futenma was buried at the Kurashiki industrial-waste landfill in 2014-2015. In 2023 Military Poisons tested the waters draining from the site and found high levels of PFAS with a distinctive 3M stamp.

The clearest legacy 3M/POSF electrochemical-fluorination (ECF) signature in this sample is the group I marked:

• FOSAA — 1.2 ppt
• N-EtFOSAA — 23.5 ppt
• N-MeFOSAA — 23.1 ppt
• PFOSA — 5.3 ppt

Note: POSF is short for perfluorooctane sulfonyl fluoride: C₈F₁₇SO₂F.

These are PFOS-related sulfonamide compounds/precursors tied to the older POSF chemistry that 3M historically dominated. Their presence together is much more meaningful than PFOS by itself.

Supporting, but not distinctive on their own: PFOS (236.5), PFHxS (102.3), PFDS (9), PFBS (81.3), and possibly PFHxSA (9.7). They fit an older ECF/PFOS-related profile.

POSF was the key chemical building block in 3M’s older PFOS chemistry. 3M used electrochemical fluorination to make POSF, then used it to manufacture PFOS and related compounds for products including older PFOS-based AFFF, Scotchgard-type treatments, paper coatings, and industrial surfactants.

In environmental samples, compounds such as PFOSA, FOSAA, N-EtFOSAA, and N-MeFOSAA point back to that larger POSF-derived chemical family. They tend to transform over time into PFOS.

So “a POSF/ECF signature” means a pattern consistent with the older 3M-style PFOS chemical family—not merely PFOS alone. The AFFF from Futenma came from 3M. The Navy/Marine Corps purchased and used massive quantities of AFFF from 3M.

Further Proof – Kadena Air Base

In May of 2024 Rachel Clark and I again joined with Okinawan activists to test waters flowing from U.S. military bases in Okinawa. We followed Ubu stream as close as we could to the point where it drains from Kadena Air Base.

The strongest observation in the Kadena sample is the PFOS + PFHxS pairing: together they are 785.5 ppt, about 60% of all detected PFAS in this sample. 3M’s older electrochemical-fluorination (ECF) – made AFFF is known for PFOS dominance followed by PFHxS with smaller concentrations of  PFHpS and PFBS.

The scientific data gathered from the Ubu stream and the Kurashiki landfill acts as an unalterable forensic record. Because federal military specifications strictly barred the U.S. armed forces from purchasing foreign-made firefighting foams, the heavy presence of distinct 3M-manufactured POSF precursors leaves no room for alternative theories. Tokyo and Washington can no longer mask this environmental crisis behind bureaucratic stalling tactics and withheld admissions. The chemical evidence demands what Okinawan communities have rightfully sought for over a decade: immediate, independent base access, exhaustive public sampling, and an open, accountable cleanup operation to protect public health.

The post The 3M Fingerprint: How Science Disproves the Pentagon’s Denial of Okinawa PFAS Pollution appeared first on World BEYOND War.

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Xi Jinping called for deeper cooperation on AI, trade and digital industry while urging the Global South to defend equal application of international law.

China has proposed an open-source artificial intelligence platform for BRICS countries as part of a broader push to expand cooperation in technology, trade, investment and industrial development.

RELATED: Bold Gains in BRICS New Delhi Declaration 2026 for Peace and Multilateralism

Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the initiative at the BRICS summit in New Delhi, where he also urged countries of the Global South to strengthen multilateralism and press for the equal application of international law.

The proposed platform would support the joint development of large language models and cooperation on their practical applications, Xi said. It would also provide specialized training and promote the development of an open AI ecosystem.

Xi called for greater international cooperation on AI governance, saying a framework based on broad consensus was needed so emerging technologies could contribute to shared prosperity.

His technology agenda was part of five initiatives aimed at strengthening practical cooperation among BRICS members. Alongside the open-source AI platform, China proposed measures to facilitate trade and investment, expand digital industry cooperation, promote smart manufacturing and develop scientific and technical talent.

Closing his historic India visit, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged open-source AI models, LLM development, and tech training to BRICS nations.

This bold initiative directly challenges Western dominance, positioning China as the core technology driver for the Global South. pic.twitter.com/NTKsTfLFdn

— China pulse (@Eng_china5) September 13, 2026

The package also includes special zones, shared platforms, technology exchanges, smart factories and youth training and exchange programs, including a BRICS engineers’ alliance.

Xi connected the technology agenda with a broader call for changes to the international legal and financial order. He urged countries of the Global South to jointly uphold international law and principles including sovereign equality, non-interference in domestic affairs and the peaceful settlement of disputes.

“Countries of the Global South should ensure the equitable application of international law and international rules, without double standards,” Xi said.

He compared a world without rules to “an intersection without traffic lights,” where disorder would inevitably follow. He also rejected the notion that power should determine legal rights.

“Fairness and justice are what people want, and international rules should be jointly written by all countries. The logic that ‘might makes right’ does not work and should have been abandoned long ago,” he said.

Xi said all states, regardless of their size, strength or wealth, are equal members of the international community. He called on BRICS countries to take what he described as a historic initiative to unite the Global South and play a “positive, stabilizing and constructive” role.

He also urged the bloc to defend multilateralism, uphold the authority of the United Nations and support reforms to multilateral institutions to ensure equal participation by all countries.

On global trade, Xi called for reform of the World Trade Organization while maintaining its direction and principles, including most-favored-nation treatment. He also called for support for the New Development Bank and reforms to the international financial architecture to increase the representation and voice of developing countries.

The proposals put AI and wider technological cooperation alongside China’s call for changes to international governance, with the BRICS bloc serving as a platform for deeper cooperation among Global South countries.

From teleSUR English via This RSS Feed.

By Guy Feugap, Africa Organizer for World BEYOND War, Corruption Tracker, September 13, 2026

When corruption scandals erupt in the arms trade, attention focuses on the millions embezzled, the officials implicated, and the ensuing legal proceedings. Yet the true cost of these cases often runs much deeper. Behind opaque contracts and illicit commissions lie consequences that directly affect governance, citizens’ trust in their institutions, and, above all, the security of the population. The Defex case, which brought to light corrupt practices in arms contracts between Spain and Cameroon, offers an opportunity to question a security model based on the accumulation of weapons. The Cameroonian case shows that corruption in the arms trade undermines public finances and jeopardizes human security; it thus raises a fundamental question: Can lasting peace truly be built on the foundations of militarism?

In the arms deals between Spain and Cameroon, a financial scandal has implicated high-ranking officials in the Cameroonian government, as documented by Corruption Tracker, which released the report Defex’s Dirty Decades: Arms Sales to Cameroon in September 2025. The Defex affair, portrayed as an international corruption scandal, goes beyond the scope of mere financial fraud to illustrate the abuses that can arise from relying on weapons to ensure human security. Defex S.A. was a company majority-owned by the Spanish government, tasked with promoting exports of defense and security equipment. Between 1999 and 2013, it entered into a series of contracts with the Cameroonian government worth at least 103 million euros for the supply of ships, military vehicles, coastal surveillance systems, radars, riot control equipment, bulletproof vests, small arms, and ammunition. According to investigations conducted by Spanish authorities, these contracts were facilitated by a system of kickbacks, through a network of shell companies through which more than 14.6 million euros allegedly passed under the guise of consulting services in order to pay intermediaries and fund kickbacks intended for several public officials.

The case led to a wide-ranging investigation by the Spanish anti-corruption prosecutor’s office, which began in 2014 and was later expanded to include several countries where Defex operated. The company was dissolved in 2017 and liquidated in 2022. In 2023, a Spanish court convicted Defex’s former sales director, Manuel Iglesias-Sarriá, as well as the head of Aresa Marine, of corruption in international business transactions. Cameroonian journalist Mimi Mefo reports that in 2023, Cameroon’s Special Criminal Court sentenced former Minister of Defense Edgard Alaij Mebe Ngo’o to 30 years in prison after finding him guilty of overbilling military equipment contracts totaling 23.9 billion CFA (about 36.4 million euros). He was charged with embezzlement of public funds, aggravated money laundering, and corruption. The Defex case highlights that defense contracts are a hotbed of corruption due to the secrecy surrounding them and the substantial sums of money involved. We therefore aim to understand, by examining the situation in Cameroon, how these practices affect public governance, citizens’ trust, and the security of the population.

Since 2012, Cameroon has been operating in a severely deteriorated security environment. The country is simultaneously facing several armed and humanitarian crises: the Boko Haram insurgency in the Far North Region, the armed conflict in the Northwest and Southwest Regions, the consequences of persistent instability in the neighboring Central African Republic, as well as growing challenges related to cross-border crime and forced population displacement. This accumulation of crises has profoundly transformed the government’s priorities, making security one of the main areas of public intervention. Since the early 2010s, Cameroon’s military spending has risen sharply as a result of operations, making security one of the government’s largest areas of expenditure.

The quantifiable impact of these crises is constantly evolving. The report Gender Conflict Analysis in Cameroon (2020) by WILPF Cameroon highlights that these conflicts have gradually plunged Cameroon into a situation of chronic violence, characterized by a rise in human rights violations, a decline in trust between citizens and public institutions, and a deepening of social divisions. While each crisis has its own causes, they produce converging effects: massive population displacement, the collapse of social services, a slowdown in economic activity, and the increasing militarization of conflict management. The human toll is considerable. According to data compiled by the United Nations and cited in the report, Cameroon already had nearly 977,000 internally displaced persons as of April 2020, as well as 354,328 people who had returned to their communities, while violence linked to Boko Haram alone had caused approximately 300,000 internally displaced persons and 140,000 refugees in the Far North region. To this day, these populations often live in precarious conditions, with limited access to healthcare, drinking water, education, and livelihoods. The education sector is a particularly telling example of the human cost of this insecurity. In the English-speaking regions, 90% of public elementary schools and 77% of public secondary schools were closed by the end of 2019 due to the conflict. As a result, thousands of children were deprived of their fundamental right to education, while schools, teachers, and students became direct targets of violence, frequently kidnapped and killed. Figures from Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) as of June 30, 2025, show that Cameroon remained one of the major humanitarian crises in Central Africa: 969,000 internally displaced persons, 699,500 people who had returned to their communities, and 431,000 refugees and asylum seekers hosted in the country. In total, more than 2.1 million people were directly affected by forced displacement.

Economically, the conflicts have also led to the destruction of infrastructure, looting, and business closures, particularly in the Northwest and Southwest regions, which have historically been among the country’s most dynamic. Movement restrictions, military operations, so-called “ghost town” days, and constant insecurity have sharply reduced investment, disrupted supply chains, and exacerbated unemployment. In this context, the government’s response has focused on strengthening military capabilities. Conflict analysis has shown that this approach has failed to provide a lasting solution to the root causes of these conflicts. This reality highlights a paradox: while security spending increases in response to crises, the basic needs of the population (social protection, health care, education, employment, and justice) remain largely unmet.

Corruption in Cameroon is a major obstacle to development in many public sectors. The 2024 report by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (CONAC) on the fight against corruption in Cameroon reveals that the government lost more than 4 billion CFA francs (about 6.1 million euros) to corruption during the year, and 114 billion CFA francs (about 173.8 million euros) in 2023. According to the Cameroon Tribune newspaper, this figure falls far short of the reality, as corruption is rarely reported, and the daily hardships faced by Cameroonians serve as proof of this. Data Cameroon reports much higher figures, estimating that corruption in Cameroon results in nearly 400 billion CFA francs (about 609.8 million euros) lost annually by the government, a scourge that directly undermines social development and keeps the country ranked 142nd globally on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. In reality, Cameroon scored 26 out of 100 on the 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index. Cameroon’s Corruption Index averaged 23.40 points from 1996 to 2025, reaching a record high of 27 points in 2014.

The Defex case demonstrates that when corruption affects the arms trade, its consequences are particularly severe. Defense contracts involve enormous sums of money and are subject to a high level of confidentiality that eludes public scrutiny. As a result, certain individuals have enriched themselves while public finances have suffered. The defense sector is one of the most vulnerable to corruption due to its lack of transparency. Thus, corruption in arms procurement directly undermines human security. In Cameroon, where needs in education, health care, social protection, access to water, justice, and infrastructure development remain immense, every public resource that is misappropriated represents a lost opportunity to invest in the foundations of lasting peace.

That is why there is an urgent need to rethink the very concept of security, which is all too often reduced to a state’s ability to acquire military equipment or strengthen its armed forces. Security does not depend on the quantity of weapons acquired; it rests on the ability of institutions to guarantee fundamental rights, provide quality public services, and promote dialogue as an alternative means of conflict resolution. In light of this understanding, the production of weapons in and of itself appears to be a direct threat to human security. Every weapon manufactured diverts resources that could otherwise fund conflict prevention and actually undermines the very security it purports to strengthen. The Defex scandal thus serves as a reminder that a society is truly secure only when its citizens can live free from fear, have access to quality public services, trust their institutions, and participate fully in the political and economic life of their country. Addressing corruption in the arms trade, while still important, will not be enough to solve the problem. As long as arms remain a commercial product that generates profits, the risks of corruption will persist. That is why it is necessary to have a broader discussion about ending dependence on arms and strengthening human security approaches.

The true cost of corruption in the arms trade cannot be measured solely in terms of the millions of euros embezzled. It is measured in schools that remain closed, hospitals that lack resources, displaced communities struggling to rebuild their lives, and citizens who are losing faith in their institutions. As long as the systems that fuel militarism and the global arms trade continue to take precedence over investments in peace and human security, scandals like the Defex scandal are likely to recur, in Cameroon and elsewhere.

For more on this check out the Corruption Tracker: https://corruption-tracker.org/

Our next Point of Impact is out and we are narrowing our focus on Cameroon . For this piece our guest author, @DongmoFeugap, highlights how the true cost of corruption impacts us socially.

Dig in now: https://t.co/5F8Dc2NPeY pic.twitter.com/DB3WWf35MZ

— Corruption Tracker (@ArmsTradeCT) September 10, 2026

Guy Feugap, Africa Organizer for @worldbeyondwar breaks down his new blog piece 'The Cost of Arms Deals and Corruption in Cameroon'.

Read Guy's article here @DongmoFeugaphttps://t.co/69npZAUgCW pic.twitter.com/uSrWsIfflu

— Corruption Tracker (@ArmsTradeCT) September 11, 2026

The post The Cost of Arms Deals and Corruption in Cameroon appeared first on World BEYOND War.

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A close election could bring the Sweden Democrats into government for the first time or return Sweden toward its traditionally liberal politics.

Swedes voted Sunday in a closely fought parliamentary election that could bring the far-right Sweden Democrats into government for the first time, with Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s ruling bloc narrowing the gap with the centre-left opposition in the final weeks of the campaign.

RELATED: Sweden Sends First Four Prisoners to Estonia Under Prison-Leasing Agreement

Several opinion polls this week showed the centre-left opposition holding a narrow lead over the governing right-wing bloc ahead of the Sept. 13 election. Kristersson, who has trailed in polling throughout his four years in office, has nevertheless gained ground as Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson has lost support.

Kristersson has pledged to bring the Sweden Democrats into government if his bloc wins. “We can unify parties, voters and issues into joint action. That’s why we get things done,” he told reporters this week.

Critics argue that the government’s policies have weakened civil liberties while pushing immigrants to conform more closely to Swedish cultural norms through a combination of incentives and penalties.

“We’ve become a harder society, a quieter society, but also a poorer society as we’ve had growth far below our potential and where households see their paychecks buy less and less,” Andersson told Reuters, saying that bringing people together had made Sweden strong.

Supporters of the right-wing bloc contend that its policies have helped curb gang violence and sharply reduce immigration. They say an election victory would amount to public backing for that approach and for further measures in the same direction.

On Sunday, Swedes will vote in a knife-edge election that could see the country form a left-wing coalition or move further to the right, with the Sweden Democrats, a party with neo-Nazi roots, potentially entering government for the first time https://t.co/Os079HFE4u pic.twitter.com/Exjc03fPqi

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) September 12, 2026

Another country

Polling stations opened at 8 a.m. local time in the European Union member state of 10 million people, which joined NATO after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Exit polls were expected shortly after polls close at 6 p.m., with initial data indicating the result due around 7 p.m.

In Rinkeby, a northern Stockholm suburb that police designate as extremely socially deprived, some voters worried the election could make conditions worse.

“They target Muslims; they single out Muslims and immigrants. But immigrants contribute to society,” said Kahin Ahmed, 57, a sociologist who came to Sweden from Somalia as a refugee.

“A quarter of those working in healthcare are immigrants. If immigrants stayed home for a single day, Sweden wouldn’t function,” he said.

Over the past four years, the minority government backed by the Sweden Democrats has abolished permanent residency for refugees, tightened welfare rules and increased expulsions of people without the right to remain in Sweden.

Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Akesson, who voted Saturday in Rinkeby, said the suburb, home to one of the country’s largest Swedish-Somali populations, “doesn’t look like Sweden.”

The Sweden Democrats have pledged to ban both the niqab and burqa if they enter government. Akesson told Reuters that such clothing “reflects values that I don’t think belong in Sweden.”

Bulding a government

The right-wing parties have already agreed to form a four-party government led by Kristersson if they win. Andersson faces a more uncertain path to power.

The outcome could depend on whether the Liberals clear the 4% threshold required to win parliamentary seats, potentially strengthening a right-wing bloc made up of the Moderates, Christian Democrats and Sweden Democrats. Kristersson invited the Sweden Democrats into the governing arrangement earlier this year.

The Sweden Democrats have spent four years supporting Kristersson’s minority government in parliament, using that role to build credibility with the broader right-wing bloc.

The rival blocs have converged on several issues that matter to voters, including support for Ukraine, military rearmament and measures to ease the pressure on households facing the cost-of-living crisis.

The Social Democrats, Greens, Left Party and Centre Party broadly agree on the need for higher welfare spending and greater public expenditure. But they remain divided over several issues, including immigration, where Andersson’s party favors a more restrictive approach than some of its potential partners.

The opposition parties also disagree over a tax on billionaires and the construction of new nuclear reactors. The Centre Party has refused to support a government that includes the Left Party, further complicating Andersson’s efforts to form a cabinet.

A strong result for the Sweden Democrats would likely be welcomed by Europe’s growing far-right parties, following a significant victory this month by Germany’s anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany in a state election.

The election will determine whether Kristersson remains in power and whether the Sweden Democrats move from parliamentary support for a minority government to a formal role in Sweden’s government.

From teleSUR English via This RSS Feed.

Japanese fashion brand WEGO has scrapped a plan to launch a new range in collaboration with the hit anime and manga franchise My Hero Academia after it triggered an angry backlash from Chinese consumers. The Tokyo-based company triggered an outcry on Chinese social media after announcing it would release an exclusive range of My Hero Academia-themed clothing. The franchise was widely condemned in China over a 2020 controversy about a character that conducted lethal human experiments – a topic...

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Chinese scientists say they have devised a new technique for refining oil that cuts the amount of energy consumed during the process by roughly 90 per cent. If the technology used in the study could be scaled up for industry, it would not only greatly reduce production costs and emissions, but also make the process more precise and boost product value. Crude oil cannot be turned directly into petrol or plastics. Instead, refineries must separate it into different parts before each one can be put...

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Chinese scientists say they have discovered a massive underwater mineral deposit in the western Pacific that is remarkably rich in gold and silver. According to a report by state broadcaster CCTV on Friday, the discovery was made during a joint scientific expedition involving several Chinese academic institutions. The ores within this seabed hydrothermal field – an area where hot, mineral-rich water shoots out from openings on the ocean floor – are exceptionally rich in precious metals. Silver,...

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Announcing the severing of diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Thursday, September 10, Algeria summoned the Emirati envoy and gave him 48 hours to leave the country.​

“Algeria has exercised a great deal of restraint and a high sense of responsibility,” despite the increasingly “provocative or hostile actions emanating from” the Gulf power, the North African country’s foreign ministry said in a statement.​

“Despite these numerous warnings, the United Arab Emirates continued to persist in these actions, which have reached limits where they can no longer be considered acceptable or tolerable within the framework of relations between two sovereign states, nor remain without a response.”​

Later that day, its defense ministry announced that the UAE’s military and civilian aircraft are banned from using Algerian airspace from Friday. The only exemption is for commercial civilian planes, which can continue to fly over Algeria until the existing contract expires at the end of the year.​

Algeria had already initiated the termination of the air services agreement with the UAE in February, when President Abdelmadjid Tebboune alleged attempted Emirati interference in its elections.​

Multiple Algerian media outlets aligned with the state have reported that the UAE has been supporting the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylia (MAK), a separatist group Algeria designated as a terrorist organization in 2021.​

Algeria and the UAE also find themselves on opposing sides on several fronts of international relations.​

Algeria aids Western Sahara’s liberation struggle; UAE backs Moroccan occupation​

The support for the national liberation struggle of Western Sahara, occupied by Morocco immediately after it won independence from Spanish colonialism, has been a central plank of Algeria’s foreign policy.​

In 2021, Algeria severed diplomatic relations with Morocco, accusing it of supporting the MAK in retaliation for Algerian support to the Polisario Front (PF), which is fighting for Western Sahara’s national liberation. But there is no equivalence between the PF and the MAK.​

The MAK, which has long had close links to Israel, largely operates from Europe and is based in France, Algeria’s former colonizer. The PF, on the other hand, is fighting for Western Sahara’s liberation, with its military operating in its liberated territory adjoining Algeria. The UN recognizes the PF as the sole representative of the people of Western Sahara, a country it lists among the last few pending decolonization.​

Read more: Western Sahara’s decolonization at a crossroads after 50 years of occupation​

Despite funding and arming the Moroccan occupation, the US had not officially recognized Morocco’s claim to sovereignty over Western Sahara until December 2020, when Morocco signed the Abraham Accords to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel.​

The first Trump administration, in turn, proclaimed that the US “recognizes Moroccan sovereignty over the entire Western Sahara territory” and went on to open a consulate in Dakhla, a major city in the occupied region.

​The UAE was a step ahead, setting a precedent before the American move by opening its consulate on the occupied land in November 2020, a month before Morocco normalized relations with Israel. The UAE had already normalized relations with Israel that September.

​In contrast, Algeria refuses to normalize relations with Israel until the Palestinians have secured their statehood. Algerian media often refers to the UAE as an “Israeli vassal”.

​“Wherever they set foot, blood flows”

​Algeria’s diplomatic break was foreseeable since at least July, when President Tebboune said in a thinly veiled reference to the UAE in a televised interview, “Wherever they set foot, blood flows… We want them to stay away, so that blood does not flow in our country.” He gave the example of Mali, Libya and Sudan.

​A month later, in August, the UN confirmed that the USD 50 million transferred to the Al Qaeda-affiliated JNIM in the form of ransom helped fuel its attack across Mali. A Reuters investigation identified the UAE as the source of this payment to JNIM. The group has also attacked its neighbors, Burkina Faso and Niger, both of which have followed in Mali’s footsteps by expelling French troops.

​Read more: Mali fights yet another wave of attacks on multiple cities by terror groups

The UAE’s supply of arms and mercenaries to the Libyan warlord General Khalifa Haftar, who has been fighting Libya’s UN-recognized government, is also well-documented in multiple UN reports since 2017.

Tebboune’s reference to “blood” flowing from Emirati interference is best demonstrated in war-torn Sudan, where the UAE is funding and arming the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), whose depopulation campaign in El Fasher had all the “hallmarks of genocide”, according to the UN.

Read more: RSF has burnt and buried tens of thousands of corpses in El Fasher, says Yale report

He added in the July interview that a “diplomatic break” with the UAE “would have happened long ago.” Algeria, he explained, had refrained only to avoid adding to the already existing divisions in the Arabic-speaking world.

When the break finally came on Thursday, the UAE’s foreign ministry said it hoped that it “will be temporary, in a manner that preserves the fraternal ties between the two brotherly peoples.”

In an apparent reference to the absence of explicitly stated reasons in Algeria’s statement, Anwar Gargash, the diplomatic advisor to the UAE’s president, Mohamed bin Zayed, said, “Diplomatic relations are managed through reason, communication, and clarity of interests, not through puzzles and signals that require decoding.”

He went on to preach that “successful diplomacy is built on clarity of positions, sound management of interests and differences.”

Gargash’s statement “is revealing above all for what it carefully conceals. Not a word about the actions of this arsonist, predatory state, which thrives on chaos wherever it sticks its nose in Yemen, Sudan, the DRC, Somaliland, and elsewhere,” retorted former Algerian diplomat, Amar Belani.

Describing the UAE as a “state that has made other nations’ instability its economic model,” Belani concluded his response, saying: “As for the lesson on ‘reason and clarity of interests’, Abu Dhabi would do better to reserve it for its partners in the Abraham Accords, with whom it shares complicity in the face of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide committed against the Palestinian people.”

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BRICS leaders voiced concern over the impact of U.S. measures on Cuba’s economy, energy supply and population.

BRICS leaders have called on the United States to end its economic, commercial and financial measures against Cuba, citing their effects on the island’s economy, energy supply and humanitarian situation.

RELATED: Cuba Updates Framework for Foreign Currency Management, Control, and Allocation

The appeal came in a 140-point declaration adopted Saturday by the 11-member bloc, which expressed “deep concern” over the tightening of unilateral measures against Cuba and their impact on the Cuban people.

The declaration called for the implementation of UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/80/4 and an end to the U.S. blockade. BRICS also reaffirmed its opposition to unilateral coercive measures, including secondary sanctions, saying they run counter to international law.

The bloc said such measures affect people’s rights to development, health and food security, with disproportionate consequences for poor and vulnerable populations. It also said they widen the digital divide and exacerbate environmental problems.

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***Text Reads: During the 2026 BRICS Summit, member nations agreed to implement an innovative trade exchange system based on digital payments. This initiative aims to consolidate the use of local currencies for settling cross-border transactions, thereby reducing exposure to external exchange rate fluctuations. The consensus reached by the heads of state seeks to safeguard regional supply chains and boost food security levels across the Global South.***How will this measure impact the global economy?

According to the Cuban government, economic losses attributed to the U.S. measures reached $8.0833 billion between March 1, 2025, and Feb. 28, 2026. The cumulative damage attributed to the blockade was reported at $178.7005 billion.

The declaration said unilateral coercive measures undermine international law and the principles and purposes of the UN Charter, and described them as sanctions not authorized by the UN Security Council.

The statement also reaffirmed Latin America and the Caribbean as a zone of peace, based on mutual respect, the peaceful settlement of disputes and non-intervention.

During the discussions, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez reaffirmed the island’s commitment to promoting and developing cooperation among countries of the Global South. He said such cooperation was the path toward building a fairer, more equitable and democratic international economic order.

The declaration marked BRICS’ two decades of existence and its expansion. The group reaffirmed its commitment to cooperation across three pillars: political and security affairs, economic and financial matters, and cultural and people-to-people ties.

BRICS also called for reform of the multilateral system, including the United Nations and its Security Council, to make it more democratic, representative and effective, with greater participation from developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The 11 BRICS members are Brazil, India, China, Russia, South Africa, Ethiopia, Egypt, Iran, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

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