🇨🇦 🇺🇸 🇨🇦 A Michigan delegation travelled to Calgary to sell separatists on software developed for Republicans to get out the vote – and how it could be used to wrench Alberta from Confederation.

For David Parker, an organizer for Alberta separation, the software was the path to victory – one that ultimately resulted in a massive privacy breach involving the sensitive personal data of nearly three million Albertans.

But Parker’s embrace of the Michigan delegation is evidence of a pattern: separatist factions in Alberta eager to engage the U.S. in their plans for secession, and American actors willing to assist, either privately or openly.

Through interviews with The Globe on both sides of the border, people involved in politics, the corporate sector and Alberta’s pursuit of separatism have described persistent efforts by figures in the U.S. administration and conservative political establishment to support groups seeking American expansionism and independence for Alberta.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-alberta-separatism-canada-united-states-republican/

🇺🇦❌🇷🇺 — Satellite imagery confirms that Ukrainian SBU drones destroyed a Su-35S fighter and a Su-34 fighter-bomber at the Khanskaya airbase in Russia's Adygea Republic last night.

🇾🇪⚔️🇾🇪 Latest Military Situation Map on the Taiz Front

In continuation of the advances, the Yemeni army and Ansarallah forces entered the town of Al-Turbah. On this axis, clashes are continuing near Sharjab. Advances along the Taiz road are also continuing, and the areas of Al-Khayami, Al-Nashmah, Al-Birin, and Al-Ghazaliyah have come under the control of the Yemeni army.

🟡 Advances have also been made toward the Al-A'lum area, and battles in this area are continuing.

👉The Yemeni army's operation is still ongoing, and it is possible that during the coming hours all the besieged areas will be cleared and the main battles will reach the city of Taiz itself.

🔗 IWN

🇷🇴🇵🇱🇺🇦🌾 Poland and Romania said there’s nothing more they can do to help Ukraine export its grain through Europe, as the blockade in the Black Sea continues.

Domestic farmers’ worries are trumping EU solidarity with Kiev as the Black Sea blockade threatens to fuel a global food crisis and stunt Ukraine’s next harvest.

Ukraine needs help getting millions of tons of grain exports out of the country, as attacks on ports and ships continue into a third month.

Agriculture Minister Taras Vysotskyi came to Brussels this week to make a direct appeal to his EU counterparts. Ukraine needs to be able to move more farm products through Europe, as well as €1.1 billion to cover higher shipping costs. Without help, cash-strapped farmers won't be able to start planting for next season, compounding the problem.

The answer: Sorry, but no. Two of the countries with the most vital infrastructure for boosting shipping and storage capacity, Poland and Romania, said there is nothing more they can or will do to help.

“The interest for our own farmers remains a priority,” Barna Tánczos, Romania’s agriculture minister, told POLITICO. Excess Ukrainian grain, combined with low water levels on the Danube, is already overloading his country’s ports, preventing Romanian farmers from selling their own goods.

The rebuff illustrates a persistent gap between the EU’s ambitions to support Ukraine and domestic political realities. As one of the world’s breadbaskets, Ukraine poses a real threat to the livelihoods of European farmers, a powerful constituency in many member countries. Even before the latest eruption in Black Sea fighting, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary barred imports of Ukrainian grain.

Currently, less than half of the exports are able to get out through the European rail, road and river shipping routes, Vysotskyi said. Up to 35 million tons could end up being stuck in Ukraine this year if the blockade persists.

Romania is trying to optimize its logistics, Tánczos stressed. Last month, Bucharest even signed a memorandum of understanding to ease border crossings with Kiev and boost rail links.

But “everybody knows we cannot double the number of trains, we cannot double the roads, railways and port capacity," Tánczos said. "It is what it is.”

In Poland, the infrastructure ministry “has no plans to introduce any changes aimed at increasing the transit of Ukrainian agricultural products,” spokesperson Anna Szumańska said in a statement.

🔗 https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-neighbors-shun-kyivs-plea-to-free-trapped-grain/

🪖 🇨🇦 🇺🇸 Why Canada is preparing for a (long shot) US invasion | BBC

Prime Minister Mark Carney admitted last week that he has prepared for a once-unthinkable scenario - a US invasion.

Even if a US invasion is extremely unlikely, Matthew Schmidt, an associate professor of national security at the University of New Haven in Connecticut, said the fact that Canadians were preparing was a sign of just how drastically the global order has shifted.

According to the model used by the Canadian military, as reported on by the Globe and Mail newspaper earlier this year, a US attack would see Canada's strategic positions overwhelmed within a week

But in the unlikely scenario that relations would deteriorate to the point of combat, Schmidt said the US would likely focus on acquiring valuable Canadian resources like oil and minerals, and political decapitation.

"You would see a a kind of operation that would mirror perhaps what you saw in Venezuela," he said, referring to US military action earlier this year to capture former Venezuelan President Maduro.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9m2mjj3yvg4o

https://archive.ph/iFKly

🗳 🇧🇷 📊 Brazil, Chamber of Deputies preliminary seat count projection:

PL (right): 121
PT (centre-left): 69
UB (conservative): 46
PP (conservative): 42

📎 America Elects

🗳 🇧🇷 📊 Brazil, Senate preliminary seat count projection:

PL (right): 20
MDB (centre-right): 7
PT (centre-left): 6
...

The Senate elects seats on staggered years. 54 of 81 seats are up for election this year.

📎 America Elects

🗳 🇧🇷 📈 The most useful visualization is this one here, from Electomaps (inspired by the NYTimes). Showing the difference in the vote compared to 2022 for president. The size of the arrow is the size of the variation, the color is which way it went. Data is still quite incomplete, of course, but it's worth following:

📎 Pedro Burgos