Illinois Man Charged With Mailing Threatening Letters Containing White Powder To Lawmakers
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Illinois Man Charged With Mailing Threatening Letters Containing White Powder To Lawmakers

Authored by Kimberly Hayek via The Epoch Times,

An Illinois man was charged Monday with mailing letters containing a white granular substance to four members of Congress, telling investigators he used salt because it looked like anthrax, according to a federal criminal complaint.

The U.S. Capitol building in Washington on May 5, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

The complaint says the letters were postmarked Oct. 19 in Springfield, Illinois, and arrived at district offices between Oct. 21 and Oct. 23.

Three contained the handwritten note "HA HA", while one to a senator's office read "HAH enjoy the gift," according to the filing. Preliminary testing found no chemical or biological toxins in the letters.

An anonymous tip reached the FBI's National Threat Operations Center on Oct. 16, with the tipster saying he overheard Matthew G. Unglesbee in a restaurant discussing the mailings. The tipster provided Unglesbee's name, address, and date of birth, the filing said.

According to the complaint, the envelopes also included Unglesbee's name and his return home address.

FBI agents interviewed Unglesbee at his Quincy home on Oct. 25, and he admitted mailing the four letters.

Unglesbee told agents the substance in the letters was salt because it "kind of looks like" anthrax. He acknowledged he knew recipients "took it serious" and would have "hazmat come in white suits" because "anthrax is dangerous," according to the complaint.

He said he was joking but recognized the recipients would not know that and could perceive it as a threat, the filing said.

A search of his residence turned up a fifth, unmailed envelope addressed to one congressperson's Washington office.

Unglesbee said he sent the letters after hearing someone mention a news story about other suspicious white powder mailed to officials. He denied any role in those mailings.

Unglesbee was charged with mailing threatening communications, false information, and hoaxes to at least four members of Congress, and with claiming that those letters contained a white granular substance. An attorney for Unglesbee could not be identified.

Election Offices Targeted

Unglesbee's case comes amid similar incidents in October, ahead of the November midterm elections.

On Oct. 15, the FBI confirmed to The Epoch Times that "a series of suspicious mailings" had been sent to election offices across the country. As part of this, four Republican election officials reported they were the intended recipients of the suspicious mail. A spokesperson said the agency was not confirming the number of mailings intercepted at the time.

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose confirmed that his office was an intended recipient of one of the mailings, but federal investigators intercepted the letter. Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson's office was also an intended target, according to his spokeswoman, Liz Jonson. The Wisconsin Elections Commission said it received an envelope with white powder, according to a statement, and that tests concluded it was not hazardous.

In an alert on Oct. 23, the FBI also said it found suspicious substances in mail sent to media organizations, public and private polling companies, secretaries of state and related election offices, and other election-related entities. No hazardous material had been identified.

In a similar incident before the 2024 general elections, election officials in six states reported receiving envelopes with powdery substances. Investigators tested the substances and found no hazardous materials.

Jill McLaughlin contributed to this report.

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Rubio Urges Cubans To Partner With CIA To Bring Change To Communist Country
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Rubio Urges Cubans To Partner With CIA To Bring Change To Communist Country

Authored by Owen Evans via The Epoch Times,

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio made a direct appeal to Cubans on Friday, encouraging them to partner with the CIA if they want to see change in the communist country.

"To those who seek to create positive change in Cuba - now is the time," Rubio said in an Oct. 23 post on X. "The disappointment of failed promises, corruption, and the privileged lives of only a few; seize this opportunity to create the change you desire through a discrete partnership with the CIA."

The CIA followed up Rubio's post on the same platform with the same message in Spanish and included instructions on how to contact the agency. It urged Cubans to use non-personal devices and VPNs.

Cuban leader Miguel Diaz-Canel attends a rally in Havana on May 22, 2026. Norlys Perez/Reuters

Cuban-born Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez (R-Fla.) said in a post on X that the Cuban regime must be "relegated to the ash heap of history."

U.S. President Donald Trump hinted at a new American intervention in Cuba, potentially with military force, as he addressed supporters at a midterm campaign rally in Florida on Oct. 23.

He made the comments about Cuba after touting investments in the U.S. military and in military operations this year in Venezuela and Cuba.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran will tell you that we have the best equipment," Trump said, before appearing to respond to comments about Cuba from someone in the crowd. "He wants to know 'what about Cuba?' Give me a break. Give me a break. Don't worry. We'll take care of Cuba on our way back from Iran."

Cuban Deputy FM Carlos Fernández de Cossío mocked Rubio's direct bid to the island.

"Now the U.S. is resorting to public recruitment campaigns for the CIA," he said in an Oct. 23 post on X. "There must be a lot of desperation or a serious lack of resources within the agency if it has to market its offers like toothpaste."

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced earlier this month that state authorities had secured an arrest warrant for former Cuban leader Raúl Castro Ruz.

Castro was charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in connection with the 1996 shootdown of two civilian aircraft operated by Brothers to the Rescue over international waters.

"The Castro regime's spies operated in our communities, fed intelligence to Havana, and helped put civilian pilots in the crosshairs of Cuban MiGs," Uthmeier said. "Thirty years later, we are still fighting for justice for Carlos Costa, Pablo Morales, Mario de la Peña, and Armando Alejandre Jr."

Castro, then minister of the Cuban armed forces and first vice president of Cuba, was a final decision-maker in the chain of command that authorized the shootdown, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit stated that Castro gave senior military leaders standing orders that said, "Fine, shoot them down at sea when they show up, and those who have the authority are not to consult anyone."

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez described the arrest warrant against Castro as a "disgraceful act" with no legal, ethical, or practical value, during a press conference on Oct. 21, Spanish news agency EFE reported.

Trump issued an executive order in January that said the government of Cuba had "taken extraordinary actions that harm and threaten the United States."

It said that the regime aligns itself with, and provides support for, numerous hostile countries and organizations, including Russia, China, Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah.

It noted that Cuba hosts Russia's largest overseas signals intelligence facility and also continues to build deep intelligence and defense cooperation with the Chinese communist regime.

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Bill Gates Faces Court Over Claims COVID Jabs Were 'Lethal Biological Weapons'
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Bill Gates Faces Court Over Claims COVID Jabs Were 'Lethal Biological Weapons'

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity,

In a packed courtroom in Leeuwarden, the official COVID story is being put on trial as Dutch plaintiffs demand personal liability from Bill Gates, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, former Prime Minister Mark Rutte and others for what their lawyer calls a coordinated global deception.

The civil case, filed in 2023, alleges the mRNA injections functioned as lethal biological weapons rolled out through unlawful public deception tied to the World Economic Forum's Great Reset.

Two of the original seven plaintiffs have already died. Defendants' lawyers rejected every claim, repeating that the shots were safe and effective and developed through normal science.

The substantive hearing on the merits took place on October 22, 2026 before three judges at the District Court of Northern Netherlands. Lawyer Peter Stassen told the court the injections were not ordinary medical products.

"These injections are a biological weapon," Stassen declared. "Global deployment of this biological weapon can only take place through the unlawful deception of the public on a global scale."

He added that "COVID-19 injections are lethal, or at least highly harmful to human health and fertility" and that "the defendants are implementers of the 'COVID-19: The Great Reset' project and are GUILTY of this deception."

Outside the courthouse Stassen told supporters, "COVID-19 was not a disease; It was a project." He said the plaintiffs had crucial evidence showing the official narrative was false.

Supporters gathered with banners while critics outside and in mainstream outlets called the arguments extreme conspiracy theories.

The judge noted the case was highly unusual, with the two sides diametrically opposed: one side arguing there was no virus, that the injections were a bioweapon and that genocide had occurred; the other side insisting the opposite.

Expert witness material submitted by the plaintiffs included statements from Sasha Latypova, former Pfizer scientist Mike Yeadon, Catherine Austin Fitts and others.

Latypova has described the response as a coordinated government effort originating in changes to U.S. law over roughly 25 years that enabled the global program, rather than originating solely in pharmaceutical companies. She has spoken of dark practices, including the slow killing of disabled children to maximize profits, and of people who appeared to enjoy the process.

Defendants' representatives denied all allegations. Gates's lawyer stated that his client denies every accusation and that the claims rest on incorrect premises, with nothing in the large dossier attributing liability to him.

Bourla's side repeated that the vaccines are proven safe and effective, with only rare side effects as with any vaccine. The State's lawyer warned against unfounded personal accusations that could deter scientists and officials from acting in future crises, asking which scientist would still stick their neck out. Some defendants' lawyers noted that their clients had received hate messages and death threats.

A ruling is not expected before December 9, 2026 and could come as late as the end of February 2027. The case survived earlier jurisdiction challenges, including Gates's attempt to argue the Dutch court lacked authority over him.

The plaintiffs' dossier runs to thousands of pages plus video evidence. Stassen has said the parties stand opposed and only one side can be telling the truth, with the court tasked to seek that truth.

The timing coincides with fresh public comments from Gates. He has stated that the COVID pandemic "didn't work out the way I expected" and warned that over the next several years there will be "attacks" different in scale from anything seen before.

Critics interpret the first remark as implying an expected outcome of higher lethality, fuller compliance, universal mRNA uptake and permanent digital passports for daily life.

These remarks sit against Gates's longer pattern of pandemic preparedness and funding. Through the Gates Foundation he co-founded CEPI, which has sought billions more for next-pandemic vaccines while the WHO and World Bank deploy large sums across dozens of nations.

CEPI has directed tens of millions to Moderna for mRNA platforms, including work on an Ebola jab using the same technology as the COVID product.

Gates has recently separately predicted that AI combined with ill-intent actors could drive events causing a billion deaths, describing AI as an evolutionary event more dangerous than previous technologies, and has warned of grim cyberattack surprises and bioterror risks now far higher than natural pandemics.

The Dutch proceedings remain a civil damages action, not a criminal trial. Plaintiffs seek compensation for physical and psychological injuries they attribute to the injections and the policies that pushed them.

Whether the court accepts the bioweapon and Great Reset framing, or accepts the defense that the shots were ordinary safe-and-effective vaccines, will be decided on the written record and the arguments heard in Leeuwarden.

The case places the official preferred narrative under formal judicial scrutiny for the first time at this level. Supporters outside the court have framed it as a rare chance for accountability.

 
 
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Record Oil, Empty Tanks: The UAE's Miracle Recovery
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Record Oil, Empty Tanks: The UAE's Miracle Recovery

Authored by Larry Johnson via Sonar21.com

Good news, everyone. The war is over, at least in the United Arab Emirates. That is the only conclusion you could draw from this month’s headlines. On October 14, Bloomberg reported the International Energy Agency’s estimate that UAE oil supply hit a record 5.3 million barrels a day in September. Fujairah, the port the Emirates built so they would never have to worry about the Strait of Hormuz, loaded a record 2.62 million barrels a day. The giant Ruwais refinery was declared back at full capacity at the end of August. Pop the (non-alcoholic) champagne.

Then Karl Miller sent me his October 22 assessment of the UAE’s oil and gas system, and spoiled the party. The Emirates have indeed recovered their crude exports. What they have not recovered is everything else. The gas business is still limping, the petrochemical plants are starving for feedstock, and the fuel reserves that are supposed to carry the country through the next attack have been drained to about a third of their prewar level. The UAE is setting production records with its gas light on.

The safe haven that wasn't

For years the UAE sold itself as the Switzerland of the Gulf: stable, diversified, insulated from the region’s chaos, a place where hedge funds and oil majors could sleep soundly. Then came 2026. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, UAE crude and condensate production fell from about 4.0 million barrels a day at the start of the year to an average of 2.4 million in March through May. A 40 percent collapse. Switzerland, it turns out, is within drone range of Iran.

The damage list reads like a sightseeing tour of Emirati industry. The Ruwais refining complex caught fire on March 10 and shut down. The Shah sour-gas plant, built to process 1.28 billion cubic feet a day, burned on March 16. The Habshan gas complex, the beating heart of the UAE’s gas system, was hit on April 3 and, in case anyone missed it, again on April 8. Borouge’s petrochemical plant was damaged on April 5. The Emirates Global Aluminium smelter went dark on March 28. And on May 17, a drone hit an electrical installation supporting the Barakah nuclear power plant, which is the sort of sentence nobody in Abu Dhabi ever wanted to read in a Security Council transcript.

Then there is Fujairah, the bypass port, the whole point of which was to keep UAE oil flowing no matter what happened at Hormuz. Reuters counts at least 19 attacks on it since the war began. In the week of March 16, loadings fell to 440,000 barrels a day. After a strike on May 4, refined-product exports essentially stopped for a month, with exactly one product tanker leaving between then and June 1. One. The insurance policy turned out to need insurance.

Available, just not working

Crude came back. Gas did not. ADNOC Gas’s second-quarter numbers compared with a year earlier: domestic gas production down 32.5 percent, export liquids such as LPG and naphtha down 54.5 percent, the company’s share of LNG down 63 percent. Export liquids sales fell from 252 to 117 trillion British thermal units. LNG sales fell about 71 percent. Revenue fell 39 percent, EBITDA 47 percent, net income 52 percent. That is $2.3 billion of revenue that evaporated in one quarter, at one company.

But my favorite statistic in Miller’s entire deck is this one. ADNOC Gas proudly reported that its assets were 99.9 percent available in the second quarter, better than the year before. Its actual asset utilization, meanwhile, fell from 80 percent to 54 percent. The plants were ready, willing and able. They just could not run, because the feedstock, the storage and the export routes they depend on had been knocked out. It is the corporate equivalent of announcing that your car is in perfect condition while it sits on blocks without wheels.

The recovery since then has been real but partial. Habshan’s gas supply was 85 percent restored as of August 10. Borouge had fixed its plant by the end of June, then discovered it had nothing to feed it, and ran at 60 percent utilization. The aluminium smelter had restarted a quarter of its pots by late August and now expects to finish the job sometime in early 2027. Repairs, as it happens, are faster than recoveries.

Running on fumes

Here is the number that should ruin a European energy minister’s weekend. On October 19, Fujairah held 7.25 million barrels of refined products. Before the war it held about 20.7 million. That is a 65 percent drop. Gasoline and naphtha stocks are down 87 percent. Fuel oil is down 53 percent. Diesel and jet fuel are down 23 percent, and fell 18 percent in a single week this month, just in time for winter.

Fujairah is not a corner gas station. It is one of the world’s great bunkering and product-trading hubs, the place where ships refuel and traders park cargoes between Asia and Europe. With a third of its normal stocks, it has about a third of its normal ability to absorb a shock. Miller’s arithmetic is unforgiving: lose a million barrels a day of export outlets with 10 million barrels of usable storage to fill, and you have roughly ten days before the oil fields have to shut in. Ten days. That is not a strategic reserve. That is a long weekend.

A bypass for a third of the traffic

The UAE’s answer to a closed Strait of Hormuz is the ADCOP pipeline from Habshan to Fujairah. It is designed to carry 1.5 million barrels a day, maybe 1.8 on a good day. ADNOC claims 4.85 million barrels a day of production capacity. So the escape hatch fits about a third of the passengers. A second pipeline is planned, for 2027, which will be a great comfort to anyone planning to hold this war in 2028.

And that record September? Some of it reflects genuine repairs. Some of it reflects the UAE’s exit from OPEC, which conveniently ended its production quotas in May. And some of it, by the IEA’s own account, came from drawing down inventories that were already at a record low. Selling your savings is a fine way to post record income for a month. It is not a business model. Meanwhile, across the region, refined-product shipments in September were 1.9 million barrels a day against 4.7 million before the war, and LPG shipments were 670,000 barrels a day against 1.5 million. The recovery is real for crude tankers. For everything else, it is a press release.

One more round, anyone?

To be fair, and Miller insists on being fair, nobody can prove that 30 to 40 percent of the UAE’s energy system is still destroyed. There is no complete public register of damage and repairs, and he gives full credit to the recoveries at Ruwais and in crude output. But the shape of the problem is plain. The UAE has rebuilt its ability to ship crude. Its gas business, its petrochemical feedstock and above all its fuel reserves remain badly depleted.

Which brings us to Washington’s latest bright idea: another round of strikes on Iran. Iran has already demonstrated, at least 19 times at Fujairah alone, that it can reach the UAE’s export system. The last time the Emirates absorbed a blow, they had 20 million barrels of products in Fujairah to soften it. Next time they will have about seven. Record output and empty tanks is not resilience. It is a country standing on the edge of a cliff and posting about the view.

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JetBlue Creditors Call In Restructuring Advisers As Stock, Bonds Crater
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JetBlue Creditors Call In Restructuring Advisers As Stock, Bonds Crater

A federal judge blocked JetBlue Airways' $3.8 billion takeover of Spirit Airlines during the Biden administration to protect consumers. That supposedly brilliant decision is now looking increasingly disastrous for both airlines and the passengers it was meant to protect.

First, Spirit Aviation shuttered all operations earlier this year, stunning travelers with the abrupt move after 34 years of offering some of the most deeply discounted fares. Now, JetBlue could be on a similar trajectory, as the carrier's shares and junk bonds have cratered over the last several months.

Bloomberg News reported late Friday that JetBlue's creditors are organizing with restructuring advisers as the budget airline grapples with cash burn and high jet fuel prices.

The report centers on a group of creditors, including holders of $2 billion in bonds due in 2031 and a $742 million first-lien loan, who are working with PJT Partners and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.

JetBlue's 9.875% 2031 bonds traded near 80 cents on the dollar at the start of October but, just three weeks into the month, had fallen to distressed levels around 44 cents by Friday's close.

The stock has followed a similar trajectory, falling from $4.50 to $2.62 over the same period.

JetBlue reported about $2 billion in cash and $6 billion in unencumbered assets in the second quarter, as well as $8.5 billion in total debt. S&P stated that the budget airline had sufficient liquidity and borrowing capacity but warned about mounting debt-service costs.

Creditors of junk-rated airlines were worried this past week as larger airlines slashed guidance and warned of margin erosion from soaring jet fuel costs.

Latest guidance updates from airlines:

Southwest Airlines

Southwest lowered its full-year adjusted EPS guidance to $2.60-$2.85, down from a prior range of $3.25-$4.25. For Q4, it now expects adjusted EPS of $0.55-$0.80, below the $0.81 analyst consensus. The cuts came despite better-than-expected Q3 results and continued strong demand.

American Airlines

American cut its full-year outlook to an adjusted loss of $1.00-$1.60 per share, a significant deterioration from prior guidance of a $0.65 loss to $0.65 in earnings. For Q4, it guided to an adjusted loss of $0.50-$1.10 per share vs. the $0.49 consensus loss. CEO Robert Isom said fuel prices are expected to remain "higher, longer."

United Airlines

United guided Q4 adjusted EPS to $0.50-$1.50, well below the $1.88 analyst consensus, after fuel expenses surged 61.6% to $4.84 billion in Q3. Shares fell ~2% in after-hours trading on October 20.

For context, the Biden administration's DoJ sued to block JetBlue's $3.8 billion takeover of Spirit in March 2023, claiming the deal would reduce competition and raise fares. Then, in early 2024, U.S. District Judge William Young sided with the Biden administration. Notably, Young was appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1985.

A reasonable argument can be made that government intervention backfired and is now hurting the very consumers it sought to protect, as Spirit's shutdown has reduced competition in the budget airline market. Now the odds are increasing that JetBlue could face a similar fate. 

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