According to the report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), the EU spent approximately $23 billion on Russian fossil fuels vs. $19.6 billion on military and financial aid to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, China purchased at least $82 billion of Russian energy, India spent $51 billion, and Turkey spent $36 billion.
In total, Russia raked in $254 billion on energy exports.
“Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Europe has made significant progress in terms of energy independence. Imports of Russian oil and gas have decreased substantially, with gas imports dropping from 45% in 2021 to 18% in 2024,” said EU MP Thomas Pellerin-Carlin in response to the report.
“However, a quarter of Russia’s fossil fuel export revenues still come from Europe,” he continued.
And despite EU efforts to reduce Russian dependence, member nations spent 7 billion euros ($7.3 billion) on Russian natural gas in the third year of the Ukraine war – an increase of 9% vs. 2023.
According to CREA, increased sanctions on Russia could reduce the Kremlin’s fossil fuel revenues by $51 billion euros ($53.3 billion).
“Due to insufficient sanctions and loopholes, Russia has earned over 825 billion euros ($862.9 billion) from fossil fuel exports since the start of their invasion of Ukraine,” according to Isaac Levi, CREA’s Europe-Russia Energy policy analyst.
Overall, Russia’s oil exports have decreased by just 8% since the start of the war in 2022, despite overwhelming condemnation and sanctions from most Western nations. Since the war began in February of 2022, Russia has made nearly $1 trillion in oil exports alone.
One major reason for Russian exports remaining strong is that, even after numerous sanctions, the average price of Russian oil is still cheaper than other sources such as the Middle East.
Another reason why Europe has remained dependent on Russian energy is the anti-energy policies of the previous Biden Administration. After the start of the war, many European countries prepared to abandon Russian energy in favor of American exports. However, Biden’s White House soon banned liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports in the name of combatting so-called “global warming,” thus forcing Europe back to the Russian energy market. President Donald Trump rescinded the LNG export bans with an executive order on his first day back in office.
Texas Needs Equivalent Of 30 Nuclear Reactors By 2030 To Meet Data Center Power Demand
The AI infrastructure trade (aka the Power-Up America basket which we recommended one year ago before it soared into the stratosphere), had taken a back seat in recent weeks, with some marquee names such as a Vertiv, Contellation, Oklo and others, tumbling from record highs amid growing speculation that China’s DeepSeek – and other cheap LLM alternatives – will lead to far lower capex demands than what is currently projected.
But while the occasional hiccup is to be expected, the endgame for US infra/nuclear stocks looks (millions of degrees) bright. Consider Texas, where demand on the state power grid is expected to expand so immensely that it would take the equivalent of adding 30 nuclear plants’ worth of electricity by 2030 to meet the needs. That’s according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which manages the grid.
The forecast is based on the addition of new data centers needed to power artificial intelligence. And it’s raising concerns about whether infrastructure in the state, which last week we said wants to be “king of nuclear power as the Next AI trade unfolds” – will be able to expand fast enough…. and at what cost.
Coming out of the pandemic, electricity demand on the Texas grid was already growing faster than anywhere else in the country, Bloomberg reports. And now that’s being supercharged by AI, with the state vying to become the data-center hub of the country, if not the world.
Individual projects are already starting to request 1 gigawatt of power and they pose new risks to maintaining a stable grid, said Agee Springer, Ercot’s senior manager of grid interconnections. A gigawatt is typically enough to power 250,000 homes in Texas. The data centers “present a reliability risk to the Ercot system,” said Springer, who spoke on a panel at Infocast’s ERCOT Market Summit in Austin this week.
“We’ve never existed in a place where large industrial loads can really impact the reliability of the grid, and now we are stepping into that world.”
Ercot said it’s gotten requests equal to 99 gigawatts for new connections to the grid from big power users, including data centers, bitcoin miners and hydrogen producers, according to an internal grid presentation Thursday. That’s up from 40.8 gigawatts last March.
The state grid is projecting that peak power demand will jump by 75% by 2030 from the current record of 85.5 gigawatts. The outlook was recently revised up sharply to factor in data centers on top of strong demand from the electrification of the economy.
Only Texas is aware of the power demand tsunami that is coming. The US is woefully unprepared for the coming explosion in electricity demand pic.twitter.com/9wfgBbS6D8
Ercot, lawmakers and regulators are trying to figure out how to bring online data centers without adding stress to the grid, which in extreme conditions increases the chance of blackouts, or if they can be throttled back when needed.
“There can’t be anymore demand than there is supply,” said Beth Garza, a senior fellow at think tank R Street Institute.
There’s a big question as to whether infrastructure can be built fast enough because of supply chain issues, resulting in long wait times for things like big turbines to produce electricity and other key equipment such as transformers. Another critical issues is who is going to pay for all of this build out.
Data centers make money until power prices reach about $2,000 a megawatt-hour, but the price cap from Ercot is $5,000, Resmi Surendran, vice president of regulatory policy at Shell Energy north America, said on a panel at the summit in Austin. It’s unclear whether data centers are willing to be flexible, but she noted that such ability to ramp and down in response to price signals – known as demand response – could help solve significant problems.
Flexibility from data centers and other big electricity consumers, though, creates another issue: shifting costs for transmission projects to households and smaller businesses. This is because of a program launched about two decades ago that allows the state’s chemical plants, refineries and even Bitcoin miners to reduce or eliminate millions of dollars of contributions for grid upgrades by throttling back their power usage during the highest demand periods of the summer months. Known as four coincident peaks, or 4CP, it was seen as a way to reduce stress on the grid during the hottest times of the year, when electricity is needed to run air conditioners.
But this methodology for socializing costs is “just not right” as reliability risks have shifted, Texas Senator Charles Schwertner said in an interview at the event. A current Texas Senate bill is proposing to reform this.
“We need to make sure the methodology respects all rate payers,” Schwertner said.
A few decades ago, many U.S. school cafeterias prepared meals from scratch for hundreds of students each day. As years passed, some kitchen staff watched fresh ingredients like flour and eggs disappear, replaced by boxes of pre-packaged, processed foods.
“We do have a lot of fresh diced cucumber, pineapple, cantaloupe, honeydew, kiwi, and the kids enjoy it. But most of our lunches are heat and serve. Very rarely do we have made-by-scratch foods,” Verna Wow-Wright, a California-based school nutrition assistant, told The Epoch Times. The shift, driven by cost, convenience, and food safety regulations, changed how millions of American children eat at school.
Meanwhile, countries like Japan, Sweden, and France continue to prioritize fresh, minimally processed meals—an approach that some experts say contributes to lower childhood obesity rates and better long-term health.
As diet-related illnesses among U.S. children rise, could a closer look at global school meal programs offer insights into improving nutrition for American students?
A Comparison of US School Lunches With Other Countries
While lunches in many U.S. schools rely on processed and pre-packaged foods, other nations prioritize fresh, whole food-based meals.
A 2021 JAMA Network Open study found that 67 percent of calories in U.S. children’s diets come from ultra-processed foods. A 2024 article in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior noted that many school lunches still include processed foods despite growing concerns about their impact on children’s health.
Schools updated meal standards in 2012 to match the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, but parents remained unconvinced. Processed foods like pizza and corn dogs still dominated menus—reformulated just enough to meet United States Department of Agriculture requirements. While these meals meet nutrient standards on paper, parents see past the label, calling for changes beyond the bare minimum.
Kraft Heinz recently announced it will stop offering Lunchables in the National School Lunch Program, citing low demand and nutritional concerns, including high sodium and toxic lead levels, according to Consumer Reports. This reflects a growing focus on the quality of processed foods in school meals. Meanwhile, countries like Japan, Sweden, and France serve fresh, minimally processed meals—and some of their children have lower rates of obesity and metabolic disease.
Health Influence on Children
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that U.S. childhood obesity rates have tripled since the 1970s, affecting nearly 20 percent of children and adolescents in 2020.
Scientific research highlights the connection between diet and health. A 2024 study in Nutrients found that children eating high levels of ultra-processed foods had increased risks of obesity, insulin resistance, and mood disorders. Additionally, Frontiers in Nutrition reported a correlation between diets high in processed foods and cognitive function in children, including memory, learning, and attention.
New York school nutrition director Deborah Mackey told The Epoch Times that when her school started incorporating more fresh foods into the lunch program, staff saw higher academic achievement, decreased behavioral problems, and fewer trips to the nurse’s station.
What Other Countries Are Doing Right
Japan
Japan’s school meal program emphasizes fresh, whole ingredients such as rice, fish, vegetables, and soups. Meals are prepared daily, and children are taught the importance of balanced nutrition.
As a result, Japan has one of the lowest childhood obesity rates globally at just 3.9 percent, according to a 2023 JAMA Pediatrics study. Japan’s nationwide school lunch program plays a key role in its low childhood obesity rate. The program offers balanced, scratch-made meals with controlled portions and diverse foods. A 2019 study from 2006 to 2015 found that a 10 percent increase in school lunch coverage led to a 0.37 percent drop in overweight and a 0.23 percent drop in obesity among junior high school boys.
Sweden
Swedish schools provide free, locally sourced, and nutritionally balanced meals to all students, ensuring access to healthy food regardless of socioeconomic status. Sweden’s school meal program tackles obesity by combining nutritious meals with education on food, health, and physical activity, according to a 2021 survey by the Global Child Nutrition Foundation.
France
France’s school cafeterias ban ultra-processed foods and focus on high-quality, fresh ingredients. School meals are designed to teach children healthy eating habits that last a lifetime. Vending machines have been banned in French schools since 2005 to reduce exposure to sugary, processed snacks.
“At lunchtime, our kids will eat grilled chicken breasts and salads. At the high school, it is a self-serve with choices for a starter, a main course, and a dessert,” Sophie Fieuzet, a concerned mother from Toulouse, France, told The Epoch Times. She relays that many French high schools have a long lunch break—typically 1.5 to 2 hours—and students can either eat at the school cafeteria or leave campus to eat at home or elsewhere.
For French students, lunch is a time to pause, connect, and appreciate good food. The focus is on fresh, seasonal ingredients and mindful eating rather than just filling up quickly.
US Efforts
The United States struggles to provide fresh foods for various reasons, including the following:
Cost:Low-income communities often struggle with higher costs and limited access to fresh food.
Infrastructure: A 2024 study published in The Journal of School Nursing found that many U.S. schools lack the supply chain and staff to prepare fresh meals at scale. These challenges were especially evident during the pandemic.
Food Safety: Schools must comply with strict food safety regulations, which can make using fresh, minimally processed ingredients more difficult, including keeping foods cold, according to the 2024 Nutrients study.
A Call for Change
Despite these challenges, USDA programs like The Patrick Leahy Farm to School Program are helping schools incorporate more locally grown foods into their meals.
“One of the biggest strengths of the U.S. school meal programs is the ongoing shift toward offering more scratch-made meals and incorporating locally sourced ingredients. School nutrition professionals are transforming the perception of school cafeteria food by enhancing meal quality and integrating nutrition and culinary education opportunities to promote healthy eating habits among students,” Ashley Robbins, Texas-based registered school dietitian, told The Epoch Times.
Change is already underway, with concerned groups and parents pushing for healthier school meals:
Some states and districts are experimenting with fresher meal options despite budget constraints. New York City has implemented Plant-Powered Fridays to introduce more whole foods and plant-based meals while reducing processed options. Many of these meals are made from scratch with fresh ingredients.
Parents are demanding higher-quality food for their children, pressuring schools to make changes. A grassroots movement called the Metabolic Revolution has a petition to urge policymakers to ban ultra-processed foods from school lunches and prioritize whole-food options. The recent petition has gained significant traction, reflecting parents’ growing concern over what their children eat at school.
Moms Across America, a concerned parent group, advocates for more transparency and better nutrition in school lunches. In 2022, the group conducted independent lab tests on U.S. school lunches and found concerning levels of pesticides, heavy metals, veterinary drugs, and harmful additives in the food. Their findings highlighted potential health risks for children, including exposure to toxins that could impact brain function, behavior, and overall well-being. The results fueled concerns about the quality of school meals and the need for cleaner, more nutritious options for students.
Christopher Palmer, author of Brain Energy, stresses the importance of paying attention to what kids are eating. The Harvard assistant professor of psychiatry testified at a U.S. Senate Roundtable in September of last year:
“The chronic disease epidemic is escalating at an alarming rate across Western societies, with our youth bearing a disproportionate burden. When these conditions begin in childhood, their impact is compounded, leading to lifelong health complications and disrupted social, emotional, and cognitive development.”
Serving Positivity—One Banana at a Time
Alongside her staff, Wow-Wright writes uplifting messages on fresh bananas for students. Words like “able” and “inspired” reflect her mission—shared by many school nutrition staff—to transform kids’ eating by introducing healthier, fresher foods.
Today, some school nutrition workers are being the change they wish to see. “We do more than 60 percent scratch cooking, but no matter how awesome the meals are, if you can’t get the buy-in from parents and kids—and you’re not feeding them – what good is all that? We need to get kids involved and interested,” New York school nutrition director Mackey said.
To get kids excited about fresh foods, Mackey involves youth in menu planning and has implemented a “flavor station” where kids can add herbs and spices to their foods. She also started an Iron Chef student competition where kids can show off their culinary creations.
With an appetite for change and a passion for better school meals, getting kids excited about healthy eating could make a nutritious lunch future closer than we think.
Demographic Doom: Japan’s Birth Rate Falls To The Lowest In 125 Years
The number of babies born in Japan last year fell for a ninth straight year to the lowest level on record stretching back 125 years, according to health ministry data released Thursday.
The 720,998 babies born in Japan in 2024 was a drop of 37 thousand, or 5%, from the previous year, according to the Health and Welfare Ministry. It was the lowest number of births since Japan started taking the statistics in 1899.
The result, which includes babies of foreign nationality born in Japan, is 15 years ahead of the forecast for reaching that level. The birth rate for just Japanese nationals is expected to fall below 700,000 for the first time when it is published later this year. The faster-than-predicted decline suggests government measures have completely failed to address the country’s fast-aging and declining population.
At the same time, the number of deaths hit a record just above 1.6 million, pushing the ratio of deaths to births above a shocking 2x for the second straight year, virtually guaranteeing demographic doom for Japan.
“We believe the declining births has not been effectively controlled,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters, adding the government will steadily pursue expanded childcare programs and subsidies for childrearing households, while promoting salary increase and support for matchmaking effort.
Japan’s dismal demographic data come just as South Korea reported that the number of babies born in that country rebounded for the first time in nine years in 2024, a result partly attributed to an increase in marriages among couples who delayed weddings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Japanese survey Thursday also noted that the number of marriages last year was 499,999, an increase of 2.2% on 2023 when a 90-year low was recorded.
Experts say improving outlook for the economy, jobs and gender equality is key to encourage young people to marry and have children. And even though the Japanese economy has allegedly been “improving”, the fact that prices have soared the most in decades has likely snuffed out any marginal desire the youth may have had to procreate as it has not been more expensive to have kids this century.
Surveys show that many younger Japanese are reluctant to marry or have families, discouraged by bleak job prospects, the high cost of living that rises at a faster pace than salaries and corporate cultures that are not compatible with having both parents work.
Japan’s population is projected to fall by about 30%, to 87 million by 2070, when four out of every 10 people will be 65 or older.
Commenting on the demographic death of Japan, and really every Western “developed” nation, One River’s Eric Peters muses that “if we can simply stave off a war with China and Russia for a couple decades, their youth will be too busy changing adult diapers to pick up rifles…. in 10yrs, both China and Russia will suffer 5% population declines. In 25yrs China will shrink by 13%, Russia by 14%. In 50yrs, China will shrink by 28%, Russia by 30%.”
‘Go Back To Africa!’: Unhinged Dems Demand Musk’s Deportation As Lawmakers Ramp Up Attacks
During a demonstration Monday afternoon, Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) called for Department of Government Efficiency boss Elon Musk to kick himself out of the country.
“It was interesting yesterday I was watching a video of an interview of Elon Musk with someone where he said that the Italians should stay in Italy and the Chinese should stay in China, my question to Elon Musk is what the hell are you doing here in America?” Velazquez told the raucous crowd, adding “Go back to South Africa!”
Unhinged
Democrat Rep. Nydia Velazquez: “My question to Elon Musk: What the hell are you doing here in America? Go back to South Africa!” pic.twitter.com/psg9bbdjTy
Velazquez was parroting a debunked claim shared widely on social media regarding a Musk interview in 2023 that liberal fact-checker Snopes rated as “false,” according to Fox News, which added that Velazquez also railed against DOGE – declaring it must be stopped to protect “the soul of our nation.”
Velazquez is the latest Democrat to target Musk by citing his South African heritage. Last week, Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) questioned the Tesla CEO’s loyalty to the U.S. over his immigrant status.
“Mr. Musk has just been here 22 years. He’s a citizen of three countries. I always ask myself the question, with the damage he’s doing here, when push comes to shove, which country is his loyalty to? South Africa? Canada? Or the United States? And he’s only been a citizen, I’ll say again, 22 years,” the Ohio Democrat said during a press conference on Capitol Hill last Wednesday.
Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) is attempting to smear Elon Musk by questioning his loyalty to America.
“Mr. Musk has just been here for 22 years, and he’s a citizen of three countries. I always ask myself the question: ‘With the damage he is doing here, when push comes to shove,… pic.twitter.com/tq5SujDZZG
During an anti-Trump protest in Phoenix last, demonstrators chanted: “Deport Elon” and “no hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here.”
Various Democrat lawmakers plan to bring federal workers affected by DOGE—responsible for aggressively downsizing or eliminating agencies and cutting around 100,000 federal jobs during Trump’s first six weeks in office—to President Donald Trump’s address before Congress on Tuesday evening.
“The New Yorkers that will accompany me to the Joint Session show the real and devastating human impact of Trump’s cruel and shortsighted policies and the destructive cuts,” Schumer said in a statement. “The slash-and-burn approach that Trump and DOGE have taken has already disrupted so many lives.”
Fox News has learned Trump’s address will be themed “The Renewal of the American Dream.” According to White House officials, the speech will be structured into four key sections: a review of his administration’s domestic and international accomplishments; an assessment of the economic progress made under his leadership; a renewed appeal for Congress to secure additional border security funding; and an outline of his plans for fostering global peace.
“For this particular outbreak, we don’t know the individual who introduced it into the community,” Dr. Jennifer Shuford, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, told a state House of Representatives committee.
Cases of measles first cropped up in Gaines County in January. Since then, an additional 144 cases have been confirmed.
Many measles outbreaks are caused by a person who travels outside the country and then returns with the disease.
A handful of cases identified in Harris County, also in January, were determined to be travel-related. Those patients did not spread the disease, which spreads through respiratory droplets, Shuford said.
As for the outbreak that started in Gaines County, “We don’t know who introduced measles into the community and from what country,” Shuford said later during Monday’s hearing. “We just don’t know that about this particular outbreak.”
She also acknowledged, under questioning from state Rep. Mike Olcott, that suggesting the source was travel-related was speculative.
Olcott noted that the number of illegal immigrants coming across the U.S.-Mexico border has surged in recent years and asked whether Shuford would agree an illegal immigrant could have been the source. She said she would not.
“We’ve seen examples where it’s not travel from our southern border, that it’s other travel that just happens to get into a pocket of under-vaccinated. And that’s why I can’t pin it on this,” she said. “I don’t have any data that would say yes or no.”
Nearly half of confirmed cases have been among children aged 5 to 17, with another 31 percent being detected among children aged 0 to 4, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
Of the 84 patients with known vaccination status, 79 were listed as not having received any doses of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. Another five had received at least one dose.
A school-aged child who died was unvaccinated, officials said.
Children are advised by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to receive one dose of the MMR vaccine at 12 to 15 months of age and a second dose at age 4, 5, or 6.
Gaines County and surrounding areas have recorded falling vaccination rates for years.
Statewide, 2.3 percent of primary school students had a conscientious exemption for at least one vaccine, according to a survey conducted for the 2023–24 school years. Across the state, 94.3 percent of kindergartners and 97.6 percent of seventh graders had received a full series of the shot.
The percentage of conscientious exemptions to at least one vaccine was much higher in some counties, such as Gaines County, where the outbreak started. The percentage was 13.6 percent among school students there. And just 82 percent of kindergartners and 90 percent of seventh graders in the county had received a full series of the MMR vaccine.
At 95 percent coverage, herd immunity, or broad protection among the community is achieved, Shuford said. “We know when those vaccine levels get lower than 95 percent that there’s enough unprotected people together to cause an outbreak or to allow an outbreak to happen,” she said.
She attributed falling vaccination rates to a decrease in trust in vaccines.
State Rep. James B. Frank noted that the vaccination schedule from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention contains dozens of doses, many more than other developed countries. He asked whether public health officials should focus on messaging that conveys to people that certain vaccines are high-reward and low-risk, such as the MMR vaccine.
Shuford said that the MMR vaccine “is one of our really good ones” while other shots, such as the COVID-19 vaccine, don’t work as well. “Part of it is on us in public health not communicating well,” she said.
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently said that people should consult with their doctors concerning vaccinations while recommending vitamin A for people who become infected with measles.
For people who are exposed to measles and are unvaccinated, Texas officials recommend a vaccine within 72 hours of exposure. If that is not accomplished, unvaccinated children who were exposed are at risk of being excluded from school. Texas Administrative Code states that a child “who has not received the required immunizations for reasons of conscience, including religious beliefs, may be excluded from school in times of emergency or epidemic declared by the commissioner of the department.”
Shuford could not say how many children are being prevented from attending school.
IRS May Fire Half Of Its 90,000-Strong Workforce: Latest Leak
The IRS is reportedly drafting plans to fire as much as half of its workforce through a mix of layoffs, attrition and incentivized buyouts, two leakers told the Associated Press, who spoke on condition of anonymity “because they weren’t authorized to disclose the plans.”
According to the report, “The layoffs are part of the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce through billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency by closing agencies, laying off nearly all probationary employees who have not yet gained civil service protection and offering buyouts to almost all federal employees through a “deferred resignation program” to quickly reduce the government workforce.”
According to former IRS commissioner John Koskinen, a reduction of tens of thousands of employees would render the agency “dysfunctional.”
AP would also like us to know that IRS cuts would be both racist and sexist, as “People of color make up 56% of the IRS workforce, and women represent 65%.”
In February, roughly 7,000 IRS employees with less than one year of service were racistly and sexistly laid off from the organization, while the rest of the agency was offered “deferred resignation program” buyouts. Employees involved in processing the 2025 tax season, however, were told earlier this month that they would not be able to accept the offer.
Meanwhile, the IRS’s deputized pistol-packin’ IRS-CI agents are being loaned out to the Department of Homeland Security to help assist with immigration enforcement, after DHS Secretary Kristi Noem asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to borrow them.
The U.S. Treasury just gave Chevron Corp. a short 30-day eviction notice from Venezuela, cutting off its ability to pump and sell crude from the sanctioned country.
The decision, following Trump’s vow to reverse Biden’s oil concessions to Nicolás Maduro and the cancellation of a sanction waiver just days ago, is a seismic shift that could slam both Venezuela’s already fragile economy and U.S. refiners relying on its heavy crude.
The standard wind-down period is 6 months, according to Bloomberg.
For Chevron, this is a hard stop after years of carefully maneuvering U.S. sanctions. The oil giant was responsible for about 20% of Venezuela’s total production, providing a rare source of economic stability and desperately needed hard currency. That revenue—estimated at $6 billion—was one of the few things keeping the country from total collapse.
The Biden administration had allowed Chevron to ship 240,000 barrels per day of Venezuelan crude to U.S. refineries, a lifeline for Gulf Coast refiners designed to handle heavier crude grades.
But Trump’s crackdown means those barrels are off the table come April 3.
Markets reacted immediately – Chevron shares fell 1.3%, while WTI crude slipped to $67.36 and Brent dropped to $70.24 as traders recalibrated expectations.
Florida Republicans have long argued that any U.S. dealings with Venezuela only prop up Maduro’s regime, calling for tougher measures.
Trump echoed that sentiment, posting on social media that he was “reversing the concessions Crooked Joe Biden gave to Nicolás Maduro.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio piled on, vowing to “terminate all Biden-era oil and gas licenses that have shamefully bankrolled the illegitimate Maduro regime.”
Venezuela, unsurprisingly, is calling the move “harmful” and predicting it will cause “damage to the U.S., its people, and its companies.”
Meanwhile, with Chevron gone, Venezuela may revert to shadowy oil deals with Iran and China—a return to the “ghost tanker” days of lost revenue and sanctions evasion.
The bigger question? Where will U.S. refiners turn for heavy crude now—and at what price?
Texas Middle-Schoolers Secretly Tattooed Each Other Using Shared Needle In Classrooms
Looking to rail against DOGE and come up with signs of efficiency from the Department of Education? Try this one on for size.
Texas middle schoolers secretly tattooed each other in classrooms using a shared needle while teachers remained unaware, sparking outrage among parents,according to the NY Post.
Officials said the students used temporary ink, raising fears of potential disease exposure.
“How is it that these kids are getting tattoos in class and not one teacher noticed it?” one mother, Ashley Armstrong, asked.
Armstrong’s 11-year-old son, Jordan, used a shared needle to scrape “I heart my lord” on his forearm and “JC” on his hands during class at Travis Intermediate in Greenville, Texas.
Jordan said a classmate offered him a tattoo, and the same needle was “shared several times from one class to another,” Armstrong told the outlet. A school nurse alerted Armstrong, urging immediate blood tests, which fortunately came back negative.
The NY Post writes that Armstrong scolded Jordan, saying “he knows better,” but criticized the teachers for allowing it. “It’s with the needle, so I don’t care if it’s temporary ink or not,” she said. “This can affect him, seriously affect him. I’m not letting up on any of that.”
Greenville ISD confirmed the incident and suspended several teachers as an investigation continues.
“Greenville ISD is aware of an incident at Travis Intermediate School where students gave each other tattoos using temporary ink and the same needle,” the school district said in a statement.
The U.S. Supreme Court seemed skeptical of Mexico’s argument on March 4 that gun manufacturers should face liability for violence committed by cartels.
Multiple justices asked questions indicating that Mexico’s lawsuit lacked information to allege a certain level of wrongdoing on the part of gun companies.
Justices Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett asked about whether Mexico could name red flag dealers that were allegedly part of the flow of guns for illegal purposes.
“You haven’t identified them that I can tell from the complaint,” Barrett told an attorney for Mexico. Justice Elena Kagan similarly told Mexico’s attorney that her side didn’t name particular dealers.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh asked Mexico’s attorney about the economic consequences of its theory of liability. “That’s a real concern for me,” he said.
The case, Smith & Wesson v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos, came from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which ruled last year that members of the American firearm industry could face a lawsuit under the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA).
That law generally protects firearms companies from lawsuits based on criminals misusing their products but contains an exception that the First Circuit said was met in this case. More specifically, the law allows companies to face lawsuits if they knowingly violated state or federal law and that violation was a proximate cause of a given harm.
The appeals court said Mexico’s lawsuit had adequately alleged that the firearm companies had aided and abetted “the sale of firearms by dealers in knowing violation of relevant state and federal laws.”
It added that “the Mexican government’s expenditure of funds to parry the cartels is a foreseeable and direct consequence” of dealers selling guns to buyers with illegal intentions.
At one point, Justice Sonia Sotomayor suggested that Mexico hadn’t done enough to show that the gun companies took some affirmative action to participate in a scheme that furthered wrongdoing.
After Sotomayor’s exchange with Mexico’s attorney, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson told the attorney that she thought the PLCAA required lawsuits like Mexico’s to do more to show violations of law.
Jackson also seemed to worry that Mexico’s arguments would invite unwarranted judicial intervention.
“All of the things that you asked for in this lawsuit would amount to different kinds of regulatory constraints that I’m thinking Congress didn’t want the courts to be the ones to impose,” she said.
Justice Clarence Thomas similarly seemed to express concern that the lawsuit didn’t show a violation of particular laws. He also asked whether Mexico would run into due process issues in alleging violations of federal law by certain individuals when they hadn’t been charged with that violation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.
