Authored by Irina Slav via OilPrice.com,

• Major LNG suppliers say the EU’s methane regulations are too burdensome to comply with and could lead to reduced gas supplies.

• The U.S. and Qatar contend that tracking methane emissions across complex gas supply chains is technically difficult or impossible.

• With nearly 60% of its LNG imports coming from the U.S., the EU risks straining relations with key suppliers as it pursues stricter climate policies.

The United States and Qatar have once again warned the European Union against doubling down on climate policies seeking to penalize the LNG industry, saying that if it continues on this course, the EU will face a gas crunch and higher prices.

“There is no viable path to compliance with the regulation”, the top energy officials of the U.S. and Qatar, Chris Wright and Saad al-Kaabi, wrote in a letter quoted by the Financial Times.

“Because legal compliance remains paramount, exporters and importers alike are unwilling to enter into contractual agreements that knowingly violate EU law,” the U.S. energy secretary and the Qatari energy minister also wrote. “Significant supply and price impacts are a certainty.”

The letter comes ahead of a meeting on Friday when the energy ministers of EU member states will discuss the policies of the bloc. It was also signed by two other large gas suppliers to the European Union, Algeria and Nigeria, the FT also reported.

The so-called methane regulation, adopted by the European Union two years ago, aimed at reducing not only the bloc’s own emissions of the greenhouse gas that constitutes almost 100% of natural gas but also forcing countries outside the EU that do business with the bloc to cut their emissions as well, notably gas suppliers.

The regulation, starting this year, extends to all energy suppliers to the EU, and these suppliers were anything but happy about it.

Both the United States and Qatar have already repeatedly warned the EU that they are unwilling to do business with it under the methane regulation that requires gas producers to track their methane emissions from the wellhead to the liquefaction plant and the LNG carrier after that, report them, and take pains to reduce these emissions, or face financial penalties.

Qatar was blunt about it, saying last year that if the EU was so concerned about methane emissions, they should look for some other source of LNG because Qatar would stop selling to the bloc. Secretary Wright also said last year that the methane regulation was impossible to implement and described it as “a critical non-tariff trade barrier that imposes an undue burden on U.S. exporters and our trade relationship.”

In response, Brussels caved partially, saying it will not enforce the penalties stipulated in the regulation until 2030. LNG exporters are still not happy with this option, insisting on what would effectively be the cancellation of the regulation—and they are not alone because there are EU member states that are not really eager to pay the additional cost of low-methane LNG, which would be inevitable, as pointed out by Wright and al-Kaabi.

Not only are higher gas prices for European buyers inevitable, but Secretary Wright was not exaggerating when he said the regulation would be impossible to enforce in the U.S. shale gas patch. The reason is quite simple: U.S. natural gas is produced by multiple companies that then feed their output into a complex gas network that takes the gas to the liquefaction facilities on the Gulf Coast. Tracking every molecule to ensure it was produced and shipped with as few methane emissions as possible is quite literally, physically impossible.

According to energy consultancy Rystad Energy, however, there is no problem with the EU methane regulation, because there are three times as much compliant natural gas available in the world as the EU imports, it said in a study commissioned by climate outlet the Environmental Defense Fund, as cited by the FT. One wonders, however, if that is indeed the case, why would both Qatar and the United States, which together account for a pretty solid portion of global LNG output, claim compliance is impossible, meaning there is not enough compliant gas in the world.

The EU, for all its power posturing, is not in a position of strength. Bloomberg’s Javier Blas reported in a recent column that the bloc buys some 59% of its LNG from the United States, with the figure going all the way to 64% in April. As a result, Blas wrote, some in Brussels are starting to worry that the EU has become too dependent on a single supplier of a vital commodity—and it does not exactly have many alternatives should anything strain relations, such as, perhaps, an ill-conceived methane regulation.

Yet it appears the purpose of the methane regulation is not necessarily to make sure the gas that Europeans buy is “clean”. The purpose, as described by the FT and attributed to proponents such as the Environmental Defense Fund, is to reduce gas consumption, apparently by making the conditions for purchasing that gas unpalatable. For those proponents, reducing gas consumption would improve the EU’s energy security. European industrial energy consumers beg to differ. Who will prevail should become clear pretty soon.

After his Oval Office visit today, an affair dominated by foreign reporters speaking truth to power by clamoring for more global military spending, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte had to defend his alliance’s often-touted moral assertion: that NATO is defensive in nature.

Asked by ZeroHedge whether NATO’s good deeds in Libya and Iraq qualified as defensive, Rutte had this to say:

NATO chief Mark Rutte often refers to his alliance as “defensive.”

I asked whether Hillary Clinton’s regime war in Libya or Cheney’s Iraq — both NATO operations — were defensive operations. pic.twitter.com/sa8X1qcsFt

— Liam Cosgrove (@cosgrove_iv) June 24, 2026

Rutte: Again, NATO is there to defend 1 billion people living in NATO territory, from California up to and including Turkey, and everything in between. This is a transatlantic, North Atlantic Treaty Organization Alliance. It is extremely powerful. It is the strongest defensive alliance in world history. And we have our discussions, as you have seen this afternoon. There are always debates. These are democracies.

ZH: But what about those wars? What about Libya and Iraq?

Rutte: I’m not going to comment on everything, but I can assure you, NATO is there to defend. But if we would be attacked, you can be assured, that if we get attacked by anyone, for example the Russians or whoever, that our reaction would be devastating.

One million Iraqis may be dead. Libya may no longer be a cohesive country, with sub-Saharan slave auctions returning post-NATO liberation… but hey! It was debated. We’re democratic.

Libya was infamously a Hillary Clinton operation, something she reportedly believed would be a slam dunk victory and propel her into the presidency in 2016. Instead, after killing Gaddafi, Benghazi happened, where embassy officials and CIA contractors were murdered in a surprise attack.

Most know of this scandal but few know why there was a secret CIA compound still located in Benghazi, Libya after Gaddafi had been murdered. As investigative reporter Seymour Hersh broke in 2014, it was to smuggle weapons from the no-longer-needed Libyan “rebels” to the freedom fighters in Assad’s Syria… a regime change that would eventually be achieved and was publicly celebrated by Israeli PM Netanyahu, who took partial credit.

Western values:

Hillary Clinton,on hearing about Gaddafi’s death in Sirte, Libya.

20 Oct 2011.
Hillary Clinton: “We came, we saw, he died!”

Q:”Did it [Gaddafi’s death] have anything to do with your visit?
Clinton: “Nah…I’m sure it did (giggles)”
🤔 pic.twitter.com/QoUQS0sp4d

— Richard (@ricwe123) March 19, 2023

Mark Rutte has been successful at ratcheting up weaponry spending across Europe, combining his ability to flatter Trump and by leveraging Trump’s threats against NATO members to “pay their fair share”. Rutte is apparently an aspiring Lindsay Graham as he approaches 60 years of age with no kids, wife, nor girlfriend and a seemingly singular focus at prolonging wars.

His latest attempt, today, to seduce Trump included a posterboard-demonstration featuring the global increases in European NATO spending that has occurred under Trump’s terms:

Nothing like cheerful, childless men trying to drag you into World War III while they constantly remind you of their moral virtuosity. Reminiscent of the Biden years.

Trump and Vance deserve great credit and support as they try to resist the warmongers in the Levant. Let’s hope they can resist the ones in Brussels as well. And yes, yes.. Trump started the war in Iran. But, to anyone paying attention, it was against his will and now he and Vance are entering uncharted territory in their defiance towards Israel. To reference Sey Hersh again, from his latest Substack post:

“Last week President Donald Trump walked away from a postwar alliance dating back almost eight decades by telling Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu that America’s romance with Israel is over. The bond between the two nations, officially dating back to 1948, when Israel was recognized by the United Nations, was shredded. Perhaps forever. Trump has told the New York Times and its columnists who bemoan what they fear will be a bereft and vulnerable Israel, in constant peril from a potential Iranian nuclear weapon, that Israel is on its own.

It had been an American political ritual, like kissing babies when campaigning, to support Israel in all things, as did President Joe Biden”

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

The case of 18-year-old white British student Henry Nowak has delivered yet another layer of disturbing detail.

Officers from Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary arrived at the Southampton scene roughly five to ten minutes after he was stabbed five times with a ceremonial knife. Henry remained conscious and spoke loudly at first. He told them he had been stabbed and could not breathe. They chose instead to believe the man who had just knifed him.

New evidence released this week shows it took those officers a full eight minutes to discover the fatal wound. During that time they lifted Henry, striking his head against a wall, and later began CPR. A female officer started compressions. According to the transcript and reports, officers performed chest compressions over his clothing and directly onto the area of the stab wound.

? BREAKING: Newly released evidence shows how police officers took eight minutes to discover the stab wound that killed Henry Nowak.

The attending officers also hit Henry’s head on a wall as he was lifted, before a female officer begins CPR.https://t.co/C5Wb1IQZ93

— The Mercian (@TheMercianNews) June 24, 2026

It took police officers 8 minutes to check Henry Nowak for stab wounds. When they realised he wasn’t breathing they did chest compressions over his clothes ONTO A STAB WOUND, somehow managing to make the situation even worse.

— Patrick Christys (@PatrickChristys) June 24, 2026

Bodycam footage shows officers dragging Henry across gravel, turning him, and forcefully pulling his arms behind his back to apply handcuffs. He lost consciousness within about three minutes of that restraint and was pronounced dead at 00:37 on 4 December 2025 after 51 minutes of resuscitation efforts.

A paediatric critical care specialist with battlefield medicine experience, Dr Krzysztof Magier, reviewed the footage and post-mortem report. He concluded there is a high probability that the police actions contributed to Henry’s death.

The main source of bleeding was damage to the subclavian vein. Venous bleeding under low pressure often forms a natural clot that can slow or stop on its own. Forcefully twisting the arms behind the back and handcuffing likely stretched the vein, tore the forming clot, and triggered sudden massive internal haemorrhage.

Dr Magier stated: “I am convinced that if Henry had arrived there alive, the doctors would not have let him die.” He added that paramedics arriving first could have given Henry a roughly 50% chance of survival through fluids, tranexamic acid to stabilise the clot, and other interventions. Southampton University Hospital, a major trauma centre, was only two to three minutes away by ambulance.

Serving and former Hampshire officers have now admitted that mandatory “Inclusion Matters” DEI training played a direct role in how they processed the incident. They described sessions that drummed in “white privilege” and “unconscious bias.”

One officer said: “we had it drummed into us about our white privilege and unconscious bias.” The outsourced trainer was described as “deeply hateful of white people and our culture.” Officers feared career damage if they pushed back.

This ideological environment framed the white teenager as the likely aggressor and gave credence to the attacker’s fabricated claim of racial abuse.

Vickrum Digwa, from a Sikh background, lied to police and his family reinforced the narrative on the 999 call, downplaying any knife involvement. Officers initially accepted the story. One was heard telling Henry: “Don’t think you have mate.”

An ex-police officer appearing on BBC Newsnight called the response “unfathomable.” Basic procedure requires immediate medical assessment and priority for anyone reporting a stab wound and breathing difficulty – not restraint and dismissal. The BBC presenter appeared visibly surprised at the unsparing assessment.

Judge William Mousley KC noted the attending officer’s “genuine shock” upon realising CPR was being given over a serious chest wound and suggested it showed officers “doing his best in a very difficult situation.” The judge also observed that “sometimes, someone arrested and handcuffed will feign injury.”

Dr Magier directly challenged that leniency: “I fear that the Judge and pathologist were too lenient towards the police.”

A full jury inquest opens at Winchester Coroner’s Court on 20 September 2027. It will examine whether any act or omission by police caused or contributed to the death.

The release of bodycam footage earlier this month triggered protests and disorder in Southampton. Henry’s father, Mark Nowak, stated: “My son was dragged across gravel, handcuffed and called racist as he lay dying. Being read his rights was the last thing he heard.”

Vickrum Digwa was jailed for life with a minimum of 21 years. His sentence has been referred to the Court of Appeal as potentially unduly lenient. Prior warnings about Digwa – including 2022 reports of him firing an illegal air pistol in his garden – were reportedly not acted upon effectively by police.

The pattern fits a broader picture of institutional capture. Training that elevates identity politics over impartial procedure produces exactly this outcome: a dying white teenager treated as a threat while his attacker’s narrative receives deference.

Critics from across the spectrum have highlighted the double standard compared with other high-profile custody deaths that triggered institutional upheaval and global campaigns.

He wasn’t breathing ? you start chest compressions immediately.

That’s basic first aid protocol.

Taking 8 minutes to check for stab wounds, handcuffing him while he’s saying he can’t breathe, and then compressing over clothes directly onto the wound is a complete failure of…

— WasAcop (@WasAcop) June 24, 2026

I read that they also banged his head when they moved him after realising that he’d been stabbed. Honestly, when you think this case can’t get any worse, it does. ?

— Leanne (@LeanneSpurs) June 24, 2026

They were told he had blood coming out of his mouth when they arrived, and he repeatedly said he’d been stabbed.

Totally unacceptable dereliction of duty.

— PixelatedBoot (stamping on a human face – forever) (@PixelatedBoot) June 24, 2026

It would help if the police were taught life saving rather than DEI protocol.

— Pat Herbert (@PatHerbert2) June 24, 2026

Henry’s family has asked that his death not be used to sow further division. The facts, however, speak for themselves. When police training and culture elevate racial grievance narratives above the immediate duty to preserve life, the result is not justice – it is preventable tragedy.

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

It’s no longer just a Trump-Meloni spat on the level of public rhetoric, but Italy is newly making clear that it is imposing real policy and limitations on the US, now clarifying that it had formally denied US use of its bases to strike Iran for past and future potential missions.

This has been a long time in coming, as Italy already clearly restricted at least some US use of its bases within the past months related to the Iran war, but now it is official.

On Thursday Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani reportedly told his Iranian counterpart by phone he firmly rejects NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte’s recent claims that US forces used Italian military bases in operations against Iran.

Tajani has insisted that Italian bases were never used for any kind of offensive strikes on the Islamic Republic. According to US military publication Stripes, “The Iranian foreign minister thanked Italy for the clarification and said a clear, formal denial was necessary.”

Italy of course remains a member of NATO, and so the fact that Rome was responding to recent remark’s of the organization’s leader is glaring, and reveals a serious inter-NATO rift.

The NATO chief had been interviewed on Fox earlier this week, wherein he claimed that some 500 American military flights had taken off from bases in Italy in support of Operation Epic Fury. Italy’s foreign ministry is firmly rejecting the claim.

In addition, the Italian Defense Ministry came out and said that Rutte “has nothing to do with Operation Epic Fury” – which might explain whey he’s making “completely misleading” remarks.

“Italy only authorizes flights that are provided for by the treaties and totally exclude kinetic activities,” said that Italian defense ministry statement.

It seems Italy is trying to appease both the Iranian and US sides at once, by trying to shroud its role in ambiguity and abstract definitions of terms: 

In a post analyzing how Italy’s bases were used to support the war, the site ItaMilRadar said this week that Navy MQ-4C Triton surveillance drones from Sigonella “conducted extensive intelligence and reconnaissance missions over the Persian Gulf area” before the Triton operations appeared to shift to Jordan in April. Navy P-8 Poseidon patrol aircraft operated from the base before and during the war, and several deployed to Djibouti to support U.S. naval forces in the Indian Ocean, according to the site.

Back in late March, as US-Israeli bombs were still being unleashed on Iran, a statement from PM Meloni’s office had also alluded to matters of procedure, stating that Italy is “acting in full compliance with existing international agreements”  – while underscoring that each request must be “carefully examined on a case-by-case basis, as has always been the case in the past.”

Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto had also at the time confirmed that “some US bombers” were denied landing at Sigonella – one of seven US navy bases in Italy. The complaint is that the US didn’t follow required permission protocol, and requested landing only while in the air and already en route to Sicily.

But the truth also is that American hegemonic action in the Middle East, and the Iran conflict in particular, remains deeply unpopular among the Italian population, which has long had a strongly anti-war bent especially among the youth.

In a display of obedience to the US, the NATO Secretary General bragged about NATO’s participation in the war of aggression against Iran:
– “If you take Italy for example, 500 U.S. planes took off from U.S. bases in Italy to support Operation Epic Fury.” pic.twitter.com/cuJWD6Uy7N

— Glenn Diesen (@Glenn_Diesen) June 25, 2026

The Guardian previously wrote, “The unpopularity of Trump in Italy has also started to erode the popularity of Meloni, who is ideologically in tune with the US president and has established good working relations with him.” However, she’s lately sought to distance her government from the war, having told parliament earlier this month there’s a growing dangerous trend of interventions “outside the scope of international law.”

Via Remix News,

Poles are divided in their assessment of Ukraine’s possible accession to the European Union.

However, according to the latest IBRiS poll conducted for Radio ZET, the voices of those opposed to accession dominate.

A total of 35.3 percent of those surveyed voted in favor of Ukraine’s admission to the European Union. Strong support for such a solution was expressed by 8.4 percent of respondents, while 26.9 percent replied “rather yes.”

There are definitely more opponents of Ukraine’s membership in the EU. A total of 59.7 percent of those questioned took a negative position. The answer “probably not” was given by 27.4 percent of respondents, and “definitely not” by as many as 32.3 percent.

Another 5 percent remain undecided — respondents who chose the answer “I don’t know” or “hard to say.”

Among supporters of the ruling coalition, 64 percent support Ukraine’s accession to the EU, while 73 percent of opposition voters say Ukraine should not join.

The study was conducted by the IBRiS Institute for Market and Social Research using computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI) on June 12–13, 2026. The survey was conducted on a representative sample of 1,068 adult Poles.

Zelensky canceled his visit to Poland

The two-day Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC), co-organized by Poland and Ukraine, will begin in Gdańsk on Thursday.

One of the highlights of the event will be a joint meeting of the Polish and Ukrainian parliaments.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will not come to Gdańsk; the Ukrainian delegation will instead be headed by Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko

. It is also known that the First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, will not come to Poland.

The Gdańsk conference is being organized in the shadow of sharp tensions between Poland and Ukraine — all due to Zelensky’s decision to name one of the Ukrainian army units after “UPA heroes.”

In response, Polish President Karol Nawrocki decided to strip Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle.

Read more here…

Authored by Walker Larson via The Epoch Times,

On July 4, 2026, the United States of America has a date with the future.

America250, the national, nonpartisan group tasked with organizing the celebration of the nation’s 250th anniversary, will establish a bridge with the year 2276 by burying a time capsule at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia on July 4 of this year. For 250 years, the capsule will lie there silently waiting, as the ship of the nation surges forward through the uncharted seas of the future. Then in 2276, the capsule will be reopened, providing future Americans with a glimpse into their past—our present.

The capsule contains contributions from all three branches of government, all 50 states, District of Columbia, and five territories, and America250 programs. According to the America250 website, “the Time Capsule reflects a national responsibility to preserve a representative record of the United States at 250 years.” The three-foot-tall, 900-pound capsule has been officially sealed and now awaits burial.

“This moment is as much about the future as it is the past,” Rosie Rios, chair of America250, proclaimed. “When it is opened in 2276, future generations will see the care, pride, and optimism with which Americans marked our 250th anniversary.”

The capsule contains some remarkable items, including a whale bone from Maine, an AI prophecy from California, and a diamond from Arkansas. The Library of Congress has included a molecular data storage device, about the length of a pencil eraser, that contains synthetic DNA in which is encoded digital copies of key Library collection items, such as Thomas Jefferson’s rough draft of the Declaration of Independence and an 1898 audio recording of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Maine’s contribution to the America250 time capsule is this bone from the North Atlantic right whale found off the coast of the Gulf of Maine. Courtesy of America250

America250 has explained that the artifacts, letters, records, and objects—most of which have been placed in six-by-four-by-two-inch archival boxes—have been selected to tell the story of the United States, as it exists on this semiquincentennial. Each state and territory established its own commissions to select representative items from that area to be submitted for inclusion in the capsule.

Rios observed, “When it is opened in 2276, we want future generations to have a clear, authentic window into who we were at 250—what we valued, what we built, and how we saw ourselves as a nation.”

The more-than-200 artifacts span a wide range of types, including civic records, scientific items, cultural artifacts, sports memorabilia, and items that express what everyday life in America is like in 2026.

Notable objects include student submissions from America250’s America’s Field Trip contest that respond to the question, “What does America mean to you?” There’s also a Coca-Cola glass bottle, an iPhone 17 Pro Max, a coin from the 2026 NFL playoffs, a map of Alaska when it was sold to the United States by Russia in 1867, a photograph of the military eagle “Old Abe,” and a poem celebrating America by contemporary South Dakota poet Joseph Bottum. Experts from the Library of Congress scrupulously analyzed each item to ensure that it was an appropriate material that wouldn’t decay or compromise the vessel’s integrity.

Also included in the time capsule: As part of America250’s America’s Soundtrack initiative, Coca-Cola donated a “message in a bottle” with a lyrics sheet for their song, “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” inside an iconic Coke bottle. Courtesy of America250

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) along with preservation experts at the Library of Congress developed the capsule itself, and it was constructed at NIST’s technology fabrication shop. Its smooth, cylindrical hull is made of stainless steel and a water- and air-proof compression seal of indium. Finally, a 1,100-pound steel bell jar will be placed over the capsule when it is buried, forming an air pocket that will keep the cylinder’s dry for its 250-year sleep.

The duty of burying the capsule falls to the National Park Service in conjunction with the Independence Historical Trust, the philanthropic partner to Independence National Historical Park. The time capsule will become an heirloom and responsibility inherited by successive generations of park officials as they pass on the information about the time capsule from decade to decade, century to century, until the year 2276. The National Park Service has information about the capsule in its succession plans, as well as a capstone with information on the capsule, to be placed over its burial site.

A historic national event such as this inspires reflection about the passage of time and the meaning of legacy. Michael Berilla, director of the fabrication technology office at the NIST, who led the team that built the capsule, wrote a rather poignant message to whoever uncovers the cylinder:

“Greetings from the living, breathing hearts and hands of 2026. We will have long since returned to dust, but our devotion, pride, and unwavering hope for what our world could become are alive right here inside this steel. We built this for you.”

As Berilla’s words suggest, the capsule opens a kind of portal between us and our descendants, an opportunity to gaze through the haze of time and, for a moment at least, catch the eyes and hearts of people who do not yet walk the earth, people to whom we will be only a shadowy memory. For a brief window, though, when those future hands unearth this vessel of relics, the shadows of time will flee, and they will be bound to us across that chasm of years in a common surge of hope, gratitude, and patriotism.

Let us hope and pray that the world in which our descendants bring the capsule to light will be more luminous than the one in which we bury it. If it is so, then our efforts as individuals, families, and as a nation will not have been in vain.

President Trump’s war economy continues to gain steam as weapons production is kicked into high gear and stockpiling becomes a top priority for the Department of War.

The latest evidence: Lockheed Martin has won a DoW contract worth up to $35 billion to quadruple production of THAAD missile-defense interceptors, according to Bloomberg.

The seven-year agreement follows a January framework deal between Lockheed and DoW to boost interceptor output over the next few years. It also comes as the White House moves to mobilize the defense industrial base, with Trump invoking the Defense Production Act to reduce manufacturing bottlenecks.

On Wednesday afternoon, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told reporters after a meeting with Trump that the goal of increasing munitions production “is important because we have to replenish our stockpiles and make sure we are totally ready for whatever might emerge.”

The urgency behind the upcoming replenishment cycle comes after four years of war in Ukraine and the recent U.S.-Iran war drained key weapons stockpiles.

Trump also met with defense-industry executives on Wednesday as the administration seeks to accelerate production of other key air-defense weapons.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers in mid-May that because of Trump’s “smart business deals” have sent an unmistakable demand signal to defense-industrial partners: build more, build faster, and prepare for sustained procurement.

.@SECWAR “Over the past year, through historic, multi-year procurement agreements – smart business deals – we have sent a permanent, unambiguous demand signal to our industry partners to BUILD MORE AND BUILD FASTER.

The result has been a surge – a revitalization – of our great… pic.twitter.com/wrqI5e5HQR

— DOW Rapid Response (@DOWResponse) April 29, 2026

Hegseth’s recent comments about America’s industrial base roaring back to life should come as no surprise to readers, as we’ve outlined:

• War Economy Returns: From Trucks To Tanks, Pentagon Looks To Automakers To Rebuild America’s Arsenal

• Race To Refill U.S. Weapons Stockpiles Will Supercharge War Economy

• “Answering The Call”: Ford Motor Eyes WWII-Style Production Push For Trump’s War Economy

DoW recently published a map of America’s expanding defense industrial base, centered mostly in the South and Rust Belt.

Last week, Nancy Lazar, Piper Sandler’s chief global economist and head of the firm’s economics research team, told clients she was bullish on goods-producing jobs, including construction workers building out the next wave of data centers.

We would add that surging production of missiles, interceptors, drones, tanks, planes, and bombs could further accelerate that shift, moving the labor market away from two decades of low-productivity service-sector jobs and back toward higher-paying industrial work tied to national security, reshoring, and Trump’s war economy.

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Exxon Mobil can move forward with its lawsuit against Cuban state-owned oil companies over assets seized after Fidel Castro came to power, reopening a dispute tied to Cuba’s 1960 nationalizations, according to CNN.

The 6-3 decision comes as President Donald Trump has taken a more aggressive stance toward Havana.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote for the majority, with the Court’s liberal justices dissenting.

CNN writes that the ruling is part of a broader wave of legal and political pressure on Cuba. In May, the Trump administration indicted former Cuban leader Raúl Castro over his alleged role in the 1996 shootdown of two civilian aircraft that killed four people, including three Americans. Trump has also floated military action, saying in March he might have the “honor of taking Cuba.”

Exxon’s case centers on property seized in 1960 and a 1996 law that allows US nationals to sue over confiscated Cuban assets in American courts. Before the revolution, Standard Oil—later Exxon Mobil—operated a refinery, product terminals and 117 service stations in Cuba, all of which were nationalized by Castro’s government.

A US commission in 1969 valued Standard Oil’s losses at nearly $72 million. With interest and Exxon’s request for treble damages, the total exposure could reach into the hundreds of millions.

The legal fight turned on whether the 1996 Cuba law overrides another federal statute that generally shields foreign governments from lawsuits in US courts. Exxon argued Congress created a clear exception for claims involving seized Cuban property, while the Cuban companies said sovereign immunity should still apply.

The Trump administration backed Exxon, telling the Court that “The United States has compelling foreign-policy interests in ensuring that US nationals whose assets were illegally expropriated by Fidel Castro’s communist regime receive recompense and in preventing the Cuban government from further benefiting from its wrongdoing.”

Lower courts were divided, and the DC Circuit had previously ruled against Exxon. The Supreme Court’s decision now clears the way for the lawsuit to proceed.

Authored by Andrew Korybko,

The US is preparing to radically intensify the Ukrainian Conflict over the coming year…

Trump’s decision to sign the “G7 leaders’ joint statement on geopolitical issues” calling for more arms to Ukraine and sanctions on Russia signaled that he’ll now “escalate to de-escalate” (E2DE) through a “war of attrition” waged by Ukraine. The EU will back this campaign to the hilt and Trump 2.0 will seek to obtain control over Russia’s natural resources companies as its top goal via the coercive selling of shares under pain of continued NATO-backed Ukrainian strikes against associated infrastructure if Putin refuses.

The contours of his administration’s E2DE strategy are now starting to take shape. Nearly two weeks before he signed the abovementioned joint statement, the House passed a bill that would “provid[e] more than $1 billion in security and reconstruction aid. It would make another $8 billion available for Ukraine’s defense through loans.” On the sidelines of the G7 Summit, Trump then said that he’ll soon reimpose oil sanctions against Russia, which would disrupt Putin’s Sino-Indo balancing act.

Around the same time, “A group of US senators has introduced legislation that would amend existing law to allow Ukraine to use assets confiscated from the Central Bank of Russia and other Russian sovereign assets to purchase military equipment.” All of this coincided with reports that the Senate also introduced language into the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) calling for continued intelligence support to Ukraine across all of next year to aid its quest to reconquer its lost land (and possibly more).

To top it all off, Zelensky then expressed confidence shortly thereafter that Trump will follow through on his explicitly conveyed interest in allowing US companies to manufacture air defense missiles (and likely also other arms) in Ukraine, thus tremendously raising the stakes if Russia strikes these facilities. Of course, it’ll take time for the US to replenish its own missile stockpile after the Third Gulf War, but the writing is on the wall and it reads that Trump 2.0 is preparing to radically intensify the Ukrainian Conflict.

Specifically, its E2DE strategy is expected to closely follow what the Wall Street Journal outlined last fall and which was analyzed here at the time, namely helping Ukraine surpass Russia’s drone capabilities, more secondary sanctions, and provoking unrest inside of Russia. To that end, the House and Senate initiatives will bolster Ukraine’s strike capabilities (including long-range missile ones), while Trump’s sanctions threat will deal with the second part. This combination might lead to unrest inside of Russia.

To be clear, that final phase is unlikely to materialize since the diverse Russian people remain united due to keenly understanding the existential stakes of this conflict as regards its grand strategic goal of “Balkanizing” their civilization-state, plus they’re not prone to protest much either. Nevertheless, the US is still preparing to try anyhow, hoping to at least generate enough disapproval of the status quo that the ruling United Russia party is forced to enter into a coalition after September’s next Duma elections.

Looking forward, the groundwork is rapidly being established for Trump 2.0 to make next year all about Russia, and the Democrats’ possible recapture of Congress or at least one of its chambers after November’s midterms could facilitate this. If Russia doesn’t achieve its goals before that happens or cut a reasonably fair deal by that time, then there’ll be no realistic chance of any such deal till 2029 at the earliest, thus meaning that only victory or defeat would be possible before that date. The clock is ticking.