In the most dramatic escalation yet involving shipping in the Persian Gulf, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), a British naval authority responsible for monitoring shipping safety in high-risk areas, said it received a report that around 1040pm UTC, a “large explosion” took place on a tanker 30 nautical miles south east off Mubarak Al Kebeer, on the coast of Kuwait. “There is oil in the water coming from a cargo tank”, which could have a disastrous environmental impact, especially if its reaches the desalinization plants that keep much of the Gulf population alive.

The tanker, which was at anchor in the Khor al-Zubair lightering zone – a critical area for loading Iraqi heavy fuel oil exports – began taking on water following the blast. Oil was seen leaking from a damaged cargo tank into the surrounding waters, prompting concerns over potential environmental impacts. Despite the severity, no fires were reported, and all crew members remained safe and accounted for. Kuwait’s interior ministry later clarified that the incident took place outside the country’s territorial waters, at least 60 kilometers from the port

BREAKING A tanker was hit by a “large explosion” in the waters off Kuwait, causing an oil spill, British maritime security agency UKMTO said Thursday pic.twitter.com/i8mLJVn9bs

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) March 5, 2026

The targeted area off Kuwait is particularly significant as it lies within Iraq’s primary oil export corridor, a zone previously considered outside the main conflict perimeter. Iraq, not directly involved in the US-Iran war, has already reduced oil production due to storage shortages and loading delays caused by the broader disruptions. No group or nation has claimed responsibility for the Kuwait incident, but analysts suggest it could be linked to Iranian proxies or other actors exploiting the chaos.

The report, which was sourced to the Master of a tanker at anchor, comes as the fifth day of the conflict draw to a close, but no near end is in sight after Israel and the US hit Iran in joint strikes on several key sites on Saturday, February 28. Iran has retaliated by striking sites across the Middle East, and hitting several ships in the gulf as part of its blockade of the Straits of Hormuz. 

UKMTO WARNING INCIDENT 014-026

Click here to view the full warning ⤵️ https://t.co/ygKSBOCLZi#MaritimeSecurity #MarSec pic.twitter.com/RPZXtz6RU7

— UKMTO Operations Centre (@UK_MTO) March 5, 2026

UKMTO said vessels are advised to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity to the maritime operation.

This incident is hardly isolated, and is part of a widening conflict in the Middle East. The Persian Gulf has become increasingly volatile since the outbreak of hostilities between the United States and Iran, with multiple attacks on commercial and military vessels reported in recent days. For instance, prior to the explosion, a US submarine sank an Iranian frigate near Sri Lanka, an Iranian corvette was set ablaze at Bandar Abbas, and Qatar’s LNG terminals suffered outages. These events have stranded hundreds of ships, including oil tankers, outside the Strait of Hormuz—a chokepoint for about 20% of global oil supplies.

Other recent maritime attacks in the region include a seafarer killed in an explosion off Oman on March 1 and a Russian-flagged LNG tanker sinking in the Mediterranean, blamed by Moscow on Ukrainian sea drones. These incidents underscore the expanding scope of the conflict, turning once-safe waters into high-risk zones for global trade.

The attack has immediate ramifications for energy markets. With Iraqi exports potentially hampered, oil prices could face upward pressure, exacerbating the disruptions already pricing in closures rather than mere interruptions. Shipping insurers and commodity traders are on high alert, as the Gulf’s transformation into a “hunting ground” without clear boundaries threatens further escalations.

Environmentally, the oil spill poses risks to marine life and coastal ecosystems in the Persian Gulf, a region already vulnerable to pollution from decades of oil activities. Cleanup efforts will likely be complicated by the ongoing security threats.

As investigations continue, the international community watches closely, with calls for enhanced maritime security to protect vital trade routes. This event serves as a stark reminder of how regional conflicts can ripple into global economic and environmental challenges.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has released a new memoir, “Young Man in a Hurry”, in which the Democrat lays out stories from his personal and political life.

From his sometimes turbulent upbringing to his 2004 act in favor of gay marriage, when he allowed over 4,000 same-sex couples to get married at San Francisco City Hall during his time as mayor long before such unions were legalized, the book details some of Newsom’s successes and failures, without giving a clear roadmap of what’s to come.

Newsom, who is termed out of office and cannot run again in November, has been open in interviews about the possibility of running for president of the United States in 2028, but has maintained the decision would be made “as a family” with his wife and four children.

As Statista’s Valentine Fourreau reports, according to data from prediction market platform Polymarket, Gavin Newsom is currently most likely to become the Democratic nominee for the 2028 presidential election with odds of over 25 percent as of February 23, 2026.

This places him far ahead of all other potential Democratic candidates, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who came second at just under 10 percent, and former VP and once presidential hopeful Kamala Harris in 3rd position.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (4 percent) is in fourth position.

While Gavin Newsom so far appears as the clear favorite to represent the Democrats in the next election, Polymarket odds currently see him losing to VP J.D. Vance, with 17 percent against 22…

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said earlier that the U.S. is “accelerating, not decelerating” Operation Epic Fury, with U.S. and Israeli forces conducting at least 1,000 strikes over five days against high-value IRGC assets and leadership. As those strikes have significantly degraded the IRGC’s capabilities on land, at sea, and in the air, the next big question is whether Iran’s energy infrastructure will become the conflict’s next major focal point, especially as the Strait of Hormuz remains paralyzed and Beijing grows increasingly concerned about disruptions to its cheap Iranian crude imports.

Operation Epic Fury has targeted key IRGC leadership, military support networks, and financial infrastructure, severely degrading core pillars of the regime. The next phase to watch is whether the Trump administration and Israel will move against Iran’s critical oil and gas infrastructure, which remains both the regime’s economic lifeline and an important source of cheap crude for China.

What comes to mind first is Iran’s main crude export terminal in the Persian Gulf, called “Kharg Island.” Think of it as Iran’s oil jugular.

Reuters reports that about 90% of Iran’s crude is exported via Kharg Island, located off the country’s southern coast in the northern Persian Gulf, in Bushehr Province, about 34 miles northwest of the port of Bushehr.

Kharg Island is Iran’s jugular.

80-90% of Iran’s crude exports flow through this supertanker terminal in the Persian Gulf. No Kharg, no oil revenue. No oil revenue, no regime. Every war plan, every sanctions package, every naval deployment in the Gulf orbits this one fact. https://t.co/E0mVmlC9ea pic.twitter.com/mRuT3gTY1s

— John Ʌ Konrad V (@johnkonrad) February 28, 2026

The latest from Bloomberg reports that Iran continued loading crude onto tankers at Kharg on Monday, despite U.S. and Israeli strikes on IRGC targets countrywide. It remains unclear whether the loading terminal will still be operational through the end of the week, given that the Strait of Hormuz is paralyzed and that any shadow tanker carrying Iranian crude through the chokepoint could be targeted by U.S. and allied forces.

One observation is that the Trump administration and Israel may be deliberately preserving operations at the Kharg loading terminal. If military planners had intended to immediately sever the regime’s funding pipeline, the terminal likely would have been among the first targets of the operation. This suggests that allied forces may be keeping the facility intact for the country’s next leadership.

Kharg is by far the most strategically important economic target. Iran’s regime depends upon it. If we want to break their will, it obviously should be impacted. https://t.co/IBB1Zg8kFP

— David Asher (@dasher8090) June 14, 2025

“Kharg Island handles up to 90% of Iran’s oil exports. Is President Trump thinking about seizing it?” Eurasia Group’s Ian Bremmer asked on X.

kharg island handles up to 90% of iran’s oil exports.
is president trump thinking about seizing it?@gzeromediapic.twitter.com/wczuNBr3o3

— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) March 4, 2026

Our view is that if the Trump administration intends to push forward with a new government, Kharg Island’s oil and gas infrastructure is unlikely to be destroyed. Notably, it has remained untouched in the first five days of the conflict. If it is destroyed, China would be furious.

Authored by Larry Sand via American Greatness,

Many students are chronically absent or have dropped out of school.

Nat Malkus, a senior fellow in education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, oversees the Return to Learn Tracker, which monitors chronic absenteeism in U.S. schools. His latest report, released in early February, includes data from 39 states and Washington, D.C.

He states that after reaching a high of 29 percent in the 2021–22 school year, the chronic absenteeism rate—missing 10 percent or more of school days in an academic year—fell by 2.6 percentage points the following school year and by 2.2 percentage points the following school year. This progress was encouraging, but it stalled last school year, with rates falling by just over one percentage point on average. This leaves the average chronic absenteeism rate for most of the country at 23 percent, roughly 50 percent higher than the pre-pandemic baseline.

This chronic absence problem is especially egregious in our large urban areas. In Los Angeles, more than 32 percent of students were chronically absent during the 2023–24 school year. Thirty-four elementary schools have fewer than 200 students, and 29 use less than half of their buildings. Chicago is even worse, with a chronic absentee rate of 41 percent.

Malkus concludes that these patterns suggest that shifts in attitudes and behavior are largely driving the across-the-board increases in post-pandemic absenteeism. Six years into the pandemic, students and their parents are placing less value on attending school each day.

One realistic way to address chronic absenteeism—and save taxpayer dollars—would be to close ineffective schools. But government educrats and teacher union bosses refuse to allow that to happen. In fact, school closures have slowed over time.

An analysis by the IZA Institute of Labor Economics shows that in 2014–15, the closure rate—the share of schools nationwide that were open one year and closed the next—was 1.3 percent, but in 2023–24, the rate was just 0.8 percent.

Another way to alleviate the problem would be to reduce the number of teachers by eliminating the lowest performers, but that will not happen. Teacher union-mandated permanence clauses make it nearly impossible to fire an incompetent teacher. In California, a 2012 court case revealed that, on average, only 2.2 of California’s 275,000 teachers (0.0008 percent) were dismissed each year for unprofessional conduct or unsatisfactory performance.

Chronic absenteeism rates would also improve if students felt a sense of purpose in going to school. Currently, many kids lack interest in showing up. A 2024 report from Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation surveyed over 1,000 Gen Z students aged 12 to 18 and found that only 48 percent of those enrolled in middle or high school felt motivated to show up. Only half said they do something interesting in school every day. Similarly, a 2024 EdChoice survey indicated that 64 percent of teens said school is boring, and 30 percent view it as a waste of time.

In addition to the problem of chronically absent students, families are removing their children, especially if they are high achievers, from government-run schools in large numbers.

Joshua Goodman, an associate professor of education and economics at Boston University, authored a study that found that nationally, white and Asian parents are far more likely to withdraw their children from public schools than Hispanics and blacks.

“The question that worries me is whether this means that public schools have now cemented a reputation as not being the place where high-achieving students attend. If you’re a family that’s looking for a challenging curriculum, and you have a talented student, you’re no longer seeing public schools in quite that light,” Goodman said.

Perhaps the leader in the public school exodus is Chicago, whose numbers are particularly grim. Dwindling enrollment has left about 150 Windy City schools half-empty, while 47 operate at less than one-third capacity, leading to high costs and limited course offerings.

Worth noting is that Chicago spends about $18,700 per student. At small schools that have been losing students, per-pupil costs are double or triple that. At one 28-student school, the cost per student is $93,000. (For the sake of perspective, the Latin School of Chicago, among the city’s most expensive private schools, costs about $47,000 per year.)

Not surprisingly, as the number of students declines, school district insolvency is on the rise. Education finance experts say more districts are grappling with this problem, especially those that spent pandemic federal aid on recurring expenses or didn’t scale back their budgets in anticipation of the aid’s end.

As a result, districts are facing increased involvement from their counties and states, ranging from financial monitoring to takeovers. In rarer cases, districts may even declare bankruptcy or consider merging with other districts.

While public schools are bleeding students, school choice of all types continues to grow. Overall, there are now 75 private school choice programs in 34 states, serving more than 1.5 million students.

Notably, microschools—where classes traditionally have had fewer than 15 students of varying ages, and the schedule and curriculum are tailored to each class’s needs—are growing in popularity, currently educating about 2 percent of the U.S. student population—roughly 750,000 students. Most microschools are independently run by parents, but some are part of a formal network that provides paid, in-person teachers. Lessons take place in settings such as homes, libraries, and other community centers.

In sum, unionized government-run schools, which offer a free (for the user) product, are losing customers because they are failing to fulfill their mission. It’s not about a lack of funding, COVID-related issues, large class sizes, low teacher pay, or any of the myriad excuses made by those who champion public schools.

Absent the elimination of all government-run schools and the adoption of a system of total privatization, we should give every family in the U.S. a choice of where to send their kids for an education and let tax dollars follow the child.

Until we make major changes, Americans’ dissatisfaction with schools will continue to mount, and the exodus will proceed apace.

*   *   *

Larry Sand is a retired 28-year classroom teacher who served as president of the nonprofit California Teachers Empowerment Network from 2006 to 2025. He now focuses on raising awareness of our failing education system.

House investigators are hauling in Attorney General Pam Bondi to answer for what lawmakers say is a troubling disappearance of documents tied to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The House Oversight Committee voted 24-19 on Wednesday to subpoena Bondi for a deposition, escalating a fight with the Department of Justice over its handling of records from the sprawling Epstein investigation. Lawmakers say the DOJ may have pulled tens of thousands of pages from public view despite a federal law requiring the material to be released.

The move was spearheaded by Rep. Nancy Mace, who blasted the Justice Department earlier in the day and accused officials of misleading the public about what has actually been disclosed. [Though we would point out that Mace herself vowed to reveal her tits, only to redact them with grainy footage.]

“AG Bondi claims the DOJ has released all of the Epstein files. The record is clear: they have not,” Mace wrote on X, calling the saga “one of the greatest cover-ups in American history.”

.@RepNancyMace‘s motion passed. We voted to subpoena Pam Bondi and to release the files of those who sexually harass others in Congress.

This is about transparency and going after predators, not politics. pic.twitter.com/kH9lghjJn2

— Rep. Ro Khanna (@RepRoKhanna) March 4, 2026

Four Republicans – Reps. Lauren Boebert, Scott Perry, Tim Burchett and Michael Cloud – joined Democrats on the panel to force the subpoena through.

The dispute centers on the Epstein Transparency Act, passed almost unanimously by Congress last year. The law ordered the Justice Department to publicly release its trove of investigative material related to Epstein and his convicted accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.

In January, the DOJ released more than 3 million documents tied to the case. But the department later said it would not release the remaining files, estimated to include another 2.5 million documents.

Since then, watchdogs and journalists say the situation has gotten even murkier.

According to reports, thousands of records that had briefly been available online have vanished from the public database. CBS News reported Tuesday that more than 47,000 files – totaling about 65,500 pages – were taken down by late February.

Some of the withheld records reportedly included internal FBI interview summaries and notes – including material tied to a woman who has accused President Donald Trump of sexual abuse when she was a minor.

Trump has never been charged with wrongdoing in connection with Epstein and has said he had no knowledge of the financier’s criminal conduct.

The Justice Department has not publicly explained why the documents were removed or why millions more remain under wraps. CNBC said the DOJ did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Bondi’s forthcoming deposition could become one of the most explosive congressional confrontations yet in the long-running battle over the Epstein records – a case that has fueled years of speculation about powerful figures tied to the late sex offender.

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said on Tuesday that he was “fearful” that the Trump administration would put “boots on the ground” in Iran as the war the US and Israel launched on Saturday continues to escalate.

“I just want to say that I am more fearful than ever after this briefing that we may be putting boots on the ground and that troops from the United States may be necessary to accomplish objectives that the administration seems to have,” Blumenthal told reporters after attending a closed-door briefing with Trump officials.

The senator added that it was still unclear what the US’s goal was in Iran.

“But I also am no more clear on what the priorities are going to be of the administration going forward, whether it is destroying the nuclear capacity of Iran or simply the missiles or regime change or stopping terrorist activities,” he said, adding that the administration must share more information with the American public.

Both President Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth have not ruled out the idea of sending troops into Iran, and media reports in the weeks leading up to the start of the war said that deploying a team of commandos into the country was under consideration.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) said after the briefing that US military operations in Iran sound “quite large,” comments he made after initially defending President Trump’s decision to start the war.

“It sounded very open-ended to me,” Hawley said, according to HuffPost reporter Igor Bobic. “What I took away is, it’s rapidly evolving … the aims are very ambitious.”

Hawley said a day earlier that he wouldn’t support a War Powers Resolution aimed at stopping further US military intervention without congressional authorization, though he said it would be a different story if Trump wanted to send troops into Iran.

🚨 NEW: U.S. War Secretary Pete Hegseth says war with Iran could last up to 8 weeks, saying U.S. and Israel expect to achieve “uncontested airspace” over the country “in under a week” and unleash “death and destruction from the sky all day long.”

“You can say four weeks, but it… pic.twitter.com/BOcdDb0raf

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) March 4, 2026

The Senate could vote on a War Powers Resolution introduced by Sen. Tim Kaune (D-VA) and Rand Paul (R-KY) as soon as Wednesday. The House is also set to vote this week on a similar resolution backed by Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY).

Authored by Felicity Bradstock via oilprice.com,

Governments worldwide have been racing to unlock the secret to nuclear fusion energy for several decades, with the aim of producing abundant, clean energy. While several generation milestones have been achieved in recent years, accomplishing commercial-scale production continues to be extremely complex. However, with more recent successes, are we edging closer to achieving this goal and producing vast quantities of clean power?

Nuclear fusion is the process that powers the sun and stars. Fusion takes place when two atomic nuclei – typically formed of hydrogen – are combined into a heavier nucleus, which releases a large quantity of energy. The difficulty in achieving this process is that scientists must recreate extreme temperatures and pressures that cause fusion in stars on Earth.

By contrast, nuclear fission – the method currently used to produce nuclear power – occurs when the central core of an atom, known as the nucleus, of uranium or plutonium, splits into two smaller nuclei. Splitting the core results in the release of a large amount of energy and the creation of additional neutrons, which can go on to split more atoms in a chain reaction. The chain reaction allows nuclear reactors to produce a stable supply of energy.

Fusion energy is extremely attractive as it could provide massive amounts of clean power at a time when the electricity demand is soaring. Just one gramme of fusion fuel could supply 90,000 kilowatt-hours of energy in a power plant, compared to the power produced from around 11 tonnes of coal. Fusion plants are also viewed as very safe, as they do not have the same risks as in fission plants, such as reactions, meltdowns or high-level, long-lived radioactive waste. This also means that fusion facilities may be easier to gain licenses for than fission plants.

In recent years, advancements in the generation of fusion power have mainly been seen in the private sector. In the United States, a site in Virginia was established for the development of the world’s first grid-scale commercial fusion power plant, to supply clean fusion electricity to the grid by the early 2030s. The U.S. Office of Fusion is focused on making this dream a reality.

Elsewhere, China is investing billions of dollars a year in advancing its fusion capabilities. In January, researchers in China broke through a long-standing density barrier in fusion plasma using the “artificial sun” fusion reactor – the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST).

The experiment confirmed that plasma can remain stable even at extreme densities if its interaction with the reactor walls is carefully controlled. This finding removes a major obstacle that has slowed progress toward fusion ignition and could help future fusion reactors produce more power.

“The findings suggest a practical and scalable pathway for extending density limits in tokamaks and next-generation burning plasma fusion devices,” the project’s co-lead, Ping Zhu, of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, stated of the breakthrough.

Researchers have also extended plasma durations beyond previous benchmarks at the WEST reactor in France and KSTAR in South Korea. These successes have led to the construction of ITER, a 23,000-ton reactor in southern France. More than 30 countries are supporting ITER’s development, with the hope that it will be able to produce more power than it consumes in a fusion process. It will include the world’s most powerful magnet, the central solenoid.

Meanwhile, Germany is creating a funding programme as part of its Fusion Action Plan for startups and several states around the globe, including the United Kingdom and Japan, and adopting regulatory frameworks to provide certainty to developers, according to the World Economic Forum. “With the Fusion Action Plan, we are paving the way for the world’s first fusion power plant in Germany,” explained Germany’s Minister for Research, Technology and Space, Dorothee Bär.

And, in Canada, the government recently announced the launch of a new Centre for Fusion Energy in Ontario, to be built using $33 million from the federal government and Crown corporation Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., $19.5 million from the Ontario government and Crown corporation Ontario Power Generation, and $39 million from fusion startup Stellarex Group Ltd. The aim of the government is to develop a demonstration reactor, although it has not yet provided a timeline for this.

Nolan Quinn, Minister of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security, stated, “Ontario’s world-renowned researchers are driving the energy sector into a new era of clean energy.” Quinn added, “Through this investment, our government is leveraging our province’s position as a nuclear powerhouse to fuel fusion energy discoveries that will advance our industries, build our energy workforce and protect Ontario.”

Governments worldwide are investing huge quantities of funding into nuclear fusion research and development, with the hope of making a breakthrough to produce abundant, clean power.  With global electricity demand set to soar in the coming years, particularly due to the deployment of complex technologies, such as artificial intelligence, a breakthrough in fusion power could help significantly reduce the world’s dependence on fossil fuels and support a global green transition. 

Most Americans have little understanding or concept of Iran’s size in terms of geography or population. The ethno-religious make-up of the sprawling Mideast/West Asian nation is also deeply important, given the US is already talking about arming and supporting some kind of Kurdish-led anti-Tehran ground operation. 

Suffice it to say, Iran’s population is more than double (over 90 million people) that of neighboring Iraq’s. Iran is also the size of almost half the European continent. All of this is crucial for attempting to visualize what American military escalation there might mean, given the Trump White House has not ruled out American boots on the ground amid the unfolding ‘Operation Epic Fury’. Consider: the US spent two blood-soaked decades occupying Iraq (again, significantly smaller than the Islamic Republic). Russia has spent over four years on its military operation in Ukraine, and Iran dwarfs Ukraine in size.

And here’s Iran’s size overlaying the European continent.

Next: Size of Iran vs. Alaska (with the continental USA for scale). Imagine a war that covered some nearly one-third of the continental United States, and also imagine an outside force trying to pacify a population of 90 million within that vast geography. 

Iran and Alaska are similar in massive land expanse: 

• Alaska: 1.723 million km² ≈ 665,000 mi² (about 17.4% of USA)

• Iran: 1.648 million km² ≈ 636,300 mi² (about 16.7% of USA)

• USA: 9.867 million km² ≈ 3,810,000 mi²

Another look: Iran is far bigger than Texas.

It is also significantly bigger than Iraq.

Importantly, the single deadliest Middle East war in the modern-ear was the Iran-Iraq war. From 1980 to1988 these enemies sharing a common border fought a ground and artillery war to stalemate. It was an utterly disastrous war of attrition, and at that time the United States actually covertly supported Iraq under Saddam Hussein in order to weaken Iran.

But Iran persisted through even that, which gives some idea of what it might be able to endure while facing a war for its very survival and existence with the US and Israel.

The number of casualties in the Iran-Iraq War ranges from 1,000,000 to twice that number. The number killed on both sides was perhaps 500,000, with Iran suffering the greatest losses. It is estimated that between 50,000 and 100,000 Kurds were killed by Iraqi forces during the series of campaigns that took place in 1988. —Britannica

TEHRAN city size: Comparable to New York City.

Any ground invasion necessitates exhausting, grinding urban warfare including room and building clearing by infantry troops.

Many American veterans of the Iraq war have stories of grueling building clearing operations in places like Baghdad or Fallujah which could take five to eight hours to carefully and systematically clear a single large city building. Marine veterans would tell you large building room-clearing is the most physically demanding and ultra-risky task of any infantryman. 

The Iranian capital of Tehran has a population of approaching 10 million, while the greater cosmopolitan area has some 16 million people. 

Tehran’s population is estimated at 9.5m (16.8m including the metropolitan area). Its size and density are comparable to New York City: regionally, it is on a par with Cairo and Istanbul. -Middle East Eye

Tehran: A vast, modern cosmopolitan city, packed with civilians, now under US-Israeli ‘shock and awe’ style bombardment.

As US-Israeli military planners know full-well, Iraq had descended into sectarian chaos soon after the 2003 US invasion, and a similar ethno-sectarian scenario could play out in Iran, though the Persian people tend to have greater national unity compared to that of neighboring Iraq.

The CIA and Mossad are reportedly already exploring trying to peel off one of Iran’s large ethnic minorities, like the Kurds.

It just so happens that the Kurdish-dominant far northwest is filled with mountainous, rocky terrain.

This means any effort to launch some kind of ground civil war or unrest against the Iranian state by Kurdish proxies would surely be difficult, slow, and grinding – and terrain might be in Tehran forces’ favor.

We will leave off this brief visual tour with a quote that commonly gets attributed to one well-known American author, who famously wrote the book aptly titled The Innocents Abroad.

“God created war so that Americans would learn geography.”

― Mark Twain

* * *

What a ground invasion of any country means: brutal house-to-house combat…

Authored by Andrew Topf via oilprice.com,

Last week US President Donald Trump announced that Venezuela’s interim authorities will turn over up to 50 million barrels of oil to the United States, before later declaring his administration will control Venezuela’s oil sales “indefinitely”.

Decrying the state of Venezuela’s oil sector, including that the South American country now pumps a fraction of what it used to, Trump said, “We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies — the biggest anywhere in the world — go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country.”

While that sounds like a great opportunity for the US oil majors, it’s one they may want to refuse. Why? Because the oil underneath Venezuela, which has the largest crude reserves in the world, greater even than Saudi Arabia and Iran, is technically challenging to extract and costly.

Moreover, it’s uncertain whether there would a change in the way Venezuela and its oil industry are being run, which presents a huge political risk for companies to return and operate there.

Former President Hugo Chavez nationalized the oil industry in the 1990s, and in 2007, he forced Exxon and ConocoPhillips out, after the companies refused to accept new terms that would give the Venezuelan state oil company, PDVSA, a majority share in their projects.

ConocoPhillips is still owed about $10 billion.

Only Chevron is currently authorized to operate in Venezuela and export crude to the United States.

“Until Caracas has a new government capable of gaining the confidence of international investors and banks, oil companies will be reluctant to make any major commitments,” states a recent Reuters piece.

When Trump met with oil executives last Friday, Exxon’s CEO Darren Woods said, “We’ve had our assets seized there twice, and so you can imagine to re-enter a third time would require some pretty significant changes.”

Trump has said the US government is prepared to provide security guarantees but not money for oil projects.

How much oil does Venezuela have?

A founding member of OPEC, Venezuela has more oil reserves than any OPEC member and top exporters in the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Iran.

The country is estimated to hold 303 billion barrels in proven reserves, about 17% of the world’s total, and more than five times the United States’ 55 billion barrels.

Most is contained within the Orinoco Belt — a vast territory in eastern Venezuela stretching about 600 kilometers from east to west and 70 km from north to south, with an area of roughly 55,314 square kilometers.

The belt is divided into four exploration and production areas: Boyacá, Junín, Ayacucho and Carabobo.

Most Orinoco Belt operations are controlled by PDVSA (Petroleos de Venezuela, SA), which has faced challenges including aging infrastructure, underinvestment, mismanagement and the effects of sanctions.

Venezuela has thus been unable to fully exploit its vast reserves. While it once exported 3.5 million barrels a day, that has been reduced to about 1mbpd.

$100 billion investment required

According to Francisco Monaldi, the director of Latin American energy policy at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, returning Venezuela’s production to its 1970s peak would require an annual investment by US oil majors of $10 billion for the next decade, or $100 billion in total.

Just maintaining Venezuela’s oil production at current levels would cost $53 billion over the next 15 years, as per estimates from Rystad Energy, a consulting firm. Raising it above 1.4Mbpd would likely require another $120 billion between now and 2040.

Extraction challenges

Venezuela’s oil is extra-heavy crude, which means it is highly viscous and dense, making it harder and more expensive to extract than conventional crude. Aljazeera notes that Producing oil from this region requires advanced techniques, such as steam injection and blending with lighter crudes to make it marketable.

Because of its density and sulphur content, extra-heavy crude usually sells at a discount compared with lighter, sweeter crudes.

While US Gulf Coast refineries have been designed to handle heavy crude like Venezuela’s and Canada’s, the product’s economic viability at low oil prices is questionable.

Reuters states: Breakeven costs for key grades in the Orinoco belt already average more than $80 a barrel, according to estimates by consultancy Wood Mackenzie. That places Venezuelan oil at the higher end of the global cost scale for new production. By comparison, heavy oil produced in Canada has an average breakeven cost of around $55 a barrel.

That means at current oil prices of around $60 a barrel, Venezuelan oil is uneconomic.

There may also be a significant gap between potential and actual oil production. Consider: Proven reserves are defined as those with a 90% probability of recovery, based on the identified crude, and whether existing technology can extract it while remaining commercially viable.

Venezuela’s estimates are self-reported, meaning they could be exaggerated. Furthermore, according to another Reuters piece, OPEC declared Venezuela’s proven reserves the world’s largest in 2011, when oil was over $100 a barrel. But Orinoco oil is full of impurities like sulfur and nickel, making it expensive to produce and difficult to refine. “Price is therefore crucial to its viability.”

In fact, estimated reserves may remain theoretical unless prices spike, and a more realistic estimate of Venezuelan oil reserves is 60 billion barrels, according to Rystad Energy.

The bottom line? Oil prices need to rise at least $20 a barrel to make Venezuelan heavy oil economically extractable. Even if that is enough to entice US oil majors back there, they will need security guarantees from the US government so that their projects won’t be expropriated like they were in the past. How committed is the Trump administration to protecting the interests of its oil companies operating in a foreign country with a history of nationalization?

Political risk in Venezuela is off the charts right now, making foreign investment challenging to say the least. So don’t believe the Trump hype about American companies jumping in to revive the Venezuelan oil industry. As one commentator summed up the situation, “The world probably doesn’t need a lot more high-cost, dirty oil. The dream of a transformational deluge of Venezuelan crude will probably remain illusory.”

Authored by George Citroner via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Americans are popping pills at a rate that might surprise even their doctors—and most of what they’re taking, they chose themselves.

Nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults take at least one pill each week, and one in six takes five or more, according to a recent study published in JAMA, highlighting how central medications—both over-the-counter and prescription—are to everyday health.

Researchers surveyed 21,000 volunteers aged 18 and older between 2023 and 2024 to discover the most common drugs Americans are taking.

Top 10 Drugs Taken by Americans

The top 10 drugs identified by researchers provide a snapshot of the most common health concerns among Americans.

According to the study data, the four drugs occupying the top spots are acetaminophen, ibuprofen, aspirin, and naproxen, all of which are over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drugs that help to treat fevers and moderate pain.

Among prescription drugs, atorvastatin (used to lower cholesterol), lisinopril (for blood pressure), and levothyroxine (for thyroid conditions) were the most frequently reported.

Less common over-the-counter drugs include diphenhydramine, most familiar as Benadryl, an antihistamine used to treat fevers and allergies, and omeprazole, a drug for acid reflux, which ranks ninth among over-the-counter drugs.

Who Is Taking What

Women were more likely to report medication use than men—67 percent versus 57 percent.

Women also showed higher use of levothyroxine (thyroid replacement) and anti-histamines, while men more commonly reported taking atorvastatin (lowers cholesterol) and metformin, used to treat Type 2 diabetes.

Participants were asked to recall their medication use over the previous seven days, aided by sample labels and prompts about common ailments and medical history to improve recall accuracy. Researchers categorized medications by active ingredients and excluded herbal supplements and topical treatments.

Risk of Adverse Drug Interactions

The findings arrive with a warning that experts say too few patients hear: Over-the-counter does not mean risk-free.

Researchers found that medication use could swiftly add up, with one in six adults reporting they took five or more medications in the past week, and 3.3 percent saying they took 10 or more.

“Many people don’t realize these drugs can interact with their prescriptions or add to side effects, especially older adults taking multiple medications,” Reshma Patel, pharmacist and Dallas-based founder of WiseMedRx, where she partners with families to review patients’ medications and identify unnecessary or high-risk drugs, and not involved in the survey, told The Epoch Times.

Daily pain relievers, for example, can affect the kidneys or stomach when combined with other meds, she noted. The bigger issue, she added, isn’t one single drug; it’s that medications are often started and never reassessed. “Over time, these cumulative effects can become serious.”

Tawna L. Mangosh, assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology and director of the of the Translational Pharmaceutical Science Program, at Case Western Reserve University Medical School, and not involved in the survey, flagged pain and fever medications, which contain acetaminophen, ibuprofen, aspirin, and naproxen, as the over-the-counter (OTC) category of greatest concern, given how frequently they appear in combination cold and flu products. These include sleep aids, cough suppressants, decongestants, laxatives, and proton pump inhibitors.

“Many are combination products with multiple active ingredients,” she told The Epoch Times. “These medications carry risks and are not appropriate for every patient, especially those with certain underlying conditions. That’s why education around OTC products is so critical.”

Smarter Use, Not Less Access

Both experts stopped short of calling for tighter restrictions. The answer, Patel argued, lies in better systems, not fewer options.

“The solution isn’t to limit access, it’s about smarter use,” Patel said, emphasizing that pharmacists should play a bigger role at the point of sale, and helping patients spot potential interactions. “Clearer labeling, better public education, and routine medication reviews for anyone on multiple therapies can go a long way toward keeping people safe,” she said.

Mangosh agreed, urging patients to read labels carefully. “As use remains high, this reinforces the importance of ensuring patients understand both the benefits and the risks of what they are taking,” she said. “That includes carefully reading medication labels, paying attention to active ingredients, dosing instructions, and warnings, and knowing when to seek additional medical care.”

A Shift Since the 1990s

The study observed distinct shifts in drug use patterns compared to data from the late 1990s.

While the top three medications—acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and aspirin—have held their top positions consistently, pseudoephedrine, once widely used for nasal congestion, saw a marked decline in use after regulatory restrictions in 2005 placed it behind the pharmacy counter and limited purchase quantities.

Meanwhile, loratadine (an antihistamine) and omeprazole (for acid reflux) increased in use after regulatory decisions made these drugs available over the counter, reflecting how regulatory decisions can rapidly reshape what Americans reach for.

The researchers highlight that this widespread medication use emphasizes the importance of ensuring access while balancing safety.

They noted that increasing drug accessibility could potentially lower health care costs—since prescription medications often require doctor visits and higher expenses—but also raised concerns about misuse or adverse effects.