Month: March 2025

Authored by Robert Syrus via Robert’s Newsletter,

Elon Musk fired over 6,000 Twitter employees, which was about 80 percent of the company’s workforce, starting in November 2022. He told Tucker Carlson “It turns out you don’t need all that many people to run Twitter”. Recently President Trump offered two million federal workers a buyout severance package to leave their jobs. What if it turns out you don’t need all that many people to run America?

At this historical juncture when America is at last taking action on unlawful migration on the one hand and on the other hand credible sources such as Goldman Sachs are predicting radical worker displacement by AI and robotics it might be an opportune time to examine what labor and immigration policies really will put America, and Americans, first. A reversal of the deindustrialization processes which have beset the country over the past fifty years (and became turbo-charged once China was ushered into the WTO in 2001) if it is to be accomplished re-industrialization will look less like Rosie the Riveter and more like Robby the Robot.

There are some, with whom the Donald Trump of the shockingly gold-festooned NYC apartment might instinctively side, who call for bigger because…better, right? Matthew Yglesias argues this case in One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger. Of course if it only required a mega-sized population to be successful 800 million people in India would not depend upon daily government food handouts and 1.3 billion Africans would not rely on food imports for 80 percent of their groceries. Even in China, 11 percent of the population (which translates to roughly 153 million people) are unable to afford a healthy diet. So before inviting another 666 million people to enjoy the blessings of US liberty, policy makers should best examine all the most likely future scenarios.

If America is not completely full, it’s certainly full of foreigners. A 2018 study by researchers from Yale and MIT utilized mathematical modelling and estimated that the number of undocumented immigrants could be around 22 million, nearly double previous estimates. Common sense and Fox News will tell you that the real total is likely closer to 30 million after the Biden border-free-for-all. Combine that with some 30 million legal foreign born residents/naturalized citizens and you get 60 million newcomers. If you accept the figures of perennial immigration critic Ann Coulter (author of the famously prophetic book Adios America) of 50 million illegals you get a staggering 80 million foreign born residents, fully 24 percent of the aggregate Census Bureau population.

According to most sociological studies, it typically takes around three generations for European immigrants to become fully assimilated into American culture. Therefore isn’t the case for a ten-fold increase of foreign immigrants weaker than the case for Net Zero Immigration?

The populist Swiss People’s Party which leads most polls has campaigned on a promise to cap that tiny country’s population at 10 million. Larry Fink, head of investment behemoth Blackrock has cited studies which show countries with stable or declining populations may become the world’s leaders in incorporating AI and robotics. Even in sectors where there is no shortage of potential workers such as trucking, (the number-one high paying employment for non-college American men) automation is poised to make a devastating impact. Millions of driving jobs will vanish, permanently. During 2024 autonomous taxi company Waymo successfully completed 4 million passenger rides. Human drivers cannot compete with 24/7 operation, no strikes, and lower insurance rates. That being the case does it not make sense to discover which immigration policies most benefit the shrinking and increasingly threatened middle class citizen?

During January 2025 Bureau of Labor Statistics figures show that over one million foreign-born workers found a job but effectively zero net jobs accrued to native born Americans. During a time of great employment transition does it make any sense to give away “golden ticket” jobs to foreigners residing in foreign countries through programs like H1B? The median starting salary for H1B jobs at companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and Google is about $150,000 but the opportunities for jumpstarting a person’s career and family life are incalculable. Here’s a question: what jobs absolutely positively cannot be filled by native born Americans or even any of the 60 million foreign-borns already here but must be filled by someone who currently lives in Mumbai or Shanghai? Can it be true native-born American’s brains have been permanently stunted from achieving excellence by 1990s TV shows as Vivek Ramaswamy recently, and perhaps unwisely, suggested?

China has no immigration program equivalent to H1B. Yet according to recent studies, China is currently considered to be ahead of the United States in several key technologies, including electric vehicles and batteries, advanced manufacturing, 5G network infrastructure, facial recognition technology, and certain aspects of artificial intelligence applications. Russia, with a GDP one tenth of America’s cannot compete for international technical talent; however the country ranked fifth in the world in terms of the number of people engaged in research and development and it is known to possess at least three hypersonic weapons systems deployed and used in active warfare with contrasts to the US total of zero.

Let us graciously disagree with Mr. Ramaswamy and consider the alternative case that there is no shortage of qualified or trainable workers in America. Let us further consider that the most practical course of development of the vast and varied landscape of the country’s economy is a steady state where a fixed number of 350 million citizens preside over an economy whose GDP growth is powered not by randomly adding foreign bodies but by the ever-increasing power and efficiency of automatons.

Will Elon Musk’s off-the-cuff prediction that there would come a point when “no job is needed” and jobs instead would be just for those who wanted one for “personal satisfaction” come true? Whatever the future holds, the concepts in the brief 2020 tome Fully Automated Luxury Communism: A Manifesto are as much a dead end as Marxism for a simple reason: reality doesn’t work that way.

However…let’s fast forward to 2035: the country has a sensible skill-points and quota-based immigration plan, keeping the population stable as the nation is given time to assimilate the 60 million foreign born residents dumped into it during the previous 60 years and time to adjust to the Robot Industrial Revolution. These wise policies have not resulted in wage inflation or a labour shortage but has strongly incentivized corporate America to retrain the millions of workers displaced by AI and replace seasonal migrant labour with world-beating robotics which pick apples, cook French fries and drive 80 percent of truck and taxi trips, terrestrial and aeronautical.

Imagine Alfred Lutz, formerly employed as a Master Diesel Technician, recently retrained as a data scientist working for Walmart. Alfred makes enough money to support a politely hot stay-at-home wife and 2.6 mildly sassy but generally agreeable children. He works hard but can insist on reasonable leisure time and vacations; he is secure in the knowledge that his employer cannot just outsource his job to 2.5 H1B replacements for the same salary and no benefits. He is part of the resurgent middle class rescued in the mid-2020s by the MAGA movement.

As a flying drone limousine glides over Dallas freeways and lands him on his spacious driveway/helipad, Alfred may well reflect that the new American Dream rests on a foundation of net zero immigration and robot luxury capitalism.

Friday and the overnight hours saw US warplanes significantly ramp up airstrikes on Yemen, with several dozens of strikes on Friday alone, and more through the night and Saturday.

“United States air strikes have hit more than 40 locations across Houthi-controlled parts of Yemen, including in the capital, Sanaa, according to local media affiliated with the rebel group,” regional media details. Some reports have counted over 70 strikes in the last 24 hours.

Some half of these attacks were on the Tahrir and Qiyada districts of the Yemeni capital, which contain residential neighborhoods. The Sanaa International Airport was also struck for a second night in a row.

The US-led attacks have become nearly non-stop, with dozens killed and many wounded on the ground, after President Trump this week warned that he’s ready to bomb Yemen for “a long time” if the Houthis don’t halt their drone and missile attacks on Red Sea shipping.

The US President hailed the Yemen operation, which has been ongoing for about two weeks at this point, as “very successful beyond our wildest expectations.” However, there’s been no signs the Houthis intend to halt their own attacks off Yemen’s coast and against Israel.

Al Jazeera has noted that “The US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM), which now has authority from the White House to strike offensively in Yemen without pre-approval.”

According to emerging reports of strikes which continued Saturday:

Meanwhile, satellite photos analyzed by the AP show a mysterious airstrip just off Yemen in a key maritime chokepoint now appears ready to accept flights and B-2 bombers within striking distance of the country Saturday.

The strikes into Saturday targeted multiple areas in Yemen under the control of the Iranian-backed Houthis, including the capital, Sanaa, and in the governorates of al-Jawf and Saada, rebel-controlled media reported. The strikes in Saada killed one person and wounded four others, the Houthi-run SABA news agency said.

Times of Israel has reported more on the above-mentioned airstrip as follows:

Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC show an airstrip now appears ready on Mayun Island, a volcanic outcropping in the center of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait off Yemen.

The images show the airstrip had been painted with the designation markings “09” and “27” to the airstrip’s east and west respectively.

A Saudi-led coalition battling the Houthis had acknowledged having “equipment” on Mayun, also known as Perim. However, air and sea traffic to Mayun has linked the construction to the UAE, which backs a secessionist force in Yemen known as the Southern Transitional Council.

So it appears US warplanes can now utilize a ‘local’ airspace under Saudi coalition auspices.

Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC show an airstrip now appears ready on Mayun Island, a volcanic outcropping in the center of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait off Yemen.https://t.co/3blmJQfJW6

— Jason Brodsky (@JasonMBrodsky) March 29, 2025

Instead of the attacks forcing the Houthis to back down, the militant group has continued attacking southern and central Israel with ballistic missiles.

“The missile force targeted Ben Gurion Airport in the occupied Jaffa (Tel Aviv) area with a Zulfiqar ballistic missile and a military target south of occupied Jaffa with a Palestine-2 hypersonic ballistic missile. The operation successfully achieved its goal,” Yemen’s Houthi military had said Thursday.

Israel has reported no deaths or casualties from these attacks, but there’s been limited damage. Most inbound projectiles have been intercepted or fell in the desert before reaching Tel Aviv.

There is growing unease across the European continent—from the war in Ukraine and the migrant crisis to economic troubles in Germany and even the continent’s lagging space program.

Without a doubt, what infuriates the liberals in Brussels most is that Elon Musk’s SpaceX is running circles around the European Space Agency and its institutional partners in terms of space access and securing space-based communications.

The latest mishap for the ESA is the German startup Isar Aerospace’s first rocket launch attempt to reach low Earth orbit, which ended in a fireball earlier Sudnay.

“What a success! At 12:30 CEST, Isar Aerospace successfully launched its Spectrum launch vehicle from Andøya Spaceport in Norway. The launch vehicle aborted after approximately 30 seconds in the air, and the vehicle fell straight into the sea. The launch platform appears to be intact,” Isar Aerospace wrote in a statement, quoted by local media outlet VG. 

LAUNCH! Isar Aerospace’s Spectrum rocket launches from the Orbital Launch Pad at the Andøya Space Center in Norway.

Overview:https://t.co/64HcC1kqIH

Live Isar/NSF:https://t.co/aGH02uqNum

And failed early in first stage flight. That’s why it’s a test flight. pic.twitter.com/SfolnqhtBu

— NSF – NASASpaceflight.com (@NASASpaceflight) March 30, 2025

Drone and pad footage from Isar Aerospace’s Spectrum launch. You can see it avoided the pad when it came down. pic.twitter.com/NePozHqYad

— NSF – NASASpaceflight.com (@NASASpaceflight) March 30, 2025

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic… 

First time humans will be in polar orbit around Earth launches on Monday!@framonauts https://t.co/s0fNKcUxNx

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 29, 2025

Data from Bryce Tech shows that SpaceX has given the world a master class in rocket launch domination and quickly scaling the largest satellite constellation network operated by Starlink.

The US leads the space race because of Spacex.

SpaceX is a perfect example of how privatization of the space industry—removing rocket launches from the government—can result in a tremendous innovation wave after decades of stagnating the sector due to bloated government. 

Authored by Nick Giambruno via InternationalMan.com,

The US-led world order has undergone several distinct phases since the end of World War 2.

From 1945 to 1991, it was defined by the Cold War—a global struggle between the US and the Soviet Union.

After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the post-WW2 world order experienced a massive shift, with the US emerging as the undisputed global superpower. This era, often called the “unipolar moment,” lasted from 1991 until Trump’s inauguration in 2025.

Yuval Harari is a key advisor to Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF). He recently stated that if Trump were to become president again, it “is likely to be the kind of death blow to what remains of the global order.”

While I think it’s premature to declare the end of the post-WW2 world order, Trump’s return to the White House undoubtedly marks one of the most significant shifts in international relations since the Soviet Union’s fall.

Marco Rubio serves as Trump’s Secretary of State, tasked with executing Trump’s vision for America’s role on the world stage.

His statements—during his Senate confirmation hearings and in an interview with journalist Megyn Kelly—have made that vision unmistakably clear.

Here’s what Rubio stated during his confirmation hearings (emphasis added):

“Out of the triumphalism of the end of long Cold War emerged a bi-partisan consensus that we had reached ‘the end of history.’ That all the nations of Earth would become members of the democratic Western led community. That a foreign policy that served the national interest could now be replaced by one that served the ‘liberal world order.’ And that all mankind was now destined to abandon national identity, and we would become ‘one human family’ and ‘citizens of the world.’

This wasn’t just a fantasy; it was a dangerous delusion.

Here in America, and in many of the advanced economies across the world, an almost religious commitment to free and unfettered trade at the expense of our national economy, shrunk the middle class, left the working class in crisis, collapsed industrial capacity, and pushed critical supply chains into the hands of adversaries and rivals. An irrational zeal for maximum freedom of movement of people has resulted in a historic mass migration crisis here in America and around the world that threatens the stability of societies and governments.

While America far too often continued to prioritize the ‘global order’ above our core national interests, other nations continued to act the way countries always have and always will, in what they perceive to be in their best interest.

And instead of folding into the post-Cold War global order, they have manipulated it to serve their interest at the expense of ours. We welcomed the Chinese Communist Party into this global order. And they took advantage of all its benefits. But they ignored all its obligations and responsibilities. Instead, they have lied, cheated, hacked, and stolen their way to global superpower status, at our expense.

The postwar global order is not just obsolete; it is now a weapon being used against us.

And all this has led us to a moment in which we must now confront the single greatest risk of geopolitical instability and generational global crisis in the lifetime of anyone alive here today.

Eight decades later, we are called to create a free world out of chaos once again. This will not be easy. And it will be impossible without a strong and confident America that engages in the world, putting our core national interests above all else once again.”

Here are Rubio’s remarks to Megyn Kelly (emphasis added):

Megyn Kelly: America First?

Secretary Rubio: Well, and that’s the way the world has always worked. The way the world has always worked is that the Chinese will do what’s in the best interests of China, the Russians will do what’s in the best interest of Russia, the Chileans are going to do what’s in the best interest of Chile, and the United States needs to do what’s in the best interest of the United States.

Where our interests align, that’s where you have partnerships and alliances; where our differences are not aligned, that is where the job of diplomacy is to prevent conflict while still furthering our national interests and understanding they’re going to further theirs. And that’s been lost.

And I think that was lost at the end of the Cold War, because we were the only power in the world, and so we assumed this responsibility of sort of becoming the global government in many cases, trying to solve every problem.

And there are terrible things happening in the world. There are. And then there are things that are terrible that impact our national interest directly, and we need to prioritize those again.

So, it’s not normal for the world to simply have a unipolar power. That was an anomaly. It was a product of the end of the Cold War, but eventually you were going to reach back to a point where you had a multipolar world, multi-great powers in different parts of the planet.

We face that now with China and to some extent Russia, and then you have rogue states like Iran and North Korea you have to deal with.

So now more than ever we need to remember that foreign policy should always be about furthering the national interest of the United States and doing so, to the extent possible, avoiding war and armed conflict, which we have seen two times in the last century be very costly.

They’re celebrating the 80th anniversary this year of the end of the Second World War. That – I think if you look at the scale and scope of destruction and loss of life that occurred, it would be far worse if we had a global conflict now. It may end life on the planet. And it sounds like hyperbole, but you have multiple countries now who have the capability to end life on Earth. And so we need to really work hard to avoid armed conflict as much as possible, but never at the expense of our national interest. So that’s the tricky balance. “

Rubio’s words are a reflection of Trump’s vision and policy. Frankly, it’s a much-needed dose of realism and pragmatism.

It’s worth emphasizing several key points from Rubio’s remarks:

• The idea that the US could uphold a unipolar world order indefinitely “wasn’t just a fantasy; it was a dangerous delusion.”

• “The postwar global order is not just obsolete; it is now a weapon being used against us.”

• “We must now confront the single greatest risk of geopolitical instability and generational global crisis in the lifetime of anyone alive here today.”

• “It’s not normal for the world to simply have a unipolar power. That was an anomaly.”

• “Eventually, you were going to reach back to a point where you had a multipolar world, multi-great powers in different parts of the planet.”

Though it endured for 34 years, the notion that the US could maintain a unipolar world order indefinitely was never realistic.

President Trump seems to recognize that maintaining it is not just unrealistic but unsustainable. He appears to have decided that it is in the US’s best interest to transition to a multipolar reality on its own terms rather than be forced into it by a chaotic collapse.

We are now in a volatile adjustment period as the unipolar world order gives way to a multipolar one (click image below to enlarge).

Does this mean World War 3 is over?

I don’t think so. But it does mean we have entered a new phase of it.

There is still much to be determined—most crucially, the boundaries of the US, Russia, and China’s spheres of influence in this emerging multipolar world.

With the war in Ukraine all but lost and the prospect of victory in Taiwan shrinking by the day, the US government appears to have accepted that the complete subjugation of Russia and China under its unipolar dominance is no longer an achievable goal.

The goalposts of World War 3 have shifted.

Rather than total victory and preserving the unipolar world order, the US is now focused on maximizing its power within the new multipolar landscape—while limiting the influence of its most formidable rivals: Russia, China, and their allies, including Iran.

While the US seems to be moving away from the unipolar model and begrudgingly acknowledging the existence of rival powers, it still seeks to be the dominant force in a multipolar world.

The new global boundaries have yet to be defined, and the situation remains volatile and dangerous. Whether Trump can successfully guide the US—and the world—through this transition without descending into greater conflict remains an open question.

On a smaller scale, this mirrors how powerful criminal organizations—such as mafias and street gangs—operate within a city. Ideally, a gang or mafia would eliminate all rivals. However, when certain rivals prove too strong to destroy, the conflict shifts toward defining boundaries until a formal arrangement is reached that divides territories.

The same dynamic is now unfolding on a global scale between the US, Russia, and China as World War 3 plays out.

Each side is maneuvering to expand its power and influence until a new arrangement is reached that defines the balance of the multipolar world.

The Global Order Is Changing—Are You Ready?

The unipolar world is fading, and a volatile new multipolar reality is taking shape.

The global power structure is shifting fast—and the consequences will be massive.

Most people will be caught off guard—don’t be one of them.

What does this mean for America? For the economy? For you?

That’s why I’ve put together an urgent report revealing the hidden forces shaping this new era and how to prepare for the massive geopolitical and economic shifts ahead.

This could be the most important dispatch you read all year.

Don’t get caught unprepared.

Click here to see it now.

President Trump’s master plan to strengthen hemispheric defense—aimed at eliminating Chinese influence in the Panama Canal—appears to have hit a bottleneck at the end of last week.

A new report Saturday reveals that Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison will not sign a deal next week to sell its two ports on either side of the canal to a BlackRock-led consortium. It’s back to the drawing board for the Trump administration, which will now need to implement new tactics to pressure Panama to rid itself of Chinese Communist influence.

Sources told Reuters that Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing’s deal to sell the Panama ports, including Balboa and Cristobal on either side of the canal, will not have the proper paperwork signed with the BlackRock-led investor group by the April 2 deadline for “obvious reasons.”

Those obvious reasons include an infuriated Chinese Communist Party, which views Li as having bent the knee to Trump and the Americans by agreeing to give up such critical infrastructure around the canal.

For weeks, various Chinese media outlets called CK Hutchison’s billionaire founder “spineless” and questioned which “side he should stand on.” 

Another source said that talks are still very much underway regarding the $19 billion deal, which includes 43 ports in 23 countries. 

On Friday, the South China Morning Post first revealed that CK Hutchison Holdings “will not go ahead with the expected signing of a deal next week to sell its two strategic ports at the Panama Canal … with Beijing saying it will launch an antitrust probe into the sale.” 

CK Hutchison Deal Derailed After CCP In Beijing Launches Antitrust Probe https://t.co/vApfl7m6al

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 28, 2025

In another report, The Telegraph noted, “Chinese authorities have effectively blacklisted CK Hutchison and the business interests of the Li family by telling Chinese state-backed firms they will struggle to get regulatory approval for any work involving the group.”

And earlier this month…

Beijing Fumes Over BlackRock’s Panama Port Deal With CK Hutchison https://t.co/TipGfIMQQS

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 14, 2025

It’s crucial to understand that eliminating Chinese Communist influence from the Panama Canal is part of Trump’s master plan to strengthen hemispheric defense. This strategy also encompasses developing hardened defense layers around Canada and Greenland. It includes efforts to purge Chinese triad gangs, Mexican cartels, and other terrorist organizations from the North American financial system as the world fractures into a bipolar state. 

If the communists in Beijing actually nuked the port deal with BlackRock. Then expect some angry Truth Social posts from Trump. 

Authored by Andrew Thornebrooke via The Epoch Times,

Leadership in Denmark and Greenland are pushing back against the Trump administration’s proposal to take over Greenland following a controversial visit to the territory by Vice President JD Vance.

Jens-Frederik Nielsen, Greenland’s new prime minister, said on March 28 that Vance’s visit signaled a “lack of respect,” and called for political unity to combat foreign interference.

“At a time when we as a people are under pressure, we must stand together,” Nielsen said during a press conference in Nuuk on March 28.

The comments came just hours after Vance led a delegation to a U.S. Space Force base in Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark. He accused Danish leadership of underinvesting in defense, which he said had allowed Chinese and Russian infiltration into the Americas.

“Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance said at the Pituffik Space Force Base on Friday.

“Denmark has not kept pace and devoted the resources necessary to keep this base, to keep our troops, and in my view, to keep the people of Greenland safe from a lot of very aggressive incursions from Russia, from China, and other nations.”

Vance has repeatedly said that the Chinese and Russian militaries are using Greenland’s waterways, without providing details about the alleged incidents.

The United States has significantly scaled back its own Arctic defense spending over the decades, including in Greenland.

To that end, Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said that the United States had maintained 17 bases and more than 10,000 service members across the territory during the Cold War, but now only maintained the one base with about 200 personnel.

Denmark, meanwhile, is currently engaged in a $2 billion push to modernize its capabilities in the region. Rasmussen also noted a desire to spend more.

“[Vance] has a point that we haven’t done enough, but I’m a little provoked because it’s also the Americans who haven’t done enough,” Rasmussen said.

Similarly, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that the Trump administration’s characterization was not a fair one and went against the spirit of the close alliance the two powers have shared for more than 80 years.

The souring in relations comes amid an aggressive push by President Donald Trump to annex Greenland. Trump has vowed to bring the territory under U.S. control and has refused to rule out using military force to do so.

Trump has said owning Greenland is an “absolute necessity” for maintaining international security, and Vance has said that controlling Greenland’s minerals will be vital to fueling the future economy of the United States.

Polls have shown that Greenlanders overwhelmingly oppose becoming part of the United States.

Likewise, Vance’s visit brought about some of the largest public demonstrations in Greenland’s history, with protesters wearing hats or waving banners with slogans including “Make America Go Away” and “Yankees Go Home.”

Syria’s severe power shortages have continued throughout the country, also as many towns and cities remain largely destroyed following well over a decade of war. Rebuilding seems nowhere on the horizon as access to global investment and materials has been blocked by Washington.

The post-Assad Hayat Tahrir al-Sham government under Jolani (former AQ/ISIS commander) has just announced a tender to purchase around 7 million barrels of light crude oil, according to a fresh petroleum ministry statement.

Syria Issues Tender for 7M Barrels of Light Crude Oil: Syria TV

Here comes the Al qaeda oil

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 27, 2025

The purchase of 7 million barrels of light crude oil is to supply to the Baniyas refinery, Syrian media has specified.

Further, this week has seen limited efforts the ease the population’s ongoing petrol woes. State-run SANA announced Tuesday, for example, that ship carrying 5,600 tons of gasoline arrived at the oil terminal of the Syrian Oil Transport Company Syrian Petroleum in Baniyas.

The last several years, as US sanctions have tightened, have seen long lines at gas stations and people having to ration fuel. 

Additionally, cities and households have had to endure the majority of the day with no electricity. Often this is merely an hour of power to homes a day, but there are reports that Damascus this month has improved to several hours of electricity daily.

This bettered energy situation in the capital may be the first fruits of a deal which was struck with Qatar two weeks ago. “Qatar will provide natural gas supplies to Syria with the aim of generating 400 megawatts of electricity a day, in a measure to help address the war-battered country’s severe electricity shortages,” as quoted in SANA.

“Syria’s interim Minister of Electricity Omar Shaqrouq said the Qatari supplies are expected to increase the daily state-provided electricity supply from two to four hours per day,” AP also reported.

“Under the deal, Qatar will send 2 million cubic meters of natural gas a day to the Deir Ali power station, south of Damascus, via a pipeline passing through Jordan,” the report indicated.

Main takeaway: with Assad gone, we’re now allowed to admit that sanctions harm civilians. https://t.co/yqRqAgeKfr

— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) March 26, 2025

It’s still unclear what future fate awaits the oil and gas fields of Syria’s northeast Deir Ezzor and Hasakah regions. US troops and their proxies – the Syrian Democratic Forces – still occupy these. Pre-occupation Syria drew enough resources from these fields in order to supply domestic needs.

US sanctions have all the while sought to cut off the flow of Iranian or Russian oil to the country. For now Trump appears willing to keep the sanctions in place, even with Assad gone.

Authored by Michael Snyder via The End of The American Dream blog,

If there is going to be peace in the Middle East, why has the Pentagon sent 25 percent of our entire fleet of B-2 stealth bombers to the region? And if there is going to be peace in Europe, why is the European Union telling all of their citizens to store up food and water for a war with Russia?  We keep being told that everything is going to be okay, but meanwhile western officials continue to make moves that indicate that more war is coming.

According to Newsweek, the United States has “significantly increased its military presence” in the Middle East during the past couple of weeks…

The U.S. has significantly increased its military presence in both the Gulf and Indian Ocean, deploying B-2 stealth bombers, cargo planes, and aerial refueling tankers, alongside key assets like the USS Carl Vinson and USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carriers.

I am particularly concerned about the deployment of highly advanced B-2 stealth bombers to the region.

It is being reported that “at least five” B-2 stealth bombers have been deployed to the island of Diego Garcia…

The US military has sent at least five B-2 Spirit stealth bombers to highly strategic island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

These heavy bombers can obliterate targets with their huge 25 tonne bomb payload per jet.

This means the US’s deadly fleet of five could carry an astounding 125 tonnes of bombs.

For those that do not know, Afghanistan was relentlessly bombed by U.S. air assets based in Diego Garcia during the invasion of that nation in 2001, and Iraq was relentlessly bombed by U.S. air assets based in Diego Garcia during the invasion of that nation in 2003.

Currently, the U.S. only possesses 20 B-2 stealth bombers, and so that means that 25 percent of them are now in Diego Garcia.

It is being speculated that these B-2 bombers could be involved in the ongoing campaign to bomb the Houthis in Yemen, but it is important to note that these B-2 bombers would also be ideal for carrying out the sort of “bunker buster” strikes that would be necessary to take out Iran’s nuclear program…

The bombers present a unique mix of capabilities, particularly their ability to penetrate past dense enemy air defenses to carry out ‘bunker buster’ strikes employing 30,000-pound class GBU-57/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bombs. MOP, which only the B-2 is currently certified to employ operationally, itself offers a unique conventional option for striking deeply buried and fortified targets, of which there are many in Iran.

We do know that President Trump recently delivered a letter to the Iranians that gives them a choice with a very clear deadline.

Either the Iranians must make an agreement to end their nuclear program within two months or they will be attacked…

Recently, President Trump revealed that he had sent a letter to Tehran, demanding a new nuclear agreement within two months or face significant military consequences. With negotiations stalled and the deadline looming, the diplomatic window for de-escalation is quickly closing, leaving military action as an increasingly likely outcome.

The Iranians have already told us that they have no plans to negotiate.

So it appears that it is just a matter of time before the second option is implemented.

In a recent interview with “Face the Nation”, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz made it clear that there will be no compromises…

“Iran has to give up its program in a way that the entire world can see,” Mike Waltz, Trump’s National Security Advisor, said during a separate interview on CBS News‘ “Face the Nation” this weekend. “It is time for Iran to walk away completely from its desire to have a nuclear weapon, and they will not and cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapons program. That is its weaponization and its strategic missiles program.”

If B-2 stealth bombers start hitting Iran’s nuclear facilities, we will officially be at war with Iran.

I hope that everyone understands the implications of that.

Meanwhile, the European Union is “pushing for every household in the 27-nation bloc” to prepare an emergency kit in case a direct war with Russia breaks out…

European Union bureaucrats are pushing for every household in the 27-nation bloc to prepare the kit for war and natural disasters.

It is expected that will be part of a union’s broader “preparedness strategy” amid the threat from Russia.

Key items they will ask the bloc’s 450 million citizens to gather includes water, energy bars and a flashlight.

Why does every home in the EU need to prepare for war with Russia if there is going to be peace?

Do EU bureaucrats know something that the rest of us do not?

Sadly, it appears that even the very limited agreements that Russia and Ukraine just agreed to are not going to hold.  The Ukrainians just launched more strikes against Russian energy infrastructure, and the Russians just keep sending waves of drone attacks at Ukrainian cities…

Overnight, Russia said it had taken down nine drones, including two over the Black Sea. It also said Ukraine tried to attack a gas storage facility in Russian-occupied Crimea and energy infrastructure in Russia’s Kursk and Bryansk regions. Ukraine said it conducted no such strikes.

Ukraine’s military reported 117 Russian drone attacks overnight. Local officials said the city of Kryvyi Rih had been hit by the biggest drone attack it has faced yet.

Hopefully both sides will come to their senses, because this is our one shot at peace.

If negotiations ultimately fail, it is inevitable that both sides will escalate matters, and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte is warning that an attack on Poland or any other NATO member “will be met with the full force of this fierce alliance”…

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte issued a stern warning to Vladimir Putin, stating that any attack on Poland or another NATO member would be met with a “devastating” response.

“If anyone were to miscalculate and think they can get away with an attack on Poland or on any other ally, they will be met with the full force of this fierce alliance. Our reaction will be devastating” he declared in Warsaw. “This has to be very clear to Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and anyone else who wants to attack us.”

Those are unusually strong words.

Is he expecting something to happen?

Ominously, we are being told that four U.S. soldiers were just found dead near Lithuania’s border with Belarus…

Four US soldiers have reportedly been found dead in Lithuania after going missing during a training mission. A major search operation was launched after the tracked vehicle they were travelling in disappeared at around 4.45pm yesterday.

The Embassy in Vilnius has yet to confirm the deaths after releasing a statement to confirm only that four soldiers were missing. But speaking to reporters while visiting Warsaw, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said: “Whilst I was speaking the news came out about four American soldiers who were killed in an incident in Lithuania,” as he confirmed he had no further details. The search, involving Lithuanian and US assets, has identified a “possible location” of where they are believed to have disappeared.

This is a very alarming incident.

Hopefully we will learn more details shortly.

There is one last thing that I wanted to mention today.  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy just told European journalists that Russian President Vladimir Putin “will die soon”…

Volodymyr Zelensky has predicted that Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘will die soon’ in a candid assessment as he discussed the war on Ukraine. Speaking during a round table with journalists including the BBC’s Jeremy Bowen, the Ukrainian leader said: “He will die soon, and that’s a fact, and it will come to an end.”

What an irresponsible thing to say.

Yes, Putin has been experiencing health problems for a long time.

But if Putin does die soon, the Russians will remember what Zelenskyy just said.  At that point it would be exceedingly difficult to convince the Russians that nothing nefarious was going on, and getting both sides to agree to any sort of a peace deal would almost certainly become impossible.

We are at such a delicate moment.

The decisions that global leaders make over the next several months could dramatically alter the course of human history, and right now I am not particularly optimistic about where things are heading.

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Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

SpaceX announced on Friday that it is “prepared to provide Starlink kits to assist with communications and relief efforts” in Thailand and Myanmar (also known as Burma), after more than 1,000 people were killed when a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck the country earlier in the day.

Devastating to hear of the earthquake’s toll on Thailand and Myanmar. The SpaceX team is prepared to provide Starlink kits to assist with communications needs and relief efforts, pending any necessary governmental approvals.

— Starlink (@Starlink) March 29, 2025

In addition to a death toll of 1,002 as of Saturday, there are 2,376 injured and 30 missing according to the military government, up sharply from the 144 dead reported by state media on Friday.

As the Epoch Times notes further, the U.S. Geological Survey said the epicenter of the earthquake—which was 6.2 miles deep—was close to the city of Mandalay in Burma.

A dramatic video circulating on social media shows a high-rise building in Bangkok collapsing in a cloud of dust as construction workers run for their lives. Thai authorities said nine people had died and 101 were missing in Bangkok, mostly laborers trapped in the rubble of the collapsed tower.

High-rise building collapses due to strong #earthquake in Chatuchak, Bangkok. #แผ่นดินไหว #กรุงเทพมหานคร pic.twitter.com/fiRV6ZIZq2

— Weather Monitor (@WeatherMonitors) March 28, 2025

The high-rise building was being built for the auditor general of the Thai government by the China Railway Construction Corporation.

The USGS’s predictive modeling estimated the death toll could exceed 10,000 people in Burma, and that losses could be greater than the value of the country’s gross domestic product.

In Burma, the military government has declared a state of emergency in six regions and states, including Mandalay and the capital, Naypyidaw.

It said on the Telegram messaging app, “The state will make inquiries on the situation quickly and conduct rescue operations along with providing humanitarian aid.”

The Red Cross said: “Initial reports from the ground suggest the earthquake has caused significant damage. Information on humanitarian needs is still being gathered.”

The Burmese government’s spokesman, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, told state-run MRTV television channel that blood was in high demand in hospitals in Mandalay, Sagaing, and Naypyidaw.

The president of the European Commission wrote on X: “Heartbreaking scenes from Myanmar and Thailand after the devastating earthquake. My thoughts are with the victims & their families. Europe’s Copernicus satellites are already helping first responders. We are ready to provide more support. We stand with you in full solidarity.”

Chinese media reported that the earthquake was felt in Yunnan and Sichuan provinces.

Burma’s second biggest city, Mandalay, was close to the epicenter, and a local resident, Htet Naing Oo, said several people had been trapped inside a tea shop which had collapsed.

She said, “We couldn’t go in. The situation is very bad.”

Photographs and videos posted on Facebook showed widespread damage in Mandalay.

Most houses in Mandalay are low-rise structures.

A 90-year-old bridge in the Sagaing region, southwest of Mandalay, collapsed, and the highway connecting Mandalay with Burma’s largest city, Yangon, was also damaged.

In the capital, Naypyidaw, Buddhist shrines were toppled and some homes damaged.

The tremor, which took place around midday on Friday, was followed by an aftershock with a magnitude of 6.4, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The greater Bangkok area is home to around 17 million people, many living in high-rise apartments.

Many people have been evacuated from office and residential buildings, pending the all-clear.

‘A Lot of Panic’

Fraser Morton, a British tourist who was in downtown Bangkok shopping for camera equipment, said, “All of a sudden the whole building began to move, immediately there was screaming and a lot of panic.”

“I just started walking calmly at first but then the building started really moving, yeah, a lot of screaming, a lot of panic, people running the wrong way down the escalators, lots of banging and crashing inside the mall,” he added.

Morton said, “I got outside and then looked up at the building and the whole building was moving, dust and debris, it was pretty intense. Lots of chaos.”

Water from infinity pools in several high-rise hotels can be seen in videos pouring down the sides of the buildings as they shook.

Thousands of residents, workers, and tourists took shelter in the city’s Benjasiri Park, which is away from high buildings.

Thailand’s prime minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, called an emergency meeting on Friday to assess the impact.

Thailand’s Department of Disaster Prevention said the tremor was felt in almost every region of the country.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from dismantling Voice of America (VOA), the government-funded international news service whose 1,200 reporters and employees were placed on paid leave earlier this month.

The judge, J. Paul Oetken of the Southern District of New York, on Friday issued a temporary restraining order in favor of VOA employees and their unions. The order prevents the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees VOA, from shutting down the broadcasting network and its associated radio programs.

VOA employees filed the lawsuit against USAGM, its acting Director Victor Morales, and special adviser Kari Lake on March 21. The complaint accused the agency of failing to fulfill its legally mandated missions and violating both press freedom and the separation-of-powers doctrine when it took a “chainsaw” to the outlet, ordering the entire staff not to report to work, turning off the service, and locking the agency’s doors.

In his ruling, Oetken stated that VOA was likely to succeed on its claims, noting that USAGM’s actions appeared unconstitutional. He said that Lake lacked legal authority to withhold congressionally appropriated funds or terminate USAGM staff, programming, or contracts.

“By withholding the funds statutorily appropriated to fully administer USAGM, VOA, and its affiliates … the executive is usurping Congress’s power of the purse and its legislative supremacy,” he wrote.

The judge did not require VOA to resume broadcasts, but made it clear that employees must not be terminated while the court determines whether the shutdown violates the Constitution or other federal administrative laws.

Friday’s order echoed a similar ruling by another district judge earlier in the week, which granted a temporary restraining order to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, blocking its funding freeze. The Trump administration has since stated in court filings that it has resumed funding for these outlets.

President Donald Trump and his supporters have been critical of VOA for years over alleged bias against conservative Americans and in favor of America’s adversaries.

In 2020, the White House sent an email accusing VOA of spending taxpayers’ money to “speak for authoritarian regimes.” It took issue with, among other things, a VOA social media post featuring a video of a light show celebrating the end of the lockdown in Wuhan, the Chinese megapolis where the COVID-19 virus first emerged; as well as the agency’s characterization of China’s effort to control the outbreak as a “model” for other nations.

“VOA too often speaks for America’s adversaries—not its citizens,” The White House said. “Journalists should report the facts, but VOA has instead amplified Beijing’s propaganda.”

The VOA first began broadcasting in 1942 in German-occupied territories as part of the Allies’ effort to engage Axis propaganda broadcasts with counterpropaganda. In the following decades, it became a staple in the propaganda war against the Soviet Union and other communist regimes. Over time, it evolved into a global news organization, now operating in more than 40 languages.

Elon Musk, a tech billionaire and Trump’s top adviser for downsizing the federal government’s spending and workforce, has echoed calls to shut down VOA and its sister networks, arguing that they have outlived their purpose.

“Yes, shut them down. Europe is free now (not counting stifling bureaucracy). Nobody listens to them anymore,” he wrote on X, accusing the outlets of being “radical left” and “torching $1B/year of US taxpayer money.”