“Reasons Unknown”: Floating Russian Oil Base Off Greece Abruptly Shifts South
Traders and shipping companies have ensured millions of barrels of Russian crude and crude products flow around the world despite European Union sanctions against Moscow for its ‘special operation’ in Ukraine. One method to ensure the flow has been cargo switching at sea, known by traders as ship-to-ship or STS transfers.
One of the hottest STS transfer spots for Russian crude and crude products was in Greece’s Laconian Gulf, a gulf in the south-eastern Peloponnese. Now, research firm TankerTrackers reports that Russian oil transfers in the area have “completely vacated” the area this week.
“For reasons unknown, the Laconian Gulf in Greece, used as a transshipment point for Russian oil; was completely vacated of major tankers on the afternoon of 2024-05-01. The STS transfers are now taking place directly south of the gulf,” TankerTrackers wrote on X.
For reasons unknown, the Laconian Gulf in Greece, used as a transshipment point for Russian oil; was completely vacated of major tankers on the afternoon of 2024-05-01. The STS transfers are now taking place directly south of the gulf. Maritime data by @MarineTraffic, a @Kpler… pic.twitter.com/9WUPircXTi
— TankerTrackers.com, Inc. (@TankerTrackers) May 3, 2024
STS Russian transfers from the Laconian Gulf have ended up thousands of miles away in Asia. However, according to the Black Sea Group, some of it ended up at European ports because of Brussels’ poor sanction management:
“68% of the oil was brought to the Laconian Gulf in Greece for transshipment, while the rest was directly exported to the EU ports amid poor sanctions management,” researcher Bohdan Ben wrote in a note.
TankerTrackers pointed out that the STS transfers in the Laconian Gulf have shifted just south. The firm used maritime data from Marine Traffic and satellite imagery data from Kpler.
Bloomberg notes STS transfers of Russian crude could be shifting to the Red Sea:
There are other signs of change in how Russian oil is moving. One tanker also flipped a cargo of crude onto another vessel in the Red Sea last month. The Panta Rei 1 transfered its cargo onto the Odysseus, which then transported its consignment to India. That’s the first ever switch observed in that location in ship tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.
What is evident is that, despite Western sanctions on Moscow, Russian crude oil and crude products continue to circulate globally. The puzzling thing here is why the abrupt shift away from the Laconian Gulf region?
Fidelity, a major financial services firm, says pension funds are starting to explore investing in Bitcoin, particularly after the approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds earlier this year…
Fidelity has been bullish on Bitcoin for years, launching its Digital Assets branch in 2018 and bringing a successful Bitcoin ETF to market earlier this year. The firm’s ETF attracted significant capital compared to competitors.
Now, Fidelity’s VP of Digital Assets Manuel Nordeste says the company is engaging with major pension funds and other institutional investors about allocating to Bitcoin.
Speaking at a recent event, Nordeste stated: “Now, we’re starting to have conversations with the larger, real money institutional investor types, and we’re getting some of those clients, as well as corporates and so on.”
His comments come after BlackRock also mentioned yesterday having educational conversations with pension funds regarding Bitcoin ETFs. Recent 13F filings show major pension consultants have already purchased spot Bitcoin ETFs.
This mounting evidence indicates serious diligence is underway about allowing pension investments in Bitcoin vehicles like ETFs.
With over $4 trillion in capital, U.S. pension funds committing even tiny portfolio allocations could drive significant inflows.
While pensions remain cautious compared to family offices and hedge funds, who’ve already bought Bitcoin exposure, their conservative mandates and focus on risk management has kept most pensions on the sidelines so far.
If pensions follow the lead of early adopters, it would represent a seismic shift in mainstream acceptance.
Thus far, Bitcoin ETFs have seen tremendous demand since launching this year. While this week marked record outflows, the long-term trajectory still appears highly favorable.
The Świętokrzyska Industrial Group Industria (ŚGP Industria) has confirmed the presence of uranium in a deposit within the Świętokrzyskie Region in southern Poland. The company now plans to undertake further exploratory work to determine the deposit’s size and potential extraction methods. This finding was made during exploratory activities, though the company has chosen not to disclose the exact location at this time. In the coming months, detailed work will be carried out to establish the deposit’s size and potential exploitation methods.
The International Atomic Energy Agency estimates that Poland has approximately 100,000 tons of natural uranium, although only 7,000 tons have been confirmed so far. ŚGP Industria received an exploratory concession from the Ministry of Climate and Environment for a polymetallic deposit containing uranium in the region.
Following the company’s efforts, the presence of uranium in the deposit was verified. Continued exploration over the next few months will aim to precisely determine the content of various elements in the deposit, its size, and potential extraction methods.
“I am very pleased that our efforts over the past three years to develop mining in the Świętokrzyskie Region and access to critical raw materials in Poland, including uranium crucial for the nuclear sector, are bearing fruit,” said Szczepan Ruman, president of the Board of ŚGP Industria. He added that the discovery of the uranium deposit is an important event from the perspective of developing cooperation with Rolls-Royce on implementing small modular reactors (SMRs) in Poland.
The company conducted its studies based on documents from the National Geological Archive of the State Geological Institute in Warsaw. These documents include data from the Soviet atomic program and uranium ore searches in the Świętokrzyskie Mountains in the 1950s.
Sectors across the Israeli economy are warning of wide-reaching impacts of Turkey’s decision to halt all trade with Israel, and are scrambling to find alternative sources for lost imports.
The Turkish trade ministry announced earlier this week that Ankara is halting all import and export transactions related to Israel until it “allows an uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.” The ban on imports includes iron and steel products, construction materials, minerals, machinery, cars, energy products, rubber, plastics, health and agricultural products.
The construction industry is bracing for the loss of Turkish iron and steel products and building materials, as Turkey supplied 29 percent of Israel’s total cement imports last year.
Last month, Israeli businessmen warned that the restrictions could drive an increase in property and rent prices. Meanwhile, Israel’s largest oil refinery, Bezan, said the ban could impact crude oil imports.
Forty percent of Israel’s annual oil consumption is piped to the Turkish oil hub port of Ceyhan and then shipped to Israel.
Moreover, representatives of the electrical products industry are warning that the ban could lead to a 35 percent hike in prices, as the majority of domestic electrical goods in Israel are manufactured in Turkey.
The new restrictions could force importers to import across the Red Sea, where attacks by Yemen’s Houthi group have driven a spike in shipping costs.
‘Dire straits’
In April, the contractors’ association wrote a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, accusing them of driving the sector to the brink of collapse.
Amit Gottlieb, chairman of the Urban Renewal Committee in the Israel Builders’ Association (ACB), said the Israeli construction industry was already in “dire straits” since Israel’s war on Gaza began, due to labor shortages resulting from Israel’s ban on Palestinian workers.
He added that alternative imports of construction materials from Germany, Great Britain, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Greece needed to be arranged “as soon as possible”.
Turkey’s exports to Israel were worth $5.4bn in 2023, or 2.1 percent of its total exports, according to official data. From 2009 to 2023, trade between the two countries nearly tripled. By the end of that period, Turkey had become the fifth-largest supplier of goods imported by Israel, while Israel ranked as Turkey’s 10th-largest export market, based on data from the Central Bureau of Statistics.
On Thursday, Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, accused Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of ignoring international trade agreements and acting like a “dictator”. He added that Israel would seek to replace the lost Turkish imports with locally produced goods or imports from other countries.
UK Vows To Arm Ukraine For ‘As Long as It Takes’ – Commits $3.7BN Annually
The UK has committed to what might be called ‘forever aid’ in Ukraine’s defense, with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron newly promising $3.74 billion of annual military aid for Kiev for “as long as it takes”.
He unveiled the plan Thursday, and it marks the biggest commitment in foreign defense aid rollout for Britain thus far in the war (and perhaps in all of history), coming on the heels of the Biden administration also seeking to erect a 10-year plan to assist Ukraine which theoretically would lock in future US presidents as well.
“We will give 3 billion pounds every year for as long as is necessary. We’ve just really emptied all we can in terms of giving equipment,” Cameron told Reuters in an interview on a visit to the Ukrainian capital.
“Some of that [equipment] is actually arriving in Ukraine today, while I’m here,” he said. Alarmingly, he openly stated that the British government has no problem with Ukrainian forces using UK weapons to strike at targets inside Russian territory.
“Ukraine has that right. Just as Russia is striking inside Ukraine, you can quite understand why Ukraine feels the need to make sure it’s defending itself,” Cameron said.
“It’s absolutely crucial, not just in terms of the weapons it will bring, but also the boost to morale that it will bring to people here in Ukraine,” the UK top diplomat continued in the remarks given upon his second visit to the war-ravaged country as foreign secretary.
Cameron was at one point asked whether a potential future Trump administration could negatively impact the flow of aid to the Zelensky government.
He responded: “It’s not for us to decide who the Americans choose as their president. We will work with whoever that is.” NATO officials have reportedly been attempting to“Trump-proof” any future aid.
Last Sunday, Zelensky himself signaled as much in a nightly video address, saying that he’s working with Washington on a bilateral security agreement which would last ten years. “We are already working on a specific text,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address. “Our goal is to make this agreement the strongest of all.”
“We are discussing the specific foundations of our security and cooperation. We are also working on fixing specific levels of support for this year and the next 10 years.”
“If you can’t give enough weapons to Ukraine, how are you gonna win against China” – Kuleba pic.twitter.com/d3sCiB4Tgz
He indicated it will likely include agreements on long-term support centering on military hardware and joint arms production, as well as continuing reconstruction aid. “The agreement should be truly exemplary and reflect the strength of American leadership,” Zelensky added.
But as we’ve been detailing, Ukraine’s problem currently is not fundamentally a question of funding or weaponry, but of manpower. Soon it may not have enough troops to operate the sophisticated weaponry being shipped in by the West, given the daily bad news from the front lines.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is warning that only electing conservative candidates to the European Parliament and replacing the EU’s current leadership will lead to peace in Ukraine.
“The whole European community is on a razor’s edge. We are standing on the dividing line between war and peace,” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán wrote on social media.
“The most important thing to do in politics today, even if Brussels seems far away, is to create peace. Peace can be created beyond the warring parties, those who finance the war. And this war is financed by the West, by Brussels’ budget money and by American money.
“But our vote will determine whether there is a pro-war or a pro-peace majority in the European Parliament, in the European Commission, in the European Council. Now we have a pro-war majority. We must change that, and we must change it on June 9! Only peace! Only Fidesz!”
Some of the most pro-war parties in Europe now belong to the left. For instance, the Green party in Germany, which was founded on pro-peace priorities and opposition to NATO, is now arguably the most pro-war party in Germany. The Greens have pushed for more weapons shipments for Ukraine, aligned themselves with war hawks in the United States, and have a membership overwhelmingly in favor of war.
Meanwhile, independent polling agency Medián’s latest research showed that Orbán’s party, the conservative Fidesz, which has been in power since 2010, remains the most popular party in Hungary, with 46 percent of decided voters supporting it.
The newcomer centrist Tisza party, led by Fidesz renegade Péter Magyar, estranged husband of former Justice Minister Judit Varga, is second with 24 percent. The party’s sudden surge has completely rearranged the political landscape in Hungary, with the opposition’s previously largest force, the Socialist Democratic Coalition, now polling at 9 percent, followed by the satire party Two-Tailed Dog at 6 percent and Momentum at 5 percent.
Scientists with close ties to China and the U.S. government is now saying that risky experiments he proposed—which some experts believe could have led to the creation of SARS-CoV-2—may have been done, deviating from earlier statements.
Another scientist involved in the proposal also says he doesn’t know if the work was done.
“To the very best of my knowledge … the work hasn’t been done,” Peter Daszak, president of the EcoHealth Alliance, told a congressional panel this week.
Mr. Daszak, however, admitted that he doesn’t know whether scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China have done the proposed experiments.
“Do you know if the WIV started this work?” he was asked during a U.S. House of Representatives Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic hearing in Washington.
“No,” Mr. Daszak replied.
“Then you can’t say that the work was not done,” Mitch Benzine, the staff director for the panel, said.
“There is no evidence of the work being done. There is no evidence that WIV started it,” Mr. Daszak said.
Has he ever asked Shi Zhengli, a top scientist at the WIV, whether she carried out the proposal?
“No,” Mr. Daszak acknowledged.
The proposal in question, dubbed Project DEFUSE, was submitted in 2018 to the U.S. government as EcoHealth and its partners, including WIV, sought to take viruses from bats, reverse engineer them, and add features. Some outside scientists say the proposed work could have led to the creation of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) declined to fund the proposal, expressing concerns that adding features to coronaviruses could create a dangerous virus.
After the proposal was leaked to the public in 2021, Mr. Daszak and EcoHealth have said definitively that the proposed experiments never took place.
“The DARPA proposal was not funded. Therefore, the work was not done. Simple,” Mr. Daszak told The Intercept in 2022.
“The proposed research was never done,” EcoHealth added in a recent statement.
Ralph Baric, a University of North Carolina virologist who was also listed in the DEFUSE proposal, also said in newly disclosed testimony that he did not know whether the proposed experiments were conducted.
“Certainly not by my group,” Mr. Baric told the subcommittee. “I don’t know what China did.”
Mr. Baric and Ms. Shi have created chimeras, or combination viruses, among other work together.
“There was no evidence that they were doing this kind of work,” Mr. Baric said. “Well, there was evidence that they were building chimeras using WIV1 as a backbone, so they were doing some discovery work about the functions of spike genes of zoonotic strains that they discovered later on, but I don’t know if they did any of the engineering or anything.”
WIV1 is a bat coronavirus that was found in China.
Mr. Baric also claimed he had forgotten about DEFUSE so he didn’t discuss it while meeting with Dr. Anthony Fauci, a top U.S. government official, on Feb. 12, 2020.
Mr. Daszak said Wednesday that DARPA later returned to EcoHealth “to try and fund portions” of DEFUSE, but no lawmakers pressed him on that disclosure.
‘They’ve Always Been Truthful’
EcoHealth separately for years funneled grant money from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) to Wuhan researchers, including money that funded experiments that increased the virulence of a bat coronavirus.
Asked how his group verified information about those experiments, Mr. Daszak acknowledged it relied on statements from the WIV. “I have no other way to verify,” he said.
The scientists in Wuhan “have always been honest with us,” he added later. “They’ve always been truthful. There’s never any untoward, underhand things going on. I have no reason to think that they were under pressure to lie. There’s no indication of that.”
After the pandemic started, WIV researchers refused to hand over laboratory notebooks and other files to EcoHealth after the U.S. government asked for the records, resulting in the government debarring WIV from receiving U.S. grant money.
“Nearly two years have passed since the NIH first requested that WIV provide the requested information and materials, and yet WIV has still failed to do so,” a debarment official wrote to Ms. Shi.
In comments on a draft of the DEFUSE proposal, Mr. Daszak said that some of the work would be done at the Wuhan lab.
“If we win this contract, I do not propose that all of this work will necessarily be conducted by Ralph, but I do want to stress the US side of this proposal so that DARPA are comfortable with our team,” Mr. Daszak wrote in one comment. “Once we get the funds, we can then allocate who does what exact work, and I believe that a lot of these assays can be done in Wuhan as well.”
Mr. Daszak told Mr. Baric in a May 27, 2021, email released by the subcommittee that Ms. Zhengli said culturing of animal viruses was being done under biosafety level two conditions, or one level below that applied in many other countries.
“We checked with Zhengli, who let us know that she used ‘BSL-2 with negative pressure and appropriate PPE.’ I also know that they are stricter now on SADS-CoV… ever since you showed it was able to infect human airway epithelial cells,” he wrote.
Mr. Baric responded by saying Mr. Daszak was “being told a bunch of [expletive].”
“BSL-2 w[ith] negative pressure, give me a break,” he wrote, adding later, “You believe this was appropriate containment, if you want but don’t expect me to believe it. Moreover, don’t insult my intelligence by trying to feed me this load of [expletive].”
The 2024 World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), was released today. This year, the agency highlights a “worrying decline in support and respect for media autonomy and an increase in pressure from the state or other political actors.” This is based on the fact that, of the five indicators used to compile the ranking, it is the political indicator that has fallen most, with a global average decline of 7.6 points.
Out of the 180 countries and territories analyzed, some 138 places had a majority of their respondents say that political actors in their countries were involved in disinformation or propaganda campaigns. This involvement was described as “systematic” in 31 countries.
The report writers also highlight the lack of political will on an international level to enforce protection of journalists, with particular reference to the war in Gaza, which has been marked by a record number of violations against journalists and the media since October 2023. According to the report, more than 100 Palestinian reporters have now been killed by the Israel Defence Forces, including at least 22 in the course of carrying out their journalistic activities.
Taking a look at wider trends, this chart, via Statista’s Anna Fleck, shows that 36 countries were listed in the worst category in the index – where there exists a “very serious” situation of the press.
49 countries fall under the “difficult” category and 50 in the “problematic” group, while 45 have either a “satisfactory” or “good” situation. Norway is once more at the top of the list, ranking in first place for the eighth year running, followed by Denmark and Sweden.
The final trio, considered the most repressive countries for the press, are Afghanistan (position 178), Syria (179) and Eritrea (180). The report states: “The last two countries have become lawless zones for the media, with a record number of journalists detained, missing or held hostage.”
The United States ranked 55th in 2024, having dropped ten positions. RSF notes that the country is experiencing growing distrust in the media, partly driven by antagonism from political officials, while there have also been cases of local law enforcement having raided newsrooms.
Reporters Without Borders have compiled the index annually since 2002. The agency devised a new methodology in 2021 with the help of a panel of experts from the media and academic world. This year, 180 countries and territories were analyzed based on five indicators covering political context, legal framework, economic context, sociocultural context and safety.
One of the world’s favorite brews may hold the key to keeping muscles strong and healthy as we age.
According to recent research, a natural compound found in coffee could be the secret weapon against age-related muscle loss.
The Muscle-Preserving Molecule
Mitochondria, the powerhouses of our cells, play a crucial role in muscle health. An issue linked to sarcopenia, the age-related loss of muscle mass and strength, is that these cellular components generate less energy as we get older. Compounding this problem, levels of the crucial substance NAD+ (which stands for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide), a coenzyme that helps cells regenerate and protects them from damage, also decline with age.
Researchers already know that NAD+ levels can be boosted using various dietary precursors, including the essential amino acid L-tryptophan and different forms of vitamin B3, such as nicotinic acid, nicotinamide, nicotinamide riboside, and nicotinamide mononucleotide.
In a recent study published in Nature Metabolism, scientists investigated whether an alkaline compound called trigonelline could help reverse these age-related changes in muscle health.
The researchers analyzed trigonelline levels in the blood of mice and worms and found that high levels of the substance were positively associated with muscle strength and function.
Conversely, low trigonelline levels were linked to sarcopenia, the typical loss of muscle size and strength that occurs with aging.
Trigonelline Promoted Healthy Longevity
Trigonelline is structurally related to vitamin B3 and is produced naturally in the body, in addition to being found in certain foods.
“We discovered that older people with low endogenous levels of trigonelline in their blood lose more muscle mass and strength during aging,” Katharina Fischer, research and development and scientific communications manager at Nestle Research in Switzerland, where the study was conducted, told The Epoch Times. “We also discovered that trigonelline is a precursor to NAD.”
Providing trigonelline promoted longevity in test animals by activating cellular energy production in mitochondria and increasing muscle strength and function during aging, according to Ms. Fischer.
These findings open new opportunities to test the clinical efficacy of increasing trigonelline consumption through food products or supplements to improve muscle health, she noted.
Foods That Contain Trigonelline
Trigonelline is an alkaloid compound found in various plant sources. While it may not be as well-known as some other beneficial plant compounds, trigonelline is present in a variety of dietary sources. About 5 percent of the niacin we consume is converted into trigonelline.
Coffee Beans
Trigonelline is more abundant in coffee beans than in any other food source, and it contributes to coffee’s characteristic bitterness. However, during the roasting process, trigonelline partly breaks down to form nicotinic acid (niacin or vitamin B3), another nutrient with significant health benefits.
Fenugreek Seeds
Fenugreek, a plant commonly used in Indian and Middle Eastern cuisines, contains about 35 percent alkaloids, with trigonelline being the primary one in the seeds.
Other Foods
Trigonelline can be found in a variety of other foods, including barley, cantaloupe, corn, onions, peas, soybeans, and tomatoes.
You can also obtain trigonelline by eating fish, mussels, and crustaceans.
Never Too Late to Address Age-Related Muscle Loss: Expert
It’s natural to lose muscle mass as we age.
“Sarcopenia can occur due to a myriad of factors, such as immobility, lack of proper nutrition, obesity, and lack of physical activity,” Macie Smith, a licensed gerontology social worker, told The Epoch Times. “Since the senior population tends to be more sedentary, you’ll see it show up more prevalently in persons over the age of 65, but the process can begin as early as 30–40 years of age.”
However, while we cannot prevent aging, we can reduce muscle mass loss caused by it.
This can be done through proper exercise; a balanced, nutritional diet; and managing any underlying health conditions.
“It’s never too late to build and strengthen muscle to counter the effects of sarcopenia,” Ms. Smith said. “You can always develop a new exercise regimen that will allow you to become active and to maintain the active lifestyle.”
The US Is The Only G-7 Nation To See Trust In Government Plummet
How much do you trust the government, and its various institutions?
It’s likely that your level of confidence probably depends on a wide range of factors, such as perceived competency, historical context, economic performance, accountability, social cohesion, and transparency.
And for these same reasons, trust levels in government institutions also change all the time, even in the world’s most developed countries: the G7.
Confidence in Government by G7 Countries (2006-2023)
This chart, via Visual Capitaist’s Nick Routley, looks at the changes in trust in government institutions between the years 2006 and 2023, based on data from a multi-country Gallup poll.
Specifically, this dataset aggregates confidence in multiple national institutions, including the military, the judicial system, the national government, and the integrity of the electoral system.
What’s interesting here is that in the G7, a group of the world’s most developed economies, there is only one country bucking the general trend: the United States.
Across most G7 countries, confidence in institutions has either improved or stayed the same between 2006 and 2023. The largest percentage point (p.p.) increases occur in Italy and Japan, which saw +13 p.p. and +11 p.p. increases in trust over the time period.
In the U.S., however, confidence in government institutions has fallen by 13 p.p. over the years. What happened?
Key Figures on U.S. Trust in Institutions
In 2006, the U.S. was tied with the UK as having the highest confidence in government institutions, at 63%.
But here’s where the scores stand in 2023, across various institutions:
Based on this data, it’s clear that the U.S. lags behind in three key indicators: confidence in the national government, confidence in the justice system, and confidence in fair elections. It ranked in last place for each indicator in the G7.
One other data point that stands out: despite leading the world in military spending, the U.S. is only the third most confident in its military in the G7. It lags behind France (86%) and the United Kingdom (83%).
