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>>> Israel Expands Attack to Include Iran’s Oil and Gas Industry
Iran has been battling an acute energy crisis for months because of gas shortages, and repairing any damage would both be costly and take significant time.
The New York Times
by Farnaz Fassihi
June 14, 2025
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/14/world/middleeast/israel-iran-oil-gas-industry.html
In a widening of its military campaign against Iran, Israel targeted Iran’s critical energy infrastructure at gas and petrochemical refineries on Saturday, according to a statement from Iran’s oil ministry.
The statement said Israeli drones had targeted a section of the South Pars Gas Field in Bushehr Province. South Pars is one of the world’s largest gas fields and a critical part of Iran’s energy production. The Fajr Jam Gas Refining Company was also targeted, the ministry said.
Iran is one of the world’s major energy producers. It has the second-largest gas reserves in the world and fourth-largest crude oil reserves.
The explosions took production lines at both facilities offline, the ministry statement said, even as firefighters and emergency crew had largely contained the blazes.
An Israeli military spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on the strikes.
The attacks on Iran’s energy infrastructure on the second day of the Israel-Iran conflict represented a widening of the fighting, which began on Friday with Israel launching attacks on Iran’s military and nuclear sites and assassinating its top military chain of command. Iran retaliated by firing ballistic missiles and drones on Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Both sides have said the fighting will go on despite international calls for de-escalation.
“We have entered the second phase of the war, which is extremely dangerous and destructive,” said Abdollah Babakhani, an expert on Iran’s energy sector based in Germany. Attacking Iran’s energy infrastructure, he added, “will be a disaster because repairing them will be costly and take time.”
A senior official at the oil ministry said that the ministry had previously placed its staff at refineries and energy fields on full alert and its emergency and fire crews on highest alert, anticipating that Israel might target energy infrastructure. The official said that damages were still being assessed and officials were holding a series of emergency meetings.
Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said that in light of Israel’s attacks across Iran, the country would launch a fiercer retaliation strike on Israel, Iranian news media reported.
Hamid Hosseini, a member of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce energy committee, said that, in addition to the two attacks on infrastructure sites, Israel had also struck an office building in northern Tehran that belonged to the oil ministry. The building housed an engineering department involved in expanding Iran’s oil and energy fields, Mr. Hosseini said in a telephone interview.
Iran has been battling an acute energy crisis for months because of gas shortages. The country’s power plants and electricity production rely nearly completely on natural gas, and to manage the shortages, the government started scheduling widespread power cuts for residential, commercial and industrial usage.
The government has said the gas shortage is because demand outmatches production and economic sanctions have crippled Iran’s ability to upgrade and invest in its energy infrastructure.
Iranian news media reported that air defenses had been activated in several locations, including Bandar Abbas, Tabriz, Isfahan and Tehran, because of Israeli attacks late on Saturday night. Bandar Abbas is a major shipping port, and Isfahan and Tabriz both have energy refineries and military bases. Residents of Tehran said they could hear loud explosions and air defenses firing nonstop.
Tehran’s governor announced that government employees of Tehran province would work remotely until Wednesday with the exception of military, intelligence, banks, medical centers and municipal services, the state news agency IRNA reported.
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>>> Israel Conducts Strikes in Iran in Major Escalation
Bloomberg
by Patrick Sykes and Marissa Newman
June 12, 2025
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/israel-conducts-strikes-iran-major-002304149.html
(Bloomberg) -- Israel launched airstrikes on Iran, in a major escalation in the standoff over Tehran’s atomic program that risks sparking a new war in the Middle East.
Explosions were heard in Tehran, according to local media. Iran had previously vowed to respond to any attack.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement he’s declaring a special state of emergency due to Israel’s “preemptive strike against Iran.” Israel is anticipating a retaliatory drone and missile attack, Katz said in a statement.
The attack came amid renewed questions about diplomatic efforts to resolve tensions over Iran’s atomic work. US and Iranian negotiators are scheduled to hold a sixth round of talks in Oman on Sunday, but President Donald Trump said this week he’s less confident about the chances of a deal.
Oil surged following reports of the strike. Brent rose as much as 5.7%, jumping above $73 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate also rallied.
Israel is already involved in a major military operation in Gaza where it’s been bombarding and blockading the civilian population for the past 20 months as it tries to destroy Hamas following the group’s deadly attack on the Jewish state on Oct. 7, 2023.
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>>> US withdraws some diplomats and military families from Middle East amid Iran tensions
by Natasha Bertrand, Kylie Atwood and Michael Williams
CNN
6-11-25
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us-withdraws-some-diplomats-and-military-families-from-middle-east-amid-iran-tensions/ar-AA1Gx8RH?cvid=fe6975ad53a94864b0998bfa8b615db0&ei=14
The US State and Defense departments on Wednesday made efforts to arrange the departure of non-essential personnel from locations around the Middle East, according to US officials and sources familiar with the efforts.
It’s not clear what is causing the sudden change in posture, but a defense official said US Central Command is monitoring “developing tension in the Middle East.”
“They are being moved out because it could be a dangerous place, and we’ll see what happens. But they have been or we’ve given notice to move out, and we’ll see what happens,” President Donald Trump told reporters Wednesday upon arriving at a Kennedy Center event.
While the reasons for the heightened security concerns in the region are not clear, the planned departures come as tensions involving Iran and Israel have recently escalated as the Trump administration continues to pursue a new nuclear deal with Iran.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has authorized the voluntary departure of military dependents from locations across the Middle East, according to the official.
“The safety and security of our service members and their families remains our highest priority and U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) is monitoring the developing tension in the Middle East,” the official said. Gen. Michael Kurilla, the CENTCOM commander, postponed testimony he was due to give in front of a Senate committee on Thursday due to the tensions, a defense official said.
The State Department is also preparing to order the departure of non-essential personnel from the US embassies in Iraq, Bahrain and Kuwait due to increased security risks in the region, according to a separate US official and another source familiar with the matter.
A departure of non-essential personnel will also be ordered for the US consulate in Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan, the sources said. An Iraqi government official said the personnel movements had nothing to do with the security posture in his country.
“President Trump is committed to keeping Americans safe, both at home and abroad. In keeping with that commitment, we are constantly assessing the appropriate personnel posture at all our embassies. Based on our latest analysis, we decided to reduce the footprint of our Mission in Iraq,” a State Department official said when asked about the change in posture.
?Later on Wednesday the department updated its travel advisory to add that the departure of non-emergency US government personnel “due to heightened regional tensions” had been ordered.
Trump has said he’s grown less confident in being able to strike a deal with Iran curbing the country’s nuclear ambitions, saying in a new interview that Tehran could be “delaying” striking an agreement.
“I’m getting more and more less confident about it. They seem to be delaying, and I think that’s a shame, but I’m less confident now than I would have been a couple of months ago,” Trump said in an interview with a New York Post podcast that was released earlier on Wednesday.
“Something happened to them, but I am much less confident of a deal being made,” he went on, saying it was his “instincts” telling him a deal was moving further from reach.
CNN also reported Wednesday that Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop talk of an attack on Iran, according to a source familiar with the conversation.
The two leaders spoke on the phone on Monday. Trump later said the call went “very well, very smooth.”
Last month, CNN reported the US had obtained new intelligence suggesting that Israel was making preparations to strike Iranian nuclear facilities, according to multiple US officials familiar with the latest intelligence. Two intelligence sources said the US had observed indications of Israeli military posturing, including the movement of air munitions and the completion of an air exercise.
Though officials cautioned it’s not clear that Israeli leaders had made a final decision and said there was deep disagreement within the US government about the likelihood that Israel will ultimately act.
Iran’s defense minister warned Wednesday that if the nuclear talks with the US fail and conflict breaks out, the US would be “forced to leave the region.”
Brigadier General Aziz Nasirzadeh said that in such a scenario “the adversary will certainly suffer heavier casualties,” though he did not specify whether the “adversary” was the US, Israel or both.
In his comments published by Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency, the defense minister said some officials from the opposing side had “made threatening remarks, warning of potential conflict in case no agreement is reached” in the US-Iran talks.
“In that case, the US will have no choice but to leave the region, as all of its bases are within the reach of Iranian military and they will not hesitate to target all of them in their host countries,” Nasirzadeh said.
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>>> Rift between Israel and France
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapons_and_Israel
When Charles de Gaulle became French President in late 1958 he wanted to end French–Israeli nuclear cooperation and said that he would not supply Israel with uranium unless the plant was opened to international inspectors, declared peaceful, and no plutonium was reprocessed.[56] Through an extended series of negotiations, Shimon Peres finally reached a compromise with Foreign Minister Maurice Couve de Murville over two years later, in which French companies would be able to continue to fulfill their contract obligations and Israel would declare the project peaceful.[57] Due to this, French assistance did not end until 1966.[58] However, the supply of uranium fuel was stopped earlier, in 1963.[59] Despite this, a French uranium company based in Gabon may have sold Israel uranium in 1965. The US government launched an investigation but was unable to determine if such a sale had taken place.[60]
1963 standoff between Israel and United States
Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported in 2019 that, throughout the spring and summer of 1963, the leaders of the United States and Israel – President John F. Kennedy and prime ministers David Ben-Gurion and Levi Eshkol – were engaged in a high-stakes battle of wills over Israel's nuclear program. The tensions were invisible to the publics of both countries, and only a few senior officials, on both sides, were aware of the severity of the situation. According to Yuval Ne'eman, Eshkol, Ben-Gurion's successor, and his associates saw Kennedy as presenting Israel with a real ultimatum. According to Ne'eman, the former Israel Air Force commander Maj. Gen. (res.) Dan Tolkowsky, seriously entertained the fear that Kennedy might send U.S. airborne troops to Dimona, the home of Israel's nuclear complex.[61]
On March 25, 1963, President Kennedy and CIA Director John A. McCone discussed the Israeli nuclear program. According to McCone, Kennedy raised the "question of Israel acquiring nuclear capability," and McCone provided Kennedy with Kent's estimate of the anticipated negative consequences of Israeli nuclearization. According to McCone, Kennedy then instructed National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy to guide Secretary of State Dean Rusk, in collaboration with the CIA director and the AEC chairman, to submit a proposal "as to how some form of international or bilateral U.S. safeguards could be instituted to protect against the contingency mentioned." That also meant that the "next informal inspection of the Israeli reactor complex [must] …be undertaken promptly and... be as thorough as possible."[61]
On April 2, 1963, Ambassador Barbour met Prime Minister Ben-Gurion and presented the American request for his "assent to semi-annual visits to Dimona perhaps in May and November, with full access to all parts and instruments in the facility, by qualified U.S. scientists." Ben-Gurion, apparently taken by surprise, responded by saying the issue would have to be postponed until after Passover, which that year ended on April 15. To highlight the point further, two days later, Assistant Secretary Talbot summoned Israeli Ambassador Harman to the State Department and presented him with a diplomatic démarche on the inspections. This message to Ben-Gurion was the first salvo in what would become "the toughest American-Israeli confrontation over the Israeli nuclear program".[61]
On April 26, 1963, more than three weeks after the original U.S. demand concerning Dimona, Ben-Gurion responded to Kennedy with a seven-page letter that focused on broad issues of Israeli security and regional stability. Claiming that Israel faced an unprecedented threat, Ben-Gurion invoked the specter of "another Holocaust," and insisted that Israel's security should be protected by joint external security guarantees, to be extended by the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Kennedy, however, was determined not to let Ben-Gurion change the subject. On May 4, 1963, he replied to the prime minister, assuring him that while "we are watching closely current developments in the Arab world," as to Ben-Gurion's proposal for a joint superpower declaration, Kennedy dismissed both its practicality and its political wisdom. Kennedy was much less worried about an "early Arab attack" than he was by "a successful development of advanced offensive systems which, as you say, could not be dealt with by presently available means."[61]
Kennedy would not budge on Dimona, and the disagreements became a "pain in the neck" for him, as Robert Komer later wrote. The confrontation with Israel escalated when the State Department transmitted Kennedy's latest letter to the Tel Aviv embassy on June 15 for immediate delivery to Ben-Gurion by Ambassador Barbour. In the letter Kennedy fleshed out his insistence on biannual visits with a set of detailed technical conditions. The letter was akin to an ultimatum: If the U.S. government could not obtain "reliable information" on the state of the Dimona project, Washington's "commitment to and support of Israel" could be "seriously jeopardized." But the letter was never presented to Ben-Gurion. The telegram with Kennedy's letter arrived in Tel Aviv on Saturday, June 15, the day before Ben-Gurion's announcement of his resignation, a decision that stunned his country and the world. Ben-Gurion never explained, in writing or orally, what led him to resign, beyond citing "personal reasons." He denied that his move was related to any specific policy issues, but the question of the extent to which Kennedy's Dimona pressure played a role remains open to discussion to the present day.[61]
On July 5, less than 10 days after Levi Eshkol succeeded Ben-Gurion as prime minister, Ambassador Barbour delivered to him a first letter from President Kennedy. The letter was virtually a copy of the undelivered letter of June 15 to Ben-Gurion.[62] As Yuval Ne'eman stated, it was immediately apparent to Eshkol and his advisers that Kennedy's demands were akin to an ultimatum, and thus constituted a crisis in the making. A stunned Eshkol, in his first and interim response, on July 17, requested more time to study the subject and for consultations. The premier noted that while he hoped that U.S-Israeli friendship would grow under his watch, "Israel would do what it had to do for its national security and to safeguard its sovereign rights." Barbour, apparently wanting to mitigate the bluntness of the letter, assured Eshkol that Kennedy's statement was "factual": Critics of strong U.S.-Israel relations might complicate the diplomatic relationship if Dimona was left uninspected.[61]
On August 19, after six weeks of consultations that generated at least eight different drafts, Eshkol handed Barbour his written reply to Kennedy's demands. It began by reiterating Ben-Gurion's past assurances that Dimona's purpose was peaceful. As to Kennedy's request, Eshkol wrote that given the special relationship between the two countries, he had decided to allow regular visits of U.S. representatives to the Dimona site. On the specific issue of the schedule, Eshkol suggested – as Ben-Gurion had in his last letter to Kennedy – that late 1963 would be the time for the first visit: By then, he wrote, "the French group will have handed the reactor over to us and it will be undertaking general tests and measurements of its physical parameters at zero power."[61]
Eshkol was vague on the proposed frequency of visits. Eshkol disregarded Kennedy's demand for biannual tours, while avoiding a frontal challenge to Kennedy's request. "Having considered this request, I believe we shall be able to reach agreement on the future schedule of visits," Eshkol wrote. In sum, the prime minister split the difference: To end the confrontation, he assented to "regular visits" by U.S. scientists, but he did not accept the idea of the prompt visit that Kennedy wanted and avoided making an explicit commitment to biannual inspections. Kennedy's appreciative reply did not mention these divergences but assumed a basic agreement on "regular visits."[61]
In the wake of Eshkol's letter, the first of the long-sought regular inspection visits to Dimona took place in mid-January 1964, two months after Kennedy's assassination. The Israelis told the American visitors that the reactor had gone critical only a few weeks earlier, but that claim was not accurate. Israel acknowledged years later that the Dimona reactor became operational in mid-1963, as the Kennedy administration had originally assumed.[61]
It turned out that Kennedy's insistence on biannual visits to Dimona was not implemented after his death. U.S. government officials remained interested in such a schedule, and President Lyndon B. Johnson did raise the issue with Eshkol, but he never pressed hard on the subject the way that Kennedy had.[61]
In the end, the confrontation between President Kennedy and two Israeli prime ministers resulted in a series of six American inspections of the Dimona nuclear complex, once a year between 1964 and 1969. They were never conducted under the strict conditions Kennedy laid out in his letters. While Kennedy's successor remained committed to the cause of nuclear nonproliferation and supported American inspection visits at Dimona, he was much less concerned about holding the Israelis to Kennedy's terms. In retrospect, this change of attitude may have saved the Israeli nuclear program.[61]
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How the Ukrainian drone attack happened -
>>> US, Europe lift ‘range restrictions’ on Ukraine missiles: Why it matters
By Usaid Siddiqui
27 May 2025
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/27/us-europe-lift-range-restrictions-on-ukraine-missiles-why-it-matters
German Chancellor Merz confirms Kyiv can now target Russian military positions with long-range weapons from Western allies.
Germany’s newly elected chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has announced that Ukraine’s Western allies are lifting range restrictions on the weapons they have been supplying to Kyiv.
Speaking at a local political event in Berlin on Monday, Merz said the policy shift applies to weapons provided by countries including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the United States.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded, saying any such decision runs “absolutely contrary” to any future peace settlement with Kyiv.
Merz’s announcement comes amid an escalation in Russian attacks across Ukraine and criticism from US President Donald Trump, who described Russian President Vladimir Putin as “crazy” on Sunday.
So the question is, how might this decision influence future ceasefire negotiations between Russia and Ukraine?
What exactly did Merz say?
Speaking at a forum organised by public broadcaster WDR, the German chancellor said there were “no longer any range restrictions for weapons that have been delivered to Ukraine – neither by the British, nor by the French, nor by us, and not by the Americans either”.
“That means Ukraine can also defend itself by, for example, attacking military positions in Russia,” Merz said. “Until a while ago, it couldn’t … It can now.”
“We call this ‘long-range fire’ in jargon, also supplying Ukraine with weapons that attack military targets in the hinterland,” he added.
However, it was not immediately clear whether Merz was referencing the relaxation of restrictions on longer-range weapons in November 2024, when the US allowed Ukraine to use long-range missiles, such as the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, to conduct strikes inside Russian territory.
Following the US approval, Russian authorities said on November 19 that Ukraine had attacked a “facility” in the border region of Bryansk with six ATACMS ballistic missiles, which have a range of 300km (190 miles).
A day later, Ukraine also fired long-range UK-made Storm Shadow missiles into Russia, according to Russia’s Ministry of Defence. The Storm Shadow missile can hit targets up to 250km (155 miles) away.
What are the range restrictions?
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has consistently urged his Western allies to remove limits on the use of long-range weaponry such as the ATACMS they provide to Ukraine.
According to Zelenskyy, granting Kyiv this capability would enable Ukrainian forces to hit targets such as ammunition storage sites, airfields, and command centres far inside Russia.
However, Western allies have until now remained cautious, worried that Ukrainian strikes deep inside Russia could risk widening the conflict beyond Ukraine’s borders.
Germany, the second-largest provider of military aid to Ukraine after the US, had long resisted sending Taurus long-range cruise missiles.
Former Chancellor Olaf Scholz had outright rejected their delivery to Kyiv, despite calls from Merz to do so while he was in opposition.
The low-flying cruise missile has a range of 500km (310 miles) and is suitable for hitting buried or protected targets. The air-launched projectile would be the strongest Western missile to be used by Ukraine if Germany decides to supply Ukraine with missiles.
On Monday, Merz did not say if his announcement meant Berlin would deliver the cruise missiles to the Ukrainian army.
How has Russia responded?
Kremlin spokesman Peskov on Monday said any such decision to allow Ukraine to have long-range missile capabilities would be a dangerous move.
“These potential decisions, if such decisions have indeed been made, run absolutely contrary to our aspirations for reaching a political settlement,” Peskov said.
In September last year, President Putin had warned that if Ukraine’s Western allies allow it to use long-range weapons to strike inside Russia, it would mean NATO would be “at war” with Moscow.
“This would in a significant way change the very nature of the conflict. It would mean that NATO countries, the US, European countries are at war with Russia,” Putin had said.
How will Merz’s comments shape the war?
According to Timothy Ash, an associate fellow in the Russia and Eurasia programme at Chatham House, Merz’s announcement was a “response to Russian foot-dragging”.
“The Europeans hope it will put pressure on Russia to take negotiations seriously,” he told Al Jazeera.
Ash added that the move reflected a “significant change in approach” from the German chancellor. “He is much more hawkish on Russia than Scholz,” he said.
“The two sides are still far in terms of the peace process. Both are ready for the long war – this will just help tilt the odds a little in favour of Ukraine,” he added.
Ukraine’s air force on Sunday said Russia carried out its largest air attack of the three-year-old war overnight, launching a record 298 drones along with 69 missiles. At least 12 people were killed in the attack.
How has Trump reacted to the latest Russian onslaught?
The US president has grown increasingly frustrated with Putin, as his administration’s efforts to end the war have failed to yield any results so far. He failed to secure a Ukraine ceasefire after speaking to Putin for two hours last week.
“I’m not happy with what Putin’s doing. He’s killing a lot of people. And I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin,” Trump told reporters on Sunday.
“I’ve known him [Putin] a long time, always gotten along with him, but he’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all,” adding that he was considering more sanctions on Moscow.
Trump had pledged to bring the war to a swift conclusion during his presidential election campaign trail, but five months after returning to power, he has still not been able to bring the two sides to agree on a ceasefire.
Ukraine wants an unconditional ceasefire, while Putin says “the root causes of this crisis” need to be addressed for any agreement. Moscow wants Kyiv not to be granted entry into NATO and its forces to withdraw from Ukrainian regions partially occupied by Russian troops. Kyiv has rejected those demands.
Trump had been critical of his predecessor, Joe Biden, for supplying weapons to Ukraine worth billions of dollars. He has asked his NATO allies to step up and provide a security guarantee to Ukraine. The European Union nations have since boosted their defence budgets and cobbled together a “coalition of the willing” to help draw up a peace plan for Ukraine.
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$ZENA News: ZenaTech Provides Quantum Computing Update on ‘Clear Sky' Weather Forecasting Project-AI Drone Swarms to Combat Steep Rise in Billion Dollar Extreme Weather Events
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 27, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ZenaTech, Inc. (Nasdaq: ZENA) (FSE: 49Q) (BMV: ZENA) ("ZenaTech"), a technology company specializing in AI (Artificial Intelligence) drones, Drone as a Service (DaaS), Enterprise SaaS, and Quantum Computing solutions, today provides an update on its “Clear Sky” project, an R&D initiative soon to be released in a beta application version, that uses multiple AI drones in a drone swarm, and quantum computing for weather forecasting. The goal is to better predict localized weather including extreme weather events for business and government users, saving lives and billions of dollars.
In the coming months, ZenaTech plans to expand its quantum computing project team to 20 by adding at least ten additional specialized engineers. This will accelerate the development and upcoming beta release of Clear Sky in addition to furthering other internal quantum computing projects currently underway.
“Last year, there were 58 separate billion-dollar weather disasters globally, the second highest on record, which includes 27 in the US. Through the Clear Sky project, we will use AI-powered drone swarms and quantum computing to better predict these disasters and fill the critical atmospheric observation gaps of traditional weather data collection and satellite methods,” said CEO of ZenaTech Shaun Passley, Ph.D. “Drones with sensors flying at high altitudes can collect data in real time enabling greater spatial and temporal resolution resulting in more precise, up-to-the-minute weather insights to better anticipate the onset of extreme weather like tornadoes.”
AI-powered drone swarms are an emerging tool in meteorology, offering a transformative approach to weather forecasting by collecting real-time atmospheric data with unprecedented precision and spatial coverage. These multiple autonomous drones coordinate their movements using AI algorithms to sample different layers of the atmosphere simultaneously. Equipped with advanced sensors, they measure key variables such as temperature, humidity, wind speed, and pressure in hard-to-reach or dangerous areas like storm systems or remote regions. The data collected is transmitted in real time to forecasting models, improving the resolution and accuracy of predictions, especially for fast-evolving thunderstorms or tornadoes. By providing high-frequency, localized measurements, AI drone swarms significantly enhance the ability to detect early warning signs and refine short-term and local mesoscale forecasts.
Quantum computing is an emergent field of cutting-edge computer science harnessing the unique qualities of quantum mechanics to solve problems beyond the ability of even the most powerful classical computers of today, to process massively complicated mathematical problems and data at orders of magnitude faster speeds. Quantum computers can analyze vast and complex drone data much faster and more accurately, improving weather predictions and enhancing the ability to forecast extreme events.
There has been a steep rise in the number of billion-dollar weather disasters in recent years. In 2024, extreme weather events—including hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and severe storms—inflicted approximately $417 billion in losses globally according to Gallagher Re’s Natural Catastrophe and Climate Report.
About ZenaTech
ZenaTech (Nasdaq: ZENA) (FSE: 49Q) (BMV: ZENA) is a technology company specializing in AI drone, Drone as a Service (DaaS), enterprise SaaS and Quantum Computing solutions for mission-critical business applications. Since 2017, the Company has leveraged its software development expertise and grown its drone design and manufacturing capabilities through ZenaDrone, to innovate and improve customer inspection, monitoring, safety, security, compliance, and surveying processes. With enterprise software customers using branded solutions in law enforcement, health, government, and industrial sectors, and drones being implemented in these plus agriculture, defense, and logistics sectors, ZenaTech’s portfolio of solutions helps drive exceptional operational efficiencies, accuracy, and cost savings. The Company operates through seven global offices in North America, Europe, Taiwan, and UAE, and is growing a DaaS business model and global partner network.
About ZenaDrone
ZenaDrone, a wholly owned subsidiary of ZenaTech, develops and manufactures autonomous business drone solutions that can incorporate machine learning software, AI, predictive modeling, Quantum Computing, and other software and hardware innovations. Created to revolutionize the hemp farming sector, its specialization has grown to multifunctional drone solutions for industrial surveillance, monitoring, inspection, tracking, process automation and defense applications. Currently, the ZenaDrone 1000 drone is used for crop management applications in agriculture and critical field cargo applications in the defense sector, the IQ Nano indoor drone is used for inventory management and security in the warehouse and logistics sectors, and the IQ Square is an indoor/outdoor drone designed for land survey and inspections use in commercial and defense sectors.
Contacts for more information:
Company, Investors, and Media:
Linda Montgomery
ZenaTech
312-241-1415
investors@zenatech.com
Investors:
Michael Mason
CORE IR
investors@zenatech.com
Safe Harbor
This press release and related comments by management of ZenaTech, Inc. include “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of U.S. federal securities laws and applicable Canadian securities laws. These forward-looking statements are subject to the safe harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. This forward-looking information relates to future events or future performance of ZenaTech and reflects management’s expectations and projections regarding ZenaTech’s growth, results of operations, performance, and business prospects and opportunities. Such forward-looking statements reflect management’s current beliefs and are based on information currently available to management. In some cases, forward-looking information can be identified by terminology such as “may”, “will”, “should”, “expect”, “plan”, “anticipate”, “aim”, “seek”, “is/are likely to”, “believe”, “estimate”, “predict”, “potential”, “continue” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking information in this document includes, but is not limited to ZenaTech’s expectations regarding its revenue, expenses, production, operations, costs, cash flows, and future growth; expectations with respect to future production costs and capacity; ZenaTech's ability to deliver products to the market as currently contemplated, including its drone products including ZenaDrone 1000 and IQ Nano; ZenaTech’s anticipated cash needs and it’s needs for additional financing; ZenaTech’s intention to grow the business and its operations and execution risk; expectations with respect to future operations and costs; the volatility of stock prices and market conditions in the industries in which ZenaTech operates; political, economic, environmental, tax, security, and other risks associated with operating in emerging markets; regulatory risks; unfavorable publicity or consumer perception; difficulty in forecasting industry trends; the ability to hire key personnel; the competitive conditions of the industry and the competitive and business strategies of ZenaTech; ZenaTech’s expected business objectives for the next twelve months; ZenaTech’s ability to obtain additional funds through the sale of equity or debt commitments; investment capital and market share; the ability to complete any contemplated acquisitions; changes in the target markets; market uncertainty; ability to access additional capital, including through the listing of its securities in various jurisdictions; management of growth (plans and timing for expansion); patent infringement; litigation; applicable laws, regulations, and any amendments affecting the business of ZenaTech.
https://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/ti?nf=OTQ1ODIwMiM2OTYwOTgzIzIyODYwNDc=
https://ml.globenewswire.com/media/MTk5MzgzYjEtMGU2Yy00MThjLWJiNDctYjcyZDViY2FhMzA4LTEyOTc1OTctMjAyNS0wNS0yNy1lbg==/tiny/ZenaTech-Inc-.png
Source: ZenaTech Inc.
>>> On the Brink: India vs. Pakistan
By James Rickards
May 22, 2025
https://dailyreckoning.com/on-the-brink-india-vs-pakistan/
On the Brink: India vs. Pakistan
Are we on the brink of an existential war between two nuclear-armed powers? I don’t refer to the U.S. and China over Taiwan nor the U.S. and Russia over Ukraine. I’m referring to India and Pakistan. That’s the most dangerous corner of the world today. And the answer to the existential question is yes.
The immediate cause of the new war between India and Pakistan involving the disputed regions of Jammu and Kashmir has been widely reported. The initial event was a terrorist attack on April 22 that killed 26 Indians, mostly tourists in Pahalgam located in Kashmir. Indian intelligence determined that the terrorists were based in Pakistan and supported by the Pakistani intelligence service (ISI). The Indian response was a combined drone, fighter jet, and missile attack on terrorist bases in Pakistan.
I have visited both India and Pakistan many times, including a two-week visit to India this past February. My trips to Pakistan have included Lahore, which is not far from the disputed regions. This gives me a good feel for the cultures and politics of the two adversaries. Most observers treat these places from a more remote perspective.
The Relationship: It’s Complicated
Context is critical in understanding the dangers of the current conflict. It’s true that India and Pakistan are countries today, but that’s a relatively recent development. Independence only occurred in 1947. For millennia, India did not exist as a country. It was a subcontinent ruled by a succession of emperors, kings, warring sects and colonial invaders.
India was ruled by the Mauryan Empire in the third century BC, including its two most powerful emperors, Chandragupta (c.297 BC) and Ashoka (c.260 BC). The Tughlaq Dynasty (c.1335 AD) ruled most of present-day India, not including a large area along the Bay of Bengal.
The Mughal Empire (1526-1858), including Akbar and Shah Jahan (builder of the Taj Mahal), ruled northern India but had limited control of the Deccan, a large plateau in the south-central region. Even the British Empire in India (1757-1947) did not rule the entire subcontinent but relied on “princely states” ruled by local maharajas to hold sway. The point is that India was never a country until 1947 and Pakistan was a political creation hived off from India at the same time.
The result was a lot of unfinished business in the form of uncertain borders and disputed regions. The most prominent examples of this are the provinces of Jammu and Kashmir in the north, adjacent to the Hindu Kush and Karakoram Mountain ranges that separate them from China and Afghanistan. Both India and Pakistan claim sovereignty. Each disputes the other’s claim. The status of Jammu and Kashmir is complicated by the fact that it was a princely state until 1953 and there remains a strong movement for autonomy and independence to this day.
An even broader context reveals that the current dispute is just the latest in a long line that goes back to independence in 1947. The first Indo-Pakistan War occurred in 1947-1948 and involved the status of Kashmir and an effort to force the Maharaja to choose India’s side in the dispute. The Indo-Pakistan War of 1965 also involved Kashmir. Other Indo-Pakistan wars were fought over Kashmir in 1999 (the first involving both rivals armed with nuclear weapons), and from 1984-2003. The current war is the latest in a long line, but the most dangerous yet for reasons described below.
A Shorter Path to Nuclear War
One of the most perilous and uncertain aspects of this latest Indo-Pakistan war is the extent to which new weapons and tactics are being used. Drones, satellite surveillance, artificial intelligence, high-speed surface-to-surface missiles (some of which are nuclear-capable) and advanced fighter jets have all been deployed in the past few weeks. None of these systems were widely used or even available during the last conflict over the Siachen glacier in Kashmir, which was resolved by a ceasefire in 2003.
Since the use of these advanced systems is new in Indo-Pakistan conflicts, the consequences of their use and the escalatory dynamics are new as well. It is reasonable to say that escalation happens faster when more advanced systems are deployed because of the need to respond in kind or deploy advanced defenses, which means the path to nuclear war is shorter than it has ever been.
Another risk factor that increases the danger of nuclear war is that strikes are taking place deep inside Pakistan itself. In the past, disputes about Kashmir were often confined to Kashmir itself. (A major conflict, the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 did not involve Kashmir because it was a war of independence in Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan. That war was fought mainly in Bangladesh but India intervened on behalf of the Bangladeshis because over 10 million refugees from there had taken refuge in India). In the current situation, India attacked Pakistani air bases in Rawalpindi, close to Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad. Pakistan has also attacked Indian air bases far from Kashmir.
This combination of advanced weaponry, technology and attacks outside Kashmir push both sides to a wider war despite the local origin of the terrorist attack that triggered the conflict.
Dangerous Water Wars
Nuclear war is not the only path of escalation. The other basis for escalation is water. India and Pakistan rely on major river systems that have their origins in the glaciers and tributaries of the Hindu Kush, Karakoram and Himalayan Mountain ranges.
The Indus River begins near Nanda Parbat on the western edge of the Himalayas and flows mainly through Pakistan before ending in the Arabian Sea near Karachi. It provides over 80% of Pakistan’s water for irrigation and over 30% of Pakistan’s hydroelectric power. But it begins in India and flows through Kashmir. For now, India has suspended a treaty with Pakistan that governs water usage and sharing. This leaves India free to build new hydroelectric projects that will deplete Pakistan’s water supply in the future.
India is not immune from water blackmail. India itself relies on the Brahmaputra River for much of its water. The Brahmaputra had its source in a tributary controlled by China, which is a close ally of Pakistan. If India cuts off Pakistan’s water, China can assist Pakistan by cutting off India’s water in part. All of the upstream powers need more water themselves, given the need for hydroelectric power in growing economies. Water wars are not unknown and can quickly turn to shooting wars. Of course, China is also a nuclear power.
A Shaky Ceasefire
One ray of hope was that India and Pakistan announced a ceasefire on May 10th. Trump claimed credit for bringing the two sides together, but India denied that any intervention by the White House was involved. It may be the case that Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio did play a constructive role but India felt it had to downplay that involvement because of its own nationalist posture and the desire to appear to have the upper hand in the conflict, something India calls escalatory dominance. In fact, the Indian economy is ten times the size of Pakistan’s and its population is close to six times greater.
Unfortunately, India accused Pakistan of violating the ceasefire within hours of its announcement. The situation along the line of contact in Kashmir remains unstable as of this writing.
If this latest conflict escalates to the brink of nuclear war or a nuclear attack actually takes place, it’s not inconceivable that the U.S. (or perhaps a joint U.S.- Russia mission) would attack and destroy both the Pakistani and Indian nuclear weapons system in a way that did not set off a nuclear explosion (radiation leakage may be an unavoidable byproduct of such a raid but it would be localized).
The purpose would not be to choose sides in the conflict. The purpose would be to eliminate an existential threat to the human race. A game theoretic approach might call for this outcome to be communicated to India and Pakistan in advance to avoid escalation in the first place.
With trade and tariff wars in full swing, the last thing the world needs is a shooting war between two nuclear-armed powers. Still, that’s where we are. The best hope is that a ceasefire will hold and steps can be taken to mitigate terrorist attacks, if not the entire Kashmiri territorial dispute. But Pakistan’s politics are perennially unstable and India’s ruling party has staked out a nationalist pro-Hindu platform. Those realities make compromise more difficult.
While Trump is trying to unwind conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East and avoid new ones, this may be one conflict where U.S. mediation and leverage are required. Meanwhile, investors would be prudent if they reduced their exposure to risky assets like stocks and increased their allocations to safer assets including Treasury notes, cash and gold.
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$ZENA: ZenaTech Advances Its US Southeast DaaS Business with a Bolt-On Land Survey Company Acquisition Offer
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 20, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ZenaTech, Inc. (Nasdaq: ZENA) (FSE: 49Q) (BMV: ZENA) ("ZenaTech"), a technology company specializing in AI (Artificial Intelligence) drones, Drone as a Service (DaaS), enterprise SaaS, and Quantum Computing solutions, today announced it has extended an offer to acquire a well-established Florida land survey engineering firm that could serve as a bolt-on to another recently acquired land survey company. The acquisition would strengthen ZenaTech’s Drone as a Service presence in the high-growth Florida market and would be the fourth acquisition in the Southeast region and the fifth acquisition nationally.
“This target acquisition will strengthen our regional Florida coverage by delivering faster and more precise drone-powered surveys to construction, real estate and government customers, while accelerating our broader US DaaS rollout,“ said Shaun Passley, Ph.D., CEO of ZenaTech. “With the global drone survey market growing at over 19% a year, we plan to leverage this growth by building a scalable, recurring revenue business that captures long-term value across land surveys and other legacy industries ripe for drone innovation.”
Accurate land surveys are essential for the planning, design, and execution of roads, bridges, and building projects for cities, commercial, and residential projects, and are required for legal purposes. Remotely piloted drones with an array of sensors and cameras, LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), and GPS systems for capturing high-resolution pictures and data are revolutionizing the land survey industry, gathering aerial data across expansive terrains in a matter of hours instead of weeks or months using more traditional photogrammetry methods.
The Drone as a Service or DaaS business model works similarly to Software as a Service (SaaS), but instead of providing software over the internet, this model offers drone technology solutions and services on a subscription or pay-per-use basis. Both business and government customers can conveniently access drones for tasks such as surveying, inspections, security, law enforcement, power washing or precision agriculture solutions without having to buy, operate, or maintain the drones themselves.
ZenaTech’s DaaS model offers customers, including government agencies, builders and developers, construction firms, and farmers, reduced upfront costs as there is no need to purchase expensive drone hardware and software, and convenience as the company manages drone pilots, regulatory certifications, maintenance, and operations. DaaS also offers scalability to companies to use more often or less often based on their needs and enables access to advanced drone technology and applications.
About ZenaTech
ZenaTech (Nasdaq: ZENA) (FSE: 49Q) (BMV: ZENA) is a technology company specializing in AI drone, Drone as a Service (DaaS), enterprise SaaS and Quantum Computing solutions for mission-critical business applications. Since 2017, the Company has leveraged its software development expertise and grown its drone design and manufacturing capabilities through ZenaDrone, to innovate and improve customer inspection, monitoring, safety, security, compliance, and surveying processes. With enterprise software customers using branded solutions in law enforcement, health, government, and industrial sectors, and drones being implemented in these plus agriculture, defense, and logistics sectors, ZenaTech’s portfolio of solutions helps drive exceptional operational efficiencies, accuracy, and cost savings. The Company operates through seven global offices in North America, Europe, Taiwan, and UAE, and is growing a DaaS business model and global partner network.
About ZenaDrone
ZenaDrone, a wholly owned subsidiary of ZenaTech, develops and manufactures autonomous business drone solutions that can incorporate machine learning software, AI, predictive modeling, Quantum Computing, and other software and hardware innovations. Created to revolutionize the hemp farming sector, its specialization has grown to multifunctional drone solutions for industrial surveillance, monitoring, inspection, tracking, process automation and defense applications. Currently, the ZenaDrone 1000 drone is used for crop management applications in agriculture and critical field cargo applications in the defense sector, the IQ Nano indoor drone is used for inventory management and security in the warehouse and logistics sectors, and the IQ Square is an indoor/outdoor drone designed for land survey and inspections use in commercial and defense sectors.
Contacts for more information:
Company, Investors and Media:
Linda Montgomery
ZenaTech
312-241-1415
investors@zenatech.com
Investors:
Michael Mason
CORE IR
investors@zenatech.com
Safe Harbor
This press release and related comments by management of ZenaTech, Inc. include “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of U.S. federal securities laws and applicable Canadian securities laws. These forward-looking statements are subject to the safe harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. This forward-looking information relates to future events or future performance of ZenaTech and reflects management’s expectations and projections regarding ZenaTech’s growth, results of operations, performance, and business prospects and opportunities. Such forward-looking statements reflect management’s current beliefs and are based on information currently available to management. In some cases, forward-looking information can be identified by terminology such as “may”, “will”, “should”, “expect”, “plan”, “anticipate”, “aim”, “seek”, “is/are likely to”, “believe”, “estimate”, “predict”, “potential”, “continue” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking information in this document includes, but is not limited to ZenaTech’s expectations regarding its revenue, expenses, production, operations, costs, cash flows, and future growth; expectations with respect to future production costs and capacity; ZenaTech's ability to deliver products to the market as currently contemplated, including its drone products including ZenaDrone 1000 and IQ Nano; ZenaTech’s anticipated cash needs and it’s needs for additional financing; ZenaTech’s intention to grow the business and its operations and execution risk; expectations with respect to future operations and costs; the volatility of stock prices and market conditions in the industries in which ZenaTech operates; political, economic, environmental, tax, security, and other risks associated with operating in emerging markets; regulatory risks; unfavorable publicity or consumer perception; difficulty in forecasting industry trends; the ability to hire key personnel; the competitive conditions of the industry and the competitive and business strategies of ZenaTech; ZenaTech’s expected business objectives for the next twelve months; ZenaTech’s ability to obtain additional funds through the sale of equity or debt commitments; investment capital and market share; the ability to complete any contemplated acquisitions; changes in the target markets; market uncertainty; ability to access additional capital, including through the listing of its securities in various jurisdictions; management of growth (plans and timing for expansion); patent infringement; litigation; applicable laws, regulations, and any amendments affecting the business of ZenaTech.
https://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/ti?nf=OTQ1NDYyNyM2OTUwNjUzIzIyODYwNDc=
https://ml.globenewswire.com/media/ZDI0YWU0OWItMDRiZS00MTZkLWI4MjktZWFjNzc5MzI2ODgyLTEyOTc1OTctMjAyNS0wNS0yMC1lbg==/tiny/ZenaTech-Inc-.png
Source: ZenaTech Inc.
$ZENA: ZenaTech's Founder and CEO, Shaun Passley, was featured in the @TorontoStar, Canada's largest newspaper, over the weekend. He shared his entrepreneurial story, insights on the future of the rapidly evolving drone industry, and ZenaDrone's line-up of AI drone solutions including: "The compact IQ Nano, designed for warehouse surveillance, and the larger IQ Square, which is intended for land surveys. At the top of the range is the ZenaDrone 1000, specifically designed for commercial, industrial, and defense applications. This drone is ideal for law enforcement, search and rescue operations, medical transport, and particularly for fighting wildfires, all aimed at saving both time and money." Read the story here: https://torontostarreplica.pressreader.com/article/281758455194051… $ZENA $49Q #AIDrones #DroneTechnology #AI #Drones #TechInnovation #FutureofTechnology #SciFiTech #Innovation
ZenaTech's Founder and CEO, Shaun Passley, was featured in the @TorontoStar, Canada's largest newspaper, over the weekend. He shared his entrepreneurial story, insights on the future of the rapidly evolving drone industry, and ZenaDrone's line-up of AI drone solutions including:… pic.twitter.com/mYYTm9MaCt
— ZenaTech Inc. (@ZenatechInc) May 19, 2025
$ZENA: ZenaTech Reports Nearly Double Revenue Year-Over-Year for the First Quarter of 2025
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 15, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ZenaTech, Inc. (Nasdaq: ZENA) (FSE: 49Q) (BMV: ZENA) (“ZenaTech”), a technology company specializing in AI (Artificial Intelligence) drone, Drone as a Service (DaaS), enterprise SaaS and Quantum Computing solutions, announces financial results for the first quarter 2025.
First Quarter 2025 Highlights:
Total revenues for the first quarter of 2025 were $1.13 million, up 92% compared to $591,379 for the first quarter of 2024 primarily due to acquisitions and organic growth.
ZenaTech’s new Drone as a Service or DaaS segment grew from completing two acquisitions of land survey drone servicing companies - Oregon-based Weddle Surveying and Florida-based KJM Land Surveying. The Company also signed five LOIs (Letter of Intent) for additional acquisitions during the quarter.
The company acquired Othership, a UK workplace management software company supporting its enterprise SaaS software segment, where it plans to leverage workplace AI and quantum computing productivity solutions targeting business and government customers.
The company made investments in longer term growth and in new segment development that caused general and administrative expenses to increase to $5.75 million in Q1 2025 versus about $0.7 million in Q1 of 2024. This primarily consisted of sales and marketing activities, new hires, professional services, and finance expenses.
ZenaTech made investments in its subsidiary ZenaDrone’s UAE manufacturing capabilities during the quarter, including hiring 35 new engineers and technicians. Also announced was the opening of a drone testing facility in Turkey for beyond-the-line-of-sight drone testing.
Drone product highlights in Q1 include finalizing the third-generation design and “production model” of the ZenaDrone 1000 drone that will enable the start of scaling up of production. The company also announced the IQ Square drone has moved from prototype to manufacturing stage.
The commence of work on a heavy-lift gas-powered ZD 1000 model for longer fight times for US defense applications took place during the quarter. Testing also commenced on a new high-density drone battery and a proprietary communications system for this drone.
The company reported that ZenaDrone is preparing for Green UAS followed by Blue UAS certification required to sell to the US Military. Additionally, it is reviewing and putting in place cybersecurity practices, documentation, and internal controls necessary to apply for this certification.
ZenaTech further expanded its Taiwan drone component manufacturer - Spider Vision Sensors, adding additional engineering and business development staff. It also announced the first Blue UAS-certifiable drone sensors are under development.
“The first quarter of 2025 was a very strong and encouraging start to the year as revenue nearly doubled, up 92% primarily due to acquisitions and organic growth across both our software and drone segments,” said CEO Shaun Passley, Ph.D. “During the first quarter we launched our Drone as a Service or DaaS business segment with a vision to have a national footprint in the US and globally.”
“Although expenses increased during the first quarter, these are investments intended to grow the company over the long-term, namely in marketing, manufacturing, product development and testing capacity, which we believe will yield future rewards.
“We believe that this quarter’s performance demonstrates that our strategy to disrupt legacy businesses like land surveys via a DaaS business model is on track. Our momentum is strong, and we are well positioned to expand our range of drone services with a pipeline of over 20 acquisitions over the next 12 months,” concluded Dr. Passley.
Additional information is available from ZenaTech’s 6K filing on the SEC EDGAR website.
About ZenaTech
ZenaTech (Nasdaq: ZENA) (FSE: 49Q) (BMV: ZENA) is a technology company specializing in AI drone, Drone as a Service (DaaS), enterprise SaaS and Quantum Computing solutions for mission-critical business applications. Since 2017, the Company has leveraged its software development expertise and grown its drone design and manufacturing capabilities through ZenaDrone, to innovate and improve customer inspection, monitoring, safety, security, compliance, and surveying processes. With enterprise software customers using branded solutions in law enforcement, health, government, and industrial sectors, and drones being implemented in these plus agriculture, defense, and logistics sectors, ZenaTech’s portfolio of solutions helps drive exceptional operational efficiencies, accuracy, and cost savings. The Company operates through seven global offices in North America, Europe, Taiwan, and UAE, and is growing a DaaS business model and partner network.
ZenaDrone, a wholly owned subsidiary of ZenaTech, develops and manufactures autonomous business drone solutions that can incorporate machine learning software, AI, predictive modeling, Quantum Computing, and other software and hardware innovations. Created to revolutionize the hemp farming sector, its specialization has grown to multifunctional drone solutions for industrial surveillance, monitoring, inspection, tracking, process automation and defense applications. Currently, the ZenaDrone 1000 drone is used for crop management applications in agriculture and critical field cargo applications in the defense sector, the IQ Nano indoor drone is used for inventory management and security in the warehouse and logistics sectors, and the IQ Square is an indoor/outdoor drone designed for land survey and inspections use in commercial and defense sectors
Contacts for more information:
Company, Investors and Media:Linda Montgomery
ZenaTech
312-241-1415
investors@zenatech.com
Investors:Michael Mason
CORE IR
investors@zenatech.com
Safe Harbor
This press release and related comments by management of ZenaTech, Inc. include “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of U.S. federal securities laws and applicable Canadian securities laws. These forward-looking statements are subject to the safe harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. This forward-looking information relates to future events or future performance of ZenaTech and reflects management’s expectations and projections regarding ZenaTech’s growth, results of operations, performance, and business prospects and opportunities. Such forward-looking statements reflect management’s current beliefs and are based on information currently available to management. In some cases, forward-looking information can be identified by terminology such as “may”, “will”, “should”, “expect”, “plan”, “anticipate”, “aim”, “seek”, “is/are likely to”, “believe”, “estimate”, “predict”, “potential”, “continue” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking information in this document includes, but is not limited to ZenaTech’s expectations regarding its revenue, expenses, production, operations, costs, cash flows, and future growth; expectations with respect to future production costs and capacity; ZenaTech's ability to deliver products to the market as currently contemplated, including its drone products including ZenaDrone 1000 and IQ Nano; ZenaTech’s anticipated cash needs and it’s needs for additional financing; ZenaTech’s intention to grow the business and its operations and execution risk; expectations with respect to future operations and costs; the volatility of stock prices and market conditions in the industries in which ZenaTech operates; political, economic, environmental, tax, security, and other risks associated with operating in emerging markets; regulatory risks; unfavorable publicity or consumer perception; difficulty in forecasting industry trends; the ability to hire key personnel; the competitive conditions of the industry and the competitive and business strategies of ZenaTech; ZenaTech’s expected business objectives for the next twelve months; ZenaTech’s ability to obtain additional funds through the sale of equity or debt commitments; investment capital and market share; the ability to complete any contemplated acquisitions; changes in the target markets; market uncertainty; ability to access additional capital, including through the listing of its securities in various jurisdictions; management of growth (plans and timing for expansion); patent infringement; litigation; applicable laws, regulations, and any amendments affecting the business of ZenaTech.
https://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/ti?nf=OTQ1MTg1MSM2OTQyNjE0IzIyODYwNDc=
https://ml.globenewswire.com/media/NmYxZGVmNGEtMzhlZC00Yzk4LWJhODgtZmRiNGY1ZmM1OGI4LTEyOTc1OTctMjAyNS0wNS0xNS1lbg==/tiny/ZenaTech-Inc-.png
Source: ZenaTech Inc.
$ZENA NEWS: ZenaTech Expands Drone-as-a-Service (DaaS) Exterior Building Power Washing to Dubai Tapping into a Global Drone Cleaning Services Market Growing to USD 13 Billion by 2030
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 13, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ZenaTech, Inc. (Nasdaq: ZENA) (FSE: 49Q) (BMV: ZENA) (“ZenaTech”), a technology company specializing in AI (Artificial Intelligence) drones, Drone as a Service (DaaS), enterprise SaaS, and Quantum Computing solutions, announces it is expanding its United Arab Emirates (UAE) presence by establishing a new office to sell Drone-as-a-Service (DaaS) offerings based in Dubai. Initially this office will focus on delivering drone-powered cleaning services for building exteriors using the IQ Square drone tethered to a water pipe and electrical cord. The company is currently obtaining a permit from the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority to begin power wash testing and operations. Supporting this expansion, ZenaTech will hire two business development managers and up to four additional drone pilots, with drones supplied from its subsidiary ZenaDrone which has a manufacturing hub in nearby Sharjah.
The global drone power washing market falls under a broader drone cleaning services market category that was valued at approximately USD 4.36 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach USD 13.2 billion by 2030, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of almost 17% according to market analyst Valuates Reports, fueled by increasing demand for safe, efficient and cost-effective maintenance solutions.
“With rising demand for tech-enabled and efficient maintenance solutions, whether for power washing buildings, renewable energy assets, or public spaces, we believe AI-powered drones will bring new safety standards, cost-efficiency, and greater environmental sustainability to maintenance tasks. UAE’s openness to innovative technology makes it an ideal launchpad for these DaaS solutions that we hope to expand to all seven emirates in addition to the US and Europe,” said CEO Shaun Passley, Ph.D.
Dubai has one of the highest densities of skyscrapers in the world, with over 250 skyscrapers over 150 meters tall, and a challenging climate marked by frequent sandstorms, making it an ideal location for drone-powered cleaning services. This is further underscored by the city’s regulations mandating regular window cleaning for buildings exposed to the pervasive sand and dust.
The ZenaDrone IQ Square is an advanced AI-powered autonomous drone with a footprint of 40X40 and 50X50 inches in size, in a rotary VTOL (Vertical Takeoff and Landing) design. It is designed to perform visual-line-of-sight land surveys, various types of inspections and surveillance applications, power washing applications using a tethered water and power supply, and reconnaissance missions required for defense applications. Equipped to use interchangeable state-of-the-art cameras, sensors, and attachments, the IQ Square can carry a payload of up to seven kilograms and offers a flight time of approximately 20 minutes when using its battery that can be autonomously recharged through landing on a charging pad.
ZenaTech’s DaaS business incorporating the ZenaDrone 1000 and the IQ series of multifunction drones, provides a variety of cost-effective and accessible solutions through an Uber-like business model paid for on a regular subscription or pay-per-use basis. The business model offers customers such as government agencies, farmers, real estate developers, or business owners reduced upfront costs and convenience - there is no need to purchase drone hardware and software, find a drone pilot, manage maintenance and operation, or acquire regulatory approvals. The model also offers scalability to use more often or less often based on business needs.
About ZenaTech
ZenaTech (Nasdaq: ZENA) (FSE: 49Q) (BMV: ZENA) is a technology company specializing in AI drone, Drone as a Service (DaaS), enterprise SaaS and Quantum Computing solutions for mission-critical business applications. Since 2017, the Company has leveraged its software development expertise and grown its drone design and manufacturing capabilities through ZenaDrone, to innovate and improve customer inspection, monitoring, safety, security, compliance, and surveying processes. With enterprise software customers using branded solutions in law enforcement, health, government, and industrial sectors, and drones being implemented in these plus agriculture, defense, and logistics sectors, ZenaTech’s portfolio of solutions helps drive exceptional operational efficiencies, accuracy, and cost savings. The Company operates through seven global offices in North America, Europe, Taiwan, and UAE, and is growing a DaaS business model for convenient pay-per-use drone services that innovate legacy manual tasks.
About ZenaDrone
ZenaDrone, a wholly owned subsidiary of ZenaTech, develops and manufactures autonomous business drone solutions that can incorporate machine learning software, AI, predictive modeling, Quantum Computing, and other software and hardware innovations. Created to revolutionize the hemp farming sector, its specialization has grown to multifunctional drone solutions for industrial surveillance, monitoring, inspection, tracking, process automation and defense applications. Currently, the ZenaDrone 1000 drone is used for crop management applications in agriculture and critical field cargo applications in the defense sector, the IQ Nano indoor drone is used for inventory management and security in the warehouse and logistics sectors, and the IQ Square is an indoor/outdoor drone designed for land survey and inspections use in commercial and defense sectors.
Contacts for more information:
Company, Investors and Media:
Linda Montgomery
ZenaTech
312-241-1415
investors@zenatech.com
Investors:
Michael Mason
CORE IR
investors@zenatech.com
Safe Harbor
This press release and related comments by management of ZenaTech, Inc. include “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of U.S. federal securities laws and applicable Canadian securities laws. These forward-looking statements are subject to the safe harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. This forward-looking information relates to future events or future performance of ZenaTech and reflects management’s expectations and projections regarding ZenaTech’s growth, results of operations, performance, and business prospects and opportunities. Such forward-looking statements reflect management’s current beliefs and are based on information currently available to management. In some cases, forward-looking information can be identified by terminology such as “may”, “will”, “should”, “expect”, “plan”, “anticipate”, “aim”, “seek”, “is/are likely to”, “believe”, “estimate”, “predict”, “potential”, “continue” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking information in this document includes, but is not limited to ZenaTech’s expectations regarding its revenue, expenses, production, operations, costs, cash flows, and future growth; expectations with respect to future production costs and capacity; ZenaTech's ability to deliver products to the market as currently contemplated, including its drone products including ZenaDrone 1000 and IQ Nano; ZenaTech’s anticipated cash needs and it’s needs for additional financing; ZenaTech’s intention to grow the business and its operations and execution risk; expectations with respect to future operations and costs; the volatility of stock prices and market conditions in the industries in which ZenaTech operates; political, economic, environmental, tax, security, and other risks associated with operating in emerging markets; regulatory risks; unfavorable publicity or consumer perception; difficulty in forecasting industry trends; the ability to hire key personnel; the competitive conditions of the industry and the competitive and business strategies of ZenaTech; ZenaTech’s expected business objectives for the next twelve months; ZenaTech’s ability to obtain additional funds through the sale of equity or debt commitments; investment capital and market share; the ability to complete any contemplated acquisitions; changes in the target markets; market uncertainty; ability to access additional capital, including through the listing of its securities in various jurisdictions; management of growth (plans and timing for expansion); patent infringement; litigation; applicable laws, regulations, and any amendments affecting the business of ZenaTech.
$ZENA: ZenaTech’s ZenaDrone Tests Proprietary Camera Enabling IQ Nano Drone Swarms for US Defense Applications and Blue UAS Submission
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 08, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ZenaTech, Inc. (Nasdaq: ZENA) (FSE: 49Q) (BMV: ZENA) ("ZenaTech"), a technology company specializing in AI (Artificial Intelligence) drones, Drone as a Service (DaaS), enterprise SaaS, and Quantum Computing solutions, announces that its subsidiary ZenaDrone is testing a new proprietary specialized camera that enables more efficient indoor applications such as inventory and security management, when utilizing IQ Nano drone swarms for commercial and US defense applications. The new camera prototype developed by its Taiwan component manufacturing subsidiary, Spider Vision Sensors, in collaboration with its certified electronics manufacturing partner, Suntek Global, will enable faster and more precise collection of data including multiple bar codes simultaneously scanned by multiple drones in a drone swarm. The company plans to apply for Blue UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems) certification that lists and validates drones for military and government use.
“Our Spider Vision Sensors subsidiary in collaboration with Suntek Global, has helped us speed up development of customized and specialized cameras required for our innovative drone swarm applications for commercial and defense customers. This partnership will continue to be invaluable as we develop our NDAA-compliant supply chain and receive Blue UAS certification which will allow military and federal agencies to directly purchase our drones.,” said CEO Shaun Passley, Ph.D.
Military and Defense departments use small autonomous indoor drones like the 10X10 inch IQ Nano for various applications such as inventory management, indoor building reconnaissance, search and rescue, training simulations, and explosives detection. ZenaDrone is also engaged in a paid trial which includes developing drone swarm applications for inventory management and security applications with a multinational auto parts manufacturer customer.
A drone swarm is a coordinated group of autonomous drones that communicate and work together using AI and real-time data sharing, to perform tasks collaboratively without direct human control. Drone swarms enhance efficiency, accuracy, automation, and performance compared to a single drone. Autonomous drones can rapidly scan thousands of bar codes or RFID tags per second with high accuracy, providing real-time visibility into inventory without disrupting workflows. A drone swarm can also cover more ground simultaneously, dramatically reducing inventory audit times and manual labour while providing near-total inventory visibility.
An AI drone swarm for indoor security and surveillance enhances coverage, response time, and efficiency by autonomously patrolling large areas, detecting threats, and providing real-time situational awareness. Unlike stationary cameras or human patrols, drone swarms can dynamically adapt to security breaches, track intruders, and coordinate movements to eliminate blind spots. AI-driven analytics enable them to identify anomalies, recognize faces, and detect unauthorized activity with high precision, reducing false alarms and improving security decision-making. Their autonomous nature minimizes human labor costs while ensuring 24/7 monitoring in complex environments like warehouses, data centers, or commercial facilities.
The ZenaDrone IQ Nano is available in 10x10 and 20x20-inch sizes, designed to perform regular and frequent inspections such as bar code or RFID scanning, facility maintenance inspections, security monitoring, 3D indoor mapping and other applications inside a warehouse, distribution, or plant facility. It is designed for autonomous use featuring integrated sensors, high-quality cameras, data collection and analysis including AI methodologies. Weighing 1.5kg and with a flight time of at least 20 minutes before utilizing the automatic battery recharging station, it is designed for hovering stability and safety with obstacle avoidance capabilities.
About ZenaTech
ZenaTech (Nasdaq: ZENA) (FSE: 49Q) (BMV: ZENA) is a technology company specializing in AI drone, Drone as a Service (DaaS), enterprise SaaS and Quantum Computing solutions for mission-critical business applications. Since 2017, the Company has leveraged its software development expertise and grown its drone design and manufacturing capabilities through ZenaDrone, to innovate and improve customer inspection, monitoring, safety, security, compliance, and surveying processes. With enterprise software customers using branded solutions in law enforcement, health, government, and industrial sectors, and drones being implemented in these plus agriculture, defense, and logistics sectors, ZenaTech’s portfolio of solutions helps drive exceptional operational efficiencies, accuracy, and cost savings. The Company operates through seven global offices in North America, Europe, Taiwan, and UAE, and is growing a DaaS business model and global partner network.
About ZenaDrone
ZenaDrone, a wholly owned subsidiary of ZenaTech, develops and manufactures autonomous business drone solutions that can incorporate machine learning software, AI, predictive modeling, Quantum Computing, and other software and hardware innovations. Created to revolutionize the hemp farming sector, its specialization has grown to multifunctional drone solutions for industrial surveillance, monitoring, inspection, tracking, process automation and defense applications. Currently, the ZenaDrone 1000 drone is used for crop management applications in agriculture and critical field cargo applications in the defense sector, the IQ Nano indoor drone is used for inventory management and security in the warehouse and logistics sectors, and the IQ Square is an indoor/outdoor drone designed for land survey and inspections use in commercial and defense sectors.
Contacts for more information:
Company, Investors and Media:
Linda Montgomery
ZenaTech
312-241-1415
investors@zenatech.com
Investors:
Michael Mason
CORE IR
investors@zenatech.com
Safe Harbor
This press release and related comments by management of ZenaTech, Inc. include “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of U.S. federal securities laws and applicable Canadian securities laws. These forward-looking statements are subject to the safe harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. This forward-looking information relates to future events or future performance of ZenaTech and reflects management’s expectations and projections regarding ZenaTech’s growth, results of operations, performance, and business prospects and opportunities. Such forward-looking statements reflect management’s current beliefs and are based on information currently available to management. In some cases, forward-looking information can be identified by terminology such as “may”, “will”, “should”, “expect”, “plan”, “anticipate”, “aim”, “seek”, “is/are likely to”, “believe”, “estimate”, “predict”, “potential”, “continue” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking information in this document includes, but is not limited to ZenaTech’s expectations regarding its revenue, expenses, production, operations, costs, cash flows, and future growth; expectations with respect to future production costs and capacity; ZenaTech's ability to deliver products to the market as currently contemplated, including its drone products including ZenaDrone 1000 and IQ Nano; ZenaTech’s anticipated cash needs and it’s needs for additional financing; ZenaTech’s intention to grow the business and its operations and execution risk; expectations with respect to future operations and costs; the volatility of stock prices and market conditions in the industries in which ZenaTech operates; political, economic, environmental, tax, security, and other risks associated with operating in emerging markets; regulatory risks; unfavorable publicity or consumer perception; difficulty in forecasting industry trends; the ability to hire key personnel; the competitive conditions of the industry and the competitive and business strategies of ZenaTech; ZenaTech’s expected business objectives for the next twelve months; ZenaTech’s ability to obtain additional funds through the sale of equity or debt commitments; investment capital and market share; the ability to complete any contemplated acquisitions; changes in the target markets; market uncertainty; ability to access additional capital, including through the listing of its securities in various jurisdictions; management of growth (plans and timing for expansion); patent infringement; litigation; applicable laws, regulations, and any amendments affecting the business of ZenaTech.
$RMXI News: Reticulate Micro's VAST Platform to Power Advanced Tactical Video at SOF Week 2025
ST. LOUIS, May 5, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- RMX (Reticulate Micro, Inc.) (OTCQB: RMXI), a leader in advanced video compression technology, today announced its participation in a live tactical video demonstration at Special Operations Forces (SOF) Week 2025.
SOF Week is the premier annual convention and conference for the international Special Operations Forces (SOF) community. It is held in Tampa, Florida, and serves as a key event for SOF professionals, industry leaders, government representatives, and strategic partners to learn, connect, and honor members of the SOF community. The event is jointly sponsored by the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) and the Global SOF Foundation. SOF Week 2025 runs through May 5–8, 2025 and is expected to draw thousands of attendees from over 60 countries.
The demonstration will showcase how VASTTM video platform transforms streaming capabilities over tactical networks, delivering more and better video for analysis and real-time intelligence.
The demonstration features an end-to-end tactical video chain across the SOF Week 2025 show floor:
Tactical Edge – Rebel Systems (Booth 1549): Real-time video captured and encoded using Reticulate Micro's VASTTM software running directly on Rebel Systems' TUCK Dagger platform.
Mobile TOC – Curtiss-Wright (Booth 753): Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions' Modular Radio Center receives the video stream via Persistent Systems MPU5 network paired with NanTenna technology.
Forward Operating Bases where the video stream is redistributed to:IBM oLabs (Booth 1149) for advanced video analytics and real-time intelligence processing.Persistent Systems (Booth 1133) for enhanced situational awareness.
John Dames, CTO of RMX (Reticulate Micro, Inc.), noted "VASTTM significantly enhances video capacity on critical networks like L-Band with minimal computing resources. That means more video without stealing bandwidth from talk groups and other critical data – it's a force multiplier."
VAST'sTM software-based approach works on any compute platform without requiring specialized hardware like GPUs, enabling more robust video transmission for situational awareness and intelligence analysis over networks previously limited by bandwidth constraints.
RMX (Reticulate Micro, Inc.) is transforming how organizations handle video and visual data through innovative software-based compression technology. The company's VASTTM platform enables high-quality video transmission over severely bandwidth-constrained networks, making real-time video communication possible in previously inaccessible environments. To explore how VASTTM can support your specific video streaming requirements, please contact us at vast@reticulate.io or visit www.reticulate.io.
About RMX (Reticulate Micro, Inc.)
RMX (Reticulate Micro, Inc.) (OTCQB: RMXI) is a technology company specializing in advanced data compression and video optimization. Leveraging proprietary, field-validated technology that has demonstrated exceptional performance in the most demanding environments, RMX is aiming to transform the way organizations capture, transmit, store, and share visual data. Originally developed for mission-critical military applications, RMX's platform reduces video bandwidth, storage needs, and power consumption by up to 50%—all without compromising quality or functionality across any network or hardware infrastructure. As data becomes a foundational asset across defense, AI, cloud, and enterprise ecosystems, RMX is positioned to lead the next generation of intelligent, efficient data compression solutions in a rapidly digitizing world.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:
This press release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to various risks and uncertainties. In addition, our representatives or we may make forward-looking statements orally or in writing from time to time. We base these forward-looking statements on our expectations and projections about future events, which we derive from the available information. Such forward-looking statements relate to future events or our future performance, including our financial performance and projections, revenue and earnings growth, and business prospects and opportunities. You can identify forward-looking statements by those that are not historical facts, particularly those that use terminology such as "intends," "may," "should," "expects," "anticipates," "contemplates," "estimates," "believes," "plans," "projected," "predicts," "potential," or "hopes" or the negative of these or similar terms. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, there are a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements, including the risks described in the risk factors section of the reports and other documents that we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of the document in which they are contained, and the Company does not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statements except as may be required by law.
Important Notice Regarding Our Regulation A Offering
An offering statement regarding our offering of units consisting of one share of class A common stock and a warrant to purchase one share of class A common stock has been filed with the SEC. The SEC has qualified that offering statement, which means that Reticulate Micro may make sales of the securities described by that offering statement. It does not mean that the SEC has approved, passed upon the merits or passed upon the accuracy or completeness of the information in the offering statement. You may obtain a copy of the offering circular that is part of that offering statement through this link.
Investing in a public offering like our Regulation A offering is subject to unique risks, tolerance for volatility, and potential loss of your investment, that investors should be aware of prior to making an investment decision. Please carefully review the risk factors contained in the offering circular for this offering. For more information about Regulation A offerings, including the unique risks associated with these types of offerings, please click on the SEC's Investor Alert.
Neither this document nor any of its content constitutes an offer to sell, solicitation of an offer to buy or a recommendation for any security by Reticulate Micro or any third party. The content of this document is provided for general information purposes only and is not intended to solicit the purchase of securities or to be used as investment, legal or tax advice. A securities offering by Reticulate Micro is only being made pursuant to the offering circular described above. The content of this document is qualified in its entirety by such offering circular. Prospective investors are urged to consult with their own investment, legal and tax advisors prior to making any investment in Reticulate Micro.
Contact:
Media:
RMX (Reticulate Micro, Inc.) Media Relations
media@rmx.io
Investor Relations:
RMX (Reticulate Micro, Inc.) Investor Relations
ir@rmx.io
>>> Israel steps up Syria strikes, says Turkey aims for 'protectorate'
Reuters
April 3, 2025
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-airstrike-targets-barzeh-neighborhood-syrias-damascus-state-news-agency-2025-04-02/
Summary
Israeli military strikes target Syrian air bases and Damascus site
Syrian state media reports nine killed by Israel in south
Israeli defence minister warns Syria against allowing hostile forces
DAMASCUS/JERUSALEM, April 2 (Reuters) - Israel stepped up airstrikes on Syria, declaring the attacks a warning to the new Islamist rulers in Damascus as it accused their ally Turkey on Thursday of trying to turn the country into a Turkish protectorate.
Later on Thursday, Turkey said Israel must withdraw from Syria and stop harming stabilization efforts there.
"Israel has become the greatest threat to regional security" and is a "strategic destabilizer, causing chaos and feeding terrorism," the Foreign Ministry in Ankara said.
"Therefore, in order to establish security throughout the region, Israel must first abandon its expansionist policies, withdraw from the territories it occupies, and stop undermining efforts to establish stability in Syria," it said.
The strikes, targeting a site near Damascus and air bases, put renewed focus on Israeli concerns about the Islamists who deposed Bashar al-Assad in December, with Israeli officials viewing them as a rising threat at their border.
Also suspicious of Ankara's sway over Damascus, Israel has been working to advance its goals in Syria since Assad was toppled, seizing ground in the southwest, declaring a willingness to protect the Druze minority, lobbying Washington for a weak state, and blowing up much of the Syrian military's heavy weapons and equipment in the days after Assad fell.
The Israeli army said its forces operating in the southwest overnight killed several militants who opened fire on them. They were on a targeted mission at the time beyond the separation zone where they are deployed inside Syria, it said.
Syria's state news agency SANA said Israeli shelling had killed nine people in the area, during what it described as the deepest incursion yet by Israeli troops in the area.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the airstrikes late on Wednesday evening were "a clear message and a warning for the future - we will not allow the security of the State of Israel to be harmed.
Katz said in a statement that Israel's armed forces would remain in buffer zones within Syria and act against threats to its security, warning Syria's government it would pay a heavy price if it allowed forces hostile to Israel to enter.
Reflecting Israeli concerns about Turkish influence in the new Syria, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accused Ankara of playing a "negative role" there, in Lebanon and other regions.
"They are doing their utmost to have Syria as a Turkish protectorate. It's clear that is their intention," he told a press conference in Paris.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry said the Israeli strikes were an unjustified escalation aimed at destabilising the country, calling on the international community to put pressure on Israel to "stop its aggression."
Later on Thursday, Israeli strikes targeted the town of Kiswah, south of Damascus, according to Syria's state news agency. There were no immediate reports of casualties and no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Israel bombed Syria frequently when the country was governed by Assad, targeting the foothold established by his ally Iran during the civil war.
AIR BASE DESTROYED
The latest strikes were some of the most intense Israeli attacks in Syria since Assad was toppled.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry said Israel struck five separate areas within a 30-minute window, resulting in the near-complete destruction of the Hama air base and wounding dozens of civilians and soldiers.
The Israeli military said it had struck remaining military capabilities at air bases in Hama and Homs provinces, in addition to remaining military infrastructure in the Damascus area, where Syrian media and officials said the vicinity of a scientific research facility was hit.
In Hama, a Syrian military source told Reuters a dozen strikes demolished the runways, tower, arms depots and hangars at the military airport. "Israel has completely destroyed Hama air base to ensure it is not used," the source said.
Israel also said on Wednesday it targeted the T4 air base in Homs province, which it has repeatedly hit over the past week.
In the incident in southwestern Syria, the Israeli military said its forces were operating in the Tasil area, "confiscating weapons and destroying terrorist infrastructure" when several militants fired on them.
Residents of the Tasil area reached by phone said a group of armed locals were killed after confronting an Israeli army contingent that had arrived in the area to destroy a former Syrian army encampment.
The Israeli military said there were no casualties among its forces who "responded with fire and eliminated several armed terrorists from the ground and air."
"The presence of weapons in southern Syria constitutes a threat to the State of Israel," it said. "The IDF will not allow a military threat to exist in Syria and will act against it."
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>>> Iran responds to Trump's nuclear talks proposal as U.S. sends bombers to region
Axios World
by Barak Ravid
3-27-25
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/iran-responds-to-trump-s-nuclear-talks-proposal-as-u-s-sends-bombers-to-region/ar-AA1BNwFA?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=a64643661a3a44a8bdcd221efb9c833b&ei=70
Iran delivered a formal written response to President Trump's letter proposing new nuclear talks and threatening consequences if a deal is not reached swiftly, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Thursday.
Why it matters: Trump gave Iran a two-month deadline to sign a new nuclear deal or face potential military action in his letter, sent three weeks ago.
Driving the news: Iran delivered its response via the Gulf Sultanate of Oman, which duly notified the U.S., a source with knowledge of the issue confirmed to Axios.
The Omanis briefed the U.S. on the messages they received from the Iranians and will deliver the Iranian letter to the White House in the coming days, the source said.
The source did not offer details on the nature of the Iranian response. The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Araghchi said in a news conference that Iran maintains its position that it won't negotiate directly with the Trump administration so long as Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign is in place, but is willing to hold indirect talks.
State of play: Trump and his top advisers have left the door open for talks while also using the threat of military force.
In recent days, the U.S. military sent several B-2 stealth bombers to the Diego Garcia military base in the Indian Ocean in a deployment a U.S. official said was "not disconnected" from Trump's two-month deadline.
The B-2 bombers can carry huge bunker buster bombs that would be a key element in any possible military action against Iran's underground nuclear facilities.
A spokesperson for U.S. Strategic Command confirmed the deployment to Axios and said Stratcom "routinely conducts global operations in coordination with other combatant commands, services, and participating U.S. government agencies to deter, detect and, if necessary, defeat strategic attacks against the United States and its allies."
US stealth bomber buildup in Indian Ocean is a message to Iran
That letter was delivered by his envoy Steve Witkoff to United Arab Emirates Mohammed Bin Zayed (MBZ), with MBZ's envoy Anwar Gargash traveling to Tehran to deliver it to Araghchi.
That same week, Trump said the U.S. is "down to the final moments" with Iran. "We can't let them have a nuclear weapon. Something is going to happen very soon. I would rather have a peace deal than the other option, but the other option will solve the problem," he said.
Several rounds of indirect talks have been held in Oman between Biden's advisers and Iranian officials. These talks mostly focused on regional issues and hostages, but didn't lead to serious negotiations over the nuclear program.
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Greenland - >>> Here’s why Musk, Bezos, Gates and Thiel really all want a piece of Greenland
New York Post
by Lydia Moynihan
3-28-25
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/here-s-why-musk-bezos-gates-and-thiel-really-all-want-a-piece-of-greenland/ar-AA1BQNhB?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=a64643661a3a44a8bdcd221efb9c833b&ei=70
The US delegation’s planned visit to Greenland — led by Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance — has captured the imagination of top political officials and tech billionaires alike, even as Prime Minister Mute Egede slammed the trip as being “highly aggressive.”
While recent excitement about the vast, frigid island has puzzled me, Silicon Valley sources (who take credit for the idea of buying Greenland) view it as deeply tied to America’s ambitions in space and information technology — especially concerning AI. They also see it as a critical “play for the future,” as one source put it.
Notable tech figures have shown varying degrees of support. Elon Musk is all for purchasing Greenland and Peter Thiel backs the idea of establishing an autonomous colony on the island. Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates have advocated for mining projects because of the wealth of natural resources, like rare earth minerals, critical for high-tech manufacturing.
“Take what’s needed for the US to maintain information technology dominance: data storage and computing power deployment,” Tom Dans, former commissioner of the US Arctic Research Commission, told me. “Greenland offers abundant potential energy, strategic metals and minerals, and proximity to key US population centers — all in a highly controllable environment.”
It’s roughly 1,800 miles from New York City to the capital of Nuuk, where freezing temperatures offer a hospitable climate for energy-intensive data centers. The island’s isolation reduces physical security risks faced by mainland US data plants.
“Greenland’s strategic importance to the United States goes beyond its frozen landscape … far into space. President Trump gets this. Elon understands it better than anyone,” Dans adds. “Telemetry, tracking, missile intercepts, early warning systems and Northern latitude launch sites are all part of America’s Arctic past, present and future. Greenland is key.”
The Arctic location could also be strategic for military defense and surveillance — which is partly why Chinese companies seek a foothold, too.
While the idea of annexation gained traction in Silicon Valley nearly a decade ago — in part from startups like Thiel-backed Praxis, which aims to build a futuristic, autonomous city in Greenland — since then the vision has expanded.
Sources note that the Danish territory’s proximity to the Arctic Circle also offers an ideal trajectory for polar orbits, providing a clear path for space launches that avoids densely populated areas — unlike Florida or Texas, where safety and airspace restrictions complicate operations.
Its vast, uninhabited expanses and stable climate also minimize weather delays and land-use conflicts, making it a potentially superior US spaceport site.
And tech’s role in keeping the dream of Greenland alive is reflected in President Trump’s pick for ambassador to Denmark: Ken Howery, a “PayPal Mafia” member who co-founded Founders Fund with Peter Thiel and is a friend of Elon Musk. He is still awaiting confirmation but, in Trump’s first term, Howery served as ambassador to Sweden — gaining insight into the Arctic Circle’s security and geopolitical importance.
Of course, Greenland’s PM Muté Egede has said, “We don’t want to be Americans” and there is no indication that Denmark would agree to any kind of deal.
And there are major issues with the land itself as well. Cold War-era chemical waste, including diesel fuel and radioactive materials buried by the US military beneath melting ice, could complicate development.
Nevertheless, Americans will expand their presence in Greenland further this summer when United Airlines launches direct flights between New York and Nuuk.
Fittingly, the first flight takes off June 14 — Flag Day and Donald Trump’s birthday.
One more Silicon Valley source told me that a possible American acquisition is “the best thing that could happen to Greenland and its residents. You could either get access to all the resources of the United States or remain a small, isolated island.”
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Triangulation strategy / Tertius gaudens - >>> Trump wants US to ‘partner’ with Russia to weaken China: Divide-and-conquer strategy
The US government’s talks with Russia are more about China than Ukraine. Donald Trump admitted he wants to “un-unite” Russia and China, in a reverse of the divide-and-conquer strategy used by Nixon and Kissinger in the 1970s.
Geopolitical Economy
by Ben Norton
2025-02-24
https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2025/02/24/trump-divide-russia-china-us-strategy/
The Donald Trump administration is holding talks between the United States and Russia, and he says he wants to end the war in Ukraine.
Trump’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio has even proposed that the US could “partner with the Russians, geopolitically”.
What is happening here? The simple answer is that this is all about China.
Trump is trying to divide Russia from China, in an attempt to isolate Beijing.
The United States sees China as the number one threat to its global dominance. This has been stated clearly by top officials in both the Trump administration and the previous Joe Biden administration.
Rubio dubbed China “the single greatest challenge this nation has ever faced”. Trump’s CIA Director John Ratcliffe asserted that “China was far and away our top national security threat”.
Trump’s plan to split Russia and China
Trump made this strategy clear in an interview with Tucker Carlson, the right-wing talk show host, on October 31, 2024.
Trump said it was a “shame” and it was “stupid” that the US had pushed China and Russia together.
“I’m going to have to un-unite them, and I think I can do that, too. I have to un-unite them”, Trump stated.
The following is a partial transcript of his remarks (emphasis added):
We are a nation in decline. We are a nation in very serious decline. And look at what these stupid people have done. They’ve allowed Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and others to get together in a group. This is impossible to think.
When I was a young guy, I loved, I always loved the whole thing, the concept of the history, and all of the things that can happen. The one thing — and I had a professor at the Wharton School of Finance, but we had history classes also.
He said the one thing you never want to happen is you never want Russia and China uniting. We united them, because of the oil. We united them. Biden united them. It’s a shame, the stupidity of what they have done.
I’m going to have to un-unite them, and I think I can do that, too. I have to un-unite them.
But early on I’ve read, and you’ve learned, you never want Russia and China — and they’re natural enemies, because Russia has massive land, and China needs it.
They’re a natural enemy. And we’ve allowed them become, to get together. It’s such a dangerous thing.
Another thing that we’re doing is we’re losing the dollar as the standard, because of these people that are so — if we lose the dollar as the standard, that’s like losing a war. And it’ll never happen with me. There’s no way that will happen with me.
Trump threatens BRICS
What is noteworthy is how Trump immediately linked the close partnership between China and Russia to the issue of de-dollarization, the international drive to create alternatives to the US dollar as the global reserve currency.
China is Russia’s largest trading partner, and the two countries have almost entirely removed the US dollar from their bilateral trade. Instead, they now use their domestic currencies, the renminbi and ruble, in more than 90% of settlements.
Fears of de-dollarization have led Trump to threaten 100% tariffs on BRICS countries and other nations that drop the dollar in international trade and foreign exchange reserves.
“I hate when countries go off the dollar. I would not allow countries to go off the dollar”, Trump declared during his presidential campaign in 2024.
Since returning as US president, Trump has given himself credit for supposedly killing BRICS. “BRICS is dead”, he claimed in a press conference at the White House on February 13.
In reality, BRICS has continued expanding, admitting in early 2025 new countries with large populations, like Indonesia and Nigeria. The Global South-led organization now represents roughly 55% of the world population and 42% of global GDP (PPP).
Nevertheless, Trump has continued to threaten them. “If they want to play games with the dollar, they’re going to be hit with a 100% tariff”, he warned.
Trump’s reverse Nixon/Kissinger strategy
Trump’s attempt to divide Russia and China, to try to save US imperial dominance, is far from secret. It has been debated openly in the Western media, with Foreign Affairs magazine cautioning that “Beijing and Moscow’s partnership will be hard to break”.
The Wall Street Journal stated clearly that “Washington’s embrace of Putin aims to drive wedge between Moscow and Beijing”.
The Western press has dubbed this strategy a “reverse Nixon”, referring to former US President Richard Nixon.
Nixon and Trump have many similarities. Both were hard-line right-wing Republicans who used “populist” rhetoric. Both also sought to exploit divisions between Russia and China — albeit in opposite directions.
Although he was a virulent anti-communist, Nixon took a historic trip to Beijing in 1972 in order to normalize relations with the People’s Republic of China.
Washington saw the Sino-Soviet split, which happened in the 1960s, as an opportunity to advance its imperial power by exacerbating the tensions between China and the USSR.
This ended up being an important factor in the decline of the Soviet Union in the 1980s, and its eventual overthrow in 1991.
Trump’s strategy has also been referred to as a “reverse Kissinger”, because Nixon’s National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger was the architect of the tactic, known as “triangular diplomacy”.
Kissinger took a secret trip to Beijing in 1971, in an attempt to further divide China and the USSR.
Decades later, Kissinger thought the United States should return to this “triangulation” strategy to weaken China.
In fact, Kissinger had advised Trump during his first administration that he should try to improve relations with Russia to isolate China, the Daily Beast reported in 2018.
Ironically, it was the Russiagate conspiracy theory pushed by the Democratic Party that prevented Trump from pursuing this Kissingerian strategy during his term term. Democrats’ baseless, nonsensical claims that Trump was a “puppet of Putin” distracted from his more insidious new cold war strategy, aimed at kneecapping China.
In his second term, however, Trump has fully embraced this strategy.
Marco Rubio wants USA “to partner with the Russians, geopolitically”
In both his first and second term, Trump has surrounded himself with neoconservatives and war hawks.
In his first administration, Trump’s foreign policy was overseen by neocons John Bolton, as national security advisor; and Mike Pompeo, first as CIA director and later as secretary of state.
In his second administration, Trump’s foreign policy is overseen by neocons Marco Rubio, as secretary of state; Mike Waltz, as national security advisor; and Pete Hegseth, a self-declared “crusader” serving as defense secretary.
Trump’s neoconservative foreign policy team: Marco Rubio (left), Mike Waltz (middle), Pete Hegseth (right)
All of these these figures are extreme China hawks who have pushed for aggressive policies against Beijing.
They also agree with Trump’s strategy to try to woo Moscow.
This is why, when Trump sent Rubio to Saudi Arabia in February to participate in talks with his Russian counterparts, he proposed that the United States could “partner with the Russians, geopolitically”.
The US secretary of state said:
[We are] beginning to engage in identifying the extraordinary opportunities that exist, should this conflict come to an acceptable end, the incredible opportunities that exist to partner with the Russians, geopolitically, on issues of common interest, and frankly economically, on issues that hopefully will be good for the world, and will also improve our relations in the long term between these two important countries.
In fact, in a Senate hearing in 2024, Rubio argued that the US should help bring an end to the war in Ukraine, not because hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives, but rather because it was helping China, he complained.
“The Chinese see great benefit in Ukraine”, Rubio said, “because they view it as, the more time and money we spend there, the less time, and money, and focus we have on them”.
Rubio’s argument was essentially that the US empire should end the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine so it could instead focus on preparing for war against China.
Western far right wants to ally with Russia against China
Although Rubio’s proposal to “partner” with Russia surprised some observers, this strategy has been proposed for years by members of the far-right “MAGA” movement in the Republican Party.
Many MAGA Republicans are influenced by racist white nationalist ideas and see China not only as a threat to US imperial dominance, but also as an Asiatic, atheist, communist threat to capitalism and white, “Judeo-Christian Western civilization”.
On the other hand, many conservatives in the US and Europe see Russia as a potential ally, given that it is capitalist, white, and predominately Christian.
Far-right politicians in Europe have argued the same. France’s far-right leader Marine Le Pen called the China-Russia partnership “the largest danger of the 21st century for us”.
She insisted that the West shares “common civilizational and strategic interests” with Russia and should break to break its close relations with socialist China.
Le Pen stated:
Imagine … if we let the first producer of raw materials in the world — which is Russia — [create an alliance] with the first factory of the world — which is China — to let them perhaps constitute the first military power of the world. I believe that it’s potentially a great danger.
It will be necessary diplomatically, when the war [in Ukraine] is over, when a peace treaty has been signed, to try to avoid this tie-up which risks being the largest danger of the 21st century for us.
Fox News and other conservative US media outlets have pushed this same message for a decade.
This is one of the favorite refrains of Tucker Carlson, the far-right talk show host and close Trump ally who previously hosted a program on Fox News, which was the most popular politics TV show in the United States.
Carlson repeatedly argued that “the biggest threat to this country is not Vladimir Putin. That’s ludicrous. The biggest threat, obviously, is China”.
In multiple programs, Carlson asserted, “Russia is not America’s main enemy. Obviously, no sane person thinks it is. Our main enemy, of course, is China, and the United States ought to be in a relationship with Russia, aligned against China, to the extent that we can”.
Carlson complained that a China-Russia partnership would end “American global hegemony”.
Although he portrays himself as a “populist”, Carlson previously applied to join the CIA. His goal is to preserve US imperial dominance.
On his Fox News program, Carlson stated:
If Russia ever joined forces with China, American global hegemony, its power, would end instantly. You’d have the world’s largest land mass and largest natural gas reserves, allied with the world’s largest population and world’s largest economy.
So a Russia-China axis would be not just more powerful than the United States, but much more powerful. It would have the scale to control a lot of the world’s economy, and trade routes, and raw materials. It could project military force that, posturing aside, we actually don’t have the power to stop.
If Russia and China ever got together, it would be a brand new world, and the United States would be greatly diminished. Most Americans agree that would be bad.
In fact, when he still hosted his show on Fox, Carlson regularly invited on Rubio to fearmonger about China.
The following is a partial transcript of a segment featuring the then Florida senator, who now serves as secretary of state:
MARCO RUBIO: They are also undermining our technological base through something called Made in China 2025, where they intend not just to supplant America, but all countries on Earth, and the West, in automobiles, and passenger aircraft, and quantum computing, and artificial intelligence.
They’ve laid out the entire industries, and they’re slowly but surely carrying out this plan.
TUCKER CARLSON: So this is a threat, obviously, not simply to our economy, but to our predominance around the world, to our power, and to our values.
Rubio calls China the “single greatest challenge” ever faced by the US empire
Rubio has for years pushed for an extremely aggressive US policy against China.
In a Senate hearing in 2024, Rubio complained that China is trying to change the “rules of the world” that “were written by America and our allies”:
The Chinese, they believe we’re in inevitable decline, and that their rise is inevitable as well. Like I said, they don’t like the rules of the world as they believe were written by America and our allies, and so they increasingly are taking it upon themselves at every opportunity to challenge them.
In a separate Senate hearing in 2022, Rubio warned that China could replace the United States as the most powerful country on Earth:
We often talk about China’s plans and intentions behind closed doors. But the fact of the matter is that their ultimate goal, and what they’re trying to do, is really not that big a secret.
They seek to displace the United States and to become the world’s most dominant economic, industrial, technical, and military, and geopolitical power. That’s their goal.
In the 2022 hearing, Rubio referred to China as “the single greatest challenge this nation has ever faced”, and he claimed that the People’s Republic is much more of a threat than the Soviet Union ever was:
The intelligence community, I think at this point, leaders on both sides of the aisle, have been pretty clear that this is the single greatest challenge this nation has ever faced.
We have never faced a near-peer adversary that poses such a comprehensive challenge, that way that China does today.
The Soviet Union was a military and a geopolitical rival; they were never an industrial, and technical, or commercial rival. China is all of that and more.
CIA says China is “the most important geopolitical threat we face in the 21st century”
Nevertheless, it is not just neoconservative Republicans like Marco Rubio who see China as the main threat to US global dominance.
This view has become bipartisan in Washington.
In 2021, the CIA launched a “China Mission Center”, which is the only mission center at the notorious coup-plotting US spy agency that is specifically focused on one country.
That year, the CIA announced on its official website that it considered China to be the top “threat” to the United States.
CIA Director William Burns “explained that the new mission center will bring a whole-of-Agency response and unify the exceptional work CIA is already doing against this key rival”, wrote the infamous US spy agency, which has meddled in the internal affairs of countless countries and assassinated foreign heads of state.
Burns fearmongered about “the most important geopolitical threat we face in the 21st century, an increasingly adversarial Chinese government”.
Trump’s pick for CIA director, John Ratcliffe, praised Burns’ work at the agency and made similar comments in his Senate confirmation hearing in January 2025.
Ratcliffe stated (emphasis added):
Much more has to be done. Because our adversaries, and one in particular that I will discuss now, understand that the nation who wins the race of emerging technologies of today will dominate the world of tomorrow.
Which brings me to the need for the CIA to continue, and increase in intensity, the focus on the threats posed by China and its ruling Chinese Communist Party.
As DNI [director of national intelligence], I dramatically increased the intelligence community’s resources devoted to China.
I openly warned the American people that, from my unique vantage point as an official who saw more intelligence than anyone else, I assess that China was far and away our top national security threat.
President Trump has been an incredible leader on this issue, and it is encouraging that a bipartisan consensus has emerged in recent years.
The recent creation of the CIA’s China Mission Center is an example of the good work that must continue.
US State Department warns China is top “threat” to US global imperial dominance
In both the Biden and Trump administration, the State Department made similar warnings, fearing that China could challenge US imperial dominance.
In a speech in May 2022, Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned:
Even as President Putin’s war continues, we will remain focused on the most serious long-term challenge to the international order – and that’s posed by the People’s Republic of China.
China is the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to do it.
The message was essentially identical during Trump’s first term.
Trump’s CIA director turned secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, delivered a similar speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in California in July 2020.
Using very aggressive, cold war-style rhetoric, Pompeo essentially called for overthrowing the Chinese government and the Communist Party of China. He stated:
We, the freedom-loving nations of the world, must induce China to change, just as President Nixon wanted. We must induce China to change in more creative and assertive ways, because Beijing’s actions threaten our people and our prosperity.
We must start by changing how our people and our partners perceive the Chinese Communist Party. We have to tell the truth. We can’t treat this incarnation of China as a normal country, just like any other.
And if we don’t act now, ultimately the CCP will erode our freedoms and subvert the rules-based order that our societies have worked so hard to build. If we bend the knee now, our children’s children may be at the mercy of the Chinese Communist Party, whose actions are the primary challenge today in the free world.
General Secretary Xi is not destined to tyrannize inside and outside of China forever, unless we allow it.
Many of these hawkish views are shared by NATO.
NATO’s secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg praised the first Trump administration for its extreme anti-China policies.
“You shifted your policy on China in 2017 under President Trump, and since then, NATO has gone a long way in helping European allies fully appreciate the challenges posed by China and respond to it”, Stoltenberg said at the right-wing US think tank the Heritage Foundation in Washington in 2024.
Trump admin invokes China to try to justify US colonialist policies
All of this explains why Donald Trump has turned China into his favorite bogeyman, constantly invoking the country to try to justify his colonialist policies.
During his inauguration speech in January 2025, Trump declared that the United States is going to take over the Panama Canal, in a blatant act of colonialism.
“China is operating the Panama Canal. And we didn’t give it to China; we gave it to Panama. And we’re taking it back”, Trump claimed.
It is not true that China is operating the Panama Canal. This is utterly false.
Nonetheless, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has used the same rhetoric.
In January, Rubio spoke with the conservative talk show host Megyn Kelly, in his first official interview as US secretary of state.
In this hour-long discussion, Rubio mentioned the words “China” or “Chinese” 65 times.
“China wants to be the most powerful country in the world and they want to do so at our expense, and that’s not in our national interest, and we’re going to address it”, he lamented.
When asked why the Trump administration wants to control the Panama Canal, Rubio echoed Trump, falsely arguing that China is controlling it.
The way that Trump and Marco Rubio see the world is that the US empire has a sphere of influence, and they want to reassert US imperial control over the Western Hemisphere, and especially Latin America.
That is why they are threatening Greenland, Panama, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, and more. This is also why Trump allies are constantly invoking the colonialist Monroe Doctrine.
US Vice President JD Vance targets China
When it comes to Europe, the Trump administration’s view is basically that Ukraine is not in the US imperial sphere of influence, and that Europe has to deal with Russia on its own terms.
This was the message that US Vice President JD Vance conveyed in his speech at the Munich Security Conference in February 2025.
Vance pressured Europe to reduce its relations with China. He portrayed Beijing as a so-called “authoritarian master that seeks to infiltrate, dig in and seize your information infrastructure”.
Instead of using resources in Europe, the Trump administration wants to focus the attention of the US empire on China.
Like Trump, Vance exploits “populist” rhetoric, but both seek to expand US imperial power, and are willing to promote aggressive interventionist policies.
To understand Vance’s worldview, CNN interviewed Alexander Gray, who served as chief of staff of the National Security Council in Trump’s first term.
Gray is a neoconservative Republican who continues to defend Trump. He supports Trump’s attempts to colonize Greenland and the Panama Canal.
CNN reported (emphasis added):
Gray said that Vance’s foreign policy worldview stems from his military service in Iraq and what he sees as the failures of American entanglements abroad. But he also noted that Vance supports an aggressive approach toward China and does not just want the US to retreat from the world stage altogether.
“That worldview is about making hard choices with limited resources and devoting our resources to what is an existential threat with China,” Gray said. “He’s not for abdicating US global leadership; he’s not for stepping back from the US being a muscular power on the world stage.”
Brzezinski warned of an “anti-hegemonic coalition” of China, Russia, and Iran
Washington’s fears of an alliance between China and Russia go back decades.
The influential US imperial strategist Zbigniew Brzezinski, a fervent anti-communist cold warrior who served as national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter, published a book in 1997 called The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives.
In this work, Brzezinski discussed tactics that the US empire could use to try to maintain its global unipolar dominance. He also warned of potential challenges to US hegemony.
“The most dangerous scenario” for the US empire, Brzezinski wrote, “would be a grand coalition of China, Russia, and perhaps Iran, an ‘antihegemonic’ coalition united not by ideology but by complementary grievances”.
The relevant passage from Brzezinski’s book follows (emphasis added):
Finally, some possible contingencies involving future political alignments should also be briefly noted, subject to fuller discussion in pertinent chapters. In the past, international affairs were largely dominated by contests among individual states for regional domination. Henceforth, the United States may have to determine how to cope with regional coalitions that seek to push America out of Eurasia, thereby threatening America’s status as a global power. However, whether any such coalitions do or do not arise to challenge American primacy will in fact depend to a very large degree on how effectively the United States responds to the major dilemmas identified here.
Potentially, the most dangerous scenario would be a grand coalition of China, Russia, and perhaps Iran, an “antihegemonic” coalition united not by ideology but by complementary grievances. It would be reminiscent in scale and scope of the challenge once posed by the Sino-Soviet bloc, though this time China would likely be the leader and Russia the follower. Averting this contingency, however remote it may be, will require a display of U.S. geostrategic skill on the western, eastern, and southern perimeters of Eurasia simultaneously.
This is exactly what has happened in the past few decades. The aggressive policies of the US empire, including wars, sanctions, and regime-change operations, have pushed Beijing, Moscow, and Tehran together.
China, Russia, and Iran are members of BRICS, the Global South-led organization that continues to grow every year.
BRICS now represents roughly 55% of the world population and 42% of global GDP, measured at purchasing power parity.
This is why Trump has repeatedly threatened to destroy BRICS, and vowed to impose 100% tariffs on members of the group.
It is not just BRICS, however. China, Russia, and Iran are also members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which seeks to maintain security and stability in Eurasia.
China: 10 times Russia’s population, 5.5 times its economy, 17 times its manufacturing output
China has not fought in a war since 1979 and has a strict non-interventionist foreign policy. Nonetheless, US imperial strategists fear Beijing, because it is significantly more powerful than Russia, and even than the former Soviet Union was at its peak.
To start, China has 1.4 billion people, which is roughly 10 times the size of Russia’s population, of around 140 million.
China also has the world’s largest economy. When you measure China’s GDP at purchasing power parity, it overtook the United States in 2016, according to IMF data.
As of the end of 2024, China represents a bit over 19% of the world economy, compared to just under 15% for the United States.
Russia is a major economy, but it is only about 3.5% of world GDP. That means that China’s economy is roughly 5.5 times larger than Russia’s.
Russia’s economy is similar in size to the economies of Indonesia or Brazil, which are very important countries with large populations. But China is at a whole different level.
GDP PPP share world IMF Russia China US 2025
Russia has enormous reserves of natural resources, and is one of the world’s top producers of oil, natural gas, critical minerals, grains, and fertilizer. It is also a major military power, with advanced weapons technologies.
When it comes to manufacturing output, however, there is no comparison. China is by far the world’s leading manufacturing power.
China represented 31% of global manufacturing value added in 2022, according to UN data.
The US made up 16%, compared to just 1.8% for Russia.
Russia’s manufacturing output was a bit lower than Mexico’s, and slightly larger than that of Italy and France.
When it comes to technology, China is the world leader.
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), a hawkish anti-China think tank that is backed by Australia’s military and funded by the Australian government, US State Department, UK Foreign Office, and European Parliament, has frequently fearmongered about China’s rapid technological progress.
In a 2024 report, ASPI lamented that “China has strengthened its global research lead”, and is ahead of the rest of the world in 57 of 64 critical technologies, representing 89% of the total.
China made an enormous leap forward from 20 years before, when it led in only three technologies.
The ASPI report complained that scholars in China now publish more articles in research journals than those of any other country, and engineers and scientists in China apply for more patents than any other nation by far.
China is the only country with large technological firms that can challenge US Big Tech monopolies in Silicon Valley.
This is why the US government has sought to sabotage and ban Chinese technology companies, such as Huawei, TikTok (owned by Chinese firm ByteDance), and DeepSeek, the transformative AI company.
Most fundamentally of all, US officials see China as a threat because it poses a systemic challenge to US-led capitalism.
China has a socialist system, led by a communist party, and it has made enormous progress in recent decades, lifting approximately 800 million people out of poverty. This represented nearly three-quarters of global extreme poverty reduction, according to the World Bank.
China’s GDP (PPP) increased by 75 times from 1984 to 2024, based on IMF data. In the same time period, US GDP rose by seven times.
Meanwhile, it is clear to the world that China continues to grow at a steady rate, whereas the United States faces serious decline, with extreme inequality, severe homelessness, soaring poverty, widespread addiction, mounting debts, and increasing economic and political instability.
This is why Trump complained, “We are a nation in very serious decline”.
Trump hopes that by trying to divide Russia and China, he can weaken Beijing, reverse US decline, and save the US empire.
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$LLLI News: Lamperd Less Lethal Issues Letter to Shareholders on Prospects for Substantial Business Growth in 2025 in the Marketing of Advanced Security Products
Source: https://www.otcmarkets.com/filing/html?id=18269579&guid=RhB-kpwMD3RSJth
SARNIA, ON / March 10, 2025/ Lamperd Less Lethal, Inc. (OTC PINK:LLLI), an innovation leader and manufacturer of advanced security solutions for law enforcement, military and security agencies worldwide, today issued the following letter to shareholders from Company Chairman and CEO Barry Lamperd.
Dear LLLI Shareholders:
Over the past many months our team has been carefully laying the groundwork to lead the Company to a significantly higher revenue return from the marketing of our well proven line of less lethal weapons, munitions, riot shields and other vital security products. The new prospects come from international relationships we have built in multiple countries around the world including The USA, Mexico and Middle East countries where the demands for new and better security solutions have been growing dramatically. Additionally, the present situation with US President Trump imposing substantial tariffs and the resulting counter tariffs, is creating an environment where Lamperd products from Canada are now much more desirable to users within Canada and also in certain other countries like Mexico.
In the Middle East, Lamperd’s Chief Information Officer and International Marketing Representative, Amer Ebied has completed a number of successful trips to key countries including Jordan, UAE and Saudi Arabia. Mr. Ebied has held extensive talks and made presentations with some of the top ranking members of these countries’ governments, law enforcement and military. An important aspect of these efforts was the setting up of local assembly points for Lamperd products so that we can more easily and quickly deliver samples and full orders in the region without having to wait extended periods to obtain export permits in Canada. The feedback from the client prospects we have received has been especially positive on this point.
Mr. Ebied reports that his contacts are all very impressed with the Lamperd product line which reflects decades of intensive research and development work, in conjunction with our University associates, to be the safest and the most effective in the industry today. We are now very optimistic that new orders in the Middle East will begin within the first half of 2025 and that the revenue growth from these new prospects for Lamperd Less Lethal will be far beyond anything we have seen in the Company’s history.
Also, Lamperd has been working closely with our newly signed distributor based in Mexico, Intersec, Inc. Founded in 1974, Intersec is dedicated to meeting the needs of the Defense, Public and Private Security market in North America, Latin America and worldwide. In 2024 Intersec made important connections and presentations for specific Lamperd products which were very favorably received by representatives of the Mexican military establishment. We are now in a good position to reap the benefits of these efforts within the 2025 budget year for orders to commence on Lamperd products to Mexican agencies, processed through our authorized representative, Intersec.
Lamperd has additionally signed a Master Distributor agreement with NAPC Defense, Inc. (OTC Pink: BLIS). This agreement is for sales and distribution of the full Lamperd product line and training services to law enforcement, military and other government authorized agencies in the USA and other countries around the world where NAPC Defense has established customer relations.
NAPC Defense is licensed and approved to broker munitions and military hardware already produced and in inventory at various locations worldwide. NAPC Defense benefits from the ability to bid and win contracts that are set aside in the Defense industry from a vast knowledge of government contracting. Recently NAPC Defense has been presenting Lamperd products at important events including the annual SHOT Show in Las Vegas, NV as well as Police Chief’s Conventions in Jacksonville, FL and Atlantic City, NJ.
Years of intense and cooperative research have been devoted to developing and testing Lamperd Less Lethal munitions products. Now we feel the sleeping giant is ready to bring back a key product that was first introduced in 2017 for the drone market. The purpose is to directly engage and bring down unwanted drones in the air by prop entanglement. Police services that have 40mm launchers are ready to address this increasingly important application and Lamperd inventory will be available for them to buy into this incredible product. Also for the increasingly important anti-drone role, Lamperd is now working on a joint-venture project to develop a launchable electronic interference munition which would disrupt flying drones without direct contact just by entering their flight area and bring them down more intact for retrieval and examination.
In summation, all of us on the Lamperd team, including our administrative, marketing, manufacturing and training personnel, have been working hard to develop new avenues of revenue growth for the Company. We are confident that in this year of 2025, when the need for safe and effective security solutions has never been greater, Lamperd products will begin selling and going to work on the largest scale of our Company’s history as a result of the multiple new and larger marketing avenues we have been putting into place. We look forward to providing more updates on specific contracts and orders in the balance of this year as they are booked.
Sincerely, Barry Lamperd, Chairman and CEO
About Lamperd Less Lethal:
Lamperd Less Lethal, Inc. is a developer, manufacturer and international sales company for advanced less lethal weapons, ammunition and other security products marketed to police, correctional, military and private security forces. The company manufactures and sells over 300 different products including small & large caliber projectile guns, flash-bang devices, pepper spray devices, 12 Gauge, 37mm & 40mm launching systems and a variety of different riot shields. Lamperd also offers advisory services and hands-on training classes run by highly accredited instructors. For more information on Lamperd Less Lethal, Inc. visit: http://www.lamperdlesslethal.com
This press release contains forward-looking statements relating to Lamperd Less Lethal, Inc.
Lamperd Less Lethal, Inc. undertakes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect changed assumptions, the occurrence of unanticipated events or changes in future operating results.
Safe Harbor for Forward-Looking Statements: This news release includes forward-looking statements. While these statements are made to convey to the public the company's progress, business opportunities and growth prospects, readers are cautioned that such forward-looking statements represent management's opinion. Whereas management believes such representations to be true and accurate based on information and data available to the company at this time, actual results may differ materially from those described. The company's operations and business prospects are always subject to risk and uncertainties. Important factors that may cause actual results to differ are and will be set forth in the company's periodic filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Contact: Lamperd Less Lethal, Inc.
Barry Lamperd, President & CEO
(519) 344-4445
Email: info@lamperdlesslethal.com or sales@lamperdlesslethal.com
Company Website: http://www.lamperdlesslethal.com
Lamperd Less Lethal on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lamperdlesslethal
Lamperd Less Lethal on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/LLLI_
LessLethal Barry Lamperd on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/lamperd_llli
>>> Rheinmetall AG (RNMBY) provides mobility and security technologies worldwide. The company operates in five segments: Vehicle Systems, Weapon and Ammunition, Electronic Solutions, Sensors and Actuators, and Materials and Trade.
The Vehicle Systems segment offers combat, logistics, support, and special vehicles, including armored tracked vehicles, CBRN protection systems, artillery, turret systems, and wheeled logistics and tactical vehicles.
The Weapon and Ammunition segment provides firepower and protection solutions, such as weapons and munition, protection systems, propellants and international projects and services.
The Electronic Solutions segment offers a chain of systems network, such as sensors, networking platforms, automated connected effectors for soldiers, and cyberspace protection solutions, and training and simulation solutions. Its products include air defense systems; soldier systems; command, control, and reconnaissance systems; fire control systems; sensors; and simulations for the army, air force, navy, and civil applications.
The Sensors and Actuators segment provides a portfolio of products comprising exhaust gas recirculation systems; throttle valves, control dampers, and exhaust flaps for electromotors; solenoid valves; actuators and valve train systems; oil, water, and vacuum pumps for passenger cars, commercial vehicles, and light and heavy-duty off-road applications; and industrial solutions.
The Materials and Trade segment develops system components for the basic motors, such as engine blocks, structural components, and cylinder heads; plain bearings, and bushes; and replacement parts. It also engages in the aftermarket activities.
The company has a strategic collaboration with Bohemia Interactive Simulations to promote the development of innovative simulation solutions for modern combat training. The company was formerly known as Rheinmetall Berlin AG and changed its name to Rheinmetall AG in 1996. Rheinmetall AG was founded in 1889 and is headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany.
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>>> Thales S.A. (THLLY) provides various solutions in the defence and security, aerospace and space, digital identity and security, and transport markets worldwide. It operates through Aerospace, Defence & Security, Digital Identity & Security, and Ground Transportation Systems business segments. The company offers communications, command, and control systems; mission services and support; protection and mission/combat systems; surveillance, detection, and intelligence systems; training and simulation solutions for air, land, naval, and joint forces; and digital identity and security solutions. It also provides air traffic management solutions; flight decks and avionics equipment and functions; in-flight entertainment, connectivity, and services; drone solutions; aerospace trading solutions; navigation solutions; support and services for civil aviation; and connectivity solutions. In addition, the company designs, operates, and delivers satellite-based systems for telecommunications, navigation, earth observation, environmental management, exploration, and science and orbital infrastructures; signaling, communications and supervision, and fare collection management systems and related services; cybersecurity and railway digitalization systems; and main line rail, and urban and intermodal mobility solutions. Further, it provides solutions for various markets and applications, including radiology, radio frequency, microwave sources, training and simulation solutions, lasers, and microelectronics solutions for science, industry, space, defense, automotive, railways, and energy conversion platforms.
The company was formerly known as Thomson-CSF and changed its name to Thales S.A. in 2000. Thales S.A. was founded in 1893 and is headquartered in Meudon, France.
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>>> BAE Systems plc (BAESY) provides defense, aerospace, and security solutions worldwide. The company operates through Electronic Systems, Platforms & Services, Air, Maritime, and Cyber & Intelligence segments.
The Electronic Systems segment offers electronic warfare systems, navigation systems, electro-optical sensors, military and commercial digital engine and flight controls, precision guidance and seeker solutions, military communication systems and data links, persistent surveillance capabilities, space electronics, and electric drive propulsion systems, as well as spacecraft, ground systems, and mission-enabling technologies.
The Cyber & Intelligence segment provides cyber security activities for national security, central government, and government enterprises.
The Platforms & Services segment manufactures, and upgrades combat vehicles, weapons, and munitions, as well as provides naval ship repair services and the management of government-owned ammunition plants.
The Air segment develops future combat air systems and falconworks.
The Maritime segment provides maritime and land activities, including submarine, ship build, and support programs.
The company was formerly known as British Aerospace plc and changed its name to BAE Systems plc in May 2000. BAE Systems plc was founded in 1970 and is headquartered in Camberley, the United Kingdom.
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>>> Europe announces unprecedented $840 billion rearmament plan to tackle ‘grave’ threats, sending defense giants BAE and Thales soaring
Fortune
by Ryan Hogg
March 4, 2025
https://www.yahoo.com/news/europe-announces-unprecedented-840-billion-115215757.html
Europe’s leaders rallied around Ukraine as the union pledged to beef up defense spending.
Europe laid down the gauntlet as it unveiled a defense plan that could free up €800 billion ($840 billion) to rearm the continent amid the most significant shock to Western international relations in decades.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Tuesday a “ReArm” plan to stock up Europe’s defenses against a looming threat from Russia as the U.S. walks back its military support of Ukraine.
The announcement offered concrete figures on investment following Monday’s pledge by European leaders to beef up their defense capabilities as they rallied around Volodymyr Zelensky.
Europe is reeling from an intense opening two months of the Donald Trump administration, which has left the U.S. set to abandon its position as the West’s peace broker.
In announcing the ReArm plan, von der Leyen spoke candidly about the existential threats Europe will face in the coming years. The EU’s announcement came as the U.S. said it was suspending military aid to Ukraine following a heated argument between Trump and Zelensky in the Oval Office on Friday.
“We are living in the most momentous and dangerous of times. I do not need to describe the grave nature of the threats that we face. Or the devastating consequences that we will have to endure if those threats would come to pass,” von der Leyen said in Brussels.
“Because the question is no longer whether Europe's security is threatened in a very real way. Or whether Europe should shoulder more of the responsibility for its own security. In truth, we have long known the answers to those questions.”
Freeing up the cash to stockpile Europe will require a level of cooperation on defense unprecedented in the EU’s 32-year history.
Each of the bloc’s 27 member states will need to increase their defense spending by an average of 1.5% of GDP, which von der Leyen says would create fiscal headroom of €650 billion over the next four years.
The EU also plans to create a new instrument that would unlock €150 billion ($158 billion) in loans to member states for investment in defense.
Europe’s quest to rearm itself will inevitably leave tough decisions for the region’s policymakers. In announcing an increase in defense spending to 2.5% of GDP, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the country would cut its aid spending to fill the funding gap.
“We will continue working closely with our partners in NATO. This is a moment for Europe. And we are ready to step up,” said von der Leyen.
Defense giants soar higher
As Europe ponders how to ramp up its military budget, shares in Europe’s largest defense contractors, BAE Systems, Rheinmetall, and Thales, soared as the extent of Europe’s renewed defense plans were realized. Collectively, the groups have added around $30 billion in market value since the start of the week.
Thales received an extra boost after announcing earnings on Tuesday, showing an 8.3% increase in revenues in 2024.
In a call with reporters following the company’s results, Thales CEO Patrice Caine said that Europe had the technology to fend for itself on defense, and indicated it has the capacity to meet the region’s growing defense demand.
In February, BAE similarly said it would be able to cope with Europe’s newfound military appetite.
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>>> UBS upgrades TransDigm on margin expansion, capital deployment
Investing.com
February 24, 2025
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ubs-upgrades-transdigm-margin-expansion-185344518.html
Investing.com -- UBS upgraded TransDigm Group Inc, now rated "Buy" from "Neutral," on stabilised aftermarket growth, margin expansion, and increased capital deployment.
The bank forecasts aftermarket growth between 10 and 11%, easing concerns of further deceleration. It also projects EBITDA margins to expand by 100 basis points per year, above consensus estimates of 40-60 basis points, while still conservative compared to historical trends.
“TransDigm is a compounder of earnings organically and inorganically, with a recurring and often sole-source business model. A more M&A friendly environment could be further upside to our numbers,” analyst said.
UBS noted that TransDigm's net leverage of 5X, within its 5-7X target range, could result in $12 billion in available capital by year-end and $24 billion by fiscal 2027.
The price target was raised to $1,595 from $1,502, reflecting higher EBITDA assumptions and a revised 21.0X 5-8 quarter EV/EBITDA multiple.
“We expect aftermarket growth to stabilize and accelerate from F1Q, with above-consensus margin expansion and the potential for a step-up in capital deployment,” analyst at UBS said.
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>>> TransDigm Group Incorporated (TDG) designs, produces, and supplies aircraft components in the United States and internationally.
The Power & Control segment offers mechanical/electro-mechanical actuators and controls, ignition systems and engine technology, specialized pumps and valves, power conditioning devices, specialized AC/DC electric motors and generators, batteries and chargers, databus and power controls, sensor products, switches and relay panels, hoists, winches and lifting devices, delivery systems and electronic components, and cargo loading and handling systems. This segment serves engine and power system and subsystem suppliers, airlines, third party maintenance suppliers, military buying agencies, and repair depots.
The Airframe segment provides engineered latching and locking devices, engineered rods, engineered connectors and elastomer sealing solutions, cockpit security components and systems, cockpit displays, engineered audio, radio and antenna systems, lavatory components, seat belts and safety restraints, engineered and customized interior surfaces and related components, thermal protection and insulation products, lighting and control technology, parachutes, specialized flight, wind tunnel and jet engine testing services and equipment, and testing and instrumentation solutions. This segment serves airframe manufacturers, cabin system and subsystem suppliers, airlines, third party maintenance suppliers, military buying agencies, and repair depots.
The Non-aviation segment offers seat belts and safety restraints; mechanical/electromechanical actuators and controls; hydraulic/electromechanical actuators and fuel valves; refueling systems; and turbine controls. This segment serves off-road vehicle and subsystem suppliers, child restraint system suppliers, and satellite and space system suppliers; and manufacturers of heavy equipment.
TransDigm Group Incorporated was founded in 1993 and is based in Cleveland, Ohio.
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https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/TDG/profile/
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Diego Garcia - >>> Trump says he is likely to accept UK deal on Chagos Islands
Reuters
Elizabeth Piper
February 27, 2025
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-says-likely-accept-uk-195123719.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was inclined to back a deal between Britain and Mauritius over the future of a U.S.-UK military base in the Chagos Islands, in a boost for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Trump signaled his backing for the deal as he met Starmer at the White House for their first in-person talks since the Republican leader upended U.S. policy on a number of areas, from Ukraine to global trade.
Britain struck the agreement in October to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, while retaining control under a 99-year lease of the military base on Diego Garcia, the largest island of the archipelago in the Indian Ocean.
The deal, yet to be finalized with a formal treaty, had the backing of former U.S. President Joe Biden but has been mired in uncertainty since Trump's re-election. Britain had said it would give the Trump administration chance to review the deal before finalizing it.
Sitting beside Starmer in the Oval Office, Trump told reporters the two leaders would discuss the deal at their meeting on Thursday but that he was likely to accept it.
"We're going to have some discussions about that very soon, and I have a feeling it's going to work out very well," Trump said in response to a question about the deal, noting that it contained a "very long, powerful" lease over Diego Garcia.
"I think we'll be inclined to go along with your country," he told Starmer. "It's a little early, we have to be given the details, but it doesn't sound bad."
Trump's remarks will be welcomed by Starmer, who has faced political pressure at home over the cost of the deal and the loss of British sovereignty over the islands.
The deal had come under further uncertainty in recent weeks with Mauritius' new prime minister questioning the details of the agreement and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio raising concerns over China's influence in the region.
When Mauritius became independent from Britain in the 1960s, London retained control of the Chagos Islands and forcibly displaced up to 2,000 people to make way for the Diego Garcia base.
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>>> Ukraine expected to sign a deal with Trump giving U.S. access to its rare minerals—but almost half are impossible to get to
Fortune
by Eleanor Pringle
February 26, 2025
https://www.yahoo.com/news/ukraine-expected-sign-deal-trump-125429823.html
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and President Donald Trump are getting closer to a deal on rare minerals.
Ukraine is nearing a deal to grant the U.S. access to its rare minerals in exchange for continued political and, perhaps, military support, though negotiations face challenges since 40% of these resources are in Russian-occupied territory. With Trump pushing for access to these minerals while also engaging in talks with Russia, Ukraine faces uncertainty over its strategic partnerships as it navigates its war effort and economic future.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is reportedly inching closer to signing a deal that gives the U.S. access to Ukraine’s rare minerals in return for continued political support in its war with Russia.
With the deal unsigned and Ukrainian officials letting little slip—barring brief quotes given to the Financial Times and the BBC—details of what access to such materials could mean for America’s economy and Ukraine’s war efforts are still relatively unknown.
That being said, information about what materials Ukraine has and where they are located presents snags for negotiations. Namely, Ukraine can’t promise access to all its materials when a reported 40% of the minerals are under land currently occupied by Russia.
On top of that, the main motivation for Zelensky agreeing to swap minerals is likely to be in return for military aid from America—which Ukrainian officials say has not been explicitly penciled into the draft.
Despite this, yesterday sources in Kyiv confirmed the terms to share materials—including oil and gas—are almost agreed after months of negotiation.
Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister and justice minister, told the FT that “the minerals agreement is only part of the picture. We have heard multiple times from the U.S. administration that it’s part of a bigger picture.”
The proposal was reportedly first tabled by Zelensky in September, when he shared with the then presidential hopeful a “victory plan.”
Since then negotiations have gone back and forth on whether America would be handed the rare minerals directly, or whether it would have a stake in a fund paid for by proceeds from Ukraine’s resources, per reporting from the FT.
What are the rare minerals President Trump wants to get hold of?
According to the Ukrainian Geological Survey, a central executive body based in Kyiv, the nation’s resource potential for green technology is one of the “richest in the world” courtesy of its rare mineral deposits.
For America—which is seeking to wean itself off a dependency on China for materials to build the likes of EVs, for example—this is an attractive opportunity.
Conveniently, the White House has supported the Ukrainian effort to the tune of more than $100 billion. President Trump seemingly wants to call that debt in, previously requesting access to 50% of its rare minerals.
“Ukraine is among the top 10 producing countries for titanium, zirconium, graphite, and manganese, and also has proven reserves of metals such as lithium, beryllium, rare-earth elements, and nickel,” the Ukrainian Geological Survey adds.
Lithium, magnesium, graphite, and nickel are all core components in building electric vehicle batteries, for example.
But Ukraine’s resource potential also reaches into the industries of defense, tech, aerospace, and green technologies.
Per the World Economic Forum, Ukraine holds 7% of the world’s reserves of titanium, and is “one of the few countries that mine titanium ores, crucial for the aerospace, medical, automotive, and marine industries.”
“Ukraine boasts confirmed deposits of beryllium, which is crucial for nuclear power, aerospace, military, acoustic, and electronic industries, as well as uranium, which is essential for nuclear and military sectors,” the WEF continues.
Are the minerals easy to access?
Zelensky and Ukrainian research bodies have continually warned that the state now doesn’t have access to around half of the resources it previously held.
Given Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, think tank We Build Ukraine, for example, says 40% of the reserves are now inaccessible owing to Russian occupation.
Moreover, the European country has been at war for three years, presenting major infrastructure and safety issues if the resources are to be recovered.
James Cowan, CEO of the HALO Trust, a humanitarian demining organization which is working in Ukraine, warned earlier this month that the nation is now at the mercy of 150,000 square kilometers planted with explosives and mines.
“Any proposals to tap Ukraine’s mineral wealth will need to incorporate a plan for the clearance of the land mines if it is to be remotely viable,” he warned at a security conference.
Russian diplomats are reportedly drawing up proposals to deter America from closer ties to Ukraine—using the minerals under occupation as bait.
NBC reported this week that advisors to President Vladimir Putin had approached the Trump administration about agreeing to terms to access minerals in Donetsk and Zaporizhzhya, two areas which have been annexed by the Russians.
How does this help Ukraine?
The transition of relations from the Biden administration to the Trump team has been a bumpy one for Ukrainian officials.
President Trump has called the Ukrainian politician a dictator and accused him of starting the conflict with Russia.
“Zelensky better move fast or he is not going to have a country left,” the president added on his social media platform, Truth Social. “In the meantime, we are successfully negotiating an end to the war with Russia, something all admit only ‘TRUMP,’ and the Trump administration, can do.”
This message has been parroted by Trump ally and the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, who wrote on X—the social media platform he owns—that: “Either Zelensky holds an election to prove that he represents the will of the people or he is a dictator.”
Trump, meanwhile, has declined to call President Putin a dictator and told media in France earlier this month: “I don’t use those words lightly.”
With billions of dollars in aid and significant political influence over the rest of the world, Washington, D.C., isn’t a friend Ukraine can afford to lose in the face of a continued Russian onslaught.
President Trump’s tone was more accommodating yesterday when discussing military support for Ukraine alongside the raw minerals deal.
He told reporters: “We’ll be looking at security, you’re talking about general security for Ukraine later on. I don’t think that’s going to be a problem, there are a lot of people who want to do it. I spoke with Russia ... they’re not going back in. Once we do this they’re not going back in.”
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>>> Iran boosts stockpile of near-weapons-grade uranium, nuclear watchdog says
The Washington Post
by Susannah George, Karen DeYoung, Warren Strobel
2-26-25
https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/international-relations/iran-boosts-stockpile-of-near-weapons-grade-uranium-nuclear-watchdog-says/ar-AA1zQKud?ocid=TobArticle
PARIS — Iran has substantially expanded production of highly enriched uranium since December, further increasing its stockpile of near-weapons-grade material, according to a person familiar with a report prepared for next week’s meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors.
According to the IAEA report, the stockpile of uranium enriched to 60 percent, just short of the level needed to produce a weapon, has grown by 92.5 kilograms, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the still-confidential report.
The report comes amid growing concerns that Iran may pursue a nuclear weapon in response to the cascade of setbacks Tehran has suffered across the region in recent months. Iran is also under increasing pressure from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who last week promised to “finish the job” against Iran with U.S. support.
President Donald Trump has promised a return to “maximum pressure” against Iran, and this week announced two new rounds of sanctions designed to increase pressure on Iran’s oil industry and exports connected to its unmanned aerial vehicles and ballistic missile programs.
The IAEA findings, first reported by the Associated Press and Reuters, were distributed to member states Wednesday.
Iran maintains that its nuclear program is for peaceful, civilian purposes. But in recent months, Iranian officials have begun discussing changes to the country’s nuclear doctrine in public. A U.S. intelligence report released in December referenced the debate, saying that the country’s position “risks emboldening nuclear weapons advocates within Iran’s decision-making apparatus.”
In Israel, some reporting has suggested that Netanyahu is considering an attack on Iran’s nuclear program.
Sixty percent enrichment is considered just a short step from the 90 percent needed to fuel a nuclear device. Last month, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi warned that the window for a diplomatic resolution to the West’s standoff with Iran may be closing. He said Iran already has enough nuclear material to make “several” bombs.
“The amount is there,” Grossi warned while responding to questions from European lawmakers on Iran’s nuclear program. “One thing is true: They have amassed enough nuclear material for several nuclear weapons, not one at this point.”
In an analysis of a 2024 IAEA report on Iran, researchers at the Institute for Science and International Security concluded that Iran would need roughly one month to further refine its stockpile into weapons-grade fuel.
The IAEA defines 25 kilograms of 90 percent enriched uranium as the threshold amount needed for a weapon. Depending on the bomb design, it can be much less than that.
Documents stolen from Iran by the Israeli government in 2018 revealed that Iran had, by 2003, mastered nearly all the technologies needed to make a simple nuclear weapon. It is believed that Iran has not yet acquired all the skills needed to design a small warhead that could be carried inside a missile.
U.S. intelligence agencies said in a report in November that they assess that Iran is not building an actual nuclear weapon. “Tehran has, however, undertaken activities that better position it to produce one, if it so chooses.”
Robert Einhorn, a former State Department official who worked on Iran nonproliferation policy, said that by surging uranium enrichment, Tehran was giving itself the capability to move more quickly to construct a nuclear weapon, and simultaneously positioning itself for eventual arms negotiations with Western powers.
“Iran believes strongly, for strategic and other reasons, it needs to have a near-weapons capability,” said Einhorn, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “It wants to project the image of a country that could decide at any time to move very quickly to nuclear weapons.”
While there has been growing debate within Iran over becoming a nuclear power, “for now, I think they’re probably content to stay on the other side of the line,” he said.
One thing that could change Iran’s calculus is the possibility of an Israeli strike, potentially with U.S. support, on Iran’s nuclear facilities. The Washington Post reported this month that multiple U.S. intelligence assessments warned that Israel is likely to strike Iran’s nuclear program in the coming months.
The intelligence warned that a preemptive attack would set back Tehran’s program by weeks or perhaps months, but also that it would escalate tensions across the Middle East and renew the prospect of a wider regional conflagration. A U.S. military intelligence report outlined two potential strike options, both of which would probably require U.S. assistance in terms of aerial refueling, and intelligence and surveillance support.
During a visit to Israel last week by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Netanyahu said that “Over the last 16 months, Israel has dealt a might blow to Iran’s terror axis. Under the strong leadership of President Trump … I have no doubt that we can and will finish the job.”
The “job” Netanyahu referred to was Israel’s ongoing attacks and significant weakening of Iranian proxies, including Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and pro-Iranian militias in Iraq in the wake of Hamas’s October 2023 attack on southern Israel. U.S. and Israeli strikes have also targeted Houthi rebels in Yemen, who have launched several missile attacks against Israel.
Iran struck out for the first time directly against Israel with drone and missile attacks in April and October last year. The attacks were repelled by Israeli and U.S. countermeasures and were largely unsuccessful. Israel responded to the October event with 20 strikes inside Iran, targeting its drone and missile program and air defense network.
During his first term, Trump terminated U.S. participation in a nuclear deal with Iran that had imposed strict limits on its uranium enrichment, although his promise to negotiate a “better” deal came to nothing. President Joe Biden’s attempt to negotiate a new nuclear agreement also failed. Trump, who has stepped up U.S. military and diplomatic support for Israel, has now said he is willing to negotiate but is ready to use force to prevent Iran from constructing a nuclear weapon if necessary.
“There’s two ways to stopping them,” he said this month, “with bombs or a written piece of paper. I would love to make a deal with them without bombing them.”
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also early this month, said that talks with the United States were “not smart, wise or honorable.”
In a Tehran news conference Tuesday with his visiting Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said: “We will not negotiate under pressure, threats or sanctions. Therefore, as long as maximum pressure continues in its current form, there will be no possibility of direct negotiations between us and the United States on the nuclear issue.”
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$BLIS: NAPC Defense (OTCPK: BLIS) issues new Progress Report regarding Large Contract with Saudi Arabia, Live-Fire Demos for U.S. based Police and SWAT, Manufacturing update, and more
LARGO, Fla., Dec. 12, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NAPC Defense, Inc., (OTCPK: BLIS) (“NAPC” or “the Company”) announces that the Company is making strong progress on its CornerShot USA weapons systems and other initiatives.
NAPC’s Management believes the Company is well positioned to drive significant revenue and profits in 2025, from its own manufacturing and sale of CornerShot in the United States and Saudi Arabia. NAPC maintains it will also drive revenue through the brokering of arms and munitions, as well as contract work for renovation and clean up, following recent hurricanes in the area.
As previously announced, NAPC received a signed and stamped Letter of Intent from Saudi Arabia for an initial order of 37,000 CornerShot units, valued at (U.S.) $370 million. Management has already conducted critical late-stage meetings and live-fire demonstrations in Saudi Arabia with several military divisions through visits to the country in August and October of 2024.
NAPC Defense has now received a request to complete live fire demonstrations in Saudi Arabia from Saudi Land Forces. The visit is planned to take place between December 29, 2024 and January 12, 2025. The Company previously reported that this upcoming visit would take place last month.
Please see below for a list of current and anticipated NAPC developments, as we enter the New Year:
Following the next phase of the upcoming CornerShot demonstrations in Saudi Arabia, NAPC expects that it will enter final contract negotiations, deposit funding, and initial CornerShot manufacturing. in Q1 of 2025.
NAPC has secured manufacturing facilities for the production of CornerShot USA weapons systems in Pinellas Park, FL. The space is large enough to meet anticipated demand for the near future.
Live-fire demonstrations were recently conducted for St. Petersburg Police and SWAT teams in Pinellas County. New orders from these departments, as well as others, are expected in January 2025.
NAPC Defense has secured booth space #10953 at the upcoming SHOT Show in Las Vegas from January 21-24, 2025. The SHOT Show is the largest and most comprehensive trade show for all professionals involved with the shooting sports, hunting and law enforcement industries.
In addition to over $1.5 million in new hurricane renovation and cleanup work in Pinellas Country, the Company has partnered with another firm in an effort to win an additional $3 million in contracts.
CEO Kenny West stated, “This is truly an exciting time for NAPC Defense. We have laid the groundwork in 2024, and now it’s time to deliver in 2025. We appreciate the ongoing support from our shareholders and investors.”
About NAPC Defense, Inc.
NAPC Defense, Inc. https://www.napcdefense.com/ is an armament sales and production company, fully licensed in the United States, with exclusive rights to produce and sell CornerShot USA weapons systems in the U.S and Saudi Arabia, in addition to brokering arms and munitions throughout the world all with US State Department approval. Additional smaller weapons platforms, a series of ballistics protection technologies and related products are in development or being finalized for sale.
FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS:
This press release and the statements of representatives of NAPC (the "Company") related thereto contain, or may contain, among other things, "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical fact included herein are "forward-looking statements," including any other statements of non-historical information.
These forward-looking statements are subject to significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are often identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "guidance," "projects," "may," "could," "would," "should,’ “believes," "expects," "anticipates,” “estimates," "intends," "plans, “ultimately" or similar expressions. All forward-looking statements involve material assumptions, risks and uncertainties, and the expectations contained in such statements may prove to be incorrect. Investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company's actual results (including, without limitation, NAPC's ability to advance its business, generate revenue and profit and operate as a public company) could differ materially from those stated or anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors, including factors and risks discussed in the periodic reports that the Company files with the SEC. All forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these factors. The Company undertakes no duty to update these forward-looking statements except as required by law.
COMPANY CONTACT:
Kenny West, CEO (754) 242-6272 Ext.713
https://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/ti?nf=OTMxODA3MiM2NjM0MDk5IzIyNjE1MDY=
https://ml.globenewswire.com/media/ZTE0MTNkZDEtNzcyMi00YmU0LTk2YTEtMThmMDA4NDI4NGEwLTEyNzMwNTY=/tiny/NAPC-Defense-Inc-.png Source: NAPC Defense, Inc.
>>> ICE to use Colorado’s Buckley Space Force Base to process, house detained immigrants
by Lauren Penington
The Denver Post
1-29-25
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ice-to-use-colorado-s-buckley-space-force-base-to-process-house-detained-immigrants/ar-AA1y4tZR?ocid=TobArticle
DENVER – Military officials have opened Buckley Space Force Base in Aurora to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to process and temporarily house detained immigrants.
U.S. Northern Command opened the base to ICE on Monday at the request of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, according to a statement provided by military officials to Denver7.
ICE set up a “temporary operations center, staging area and a temporary holding location for the receiving, holding and processing” of detainees, military officials said in the statement.
U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, a Democrat whose congressional district includes Aurora, said Wednesday he was “deeply concerned” about Buckley being used for mass-deportation efforts, and that it “dishonors the service of our troops.”
“Let me be clear: If someone, regardless of immigration status, is committing violent crimes, they have no place in our communities,” Crow said in an emailed statement. “However, the president’s mass deportations are threatening to go after our neighbors, family members, business owners and friends in order to create a narrative that most immigrants are violent criminals. This is simply not true.”
Crow said Aurora and the military can expect his “vigorous oversight” and that he is prepared to oppose the decision in Congress.
ICE now staging at Buckley Space Force Base
The news comes after national media reported ICE raids could start in Aurora as early as Thursday and federal officials said more than 40 undocumented immigrants were arrested in an Adams County raid over the weekend.
For now, Buckley will be staffed by ICE officials and federal special agents and analysts, according to Northern Command’s statement. Military personnel will not be involved in any ICE raids.
ICE also uses a detention center in Aurora that is operated by private prison company The GEO Group under a federal contract. That facility can house more than 1,500 people.
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>>> What Trump’s Victory Means for the Private Prison Industry
The two largest companies that manage detention centers and correctional facilities are poised to profit from aggressive immigration policies.
Brennan Center For Justice
by Lauren-Brooke Eisen
Nov 25, 2024
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/what-trumps-victory-means-private-prison-industry
The stock prices of the country’s two largest publicly traded companies that own and manage prisons and immigrant detention centers soared immediately following Donald Trump’s election as president. Shares in GEO Group and CoreCivic rose again the day after the president-elect announced Tom Homan, who managed immigration enforcement during Trump’s first administration, as his “border czar.” Speaking at the Republican National Convention this summer, Homan said, “I got a message to the millions of illegal aliens that Joe Biden’s released in our country. You better start packing now.”
This is not the first time prison company stocks skyrocketed at the news that Trump would take the Oval Office. When he was elected in 2016, the private prison industry — which analysts had referred to as beleaguered — immediately rebounded. Two weeks later, CNBC reported that an analyst had written in a research note, “The Trump victory was a game changer for these stocks.”
That this is a repeat phenomenon should come as no surprise. Echoing the rhetoric from his first campaign, Trump spent much of his time on the campaign trail over the past few years promising to undertake “the largest deportation operation in the history of our country.” Clearly, the incoming administration’s focus on immigration enforcement provided the confidence investors needed to bet on these stocks, which profit from government contracts for prisons and detention centers.
Two key players in the industry are especially well positioned to thrive under a second Trump term. GEO Group noted in its recent annual report that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement contracts accounts for 43 percent of its revenues. CoreCivic reports that 30 percent of its revenue came from ICE contracts in its most recent annual report. These companies seem well aware that greater gains lie ahead. As GEO Group Executive Chairman George Zoley said on an earnings call on November 7, “The GEO Group was built for this unique moment in our . . . country’s history and the opportunities that it will bring.”
One less obvious but still important benefit is that GEO Group’s and CoreCivic’s transportation subsidiaries are also likely to secure more contracts with the federal government if large-scale deportation efforts move forward. Generally speaking, deportation isn’t an immediate process — many people navigating the vast U.S. immigration infrastructure will need to be transported between facilities and to court hearings. GEO Group’s CEO acknowledged the potential of their transport services on the earnings call, noting, “We believe we have the capabilities to expand the provision of these services to assist ICE in moving several hundreds of thousands of additional individuals if needed.”
Other aspects of the Trump administration’s proposed law enforcement agenda could similarly drive profits for private prison companies. When it comes to “law and order,” Trump’s campaign platform declares that his administration will “increase penalties for assaults on law enforcement, put violent offenders and career criminals behind bars, and surge federal prosecutors and the National Guard into high-crime communities.” Currently, the Department of Justice can’t legally contract directly with for-profit firms to house people awaiting trial or convicted of crimes. But that is most probably about to change.
Recent presidents have followed a pattern of undoing their predecessors’ policies on the DOJ’s for-profit prison contracts. In August 2016, under President Barack Obama, then–Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates sent a memo to the Bureau of Prisons directing it to decline to renew contracts with for-profit firms. Six months later, then-President Trump’s attorney general rescinded the Obama administration’s memo and instructed the Bureau of Prisons to resume contracting with for-profit firms. Then in January 2021, within President Biden’s first days in the White House, he issued an executive order directing the attorney general not to renew DOJ contracts with privately operated criminal detention facilities. Biden’s order took the Obama-era policy a step further by applying it to contracts with not just the Bureau of Prisons but also the U.S. Marshals Service, both of which are within the Justice Department.
We should expect whiplash again, as it is almost certain that President-elect Trump will tear up the existing executive order that resulted in the successful termination of all for-profit contracts at the Bureau of Prisons and many at the Marshals Service.
Beyond merely housing and transporting people who are undocumented, private prison corporations are also poised to profit from supervising undocumented people living in the community. For example, GEO Group’s subsidiary BI Incorporated currently has a contract with ICE for the case management and supervision services that are part of the federal government’s Intensive Supervision and Appearance Program. This often involves phone reporting, GPS monitoring, and surveillance through SmartLINK (which uses facial recognition and other technologies).
On Geo Group’s earnings call, the chief operating officer said, “We expect the incoming Trump administration to take a much more expansive approach to monitoring the several millions of individuals who are currently on the non-detained immigrant docket.” On the same call, the company’s executive chairman explained that when it comes to the Intensive Supervision and Appearance Program, they can “scale up from the present 182,500 participants to several hundreds of thousands or even millions of participants.”
It appears that CoreCivic doesn’t have a contract for this service at the moment, but that could change in the next four years as GEO’s current contract is set to expire in May 2025.
The latest private prison industry stock boom makes clear the sobering reality I discussed in my book, Inside Private Prisons: The mass detention of undocumented individuals is inextricably intertwined with the growth of companies that profit from prisons and detention. To be clear, these corporations are not directly responsible for the country’s immigration policies. From a business perspective, the private prison industry’s services meet a desperate governmental need to find bed space for the increasing number of people the government seeks to detain. The federal government has increasingly outsourced this function to corporations, with more than 90 percent of individuals in immigrant detention housed in facilities owned or managed by for-profit entities as of 2023.
But as many advocates and policymakers have noted over the past few decades, the business model for these for-profit prison firms allows for wild upswings in detention by offering the government vast capacity. So, as we stand on the precipice of an explosion of mass detention, it is critical to acknowledge that if these corporations didn’t exist, it would be difficult for the federal government to execute its plans.
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(ie - a Gulag system)
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>>> BWXT Awarded Historic Manufacturing Contracts to Support Pickering Life Extension and Darlington New Build Projects
Business Wire
January 27, 2025
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bwxt-awarded-historic-manufacturing-contracts-213900330.html
CAMBRIDGE, Ontario, January 27, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BWX Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: BWXT) announced today contracts with a total value of more than C$1 billion for two major nuclear energy projects that will enable Ontario Power Generation’s (OPG) life extension of the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station, and the deployment of a new small modular reactor (SMR) at the Darlington site.
Under the first contract, BWXT will manufacture 48 steam generators at its Cambridge facility for the Pickering life extension program. The project will create more than 250 highly skilled trades positions, including welders, fitters and machinists, as well as add more engineers and supporting staff. The duration of the project will be more than seven years, with a significant portion booked in fourth quarter 2024. BWXT is performing the work for its customer CanAtom, a joint venture between AtkinsRéalis and Aecon.
BWXT also announced a contract to manufacture the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) for customer GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy’s BWRX-300 SMR. The largest component within the technology, the RPV contains the reactor core, coolant and support structures. BWXT is the first manufacturer in North America to begin this type of work for an SMR technology and will play a key role in the deployment of SMRs across Canada and the world. This order was booked in second quarter 2024.
The Province’s Minister of Energy and Electrification Stephen Lecce joined BWXT at its Cambridge, Ontario, facility for the announcement.
"Ontario needs more nuclear energy to meet growing electricity demand, and it’s our province’s highly skilled workers that will make it all possible," said Stephen Lecce, Minister of Energy and Electrification. "I am so pleased to work with companies like BWXT that are investing in Ontario and in our workers, as we continue to cement Ontario’s position as a global leader in new nuclear technologies."
"The BWXT team stands ready to help our customers and Ontario create a future that provides abundant, emissions-free electricity, while increasing sustainable, good-paying jobs for Canada," said John MacQuarrie, president, BWXT Commercial Operations. "We’ve been taking strategic steps to further meet the current and anticipated demand for nuclear power. These significant projects leverage BWXT’s extensive capabilities and specialized expertise in the delivery of large components for the domestic and global nuclear industry."
"The contract to fabricate the reactor pressure vessel for the first BWRX-300 is another key milestone in the deployment of this technology," said Lisa McBride, Canada Country Leader, GEH. "We are excited to be working with BWXT to move this project forward, while bringing benefits to manufacturing workers in Ontario."
The Pickering Life Extension Program is in its initial phases and will enable the Pickering "B" fleet of reactors to operate for an additional 30 years. The work is anticipated to be completed in the mid-2030s. Pickering features four operating CANDU® reactors and accounts for approximately 10% of Ontario’s electricity needs.
"By refurbishing existing assets at Pickering Nuclear, and building SMRs at the Darlington New Nuclear Project, OPG is helping Ontario meet rapidly growing demand for low-carbon, reliable baseload nuclear energy," said Nicolle Butcher, OPG President CEO. "Ontario’s robust nuclear supply chain, including trusted partners like BWXT, will help ensure these large nuclear projects have the components necessary to complete these projects on time, on budget, safely and with quality."
"CANDU technology, as Canada’s only domestically developed, large scale nuclear technology, is a source of national pride," said Joe St. Julian, President, Nuclear, AtkinsRéalis. "We are pleased to continue working with BWXT as a major player in the CANDU supply chain and a proud Canadians for CANDU supporter. The CANDU reactors at OPG are indispensable to providing Ontario with energy security and reliable, clean power to millions of people. Their refurbishment and continued operation helps to support many Ontario jobs."
"The Pickering Refurbishment Project will help ensure the supply of clean, safe, reliable, and affordable electricity for future generations while stimulating the economy and further expanding Ontario’s strong nuclear supply chain. We look forward to safely delivering this critical project and advancing our work with BWXT alongside our client OPG and partner AtkinsRéalis," said Aaron Johnson, Senior Vice President, Nuclear, Aecon Group Inc.
The BWRX-300 scheduled for the OPG Darlington New Nuclear Project is on track to be the first on-grid SMR among G7 nations. The design is a 300-MWe water-cooled, natural circulation SMR with passive safety systems that leverages the design and licensing basis of GEH’s U.S. NRC-certified ESBWR.
Already one of the largest commercial nuclear equipment manufacturing facilities in North America, the BWXT Cambridge facility is undergoing preparatory work for its C$80 million expansion to further support current and anticipated demand for nuclear projects in Ontario and around the world.
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>>> Why CACI International and Other Defense IT Stocks Fell Today
by Lou Whiteman
Motley Fool
January 23, 2025
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-caci-international-other-defense-175611353.html
Government IT investors have been on edge since the U.S. election and the subsequent announcement of the waste-cutting initiative that Donald Trump calls the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)
This earnings season provides sector leaders a platform to comment on the potential impact, and an initial attempt to do so appears not to have provided much comfort.
Shares of CACI International (NYSE: CACI) traded down as much as 10% on Thursday morning following the company's earnings release, and were down 5% as of 11 a.m. ET. Shares of rivals Leidos Holdings (NYSE: LDOS) fell as much as 8%, and Booz Allen Hamilton (NYSE: BAH) and Science Applications International (NASDAQ: SAIC) fell as much as 7% apiece, as investors pondered what the future holds for this sector.
An uncertain future
CACI, Leidos, SAIC, and Booz Allen are four of the largest so-called "Beltway Bandits," or companies that run IT networks and provide other services to military and civilian government agencies. Investors aren't certain whether the new administration's talk of streamlining government will be a positive or negative to the sector: It could mean more outsourcing opportunities, or it could mean a slowdown in contract spending.
CACI beat top- and bottom-line estimates in its fiscal second quarter ending Dec. 31, but the focus was more on what is to come. The company made its case that its strategy is "purpose-built" for DOGE, noting that CACI already has several contracts to implement software to modernize government agencies and make them more efficient.
"We don't need to ask to be included in this transformation; we are already leading it," the company said in its presentation to investors.
But the post-earnings call spooked investors instead of reassuring them, sending shares of CACI down sharply and leading Leidos, SAIC, and Booz Allen shares down in sympathy. The most likely culprit was talk of changing the way the government awards contracts.
Currently, a significant portion of defense IT work is arranged as "cost-plus" contracts, meaning the contractor has assurances they will receive full reimbursement for their expenses, plus some amount of profit margin. There has been talk of DOGE shifting awards to fixed-price, where the contractor has more responsibility for any cost overruns that might zap profitability.
CACI management seemed to acknowledge such a shift was possible. CEO John Mengucci argued that in areas where CACI has operated in the past, the company is well positioned to know its costs beforehand and can still generate strong profits in a fixed-price world.
Are defense IT stocks buys right now?
Lost in some of the speculation was the fact that CACI produced a strong quarterly beat and raised its full fiscal-year earnings and revenue expectations. The company ended the period with a backlog of $31.8 billion in future business, up 18% from $26.9 billion a year ago.
The concerns are understandable, and defense IT investors should expect continued volatility from here as the market deals with the uncertainties created by the transition in Washington. But as CACI shows, the industry has a strong backlog of future business, as well as the opportunity to play a significant role in whatever transformation occurs.
For those interested in defense stocks and have the patience to ride out near-term volatility, these dips could be buying opportunities.
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>>> The Walls Close in on Zelensky
by Jim Rickards
Jan 10, 2025
https://dailyreckoning.com/the-walls-close-in-on-zelensky/
The walls are closing in on Ukraine’s President Zelensky.
In a meeting with allies in Germany this week, the embattled leader requested NATO troops on the ground in Ukraine.
“Our goal is to find as many instruments as possible to force Russia into peace. I believe that such deployment of partners’ contingents is one of the best instruments. Let’s be more practical in making it possible.”
Nothing about this proposal is “practical”. Even if Zelensky is speaking about peacekeeping troops as part of a settlement, which isn’t clear, it’s still a fundamentally crazy idea. Simply put, it would bring us to the brink of nuclear war.
Of course, this isn’t the first time Zelensky has suggested that NATO should send troops to fight and die in this war. But this latest instance is noteworthy because it comes just ahead of President Trump’s inauguration.
Given the circumstances, the move signals desperation.
Trump Stands Firm
President Trump has stood his ground on this issue thus far.
Just this week he acknowledged that NATO’s courtship of Ukraine was a major cause of the war, noting that if Ukraine were to join the Western military alliance, “then Russia has somebody right on their doorstep, and I could understand their feelings about that.”
Trump correctly blames Biden for promising Ukraine NATO membership and escalating the war.
In early December, Trump’s team conveyed the message that Ukraine would need to make major concessions to end the war. Those concessions will probably involve giving up land already captured by Russia, agreeing to a form of disarmament, and pledging to never join NATO.
This was an important shift, as it became clear even to the biggest hawks that Ukraine wasn’t going to recapture much, if any lost territory. And forget about Crimea.
Trump’s views on Ukraine are certainly unique in Washington D.C., But his base is ready for the war to end, and this issue was one of the keys to his landslide victory.
Meanwhile, it’s unclear whether Zelensky and the Ukrainian deep state would agree to such concessions. It’s also unclear whether they truly have a say in the matter, unless they’re prepared to go it alone against Russia.
But it’s also not clear if Russia would agree to such a deal. Putin could insist upon an end to sanctions on Russia, and a return of their frozen assets.
There’s also a chance that Russia won’t want to give Ukraine a break to re-arm itself. NATO has already pulled a fast one on Russia once, during the Minsk accords from 2014-2021. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has admitted this peace deal was in actuality a stall tactic to give Ukraine more time to build its military capabilities.
So President Putin may want to press the attack, eliminate Ukraine’s military capabilities, and gain more territory. Russia is advancing along almost the entire frontline. Its use of hypersonic missiles, artillery, drones, and guided glide bombs has devastated Ukrainian strongholds.
Ukrainian forces have been forced to fall back into far less favorable defensive positions, and this does not bode well for their outlook.
True Costs
The waste of life in this conflict is exponentially larger than the public has been told. In December of 2024, President Zelensky claimed that only 43,000 of his nation’s troops had been killed in the war so far.
In truth, upwards of 600,000 Ukrainian soldiers have likely died. On paper, the Ukrainian army is over one million strong. But across the line, foxholes are empty. Where are all the soldiers?
Russia has likely lost at least 100,000 soldiers KIA as well, though they haven’t released any specific numbers.
When the truth about this war comes out, it will shock anyone who is still paying attention at that point.
Make no mistake. Trump has his work cut out for him. But he is the only person in the world today who stands a chance at ending this war.
I believe he’ll get it done. But the cost in terms of geopolitical capital may be high.
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Latest Israeli submarine -
Ruger vrs S+W -
Of the two, Ruger (RGR) has much better numbers compared to SWBI (see below). Market caps are both under 1 bil, so are microcaps by my criteria. Compared to most microcaps, both RGR and SWBI are well established, have strong brands, etc, so investors could do a lot worse, and they are currently out of favor -
Market Cap -
RGR ---- 605 mil
SWBI --- 478 mil
Margins -
RGR ---- 21%, 30%
SWBI --- 7%, 1%
ROA / ROE -
RGR ---- 32%, 50%
SWBI --- 5%, 9%
Revenue -
RGR ---- 731 mil
SWBI --- 510 mil
Rev Gro -
RGR ---- 54%
SWBI --- (23%)
Net Income -
RGR ---- 156 mil
SWBI --- 34 mil
Earnings Growth -
RGR ---- 139%
SWBI --- N/A
Cash / Debt -
RGR ---- 174 mil / 2 mil
SWBI --- 36 mil / 108 mil
Cash Flow -
RGR ---- 175 mil, 105 mil
SWBI --- 35 mil, (40 mil)
Div Payout Ratio -
RGR ---- 43%
SWBI --- 66%
Shorts -
RGR ---- 4%, 4%
SWBI --- 4%, 4%
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>>> U.S. Congress halts Ukraine aid, awaits Trump's directives
MSN
Story by MZU
12-5-24
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/u-s-congress-halts-ukraine-aid-awaits-trump-s-directives/ar-AA1vhFFC?ocid=TobArticle
Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson stated that the current Congress will not pass a new aid package for Ukraine in the coming weeks, as proposed by the Biden administration. Johnson announced that he would wait for Donald Trump to be sworn in and for his instructions.
The Biden administration requested the inclusion of $24 billion in the budget to support Ukraine, with $16 billion allocated to replenish U.S. arsenals and $8 billion for purchasing new weapons for Kyiv. Johnson stated that the situation in Ukraine is changing rapidly and decisions on this matter should belong to the new president.
"I do not plan to do this. I think changes are occurring every hour in Ukraine, and—as we predicted, and as I told you a few weeks before the elections—if Donald Trump is elected, it will change the dynamics of the Russia-Ukraine war. And we are seeing that happening. So, it's not Joe Biden's role to make such decisions," said Johnson during a press conference.
"We have a newly elected president, and we will wait and follow the guidance of the new commander-in-chief. Therefore, I do not expect any funding for Ukraine right now," he added.
Gridlock in the U.S.: waiting for Trump on Ukraine
Last week, Trump chose retired General Keith Kellogg as a special envoy for Russia and Ukraine.
This spring, Kellogg published an article suggesting a ceasefire and the start of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia. The general emphasized that the current situation is unsustainable and a battlefield reset is necessary. "Something needs to be done because the current situation is unsustainable," he said.
Kellogg assured that his plan does not mean Ukraine agreeing to lose territory. He emphasized that Trump would threaten Russia by providing Ukraine with a "considerable" amount of weaponry if they do not agree to a ceasefire. "We have plenty of things in our stockpiles that we can get rid of," the general said.
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>>> Syrian rebels close in on Damascus as Assad government's forces melt away
A Syrian rebel coalition led by Salafist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has pushed government forces out of the southern provinces of Quneitra, Sweida, and Daraa.
Tag24 News
12-7-24
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/syrian-rebels-close-in-on-damascus-as-assad-government-s-forces-melt-away/ar-AA1vrvYf?ocid=TobArticle
Damascus, Syria - The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has almost completely lost control of the southern part of the war-torn country as rebel forces close in on Damascus.
The government's troops have withdrawn from their positions in the southern provinces of Quneitra, Sweida, and Daraa, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
The southern province of Daraa is now completely controlled by the rebel alliance led by Salafist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), after government forces retreated from security checkpoints and military outposts there, it added.
Advancing forces "have begun the final phase of encircling the capital," commander Hassan Abdel Ghani was quoted by AFP as saying, as the Syrian army reportedly began abandoning areas just outside of Damascus.
The Syrian army denied these reports, although it confirmed the withdrawal from both Daraa – considered the cradle of the 2011 uprising against Assad's rule – and Sweida.
"Our forces operating in Daraa and Sweida carried out a redeployment and repositioning... after terrorist elements attacked the army's checkpoints and posts far apart," the military said in a statement carried by the official Syrian news agency SANA.
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>>> Russian Ships Leave Tartus Naval Base as Opposition Forces Advance
MSN
by Camilla Jessen
12-4-24
https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/world/russian-ships-leave-tartus-naval-base-as-opposition-forces-advance/ar-AA1veNFr?ocid=TobArticle&cvid=96da445deb34431be811d3fd7beb3ed3&ei=67
The Russian Navy has withdrawn several ships from the Tartus naval base in Syria after opposition forces made gains in Aleppo province and nearby areas. Satellite images shared by Radio Svoboda confirm the movement of these ships, sparking concerns about the future of the base.
Details of the Departure
Analyst MT Anderson reported that the ships leaving Tartus include:
Two Project 22350 frigates (Admiral Gorshkov and Admiral Golovko),
One Project 11356R frigate (Admiral Grigorovich),
A Project 636 submarine (Novorossiysk),
And two supply ships, Vyazma and Elnia.
It is believed the ships left on December 2.
The Russian Ministry of Defense claims the move was for training exercises, but analysts see it as a response to the growing threat in the region.
As of December 3, opposition forces are reported to be around 75 kilometers from Tartus, according to open-source intelligence (OSINT) analysts.
The destination of the ships remains unclear.
Russia 'Ready For Ukraine-Like' Strikes Against Syrian Rebels; Putin's Big Announcement
They may return to Tartus if the situation stabilizes, but if the base becomes unsafe, the fleet could relocate to more secure waters, such as the Baltic Sea.
Importance of Tartus Base
Tartus is Russia’s key naval base on Syria’s Mediterranean coast and has been strategically important for decades. Established in 1971 by the Soviet Union, the base became a Russian asset after the USSR’s collapse. It served as a simple refueling stop until 2012, when Russia upgraded it to handle larger ships.
The base has been critical for Russia’s military presence in the Mediterranean, especially during the Syrian civil war and in recent years as a hub for supporting its military operations in the region.
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>>> Ukraine urges NATO to issue membership invitation next week, Reuters reports
by Kateryna Denisova
The Kyiv Independent
November 29, 2024
https://www.yahoo.com/news/ukraine-urges-nato-issue-membership-174912616.html
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha asked his NATO counterparts to invite Ukraine to join the alliance during a meeting in Brussels next week, Reuters reported on Nov. 29, citing a letter received.
"I urge you to endorse the decision to invite Ukraine to join the Alliance as one of the outcomes of the NATO Foreign Ministerial Meeting on Dec. 3-4," Sybiha wrote.
Kyiv submitted its application to join NATO in September 2022, and in July 2024, the alliance affirmed Ukraine's "irreversible path to full Euro-Atlantic integration, including NATO membership" — although Ukraine has not received any definitive news about its future accession.
According to Sybiha, a NATO invitation will become "the Allies' adequate response to Russia's constant escalation of the war it has unleashed."
He mentioned "tens of thousands" of North Korean soldiers involved in the full-scale war and a recent attack against Ukraine with Oreshnik, Russia's new intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM).
"We believe that the invitation should be extended at this stage," the minister wrote.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has repeatedly called on partners to issue a membership invitation to Kyiv, said that Ukraine will join NATO only after Russia's full-scale war ends.
However, inviting Kyiv to the alliance now would demonstrate to Russian President Vladimir Putin that he failed to achieve one of his main goals — to prevent Kyiv from joining NATO, Reuters reported, citing the letter.
In mid-October, Zelensky unveiled his five-point victory plan, which includes Kyiv's invitation to join NATO placed at the top of the list. U.S. Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith said in October that the alliance does not currently have such plans.
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>>> Iran plans new uranium-enrichment expansion, IAEA report says
Reuters
by Francois Murphy
11-29-24
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/exclusive-iran-plans-new-uranium-enrichment-expansion-iaea-report-says/ar-AA1uWEzc?ocid=TobArticle
VIENNA (Reuters) -Iran has informed the U.N. nuclear watchdog that it plans to install more than 6,000 extra uranium-enriching centrifuges at its enrichment plants and bring more of those already in place online, a confidential report by the watchdog said on Thursday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency report seen by Reuters details what Iran meant when it said it would add thousands of centrifuges in response to a resolution against it that the IAEA's 35-nation Board of Governors passed last week at the request of Britain, France, Germany and the United States.
More enrichment capacity means Iran can enrich uranium more quickly, potentially increasing the nuclear proliferation risk. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons but Western powers say there is no civil explanation for enriching uranium to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% that is weapons grade, which no other country has done without producing a nuclear bomb.
The only enrichment level specified for new centrifuges was 5% purity, far from the 60% Iran is already producing. The lower purity, particularly at its Fordow site, could be seen as a conciliatory move by Iran as it seeks common ground with European powers before the return of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, though enrichment levels can be changed easily later.
Iran already has well over 10,000 centrifuges operating at two underground plants at Natanz and Fordow and an above-ground pilot plant at Natanz. The report outlined plans to install 32 more cascades, or clusters, of more than 160 machines each and a massive cascade of up to 1,152 advanced IR-6 machines.
At the same time, the number of cascades Iran plans to install vastly outnumbers those that are already installed and that Iran said it would now bring online by feeding them with uranium feedstock, which the IAEA verified it had yet to do.
"The Agency has determined and shared with Iran the changes required to the intensity of its inspection activities at FFEP (Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant) following the commissioning of the cascades," the report said, referring to Iran's plan to bring eight recently installed IR-6 cascades there online.
Fordow is particularly closely watched because it is dug into a mountain and Iran is currently enriching to up to 60% there. The only other plant where it is doing that is the above-ground Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant at Natanz.
REBUFFED
Just before last week's quarterly meeting of the IAEA board, Iran offered to cap its stock of uranium enriched to up to 60%, but diplomats said it was conditional on the board not passing a resolution against Iran.
Although the IAEA verified Iran was slowing enrichment at that highest level and called it "a concrete step in the right direction", the board passed the resolution regardless, repeating a call on Iran to improve cooperation with the IAEA.
Thursday's report said Iran had finished installing the last two cascades of IR-2m centrifuges in a batch of 18 at its vast underground Fuel Enrichment Plant at Natanz, and that it planned to bring all 18 online, though the IAEA verified on Nov. 26 that no uranium had been fed into them.
Iran also told the agency it intended to install 18 extra cascades of IR-4 centrifuges at that Natanz plant, each with 166 machines, the report said.
At the above-ground pilot plant at Natanz, Iran informed the IAEA it planned to take various steps that suggested it would increase the number of full, rather than small or intermediate, cascades there, which could produce more enriched uranium.
It also said it planned to install one cascade of up to 1,152 IR-6 centrifuges at that pilot plant, which could be the biggest cascade by far in Iran yet.
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Rickards - >>> Biden Pokes the Bear
By James Rickards
November 20, 2024
https://dailyreckoning.com/biden-pokes-the-bear/
Biden Pokes the Bear
With just 2 months left in office, President Biden and his handlers have decided to poke the bear once again.
The New York Times reports that the Biden admin has given Ukraine the greenlight to strike deep into Russian territory using American missiles. The new rules will apparently allow Ukraine to strike into the Kursk region of Russia, where Ukraine has invaded, and possibly beyond.
On Tuesday, the first strikes were completed. Ukraine launched a number of missiles at an arsenal in Russia’s Bryansk region, reportedly destroying it.
The strike was conducted using US ATACMS ballistic missiles, which have a range of up to 190 miles. In the next few weeks or months Ukraine may also receive Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles (JASSM), according to a Reuters report from last month.
JASSMs are American air-launched cruise missiles with a large 1,000-pound warhead and range of up to 575 miles in the extended-range version. The standard version has a range of approximately 260 miles. It is unclear which version of the JASSM Ukraine will receive.
Even before the Bryansk strikes, Ukrainian President Zelensky confirmed the NYT reporting on deep strikes, stating, “Attacks are not carried out with words; these things are not announced. The missiles will speak for themselves – they certainly will.”
Last month, President Putin made his opinion on the matter clear. He said that such long-range missile strikes would mean direct NATO involvement in the conflict, as US personnel would ultimately need to target and fire the missiles into Russia.
To be clear, Ukraine already is firing such missiles at Russian targets in formerly Ukrainian areas such as Crimea. But these areas have proven to be hard targets, as they are well-defended by Russian surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) and electronic warfare (EW) systems.
Now Russia will be forced to defend a much larger area from missile threats. Staging areas and ammo depots would come under greater threat. Several Russian cities would also be in range.
Putin may retaliate against NATO members in times and places of his choosing. Retaliation may include cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure, interdiction of shipping traffic in the Black Sea and the use of proxies in Syria, Lebanon and North Korea to attack U.S. forces or to stir regional animosities. Putin can also turn off oil and natural gas shipments to Europe at will. Iran and China stand ready to assist Russia in her efforts. Most importantly, he also leaves the nuclear option open. In all events, Biden’s blunder and Putin’s response keep the world on a path toward World War III.
Trump will be sworn in soon, and only then will a true negotiation process begin. Had Kamala won, however, there would be a much greater cause for concern.
But even with Trump incoming, the immediate result of this escalation will be more bloodshed and hardship on both sides. Russia is advancing all along the frontline and is carrying out devastating attacks on the Ukrainian energy grid. The country may accelerate its attacks if missiles are fired deep into Russia.
The approaching winter is set to be a hard one for the citizens of Ukraine.
Deep State Kicks and Screams
Trump will enter office with the expectation that he will end the war in Ukraine. In a recent Newsweek poll, 67% of Trump voters said the US should “stop” or “reconsider” support for Ukraine.
On numerous occasions, Trump has said he would bring a rapid conclusion to the war.
And I continue to believe he will begin the process as soon as possible. But the war may not end immediately, as this last-minute provocation by the Biden administration will hamper the process.
It’s clear that the deep state is not ready to concede the war in Ukraine. They mistakenly believe it can still be won. But the truth is America hasn’t won a war in a long time.
Recent American interventions have mostly been stalemates or failures. America has lost its industrial edge, exporting the bulk of our manufacturing capacity. And while we focused on fighting rebels and extremists, the rest of the world has been preparing for peer-to-peer conflicts.
We are behind on hypersonic missiles and drones. America’s advantage in strategic intelligence assets such as satellite networks is intact but eroding.
The US retains the advantage when it comes to AI and microchips. We’ve cut off adversaries’ access to high-end AI hardware. But this advantage won’t last forever. China and others now have strong incentives to develop their own technology. The restrictions will slow them down by up to a decade, but will ultimately fail.
A Multipolar World
The world is entering a multipolar era, meaning that America’s time as the lone hegemon is ending. This applies to both the military and financial worlds.
The BRICS are expanding and constructing their own parallel financial system, complete with SWIFT, IMF, and World Bank equivalents.
Eventually, the BRICS will launch their own currency, but as I’ve mentioned, this will take time to play out. They are currently building the foundation of a parallel system.
For now, they are making progress on becoming “dollar-resistant”. Their goal is to eventually become “dollar-proof”. If Trump plays his cards right, the Global South may be slowed or even dissuaded from this path.
Regardless of how it plays out, the period we are entering promises to be disruptive. It’s a good thing that Trump will oversee it. He’s a tough negotiator capable of dealing with foreign leaders. Look what he did with North Korea during his first term. His diplomacy backed us off from a dangerous collision course.
Today Trump is set to reintroduce statesmanship to the White House, and we’ll all be better off for it.
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Rickards - >>> Playing Nuclear Chicken
By James Rickards
November 27, 2024
https://dailyreckoning.com/playing-nuclear-chicken/
Playing Nuclear Chicken
We continue to climb steadily up the World War III escalation ladder.
Last week, Biden foolishly gave Ukraine the green light to strike deep into Russian territory using U.S. missiles.
Now Russia has responded, as Putin promised they would.
On November 21st Russia launched a new hypersonic missile known as the Oreshnik. It is a unique weapon designed to send a clear message.
The Oreshnik utilizes a system similar to MIRV (multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle) technology common on nuclear ICBMs.
This new missile has 6 warheads which each have 6 submunitions. That’s 36 projectiles per missile in total.
Here is a still shot of one of the sets of 6 submunitions just before reaching its target.
It is important to note that the projectiles are not glowing due to rocket engines firing. The warheads separated from the booster engine at a much higher altitude and are now gliding.
The submunitions are glowing due to the plasma bubble created by friction against the dense atmosphere at speeds of around Mach 10 (7,600 mph). That’s 2.1 miles per second.
At such speeds, even if the Oreshnik’s submunitions lack significant explosive payloads, the kinetic energy alone would make for an effective strike asset. This is similar to the sci-fi weapon concept colloquially known as “rods from God”, in which inert tungsten rods are flung down from orbit.
The U.S. and NATO have no defense against the Oreshnik. Targeting 36 independent projectiles traveling at 7,600 mph is a fool’s errand. Striking the missile before the warheads separate is also unlikely, as it has a variable-speed solid rocket engine which makes its trajectory unpredictable.
This new missile adds to Russia’s impressive hypersonic arsenal:
Kinzhal – Mach 10 air-launched ballistic missile
Zircon – Mach 9 ship-launched cruise missile
Iskander – Mach 7 ground-launched ballistic missile
R-37M – Mach 6 air-to-air missile
Each of these weapons is fully operational, in full production, and has been used successfully during the Ukraine war. To date, these weapons have only been used with conventional explosives. But the first three can also be armed with nuclear warheads.
NATO air defenses have not found much if any, success against Russian hypersonics. And with new options such as the Oreshnik, which would likely target air defenses and ballistic missile sites, the balance in conventional weaponry in Ukraine has moved further in Russia’s favor.
Meanwhile, the U.S. is struggling to get our first hypersonic conventional missile, the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW), in service. The U.S. has long worked on hypersonic missiles, but the engineering challenges are extreme. Traveling at speeds of Mach 5+ generates massive amounts of heat and friction.
America’s bloated defense sector has been unable to meet the requirements so far. Hopefully, Trump finds success in revitalizing our military-industrial complex. Otherwise, we will continue to fall behind.
Nuclear Options
As Biden goads Russia, he is implicitly relying on America’s nuclear weapons stockpile as a deterrent. At this point, we cannot match Russia when it comes to conventional missile technology.
So when Biden willingly crosses Russia’s red lines, he is counting on the threat of American nuclear weapons to prevent full-out war. He also appears to be attempting to sabotage President Trump’s promise to end the war in Ukraine.
This is incredibly reckless behavior. One major problem is that Russia has an even larger and more modern nuclear arsenal.
If Moscow or a nuclear power plant is targeted by Ukraine using American missiles, there is a possibility that Russia retaliates with a nuclear strike. We are in essence calling their bluff. And they need to preserve their own defense deterrence posture, or they could look weak.
From there, things could get very ugly very quickly.
In a nuclear war, there are no winners. Biden and his handlers are playing a dangerous game. They are gambling with hundreds of millions of lives.
All of this is simply to drag out another unwinnable conflict. Have we learned nothing from the War on Terror? America’s reign as a lone superpower is over. That’s a reality that needs to sink in so U.S. policy can adapt accordingly.
The sooner the Deep State realizes this, the better off we’ll all be.
The lessons of the Cuban Missile Crisis were clear. Lesson One is to avoid escalation. Lesson Two is that if escalation begins, it’s crucial to de-escalate. Failure to abide by these lessons is a straight path to nuclear war.
Russia has signaled that it is ready to begin immediate negotiations with the Trump administration. Trump’s upcoming presidency may be the only thing preventing WW3.
Inauguration Day can’t come fast enough.
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>>> ZenaTech signed Blue UAS, NDAA compliant partner agreements for supply chain
TipRanks
November 22, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/zenatech-signed-blue-uas-ndaa-124630710.html
https://www.tipranks.com/news/the-fly/zenatech-signed-blue-uas-ndaa-compliant-partner-agreements-for-supply-chain
ZenaTech (ZENA) announces that it has signed Blue Unmanned Aerial Systems, UAS, and US National Defense Authorization Act, NDAA, compliant partner agreements for its supply chain in order to sell its ZenaDrone 1000 AI drone solutions to US Defense branches and to NATO forces. Through its subsidiary ZenaDrone, the Company recently participated in a Taiwan Trade Mission organized by the Arizona Commerce Authority, ACA, that directly resulted in these partnerships. ZenaTech can now confirm that all ZenaDrone’s electrical components and supply chain will comply with NDAA standards. ZenaDrone previously completed paid trials with both the US Air Force and US Naval Research using its drones for carrying critical cargo — such as blood — in the field.
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$LLLI News: Lamperd Less Lethal Receives New Order for Crowd Control Aerial Burst Pepper Rounds from Major Police Agency
Source:
https://www.otcmarkets.com/filing/html?id=17982774&guid=TAY-kaxQtUxpJth
SARNIA, ON / November 18, 2024/ Lamperd Less Lethal, Inc. (OTC PINK:LLLI), an innovation leader and manufacturer of advanced security solutions for law enforcement, military and security agencies worldwide, has just received a new order for its versatile 37mm Aerial Burst Pepper Rounds (Model Number PT750AB) from a major North American police agency.
Lamperd Aerial Burst munitions are ideal for unruly crowd control and riot response as they can deliver a potent pepper compound directly above a target area covering 200 square feet with no harmful debris dropped on the crowd. This capability makes Lamperd Aerial Burst Pepper rounds an exceptional tool for police to deal with situations of public unrest in a very effective way with the least risk of harm to anyone involved. Lamperd Less Lethal has developed this important product in conjunction with the University of Western Ontario under the most stringent and well documented research and quality control manufacturing processes.
Barry Lamperd, CEO of Lamperd Less Lethal commented, “Our company has a long history of supplying police agencies all over the world with the very best options in less lethal security products which have always met the highest standards for product quality, reliability and safety. This latest order is another testament to the value and versatility of the Lamperd product line which has helped keep the peace and prevent unnecessary harm in many different countries for decades. We are very proud to be able to state that in all of our company history, no one has ever been killed or even seriously injured by any Lamperd Less Lethal product.”
About Lamperd Less Lethal:
Lamperd Less Lethal, Inc. is a developer, manufacturer and international sales company for advanced less lethal weapons, ammunition and other security products marketed to police, correctional, military and private security forces. The company manufactures and sells over 300 different products including small & large caliber projectile guns, flash-bang devices, pepper spray devices, 12 Gauge, 37mm & 40mm launching systems and a variety of different riot shields. Lamperd also offers advisory services and hands-on training classes run by highly accredited instructors. For more information on Lamperd Less Lethal, Inc. visit: http://www.lamperdlesslethal.com
Contact: Lamperd Less Lethal, Inc.
Barry Lamperd, President & CEO
(519) 344-4445
Email: info@lamperdlesslethal.com or sales@lamperdlesslethal.com
Company Website:
http://www.lamperdlesslethal.com
Lamperd Less Lethal on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/lamperdlesslethal
Lamperd Less Lethal on Twitter:
https://www.twitter.com/LLLI_LessLethal
Barry Lamperd on Twitter:
https://www.twitter.com/lamperd_llli
$BLIS (NAPC Defense) has issued 4 extremely positive announcements recently. These include a signed LOI on a $370 Million defense contract in the Middle East (See Oct. 22nd news below).
Oct. 29, 2024: NAPC Defense and Lamperd Less Lethal form Partnership for Security Products Marketing in The USA and Worldwide
https://www.morningstar.com/news/globe-newswire/9263212/napc-defense-and-lamperd-less-lethal-form-partnership-for-security-products-marketing-in-the-usa-and-worldwide
Oct. 25, 2024: NAPC Defense (OTCPK: BLIS) to Demonstrate Corner Shot and Attend SWAT Round-Up 2024 as a Convention Exhibitor
The Company Plans to Meet with leading SWAT Team Members, Law Enforcement Officers, Military Personnel, and other Industry Experts
https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-release/2024/10/25/2969429/0/en/NAPC-Defense-OTCPK-BLIS-to-Demonstrate-Corner-Shot-and-Attend-SWAT-Round-Up-2024-as-a-Convention-Exhibitor.html
Oct. 24, 2024: NAPC Defense (OTCPK: BLIS) Awarded in Excess of $1 Million in Clean-up Contracts following Hurricanes Helene and Milton
The Company is Working on Additional Potential Restoration and Clean-up Contracts
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/napc-defense-otcpk-blis-awarded-120500313.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw&tsrc=twtr
Oct. 22, 2024: NAPC Defense, Inc. (OTCPK: BLIS) issues Progress Report regarding Large Contract with Saudi Arabia
https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2024/10/22/2966948/0/en/NAPC-Defense-Inc-OTCPK-BLIS-issues-Progress-Report-regarding-Large-Contract-with-Saudi-Arabia.html
>>> Biden approves Ukraine’s use of long-range U.S. weapons inside Russia, reversing policy
The Washington Post
by Ellen Nakashima, Michael Birnbaum, John Hudson, Alex Horton
11-17-24
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/biden-approves-ukraine-s-use-of-long-range-us-weapons-inside-russia-reversing-policy/ar-AA1uf7RX?ocid=TobArticle
President Joe Biden has authorized Ukraine to use a powerful American long-range weapon for limited strikes inside Russia in response to North Korea’s deployment of thousands of troops to aid Moscow’s war effort, according to two senior U.S. officials.
The easing of restrictions on allowing Kyiv to use the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, to hit targets inside Russia is a significant reversal in U.S. policy and comes as some 10,000 elite North Korean troops have been sent to Kursk, a region of Russia along Ukraine’s northern border, to help Moscow’s forces retake territory gained by Ukraine.
The Biden administration fears that more North Korean special forces units could follow in support of this effort.
The move precedes by two months the return to the White House of President-elect Donald Trump, who has signaled he intends to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, though without offering details of how he will do so.
One U.S. official said the move is in part aimed at deterring Pyongyang from sending more troops. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un must understand that the initial deployment has been a “costly” mistake, said the official, who like others interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.
The initial Ukrainian effort is expected to focus on and around the Kursk region, though it could expand, according to the official and another person familiar with the matter.
The White House and Pentagon declined to comment. Ukraine’s presidential office declined to comment.
Until recently, the Biden administration was steadfastly opposed to Ukraine firing ATACMS into Russian territory, warning that the measure could lead to escalation by the Kremlin that was out of proportion to its battlefield benefits.
ATACMS — pronounced “attack-ems” — is a supersonic guided missile system that can be fitted with either cluster munitions or conventional warheads, with a maximum range of about 190 miles. Ukraine for months has sought permission to use the powerful missiles against Russian territory, arguing that the weapons would enable its strapped forces to strike deep in the country and hit targets that would degrade the Kremlin’s war machine.
The arrival of the North Koreans in October in the Kursk region, where Ukraine launched a surprise offensive in August, was seen by the West as a major escalation and spurred an intense effort inside the Biden administration and with allies on how to respond.
The White House wants to put Ukraine in the best possible place ahead of peace talks that the new U.S. president is expected to spearhead early in his term, U.S. officials said. Even before the election, Biden had committed to surging aid to Ukraine in an effort to cement his legacy on his way out of office.
“President Biden has committed to making sure that every dollar we have at our disposal will be pushed out the door between now and January 20th,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters Wednesday in Brussels, where he was meeting with European counterparts to discuss how to support Ukraine in the wake of Trump’s win.
A second U.S. official said that Biden’s approval of ATACMS “is going to have a very specific and limited effect” on the battlefield, designed to limit concerns about escalation.
“If news of the policy shift is true,” said Michael Kofman, a Russian and Ukrainian military expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, “then it could be of operational benefit to Ukraine, enabling them to better defend and hold on to the territory they currently occupy in Kursk and help offset the benefit that Russia enjoys from employing North Korean forces in this specific part of the front.”
Previous steps framed as limited have cracked the door to wider forms of military assistance over the course of the nearly three-year war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is “testing the West, NATO, and even South Korea, observing their response to North Korean forces joining his campaign,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X late last month. “If the response is weak, we should expect the numbers of foreign soldiers on our soil to increase.”
Russia’s capture of eastern Ukrainian territory has accelerated, buoying spirits inside the Kremlin, whose leaders now feel they have the advantage in a war that is no longer a stalemate.
The authorization follows months of resistance by the Biden administration about allowing Ukraine to use the ATACMS to hit targets within Russia. Senior U.S. officials have repeatedly expressed private concern that Russia could retaliate by escalating inside Ukraine and around the world. In denying Kyiv’s pleas to be able to fire ATACMS inside Russia, administration officials have publicly said that the use of the weapon would have marginal utility on the battlefield.
Pentagon officials, who were by far the most skeptical voice inside the administration, have argued that the benefits of allowing strikes in Russia would be limited because the Kremlin, anticipating a potential easing of the restraint, earlier this year pulled most of its warplanes and other assets deeper into Russia and out of range.
As of September, 90 percent of the Russian aircraft launching glide bombs into Ukraine were flying from airfields outside ATACMS range, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said at the time.
The policy move comes at a time of heightened political sensitivity as Biden seeks to alter Ukraine’s fortunes before Trump takes office, and as North Korean troops have bolstered Russia’s advantage on the battlefield.
Ukraine’s control of Russian territory has taken on intense significance as both sides scramble for advantage ahead of potential talks. People close to the Kremlin say that Putin is unwilling to start any negotiations while Ukrainians are on Russian soil. The Biden administration is focused on helping Kyiv preserve its bargaining leverage there as long as possible.
U.S. and Ukrainian officials believe that the presence of North Korean troops will free Russian forces to focus on gaining ground elsewhere as well as push the front lines forward in Kursk, where Ukraine captured territory in August, providing a morale boost to Ukrainians, who have been sapped by nearly three years of war. Pyongyang’s involvement has rattled Washington and its allies, who are wary of the assistance Putin might offer Kim in return.
At a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders in Peru on Friday, Biden met with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol. In a statement, the three leaders said they “strongly condemn” North Korea’s troop deployment to Russia to “dangerously expand Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.”
The trio also noted the deepening military cooperation between the two countries, calling the supply of munitions and ballistic missiles “particularly egregious” given Russia’s status as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.
U.S. officials have said that their concerns about Russian escalation in response to Western military aid have diminished over time as one weapons system after another has been provided to Ukraine without significant retaliation in response. Ukraine is already using U.S. equipment inside Kursk to attack Russia.
But Putin has been explicit that he considers the use of ATACMS a red line. In September, he declared that a strike by the missiles into Russian territory, which would probably involve U.S. targeting assistance, “changes the very essence, the nature of the conflict,” warning that his country would retaliate.
Later that month, he revised Russia’s nuclear doctrine in what was interpreted as a veiled threat against the use of U.S.-provided long-range weapons on Russian soil.
Administration officials who have previously been skeptical of allowing Ukraine to use U.S. long-range weapons for strikes in Russia have said that given the limited number of the advanced missiles, the blowback may not be worth the potential battlefield advantage. But with North Korea’s increasing involvement in the conflict, the U.S. calculus appears to have shifted.
Officials characterized the decision as a limited evolution rather than a new chapter in the war.
The authorization for the use of ATACMS on targets within Russian territory follows repeated requests by Ukraine. Early this year, Kyiv asked Washington to provide long-range ATACMS and in August requested that its forces be allowed to use them in Kursk.
“We have adapted and adjusted to the needs of Ukraine as the battlefield changes, as what Russia is doing changes, as new elements are introduced — for example, the North Korean forces,” Blinken said during the visit to Brussels on Wednesday.
“I can tell you that we will continue to adapt and adjust again, to make sure that Ukraine is in the strongest possible position to deal with this aggression,” Blinken said. He declined to comment on specifics about the steps the Biden administration was taking to respond to the North Korean troops.
If North Korean soldiers “do deploy to fight against Ukraine, they’re fair game. They’re fair targets,” White House spokesman John Kirby said last month, warning that anyone fighting Ukrainian forces would face retaliation from Kyiv. “The Ukrainian military will defend themselves against North Korean soldiers the same way they’re defending themselves against Russian soldiers.”
Trump is expected to be far more skeptical of U.S. aid for Ukraine than Biden has been, and he has expressed eagerness to broker a peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv. Putin and Trump spoke in a call after the election, according to five people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive diplomatic exchange. In that call, several people said, Trump warned the Russian leader not to escalate in Ukraine and said he wanted to discuss the resolution of the war soon.
The Kremlin denied that the call took place.
Biden, though he has authorized tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine, has been reluctant to grant Kyiv advanced U.S. weapons. He hesitated about sending the Patriot air defense system, then relented. A similar policy evolution saw Washington initially refuse to give Ukraine U.S.-made Abrams tanks and F-16 fighter jets.
The White House in May reversed a broad ban on Ukraine using U.S. military assistance to strike within Russia, after the Kremlin took advantage of the restriction by concentrating its forces in border regions and attacking across the frontier with relative impunity.
When Biden finally authorized the longer-range ATACMS earlier this year, he limited their use to within Ukraine’s own territory, enabling them to strike Russian forces on the Crimean Peninsula but not to hit within Russia itself.
The White House had maintained its ban on ATACMS strikes in Russia in part because of concerns that Russia would respond with force against U.S. and allies’ interests elsewhere. That could include the use of even more devastating weapons inside Ukraine, an increase in sabotage attacks in Europe and the United States, or intensified support for Iran and for the Houthi rebels in Yemen who have snarled global shipping, two other senior administration officials said in September.
Though this policy reversal gives Kyiv a significant new tool, Biden administration officials note that Ukraine has very limited stocks of ATACMS. Russia has shown that it has a significant shoot-down capability, and the Pentagon, whose own missile supply is dwindling, says it does not have many more to give without affecting U.S. readiness.
Defenders of Biden’s approach say he has been managing risks of escalation amid periods in which U.S. intelligence assessments have offered real warnings about the possibility of Putin using a nuclear weapon against Ukraine.
But the halting provision of advanced weapons and other cautious policies have caused frustration in Kyiv, Ukrainian officials have said. When troops finally receive the weapons or are freed to use them, the military returns are often diminished because conditions on the battlefield have changed, leading to preventable casualties and setbacks, according to soldiers and commanders on the ground.
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>>> Israel’s Netanyahu Fires Defense Minister Gallant
The Wall Street Journal
by Carrie Keller-Lynn
11-5-24
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israel-s-netanyahu-fires-defense-minister-gallant/ar-AA1tyHVG?cvid=8c13bb51e83a4ef6bcc6f47fe8211a6b&ei=13
TEL AVIV—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, at a time when the country continues to fight wars in Gaza and Lebanon, and is increasingly in direct confrontation with Iran.
The move on Tuesday came after months of public disagreement between the two over the course of the wars. Netanyahu said he was firing Gallant due to a breakdown in trust and gaps in positions between them.
Gallant has publicly challenged Netanyahu’s failure to decide on a plan for the Gaza Strip’s long-term governance and for not prioritizing a deal to release Israeli and other hostages held in the Palestinian enclave.
“During the past several months this trust between myself and the Defense Minister has begun to crack,” Netanyahu said Tuesday in a statement released by his office.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz will replace Gallant as defense minister within the next 48 hours, Netanyahu said in a terse, three-line letter to Gallant released by the prime minister’s office. Gideon Sa’ar, a former Netanyahu ally-turned-rival who rejoined the coalition in recent weeks, was offered the foreign minister role.
“The security of Israel has and will always be my life’s mission,“ Gallant posted on X shortly after the announcement.
Thousands of protesters flooded into streets in response to the news, gathering outside Tel Aviv’s military headquarters, which was engulfed in smoke as demonstrators burned fires on an adjacent highway, and in other cities across the country.
Gallant’s ouster could have wide-ranging impacts on Israel’s multifront war and U.S. efforts to end it. He has been the anchor of the relationship with the U.S. and the most vocal advocate of the Biden administration’s efforts to reach a cease-fire in Gaza.
“The surprising decision to fire Defense Minister Gallant is concerning, especially in the middle of two wars and as Israel prepares to defend against a potential attack from Iran,” said a U.S. official. “We have real questions about the reasons for Gallant’s firing and about what is driving the decision,” he said.
Tension between the U.S. administration and Netanyahu has grown in recent months over the prime minister’s hard-line position in the talks and for a series of provocative military actions undertaken with little notice to the U.S.
Gallant has been a shock absorber in the relationship, speaking more than 80 times with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin over the duration of the wars.
“Gallant was the minister who the U.S. trusted the most,” said Michael Koplow, chief policy officer for the Israel Policy Forum, a Washington think tank. “When it comes to core defense issues, things like U.S.-Israel coordination against Iran, humanitarian issues in Gaza, Netanyahu just got rid of the main point person for that and replaced him with someone who doesn’t have that kind of relationship with the U.S.”
Until his dismissal, Gallant also was the only cabinet member apart from Netanyahu with serious decision-making authority over the war’s conduct.
Since the Gaza war began, he has worn an all black uniform and often slept in his office, his staff has said. He kept a chart of senior Hamas figures and crossed them out as they were killed.
Gallant and Netanyahu are both members of Israel’s conservative Likud party. But relations between them have been poor for months, with the men barely on speaking terms, people familiar with the matter have said. Gallant has criticized the prime minister in meetings, parliamentary appearances and even news conferences.
Domestic politics played a role in Gallant’s firing. Netanyahu’s governing coalition needs the support of its ultraorthodox political allies, who are bent on reversing moves to draft religious scholars by getting the coalition to pass sweeping military service exemptions for them. Gallant has refused to budge on the issue at a time when Israel’s military faces manpower shortages while fighting in Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank.
The issue is coming to a head with Netanyahu’s need for ultraorthodox votes to clear Israel’s 2025 budget, which by law must pass in the coming months, or Netanyahu could face snap elections.
In a press conference after his ouster, Gallant said he believed he was fired for his opposition to a law to exempt ultraorthodox from military service.
“Everyone needs to serve in the IDF,” he said, referring to the Israel Defense Forces. Gallant said Netanyahu informed him of his decision to fire him just a few minutes before he announced it publicly.
Two other factors were his demand for the highest form of inquiry into Israel’s security failure on Oct. 7, 2023, and his openly pushing for a hostage deal, he said.
“It’s possible to return the hostages, it will require compromises, some of them painful,” but Israel can manage them, Gallant said.
Netanyahu’s political allies publicly made the case for firing Gallant in September, but the defense minister survived as Israel embarked on an aggressive new campaign in Lebanon that wiped out militant group Hezbollah’s top leadership and much of its armaments.
Katz will be a key decision maker in how far to take the fight in Lebanon now that Hezbollah has been hobbled and much of its infrastructure near the border destroyed, but remains able to inflict pain should Israel’s troops move deeper into the country.
Similarly in Gaza, Israeli troops have badly damaged militant group Hamas, which led the Oct. 7 attacks that triggered the war in Gaza, but continue to fight reconstituted elements of the group in areas like northern Gaza.
The biggest challenge could come from Iran. The two longtime foes have exchanged fire directly in multiple rounds over the past seven months, most recently with a strike by Israel last month that did significant damage to Iran’s air defense capabilities and missile production capabilities. Iran has threatened a harsh response, and Israel has threatened to retaliate forcibly to any new attack.
The U.S. and Arab countries worry the fighting could escalate into a regional conflagration that draws them in.
Netanyahu fired Gallant once before, in 2023, back before the war in Gaza, when the prime minister’s new government tried to enact large-scale changes to Israel’s judicial system that sparked months of protests.
Gallant publicly urged Netanyahu to hold off for fear the crisis could damage national security. His dismissal led to strikes and unrest, and Netanyahu reinstated him two weeks later.
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>>> Pentagon bolsters the US presence in the Middle East with bombers, fighter aircraft and warships
11-1-24
by TARA COPP and LOLITA C. BALDOR
Associated Press
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/pentagon-bolsters-the-us-presence-in-the-middle-east-with-bomber-aircraft-and-warships/ar-AA1tlVSp?ocid=TobArticle
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is sending bomber aircraft, fighter jets and more Navy warships to the Middle East to bolster the U.S. presence in the region, the Pentagon announced Friday, as an aircraft carrier and its ships are preparing to leave.
Austin ordered several B-52 Stratofortress bomber aircraft,a squadron of fighter jets, tanker aircraft and Navy destroyers to deploy to the Middle East, said Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, in a statement. He said they will begin arriving in the region in coming months, as the USS Abraham Lincoln begins to head home.
The military moves come as Israel’s wars with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon rage, including a retaliatory strike on Iran a week ago that likely damaged a base that builds ballistic missiles and launches rockets as part of Tehran’s space program.
The U.S. is pressing for cease-fires, while repeatedly saying it will defend Israel and continue to protect the American and allied presence in the region, including from Yemen-based Houthi attacks against ships in the Red Sea.
Austin's latest order, said Ryder, shows the “U.S. capability to deploy world-wide on short notice to meet evolving national security threats.” He said Austin “continues to make clear that should Iran, its partners, or its proxies use this moment to target American personnel or interests in the region, the United States will take every measure necessary to defend our people.”
The long-range nuclear-capable B-52 bomber has been repeatedly deployed to the Middle East in pointed warnings to Iran and it is the second time this month that strategic U.S. bombers will be used to bolster U.S. defenses in the region.
In October, B-2 stealth bombers were used to strike underground Houthi targets in Yemen.
Ryder did not provide the specific number of aircraft and ships that will move into the region. The shifts are likely to result in an overall decrease in the total number of U.S. troops in the Middle East, largely because an aircraft carrier contains as many as 5,000 sailors.
But the addition of bomber aircraft beefs up U.S. combat strength. There have been as many as 43,000 U.S. forces in the region recently.
According to U.S. officials, the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and the three Navy destroyers in its strike group are scheduled to leave the Middle East by mid-month and return to their home port in San Diego.
When it departs, there will be no aircraft carrier in the Middle East for a period of time, officials said. U.S. They declined to say how long that gap would last.
Military commanders have long argued that the presence of an aircraft carrier strike group, with its array of fighters jets, surveillance aircraft and heavily armed warships, is a significant deterrent, including against Iran.
To make up for that gap, Austin is ordering the deployment of other Navy destroyers to the region. Those destroyers, which are capable of shooting down ballistic missiles, would come either from the Indo-Pacific region or Europe, the official said.
Eventually, it is expected that the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier and its three warships will move to the Mediterranean Sea, but they won't get there before the Lincoln departs. The Truman strike group has been in the North Sea, participating in a NATO military exercise.
The Lincoln and two of its destroyers are now in the Gulf of Oman, and its third destroyer is with two other warships in the Red Sea.
There are also two destroyers and the Marine amphibious ready group — which includes three ships — in the Mediterranean Sea.
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>>> No injuries reported after fire destroys empty U.S. Army warehouse in South Korea
UPI
by Doug Cunningham
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2024/10/24/South-Korea-US-Army-warehouse-fire/1461729797318/
Oct. 24 (UPI) -- A Thursday night fire destroyed an empty U.S. Army warehouse at the Busan Storage Center in southeastern South Korea.
No injuries were reported and the cause of the fire at U.S. Army Garrison Daegu is unknown.
According to garrison spokesman Phil Molter, mutual aid agreements with the Busan Fire Department helped fight the fire. The fire started at about 6:30 p.m. local time.
As many as 11 fire stations responded using over 160 personnel and 51 pieces of firefighting equipment.
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U.S. Forces Korea said in a statement, "U.S. Army Garrison Daegu has activated mutual aid agreements with the Busan Fire Dept. in response to a warehouse fire of unknown origin at the Busan Storage Center. The warehouse is under renovation and empty, and was not occupied when the fire broke out."
The city of Busan sent text messages alerting nearby districts to the fire.
"A fire broke out at the 55th Supply Depot in Dong-gu and a large amount of smoke and dust is generated, so nearby residents should be aware of window control and safety accidents," the text said.
A Busan Fire and Disaster Headquarters statement warned of possible danger if the fire spread, because military supplies are stored at the facility.
"Due to the nature of the supply depot, a large amount of military supplies are stored, so if a fire spreads to a nearby warehouse, it can lead to a dizzying situation," the statement said. "We are working with the U.S. military's fire brigade to prevent the fire from spreading to adjacent warehouses."
With tensions high on the Korean peninsula because of recent provocative actions by North Korea's Kim Jong Un, the USS Vermont nuclear powered submarine arrived in Busan September 23 for supplies and crew rest.
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Name | Symbol | % Assets |
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Raytheon Technologies Corp | RTX | 7.13% |
Lockheed Martin Corp | LMT | 6.91% |
Boeing Co | BA | 6.62% |
Honeywell International Inc | HON | 5.32% |
General Dynamics Corp | GD | 5.29% |
Northrop Grumman Corp | NOC | 4.92% |
L3Harris Technologies Inc | LHX | 4.86% |
Textron Inc | TXT | 4.55% |
TransDigm Group Inc | TDG | 4.14% |
Axon Enterprise Inc | AXON | 3.97% |
Name | Symbol | % Assets |
---|---|---|
Raytheon Technologies Corp | RTX | 19.71% |
Boeing Co | BA | 18.63% |
Lockheed Martin Corp | LMT | 5.55% |
Teledyne Technologies Inc | TDY | 5.01% |
L3Harris Technologies Inc | LHX | 4.83% |
General Dynamics Corp | GD | 4.73% |
Northrop Grumman Corp | NOC | 4.51% |
TransDigm Group Inc | TDG | 4.47% |
Textron Inc | TXT | 4.26% |
Howmet Aerospace Inc | HWM | 3.51% |
Name | Symbol | % Assets |
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Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc Shs A | SPCE | 4.94% |
Axon Enterprise Inc | AXON | 4.23% |
Maxar Technologies Inc | MAXR | 4.17% |
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Inc | KTOS | 4.10% |
Hexcel Corp | HXL | 3.80% |
Textron Inc | TXT | 3.79% |
Mercury Systems Inc | MRCY | 3.73% |
Teledyne Technologies Inc | TDY | 3.72% |
General Dynamics Corp | GD | 3.71% |
TransDigm Group Inc | TDG | 3.69% |
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