borderslynn

The US plan: to redirect the flow of oil (now at high prices) and reap huge profits for investors

Posted on May 14, 2026 by borderslynn

And so The Plan unfolds before our eyes. Bring Venezuela under US control and halt vital oil to Cuba. Put pressure on Iran and reduce supplies to China. Price of oil is at its highest, so US sells its reserves to the desperate world:

5/12/2026 2:00:54 PM NEWS CENTER
Türkiye prepares to receive first shipment from US strategic oil reserves
WORLD

Türkiye is preparing to receive its first crude oil shipment from the United States Strategic Petroleum Reserve amid ongoing tensions in the Middle East and growing concerns over global energy supply routes.

The move comes as United States continues releasing large volumes of crude oil from its strategic reserves following disruptions linked to the conflict involving Iran and fears over the security of the Strait of Hormuz.

Western media reports stated that Washington has released around 172 million barrels from its reserves as part of coordinated international efforts led by the International Energy Agency to stabilize rising oil prices and ease pressure on global markets.

The broader initiative reportedly aims to inject nearly 400 million barrels of oil into world markets following supply concerns triggered by tensions in the Gulf region.

According to energy analytics firm Kpler, the Greek-flagged Aframax tanker North Star loaded approximately 680,000 barrels of high-quality crude oil in April from the Brian Mound Strategic Petroleum Reserve facility near Seaway, Texas.

The vessel is expected to arrive at Aliaga Port in mid-May.

Ship-tracking data and trading sources also indicated that the Hong Kong-flagged tanker DHT Antelope loaded nearly 1.1 million barrels of high-sulfur crude through a ship-to-ship transfer operation near Galveston, Texas, and is expected to unload its cargo in Türkiye later this month.

Kpler data reportedly showed that the tanker is carrying another shipment of American crude oil destined for the Turkish market.

Reports further indicated that additional shipments released from the US strategic reserves are already heading toward European destinations including Italy and Netherlands.

The development highlights growing volatility in global energy markets as geopolitical tensions continue to affect maritime trade routes and international oil supplies.

https://ilkha.com/english/world/turkiye-prepares-to-receive-first-shipment-from-us-strategic-oil-reserves-532354

Posted in anthropocene | Tagged highest oil prices, immorality, impacting global economy, profits for investors, redirect tankers to US reserves, traffic from Strait of Hormuz | Leave a comment

The tale of the IRS vs Trump

Posted on May 14, 2026 by borderslynn

Here is an extract from Jim Acosta reporting how Donald Trump robs taxpayers, on Substack, 14 May 2026:

The Trump IRS “Bank Heist”

For years, Trump hid his tax information from the public. Now he could be paid billions by the Internal Revenue Service or have his IRS audits dropped altogether. Does anybody care?

Jim Acosta

May 14READ IN APP

It sounds like the plot from a George Clooney-Brad Pitt summer blockbuster. A group of wise guys get together and come up with a scheme to steal $10 billion from the Internal Revenue Service. Call it “Ocean’s 47.” Except this taxpayer-supported “bank heist” is unfolding right before our eyes, according to former Justice Department pardon attorney Liz Oyer.

“This is like a bank heist if, you know, the teller, the bank teller’s in on it, the security guard at the door is also in on it. Everybody is conspiring to steal the money from the bank,” Oyer told me on my podcast Wednesday.

Of course, the star of “Ocean’s 47” is none other than Donald Trump (who’s no Clooney, granted). The New York Times is reporting that Trump and two of his sons could be paid at least $10 billion in a massive settlement with the IRS or have his audits dropped by the tax agency altogether. That’s because the Department of Justice is considering settling a lawsuit filed by Trump against the IRS over a leak of his tax information to news outlets, including the Times back in 2020. Trump is still steamed over the release of that information as it demonstrated how he had been paying little to no taxes for years. Trump to Fleece IRS Next?

“His Justice Department is willingly making themselves complicit in what is really just a straight flat out theft of taxpayer money, of your money, my money, our money. He is just dipping into taxpayer money and taking it for himself,” Oyer told me.

Trump has been dogged by tax questions since 2016 campaign. Photo by Jim Acosta

During the 2016 campaign, I was out on the trail with Trump when he repeatedly insisted he could not release his tax information to the public, something presidential candidates had done since Richard Nixon, because he was being audited by the IRS. At that time, Trump claimed he had nothing to hide.

“And when the audit is complete, I will release my returns. I don’t know when that is going to be. But when the audit is complete, I will release my returns. I have no problem with it. It doesn’t matter,” Trump said a decade ago.

Little did the public know at the time that Trump had just made up that excuse on the fly, according to Times journalist Maggie Haberman, who wrote about it in her book, “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America.”

“Well, you know my taxes are under audit. I always get audited,” Trump said at the time, as Haberman reported in her book.

“So what I mean is… well I could just say, ‘I’ll release them when I’m no longer under audit. ‘Cause I’ll never not be under audit,’” he added, according to Haberman. Trump audit excuse

Even if Trump and the DOJ settle without any kind of award going to the first family, he could still take the taxpayers for a ride. Were the IRS to suddenly drop its years of Trump audits, the president could avoid paying some $100 million in taxes owed to Uncle Sam. Back in 2024, during Trump’s third campaign for the White House, the Times and Pro Publica reported that the disgraced ex-president “used a dubious accounting maneuver to claim improper tax breaks from his troubled Chicago tower, according to an Internal Revenue Service inquiry uncovered by The New York Times and ProPublica. Losing a yearslong audit battle over the claim could mean a tax bill of more than $100 million.” Trump Could Owe $100 Million in Taxes

Headline from NYT/Pro Publica investigation into Trump taxes in 2024

Posted in anthropocene | Tagged Donald Trump, IRS, robbing tax payers, sueing for 100 bn dollars, taxes due | Leave a comment

Cubans endless suffering

Posted on May 13, 2026 by borderslynn

Sherritt Faces Turmoil Amid Trump’s Sanctions on Cuban Regime

Monday, May 11, 2026 by Madison Pena

Work teams, Sherritt – Image © Sherritt on X

Sherritt International Corporation has turned to the Canadian courts in an effort to maintain its corporate framework, highlighting the significant impact of the Trump administration’s sanctions on the mining company, which has been closely linked to the Cuban regime for the past three decades.

This Monday, the company will file a request with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to secure two judicial orders: one to allow its reduced board of directors to continue operations with a quorum despite vacancies, and another to extend the deadline for holding its annual shareholders’ meeting to no later than September 30, 2026. The hearing is scheduled for Thursday, May 14.

The governance crisis erupted on Wednesday when three board members—Chairman Brian Imrie, Richard Moat, and Brett Richards—resigned with immediate effect, just hours after the company announced it was halting its direct involvement in all joint ventures in Cuba and beginning to repatriate its employees from the island.

The catalyst was Executive Order 14404, signed by Donald Trump on May 1, which expands sanctions against Cuba and introduces secondary sanctions against foreign financial institutions dealing with blocked Cuban entities.

While Sherritt clarified it was not formally designated under this order, it acknowledged that its issuance “materially alters the corporation’s ability to operate normally.”

On May 6, Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated GAESA, its executive president Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, and Moa Nickel S.A.—the joint venture between Sherritt and the Cuban state—under the executive order, accusing the latter of “exploiting Cuba’s natural resources to benefit the regime at the expense of the Cuban people.”

Rubio also warned that “additional sanctions are expected in the coming days and weeks,” signaling that the pressure on the regime has not yet peaked.

The Impact on the Cuban Regime

Sherritt’s exit leaves the regime without its largest direct foreign investor since the early 1990s, with production at the Moa mine reaching 25,240 tons of nickel and 2,728 tons of cobalt in 2025, valued at approximately $490 million in gross annual revenue.

Additionally, the company was involved in electricity generation through Energas S.A., with an installed capacity of about 506 megawatts, equating to 10-15% of Cuba’s national electrical capacity, in a country already experiencing blackouts affecting over 55% of its territory.

https://www.cubaheadlines.com/articles/328857

Canadian mining in Cuba now unfeasible:

Canada’s Sherritt Abandons Cuba and Will Evacuate Personnel

May 7, 2026

For decades, the Canadian mining company was one of the Cuban State’s most important foreign partners.

By El Toque

HAVANA TIMES – Canadian mining company Sherritt International announced this Thursday, May 7, 2026, the immediate suspension of its direct participation in the joint ventures operating in Cuba, amid the new sanctions offensive driven by the Trump Administration. The company also confirmed the immediate resignation of three members of its board of directors — Brian Imrie, Richard Moat, and Brett Richards — following the signing of a US Executive Order issued on May 1 that expands restrictions against businesses linked to Cuba.

…………..

stationed in Canada. The decision marks one of the most severe business blows suffered by Havana in recent years within the strategic nickel and cobalt sector.

The company maintained key operations in Moa, Holguin, through the joint venture Moa Nickel S.A., considered one of the Cuban regime’s main sources of foreign currency. However, for years Sherritt had been warning about the growing financial and operational risks of working on the island. In May 2025, the company reported losses of 40.6 million dollars in the first quarter and directly pointed to Cuba’s economic crisis as one of the central causes of the downturn.

The deterioration of the island’s electrical system has been another determining factor. Nickel production in 2024 reached only 83.3% of the planned target due to constant blackouts, fuel shortages, and industrial problems. According to the company’s financial reports, the power outages reduced the operating capacity of the plants and also affected cobalt extraction, a mineral Cuba uses to pay part of its debt to the Canadian company.

Havana also maintains a heavy debt with Sherritt.

https://havanatimes.org/news/canadas-sherritt-abandons-cuba-and-will-evacuate-personnel/

More on the results of Trump’s Executive Order:

US targets Cuban military, mine in new sanctions

Havana (AFP) – The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on a Cuban military conglomerate that controls nearly 40 percent of the island’s economy, as well as a Canadian mining company, as part of a mounting pressure campaign.

Issued on: 07/05/2026 – 21:29

Sherritt’s operations or other business activities.”

In mid-February, the company had already announced the suspension of its operations in Cuba due to the oil embargo imposed by the United States on the island.

Trump has mused about taking over arch-foe Cuba, which has been under a US embargo almost continuously since the 1959 communist revolution of Fidel Castro.

In January, he halted oil shipments from Cuba’s main supplier Venezuela and threatened other countries with tariffs if they sought to make up the shortfall.

Since then he has allowed only one Russian oil tanker through.

Three UN special experts said jointly Thursday that the fuel blockade amounted to “energy starvation,” and had “grave consequences” for human rights and development.

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20260507-us-targets-cuban-military-mine-in-new-sanctions

Posted in anthropocene | Tagged Canada, Cuba, evacuation of staff, financial struggle, forcing collapse of Cuba, foreign investors, health crisis, Marco Rubio, mining, national debt, no electricity, sanctions, Sherritt, starvation, Trump Executive Order, venezuela | Leave a comment

The cohort investors in Greenland

Posted on May 13, 2026 by borderslynn

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Generalised-geological-map-of-a-Greenland-and-detailed-geology-of-b-the-Kangerlussuaq_fig3_351825385

Back in January of this year:

These Billionaires Bet Big On Greenland—After Trump Took Interest

ByMartina Di Licosa,Reporter. Martina Di Licosa is a reporter covering consumer businesses

Follow AuthorJan 09, 2026, 06:30am EST

Jan 21, 2026

———————-

Ronald Lauder: The heir to the Estée Lauder fortune, is credited with giving Trump the idea of taking over Greenland during his first term, former White House national security adviser John Bolton confirmed to Forbes.

Lauder has since invested, according to the Danish newspaper Politiken, in an unprofitable Greenlandic freshwater bottling company co-owned by Jørgen Wæver Johansen, local chair of the governing Siumut party in Nuuk and husband to Greenland’s minister of foreign affairs, Vivian Motzfeldt, raising concerns about political interference.

Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg: All have invested since 2019 in Kobold Metals, which has looked for valuable rare earth minerals used in electronic devices through AI-powered exploration of the island.

Marc Andreessen: Also invested in Kobold through Andreessen Horowitz Growth, a fund within his venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

Update: Kobold told Forbes in a statement: “KoBold has no exploration claims, personnel or activities in Greenland.”

Sam Altman: The OpenAI CEO invested in Kobold in 2022.

Peter Thiel: The Paypal and Palantir tech titan funded in early 2021 the startup Praxis, which aims to build a technologically advanced “freedom city” on the island.

Howard Lutnick: Trump’s Secretary of Commerce served as CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, which has invested in Greenland mining company Critical Metals Corp. for over three decades (he has since divested from Cantor and transferred his shares to his adult children).

https://www.forbes.com/sites/martinadilicosa/2026/01/09/these-billionaires-bet-big-on-greenland-after-trump-took-interest/

About Andreeson Horowitz ( https://a16z.com/) here is an extract from TechCrunch, again this was back in January 2026:

TechCrunch Mobile Logo Site Search ToggleMega Menu Toggle

The venture firm that ate Silicon Valley just raised another $15 billion

Connie Loizos

5:00 AM PST · January 9, 2026

Andreessen Horowitz just announced the firm has raised a little more than $15 billion in new funding. The haul represents over 18% of all venture capital dollars allocated in the United States in 2025, according to firm co-founder Ben Horowitz, but even more jaw-dropping is that it brings the organization to more than $90 billion in assets under management, putting it neck-and-neck with Sequoia Capital as among the largest venture firms in the world. Which is fitting, since a16z appears to be very friendly with actual sovereign wealth funds, including at least one from Saudi Arabia.

The firm, which employs many hundreds of people across five offices — three in California, plus New York and Washington, D.C. — has become a globe-spanning operation with employees on six continents. In December, it opened its first Asia office in Seoul for its crypto practice.

That newly committed capital breaks down across five funds: $6.75 billion for growth investments, $1.7 billion each for apps and infrastructure, $1.176 billion for “American Dynamism” (more on that shortly), $700 million for biotech and healthcare, and another $3 billion for other venture strategies. It’s the kind of money that makes you wonder where it all comes from and, more importantly, where it all goes.

The “where it comes from” question is one the firm has historically declined to answer. When we asked a16z this week about its limited partners and its distributed-to-paid-in capital ratio — the DPI, or how much actual cash the firm has returned to investors over its 16-year history — the firm didn’t respond. What we do know is that CalPERS invested $400 million in 2023, marking the first time in a16z’s history it took money from a major California pension fund, probably because institutions with transparency requirements don’t really align with the firm’s preference for opacity. We also know that Sanabil Investments, the venture arm of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, lists Andreessen Horowitz among its portfolio holdings.

The Saudi connection isn’t subtle. Back in 2023, Horowitz and Marc Andreessen appeared onstage with WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann to discuss their $350 million investment in his then-new residential real estate venture, Flow. The venue was a conference backed by one of Saudi Arabia’s largest sovereign funds. Horowitz praised Saudi Arabia as a “startup country,” adding that “Saudi has a founder; you don’t call him a founder, you call him his royal highness.”

But Marc Andreessen has found another royal to admire. Since President Donald Trump’s November 2024 election victory, Andreessen has logged a lot of hours at Mar-a-Lago, by his own account, helping shape policy on tech, business, and economics. Early last year, he became an “unpaid intern” at Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, vetting candidates for the Trump administration — not just for tech roles but for positions in the Defense Department and intelligence agencies. Scott Kupor, a16z’s first employee back in 2009, was sworn in as director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management this past summer.

https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/09/the-venture-firm-that-ate-silicon-valley/

A crypto player:

Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto arm raises $2.2 billion for fifth venture fund, promotes CTO Lazzarin to general partner

Story by Ben Weiss

• 1w

Chris DIxon, founder and managing partner of a16z crypto, at a conference in 2022.© Kimberly White—Getty Images/TechCrunch

The biggest name in crypto venture capital closed another mammoth fundraise. The digital assets arm of Andreessen Horowitz, which goes by a16z crypto, announced Tuesday morning that it’s drummed up $2.2 billion for its fifth venture fund. The firm also announced it has promoted its CTO Eddy Lazzarin to general partner.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/technology/andreessen-horowitz-s-crypto-arm-raises-2-2-billion-for-fifth-venture-fund-promotes-cto-lazzarin-to-general-partner/ar-AA22rcNb

Current reporting by Reuters:

Greenland’s leader says US military presence part of talks with Trump’s diplomats

Story by Stine Jacobsen and Soren Jeppesen

• 19h

FILE PHOTO: A drone view shows a boat sailing on the shores of Nuuk, Greenland, February 7, 2026. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov/File Photo© Thomson Reuters

By Stine Jacobsen and Soren Jeppesen

COPENHAGEN, May 12 (Reuters) – Greenland’s prime minister said on Tuesday that increasing the U.S. military presence in the Arctic territory was part of ongoing negotiations with Washington, as the United States’ desire to own or control the territory remains alive.

President Donald Trump’s assertion that the U.S. must acquire or control Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory, has sparked tension between Washington, Nuuk and Copenhagen, and more broadly within the NATO alliance.

“From the beginning, one of the issues has been that they don’t think we do enough in terms of national security and surveillance in our region, so security and more military presence in Greenland is part of the discussions,” Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen told reporters in Copenhagen.

Related video: US pushes for new military bases in Greenland amid quiet talks with Denmark (Cover Media US)

US pushes for new military bases in Greenland amid quiet talks with Denmark

GREENLAND OPTIMISTIC ABOUT DEAL

Seeking to calm tensions, Greenland, Denmark and the U.S. earlier this year agreed to hold high-level diplomatic negotiations to resolve the crisis, although the outcome of those ongoing talks has yet to be presented.

“The desire is not gone and we need to make some kind of deal in that working group and I am positive that we can figure it out,” Nielsen said, referring to Trump’s interest in gaining control of Greenland.

The BBC on Tuesday reported that U.S. officials in the talks had signalled they aim to open three new bases in southern Greenland, with one source saying Washington had floated designating the facilities as U.S. sovereign territory.

“Right now we have a defence agreement with the United States where it’s already possible to have more bases,” Nielsen said, adding that the existing defence framework was one possible basis for any expansion but that other arrangements could be explored.

Greenland has repeatedly said it is open to wider military and business cooperation with the U.S., including on mineral resources, but that its sovereignty is non-negotiable.

The United States has one active base in Greenland, the Pituffik Space Base in the northwest, down from around 17 facilities in 1945 when thousands of U.S. personnel staffed facilities around the island.

General Gregory Guillot, head of the U.S. Northern Command, first disclosed the three-base plan in Senate testimony in March. Guillot was in Copenhagen last week, an Instagram post by the U.S. embassy in Copenhagen showed.

Two of the locations under consideration have been identified by local media as Narsarsuaq in southern Greenland and Kangerlussuaq in the southwest, both former U.S. bases with existing airstrips and port infrastructure. A third location has not been named.

The airport manager at Narsarsuaq confirmed to Reuters that a U.S. envoy from the embassy in Copenhagen visited recently to inspect the runway, harbour and whether the facilities could be reopened.

Sources have previously said the expansion is being negotiated under a 1951 U.S.-Danish defence agreement that gives Washington broad military access to Greenland. Experts say Denmark has little practical ability to block U.S. requests under the pact, which was last updated in 2004 to include Greenland as a signatory.

Trump envoy Jeff Landry is scheduled to visit Greenland next week to attend a business conference in the vast Arctic island of 57,000 people. He has not been confirmed to meet any Greenlandic politicians.

(Reporting by Stine Jacobsen and Soren Jeppesen, editing by Terje Solsvik, Rod Nickel)

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/greenlands-leader-says-us-military-presence-part-of-talks-with-trumps-diplomats/ar-AA231hDI

To understand more about rare earths, see:

https://geology.com/usgs/ree-geology/

Posted in anthropocene | Tagged a16z, Andreesen Horowitz, Bill gates, Critcal Metals Corps, Denmark, Greenland, Howard Lutnick, investors, Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, mining, negotiations, Peter Thiel, rare earths, Ronald Lauder, Sam Altman, Saudi Arabia, US bases | Leave a comment

The shepherd and the radar jammer

Posted on May 12, 2026 by borderslynn

Wajeed Lion, on May 12th Substack, explained the Israeli covert “Third Circle” strategy. Here are some extracts:

Nukhayb desert secret military base built for a purpose, then destroyed

Satellite imagery, ground battle reports, and electronic signals confirm that Israel built a secret military base in Iraq’s western Nukhayb desert at coordinates 31.66697°N, 42.44864°E. The base was designed to support Israel’s “Third Circle” strategy—a plan to fight distant enemies directly. During the February 2026 air campaign against Iran, this secret facility served as a vital refueling and rescue hub, allowing Israeli jets and helicopters to reach Iranian targets much faster. For a brief period, an unwritten truce kept the base hidden, as all countries involved quietly ignored it to avoid a larger war. This silence shattered on March 4, when Israeli forces guarding the site clashed with an Iraqi army patrol. The battle killed one Iraqi soldier, injured two, and sparked a major political crisis in Baghdad.

Operation Rising Lion:

Israel tested this theory during the “12-Day War” of June 2025, codenamed “Operation Rising Lion.” Israeli jets successfully destroyed roughly 80 Iranian air defense batteries. However, the operation exposed a major weakness: the extreme danger posed to Israeli pilots flying far beyond the reach of rescue helicopters. When operations flared up again in late February 2026 with “Operation Epic Fury,” Israel realized that hunting mobile Iranian missile launchers required a staging ground much closer to the target. The empty western Iraqi desert offered the perfect, if dangerous, solution.

Use of radar jamming:

Satellite photos from the area, a dry lakebed 70 kilometers from the Saudi Arabian border, show exactly how Israel built this site.

Israel quickly graded a 1.7-kilometer dirt runway. This specific length is the exact requirement for heavy military transport planes, like the C-130J Super Hercules, to land in rough conditions. These heavy planes brought in specialized rescue personnel from the Israeli Air Force’s Unit 669. They also dropped off collapsible fuel bladders to create a Forward Area Refueling Point (FARP). This allowed Israeli helicopters to land, refuel, and wait closer to Iran without relying on vulnerable mid-air refueling tankers. Finally, the transport planes brought in the massive electronic jamming systems needed to hide the base from the outside world.

The Electronic Shield and Blinding Iraqi Radar

To remain undetected by the Iraqi government, Israel had to hijack the local electromagnetic spectrum. In the days leading up to the conflict, commercial aviation networks detected massive interference over Baghdad. Civil aviation groups, including the Italian aviation authority and the ICAO, warned pilots to expect severe GPS jamming, fake GPS signals (spoofing), and forced radar changes in western Iraq.

This interference matched the exact flight path Israeli jets and rescue helicopters used to cross into Iran. The GPS spoofing was so intense that local delivery apps failed and civilian drones refused to fly. While Iraqi media blamed temporary election security measures, the sheer scale of the blackout points directly to military-grade jamming equipment.

Israel likely deployed the Scorpius-G, a powerful ground-based radar jammer built by Israel Aerospace Industries. This system shoots invisible, targeted beams of energy to blind enemy communications, drones, and radars. This electronic shield explains why Iraqi military radar failed to spot the base. Some Iraqi politicians later claimed the United States ordered the radars shut down, but the truth is that Israeli jamming equipment blinded them.

A shepherd spotted the military base and would seem to have reported what he saw:

Before the shepherd spotted the base, the situation functioned smoothly because everyone benefited from pretending it did not exist. Israel got a secure rescue hub. The Iraqi government kept up the illusion that it fully controlled its borders, which kept radical militias from attempting to overthrow the Prime Minister. The U.S. avoided a fight between its ally (Israel) and its host (Iraq). Iran avoided having to launch a direct, costly attack into the Iraqi desert.

The shepherd’s discovery broke this silence, forcing everyone into a dangerous political game. To survive domestic anger, the Iraqi government filed UN complaints against generic foreign forces—a cheap political move that avoided an unwinnable war with Israel. Israel used deadly force to secure its escape, a costly move that exposed the base to the world and turned the Iraqi army permanently hostile. Iran escalated by pushing proxy militias to bomb U.S. bases. The U.S. scrambled to contain the damage, publicly denying involvement while issuing severe warnings to Baghdad to stay out of the area.

https://wajeehlion.substack.com/p/clandestine-israeli-infrastructure

Posted in anthropocene | Tagged Iran war, Israeli Third Circle strategy, Nukhayb desert, pilot rescue | Leave a comment

Oh yes he did! – oh no he DID NOT!

Posted on May 11, 2026 by borderslynn

The truth is not to be found on Truth Social. Today Trump’s response to the Iranian proposal is not truly reflecting historical fact about monies refunded to Tehran by Obama. Trump merely repeats a Republican lie regularly promoted since his first term as President.

US payment of $1.7 billion to Iran made entirely in cash

By RICHARD LARDNERUpdated 3:37 AM BST, September 7, 2016

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration acknowledged late Tuesday that its transfer of $1.7 billion to Iran earlier this year was made entirely in cash, using non-U.S. currency, as Republican critics of the transaction continued to denounce the payments.

Treasury Department spokeswoman Dawn Selak said in a statement the cash payments were necessary because of the “effectiveness of U.S. and international sanctions,” which isolated Iran from the international finance system.

The $1.7 billion was the settlement of a decades-old arbitration claim between the U.S. and Iran. An initial $400 million of euros, Swiss francs and other foreign currency was delivered on pallets Jan. 17, the same day Tehran agreed to release four American prisoners.

The Obama administration had claimed the events were separate, but recently acknowledged the cash was used as leverage until the Americans were allowed to leave Iran. The remaining $1.3 billion represented estimated interest on the Iranian cash the U.S. had held since the 1970s. The administration had previously declined to say if the interest was delivered to Iran in physical cash, as with the principal, or via a more regular banking mechanism.

Earlier Tuesday, officials from the State, Justice and Treasury departments held a closed-door briefing for congressional staff on the payments, according to a Capitol Hill aide familiar with the session. The officials said the $1.3 billion was paid in cash on Jan. 22 and Feb. 5. The aide was not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity.

The money came from a little-known fund administered by the Treasury Department for settling litigation claims. The so-called Judgment Fund is taxpayer money Congress has permanently approved in the event it’s needed, allowing the president to bypass direct congressional approval to make a settlement. The U.S. previously paid out $278 million in Iran-related claims by using the fund in 1991.

https://apnews.com/article/united-states-government-fd4113419276444eba1d2a46d5c29752

The Brookings Institute gives an in depth historical account, here is an extract:

Why did the United States pay Iran?

In the 1960s and 1970s, Iran was the largest partner of the U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) Program. As an Obama administration official explained earlier this year, “As part of the FMS Program, a Trust Fund was established with Iranian funds to pay U.S. contractors as work progressed on the various contracts.” In February 1979, days before the culmination of Iran’s revolution, the United States and Iran agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that halted these payments and voided many of the remaining purchases. The MoU also called for Iran’s unexpended FMS funds to be placed in an interest-bearing account.

Later that year, after Iran’s seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and the detention of the American diplomats, the Carter administration froze all Iranian assets in the United States. The standoff was resolved nearly 15 months later, with an agreement that freed the hostages and established the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal to resolve the labyrinth of financial and commercial disputes that had emerged.

In 1982, Iran filed a claim with the Tribunal pertaining to the FMS Trust Fund, which Lisa Grosh, Assistant Legal Advisor at the Department of State, has described as “a multi-billion dollar breach-of-contract dispute covering 1,126 huge military sales contracts.”

Grosh stated that the two sides engaged in some 40 rounds of negotiations “at this level” over several decades. Iran ramped up efforts to adjudicate the claim in 2015, asking the Tribunal to schedule comprehensive hearings on the outstanding FMS claims and requesting a preliminary ruling. The FMS Trust Fund amounted to $600 million until the George H. W. Bush administration returned $200 million to Iran in a partial settlement in 1990.

Who paid who? And how?

The settlement announced in January involved two parts: return of the $400 million principal and payment of $1.3 billion in interest.

To return the principal, the Treasury, working with the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, made a $400 million wire transfer from DFAS to the Swiss National Bank. The $400 million was then converted into Swiss francs and withdrawn in franc banknotes, which were transferred to Geneva. On January 17, the banknotes were disbursed to an official from the Central Bank of Iran.

The interest was paid from the Judgment Fund, which pays “court judgments and Justice Department compromise settlements of actual or imminent lawsuits against the government.” For a payment to be made by the Judgment Fund, Treasury must receive confirmation from the Attorney General that the settlement is in the United States’ best interests. According to Mary McCord, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, National Security Division at the Department of Justice, “[a]ssessment of a settlement payment from the Judgment Fund includes consideration of the exposure that the United States faces from the claim proposed for settlement, … likelihood of an adverse ruling against the United States, the likely size of such an award, the background of the litigation, the tribunal, relevant legal arguments, relevant facts and governing legal doctrines.”

Since the Judgment Fund does not allow the processing of individual claims of amounts over ten digits, the agreed upon interest—$1.3 billion—was split into 13 claims of $99,999,999.99 and one claim of the remaining $10,390,236.28. These amounts were transferred from the Judgment Fund to the Dutch National Bank, where they were converted into euros and withdrawn in euro banknotes. The Dutch bank then disbursed the notes to a representative from the Central Bank of Iran.

Why was interest paid?

The 1979 MoU stipulated that the unexpended funds would be placed in an interest-bearing account. As it turns out, these funds were not based in such an account—no U.S. administration implemented that requirement. The reasons for this are not clear. Former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Eric Edelman, who testified on this issue before the Senate, noted that the United States “does not let [FMS accounts] accrue interest.”

Still, most if not all other claims before the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal have incorporated compensation for accrued interest. This is consistent with the position adopted by the Treasury Department at the outset of the 1979 assets freeze, although in nearly every case the amount of the interest to be paid has been subject to some haggling between Washington and Tehran.

Obama administration officials maintain that a Tribunal decision may have resulted in a much larger judgment on the issue of accrued interest.

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-united-states-iran-and-1-7-billion-sorting-out-the-details/

Posted in anthropocene | Tagged accusations, Bush, Carter, Democrats, illegal war on Iran, legalities, mythology, Obama, recriminations, repaying Iran, Republicans, Trump, Trump rage | Leave a comment

Iranian cyber warfare

Posted on May 10, 2026 by borderslynn

Update from Wajeeh Lion, Substack, May 10, 2026

The Cyber Front: State-Sponsored Retaliation

Simultaneously, the cyber domain has become a primary vector for Iranian strategic retaliation. State-aligned threat actors, notably the “Handala Hack” collective and “MuddyWater,” have executed destructive data-wiping attacks against commercial entities and critical infrastructure.

In a direct psychological operation dubbed “Operation Premature Death,” Handala Hack doxxed 400 United States Navy officers. Concurrently, other Iranian intelligence-linked actors exfiltrated and published highly sensitive personal data on over 2,300 American service members stationed in the Persian Gulf. This massive force protection failure included the public release of home addresses, family details, and daily activity logs.

Iranian cyber doctrine has clearly shifted from simple website disruption (DDoS attacks) toward advanced persistent threat (APT) behavior. Attackers are now utilizing “living-off-the-land” techniques—leveraging legitimate administrative tools already present within a network’s cloud environments and operational technology to bypass traditional, signature-based security detections. They have also deployed ransomware, such as the Brain Cipher variant which utilizes military-grade AES-256 encryption. However, these deployments are not for financial extortion, but for systemic data destruction.

MUSK, THIEL grew up in apartheid South Africa

Posted on May 9, 2026 by borderslynn

White Supremacy should be dead, yet those who would try to revive it symbolise the wild writhing of the concept in its death throes. White Supremacy will not persist as dehumanisation and disrespect of our fellow humans is no longer acceptable to evolved humans.

Musk, Thiel and the shadow of apartheid South Africa

The parallels between South Africa then and the US today are striking

https://www.ft.com/content/cfbfa1e8-d8f8-42b9-b74c-dae6cc6185a0?syn-25a6b1a6=1

Justin Jamal Pearson is an American activist and politician. He is a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives representing the 86th district, covering parts of the city of Memphis.

Brother of Rep. Justin Pearson among protesters reportedly detained during special session at TN Capitol

Pearson posted videos on Facebook saying his brother was removed from the House chamber before being taken into a law enforcement van to be booked by officers in Nashville.

https://www.wsmv.com/livestream/

‘Political lynching’: TN Rep. Justin J. Pearson responds as congressional maps passes

Vivian Nguyen

Thu, May 7, 2026 at 11:20 PM GMT+1

0

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — State Representative Justin J. Pearson said the passing of the map of redrawn congressional districts is a “political lynching” that has set Tennessee back over 150 years.

TN lawmakers approve new districts splitting up Memphis

State Rep. Justin J. Pearson said the following in a response:

“Today’s vote to redraw the congressional districts in Tennessee set our state back over 150 years. It was a political lynching that violated the rights of every Tennesseean. This racist and reckless action was also an attack on Black political power that should appall everyone in the state, whether you are Black or not, a voter or not, live in Memphis or not, or are a Democrat or not. This injurious legislation has made it harder to tackle the urgent challenges that impact working families who are grappling with skyrocketing gas, food, housing and health care costs while their wages and job prospects remain stagnant.

“The authoritarianism that has taken over Tennessee and other state houses across our country not only is a threat to democracy, it drains resources that are better used to improve the quality of life for marginalized communities and increase civic education and engagement. Instead, Tennessee has become the model for abuse of power in the name of racism and political ideology. But we are not powerless.

“We will organize, mobilize and activate People Power across Tennessee, the South and the country to include more voices rather than shut people out as republicans do. We will out-organize despair and out-mobilize racist maps to overcome political malpractice. I am proud of and grateful to everyone who traveled to Nashville and the capitol building to show what People Power and democracy look like. These angelic dissenters are the conscience of America. They are the guardians of America’s soul and the backbone of what truly makes her great. This is not over. We will fight and will not stop until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”

This comes after Gov. Bill Lee, the State Senate, and the House passed the new proposed congressional map, redrawing district lines on Wednesday.

https://www.aol.com/news/political-lynching-tn-rep-justin-222059100.html

RFK recently said he wanted to take black children from their parents and put them on a farm:

RFK Jr. talked about ‘reparenting’ kids on wellness farms. We visit one that inspired him

April 29, 20265:00 AM ET

Brian Mann

https://www.npr.org/2026/04/29/nx-s1-5798733/rfk-jr-addiction-treatment-centers

And in the UK, the link with Musk and Trump is demonstrated:

Right-wing populism wins in England local elections

Gaining political power for the first time, Reform UK surges in local council elections and further strains the country’s two-party system.

James Francis Whitehead / May

https://www.courthousenews.com/right-wing-populism-wins-in-england-local-elections/

Dubious source of Farage funding (Christopher Harborne – see

https://sadamagazine.co.uk/christopher-harborne/

Harborne is at the centre of the stablecoin cryptocurrency Tether along with Howard Lutnick, see an earlier blog of mine:

https://borderslynn.com/2026/04/01/stablecoin-could-cause-the-next-financial-crash/

Nigel Farage

Farage trying to avoid scrutiny over £5m gift from crypto billionaire, Labour says

Reform’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, seeks to present issue as irrelevant in interview with Laura Kuenssberg

Jessica Murray

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/may/10/farage-trying-to-avoid-scrutiny-over-5m-gift-from-crypto-billionaire-labour-says

Note:

Hatewatch

Stephen Miller’s Affinity for White Nationalism Revealed in Leaked Emails

November 12, 2019

https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hatewatch/stephen-millers-affinity-white-nationalism-revealed-leaked-emails/

And

What to know about the Trump Justice Department’s case against the Southern Poverty Law Center

By

Hannah Rabinowitz

,

Devan Cole

Apr 23, 2026

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/23/politics/what-to-know-criminal-case-southern-poverty-law-center

And of John Roberts :

A New Supreme Court Leak Shows John Roberts at His Worst

By Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern

April 21, 202612:52 PM

Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images and Supreme Court of the United States.

Sign up for Executive Dysfunction, a weekly newsletter that surfaces under-the-radar stories about what Trump is doing to the law—and how the law is pushing back.

There is something deeply incongruous about the formal letterhead Chief Justice John Roberts used to lobby his colleagues against President Barack Obama’s signature climate policy. On Saturday, the New York Times published this document as part of a report on a stunning set of leaked internal memos from 2016 that effectively launched the Supreme Court’s modern shadow docket. At first glance, the documents look like a legitimate judicial product. A “Memorandum to the Conference” from the “Chambers of the Chief Justice” certainly appears as if it might have been penned by a judge doing law. But these trappings of formality cannot elevate Roberts’ partisan efforts into a principled judging. The substance of his arguments, as Georgetown Law professor Steve Vladeck has carefully explained, is riddled with errors and oversights, and it appears to be cheap ornamentation gilding a petty vendetta against the Obama administration. And yet, in a time before the current conservative supermajority took hold, the chief’s views carried the day, leading SCOTUS to issue an unprecedented 5–4 stay against the climate plan. And the shadow docket, as we know it today, was born.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2026/04/supreme-court-leak-john-roberts-the-worst.html

And maybe read this authoritative book by David Daley:

And note the poorest states in America:

Posted in anthropocene | Tagged abomination, anti democratic, apartheid, Christopher Harborne, Confederacy, crypto funding right wing, cryptocurrency, dehumanisation, Democrats, disrespect, DOJ, Elon Musk, england, gerrymandering, Howard Lutnick, Jim Crow, John Roberts, John Roberts 50 year plan, Justice Alito, KKK, legacy of white supremacy, monarchists, Nigel Farage, owning the legislature, Peter Thiel, political lynching, poorest states in America, redistricting, Rep. Justin J. Pearson, Republicans, RFK jnr, right wing populism, Saudi Arabia investment, shadow docket, South Africa, Southern Poverty Law Center, Southern States of America, Stephen Miller, Supreme Court, Tennessee, Tether, voting rights act, white supremacists | Leave a comment

The hollowness of victory

Posted on May 9, 2026 by borderslynn

I am reproducing Viktor’s letter from Ukraine (on Substack):

The Day Russia Pretends It Won

A country that bombs Ukraine cannot teach the world what victory means

Viktor Kravchuk

May 9READ IN APP

May 9 is coming again.

In Russia, they call it “Victory Day.”

They will put medals on television. They will speak about sacrifice, history, glory, memory, the defeat of Nazism, the greatness of their country.

And here in Ukraine, we listen for air alerts.

That is the whole obscenity of it.

A country that came to destroy us will stand in public and pretend to honor the defeat of evil.

The dictator who bombs Ukrainian cities will speak about liberation.

The same madness that sends missiles into homes, hospitals, schools, railway stations, power plants, and sleeping neighborhoods will tell the world it understands what victory means.

This project of evil called Russia does not understand victory.

It only knows the sadistic pleasure of seeing someone kneel and calling that peace.

For so many years they have tried to make this date look sacred by making real grief serve a project of power.

They turned the dead of the Second World War into permission for new graves.

Russians are celebrating victory from eighty years ago because they have nothing left to celebrate from this one.

They know that.

And I need to say this from Ukraine, because my life has been interrupted by the country that dares to call itself victorious.

Share this article

For four years now, I do not have a life. I have a hope of a life. I have a plan of survival.

I have one ordinary morning waiting somewhere in the future when my first thought is not war.

Russia took that morning from millions of people and still walks into the calendar to celebrate itself.

This is not history. It is happening now.

It is happening while Ukrainian families are still burying people.

While soldiers are dying in trenches at this very hour. While children in this country know the sound of drones before they know the sound of peaceful childhood.

I have spent more than four years choosing love over hate in everything I write, but today I will not choose it.

I want to tell this clearly, because I have earned the right to say it:

I hate the country that did this to mine.

Completely.

I hate what it has shown me about what a people can become.

I hate that it took so many in the world years of war to understand how rotten a nation can be while still calling itself great.

How a country can lose its soul before it loses a war.

Russia did.

Every missile they launch proves it. Every stolen child, every ruined village.

Russian mothers are told to be proud of sons sent to kill people who never attacked them.

They were swallowing this lie for so long that they no longer remember what victory is supposed to mean.

And now even their parade carries the smell of fear.

No tanks on Red Square this year. Security everywhere. Signals blocked.

The man who promised to take Kyiv in three days is afraid of its own holiday, in its own capital.

Good.

Let them be afraid.

Fear is the only honest thing left in that celebration.

They can call May 9 whatever they want.

But here in Ukraine, we know what victory is.

Victory is the life they failed to erase.

Victory is a woman in Kharkiv sweeping glass from her kitchen and still making tea.

It is a soldier who has not seen his child in months and still holds the line.

It is a city repairing power after another strike.

It is a country waking up after another night and choosing to exist.

The ones who need to destroy another nation to feel great have already lost.

Anyone who turns memory into permission for murder has already lost.

It’s already May 9 in Kyiv.

In Moscow too.

Moscow will perform today.

But somewhere beyond the performance, Ukraine will still be here.

Alive.

And that is the victory Russia could never understand.

—Viktor

🇺🇦

Russia spends today telling the world what it wants the past to mean. This journal spends every day telling the truth of what is happening now. The readers who decided this record was worth protecting are the reason it can keep doing that.

Books by Lyubov and Viktor Kravchuk

If you enjoyed reading this post, feel free to share it with friends!

Share Viktor Kravchuk 🇺🇦Like Comment Restack

© 2026 Viktor Kravchuk
Ukraine

Posted in anthropocene | Tagged breeding hate, cycle of suffering, germany, horror of war, illegal occupation, illegal war, Russia, sovereign state, ukraine, Victory Day, war crimes, WWII | Leave a comment

Hot tailing it….

Posted on May 8, 2026 by borderslynn

IRGC says US destroyers fled Strait of Hormuz after Iranian barrage

08 May 2026 09:29

Photo: Press TV

Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy has claimed that its forces inflicted significant damage on US naval assets during a large-scale combined operation on Thursday evening, forcing three American destroyers to withdraw from the Strait of Hormuz.

In a statement, the commander of the IRGC Navy said the operation was launched in response to what he described as two provocative actions by the US military, News.Az reports, citing Iran’s English-language Press TV.

According to the statement, the first incident involved an alleged violation of the ceasefire through an attack on an Iranian oil tanker near the port of Jask. The second was the approach of US Navy destroyers towards the strategic Strait of Hormuz despite what the commander described as clear warnings from Iran.

https://news.az/news/irgc-says-us-destroyers-fled-strait-of-hormuz-after-iranian-barrage

US-Iran ceasefire under threat after exchange of strikes in strait of Hormuz

Donald Trump says ceasefire remains in place despite strikes, with Iranian TV saying situation is ‘back to normal’

Nadeem Badshah and Lauren GambinoFri 8 May 2026 00.38 BSTShare

The US and Iran exchanged fire late on Thursday in the most serious test yet of their month-long ceasefire.

Iran accused the US of violating the ceasefire by targeting two ships at the strait of Hormuz and attacking civilian areas, as the US insisted it struck in retaliation.

Screengrab from video footage of the Iranian navy firing a missile at an unknown location. Photograph: WANA/Reuters

The US military said it targeted sites responsible for attacking three US destroyers transiting the strait, in what it called “unprovoked” hostilities by Tehran. Iran’s Press TV reported that after several hours of fire “the situation on Iranian islands and coastal cities by the strait of Hormuz is back to normal now”.

The United Arab Emirates said it had intercepted Iranian missile and drone attacks hours after the US said it thwarted attacks on the USS Truxtun, USS Rafael Peralta and USS Mason.

The fresh skirmishes threw into question the viability of a shaky ceasefire that had largely held for the previous month. But Donald Trump, the US president, insisted it remained intact despite the strikes, which he described in an interview with ABC News as a “love tap”.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/07/iran-accuses-us-of-violating-ceasefire-by-targeting-civilian-areas-and-ships-on-strait-of-hormuz

UAE attacked again: Missile, drone strike injures 3 in latest escalation in US-Iran war

Story by Sudeep Rawat

• 1h

UAE attacked again: Missile, drone strike injures 3 in latest escalation in US-Iran war

India, May 8 — On Friday, May 8, the UAE activated its air defence systems to respond to Iran’s attack. The UAE Defence Ministry issued a statement saying that the air defence system engaged two ballistic missiles and three Unidentified Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).

https://www.msn.com/en-in/public-safety-and-emergencies/general/uae-attacked-again-missile-drone-strike-injures-3-in-latest-escalation-in-us-iran-war/ar-AA22I1VE

Israel sent laser system to UAE to help intercept Iranian missiles and drones — report

Sources say Jerusalem also sent a surveillance system and other weapons to the Gulf state, marking a major development in security cooperation with the Abraham Accords ally

By ToI Staff1 May 2026, 2:01 pm

Share

6

The IDF’s first operational Iron Beam high-power laser air defense system, displayed during a handover ceremony at a Rafael Advanced Defense Systems facility, December 28, 2025. (Defense Minister’s Office)

Israel dispatched a version of the Iron Beam laser-based air defense system to the United Arab Emirates during the recent fighting with Iran to help protect the Gulf nation from missile and drone attacks, according to a report on Thursday, in a significant step for the defense ties between the two countries.

According to The Financial Times, Jerusalem also sent over an advanced surveillance system known as Spectro to help the UAE detect Iranian drones from up to 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) away.

The report comes on the heels of a piece by Axios earlier in the week, which asserted that Israel deployed an Iron Dome Battery to the Gulf nation and sent several dozen troops to operate it.

Citing a source familiar with the matter, The Financial Times reported that Israel also sent additional, unspecified weapons systems to the UAE.

“It’s not a small number of boots on the ground,” the source said.

The newspaper reported that in addition to the equipment, Jerusalem also provided the UAE with real-time intelligence on missile launches from Iran heading toward the Gulf state.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-sent-laser-system-to-uae-to-help-intercept-iranian-missiles-and-drones-report/

Posted in anthropocene | Tagged break-up of GCC, catastrophic global consequences, Fujeirah, Iran, Kuwait, Strait of Hormuz, UAE, US defeat, US-Israel | Leave a comment

For years, Trump hid his tax information from the public. Now he could be paid billions by the Internal Revenue Service or have his IRS audits dropped altogether. Does anybody care?

Sherritt Faces Turmoil Amid Trump’s Sanctions on Cuban Regime

The Impact on the Cuban Regime

Canada’s Sherritt Abandons Cuba and Will Evacuate Personnel

US targets Cuban military, mine in new sanctions

These Billionaires Bet Big On Greenland—After Trump Took Interest

The venture firm that ate Silicon Valley just raised another $15 billion

Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto arm raises $2.2 billion for fifth venture fund, promotes CTO Lazzarin to general partner

Greenland’s leader says US military presence part of talks with Trump’s diplomats

The Electronic Shield and Blinding Iraqi Radar

US payment of $1.7 billion to Iran made entirely in cash

Why did the United States pay Iran?

Who paid who? And how?

Why was interest paid?

The Cyber Front: State-Sponsored Retaliation

Conversation

What ceasefire? Iranian hacking group Handala leaks data of thousands of US Marines

Firing of 130 CISA staff worries cybersecurity industry

‘It’s like you can see the iceberg and you decide to speed the Titanic up,’ said one cybersecurity professional.

Musk, Thiel and the shadow of apartheid South Africa

Brother of Rep. Justin Pearson among protesters reportedly detained during special session at TN Capitol

Pearson posted videos on Facebook saying his brother was removed from the House chamber before being taken into a law enforcement van to be booked by officers in Nashville.

‘Political lynching’: TN Rep. Justin J. Pearson responds as congressional maps passes

RFK Jr. talked about ‘reparenting’ kids on wellness farms. We visit one that inspired him

Right-wing populism wins in England local elections

Farage trying to avoid scrutiny over £5m gift from crypto billionaire, Labour says

Stephen Miller’s Affinity for White Nationalism Revealed in Leaked Emails

What to know about the Trump Justice Department’s case against the Southern Poverty Law Center

A New Supreme Court Leak Shows John Roberts at His Worst

A country that bombs Ukraine cannot teach the world what victory means

IRGC says US destroyers fled Strait of Hormuz after Iranian barrage

US-Iran ceasefire under threat after exchange of strikes in strait of Hormuz

UAE attacked again: Missile, drone strike injures 3 in latest escalation in US-Iran war

Israel sent laser system to UAE to help intercept Iranian missiles and drones — report

Sources say Jerusalem also sent a surveillance system and other weapons to the Gulf state, marking a major development in security cooperation with the Abraham Accords ally

Where did we come from? Where are we going?