Free Republic

Once the inevitable collapse of Citgo happens, the ruling drug cartel in Venezuela will inevitably enter it’s final phase. Today, Venezuela is unable to refine oil into gasoline, so in turn it is purchased from Citgo and all but given away for domestic consumption. This has given rise to a vast network of gasoline smuggling, often by the military itself, which steals the gasoline in transit then sells it in other nations for a huge profit while remaining well under the market price. Gasoline is so cheap in Venezuela, one can purchase around 875,000 gallons of 87 octane for $1....

A U.S. federal judge authorized the seizure of Citgo Petroleum Corp. to satisfy a Venezuelan government debt, a ruling that could set off a scramble among Venezuela’s many unpaid creditors to wrest control of its only obviously seizable U.S. asset.

Hardly anybody likes hospital food but in Venezuela, it's so awful -- monotonous, starchy diets cooked in filthy conditions, and newborns fed intravenous solution for lack of baby formula -- that experts call it an actual health risk.

Trump administration officials have made thinly veiled calls for a military coup that would topple the Venezuelan dictatorship and pave the way for democracy. But some well-respected academics are warning that a military coup would more likely produce a Russia or China-backed anti-American dictatorship. Evan Ellis, a Latin America expert with the U.S. Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute, and Brian Fonseca, a professor at Florida International University who has written extensively about the Venezuelan military, are among those who believe that a military coup in Venezuela would probably lead to a pro-Russian or pro-China regime, rather than to a...

At one of Caracas’ biggest public hospitals, most bathrooms are closed. Patients fill jugs from a tiny tap on the ground floor that sometimes has a trickle of water. Operations are postponed or canceled. The Central Venezuelan University hospital, once a Latin American leader, is reeling as taps run dry.

The IDF has uncovered another Hamas network posing as attractive young women on social networks in order to honeypot soldiers, this time on Instagram, in order to access as much information and intelligence on the army that they can. “This is a network in which the culture of sharing is paramount and where everything revolves around pictures and ‘see me,’” said Lt.-Col. A, the head of information security policies at the IDF’s Information Security Department. Be the first to know - Join our Facebook page. According to him, “Popularity and the need to follow back increases the risk” of soldiers...

Qatar pledges to make direct investment in Turkey, currently hit by currency crisis amid a diplomatic stand-off with US.

Paradoxically, reinstatement of US sanctions benefits IRGC and associated conglomerates like Khatam Al Anbiya Dubai: Tensions between Washington and Tehran have escalated dramatically since President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal with Iran in May and imposed stringent sanctions on its economy. Iran has also suffered a major decline in its currency this year — in part due to the US moves — with the rial losing more than half its value against the dollar since April. This has brought the focus back on the dire state of Iran’s economy. But who really controls it? To answer this question,...

Washington: The United States is closely monitoring Iranian naval activity to ensure no disruptions occur to global shipping, a top US general said Wednesday, as tensions with Tehran intensify over renewed economic pressure from the Trump administration. Gen. Joseph Votel, head of US Central Command, said a recent Iranian naval exercise appeared to be linked to the Trump’s decision to reimpose trade sanctions in the wake of the US exit from the 2015 nuclear deal. “We are paying attention,” Votel told reporters at the Pentagon. “We’re extraordinary vigilant and watching for changes in the environment.” The two countries have exchanged...

Map of the planned Turkish Stream (Wikipedia). Russia’s Gazprom has begun constructing the first stage of the Turkish Stream pipeline that will run gas from southern Russia across the Black Sea to Turkey, Reuters reported on Sunday.Switzerland’s Allseas Group S.A has begun laying pipes on the Russian shore of Black Sea. The pipeline will when completed by the end of 2019 allow the state-owned Gazprom company to send gas direct to southern Europe through the Turkish Stream while bypassing Ukraine.The Turkish Stream intergovernmental agreement was signed in October 2016 after having been halted for almost a year following the shootdown...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov suggested Tuesday that countries facing sanctions like Iran, Turkey and Russia may start doing business in their national currencies, suggesting that the days of the U.S. dollar as the international reserve currency may be numbered. Perhaps no one would be happier about that than President Donald Trump. Here’s why: As Yale economist Robert Tiffin explained in the 1950s, if a country’s currency is the international reserve currency, then it has no choice but to run a current account deficit. If a replacement is found, as the dollar replaced the British pound in the 1920s, it...

President Trump just signed the National Defense Authorization Act, named after Arizona Sen. John McCain, but the President never once mentioned McCain's name or thanked him. “We would not be here for today’s signing ceremony without the dedicated efforts without the dedicated members of Congress who worked so hard to pass the National Defense Authorization Act,” said Trump while thanking service members and military leadership. However, he did mention Rep. Elise Stefanik, who spoke briefly and represents the district containing Fort Drum, as well as Don Baker, Dan Donovan, Joe Wilson, and Martha McSally.

President Trump thanks a long list of people before signing the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act, except for the namesake of the bill, Sen. John McCain

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2018/08/09/jesse-jackson-denounces-donald-trump-defends-sen-john-mccain/941783002/

On Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 2810, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2018. Included in the bill is a provision that would make U.S. Army surplus 1911 .45 ACP pistols available to the American public through the Civilian Marksmanship program (CMP). In November of 2015, then-President Obama signed the NDAA for Fiscal year 2016 into law with language that authorized the Secretary of Defense to transfer 1911s no longer in service to the CMP for public sale. That language made the transfers subject to the Secretary’s discretion and capped them at 10,000...

China’s global kidnapping campaign has gone on for years. It may now be reaching inside U.S. borders. Before he disappeared from his luxury apartment at the Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong on Jan. 27, 2017, Xiao Jianhua, a Chinese-Canadian billionaire, favored female bodyguards. Why, exactly, was unclear: Perhaps he simply liked being surrounded by women; perhaps he trusted them more than men. Whatever the reason, those guards weren’t much help when a group of mysterious men showed up at his apartment that January day and took him away. According to anonymous sources who viewed the hotel’s internal video feed...

President Trump's trade war with China is a multi-pronged thing, given how closely the east Asian states of the Pacific Rim are being affected. Those states are all U.S. allies, and the reason we project so much naval power in the Pacific. While we are seeing a lot of doom and gloom talk in the endless 'analyses' you always see in Pacific Rim affairs on the economic side of things, including China itself declaring there will be 'no winners' (typical for the nation that is facing disaster itself), along with some stories of Pacific Rim states getting ready to profit from...

When there is war, conflict, or instability, vulnerable human beings flee, seeking refuge in safer countries. Everyone is familiar with the plight of refugees, and the challenges refugees create for surrounding nations. People need and deserve support, and it requires resources to meet this need. When there is war, conflict, or instability, vulnerable capital and wealth also flee. The "problem" of fleeing capital is different, however. Because capital and wealth are not as encumbered and physically restricted as are human beings, especially in the modern electronic age, capital moves far from the source of instability. Capital flight makes support of...

The rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran is becoming increasingly evident in the oil pricing policies of the two large Middle Eastern producers. The two countries are currently reigniting the market share and pricing war ahead of the returning U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil. Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s largest producer, has been boosting oil production to offset supply disruptions elsewhere, including the anticipated loss of Iranian oil supply after U.S. sanctions on Tehran return in early November. The Saudis are also cutting their prices to the prized Asian market to lure more customers as they increase supply. Iran, OPEC’s third-largest producer,...

An Iranian special forces commander has warned President Donald Trump if the US attacks Iran it "will destroy all that you possess". Major General Qassem Soleimani vowed that if Mr Trump started a war, the Islamic Republic would end it, Iranian news agency Tasnim reported. It follows Mr Trump's all-caps-lock tweet warning Iran's president to "never, ever" threaten the US. Tensions have risen since the US withdrew from the 2015 Iran deal. Maj Gen Soleimani - who leads the Quds Force of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards - was quoted on Thursday as saying: "As a soldier, it is my duty...