Cubans study oil tanker diplomacy for signs of progress in secret talks with US

Despite hostile rhetoric Trump let a Russian ship break his blockade – could it herald a Venezuela-style outcome?

When a sanctioned Russian oil tanker, the Anatoly Kolodkin, docked at Cuba’s Matanzas oil terminal on Tuesday, unloading 700,000 barrels of crude, it was not immediately clear why the ship had been allowed to pass through Donald Trump’s oil blockade.

In January, the US president had proclaimed on social media: “THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO!” yet last week he told reporters, “If a country wants to send some oil into Cuba right now, I have no problem with it” – and waved the Russian ship through.

Continue reading...

Tehran rocked by strikes as fleeing residents warn: ‘Iran is being destroyed before our eyes’ – ynetnews

  1. Tehran rocked by strikes as fleeing residents warn: ‘Iran is being destroyed before our eyes’  ynetnews
  2. Israel Strikes More Than 120 Targets in Iran  WSJ
  3. ‘Disturbing trend’ of US-Israeli strikes hitting non-military targets in Iran  France 24
  4. IAF strikes air defense and missile sites in Tehran  The Times of Israel
  5. IDF Strikes Beirut, Tehran; One Wounded in Northern Israel  Haaretz
Posted in Uncategorized

Ukrainian firefighting robot helps soldiers for first time – The Kyiv Independent

  1. Ukrainian firefighting robot helps soldiers for first time  The Kyiv Independent
  2. ‘The frontline is like Terminator’: fighting robots give Ukraine hope in war with Russia  The Guardian
  3. Ukraine used record 7K robot operations to fight off Russians in single month -- as frontline now resembles scene from 'Terminator'  New York Post
  4. In Ukraine, ground robots are increasingly going on the offensive  Lowy Institute
  5. Ukraine focuses on technology as Russia boosts troop numbers, MP says  Azerbaycan24
Posted in Uncategorized

Europe’s Options in the Strait of Hormuz: Few, and Risky – The New York Times

  1. Europe’s Options in the Strait of Hormuz: Few, and Risky  The New York Times
  2. Trump wants the world to buy more US oil. He might regret it.  Politico
  3. Trump’s Mission Impossible for Allies: Reopening the Strait of Hormuz  WSJ
  4. Trump says with more time, US can ‘take the oil’ in Iran  Al Jazeera
  5. Opinion | Trump’s fantasy of seizing the Strait of Hormuz for a ‘gusher’ of oil is a dangerous one  MS NOW
Posted in Uncategorized

New North Sea drilling would barely reduce UK gas imports at all, data shows

Exclusive: research finds Jackdaw field would provide only about 2% of current demand, and Rosebank only 1%

Opening major new fields in the North Sea would make almost no difference to the UK’s reliance on gas imports, research has shown.

The Jackdaw field, one of the largest unexploited gasfields in the North Sea, would displace only 2% of the UK’s current imports of gas, which would leave the UK still almost entirely dependent on supplies from Norway and a few other sources.

Continue reading...

Forget euphemism, Trump is using unabashed viciousness in his language against Iran

The Trump administration takes pleasure in deploying dysphemism to describe the killing of Iranians

On 23 March, Donald Trump said that if things didn’t go to his liking in Iran, “we just keep bombing our little hearts out”. A week later the US president told journalists on Air Force One: “You never know with Iran because we negotiate with them and then we always have to blow them up.”

On 4 March, Pete Hegseth squirmed in pleasure as he described “death and destruction from the sky all day long”. Whatever happened to the subtle art of political euphemism?

Continue reading...

Pope Leo XIV bares cross for full Good Friday procession, a feat not seen in decades – Euronews.com

  1. Pope Leo XIV bares cross for full Good Friday procession, a feat not seen in decades  Euronews.com
  2. Pope Leo XIV becomes second pope to carry cross at Colosseum on Good Friday  Yahoo
  3. Good Friday liturgy underscores need to break ‘this chain’ of violence  OSV News
  4. Pope Leo XIV carries Cross for Via Crucis at Colosseum in Rome  Vatican News
  5. Pope Leo XIV to carry cross for entire procession, the first pontiff to do so in decades  abcnews.com
Posted in Uncategorized

Woman lured ex boyfriend into a trap and then filmed his “brutal assault” – Yahoo News Canada

  1. Woman lured ex boyfriend into a trap and then filmed his "brutal assault"  Yahoo News Canada
  2. She was heard laughing as she filmed the pre-planned assault  facebook.com
  3. Laughing woman lured ex-lover to shop then filmed as he was savagely beaten by two men in honeytrap attack  The Irish Sun
  4. Woman 'lured' ex-boyfriend to shops where thugs delivered 'brutal' beating  Leader Live
  5. Woman 'lured' ex to shops then laughed and filmed as he was brutally attacked  Daily Star
Posted in Uncategorized