Tag: infrastructure

POWDER KEG EUROPE: Serbian President Vučić Says Explosives Were Found Near a Pipeline Carrying Gas From Russia to Serbia and Hungary

Serbia in the eye of the storm.

While the eyes of the world are fixated on the developing crisis in the Middle East, Europe is still getting more dangerous by the day, with an energy crisis worsening the socio-political mess and the divisions over the war in Ukraine.

In this context, countries that lead independent foreign policies, like Serbia, are under relentless pressure.

Today, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić came out publicly to disclose that explosives were found near a pipeline that carries gas from Russia to Serbia and Hungary.

Euronews reported:

“Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić announced on Sunday morning that army and police found explosives that had been placed near a pipeline that carries gas to Serbia and Hungary.

He said that ‘two large packages of explosives with detonators’ were found inside backpacks in northern Serbia’s Kanjiza, ‘a few hundred meters from the gas pipeline’.

The Balkan Stream pipeline is an extension of the TurkStream pipeline, and transfers Russian gas to both Serbia and Hungary.”

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Lavrov, Araghchi Call on to Cease Strikes on Iranian Civilian Infrastructure – Moscow

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi stressed the need to immediately halt reckless attacks on the Iranian civilian and energy infrastructure, including the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.

“The ministers emphasized the need to immediately cease reckless and illegal attacks on civilian, industrial, and energy infrastructure, including the Bushehr nuclear power plant, which is under IAEA safeguards,” the ministry said in a statement following the call.

Both ministers also stressed the inadmissibility of threats to the nuclear power plant’s personnel and the risks of a radioactive disaster in the region, the ministry said. Lavrov also expressed his condolences to Araghchi over the death of a civilian employee of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, it added.

Earlier in the day, Lavrov held a phone conversation with Araghchi to discuss the situation in the Middle East.

During the call, Lavrov expressed hope for the success of efforts aiming at de-escalating the conflict in the Middle East, it said. In particular, the United States would contribute to such efforts by “abandoning the language of ultimatums and returning the situation to the negotiating track,” the ministry added.

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Iran hits energy sites in Kuwait as US says downed pilot rescued

Iran hit several energy sites in Kuwait, including the headquarters of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, which was reportedly struck by a drone. The barrage came after US President Donald Trump warned that “all hell will rain down” on Iran unless the Strait of Hormuz is unblocked within 48 hours.

Iran has closed the vital waterway to “enemy ships” following the first wave of US and Israeli attacks on February 28, driving up oil and gas prices worldwide. Trump has vowed to target Iranian power plants if shipping is not fully restored.

Meanwhile, the United States said it had successfully rescued a crew member of a downed F-15E Strike Eagle during what Trump described as “one of the most daring search and rescue operations in U.S. history.” The officer, whom Trump identified as a colonel, had been stranded in mountainous terrain inside Iran and was recovered by a large force of aircraft after sustaining injuries. He said the serviceman is now “safe and sound.”

Trump added that a second US pilot had been rescued in a separate operation a day earlier, which had not been disclosed at the time for operational security reasons, and said both missions were carried out without American casualties. The Pentagon has not publicly confirmed details of the operations.

Earlier reports had indicated intense fighting between US commandos and Iran’s Basij paramilitary force in the southwestern province of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, where the aircraft was shot down on Friday, and that Iranian authorities had offered a reward for the pilot’s capture.

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Forget Minnesota – The Amount Of Fraud Uncovered In California Is Staggering

California is a cash machine. The state collects some of the country’s highest income, business, and fuel taxes, and now spends more than $300 billion per year. And yet, everywhere you look, California seems to be falling apart.

The roads are crumbling. Mismanaged wildfires have turned neighborhoods into ash. Drug addiction and homelessness have metastasized, turning parts of Los Angeles and San Francisco into no-go zones. And the cost-of-living crisis is pricing middle-class taxpayers out of basic necessities like groceries and gas, even as the state spends billions on welfare programs that never seem to lift anyone out of poverty.

Californians are beginning to ask: Where is all this money going? On paper, it funds hospitals, universities, schools, prisons, infrastructure, and other public services. But beneath the surface, something else is happening that California Governor Gavin Newsom does not want you to see: massive, systematic, brazen fraud.

We conducted interviews with public officials, fraud experts, and political figures, and reviewed hundreds of pages of government reports, state audits, criminal indictments, and other public records on California fraud. From unemployment insurance and Medicaid to failed homeless initiatives and welfare programs, seemingly every state program has been compromised by criminals. The best estimates suggest that, on the governor’s watch, fraudsters, scammers, and organized crime rings have stolen at least $180 billion from taxpayers.

Welcome to Gavin Newsom’s empire of fraud.

Fourteen months after Newsom began his first term as governor of California, the Covid-19 pandemic swept the world. Roughly 2.7 million Californians eventually lost their jobs. The state’s economy went into freefall as its leaders imposed some of the country’s most restrictive public-health measures. In response to the crisis, Newsom sought to dump pallets of cash across the state—as quickly as possible.

One way to inject money was through California’s massive unemployment insurance program (UI). Unemployment insurance is administered by the state’s Employment Development Department (EDD), which can process billions of dollars in payments monthly. Before the state turned on the cash machine, however, experts had warned that the system was ripe for fraud.

Haywood Talcove, one of America’s leading fraud specialists and CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solutions for Government, was one such expert. “I was begging [federal officials] not to let the money go out like that, because it was going to be the biggest fraud in the history of our country,” he said. “Obviously, I wasn’t successful.”

For many reasons, California was particularly susceptible to the large-scale fraud schemes Haywood Talcove saw on the horizon. Not only did the state have some of the most generous welfare programs in the country; its bureaucrats had also failed to implement some basic fraud controls during Newsom’s tenure.

“They literally suspended all of the rules for the [unemployment insurance] program,” Talcove said. “[That made] it possible for anyone to get that benefit even if they weren’t entitled to it. It was very intentional. They knew what they were doing. But it caught up to them because it just got so out of control.”

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US, Israel destroy Iran’s historic Pasteur Institute, highest bridge in West Asia

US-Israeli airstrikes hit major infrastructure across Iran on 2 April, including a medical institute more than 100 years old and a key bridge linking Tehran to the city of Karaj. 

The Iranian Health Ministry said Thursday that the Pasteur Institute of Iran, founded in 1920 in collaboration with the Pasteur Institute of Paris, was heavily damaged in the latest US-Israeli attacks on the country.

The institute specializes in combatting infectious diseases and outbreaks such as rabies, smallpox, and cholera. It is also a leading hub for the production of vaccines. 

An Iranian Health Ministry spokesman, Hossein Kermanpour, called the strike “a direct assault on international health security” and an attack on “a century-old pillar of global health.”

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei called the attack “heartbreaking, cruel, despicable, and utterly outrageous,” stressing it was “not merely another war crime, but a barbaric assault on basic human core values.” Over 300 health facilities have been damaged by US-Israeli strikes since the start of the war.

Washington and Tel Aviv also attacked on Thursday the B1 Bridge in Alborz – also known as the Ebrahim Raisi Bridge and recognized as the tallest bridge in the region.

It was developed with the involvement of the Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters, standing 136 meters high and stretching over a kilometer across the Karaj River valley.

It is now severely damaged, images have shown.

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America’s Half-Trillion-Dollar Sewage Problem

Beneath city streets and suburban neighborhoods, a vast network of pipes and wastewater treatment systems is reaching the end of its life. This subterranean infrastructure is already suffering tens of thousands of failures per year, while exposing millions of Americans to contamination risks.

Utilities, plumbing experts, and environmentalists warn that the scope of the problem has expanded rapidly in recent years. As of 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimated that $630 billion in wastewater infrastructure investment would be needed to repair and replace deteriorating systems. At the same time, extreme weather events and growing populations were putting additional strain on America’s aging pipes.

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), in its 2025 report card, gave U.S. wastewater infrastructure a D-plus, which the group largely attributed to a lack of funding to meet the needs of communities with failing systems.

Meanwhile, average utility prices for wastewater consumers increased from $35 per month to nearly $65 per month between 2010 and 2020, ASCE researchers found. Even still, they said, rising utility prices aren’t “keeping pace with the growing costs for utilities to provide routine operation and maintenance.”

Paradoxically, as household water and sewer bills increased more than 24 percent between 2020 and 2025, wastewater infrastructure renewal and replacement rates for large-scale projects actually decreased over the past decade, from 3 percent to 2 percent, according to the ASCE analysis.

The scope of the problem becomes clearer when considering the sheer volume of sanitary sewer overflows. As of April 2025, the EPA estimated there were between 23,000 and 75,000 overflow incidents per year, and that didn’t include sewage that backed up into buildings or residential homes.

Some of the reasons for these spills included blockages, line breaks, design defects, and overloaded treatment systems.

A spokesperson for the EPA told The Epoch Times that the agency is “committed to accelerating investments in water infrastructure by stewarding federal funding appropriated by Congress.”

Recent funding highlights from 2025 include the Clean Water State Revolving Fund and Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, which committed $13 billion for infrastructure improvements in communities across the nation, according to the EPA spokesperson.

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Energy bills set to spike for Washington state residents — while Microsoft gets rate cut: report

Electric bills are set to jump more than 16% for 1.25 million Washington state residents — even as Microsoft gets a rate cut under a special deal, according to a report.

Puget Sound Energy, a utility company that is owned by a consortium of Canadian and Dutch pension funds, is seeking state government approval for rate hikes of 16.75% next year, 3.76% in 2028, and 8.81% in 2029.

The request, which is subject to approval by Washington’s state regulators at Utilities and Transportation Commission, also includes a proposed rate cut for Microsoft, according to the local news site Zoned Out PNW.

If PSE gets its way, the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant, which as of Wednesday boasted a market capitalization of $2.76 trillion, will see its rates slashed by 12.49% next year; 2.04% in 2028; and 3.06% in 2029.

The UTC board is chaired by Brian Rybarik, who held various roles at Microsoft before he was appointed to his current position by Gov. Bob Ferguson, a Dem.

Microsoft reportedly qualifies for the rate cuts because the tech giant falls under the category of a “special contracts” customer.

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Large Michigan Solar Projects Can Now Bypass Township Permit Denials. 122 of 148 Lawmakers Took Utility Money

One of Michigan’s electric utilities, Consumers Energy, announced plans to build up to 9,000 megawatts of solar power on 209,000 acres of farmland. The total size of these solar projects is about 326 square miles. That’s about 2.5 times the size of Detroit itself.

Nearly all these costs get added to citizens’ electric bills. Recognizing this would likely create opposition within townships, Democrat politicians in Michigan passed Public Act 233. It overrides a township if they deny a solar or wind farm permit.

For decades, Michigan’s 1,773 local township governments had the authority to decide whether a large solar farm could be built in their communities. In late November of 2023, Public Act 233 was signed into law. Larger solar (>50MW) and wind (>100MW) projects can now skip the voices of local residents. They now have almost no say in some of Michigan’s biggest industrial projects.

If the local jurisdiction denies the solar application, takes too long, or imposes excessive rules, the developer can bypass the township entirely. They can apply directly to the 3 person Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) for approval. All 3 commissioners are appointed by Democrat governor Gretchen Whitmer. In some cases, these developers can bypass townships from the onset.

PA 233 was introduced by MI House of Representatives Abraham Aiyash (D), a top Muslim lawmaker from the Detroit area. Every Democrat voted in favor of the bill, every Republican against (20-18). Like fascists, the MI Democrats took oversight from these small townships and gave it to MPSC. Democrats also control MPSC, which determines how much the two utility companies can charge their MI customers (Consumers Energy, DTE Energy).

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Mysterious Power Outage Hits California Leaving Over 100,000 People in the Dark

Over 100,000 residents in California lost power on Thursday night.

According to San Diego Gas & Electric, over 100,000 residents in San Diego and South Orange counties were left in the dark after a massive power outage.

SDGE has not released the cause of the outage, and the incident is currently under investigation.

Per ABC 7:

A massive power outage left tens of thousands of people without electricity Thursday night across South Orange County and parts of San Diego County.

San Diego Gas & Electric reported that more than 100,000 customers were initially affected. Video taken near the Civic Center in Mission Viejo showed one of the areas impacted by the blackout. Other areas that were impacted included Laguna Hills and Laguna Niguel.

The cause of the outage was not immediately known.

“We understand how disruptive outages can be and are working to investigate the cause,” said SDG&E in a statement. “The safety of our customers, employees and communities remains our top priority.”

San Diego Gas & Electric has since issued a press release stating that power has been restored.

“Power has been fully restored to customers affected by a widespread outage impacting multiple communities in North San Diego County and Orange County this evening,” stated SDGE.

“We understand how disruptive outages can be and are working to investigate the cause,” added SDGE.

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Trump, Blackburn Push to Federalize AI Control

The Trump administration and its allies in Congress are moving to define the rules of the digital future, with consequences that could extend far beyond artificial intelligence (AI).

Last week, the White House released a national AI legislative framework, while Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) introduced a sweeping, 291-page companion bill to codify it into law. Together, they mark the most aggressive federal push yet to define how Americans access, use, and build AI systems.

Supporters argue the country needs a single national standard to compete with China and rein in Big Tech. The language is polished and ambitious. It promises to protect children, safeguard free speech, support creators, spur innovation, empower communities, and prepare Americans for an “AI-driven economy.”

Critics see something else: Identity-gated access, continuous monitoring, traceable content, and federally managed AI development.

At the center of the debate is a simple question: Who controls access to AI, and at what cost?

One National Framework

At the core of the Trump administration’s AI push is a single premise: Centralization of AI regulation.

The White House states it plainly:

Importantly, this framework can succeed only if it is applied uniformly across the United States. A patchwork of conflicting state laws would undermine American innovation and our ability to lead in the global AI race.

Blackburn’s bill sharpens the point. Its title is telling:

The Republic Unifying Meritocratic Performance Advancing Machine Intelligence by Eliminating Regulatory Interstate Chaos Across American Industry Act (TRUMP AMERICA AI Act).

In other words, when states regulate AI, it is, in the senator’s telling, “chaos.” When Washington does it, it a “unifying” order.

“The Federal government is uniquely positioned to set a consistent national policy,” the White House adds.

The effect is sweeping. A single federal framework would override emerging state laws. States such as California and New York have already begun shaping AI rules. Under this model, those efforts would be sidelined.

Blackburn’s bill turns that vision into structure. It consolidates authority across safety, liability, and enforcement. It expands federal oversight and delegates rulemaking authority to agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Other provisions reinforce the shift. The Department of Energy (DOE) gains authority to evaluate advanced systems, centralizing access to data and infrastructure.

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