Tag: infrastructure

Ukrainian Drones Spark Massive Blaze At Crimea’s Largest Oil Terminal

Just a day after a major report in the Financial Times said that US intelligence has been helping Ukraine conduct long-range drone strikes on Russian oil facilities since at least July, major oil depot in Crimea caught fire overnight following a Ukrainian drone strike.

This marks the second time in a week that the the Feodosia facility has been struck and gone up in flames. Importantly, it is Crimea’s largest oil storage and transshipment hub, with a capacity of around 250,000 tons.

Russian sources say that air defenses intercepted more than 20 drones targeting a fuel storage facility in the port city. The attack resulted in no casualties, amid a large emergency response to battle the blaze.

NASA’s fire monitoring system detected multiple active fires at the site, according to international reports.

In total Ukrainian forces sent some 40 drones to various areas of Crimea, and dozens more were sent against other targets in Russian territory.

Kiev and its Western backers have a clearly articulated objective to disrupt a key source of revenue funding Moscow’s war effort – which has resulted in some success, given the reports of fuel and gasoline shortages, and rising prices across Russia.

Ukraine’s military leadership has of late boasted that the operation over several months has cut Russia’s oil refining capacity by 21%.

Keep reading

US Intelligence Has Been Enabling Ukraine’s Destruction Of Russian Energy Sites

Fresh reporting in the Financial Times offers more confirmation that the Trump administration has been escalating the proxy war in Ukraine against Russia, in hopes of forcing Moscow to the negotiating table.

The Sunday report makes clear that “The US has for months been helping Ukraine mount long-range strikes on Russian energy facilities, in what officials say is a coordinated effort to weaken Vladimir Putin’s economy and force him to the negotiating table.”

“American intelligence shared with Kyiv has enabled strikes on important Russian energy assets including oil refineries far beyond the frontline, according to multiple Ukrainian and US officials familiar with the campaign,” it adds.

One source described Ukraine’s drone program as the tool the US is using to weaken Russia’s economy and pressure Putin into ending the war on terms more favorable to Kiev.

Washington has sunk billions of dollars in expanding Ukraine’s drone capabilities, with the CIA reportedly supporting the initiative. Attacks on Russian oil and energy sites have become almost a nightly occurrence. In many cases Russian anti-air defense fail to intercept the small drones – or else only destroy some among larger swarms.

FT provides a timeline of when this ramped-up intel sharing began. The program reportedly expanded based on a July phone call between President Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky, during which Trump allegedly asked whether Ukraine could target Moscow if supplied with longer-range weapons.

The report relates this exchange as follows:

Trump signaled his backing for a strategy to “make them [Russians] feel the pain” and compel the Kremlin to negotiate, said the two people briefed on the call. The White House later said Trump was “merely asking a question, not encouraging further killing”.

After this, as if to demonstrate its existing capabilities to Washington, Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian energy sites sharply increased in August and September.

Interestingly, the FT notes that the Biden administration had avoided backing such strikes, but still authorized the supply of US Army ATACMS missiles, capable of reaching targets up to about 190 miles away, against Russian border areas.

Keep reading

Russia Continues Bombardment of Ukraine Energy Infrastructure

Russia attacked Ukraine’s power grid overnight into Sunday, part of an ongoing campaign to cripple Ukrainian energy infrastructure before winter. This came as Moscow expressed “extreme concern” over the United States potentially providing Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukriane.

Kyiv regional Gov. Mykola Kalashnyk said two employees of Ukraine´s largest private energy company, DTEK, were wounded in Russian strikes on a substation in the region. Ukraine´s Energy Ministry said that energy infrastructure was also attacked in the regions of Donetsk, Odesa, and Chernihiv.

“Russia continues its aerial terror against our cities and communities, intensifying strikes on our energy infrastructure,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X, noting that Russia had launched “more than 3,100 drones, 92 missiles, and around 1,360 glide bombs” against Ukraine over the past week.

Zelenskyy also called for tighter secondary sanctions on buyers of Russian oil.

“Sanctions, tariffs, and joint actions against the buyers of Russian oil – those who finance this war – must all remain on the table,” he wrote on X.

The Ukrainian president said Saturday he had a “very positive and productive” phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump, in which he told Trump about Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy system and opportunities to strengthen Ukraine’s air defense. A day earlier, Zelenskyy said he was in discussions with U.S. officials about the possible provision of various long-range precision strike weapons, including Tomahawks and more ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles.

Keep reading

Israeli airstrikes devastate south Lebanon’s power grid, destroy reconstruction equipment

Israeli warplanes carried out a series of intense airstrikes along Musaylih Road in southern Lebanon overnight on 11 October, cutting off the main route and plunging large parts of the south into darkness after severing key power lines.

At least 10 strikes hit six excavation and bulldozer depots, destroying more than 300 engineering vehicles and heavy machines, and leaving one person dead and seven wounded.

Electricité du Liban (EDL), Lebanon’s main electricity provider, said the strikes caused severe damage to the national grid. A 66 kV tower was completely destroyed, cutting the Zahrani-Musaylih line and disrupting power to the main 66 kV substations in Sidon and Siblin. 

The unprovoked attack also severed the primary 220 kV Zahrani–Tyre transmission line, forcing the shutdown of several substations across southern Lebanon, including Tyre and Wadi Jilou.

Keep reading

Plot to disrupt New York cell service larger than initially thought: Federal agents

A foiled plot to cripple the telecommunications system in New York was bigger than investigators first realized. Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office, Matt McCool, released a video in late September, sharing that federal agents were first tipped off about what the Secret Service says was a China-linked plot last spring.

But it was only recently uncovered during an investigation into threats to three people, including one with direct access to President Donald Trump.

The U.S. Secret Service began a protective intelligence investigation to determine the extent and impact these threats could have on protective operations,” McCool said in that September video posted on the U.S. Secret Service’s YouTube page.

Secret Service personnel, along with officers from multiple agencies, seized hundreds of servers and over 100,000 cellphone SIM cards from around New York. Enough equipment to send 30 million anonymous texts every minute, which would collapse the telecommunications system.

They found empty apartments with servers and server walls capable of making millions of phone calls in and around New York City,” said Donald Mihalek, an ABC News Contributor who was formerly with the Secret Service.

But this week, that number expanded. Law enforcement sources told ABC News that agents from Homeland Security Investigations found an additional 200,000 SIM cards in New Jersey.

These devices allowed anonymous encrypted communications between potential threat and criminal enterprises,” said McCool.

The U.S. Secret Service is still working to figure out a motive and whether or not there was a specific target. It’s also still not clear if the equipment was supposed to be triggered during the United Nations General Assembly, which took place in New York during the last full week of September.

So far, no arrests have been made but McCool did mention that forensic examination is underway. He also indicated there was cellular communication between foreign actors and individuals known to law enforcement.

Keep reading

BlackRock & Blackstone Are Buying Local Power Companies

Globalist equity firms are scooping up local energy companies across the country — and it looks like they’re just getting started. The official reason is to invest in America’s artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.

The buyouts are already triggering pushback and anxiety at the local level. The Associated Press recently reported that “private equity giants like BlackRock and Blackstone are buying local utilities to power AI-driven data centers, sparking ratepayer and regulator concerns.”

Worries about rising power bills have been mounting in tandem with the buildup of AI data centers around the country. Earlier this year, the AP reported:

Rising power bills are “something legislators have been hearing a lot about. … More people are speaking out at the public utility commission in the past year than I’ve ever seen before,” said Charlotte Shuff of the Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board, a consumer advocacy group. “There’s a massive outcry.

… Tricia Pridemore, who sits on Georgia’s Public Service Commission and is president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, pointed to an already tightened electricity supply and increasing costs for power lines, utility poles, transformers and generators as utilities replace aging equipment or harden it against extreme weather.

The AI race is well underway, and it’s no surprise that these massive international asset firms, given their history, are eager to support a technology with unprecedented potential for surveillance, manipulation, and outright control. There’s also the prospect of a great return on investment, which is the official primary goal of these equity firms. But, as history shows, these multi-trillion dollar entities are not afraid to throw around their monetary might and bully companies into incorporating into their brand political causes such as climate alarmism and the “trans” agenda.  

BlackRock and Blackstone used to be the same company before separating in 1988. Together they control more than $13 trillion in assets. The bulk of that, about $12 trillion, is BlackRock’s, while Blackstone has reported about $1.2 trillion in assets. Only two countries have GDPs larger than $13 trillion — the U.S. and China.

Keep reading

Federal Government Freezes $2.1 Billion for Chicago Transit Projects Over Alleged Race-Based Contracting

The federal government will withhold $2.1 billion for two Chicago infrastructure projects, the U.S. Department of Transportation has announced, citing a new rule that bars race- and sex-based contracting requirements from federal grant programs.

The agency said in an Oct. 3 statement that the Chicago Transit Authority’s (CTA’s) Red Line Extension and Red and Purple Modernization Program have been placed under administrative review “to determine whether any unconstitutional practices are occurring.”

The suspension follows similar moves in New York earlier this week, where $18 billion for the Hudson Tunnel and Second Avenue Subway projects was also put on hold, amid similar concerns around constitutionality.

White House Budget Director Russell Vought took to X to say that the reason the two projects have been put on hold is to “ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting.”

The pause stems from an interim final rule the Transportation Department issued on Sept. 30 that rewrites the agency’s longstanding Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program, which aims to assist small businesses owned and controlled by “socially and economically disadvantaged individuals.” The rule now states the department must operate its programs “in a nondiscriminatory fashion,” and it specifically “removes race- and sex-based presumptions of social and economic disadvantage that violate the U.S. Constitution.”

Under the new standard, all applying businesses must make individualized showings of disadvantage to qualify as DBEs. The rule eliminates automatic presumptions previously granted to women and members of certain racial and ethnic groups.

Keep reading

White House Plans Emergency Orders To Keep Coal Plants Running As Power Bill Crisis Emerges

The Trump administration is urgently addressing the power bill crisis by continuing to use emergency authority to prevent coal-fired power plants from retiring, Bloomberg reports, citing sources. This comes after years of failed green energy policies pushed by climate grifters on the left collide with soaring power demand from AI data centers. The toxic combination has sparked a power crisis across Mid-Atlantic states – one that Energy Secretary Chris Wright says keeps him “up at night.” Even corporate media is now beginning to recognize the severity of the crisis as it now becomes a “major political issue” and liability for Democrats. 

The Energy Department has already issued emergency orders to keep two fossil fuel plants open (a Michigan coal plant owned by Consumers Energy and a Pennsylvania oil-gas generator owned by Constellation Energy), and plans will include other fossil fuel power generation plants in the weeks and months ahead. There are approximately 8.1 GW of coal power capacity, or about 5% of the U.S. fleet, slated for retirement this year, according to the latest EIA data. 

“I think this administration’s policy is going to be to stop the closure of coal plants,” Wright told the audience Wednesday during an event hosted by the New York Times. He said retiring coal-fired power plants “that are working today” would send power prices higher, and derail efforts to reindustrialize the U.S. economy. 

Keep reading

Curfew declared in Madagascar capital after violent protests over water, power shortages

Authorities in Madagascar on Sept 25 imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in the capital, after protests over frequent power outages and water shortages turned violent, according to a top security official.

Police fired teargas to disperse the thousands of mostly youth protesters who were marching and carrying placards, in Antananarivo, the capital, according to a Reuters witness.

The demonstrators were denouncing the government and demanding restoration of reliable water and electricity across the country.

“There are unfortunately individuals taking advantage of the situation to destroy other people’s property,” General Angelo Ravelonarivo, who heads a joint security body that includes the police and the military, said in a statement he read on privately owned Real TV late on Sept 25.

To protect “the population and their belongings,” the security forces decided to impose a curfew from 7pm to 5am “until public order is restored,” the statement said.

Keep reading

Data Centers And The Power Grid: A Path To Debt Relief?

Could data centers and the power grid be America’s next “renaissance?” With the U.S. national debt exceeding $37 trillion and interest payments surpassing defense spending, many articles have been written about the “debt doomsday” event coming. Such was a point we made in “The Debt and Deficit Problem.”

“In recent months, much debate has been about rising debt and increasing deficit levels in the U.S. For example, here is a recent headline from CNBC:”

“The article’s author suggests that U.S. federal deficits are ballooning, with spending surging due to the combined impact of tax cuts, expansive stimulus, and entitlement expenditures. Of course, with institutions like Yale, Wharton, and the CBO warning that this trend has pushed interest costs to new heights, now exceeding defense outlays, concerns about domestic solvency are rising. Even prominent figures in the media, from Larry Summers to Ray Dalio, argue that drastic action is urgently needed, otherwise another “financial crisis” is imminent.”

As we discussed in that article, the “purveyors of doom” have been saying the same thing for the last two decades, yet the American growth engine continues chugging along. Notably, Ray Dalio and Larry Summers focus on only one solution: “cutting spending,” which has horrible economic consequences.

“Furthermore, investors must understand a critical accounting concept: that the government’s debt is the household’s asset. In accounting, for every debit there is a credit that must always equal zero. In this case, when the Government issues debt (a debit), it is sent into the economy for infrastructure, defense, social welfare, etc. That money is “credited” to the bank accounts of households and corporations. Therefore, when the deficit increases, that money winds up in economic activity, and vice versa. In other words, those shouting for sharp deficit reductions are also rooting for a deep economic recession.” – The Deficit Narrative

The other challenges with cutting spending are that it is politically toxic, and tax hikes drag on growth.

However, one solution that all the mainstream “doomsayers” overlook is raising productivity and GDP through private-sector capital investment. In other words, as the U.S. did following World War II, it is possible to “grow your way out of your debt problem.”

That’s where the AI data center boom and massive electricity demand come in.

Keep reading