Tag: perpetual war

Central European State Forced to Ration Fuel and Deploy Army for Transport and Logistics as Middle East War Rages On

The small, Central European state of Slovenia, the birthplace of Melania Trump, has moved to ration fuel and deploy military logistics support as a sudden surge in demand—fueled by cross-border traffic and global instability—has exposed the fragility of Europe’s energy system. The government’s emergency response reflects a growing crisis that is no longer confined to distant battlefields but is now reshaping daily life throughout the world.

The immediate trigger has been a sharp spike in fuel demand, driven in part by motorists crossing into Slovenia from neighboring countries in search of cheaper petrol and diesel. Authorities say this so-called “fuel tourism” has drained supplies at key stations, particularly near borders and along major transit routes, The Slovenia Times reports.

Under new rules, individuals are now limited to purchasing 50 liters of fuel per day, while businesses, including transport operators and farmers, can buy up to 200 liters. The restrictions apply nationwide and will remain in force indefinitely as officials struggle to stabilize supply chains.

At the same time, the government has taken the extraordinary step of mobilizing the armed forces to support fuel distribution. Military personnel are assisting with transport and logistics, highlighting the severity of the disruption and the state’s growing role in managing essential resources.

Officials insist the measures are temporary, but the scale of intervention suggests deeper structural weaknesses. The crisis has been exacerbated by volatile global energy markets following the escalation of conflict in the Middle East, which has sent oil prices soaring and strained supply networks across Europe.

In response, Slovenia has begun releasing up to 30 million liters of diesel from its strategic reserves. These reserves, totaling around 700 million liters, are intended to cover just over three months of national consumption, underscoring how quickly such buffers can be drawn down in times of crisis.

The government has also banned the export of this emergency fuel, ensuring it remains within national borders. Only selected domestic users—primarily those contributing to strategic reserves—are eligible to access these supplies.

Despite these interventions, shortages have persisted at several service stations, with some reporting demand levels multiple times higher than normal. Retailers have struggled to keep up, particularly as panic buying and stockpiling have intensified among businesses and individuals alike.

The lifting of fuel price caps on motorway service stations has further complicated the situation. Prices have surged, with some locations seeing dramatic increases, widening disparities between Slovenia and its neighbors and inadvertently fueling even more cross-border demand.

While price controls remain in place off the motorway network, these are expected to rise in the coming weeks. Government attempts to cushion the blow through tax reductions have done little to offset the broader impact of global price shocks.

Slovenia’s largest fuel distributor has warned that current measures may only offer short-term relief. Industry representatives argue that deeper structural changes are needed, particularly as the country remains heavily dependent on imported petroleum products.

The crisis has also reignited debate over European Union rules, which limit the ability of member states to restrict fuel purchases by foreign nationals. While Slovenia has considered such measures, officials have acknowledged they may violate EU law.

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Pakistan says talks imminent: Trump’s vice president to meet Iranian officials as Israel fears concessions

A Pakistani source said Tuesday that U.S. Vice President JD Vance, along with envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, are expected to meet Iranian officials in Islamabad as early as this week, according to Reuters.

The source said the summit would follow a call between President Donald Trump and Pakistan’s army chief, Gen. Asim Munir.

Earlier, the Financial Times reported that Pakistan is seeking to position itself as a central mediator to help end the war. Pakistani officials have also passed messages between Tehran and both Witkoff and Kushner, the newspaper said.

The report noted that Pakistan — which does not host U.S. military bases — is one of the few U.S. allies in the region that was not targeted by Iran during the war. Three sources told the Financial Times that this helped Islamabad present itself as a neutral intermediary between the sides.

Israeli concerns over US stance

Israeli officials are increasingly concerned that Trump may not insist on Washington’s stated red lines in talks with Iran and could accept any outcome that allows him to declare victory.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke earlier Tuesday with Vance and was briefed on the contacts between Washington and Tehran. The U.S. message to Israel, according to Israeli officials, is that Washington intends to uphold red lines largely aligned with Israel’s: removal of enriched uranium from Iran, halting its nuclear program, restoring intrusive inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency, limiting Iran’s ballistic missile program — with a U.S. demand for a five-year freeze — and ending support for militant groups.

Trump is also insisting on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and having a role in overseeing it.

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Israeli minister calls for annexation of southern Lebanon

Israel should seize vast swathes of land in southern Lebanon as part of its ongoing campaign against Hezbollah militants, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has stated. The new border should be moved all the way to the Litani River, located nearly 40 kilometers from Lebanon’s southern border with Israel, he said on Israeli radio on Monday.

West Jerusalem started a military campaign against Hezbollah in early March after the Lebanese-based militant movement launched waves of strikes on the Jewish state in retaliation for the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The attacks followed a joint US-Israeli campaign against Iran launched on February 28.

Israel has since ordered all residents of southern Lebanon to leave the area south of the Litani due to what it called “limited and targeted ground operations against key Hezbollah strongholds.” According to the Lebanese authorities, the Israeli strikes have killed over 880 people over the past two weeks, with more than 2,000 injured and over one million displaced.

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The Treasury just declared the U.S. insolvent. The media missed it

The U.S. government is insolvent. That’s not hyperbole — it’s the conclusion drawn directly from the Treasury Department’s own consolidated financial statements for fiscal year 2025, released last week to near-total media silence. The numbers: $6.06 trillion in total assets against $47.78 trillion in total liabilities as of September 30, 2025.

Importantly, the $47.78 trillion in reported liabilities does not include the unfunded obligations of social insurance programs like Social Security and Medicare — those are disclosed separately in the off-balance-sheet Statement of Social Insurance (SOSI).

The government’s consolidated balance sheet position, excluding the SOSI, deteriorated by nearly $2.07 trillion between FY 2024 and FY 2025, reaching a staggering negative $41.72 trillion. Total liabilities are now nearly eight times the value of reported assets. The largest drivers were a $2 trillion increase in federal debt and interest payable (now $30.33 trillion) and a $438.8 billion increase in federal employee and veteran benefits payable (now $15.47 trillion).

The Off-Balance-Sheet Iceberg

The off-balance-sheet picture is even more alarming. The 75-year unfunded social insurance obligation surged by $10.1 trillion in a single year, rising from $78.3 trillion in FY 2024 to $88.4 trillion in FY 2025 — driven primarily by a $6.9 trillion jump in projected Medicare Part B shortfalls and a $2.5 trillion increase for Social Security. The Treasury’s Statement of Long-Term Fiscal Projections shows the 75-year fiscal gap widening from 4.3% of GDP in FY 2024 to 4.7% in FY 2025.

If the $88.4 trillion in 75-year off-balance-sheet obligations were added to the $47.8 trillion in official balance sheet liabilities, total federal obligations would now exceed $136.2 trillion — roughly five times U.S. annual GDP.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a disclaimer of opinion on the U.S. government’s FY 2025 financial statements — the 29th consecutive year it has been unable to determine whether the statements are fairly presented. This is primarily due to serious, ongoing financial management problems at the Department of Defense and weaknesses in accounting for interagency transactions.

What $136 Trillion Looks Like in Your Living Room

Not only has the financial press ignored the consolidated financial statements, but most members of Congress and members of the general public will not read the consolidated financial statements. Documents like the consolidated financial statements are not the kind of thing you want to read before driving. If that’s not bad enough, most people cannot relate to the trillion-dollar numbers in the financial statements. Therefore, it is appropriate to translate them into terms that people will understand.

Most people cannot relate to trillion-dollar figures on a government ledger. So consider this: divide every number by 100 million — drop eight zeros — and federal finances look like a household budget in freefall.

That household earns $52,446 and spends $73,378 — running a $20,932 annual deficit. Its total liabilities and unfunded promises amount to $1,361,788 against just $60,554 in assets, leaving it $1.3 million in the hole. Uncle Sam, by any accounting standard, is insolvent.

Congress has clearly lost control of the nation’s finances. America is facing a fiscal catastrophe. The reckoning, long deferred, is becoming impossible to ignore.

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NYC’s First Lady Exposed Approving of Suicide Attack Propaganda, Plane Hijackers, and Outrageous Attacks on US Troops

New York City’s First Lady and wife of Democratic Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Rama Duwaji, has a history of glorifying terrorism, as evidenced by her past social media posts.

The Washington Free Beacon investigated Duwaji’s accounts on platforms Tumblr and X, finding posts she made in her teens and 20s that may raise an eyebrow with anyone thinking the Muslim couple now residing in Gracie Mansion are moderate in their politics.

In September 2017, she posted an image on Tumblr of Leila Khaled, captioned, “If it does good for my cause, I’ll be happy to accept death.”

Khaled is famous for her role as a militant who took part in two plane hijackings. She is a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.

In 1970, according to The Washington Free Beacon, Khaled threatened to set off a grenade during one of those hijackings if she was not allowed in the cockpit of the plane.

In another post from March 2015, Duwaji praised another terrorist, Shadia Abu Ghazaleh, on International Women’s Day. Her post on X read “shadia abu ghazaleh, first palestinian woman to fight in resistance after 1967 occupation #InternationalWomensDay.”

Ghazaleh died in 1968 after a bomb that she was making to use on a building in Tel Aviv, Israel, accidentally blew up in her home. She had previously bombed a bus and committed other acts of terrorism.

In June 2015, she reposted an attack on the U.S. military, commenting, “*taps mic* American soldiers fighting in imperialist wars are not brave nor are they fighting for anyone’s freedom. They are mercilessly slaughtering 3rd world civilians and fighting to maintain American hegemony. That is all, thank you! *drops mic*”

After video sharing platform Snapchat added Tel Aviv to a live story feature allowing users to share footage from the city, Duwaji reposted an account that reacted to the decision in July 2015. “But in all reality, @Snapchat has disappointed me. Fuck #TelAviv. Shouldn’t exist in the first place. They’re occupiers. You celebrate them.”

Another post said, “And finally. Hey @Snapchat, as you give Israelis an outlet to celebrate their atrocities, youre supporting a genocidal state. Bye. #TelAviv.”

Some are chastising an investigation into Duwaji’s past, noting that it’s a page right out of the left’s playbook.

But there’s a distinction. Destroying someone’s life for calling their friends edgy insults on Facebook does not equate to revealing that the wife of a prominent public official has a love affair with a terrorist organization and downplays the sacrifice of American service members.

Duwaji is Syrian, moving with her family to Dubai in 2006, where she attended Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar before transferring to the campus in Richmond, Virginia. She was living in the Middle East, praising Middle Eastern terrorists.

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Lindsey Graham on Iran’s Kharg Island: ‘We Did Iwo Jima. We Can Do This.’

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Sunday called for the US to capture Iran’s Kharg Island, where most of the country’s oil exports pass, comparing the potential operation to the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II.

“Here’s what I’d tell President Trump: Keep it up for a few more weeks, take Kharg Island … control that island. Let this regime die on the vine,” Graham said in an appearance on Fox News.

When pressed on the fact that US troops involved in the operation would face significant missile and drone attacks, Graham said, “I’m sort of tired of all this armchair quarterbacking. This has been an amazing military operation — God bless the fallen.”

The South Carolina senator said that he “trusted the Marines” and noted that two Marine Expeditionary Units are heading to the region. “We did Iwo Jima. We can do this,” Graham said. “My money is always on the Marines. I don’t know if you take the island or you blockade the island, but I know this: the day we control that island, this regime, this terrorist regime, will die on the vine.”

The Battle of Iwo Jima is known as one of the most brutal battles in World War II, involving US troops, and resulted in about 26,000 US casualties, including more than 6,000 deaths. On the Japanese side, more than 18,000 defenders of the island were killed.

Graham’s comments come after NBC News reported that President Trump is considering whether to send thousands of troops into Iran for potential operations aimed at opening up the Strait of Hormuz. The report said ground operations could involve attempts to seize control of Iranian ports, small islands, or oil infrastructure.

Another option being considered is launching a raid to capture Iran’s stockpile of uranium that’s enriched at the 60% level, though it’s believed to be buried under rubble following the June 2025 US airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

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Did Iran launch missiles at US-UK base on Diego Garcia? Here’s what to know

The United Kingdom has slammed “reckless Iranian threats” after missiles targeted a joint United States-UK military base located on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia.

However, Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday denied the allegations that it was behind the launch of what US media reports said were two ballistic missiles.

The US has not commented officially on the firing of the missiles at Diego Garcia, which is approximately 4,000km (2,500 miles) from Iran.

The incident over the weekend came three weeks into the war launched by the US and Israel against Iran on February 28. One of the goals of the war, they have said, is to degrade Iran’s nuclear and missile programmes.

Tehran has maintained its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes. The United Nations nuclear watchdog and US intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard have said Iran was not on the verge of making nuclear bombs. Contrary assertions were invoked to launch the current war.

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Iran threatens to ‘completely’ close Strait of Hormuz and hit power plants after Trump ultimatum

 The United States and Iran threatened to target critical infrastructure Sunday as the war in the Middle East, now in its fourth week, puts lives and livelihoods at risk throughout the region.

Iran said the Strait of Hormuz, crucial to oil and other exports, would be “completely closed” immediately if the U.S. follows up on President Donald Trump’s threat to attack its power plants. Trump late Saturday set a 48-hour deadline to open the strait.

Israeli leaders visited one of two southern communities near a secretive nuclear research site struck by Iranian missiles late Saturday, with scores of people wounded. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was a “miracle” no one was killed.

Netanyahu claimed Israel and the U.S. were well on their way to achieving their war goals. The aims have ranged from weakening Iran’s nuclear program, missile program and support for armed proxies to enabling the Iranian people to overthrow the theocracy.

There has been no sign of an uprising, nor of an end to the fighting that has shaken the global economy, sent oil prices surging and endangered some of the world’s busiest air corridors. The war, which the U.S. and Israel launched Feb. 28, has killed over 2,000 people.

The Iranian-backed Hezbollah claimed responsibility for an airstrike that killed a man in northern Israel, while Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called Israel’s new targeting of bridges in the south “a prelude to a ground invasion.”

“More weeks of fighting against Iran and Hezbollah are expected for us,” said Israeli military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin.

Meanwhile, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates said early Monday their air defenses were dealing with missile and drone attacks as air raid sirens sounded in Bahrain.

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Citizens In Eastern Ukraine Will Not Be Allowed To Vote, Zelensky Says

President Volodymyr Zelensky has confirmed that Ukraine and Washington are in talks about holding elections, after earlier this month he much belatedly said while under pressure from Trump that he’s ready to allow national elections, so long as they can be done fairly and freely.

Zelensky indicated current discussions also hinge on the US and other partners helping set the conditions so Ukrainians can vote in safety. He previously stated the country could hold a vote within 60 days – but only if there are security guarantees.

Already over the weekend he erected more barriers to holding a vote, stipulating that citizens in Eastern Ukraine would not be able to participate. 

“Any election in Ukraine can not be held in Russia-occupied parts of the country,” Zelensky has been quoted in international press as saying, and he once again added that a proper voting process can take place only if security is ensured.

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‘Punish Iran’: Saudi Arabia & UAE Inch Closer To Joining US-Israeli War

Earlier this month, Elbridge Colby, a senior official in the US Department of War, held a call with Saudi Arabian Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman, who is also the brother and top adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Iran’s attacks on US bases in the Gulf were heating up, and the US needed expanded access and overflight permissions. Saudi Arabia agreed to open King Fahd Air Base in Taif, in Western Saudi Arabia, to the Americans, multiple US and western officials familiar with the matter told Middle East Eye.

The base is important because it is farther from Iranian Shahed drones than Prince Sultan Air Base, which has come under repeated Iranian attacks. Taif is also close to Jeddah, the Red Sea port that has become a critical logistics hub since Iran effectively took control of the Strait of Hormuz. Current and former US officials tell MEE that if the Trump administration is preparing for a longer war on Iran, Jeddah may be critical for sustaining US armed forces. Thousands of US ground troops are en route to the region from East Asia. 

Saudi Arabia’s decision to expand base access, current and former officials say, underscores a shift in how the kingdom and some other Gulf states are responding to the US-Israeli war on Iran. “The attitude in Riyadh has shifted towards supporting the US war as a way to punish Iran for strikes,” a western official in the Gulf told MEE.

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