Free Republic

As crews continue working on a new border wall segment near the coast, people are starting to notice that the top of the barrier has a new design... “It’s the first of its kind along the U.S.-Mexico border,” said Rios. “It’s an anti-climbing feature that’s meant to stop people from scaling the border wall.”... A source told Border Report the metal segments being added to the top of the barrier are a prototype, and if they keep migrants from climbing the wall, the feature will be added in other areas along the southern border.

Three years after Gov. Greg Abbott announced Texas would take the extraordinary step of building a state-funded wall along the Mexico border, he has 34 miles of steel bollards to show for it... (at) a price tag of some $25 million per mile (similar in cost and capability to Trump Wall)... Progress has been hampered by the state’s struggles to secure land access... Nonetheless, state contractors have already propped up more wall mileage than former President Donald Trump’s administration managed to build in Texas, and Abbott’s wall project is plowing ahead at a quickened pace. State officials hope to erect...

Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch reports that Biden will resign on Monday (8 July) I guess that would make Kamala Harris President. https://www.facebook.com/realTomFitton/

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on June 17 that it has dismantled about half of Hamas’ forces in Rafah. The IDF 162nd Division advanced into Rafah on May 7 and the IDF said that it now controls approximately 60 to 70 percent of the governorate, including the Egypt-Gaza Strip border. The IDF assesses that it has almost completely “dismantled” two of four battalions in Hamas’ Rafah Brigade and that IDF units have “somewhat degraded” the other two battalions. An Israeli media correspondent estimated that Israel will take “several more weeks” to completely “dismantle” Hamas’ Rafah Brigade. Israeli forces have...

According to 538, one of the industry's two most popular poll aggregators, Biden's approval sits at just 37.4 percent. That is not only the lowest of his presidency but also a record low for any president at this point in a re-election campaign since polling began.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is moving toward reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug. The Justice Department proposal would recognize the medical uses of cannabis, but wouldn't legalize it for recreational use. The proposal would move marijuana from the “Schedule I” group to the less tightly regulated “Schedule III."... ...The proposal must be reviewed by... a potentially lengthy process... ...Schedule I put it on par, legally, with heroin, LSD, quaaludes and ecstasy, among others... Schedule III drugs — which include ketamine, anabolic steroids and some acetaminophen-codeine combinations — are still controlled substances... ...this move from Schedule I to Schedule...

The Soviet-Afghan War destroyed Afghanistan and eventually the Soviet Union, which dissolved in 1991 into 15 republics. Numerous satellite states in Europe were liberated at the same time. History may repeat as the Russia-Ukraine war weakens Moscow, financially and geopolitically. Russia’s 2022 invasion was about reoccupying a former colony, Ukraine, but there are other Russian republics that hope to become liberated... … in December 1991, Ukrainians voted for independence and Ukraine became the first of the Soviet republics to leave. The Baltic republics followed, as did Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and others. Now there is unrest across the Russian Federation…...

"More than 30,000 tons of chemical munitions have been disposed of over nearly three decades. Years behind schedule and several times over budget, the United States’ declared chemical weapons stock is fully destroyed. The last batch of munitions containing sarin gas, a deadly nerve agent, were disarmed on Friday, July 7 at the Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant in Kentucky. The destruction was verified by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons."... ..."Under the Chemical Weapons Convention, the military was supposed to have eliminated its stockpile in 2007, almost two decades ago. It was granted a five-year extension...

The World Health Organization said Friday that COVID-19 no longer qualifies as a global emergency, marking a symbolic end to the devastating coronavirus pandemic that triggered once-unthinkable lockdowns, upended economies and killed at least 7 million people worldwide. WHO first declared COVID-19 to be an emergency more than three years ago. The U.N. health agency's officials said that even though the emergency phase was over, the pandemic hasn't come to an end, noting recent spikes in cases in Southeast Asia and the Middle East... Tedros said the pandemic had been on a downward trend for more than a year, acknowledging...

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sparked a major market crisis, sending oil and gas prices to multi-decade highs and causing the Euro to crash below parity with the dollar. Today, energy prices have fallen back to pre-war levels, driven lower by fears of a global recession and weak oil demand in China due to Covid outbreaks. Analysts remain divided regarding oil prices in 2023 however, with some analysts believing the return of China and the lack of Russian energy will send prices soaring.

Chinese telecommunications and smartphone giant Huawei Technologies Co is closing down its enterprise business unit in Russia in a further retreat that affects 2,000 jobs... Huawei’s Enterprise Business Group division in Russia, responsible for selling data storage systems and telecommunications equipment to corporate clients, will be disbanded on January 1... The move has been made to avoid the risk of secondary sanctions on the telecoms giant, which is already subject to US trade sanctions, as the systems and equipment could be used by the state, according to the report... ...Several Chinese firms have been caught in the crossfire created by...

Russian crude-oil exports have taken a serious hit since new sanctions and a price cap came into force earlier in the week, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that figures from two data providers on Russian crude both show a big fall, though their magnitudes differ. According to one commodity-analytics firm Kpler, Russia’s seaborne exports fell by nearly 500,000 barrels per day on Tuesday, a 16% decline from the November average of 3.08 million bpd. Meanwhile, TankerTrackers.com, which tracks sea vessels using signals and satellite images, has reported that Russia's crude exports fell by nearly 50%. With shipments from the...

Peru’s President Pedro Castillo announced on Wednesday that he will dissolve Congress temporarily and install an emergency government – hours before lawmakers were due to make an impeachment vote in congress. In a televised speech from the Presidential Palace on Wednesday, Castillo said he will call for early parliamentary elections to work on a new constitution. The embattled president, who has survived two impeachment attempts, also declared a national curfew from Wednesday from 10 p.m. local (5 p.m. ET) to 4 a.m. local. Congress appeared defiant however, beginning its session on Wednesday with lawmakers singing the national anthem. Francisco Morales,...

German gas storage facilities have already exceeded the fill level target of 95 per cent for 1 November. ...According to data from the transparency platform AGSI+, the storage facilities were 98.91 per cent full (as of 31 October).

Russia’s finance ministry has slashed its forecast for taxable oil production for next year, a draft budget seen by Reuters showed on Friday. The draft budget covers the next three years and forecasts a decline in crude oil production and refining as Western sanctions bite... The finance ministry sees Russian oil and gas condensate production... a 7% - 8% decline from... (what) the ministry anticipated this year (after having already adjusted this year's estimate downward)... Expected oil refining volumes were cut by nearly 20%... The refusal of some countries to work with Russia in the oil markets and having to...

Belarus said on Wednesday it was unable to repay its foreign currency-denominated debt due to sanctions imposed on it by the European Union and the United States. The World Bank said on Monday it had placed all loans made by its main lending arm to Belarus into "nonperforming" status effective immediately.

On Monday, Europe’s natural gas prices fell to the lowest level in three months thanks to mild weather and a high level of LNG imports... hitting an intra-day low of $140 per megawatt-hour (down from $350 on August 26th, the lowest since July 1st). Gas storage in the EU is now at more than 90% and the bloc has managed to reduce its gas consumption by 10%.

The European Union is preparing the eighth round of sanctions against Russia as Moscow escalated its war in Ukraine by holding illegal referendums in four Ukrainian regions... On Thursday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented the Commission’s proposals for the eighth package of sanctions in response to Russia’s escalation of the war in Ukraine. “Today, in this package, here, we are laying the legal basis for this oil price cap,” von der Leyen said, commenting on the G7-led idea of banning Russian crude oil from imports by sea unless the oil is sold at or below a certain...

Russian exports of crude oil and refined products declined substantially in September... total Russian crude oil exports averaged 3.15 million barrels daily this month, which was down by 280,000 bpd from August (-9%). Crude exports to Europe slumped by 314,000 bpd from August to about 900,000 bpd (-26%). The data shows that crude oil exports to Asia - now Russia’s biggest market - in September were down by more than 250,000 bpd to an average daily of 1.6 million barrels (-14%)... some 187,000 bpd of Russian oil on water still had no fixed destination. Exports of refined oil products declined...

Slovakia's parliament on Tuesday ratified the entry of Finland and Sweden to NATO, becoming one of the last countries to back the military alliance's expansion... NATO's 30 members have been ratifying their entry since accession protocols were signed in July. With Slovakia's vote, only Hungary and Turkey remain to approve the expansion... Hungary's parliament has the motion on Finland and Sweden's NATO membership on its agenda, but no date is set as lawmakers return after a summer recess.