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The Kremlin says that Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Iran next week.

BERLIN - The main natural gas pipeline between Russia and Germany shut down for scheduled maintenance Monday, raising concerns that Moscow could use the repairs as a pretext for a longer shutdown as it wields energy supplies as leverage in the Ukraine war.European ministers warned that it was unclear whether Moscow would turn the taps on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline back on after the 10 days of scheduled work. Germany's economy minister, Robert Habeck, said Berlin was concerned about a "nightmare scenario" this winter if Russia decides against doing so."Everything is possible, everything can happen," he told Deutschlandfunk radio...

Saudi Arabia, the largest U.S. export market in the Middle East, invited Chinese President Xi to visit Riyadh in March as relations with the U.S. have faltered since Joe Biden was elected, The Wall Street Journal reported.According to a report from CNN, U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that Saudi Arabia is now actively manufacturing its own ballistic missiles with the help of China, a relationship that could lead to domino effects across Middle East countries. (snip) Saudi Arabia announced in March it was considering accepting the Chinese yuan instead of the US dollar in future transactions. (snip) It will end...

NATO leaders meeting in Madrid issued a formal invitation to Finland and Sweden to become members, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted the two to end decades of military non-alignment and seek accession... Joining NATO marks a significant shift for both countries. Sweden would end more than 200 years of non-alignment, while Finland, which shares an 810 mile border with Russia, would end a policy of neutrality adopted as a Soviet-imposed condition of peace following World War Two. The process to finalize now requires ratification by all 30 current allies. That could take months, but the alliance stressed that “the...

Joe Biden’s disastrous oil and gas policies in America are creating massive food shortages across the country, putting Americans at risk of famine. One America’s Pearson Sharp has more.Video Link

Today the representatives of Turkiye, Finland and Sweden, under the auspices of the NATO Secretary General, have agreed the following. NATO is an Alliance based on the principles of collective defence and the indivisibility of security, as well as on common values. Turkiye, Finland and Sweden affirm their adherence to the principles and values enshrined in the Washington Treaty. One of the key elements of the Alliance is unwavering solidarity and cooperation in the fight against terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations, which constitutes a direct threat to the national security of Allies as well as to international peace...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has removed his objections to the applications for NATO membership submitted by Sweden and Finland, guaranteeing those two previously unaligned nations will join the West’s bulwark alliance against Russian aggression.In May, Sweden and Finland announced they would ask to become members of the NATO military alliance. This was an unprecedented step that even the threat of the USSR had not been able to accomplish (Finland Announces It Will Join NATO, Sweden to Follow, While Moscow Makes Its Usual Threats). Vladimir Putin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine did accomplish what Joe Stalin couldn’t in no small...

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher argued that when people try to get off fossil fuels before there is a replacement ready, “they wind up going back to even worse fossil fuels.” And that this has happened in the United States and President Joe Biden going to Saudi Arabia “hat in hand, begging them for oil” after vowing to reduce oil drilling is an example of that. After citing Biden’s pledge to end drilling on federal lands, Maher stated, “Let’s just talk about why these things really happen, it’s because people think that they can —...

At Greece's largest coal mine, controlled explosions and the roar of giant excavators scooping up blasted rock have once again become routine. Coal production has been ramped up at the site near the northern Greek city of Kozani as the war in Ukraine forced many European nations to rethink their energy supplies. Coal, long treated as a legacy fuel in Europe, is now helping the continent safeguard its power supply and cope with the dramatic rise in natural gas prices caused by the war. Electricity generated by coal in the European Union jumped by 19% in the fourth quarter of...

Biden admin 'pursuing this green agenda at all costs ... Biden has .. yet to back boosting domestic oil production. ... In recent months, Biden has ordered three separate releases from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and issued a waiver allowing the sale of gas with higher biofuel concentration . ... Biden administration has doubled down on its climate agenda, canceling multiple oil and gas lease sales, revoking the Keystone XL pipeline permit and begging Middle Eastern producers to boost output. ... "This is an election year gimmick," Daniel Turner .. It has nothing to do with the energy industry, it...

Israel-Iran Shadow War on Verge of Exploding Into the Open By Sri Lanka Guardian •June 10, 2022 •Espionage feature World View •Comments : 0 Iran removing UN monitoring cameras, poised to move troops into Syria by Jonathan Broder On the evening of May 31 in the central Iranian city of Yazd, an Iranian aerospace engineer was returning home from dinner with a colleague when he suddenly felt ill and collapsed into unconsciousness. Ayub Entezari was rushed to hospital, where he died after several unsuccessful attempts to resuscitate him, according to an Iranian opposition media outlet. The cause of Entezari’s death:...

WASHINGTON (AP) — One month ahead of President Joe Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia, the District of Columbia is renaming the street in front of the Saudi embassy Jamal Khashoggi Way, trolling Riyadh for its role in the killing of the dissident Saudi activist and journalist in 2018. With members of the D.C. Council in attendance, a Jamal Khashoggi Way sign was unveiled directly in front of the embassy’s main entrance. “We intend to remind the people who are hiding behind these doors ... that we hold them responsible and we will hold them accountable for the murder of our...

Day 110. Today, we discuss the latest updates from across Ukraine and Europe, look at how much money Russia has made from selling fossil fuels this year and discuss the history behind the policy of Russification in the occupied regions of southern Ukraine.

Israel and Egypt will aim to boost natural gas exports to Europe under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed on Wednesday as the continent looks to replace Russian energy imports. The framework deal signed with the European Union (EU) will be the first to allow "significant" exports of Israeli gas to Europe, Israel's energy ministry said.

urkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday warned Greece to demilitarize islands in the Aegean Sea, saying he was “not joking” and posting tweets in Greek and English, in a marked harshening of rhetoric against Turkey’s neighbor and historic regional rival. Turkey says Greece has been building a military presence in violation of treaties that guarantee the unarmed status of the Aegean islands. It argues the islands were ceded to Greece on the condition they remained demilitarized. Athens counters that the islands, which have been garrisoned for decades and lie within close striking distance of a large Turkish landing fleet,...

Nearly three years after promising to make Saudi Arabia a "pariah," President Joe Biden is set to extend an olive branch to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman following months of reproach. The White House confirmed Monday that Biden will visit the oil-rich nation this summer, the culmination of an 18-month rollercoaster that started with Biden ostracizing Crown Prince Mohammed, commonly known as MBS, and ends with his administration trying to win back MBS' affections as gas prices soar due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Attempts by US officials to convince the Saudis to pump more oil have been unsuccessful so...

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is expected to arrive in Israel on Monday, as Jerusalem, Cairo and Brussels make strides toward a natural-gas export deal. The European Union Embassy in Israel said von der Leyen was arriving “to advance relations between the EU and Israel, especially cooperation in the area of energy. The president will also discuss with Israeli government representatives the global reaction to the food crisis and the situation in the Middle East.” During her two-day visit, von der Leyen is expected to meet with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, President Isaac Herzog and Foreign Minister Yair...

◾The focus of the most recent rift between Israel and Lebanon is an offshore field called Karish. ◾While Lebanon has yet to make a commercial find of gas in its waters, Israel is already producing from a couple of giant fields. ◾The Israel-Lebanon dispute could lead to a delay in the development of East-Med gas resources. At a time when the world’s gas supply is having to catch up with demand, two prospective gas majors in the eastern Mediterranean have locked horns over a disputed field that could delay the development of local resources. Israel and Lebanon have been...

The buckets of cold water Turkey is pouring on Finland and Sweden’s bids to join NATO may be coming from the sea around the shore of Cyprus, the divided Mediterranean island that is a bargaining chip for the Turkish president, Tayyip Erdogan. There is mounting evidence that Turkey could be using its status as a member of NATO to wield its veto power over the anticipated accession to the alliance of the two Nordic countries as a lever to force the international community to confer legitimacy on its de facto Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. London’s Sunday Express recently reported...

On election night in 2016, Jessica Reznicek and Ruby Montoya set fire to a bulldozer and construction equipment at a Dakota Access Pipeline construction site in Iowa. Over the next few months, the activists used oxy-acetylene torches to melt holes in pipeline valves at three other locations in the state. It was at the height of the Indigenous-led protests against the 1,172-mile-long pipeline, which opponents like the Standing Rock Sioux tribe argued would pollute local water sources and contaminate soil. When Reznicek and Montoya’s actions failed to halt pipeline construction, they held a press conference and publicly took responsibility for...