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Grok: Expressed in billions of dollars list the five countries and five corporations that will benefit most from the U.S. military activity to eliminate shipping disruptions caused by the Houthi near the Red Sea. China is 1st. 🇺🇸 isn’t in the top 5... ...

United States officials are set to meet with their Ukrainian counterparts again after a round of talks with Russian negotiators on a partial ceasefire in Ukraine. A senior Ukrainian official told the AFP news agency that the meeting would be held later on Monday after US and Russian delegations wrap up their day’s talks in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh. Monday’s US-Russia talks were primarily focused on ending attacks on Black Sea shipping, with a view to ushering in a broader ceasefire agreement that would bring an end to the three-year Russia-Ukraine war. US officials had already met the Ukrainian team...

Amid tensions with the US, Iran on Saturday flexed its military muscle by installing its missile systems on the three disputed islands near the Strait of Hormuz. As per reports, the weapons were deployed on Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb, and Abu Musa near the Strait of Hormuz, a globally vital shipping lane. Iran's claim that fortifying the islands can help "target enemy bases and vessels" is seen as an answer to the US and its allies in the region. But, through the move, Tehran also seeks to reassert its ownership over the three islands. The islands located along a globally...

BEHIND THE LINES: The US administration appears to fail to notice the broader alliance taking shape behind these forces, and the interconnectedness of the current assault on the West. The statement by US President Donald Trump that Iran would be held responsible for continued attacks by the Yemeni Houthi movement on shipping in the Red Sea sharply raises the temperature in the ongoing escalation between US forces and the Yemeni Shi’ite Islamist movement in that area. “Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump said he ordered a series of airstrikes on Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, on Saturday, promising to use “overwhelming lethal force” until Iranian-backed Houthi rebels cease their attacks on shipping along a vital maritime corridor. “Our brave Warfighters are right now carrying out aerial attacks on the terrorists’ bases, leaders, and missile defenses to protect American shipping, air, and naval assets, and to restore Navigational Freedom,” Trump said in a social media post. “No terrorist force will stop American commercial and naval vessels from freely sailing the Waterways of the World.” He also...

Staggering losses in the Battle of the Atlantic during 1942 led many U.S. Navy officials to believe that Germany’s Kriegsmarine was receiving assistance from Axis sympathizers on the U.S. East Coast and had spies in New York City. To counter this threat, the Office of Naval Intelligence’s (ONI’s) District Intelligence Office (DIO) in the Third Naval District sought assistance from an unlikely ally to help secure the waterfront: the Mob.By using informants from organized crime families, which in this time period were referred to simply as “the underworld,” the DIO was able to secure the waterfront and the coastline around...

China went from controlling less than 5% of the global ship building market in 1999 to more than 50% today, while pushing its direct ownership of the commercial world fleet to nearly 20%. They did so by largely unfair and illegal actions. Trump administration has proposed serious penalties to not only Chinese built ships that dock in US ports, but also, penalties to any company docking a ship at US ports that has a Chinese built ship in their fleet. Trump administrations policy of America First, is far far more than simply tariffs.

Former President Joe Biden rescinded the designation in 2021.. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Tuesday that the State Department re-designated Ansarallah, commonly referred to as the Houthis, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). “Today’s action taken by the State Department demonstrates the Trump Administration’s commitment to protecting our national security interests, the safety of the American people, and the security of the United States,” Rubio said in a statement. The Iranian-backed terror group has fired several ballistic missiles at civilian populations in Israel, launched more than one hundred attacks on international cargo ships and other vessels in the...

In November 1906, Theodore Roosevelt became the first sitting U.S. president to make a diplomatic visit outside the continental United States, sailing to Panama to view the construction of the Panama Canal. In September 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed a treaty that would ultimately give Panama full control and operation over the canal in 2000. And in December 2024, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump threatened to retake the canal from Panama. The chances of this happening are slim, of course. But like most political rhetoric, his comments denote larger goals and aspirations – in this case, Trump’s domestic agenda, which likely...

MESA, Ariz. - Holiday cards and packages are criss-crossing the country before Christmas, but a few appear to have been rerouted illegally when they got to a UPS warehouse in Mesa. Now, four men are accused of being more interested in making profits than making deliveries. The suspects have been identified as: Bo Arias Casey Bedell Jeremy Large David Panasci The suspects didn’t have much to say in court on Dec. 18, but the presiding judge said plenty. "You were all arrested on allegations of theft of controlled property, which is a Class 3 felony, and Mr. Arias and Mr....

Hezbollah -- or what's left of it -- sued for peace. Hamas -- or what's left of it -- will shortly blink out of existence if it doesn't do the same. Bsshar al-Assad has fled the region, and with it Iran's last connections to two of its three proxy terror groups in the region. That leaves the Houthis in Yemen, who have the same sense of impeccable timing as their fellow terrorists. Just as Israel began consolidating its positions on their borders with Syria and Lebanon and considered what to do about the Houthis, the Yemen group lobbed two ballistic...

California’s zero emission regulations are causing truck shortages and rising costs, according to the trucking and heavy-duty vehicle industry.State officials plan to end traditional combustion truck sales by 2036.California’s Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) regulation requires manufacturing companies to gradually increase the percentage of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) they sell on the market—such as electric or hydrogen—and reduce the number of gas and diesel trucks.Anthony Bento, chief legal officer for the California New Car Dealers Association, said dealers in the state have seen dramatic decreases in available trucks for the 2024 model year as a result of the new rules.“These rules are...

Some union leaders are self-destructive idiots. America's ports have fallen behind. Not a single one ranks in the top 50 worldwide. A big reason is that dock unions stop innovation. Advertisement This fall, the International Longshoremen's Association shut down East and Gulf coast ports, striking for a raise and a ban on automation. They got the raise. Now union president Harold Daggett says longshoremen will strike again in January if they don't get that ban on automation. His statement in my new video makes it clear that he knows how badly his strike would damage other Americans. "Guys who sell...

Good news: Your package has been delivered. Bad news: It isn’t on your porch, under the mailboxes or in a package room, if you have one. Unfortunately, your package might have been stolen by a porch pirate, like an estimated 120.5 million last year in the United States, according to a study by SafeWise. More people shopping online during the holiday season means more packages — and an increased risk of theft. This year, holiday spending is expected to reach a record high of $902 per person, with 57 percent of adults opting to shop online, according to a survey...

SAINT-MALO, France (AP) — Had he continued working aboard fuel-powered cargo ships, Yann Jourdan reckons he’d be earning perhaps four times what he now gets as captain of a sailboat that instead uses the wind’s clean energy to transport goods across the Atlantic. But the hit to Jourdan’s pay is buying him peace of mind. When his 3-year-old son, Marcel, grows up, the burly French mariner wants to be able to explain what he did to make a dent in the the shipping industry’s huge carbon footprint. The international merchant fleet of more than 100,000 ships transports more than 80%...

I’m still not quite sure what to say about this gobsmackingly amazing quote from Axios: Houthi rebels are brandishing increasingly sophisticated weapons, including missiles that "can do things that are just amazing," the Pentagon's chief weapons buyer said at an Axios event. The big picture: The militant group has for a year used drones and missiles to strangle waters off Yemen, disrupting international shipping. Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Bill LaPlante on Wednesday said the Houthis "are getting scary." "I'm an engineer and a physicist, and I've been around missiles my whole career," he said at the...

On the edge of Peru's coastal desert, a remote fishing town where a third of all residents have no running water is being transformed into a huge deep-water port to cash in on the inexorable rise of Chinese interest in resource-rich South America. The megaport of Chancay, a $1.3 billion project majority-owned by the Chinese shipping giant Cosco, is turning this outpost of bobbing fishing boats into an important node of the global economy. China's President Xi Jinping inaugurates the port Thursday during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Peru. The development — expected to encompass 15 quays and a...

East and Gulf Coast dockworkers could resume their strike on Jan. 15 if a deal isn't reached.. The union representing dockworkers at East and Gulf Coast ports walked away from the negotiating table with port employers this week over concerns about automation as the two sides face a mid-January deadline to finalize a deal and prevent the resumption of a strike.. The International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) and the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX), which represents port employers, were on their second day of talks this week when the ILA union left negotiations ... the ILA union is refusing to agree to...

Western security officials say they believe that two incendiary devices, shipped via DHL, were part of a covert Russian operation that ultimately aimed to start fires aboard cargo or passenger aircraft flying to the U.S. and Canada, as Moscow steps up a sabotage campaign against Washington and its allies. The devices ignited at DHL logistics hubs in July, one in Leipzig, Germany, and another in Birmingham, England. The explosions set off a multinational race to find the culprits. Now investigators and spy agencies in Europe have figured out how the devices—electric massagers implanted with a magnesium-based flammable substance—were made and...

In a bold show of force, the United States launched an unprecedented B-2 Stealth Bomber attack on Houthi-controlled underground bunkers in Yemen, marking a dramatic escalation in regional tensions and a clear message to Iran. The radar-evading B-2s targeted five fortified weapons storage sites around Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, and the Houthi stronghold of Saada. The strike, the first of its kind against Iran-backed Houthi militants, underscores the US’s commitment to countering Tehran’s influence in the Middle East and protecting vital shipping lanes in the Red Sea. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed the strike, calling it a “unique demonstration of...