The shadow infrastructure of oil flows in Eurasia reveals hidden mechanisms where economics, politics, and intelligence intersect more deeply than is commonly acknowledged.

Much of the oil from the Caspian Basin, the Caucasus, and Northern Iraq and Iran finds its way to global markets through Georgia and Turkey. That is the known reality. But as former U.S. officials have noted, the real story lies in the "known unknowns" and the "unknown unknowns" — the shadow networks, shady deals, and covert routes that shape the region's energy trade.

Nonetheless, amid escalating rhetoric and renewed arm-twisting campaigns, the topic of oil is again front and center. With Donald Trump signaling a tougher approach, he thought he could impose a Venezuela-style blockade against Iran, not to mention starting the war, pretty much on his mood at the time and advice from some clown advisors. The stakes are rising, and few are willing to stand in his corner, provide ships to back him up, or close ranks as he had expected. His strategy and tactics are backfiring. If such tactics were pursued successfully, making a case for war, gaining the support of allies, and protecting those in the direct line of fire, it could have reshaped energy flows and deepened divisions among Russia, India, and China — with consequences far beyond the region.

The Iran war is exposing the fragility of U.S. financial dominance as the Strait of Hormuz turns into a geopolitical pressure point. Disruptions to oil flows are accelerating challenges to the petrodollar system and dollar supremacy. What looks like strategic leverage may ultimately prove a costly Pyrrhic victory.

The debate of a shifting world order, or simply put, 'the end of Western dominance,' has been in the pipeline for the last decade or two. The emergence of multiple power centers, in particular the PRC's peaceful rise, has created an alternative governance model whereby the international community can potentially now bypass the US monopoly. Various China-led international organisations, such as BRICS or the SCO, are providing alternative pathways to the Global South for mutual development and growth. However, the US has always maintained a dominant position in the international arena due to the dollar hegemony.

It's difficult to find much of anything we might call "good" coming out of the current US-Israel war against Iran. Yet, one positive development has been the fact that Israel's deceitful practice of pretending it has no nuclear weapons program is now untenable.

The renewal of the discussion around Israel's nuclear arms program was prompted in part by Iranian missile strikes in the area of Dimona, a city in southern Israel known to house Israel's nuclear research facilities.

In a March 22 report on the strikes by the Jerusalem Post, the ongoing denials by the Israeli state are noted:

"In the 1960s, then prime minister Levi Eshkol vowed that Israel will not be the first state to introduce nuclear weapons into the region. The sentiment has been repeated by Israeli officials since."

Yet, the article goes on to note:

"It is generally accepted that the facility [near Dimona] produced plutonium for the alleged nuclear arsenal. Modern assessments, such as a 2025 report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, estimated that Israel has a stockpile of around 90 nuclear warheads."

Other estimates state the stockpile is considerably larger. For example, in 2016, leaked emails from former US Secretary of State of State Colin Powell show Powell stating that mutually-assured destruction would make it extremely unlikely that the Iranian regime would use nuclear arms, even if it had any. According to Powell: ""the boys in Tehran know Israel has 200 [nuclear weapons], all targeted on Tehran, and we have thousands."

The Kremlin has warned that the ongoing US-Israeli war of aggression against Iran has engulfed the entire Persian Gulf and West Asia, setting the region "on fire" with dangerous and far-reaching consequences.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that the aggression is rapidly escalating both in geography and economic impact.

"In fact, the entire region is on fire. These are all very dangerous and negative consequences of the aggression that was unleashed against Iran. The geography of this conflict has expanded, and now we are all aware of the consequences that we have, including very, very negative consequences for the global economy. We note that the level of tension in the region is growing and continues to grow."

The remarks come as US President Donald Trump recently threatened on social media to strike Iranian civilian infrastructure, including power plants and bridges, as early as Tuesday.

"There will be an additional 93 prosecutors in every district across the country devoted to the mission of combating fraud with the National Fraud Enforcement Division," he told reporters.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Tuesday announced the creation of a National Fraud Enforcement Division at the Department of Justice, marking a significant step in the Trump administration's efforts to crack down on misuse of public funds.

This was always about Civilization.

"A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again." History will register it with a gaze as pitiless as the Sun. An astonishing barbarian imprimatur, courtesy of the President of the United States, via a social media post.

In a nutshell, this was a trashy "civilization" that gave the world the Big Mac threatening to wipe out an ancient civilization that gave the world algebra; influenced art, science, governance in unparalleled ways; produced stars from Cyrus the Great to Avicenna, from Omar Khayyam to poet supreme Jalaladdin Rumi; developed serial, sublime gardens, carpets, architectural wonders and philosophical and ethical frameworks.

Crucially, there was not a single peep about this Barbaria outburst from the political leadership of the entire "civilized" collective West, not even feigning outrage, once again proving their absolute, irreversible moral and political bankruptcy.

Iranians answered Barbaria in kind. Over 14 million people registered to form human walls around their power stations all across the nation, simultaneously protecting their livelihood and confronting head on the firepower of the Epstein Syndicate.

As a hair-raising cliffhanger approached, the Baboon of Barbaria pivoted into - what else - TACO: the LEGO guys immortalized it.

There's absolutely no way that Pakistan could have offered "guarantees" to Iran that a ceasefire was the way for the war to eventually end. As confirmed by diplomatic sources, what really happened is that Beijing, at the 11th moment, placed itself as the guarantor, assuring Tehran that the US would accept at least some of Iran's demands included in its 10-point plan.

That was further confirmed by Iranian ambassador to China, Abdolreza Rhamani Fazili. The negotiations start this Friday in Islamabad.

POTUS, the Drooling Baboon of Barbaria, confronted with the inevitable, dire consequences of his own strategic blunder, used Pakistan for his off-ramp. That was confirmed by another epic blunder by the Pakistani Prime Minister himself: he forgot to remove the header of the tweet/X post drafted by the White House for him to publish.

The current Pakistani regime - de facto led by Field Marshall Asim Munir, who has Trump on speed dial - may have profited, and will continue to geopolitically profit, from a unique status: a Muslim nuclear nation with a significant Shi'ite minority; good relations with the GCC; neighbor of Iran, enjoying good relations; signed a defense pact with Saudi Arabia; a strategic partner of China; no US bases on its soil.

But Islamabad was always a mere go-between, never the architect of any "mediation". Whatever obfuscation coming from the White House, it was China that had to clinch the lineaments of a possible détente.

DOD Deputy Secretary Steve Feinberg is referenced in 20 documents in the Epstein files, while the company he founded, Cerberus, appears in 360 files

Hundreds of documents in the newly released Epstein files shed light on connections between the sex offender and Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity firm formerly led by Department of Defense Deputy Secretary Steve Feinberg.

Feinberg, a billionaire who cofounded the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, is referenced by name in at least 20 documents in the Epstein files, while his company Cerberus appears in 360 files - including in emailed communications with Epstein himself. The emails raise questions regarding Feinberg's company's ties to the disgraced financier and sex criminal.

Feinberg has already come under fire over business practices at Cerberus. He stepped down from his role as CEO in 2025 in order to accept the second-highest ranking position in the Pentagon.

"Your private equity record is rife with mismanagement," Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) wrote in a letter to Feinberg following his Pentagon nomination, in which she raised alarms about conflicts of interest and fraud. A Cerberus holding, DynCorp, has faced multiple Department of Justice lawsuits over fraud allegations in recent years.

Physical crude hit just under $150 a barrel today. A record - been done before in the history of oil markets.

But the real story isn't the number. It's what happened in the twenty minutes before the close.

This is what the oil market looked like today... a market that has completely lost its mind.

Trump posts "a whole civilization will die tonight" at 7:45am and oil spikes to war highs. Vance says the war is basically over and military objectives completed at 8:15am and oil dips. Iran suspends all diplomatic communications at 9am so oil screams back to highs.

An hour later the New York Times confirms Iran has stopped negotiations entirely — oil spikes, stocks dump hard. Eleven minutes later Tehran Times says talks are actually not closed and oil reverses. China and Russia veto the UN Security Council motion on Hormuz at noon and oil drops again.

Then Iran and the US and Israel all simultaneously accelerate strikes and oil rises. Then for no obvious reason whatsoever oil plunges and stocks spike at 1:25pm. Then Pakistan's Deputy PM says he was hopeful until last night but dangerous developments have re-escalated everything so oil goes up AGAIN. Then an Iranian military source on Telegram says: "We have prepared a black hole for Trump from which it will be impossible to get out" — oil spikes, stocks sink. Then Pakistan proposes a two-week ceasefire extension and Karoline Leavitt confirms Trump is aware — everything goes absolutely mental.

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) escalated her rift with President Donald Trump by calling for the 25th Amendment to be invoked against him as voters in Georgia's 14th Congressional District headed to the polls in the special election to replace her following her January resignation.

Trump warned on Truth Social Tuesday morning that Iran's "whole civilization will die tonight" unless "something revolutionarily wonderful" occurs following what he described as "Complete and Total Regime Change." He wrote that "47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end," and said the world would find out Tuesday night during what he called "one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World."

Greene responded on X, "25TH AMENDMENT!!! Not a single bomb has dropped on America. We cannot kill an entire civilization. This is evil and madness."

All German men aged between 17 and 45 now need approval from the Bundeswehr - i.e., the German army - for longer stays abroad. Under the new Military Service Act, this applies to trips abroad lasting more than three months, the Defence Ministry has announced. The daily Frankfurter Rundschau was the first to report on the change.

The rule is part of what is known as the Military Service Modernisation Act, which came into force on 1 January 2026. The law is intended to ensure that the Bundeswehr is fit for the future in terms of personnel and organization. Plans include, among other things, a more attractive form of voluntary military service, broader registration of young men and new legal instruments to enable faster action if needed.

What the new law says

Specifically, this concerns paragraph 3 of the Conscription Act, which governs the scope and duration of compulsory military service in Germany. Paragraph 1 states: "Compulsory military service is fulfilled by military service or [...] by civilian service." The provision applies to all men of conscription age between 18 and 45.