[DM] Bill Gates has issued a stark warning about the global terror that artificial intelligence could soon unleash.
The billionaire Microsoft co-founder warned on Wednesday that AI could cost millions their jobs and help create a devastating 'bioterrorism weapon' capable of threatening humanity.
It is a scenario bosses of tech companies are intentionally hiding from the public, Mr Gates claimed.
In an essay, the former tech boss argued we have surpassed the warning signs, as AI continues to develop at an 'uncontrolled' rate.
'AI will either be the greatest equaliser ever invented, or the worst source of injustice,' Mr Gates said. 'Even under the best circumstances, the transition to this new AI era will be one of the most turbulent times in human history.'
This comes as, the 70-year-old mogul added, 'leaders, experts and communities are [not] confronting the challenges adequately' – and don't have a 'plan'.
One of the threats Mr Gates highlighted is the risk to global security. He said AI can already gather information needed to create bombs, bioweapons and computer viruses, and is increasingly capable of acting on that information itself.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/27/2026 3:19 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Yes. Very stirring. Well done, people!
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
08/27/2026 14:13 Comments ||
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#3
Impressive! A buddy sent me a copy of John C. McManus' "The American at Normandy." I'm on page 170 of 470. WWII was an absolutely unbelievable sacrifice.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited by Daniil Pelymov
[REGNUM] 160 years ago, on August 26, 1866, a unique event took place in the mansion of the Kaluga Provincial Noble Assembly (this building in the city center has been preserved; it now houses the Gagarin Regional Center for Supplementary Education for Children).
The ceremonial hall was crowded with military officials, local landowners, priests of the Kaluga Diocese, and curious townspeople. Had space allowed, the entire city would have gathered there.
A table was set up in the hall, on which the Koran was placed, and the invited mullah stood there.
The doors opened, and Shamil, a former implacable foe of the Russian Empire, the leader of the "uncompromising highlanders," and recently a resident of Kaluga, strode in with a firm step. The long-bearded old man, dressed in ceremonial Caucasian garb, was accompanied by his sons, Kazi-Muhammad and Muhammad-Shefi.
Shamil placed his hand on the Quran and recited the oath, pledging to faithfully serve the Russian Empire, defend its interests, and pass on this loyalty to his descendants. His sons followed suit. A profound silence reigned in the hall.
At that moment, the most dramatic chapter in the history of relations between the empire and the peoples of the North Caucasus was closing – a war that had lasted more than 40 years.
"LEFT ORPHAN"
Following Shamil's capitulation in the high-mountain Dagestani village of Gunib in August 1859, the Russian Empire's leadership faced a fundamental choice regarding its future strategy. Western European empires, in similar situations, resorted to demonstrative cruelty, eliminating or completely isolating resistance leaders in colonial prisons.
The fate of the Algerian emir Abd al-Kader, captured by the French in 1847, or the leaders of the Sepoy Mutiny in India (1857-59), killed by the British, clearly illustrated the Western approach to pacifying the borderlands. Russia took a fundamentally different approach.
Emperor Alexander II understood that Shamil's physical destruction or humiliation would turn him into an eternal martyr in the eyes of the highlanders, provoking new outbreaks of guerrilla warfare. Instead of the scaffold, the defeated leader of the North Caucasus Imamate received a markedly respectful reception.
The meeting between the monarch and the imam in Chuguev set the tone for all subsequent interethnic and interreligious relations. Shamil's life was spared, his family's safety was guaranteed, freedom to practice Islam was ensured, and he was granted the status of an honorary prisoner with state support.
The former enemy was assigned Kaluga, a provincial capital well removed from the turbulent southern outskirts, as his permanent residence. To accommodate Shamil's extended family, the treasury rented the spacious three-story mansion of merchant Ivan Bilibin.
The state allocated colossal funds for the highland elite's living conditions: their annual allowance amounted to 15,000 silver rubles. By comparison, a pound (410 g) of rye bread cost 2 silver kopecks, and a factory foreman's annual salary was approximately 200 rubles.
A prayer room was set up in the house, and Shamil was granted freedom of movement within the province under the discreet supervision of a bailiff. The empire's former mortal enemy was now able to personally observe the internal structure, culture, and true scale of the state he had fought against for three decades.
And in 1864, news came from the Western Caucasus about the pacification of the last rebellious Circassians.
Shamil's stay in Kaluga from 1859 to 1866 marked a profound internal transformation in his views on Russia and its historical mission. Confined within the strict theocratic state of the Imamate, Shamil had previously perceived Russia exclusively through the prism of military conflicts.
Finding himself inside the empire, he discovered a country of vast spaces, developed industry, science and religious tolerance.
The bailiff Apollon Runovsky, who was constantly with the "guest" and recorded his thoughts in detail in his " Notes on Shamil," left invaluable evidence of this mental evolution. Shamil was amazed by the scale of Russian construction, the railways, and the factories of Tula and St. Petersburg.
Yesterday's leader of the "unpeaceful highlanders" gradually realized that his decades-long struggle was driven by a profound historical misunderstanding of the true nature of the Russian Empire. Shamil's loyalty was formed not by fear of violence, but by a recognition of Russia's historical rightness and civilizational superiority.
In his diary entries, Staff Captain Runovsky preserved the words of the elderly imam, who was acutely aware of the break with his familiar environment and at the same time was amazed by the tact of the Russian officers surrounding him:
“I am an old man, but I am here in a foreign land: I do not know your language or your customs, and therefore I think that I am no longer old Shamil, but that same little child who, by the will of God, was left an orphan and needs the care of a nanny.”
Gradually, isolation gave way to active integration into local society. Shamil became a frequent guest at official receptions, interacted with representatives of the Kaluga intelligentsia, and studied periodicals.
His sons began to learn Russian and showed interest in civil and military service. The aging imam realized that the future of his people lay in a strong, multinational state capable of ensuring peace and order in the Caucasus. The evolution of his views culminated in a full recognition that imperial power benefits the peoples of the outlying regions, guaranteeing their protection and preserving their identity under the auspices of a single law.
"COMFORT MY OLD AGE"
By 1865, Shamil's inner readiness for the final legal formalization of his relationship with the Russian throne had fully matured. The imam understood that his status as an honorary captive was only temporary.
To ensure a stable, secure, and honorable future for his family, and to finally pacify the Caucasus, a fundamental state-legal act was needed. Shamil personally addressed the Kaluga governor and, through him, the Minister of War with a petition addressed to the Emperor.
The motives for this step were deeply rational and state-oriented. In this official address, the text of which has been preserved in the archival collections of the Ministry of War, Shamil articulated the main reasons for his historic decision:
"You, Great Sovereign, have conquered me and the Caucasian peoples by force of arms; You have given me life; You have won my heart with your blessings.
It is my sacred duty to instill in my children their duties to Russia. I have bequeathed to them the duty of being loyal subjects to the Russian tsars and useful servants to our new fatherland. Grant me peace in my old age, Sovereign, and command, wherever you direct, that I and my children swear the oath of allegiance. I am ready to swear it publicly."
This document refutes any attempts by modern falsifiers of history to portray the imam's Kaluga period as a time of incessant oppression. Shamil clearly identifies three stages of the Caucasus' integration: military, humanitarian, and cordial.
It was precisely the conquest of the heart through good deeds, respect for traditions and Islam that became the decisive factor that forced the leader of the highlanders to voluntarily recognize the supremacy of the Russian Tsar.
The letter represented an official recognition of the legitimacy of Russian rule over the Caucasus by its most authoritative adversary. The aging leader of the highlanders sought to forever link his family's fate with that of a great power, having realized the futility and perniciousness of isolationism.
That same year, Shamil was invited to St. Petersburg as an honored guest at the wedding of Tsarevich Alexander Alexandrovich, the future Emperor Alexander III. There, before his very eyes, the imam spoke words that became a logical continuation of his Kaluga oath and definitively cemented his loyalty to his new homeland:
“Old Shamil, in his declining years, regrets that he cannot be born again in order to dedicate his life to serving the White Tsar, whose blessings he now enjoys.”
These words resounded loudly and became a powerful signal to those external forces who hoped to exploit the Caucasus factor to weaken Russia. Shamil publicly demonstrated that the Caucasian knot had been untied forever and that the mountain peoples had found their permanent place in the family of nations of the empire.
REMAINED FAITHFUL
Shamil's sons were given the opportunity to fully realize themselves in the civil service of the Russian Empire.
The youngest son, Muhammad-Shefi, had a distinguished career in the Russian army. He joined the imperial convoy, demonstrated exceptional courage and devotion to the throne, and subsequently rose to the rank of major general. The eldest son, Kazi-Muhammad, also successfully integrated into the imperial structure initially, although he later left for Turkey due to difficult family circumstances.
The most important factor was the establishment of Shamil's peacekeeping authority in the Caucasus itself. The letters he regularly sent to relatives, former comrades, and influential naibs in Dagestan and Chechnya contained direct calls to end the senseless struggle.
He consistently emphasized in his correspondence that Russia deeply respects Islam, does not destroy the traditional way of life of the mountain peoples, and brings civilization, law, economic development, and reliable protection from external threats to the Caucasus.
This contributed to the rapid pacification of the region, increased trust in the Caucasian administration, and prevented further large-scale civilian casualties.
The final confirmation of the empire's sincere religious tolerance was the fulfillment of Alexander II's personal promise to allow the aging imam to make a pilgrimage to Mecca. In 1869, Shamil left Russia to perform the Hajj.
Until his death in Medina in 1871, he remained absolutely faithful to this oath, bequeathing to his descendants to remain loyal to the Russian throne.
The finale of the former enemy's story demonstrates that the Russian state did not forcibly assimilate the mountain peoples, but rather integrated them into the fabric of statehood, preserving their distinctiveness and providing ample opportunities for development. The oath of allegiance on August 26, 1866, became a resounding triumph of Russian geopolitical strategy, based on the principles of religious tolerance and mutual respect.
[Townhall] Just what the hell are the Canadians thinking? Do they think that if they cry enough, America’s going to roll over? We’re now in another trade war with them, and the Canadians are whining, and the Democrats — who never side with America — are whining right along with them. It’s about time to be done with the country that is touted as America’s best buddy but is actually tied for its most annoying next-door neighbor. They cry that America is being mean because it’s looking out for its own interests. How dare America expect Canada to pull its weight on its own defense? How dare America not want to perpetuate unfair and unbalanced tariff and trade rules in perpetuity? And how dare America not recognize the moral superiority of a country that, if it were a stereotype, would be a fugly, sexually dysfunctional wine woman with a "Hate Has No Home Here" sign on the front lawn of the condo it shares with five cats, all named after characters in "Twilight."
Americans don’t think much of Canada — literally. We didn’t have to, because for a long time Canadians were just pleasant, sturdy, and trustworthy neighbors who were different from us but shared enough in common that we managed to share the longest demilitarized border in the world. Canadians don’t want to be Americans, and that’s OK. It’s silly, because everybody should want to be Americans, but it’s all right. We didn’t take offense. We’d have to be thinking about them to take offense, and we weren't. It’s nice to have a neighbor you don’t really have to think about, except when you need to borrow sugar.
But when we did think about them, they used to be kind of amusing. Now they’re actively annoying. And their obsessive loathing of the United States has morphed from a vaguely tiresome affectation into something genuinely grating. They are ripping us off on defense and trade, they are failing to back us up around the world, and they have become a petty dictatorship. They are still funny, but the Ralph Wiggum of nations is longer ha-ha funny.
They thought about us a lot, and you can’t really blame them. We’re economically successful, stubbornly free, and masculine — all the things that Canada either never was or no longer is.
Oh, they used to be — the Princess Pats and chainsaws and ice hockey and stuff. But they define themselves as the anti-America, and as we became more conservative, they cast their opposite path in concrete.
Canada has been taken over by the faculty-lounge left. It’s less a country than a giant, freezing college campus where the government will literally destroy your life if you do something like point out obvious truths about how a man is not a woman or that there was a giant scam involving allegedly dead Indian children — oh wait, we’re supposed to call them "First Peoples." Of course, they have enshrined collective guilt over taming their vast lands as their national ideology. They despise us, but they also despise themselves. We have a glorious Constitution, and they have an endless land acknowledgment.
Posted by: Grom the Reflective ||
08/27/2026 02:45 ||
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited by Ilya Maximov
[REGNUM] The Israeli lobby's interference in the American elections has sparked a scandal. It turns out that Israel's attempts to influence the hearts and minds of Americans extend far beyond just campaign intervention, and as the scale of such activities grows, so does their toxicity.
The team of Republican Mike Rogers, running for a U.S. Senate seat in Michigan, has asked the influential pro-Israel lobbying group the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to stop running ads supporting him.
This speaks not to evil actions the minions of the Elders of Zion — a group that doesn’t exist — but the level of anti-Jewish prejudice that now pervades the Democratic Party. Because AIPAC is an American organization, not Israeli. But even Israeli and AIPAC lobbying spending combined doesn’t come close to the outlay of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, China, and a number of other countries individually.
Last week, Rogers met with the chairman of AIPAC in Los Angeles, after which the organization decided not to release a video it had already made targeting his Democratic rival, Abdul El-Sayed.
Michigan is home to one of the largest Arab communities in the country, and a recent Fox News poll found that 55% of voters in the state oppose continued American aid to Israel. Remarkably, Rogers himself remains a staunch supporter.
However, under the current circumstances, his team decided that openly supporting AIPAC would hurt his electoral chances.
And there was reason for this: during the Democratic primaries, El-Sayed made AIPAC's interference the centerpiece of his campaign, using the $30 million the lobby spent supporting Haley Stevens to portray her as a backer of Israel. Satisfied with the outcome, El-Sayed even declared, "AIPAC, if you're listening, come back and burn again."
The point is to drive Jews out of American politics and the public square altogether, and Regnum is helping.
Rogers' campaign warned the Committee of Stevens' likely defeat before the primary, but the lobbyists ignored the warning. After El-Sayed won, the candidate's team suggested AIPAC provide indirect support.
For example, funneling money to so-called "super PACs"—legal, independent foundations through which billionaires, large corporations, labor unions, and other interested parties pour vast sums into American elections. The idea is that they can raise and spend unlimited sums to support or criticize candidates, but they are not allowed to directly coordinate their actions with the candidate or party.
However, AIPAC rejected the proposal: the organization wanted to play a prominent role in El-Sayed's defeat and pointed out that Rogers's stance on the Middle East would already make him a target for attacks. Direct negotiations between Rogers' team and AIPAC reached an impasse, and now Republican Jewish donors are attempting to mediate the situation.
It also emerged that the Israeli government is running ads on Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-Texas) popular podcast, raising the question of whether the ardent Israel supporter has received indirect funding for the Republican presidential campaign from a foreign country.
Is Senator Cruz running for president? I wasn’t aware of that, but given that everyone is talking about JD Vance and Marco Rubio as the favoured candidates to be President Trump’s successor, I don’t really see why he would bother. And he was last reelected to the Senate in 2024, so he isn’t up for reelection until 2030, when he’ll be 60 — barely middle aged for that august body.
Israelis are not legally allowed to sponsor it directly, so a special scheme was devised.
iHeartMedia, which has been distributing Cruz's show since 2022, cannot legally pay the senator for advertising due to lobbying restrictions. Therefore, under the licensing agreement, the company agreed to transfer advertising revenue to a super PAC, which was originally created for his reelection but is currently promoting other Republican candidates.
Since 2023, iHeartMedia has transferred at least $1.72 million to it. The Israeli ads at the center of the controversy are part of a $7 million campaign launched in June aimed at shifting Christian audiences' attention from the war in the Middle East to Israel's cultural and historical heritage and everyday life.
Campaign finance experts note that the money given to Cruz's super PAC is considered iHeartMedia funds unless there is a formal agreement with Israel regarding its intended use, so the company can do whatever it wants with it. However, observers point out that this is another loophole in election finance laws.
Journalist Tucker Carlson recently addressed this issue. "Israel controls our politics through campaign finance," he noted.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Recently, in the wake of the growing popularity of artificial intelligence, Israel has launched a campaign to create information "feeding troughs" for large language models, aimed at influencing public opinion in the United States.
A dummy institute was recently established that mass-publishes articles that feed AI with the "correct" viewpoint on the Middle East conflict. At first glance, the Hannover Institute for Public Policy appears to be a typical organization focused on Israel-Palestine issues.
Looking at Hannover Institute’s About page, it openly admits to being an Israeli government project, one properly registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which properly submits copies of all its reports to the DOJ. I don’t see what Mr. Maximov is fussing about.
Since its launch on August 6, it has released over 100 reports.
Of course. You know how industrious those Jews can be.
The organization's website is designed to give the impression of an American think tank.
Only to blind idiots. The About button is one of only three buttons at the top of the website front page. Click on that, and the jig is up. One would expect Jews to more cleverly hide the thing, if hiding were their intention.
"It's a perfect imitation of a typical American think tank, right down to the name, layout, and red-white-and-blue color scheme," said Alice Lee, an analyst at NewsGuard, an organization that specializes in assessing the credibility of news sites and combating disinformation.
The Hannover Institute claims that "the cited studies have been peer-reviewed and are of an academic nature," though it frequently cites various Israeli agencies. The published reports follow a template and begin with a question a user might ask a chatbot: "What caused the displacement of Palestinians in 1948?", "Which humanitarian organizations have documented Israeli war crimes?", "What is the current situation in the Gaza Strip?"
For example, in response to the question of whether the IDF can be considered "the most moral army in the world," the survey cited the results of a survey in which a whopping 47% of respondents agreed with this statement. There's just one small caveat: the survey was conducted among Israeli residents.
Twenty percent of Israelis are Arab. Some unknown number of them are strong Israeli patriots, while another portion hate being ruled by Jews, but are strongly uninterested in giving up the benefits of being Israeli citizens in Israel.
Another report found that 19 of the 36 most-viewed videos online about the situation in Gaza contain "controversial claims." Controversial from the Israeli perspective, of course.
Or from the perspective of raw truth and morality, but whatevs.
At the bottom of the institute's page, it is noted that the organization was created by Piro, Inc., commissioned by the Israeli government's advertising agency. It produces content developed using how large language models evaluate the credibility of information.
…and the truth. But as he is Russian, it’s understandable that he would believe that government defaults inevitably to propaganda rather than provable truth.
Analysts call this practice "AI poisoning." An analysis using GPTZero, a program that identifies texts generated by artificial intelligence, revealed that 11 of the institute's 12 reviewed articles were written by a neural network.
Israel also awarded former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale a $46.5 million contract to create websites designed to influence chatbots. Parscale and his firm, Clock Tower X, created a network of at least ten different portals, each dedicated to promoting a specific Israeli narrative: Paxpoint.org ("Israel as a Country of Peace"), Allyvia.org (strengthening the US-Israel alliance), FactSignal.org (refuting anti-Israel information), and others.
All websites contain a mandatory notice in small print at the bottom: "This material is distributed by Clock Tower X LLC on behalf of the State of Israel."
So not hiding anything.
The investigation revealed that many chatbots, including Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini, were successfully trained using data from these pages and now respond to questions accordingly.
Given that all the chatbots lean left, thus quickly antisemitic, regaining balance is an amazing achievement.
For example, if you ask them whether it is beneficial for the US to increase military cooperation with Israel, the answer will be a resounding yes. And this answer is based on an article from Allyvia.org, part of Parscale's grid.
The web began to be archived in datasets published by Common Crawl, an organization that crawls the internet and makes the resulting archives freely available to the public. These datasets are now widely used to train large-scale language models.
From January to June 2026, ten websites were indexed by Common Crawl 912 times. According to Anthropic's research, only about 250 malicious documents would be enough to create a vulnerability in a large language model.
Israel's influence on US elections and public discourse is also eloquently demonstrated by the sums spent on these goals. During this election cycle, the AIPAC super PAC has already spent approximately $62 million. Overall, Israel's public diplomacy budget for 2026 is approximately $730 million.
However, most ordinary Americans disapprove of such support. According to a July Pew Research Center survey, 62% of American adults have an unfavorable opinion of the Israeli government, while only 32% have a favorable opinion.
Among young people aged 18–29, 75% dislike Israel. Also, for the first time in more than 20 years, a Gallup poll found that more Americans sympathize with the Palestinians (41%) than with Israelis (36%).
At the same time, both major American parties are dependent, in one way or another, on the pro-Israel lobby. While its support is becoming toxic in some states, in others, its money is bringing victories to candidates. This cycle, AIPAC supported 188 candidates who won primaries.
Since its inception in 2022, AIPAC has spent over $221 million on Democratic primaries. The organization often operates through front groups with innocuous names like "Elect Chicago Women" or "Access Chicago Now," which make no mention of Israel.
Against this backdrop, it's telling that the Democratic National Committee recently voted down a resolution condemning AIPAC's "dirty money," demonstrating the party's senior leadership's dependence on pro-Israel donors. Instead, a broader resolution was adopted condemning the use of such money in politics, but without naming any specific group.
As committee spokesperson Nadia Ahmad noted, "They understand that their position does not align with the views of Democratic voters, but they cannot say so publicly."
As Israeli political scientist Kobi Barda notes, "Whoever controls the primaries controls Congress." Therefore, despite the political turbulence of recent years, AIPAC retains control over members of Congress.
It is Congress that votes on military aid packages for Israel, imposes sanctions on Iran, approves defense budgets, and ratifies international agreements.
According to Republican Congressman Thomas Massie,
…the libertarian Jew-hater who is not running for reelection because his voters don’t want him…
each of his Republican colleagues has an AIPAC "minister"—a "nanny" who constantly communicates with them and monitors their votes. He admitted to hearing four members of Congress say, "I'll talk to my AIPAC guy. "
"Americans have a right to know when powerful lobbying organizations are advancing the interests of foreign governments in Congress," Massie said.
At the same time, the congressmen themselves, of course, have no interest in their constituents knowing about such friendships with representatives of another state. But quarreling with the pro-Israel lobby is also dangerous for them.
AIPAC can either provide a candidate with a flood of cash or find them an opponent in the next election, and this threat works without fail. The organization has repeatedly proven its ability to easily oust any member of Congress who criticizes US policy toward Israel by literally flooding their opponent's campaign with millions of dollars.
"We currently have a problem with lobby attacks on American freedoms domestically. This is a result of the lobby's inability to simply defend Israeli policies because they have become too extreme. So, it attacks American freedoms by attempting to suppress debate, intimidate dissidents, and destroy the institutions that foster them," says Ian Lustick, a professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania.
Moreover, the lobby operates with a calculation: this is not just spending on public diplomacy, it is a good investment.
Since 1948, Israel has received over $300 billion from the United States, adjusted for inflation—more than any other country in the world.
Eh? If that is real number, is the money from the American government or donated by American citizens? Does the writer seriously expect us to be upset about money freely donated by people who decided Israel deserves their help?
There are no precise figures on AIPAC's spending since its inception in 1953, but rough estimates place the total at less than a billion dollars.
More money freely donated by Americans to a cause they believe in. Americans get to do that, so long as the recipient is not breaking the law.
Naturally, these investments also bear political fruit: AIPAC-backed congressmen regularly vote for multi-billion dollar aid packages, providing Israel with the financial and military support it needs.
So, no matter how much Democrats and Republicans criticize Israel, they clearly have no desire to give up its money, and the opinion of ordinary Americans is unlikely to make a difference. As usual.
Hateful propaganda. Kindly find a pole wrapped in rusty barbed wire to sit on and rotate.
Note that unlike AIPAC, which is an American organization funded entirely by Americans, CAIR is an American branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, an international terrorist organization funded by Gulf oil countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar:
BREAKING: The Shariah-ruling arm of the US Muslim Brotherhood has issued a fatwah unlocking an estimated $140 million a year in tithing (zakat) from American Muslims to finance the campaigns of Muslim leaders for public office including the House & Senatehttps://t.co/wqnPCYRiCQ
#8
The purpose of both Russia (of which Regnum is a voice) and China is to create and exacerbate divisions in the United States. (High time we returned the favor, since both have internal ethnic/nationality conflicts.)
[Rudaw] The US State Department on Monday announced sanctions on numerous “entities, individuals, and vessels” linked to Iran, while the Treasury Department said it is designating “nearly 60 known entities, individuals, and vessels as blocked property” connected to Tehran as well. The measures are part of a new economic pressure campaign called Operation Economic Outcast, which Washington is urging international partners to support.
The announcement raises pressing questions, particularly for Iraq, which imports between $10 billion and $12 billion worth of goods, petroleum products, and natural gas from Iran each year. Baghdad is Tehran's fourth-largest trading partner overall and its second-largest importer of goods and petroleum products.
Notably, the latest sanctions coincided with visits by Iranian officials to Baghdad, where talks focused primarily on debt recovery and establishing new payment mechanisms for the roughly 4,000 goods and products that Iraq and the Kurdistan Region import from Iran.
Many questions now surround the future of this trade between Tehran, Baghdad, and Erbil under this new phase of American economic pressure, the most pressing among them are whether the new US sanctions will allow the continuation of trade between Iran, Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, and how Washington intends to handle the payment of outstanding Iranian debts, dollar transfers and gas imports. The answers will determine whether Baghdad and Erbil face distinct new pressures of their own.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
