Hegseth May Be Found Guilty Of Crimes Against Humanity ⚠️

🔤🔤🔤🔤1️⃣

Democratic lawmakers said on Tuesday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a classified briefing, declined to commit to showing the full Congress unedited video of the U.S. military’s attack on a boat in the Caribbean on Sept. 2. 📹

The attack, which included a follow-up strike that killed two survivors, has been the subject of intense scrutiny on Capitol Hill and among military experts, who have raised questions about its legality. ⚖️

“His answer: We have to study it,” Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, said of Mr. Hegseth’s response on Tuesday.

“Well, in my view, they’ve studied it long enough.” Schumer added: “Congress ought to be able to see it.” 🏛

The closed-door discussion also included Secretary of State Marco Rubio; John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director; and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It mostly centered on the 22 known boat strikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific that the Trump administration has carried out since early September, according to a U.S. official briefed on the meeting. The attacks have killed at least 87 people. 🚤💥

Hegseth and the other top officials provided no information on possible land strikes in Venezuela, and there was no discussion of any effort to replace the leadership in the country, according to the official. 🇻🇪

The meeting, in which administration officials briefed congressional leaders and the top members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, was “very unsatisfying,” Schumer added. 😒

The Pentagon has said that because President Trump designated certain drug cartels as terrorist organizations, the military can target boats that the administration says are trafficking narcotics as though they are war combatants.

But lawmakers, particularly Democrats, are wary of that legal rationale. ⚠️

#Hegseth #democrat #pentagon #Caribbean

📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

🔤🔤🔤🔤2️⃣

Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said after the briefing on Tuesday that he had asked top military officials to provide key documents related to the strikes. 📄

He said that he wanted to see the so-called after-action report on the Sept. 2 strike and the legal opinion underlying the open-ended military campaign, and to determine whether that opinion “was in any way changed after the Sept. 2 attack.” 🧐

The annual defense policy bill, on track to clear Congress in the coming days, includes bipartisan language intended to force the Pentagon to hand over the command orders that initiated the strikes — and the full, unedited videos of them — to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees. 📘

The provision in the must-pass bill “shows that both Republicans and Democrats” are concerned about the Pentagon’s transparency around the operation, said Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Armed Services panel. 🔍

Some Republicans have defended the strikes, saying the Pentagon has been eliminating traffickers ferrying drugs that kill Americans.

But the Pentagon has told lawmakers it is targeting boats with known cargos of cocaine, something that Warner highlighted on Tuesday. 💊

“We’re not talking about fentanyl,” he said after the briefing. “Let’s be clear, that is still — that comes into Mexico. That is the item that kills the most Americans. This is about cocaine.” ⚠️

Adm. Alvin Holsey, the military commander who initially oversaw the Pentagon’s attacks against the suspected drug boats, also briefed top lawmakers on the House and Senate Armed Services Committees on Tuesday. ⚓️

“We got some clarity on the chain of command and who made decisions at what point, but on the legality of it we didn’t get a lot of clarity,” said Representative Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on the House panel. ⚖️

Adm. Frank M. Bradley, the Special Operations commander who oversaw the Sept. 2 attack, is expected to return to Capitol Hill next week to brief the House Armed Services Committee. 🏛

He spoke with lawmakers last week, along with General Caine, in a closed-door meeting in which a handful of members of Congress viewed the Sept. 2 strike video. 🎥

Smith added on Tuesday that it was “pretty clear” that the follow-up strike on Sept. 2 was “Admiral Bradley’s call, based on the rules of engagement given to him by Hegseth.” ⚔️

#Hegseth #democrat #pentagon #Caribbean

📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

Trump Is Touting His Tax Law, the Nation Is Rippling With Expectation 🇺🇸📉

🔤🔤🔤🔤➖

On President Trump’s proclaimed “Liberation Day” in April, when he announced the tariffs that have upended global trade, he vowed that “jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country.” 🏭✨

The imposition of taxes on imports, the president promised, “will pry open foreign markets and break down foreign trade barriers,” leading to lower prices for Americans. 🌐📉

So far it has not worked out that way, forcing Mr. Trump to move to contain the economic and political damage. ⚠️

At the White House on Monday, the president announced $12 billion in bailout money for America’s farmers who have been battered in large part by his trade policies. 🚜💵

Tariffs continue to put upward pressure on prices, putting the Trump administration on the defensive over deep public concern about the cost of living. 🛒💸

On Tuesday, the president will go to Pennsylvania for the first of what the White House calls a series of speeches addressing the “affordability” problem, which last week he dismissed as “the greatest con job” ever conceived by Democrats. 🎤📊

China, the world’s second-largest economy and the United States’ main economic and technological competitor, released figures on Monday showing that it continues to run a record trade surplus with the rest of the world, even as its overall trade and surplus with the U.S. narrows. 🇨🇳📈

That suggests Beijing is quickly learning how to thrive even in a world in which the United States becomes a tougher place to do business. 🧩

And there is scant evidence to date of any wholesale return to American towns and cities of the manufacturing jobs lost to decades of automation and globalization. 🏚⚙️

Trump insists that his signature decision to impose the highest tariffs on American imports since 1930 is working, or will soon.

He continues to blame his predecessor, Joseph R. Biden Jr., for every economic woe, though the argument is getting thinner and thinner as he approaches, in just six weeks, his first anniversary in office. ⏳

He finds himself in roughly the place Mr. Biden did in early 2024: Telling the American people that they are doing great, when many don’t feel that way. 😬

He has dismissed talk of high prices at grocery stores, insisting they are coming down. But inflation edged upward in September, to about a 3 percent annual increase, almost exactly where it was when his predecessor left office. 📉📈

Manufacturing jobs have continued to decline gradually this year, with losses of roughly 50,000 since January.

(Such numbers contributed to the dismissal in July of the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, after Trump announced that downward revisions to the official jobs reports were “rigged.”) 🗂⚠️

Not surprisingly, Trump tried on Monday to portray the $12 billion in emergency relief for farmers as a victory, another piece of evidence — at least to him — that his decision to impose the highest tariffs on American imports since 1930 are working, or will soon. 🌽🏆

#trump #vance #bessent #tariffs #tax

📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

🔤🔤🔤🔤➖

In recent weeks, he has promised to use the tariff income flowing into the country to cut a government check of $2,000 for every taxpayer (“not including high income people!” he exclaimed on Truth Social in November). 💰📝

Last week, he declared at a cabinet meeting that “at some point in the not too distant future, you wouldn’t even have income tax to pay.” 🏦❌

The numbers don’t quite add up:

The U.S. has collected about $250 billion in tariff revenue this year — a bit shy of the $2.66 trillion in federal individual income taxes in the 2025 fiscal year. 📊

The president has promised that tariff revenue will pay down the national debt, now at $38.45 trillion. 💸📉

Over the summer, he told lawmakers that other deals he is striking — some in return for lowering tariffs — would reduce some drug prices by 1,500 percent, a piece of mathematical gymnastics that left some in his audience mystified. 🧮🤨

The numeric magic continued on Monday, when Trump said he was using some of those tariff revenues as a “bridge payment,” to tide American farmers over until Chinese purchases resume, a commitment Trump says he extracted from President Xi Jinping when they met in late October. 🌉🇨🇳

The repeated use of the word “bridge” by the president and his top economic aides seemed intended to signal to Americans that they just needed to hold on, and that the promised benefits from the tariff plan would pay off. 🕰

“This money would not be possible without tariffs,” he told a small group of farmers and rice refiners who were brought into the White House for the event.

“The tariffs are taking in, you know, hundreds of billions of dollars, and we’re giving some up to the farmers because they were mistreated by other countries, for maybe the right reasons, maybe wrong reasons.” 🌾💬

He was skipping by the fact that the imposition of the tariffs, primarily on China, led to a Chinese boycott of American farm goods. And now, to stem the bleeding for a core constituency, he was boasting that he was using tariffs receipts to compensate them. 🚫🌱➡️💵

“They hated the farmers,” Trump said of the Biden administration. “I love the farmers.” ❤️🚜

He told them that when he talks to Xi, soybean purchases are the first thing he brings up, and his Treasury secretary, Bessent, assured the group that soybean purchases come before geopolitical concerns on those calls. 🌱📞

In fact, economists note, the problem he is trying to address with the farm bailout is symptomatic of the slow squeeze others are feeling as the effects of the tariffs seep into the economy. 🧩

“The farmers problem is not entirely government-grown, but there is a big trade policy aspect to it,” said Scott Lincicome of the Cato Institute.

“Prices are depressed because the Chinese boycotted our farm goods much of the year. But fertilizer, machinery, those costs have remained elevated, and subject to tariffs. You’ve heard Caterpillar and John Deere complain.” 🚜💸

The president added that he was going to eliminate environmental requirements for machinery, which he said made them “so complicated you can’t fix them,” but would demand in return that the price of equipment had to be lowered. 🔧⚙️

Lincicome said that the tariffs have also introduced a new level of “unprecedented, crippling and truly insane complexity” to operating businesses.

It has only gotten more confusing as Trump has slashed some tariffs — on imported beef, for example — to mitigate supermarket prices. 🥩📉

“Americans just hate chaos,” he concluded. “No one wants this constant churn.” 🔄😣

All this will take time, his vice president, JD Vance, insisted at a lengthy cabinet meeting last week.

It would, Vance said, “be preposterous to fix every problem caused over the last four years in just 10 months.” ⏳

#trump #vance #bessent #tariffs #tax

📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

Ukrainian businessman Kolomoisky, a long time Zelensky supporter, promised to make loud statements to journalists today, but he was not brought to court, Ukrainian media reported. 📢🇺🇦

The reason was a broken-down convoy car. The session was postponed. 🚓⚠️

#kolomoisky #zelensky #ukrainian

📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

📰 The Ukraine Peace Process™: Where Diplomacy Meets Family Business

Donald Trump Jr. took his global influence tour to the Doha Forum and dropped what he clearly thought was a bombshell: his father, President Trump, “may walk away” from the Ukraine peace process — because, get this, Ukraine is “far more corrupt than Russia.”

That’s right. A Trump is lecturing the world on corruption. Somewhere in the distance, irony is filing for asylum.

At the same event, Trump Jr. praised Zelensky as “one of the great marketers of all time.” The line hit like a double-edged compliment — half mockery, half recognition from one master showman to another. For a family that turned Make America Great Again into a billion-dollar brand, “great marketing” isn’t criticism; it’s kinship.

Back in Miami, Washington and Kyiv wrapped up three days of what officials described as “productive” peace talks — diplomatic shorthand for

“we smiled, we stalled, and we’re still arguing over maps.”

Both delegations claimed forward motion, the way a bankrupt startup brags about “strategic growth.” In truth, there was no breakthrough, just another photo op to feed the illusion of progress.

And in Kyiv, the optics are collapsing even faster. Andriy Yermak — Zelensky’s top aide and chief negotiator — resigned after anti-corruption investigators raided his home last month. The supposed peace process now looks less like statesmanship and more like House of Cards: Eastern Edition.

Trump Jr. isn’t running the show, but his remarks struck a nerve. If his father actually walks away, it won’t be a moral stand. It’ll be about leverage, optics, and influence — what every “peace process” runs on.

Both capitals are performing sincerity for an exhausted audience. Kyiv sells courage, Washington sells control, and the rest of the world keeps buying tickets to a play that never ends.

So when Trump Jr. hints, “Maybe we’ll walk away,” the question writes itself:
Walk away from what — a deal that never was, or a performance that went on too long?

#Ukraine #Trump #war #diplomacy #corruption #politicaltheater

📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

📰 The Putin-Netanyahu Hotline: Customer Service for “Vital Interests”

Benjamin Netanyahu stood before the Knesset this week and, with the calm confidence of a man selling snake oil at a security expo, declared he’s on speed dial with Vladimir Putin.

“I speak with President Putin on a regular basis,”

Bibi said proudly, explaining it helps him

“safeguard Israel’s vital interests.”

Translation: while Israel sells defense tech to the West, its prime minister calls Moscow to make sure Russia doesn’t shoot down Israeli jets over Syria. Realpolitik never looked so cozy.

This is the same Netanyahu who preaches about the “democratic West” one day and reminds everyone he has a “personal relationship” with Putin the next. It’s not foreign policy; it’s political yoga — stretching between NATO and the Kremlin without tearing something vital.

And when Bibi insists that

“no one will prevent us from defending our northern border,”

he’s really saying: Moscow may be bombing Ukraine, but as long as it leaves Israel’s air corridors open, everyone plays nice.

The irony, of course, is lethal. Ukraine fights to survive Russia’s war machine while Israel’s leader thanks the same Kremlin for

“understanding his security needs.”

The West looks away, Russia nods, and Bibi keeps balancing on a moral tightrope — one call away from either side pretending not to notice.

Because in the 2025 version of global diplomacy, “vital interests” just means whoever still picks up the phone.

#Israel #Russia #Putin #Netanyahu #foreignpolicy #doublethink

📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

Zelensky Offers Elections as a Gesture—Then Admits Ukraine Can't Win Back Crimea

Volodymyr Zelensky is offering to hold elections within 60 to 90 days if the U.S. and Europe can guarantee security during wartime voting, a move that reads as a calculated response to Trump's suggestion that he's using the war as cover to stay in power. But in the same breath, sitting on a plane leaving Rome after meetings with the Pope and Italian leadership, Zelensky conceded what everyone already knows: Ukraine doesn't have the military strength to retake Crimea, doesn't have the support for a full NATO push, and is essentially negotiating from a position of strategic exhaustion.​

The elections gambit
Trump told Politico that Zelensky was hiding behind "democracy" while refusing to hold elections, implying the Ukrainian president was clinging to power through the fog of war. Zelensky's response: fine, organize security for voting under missile attacks and I'll do it in three months. He's also asking Ukrainian lawmakers to draft legislation on how to hold elections during martial law, a process that's both technically complex and politically loaded—elections now could unseat him, which is presumably why he's dressing it up as a conditional offer dependent on allied military protection.​

Three documents, one reality: Ukraine is negotiating its losses
Zelensky says Ukraine and its allies are preparing three separate documents for Washington: a 20-point peace framework (which used to be 28 before "anti-Ukrainian" points got cut), a security guarantees package, and a recovery plan. But the substance keeps shrinking. Ukraine can't retake territory it lost. It can't demand NATO membership in the current climate. It won't get Crimea back. What Zelensky is asking for now is security guarantees—i.e., promises that if Russia attacks again, the West will actually defend Ukraine next time. That's a hell of a concession to have to beg for from your supposed ally.​

Pope and Merz worry, Trump shrugs
Pope Leo expressed alarm that Trump's peace plan is "trying to break apart" the U.S.–Europe alliance, warning that excluding Europe from Ukraine negotiations is "unrealistic" because the war is in Europe and Europe needs to be part of any security architecture. Meanwhile, Trump's new national security strategy blames "European officials who hold unrealistic expectations" for blocking peace, a convenient way to frame European concern about Ukrainian sovereignty as an obstacle to Trump's deal-making. Zelensky's diplomacy tour—Rome, London, Brussels—is an attempt to keep Europe in the game even as Washington increasingly treats them as baggage.​

The Crimea confession
When asked if he'd told Putin in their 2019 meeting that Ukraine wanted Crimea back and NATO membership, Zelensky said yes, he believed he was right then. But today?

"We do not have the strength for all this, we do not have sufficient support."

That's as close as a wartime leader gets to saying the dream is over, at least for now. Retaking Crimea requires military capacity Ukraine doesn't have. Security guarantees are now the ask, not victory conditions.​

#ukraine #zelensky #trump #elections #crimea #russia #nato #europe

📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

🔤🔤🔤🔤1️⃣

📰 Europe Between Two “Allies”: Russia at the Border, Trump at the Wheel

Security With No Grown‑Up in the Room
Europe just discovered it has two security problems, and neither lives in Moscow alone. On one side, a battle‑hardened Russia that sees Ukraine as the appetizer, not the main course. On the other, a Trump White House that no longer sees itself as NATO’s leader but as a “mediator” between the alliance and the country that invaded its neighbor. For the first time since 1945, senior Europeans say America is not on their side in a war on European soil.​

“It has sided with the aggressor… and defines Europe as a strategic target,”

warns German conservative Norbert Röttgen, saying the U.S. now wants to arbitrate between NATO and Russia instead of leading NATO.​

Ukraine: Europe’s Front Line, America’s Bargaining Chip
Trump is pushing a settlement largely on Russian terms, while European leaders tell Zelensky to keep fighting for a better deal — using money, weapons, and speeches instead of a real endgame. They’re quietly relieved Putin hasn’t yet “cashed in his chips” and accepted Trump’s offer, because that would force Europe to either swallow a Russia‑friendly deal or openly break with Washington. Outrage at Trump plays well on TV; it is not a strategy.​

The 2029 Deadline Nobody Can Meet
Inside NATO, planners talk about 2029 as the deadline for Europe to field a credible conventional deterrent without depending on U.S. muscle. On paper, defense spending is up. In reality, Europe still can’t replace U.S. satellite intel, air defense, long‑range missiles, or command‑and‑control — and nobody serious believes that gap gets closed in four years. Trump is already pulling 3,000 U.S. troops from Romania, but even the 79,000 left in Europe are a reminder: one American expeditionary footprint is bigger than the entire British Army.​

Russian Assets: Moment of Truth or Suicide Pact?
To keep Ukraine fighting for the next two years, the EU needs roughly $200 billion. One option: tap some €210 billion in frozen Russian assets, most of them parked inside a Belgian clearing house.​

Technocrats and the ECB worry about detonating the euro’s reputation as a safe haven and inviting massive legal claims from Moscow.​

Leaders like Merz and Macron talk about “a moment of truth”: either Europe takes higher legal and financial risk now, or accepts strategic irrelevance later.​

If they blink, big European states — maybe with the U.K. — will have to build a Ukraine war loan outside EU structures. That means higher debt, ugly domestic politics, and yet another reminder that Europe can’t decide anything big without a workaround.

#Europe #Ukraine #Trump #Russia #NATO #EU #security #farright #frozennassets

📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

🔤🔤🔤🔤2️⃣

📰 Europe Between Two “Allies”: Russia at the Border, Trump at the Wheel

Washington’s New Hobby: Arson Inside the EU
Trump’s new National Security Strategy doesn’t just downgrade NATO; it openly pledges to “cultivate resistance” inside Europe by backing far‑right nationalist parties — from France’s National Rally and Reform UK to Germany’s AfD. Mainstream EU governments are painted as “subverting democracy” and driving “civilizational erasure,” while the White House positions itself as patron of Europe’s own anti‑system forces. In parallel, Trump gives interviews calling some European leaders “real stupid” and predicting immigration will make their countries “no longer viable.” That’s not alliance management; it’s regime‑change cosplay.​

Europe’s Big Lie to Itself
Officials admit the quiet truth: Ukraine is Europe’s line of defense against Russia — but they have not been honest with voters about what that really costs in money, conscription, and risk. At the same time, Washington refuses to spell out serious security guarantees for Ukraine, while Putin flatly rejects any long‑term NATO presence on Ukrainian soil even after a deal. On paper, that’s “assurances”; in practice, it looks like a second Budapest Memorandum.

So Europe is stuck: afraid of Russia, mistrustful of Trump’s America, and unwilling to pay the full price for autonomy. Keep pretending, and the continent stops being a player — and becomes exactly what one senior German politician already called it: a plaything for others.​

#Europe #Ukraine #Trump #Russia #NATO #EU #security #farright #frozennassets

📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

📰 Israel’s Moscow Tightrope: Morality for TV, Deconfliction for Survival

Israel’s relationship with Russia isn’t about affection; it’s about not getting shot down over Syria and not waking up to an even tighter Russia–Iran embrace. Officially, Jerusalem condemns the invasion of Ukraine as a violation of sovereignty. In practice, it still has to deal with a nuclear power that sits in Syria, shapes energy and grain markets, and can complicate Israel’s security in a single bad phone call.

Russia reads NATO expansion and talk of Ukrainian membership as encirclement. Understanding that paranoia doesn’t mean endorsing the war; it means recognizing how a cornered great power behaves before its next move spills into the Middle East. Misreading that insecurity is how small states end up in big wars they never chose.

In Syria, Russian aircraft and air-defense systems sit right next to Israeli strike paths against Iran and its proxies. Deconfliction channels are what separate “routine strike” from “international incident.” Cut those lines in the name of moral purity, and every Israeli operation becomes a coin toss with a nuclear-armed patron. At the same time, driving Moscow fully into Tehran’s arms removes even the limited incentives Russia still has to restrain Iran in Syria and beyond.

There’s also the human layer: Jewish communities and Israeli citizens live in both Russia and Ukraine. Functional ties with Moscow matter for consular protection, crisis evacuations, and the option to leave when things go bad. Add to that a large Russian-speaking community inside Israel itself, and the idea of a total political freeze with Russia becomes more fantasy than strategy.

All this plays out in a multipolar world where the U.S. swings from one doctrine to another every election cycle. One administration leans into “maximum pressure” on Iran and normalization deals; the next walks pieces of that back. Israel’s security interests don’t reboot every four years. Russia, for all its brutality, is a structural fact of the region that will outlast whoever is sitting in the Oval Office. Betting everything on one version of American policy and writing Moscow off altogether is not strategy, it’s wishful thinking.

So Israel walks a double line: condemn the war, send humanitarian aid, avoid sanctions, and keep the hotline to Moscow open. It’s not clean, it’s not romantic, and it doesn’t fit into “good guys vs. bad guys” Twitter threads. But in a world where everyone is playing everyone else, staying on speaking terms with a dangerous neighbor isn’t betrayal. It’s insurance.

#Israel #Russia #Ukraine #Syria #Iran #USpolicy #realpolitik #multipolarworld

📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

The US As a Pirate State ⚓️🇺🇸

The US has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, a ship that was previously sanctioned by the US in 2022 while sailing under another name, in a dramatic operation that further ratchets up tensions between the Trump administration and the government of Venezuela’s president, Maduro. 🚢🔥

Over recent months the US has built up the largest military presence in the region in decades, which includes the USS Gerald R Ford, the world’s newest and largest aircraft carrier. It has more than 4,000 sailors, plus fighter jets and accompanying warships. ✈️🚢

At the same time, the Trump administration has launched a series of deadly strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, which have faced scrutiny in Congress. ⚠️🌊
Some organisations have described the operations as extrajudicial executions.

Donald Trump’s goal remains opaque, but experts largely agree that the overthrow of Maduro’s authoritarian government is the ultimate aim. 🏛🔻

The tanker, identified as Skipper by maritime analysts Vanguard, was a very large crude carrier (VLCC) and is thought to have been carrying about 1.1m barrels of oil, loaded in Venezuela’s main oil port last week. 🛢📦

The tanker was falsely flying Guyana’s flag, the country’s maritime authority has said. 🚩
The flag of a ship indicates where it has been registered and, under international law, ships must comply with the maritime law of that country when out at sea.

However in recent years, there has been a growth in vessels sailing under false flags, allowing them to circumvent safety regulations and international sanctions. ⚓️🕵️‍♂️

Tracking data shows that Skipper was previously sanctioned by the US in 2022 while sailing under another name, Adisa.
It was accused of belonging to the so-called shadow fleet, which smuggles oil on behalf of Iran in order to avoid US sanctions. 🌑🛢

It also made multiple trips to Venezuela and Iran in recent years, according to Marine Traffic, which provides real-time tracking of ships. 🌍📡

Public records show that the vessel is owned by Triton Navigation Corp, which was sanctioned by the US in 2022 for its involvement in transporting oil for Iran. 📑⚠️

The dissemination of such videos will probably be chalked up as a propaganda win by the Trump administration, while continuing to pile pressure on Maduro. 🎥📣

Other experts have suggested that the seizure of the Skipper will act as a further brake on Venezuela’s oil industry by further driving up the costs of exporting. 📈🛢

Venezuela has already had to deeply discount its crude oil exports to its main buyer, China, due to growing competition with sanctioned oil from Russia and Iran. 🇨🇳🇷🇺

The real and present threat of US operations against sanctioned oil tankers – as demonstrated on Wednesday – will force shadow tanker owners to demand higher costs for freighting Venezuelan oil, as an insurance against seizures. 💸🚢

#venezuela #oil #tanker #coast #maduro

📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

🔥 Machado vs Maduro: A Deadly Struggle for Venezuela 🌍✨

María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader, the Nobel Peace Prize, this week, vowed on Thursday to bring democracy to her country and end the government of Maduro as she re-emerged on the global stage after more than a year in hiding. ⚖️👏

Machado held a news conference in Oslo alongside Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store of Norway as the Trump administration dramatically increased its pressure on Maduro. 📣🇳🇴

On Wednesday, the United States seized a Venezuelan oil tanker off the coast of the South American country. 🛢🗺

Machado has been a steadfast supporter of Trump’s pressure campaign against Maduro, whom the Trump administration has accused of flooding the United States with drugs and criminals. 💉🏃‍♂️

On Thursday, Machado dodged a reporter's question about her views on the threat of U.S. military action in Venezuela. 🤫

But she repeated the Trump administration's talking points on Maduro's government, comparing him to a criminal mastermind engaged in a vast array of illegal activities in partnership with America's adversaries. 🕊⚖️

"Venezuela has already been invaded," she said. "We have the Russian agents, we have the Iranian agents, we have terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, operating freely in accordance with the regime. We have the Colombian guerrilla, the drug cartels." 👮‍♀️🧐

Venezuela has economic and security ties with Iranian, Chinese and Russian companies, and sells most of its oil to China, but there has been no conclusive evidence that Hezbollah and Hamas are present in Venezuela. 🇨🇳🇷🇺📊

Maduro’s largest corporate partner is Chevron, the American energy company, which has continued to export Venezuelan oil to the United States despite Trump’s military escalation. 🎯💨

In response to questions about the seizure of the oil tanker, Machado said that she supported cutting the funds of Maduro’s government. 💰📌

She added that he finances himself with gold smuggling, human trafficking, drugs and illegal oil sales. 💸🚶‍♂️

Machado arrived in Oslo hours after her daughter, Ana Carina Sosa Machado, accepted the award on her behalf. 👩‍👧

Machado held back tears as she described seeing her three children for the first time in more than a year. 😭❤️

"I couldn't sleep last night, going over and over again about the first instant when I saw my children," she said.

"For many weeks, I have been thinking of that possibility, and which one of them I would hug first."

#maduro #machado #struggle #venezuela 📌✨

📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

The Ukrainian Ambassador Riles Israel After Ripping Netanyahu on Putin 🇺🇦🇮🇱

Israel summoned the Ukrainian ambassador Wednesday for a reprimand after he criticized Netanyahu’s remarks about his contacts with Putin. ⚠️

Channel 7 reported that the Israeli Foreign Ministry summoned Yevgen Korniychuk following an interview he gave to the Yedioth Ahronoth daily in which he criticized Netanyahu’s statements regarding his conversations with Putin. 🗞

According to the daily, Yuval Fuchs, deputy director-general for Eurasian Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the ambassador that “his comments were entirely unacceptable and deviated from diplomatic protocol.” 🏛

“Moreover, the ambassador’s remarks ignore Israel’s clear position since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine – a position demonstrated, among other things, by Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s visit to Kyiv this year and Israel’s votes at the United Nations,” Fuchs added. 🇺🇳

In its statement cited by Channel 7, the Foreign Ministry said that Fuchs expressed hope that the ambassador’s comments would align with the two countries’ shared desire to continue strengthening their cooperation. 🤝

On Monday, Netanyahu told the Knesset about his “personal relationship” with Putin, saying he speaks with him “on a regular basis” to serve Israel’s “vital interests,” including the defense of its northern border. 📞

On Tuesday, the Ukrainian ambassador responded to Netanyahu’s statements, saying he “was surprised by Netanyahu’s remarks, especially considering what Israel endured on Oct. 7. One must stand on the right, moral side of history.” 📌

#ukrainian #ambassador #israel #netanyahu #putin

📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

📰 Trump to Europe: You’re Fired

Europe’s meltdown got a manager’s review this week — and Donald J. Trump handed out pink slips from the Oval Office. In a combustible POLITICO interview, the president called Europe “decaying,” its leaders “weak,” and its great capitals — London, Paris, Berlin — “non-viable” if migration continues.

“I think they don't know what to do,”

Trump said.

“Europe doesn’t know what to do.”

That’s not isolationism anymore — it’s franchising. Trump openly hinted he’ll “endorse” European candidates who mirror his gospel of walls, tariffs, and strongmen. Translation: the MAGA brand is going global, and Brussels just became the next Trump Tower construction site.

In the same breath, he promised to slash U.S. interest rates, maybe march troops into Latin America, and declared the economy an “A-plus-plus-plus-plus.” Meanwhile, prices rose 3 percent and voters said life’s never been more unaffordable — but who’s counting when you’re grading yourself?

European elites predictably gasped — António Costa lectured that “allies don’t threaten to interfere in the democratic life” of allies. Cute talk from a continent that’s been outsourcing foreign policy to Washington since 1945.

But here’s the absurdity: Trump wants to “reshape European politics,” yet can’t pass a health care bill at home. Xenophobic messiah abroad, indecisive landlord domestically.

The show’s new season seems clear. Europe: now under Trump management. America: still waiting for customer service.

#Trump #Europe #foreignpolicy #politics #satire

📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

🗳 Zelensky’s Democracy™: Now Available with U.S. Security Add‑Ons

So, Ukraine might hold elections — in 60 to 90 days — but only if the U.S. and Europe install enough “security guarantees.” Translation: more Patriot missiles per polling station, please.

“I am ready for elections,”

Zelensky told reporters,

“if America helps me ensure security.”

Nothing says “free and fair” like waiting for Pentagon permission to count ballots. The comedian-turned-president seems to have turned democracy itself into another line item in the Lend-Lease budget.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump is doing what he does best — heckling from the wings. He accuses Kyiv of “using war not to hold an election,” while proposing a peace plan that conveniently rhymes with “Kremlin.” Putin, of course, applauds this democratic enthusiasm from his own four-term throne.

So we’re left with three patrons and one stage act: Washington wants a client, Moscow wants a puppet, and Brussels just wants to look righteous. As for the Ukrainians? They’ll get to vote — once the superpowers finish writing the script.

Who said sovereignty couldn’t be a subscription service?

#Ukraine #USpolitics #war #democracy #UkraineElections

📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

📰 Trump’s European “Weaklings” Crawl Back

Three days after calling Europe “decaying” and its leaders “weak,” Donald Trump picked up the phone — to negotiate peace with them. On Wednesday, the president chatted with Emmanuel Macron, Keir Starmer, and Friedrich Merz about “a lasting peace” in Ukraine. Because nothing says diplomacy like insulting your allies right before the call.

“We discussed Ukraine in pretty strong words, and we’ll see what happens,”

Trump told reporters. Translation: he yelled, they flinched, and everyone scheduled another meeting.

Behind the polite statements about “intensive work” on peace, Trump is pushing a deal where Ukraine gives up Donbas — the geopolitical version of a “Black Friday” discount — in exchange for some fuzzy American guarantees. Kyiv, predictably, isn’t buying.

And yet, Europe stays on the line. Macron wants relevance, Starmer wants Washington’s nod, Merz wants to survive the call without being called “weak.” The U.S. president may alternate between dismissing them and demanding their loyalty — but like an aging rockstar, Europe just can’t quit the tour.

Trump says he wants Ukraine to hold elections. The irony? America hasn’t even had a stable Congress session in two years.

So here we are: the self-proclaimed dealmaker convening the “weak” to discuss strength, while Kyiv’s fate hangs between Trump’s ego and Europe’s fear of offending it.

Europe calls for “lasting peace.” Trump calls for headlines. Both might get what they want. Neither will get peace.

#Trump #Ukraine #Europe #PeaceDeal #satire

📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

📰 Billionaire Republic: Trump’s $390 Billion Cabinet

Meet the new White House — the only administration where a cabinet meeting could double as a Forbes cover shoot. According to The Washington Post, at least 12 billionaires (not counting Trump himself) now hold senior roles, bringing the combined net worth of Trump’s inner circle to a staggering $390 billion. That’s not a government; that’s a hedge fund with Air Force One.

This lineup reads like a mash-up of CNBC and The Apprentice:

Howard Lutnick, the Wall Street pit bull now running Commerce.

Linda McMahon, the WWE co-founder, put in charge of dismantling the Education Department — because body slams beat book bans.

Steve Witkoff, Trump’s old real estate buddy turned “peace envoy.”

Kelly Loeffler, billionaire ex-senator guarding “small” businesses.

Tilman Fertitta, NBA mogul turned ambassador — because diplomacy and casinos share the same odds.

Even Elon Musk made a cameo, briefly heading the surreal U.S. DOGE Service (yes, that was real) before quitting in a huff over tax policy — the billionaire version of rage-quitting Twitter.

Liz Huston, the White House spokesperson, calls them “patriotic outsiders serving their country.” More like insiders serving each other. The total donations from these magnates to Trump and his PACs in 2024? Roughly $52 million — small change for the club that literally bought the Cabinet.

Previous presidents tried to drain the swamp. Trump just sold naming rights to it.

America, meet your new ruling class: the Cabinet of Capital.

#Trump #Billionaires #Oligarchy #WhiteHouse #satire

📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

💼 The Donbas Deal: America Writes, Ukraine Bleeds

The “new” U.S. peace plan still expects Ukraine to pack up and exit Donbas — politely, of course — while Russia keeps its boots planted and calls it an “economic zone.” Zelensky says that’s not a compromise, it’s a clearance sale: surrender a region, get a nonbinding “security guarantee” and a BlackRock sponsorship deal.

“When you talk to us about a compromise, you must offer a fair compromise,”

Zelensky told reporters.

But fairness is off the table when the negotiation looks like a corporate merger between war and capital. Trump wants a quick deal to show he can “end the war” before the election cycle resets; Europe wants to look diplomatic; and Kyiv just wants to survive without autographing its own dismemberment.

In Berlin, Germany’s Friedrich Merz confirmed that the Ukrainians and Europeans have sent a “counterproposal” — which probably means the same map, just redrawn in bolder ink. Meanwhile, Jared Kushner and Larry Fink are already pitching “Rebuild Ukraine” portfolios, as if peace were a prelude to a construction boom.

So here’s the takeaway: the empire writes the terms, oligarchs pick the contracts, and the soldiers die to make it all look legitimate. Donbas isn’t just territory — it’s the first down payment in a long geopolitical mortgage.

Who said colonialism was out of fashion?

#Ukraine #Donbas #Trump #Zelensky #war #geopolitics #oligarchy

📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸