The once peaceful South American nation of Ecuador is being rocked by cocaine related violence. Since the 2020 pandemic, the tiny country’s murder rate has spiraled higher, hitting an all-time high of nearly 51 murders per 100,000 people during 2025. The tiny impoverished country of less than 20 million is regularly affected by extreme bloodshed, conflict, and lawlessness despite frequent security crackdowns. The rapid rise of cocaine trafficking and related brutality is sharply impacting government finances and Ecuador’s broken oil…

Shortly before the war with Iran began, I wrote that the seeming complacency among government officials and financial market participants was based on two assumptions which I argued were unlikely to turn out to be true: 1) President Donald Trump would make a last-minute deal with the Iranians and declare victory and 2) even if Trump didn't make such a deal, the Iranians would not do all the things which they threatened to do if attacked. Here we are, three weeks into the conflict between the United States, Israel, and Iran. There was, of course,…

The United States is the world’s biggest crude oil producer—it has been for years, and it has been pumping more than 13.6 million barrels per day of oil for the past few months. Then why, some would ask, are U.S. gasoline prices surging because of a conflict half a world away? First and foremost, the price of crude oil carries the biggest weight in the formation of gasoline prices in America. And the price of crude oil has soared in the past three weeks since the war in the Middle East began. Second, the U.S. – even with the highest…

Domingo, 22 de marzo de 2026.- Líderes mundiales arremeten contra Trump tras un insulto demoledor: “Atroz y falso” Crisis diplomática internacional tras las últimas declaraciones de Donald Trump. Varios líderes mundiales han reaccionado con dureza después de que el expresidente de Estados Uni...

Machiques de Perijá.- La tarde de este domingo 22 de marzo, aproximadamente a las 6:30 de la tarde, durante el cierre de las fiestas de la celebración de San José de Perijá, una unidad de alta potencia que participaba en una exhibición de piques fangueros en las adyacencias de la granja "...

Tropas estadounidenses denuncian falta de estrategia y vulnerabilidad crítica tras un mes de hostilidades en Oriente Medio. Trump enfrenta actualmente un rechazo sin precedentes dentro de las fuerzas militares y las tropas de Estados Unidos.  La estrategia de la administración ...

Richard Walker has urged the government to consider imposing a temporary cap on energy company profits, warning that households risk bearing the brunt of another price shock linked to the Middle East conflict. The Iceland boss, recently appointed as a Labour peer and cost-of-living adviser, said ministers should examine limiting earnings for producers and retailers during periods of extreme volatility. “I have asked the government to consider a temporary profit cap … to stop producers and retailers exploiting the crisis to make windfall…

Un avión C-130 Hércules de la Fuerza Aérea colombiana sufrió un accidente cuando despegaba de Puerto Leguízamo, en el suroeste del país, anunció el ministro de Defensa, Pedro Arnulfo Sánchez. "Con profundo dolor informo que un avión Hércules de nuestra Fuerza Aérea sufrió un tr...

Chinese state oil giant Sinopec, Asia’s biggest refiner by capacity, will not buy Iranian oil even after the U.S. waiver on purchases of crude from Iran loaded on tankers as of March 20, a senior Sinopec executive said on Monday.      Sinopec, officially known as China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, is weighing the potential risks of Iranian oil trade and “basically won't buy” Iranian crude, the company’s president Zhao Dong said, as carried by Reuters.   The U.S. Treasury Department’s…

Chinese state oil giant Sinopec, Asia’s biggest refiner by capacity, will not buy Iranian oil even after the U.S. waiver on purchases of crude from Iran loaded on tankers as of March 20, a senior Sinopec executive said on Monday.      Sinopec, officially known as China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, is weighing the potential risks of Iranian oil trade and “basically won't buy” Iranian crude, the company’s president Zhao Dong said, as carried by Reuters.   The U.S. Treasury Department’s…

Lunes, 23 de marzo de 2026.- ¿Quién manda en Venezuela? De acuerdo a la Constitución de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela, (CRBV) ante las ausencias temporales del Presidente de la República, debe encargarse de la presidencia el vicepresidente o vicepresidenta por 90 días, prolongables a 90 ...

With events in the Middle East once again disrupting global energy markets, we need to revisit one of our favorite energy policy concepts, the energy trilemma, a simple variant of the trolley problem with an added variable. The three variables are 1) affordability, 2) security of energy supply (can a hostile government cut off your supply?), and sustainability (are your energy sources heavy polluters or consumers of finite resources?).  The trilemma says that policymakers can only enjoy two out of three of these variables, with the third one…

Mientras el mundo mira hacia el conflicto con Irán, en las tierras de Cisjordania se ha desatado una cacería humana de proporciones alarmantes. Lo que comenzó como un trágico incidente vial —la muerte del joven Yehuda Sherman (18) en su cuatrimoto— se ha transformado en el detonant...

Europe’s gasoline exports have started to increasingly shift to Asia in recent weeks as the crude supply shock in the Middle East is tightening Asian fuel supply.  Europe usually ships most of its exported gasoline to the United States, West Africa, and South America. But in these unusual times of the biggest disruption in the oil market ever, more European gasoline cargoes are bound for Asia.   Over the past week, at least 1.6 million barrels of gasoline, carried by three tankers, have loaded from Europe and are en route to…

Europe’s gasoline exports have started to increasingly shift to Asia in recent weeks as the crude supply shock in the Middle East is tightening Asian fuel supply.  Europe usually ships most of its exported gasoline to the United States, West Africa, and South America. But in these unusual times of the biggest disruption in the oil market ever, more European gasoline cargoes are bound for Asia.   Over the past week, at least 1.6 million barrels of gasoline, carried by three tankers, have loaded from Europe and are en route to…

23 de marzo de 2026.- La Asociación CANAÁN en su Canal YouTube: Palestina 11 mil años de historia, reitera cuál es la razón de ser y raíz de la lucha del pueblo nativo semita Palestino, esta reiteración es a fin de sacarla de tanta confusión y abstracción que sirve a que el público no conozca el...

Whilst most people will have seen the virtue of stopping Iran from ever developing nuclear weapons, many may now regard U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to achieve this as being in the same vein as the famous business plan of the South Park gnomes to ‘make profit by stealing underpants’. This ran as follows -- ‘Phase 1: Collect underpants, Phase 2: ?, Phase 3: Profit’. Trump’s variation seems to have been -- ‘Phase 1: Kill Supreme Leader, Phase 2: ?, Phase 3: Iran never develops nuclear weapons’.…

Colombia’s economically vital oil industry is caught in a death spiral. Production recently collapsed to multi-year lows as foreign energy investment dries up. Once South America’s third-largest oil producer, Colombia slipped to fifth place after being overtaken by Argentina and Guyana. The reforms implemented by Colombia’s first leftist President, Gustavo Petro, including tax hikes, a ban on hydraulic fracturing, and the cessation of issuing exploration contracts, are deterring foreign investors. This is sharply impacting the…

Worldwide LNG exports have plunged in the past week to a six-month low as Middle Eastern supply collapsed with the de facto closed Strait of Hormuz and the outage at the world’s biggest LNG complex in Qatar.  Global LNG shipments have plunged to about 1.1 million tons over the 10-day moving average, down by 20% since the war began, a Bloomberg analysis of Kpler vessel-tracking data showed.  Qatar is the primary driver of the lost LNG supply following the halt of production and exports. Supply is also lost from the United Arab Emirates…

Israel lanzó una nueva ola de ataques contra infraestructuras energéticas y tecnológicas en Teherán, capital de Irán, durante la noche del domingo y las primeras horas de este lunes, según informó la Fuerza de Defensa de Israel. El operativo provocó cortes eléctricos ...