UN says Hormuz evacuation halted after ship struck in Iranian attack

UN says Hormuz evacuation halted after ship struck in Iranian attack

AGENCIES and TOI STAFF

A United Nations agency paused the evacuation of ships through the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday after the British military said a vessel was hit by a projectile off the coast of Oman following the passage of several tankers that used a route backed by the UN.

The head of the International Maritime Organization said the plan to move stranded ships out of the Persian Gulf through the strait will be on hold until the agency can confirm safety guarantees for the ships on the evacuation list and in the region.

The report of a strike came hours after Iran threatened vessels to stop using the route through the strait without Tehran’s permission. The vessel that was attacked was not part of the evacuation effort, said Arsenio Dominguez, the UN agency’s secretary-general.

A US official told the Associated Press that the vessel was hit by an Iranian drone.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive situation, said the merchant vessel Ever Lovely was attacked by a drone being flown by the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Two US officials also confirmed to Reuters that Iran fired on the ship, though there was no immediate comment from the American government.

Following reports of the attack, Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority — a new government agency established to control shipping in the strait — wrote on X that transit outside its own designated routes “will not be covered by the guarantee of safe passage.”

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said the vessel sustained damage, but it reported no injuries or environmental effects from the attack off the coast of Oman.

The opening of an alternative passage through the vital waterway would relieve pressure on the world economy and remove Iran’s main source of leverage in ongoing peace talks with the United States. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, on a visit to the Gulf to reassure American allies, said Washington was committed to the new route and ensuring that ships are able to transit the strait.

“If that stops, then we’re going to have a problem,” Rubio said Thursday before the report of the strike on the ship.

Traffic through the strait increased in recent days but was still well below prewar levels. Oil on Thursday briefly dipped below its last prewar price of just under $73 per barrel, a sign that the market believes the situation is improving.

The US and Iran are still debating terms of an interim peace deal, including issues such as getting ships through the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf and addressing the future of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

North of the route is a corridor in the center of the strait where ships moved freely before the war, transporting about a fifth of all the world’s oil and natural gas.

Iran said it mined that passage after the US and Israel attacked it on February 28. At least one mine has been sighted there.

Though some ships had been getting out of the strait, with US military support, the UN agency’s effort was the latest to free trapped vessels. The shipping company Maersk said its container ship, the Maersk Baltimore, and another chartered vessel made it out on Thursday.

Last week, 125 vessels crossed the strait, up from 33 the week before, according to marine data and analysis firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence.

According to S&P Global, Wednesday saw 78 transits, the most since the war began, but still below the daily prewar average of 130 or more.

Israel-Lebanon talks extended an extra day as deal on IDF withdrawal remains elusive

Israel-Lebanon talks extended an extra day as deal on IDF withdrawal remains elusive

Jacob Magid

Israel and Lebanon will wrap up their third day of US-mediated talks in Washington without an agreement on a partial Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, but the sides have agreed to extend negotiations for a fourth day that will take place Friday at the State Department, an Israeli embassy spokesperson tells The Times of Israel.

The fifth round was supposed to wrap up Thursday at the State Department, with the US hoping it would culminate with the signing of a framework agreement that would include Israel partially withdrawing from small areas of its large buffer zone in southern Lebanon. Israeli troops would then be replaced by members of the Lebanese Armed Forces.

The areas were this changing of the guard are planned for have been dubbed “pilot zones.” An Israeli source argued that it could barely be called a withdrawal because the IDF would still be maintaining its six mile-deep buffer zone in southern Lebanon and only pulling back from areas that it already cleared of Hezbollah infrastructure.

In some cases, the IDF has gone about clearing that infrastructure by razing entire Lebanese villages along the Israeli border to the ground, arguing that Hezbollah was using much of them to plan and carry out attacks against Israel.

Despite the lack of an agreement between Israel and Lebanon, a source familiar with the talks tells The Times of Israel that the sides made progress on Thursday after a rocky first two days.

Both Israel and Lebanon came into what was the fifth round of negotiations furious at the US for the latter’s decision to sign a deal with Iran last week that included a ceasefire in Lebanon.

Israel and Lebanon argued that that memorandum of understanding undercut a key element of their direct talks, which the US specifically established to try and prevent Iran from having a say on affairs in Lebanon.

The US conduct led Israel to initially harden its position in talks with Lebanon this week, significantly limiting the areas from southern Lebanon from which it said it was prepared to withdraw, the source says.

Lebanon, meanwhile, felt that it had to take a harder line in negotiations with Israel to counter the notion that Iran wields greater influence over affairs in Lebanese territory than it does, the sources says

Accordingly, Lebanese negotiators presented maps for a proposed withdrawal that were more expansive than what Israel was willing to accept at this stage — which was already very little due to the political pressures Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is facing, the source adds.

The past 24 hours saw gaps between the sides on a potential Israeli withdrawal shrink, though still not enough for a deal to be reached, the source says.

However, due to significant US pressure on the parties to leave this week’s negotiations with some sort of deal, they have agreed to return to the State Department on Friday to see if a consensus can be reached, the source says.

Residents Frustrated With “Constant Ringing” Of Data Center Beside Neighborhood – Plexiglass Used In Attempt To Block Noise

Residents Frustrated With “Constant Ringing” Of Data Center Beside Neighborhood – Plexiglass Used In Attempt To Block Noise

Some Virginia residents said they contend with constant noise from a data center beside their neighborhood, which produces a “high pitched whine.”

“Neighbors have put mattresses and plexiglass up in their windows to block the noise from this data center in Virginia,” NewsNation senior national correspondent Brian Entin said.

“It’s a high pitched whine from the natural gas turbines that power it. The noise never stops 24/7,” he added.

According to NewsNation, the enormous facility was never hooked up the power grid.

The generators are its only source of electricity.

“We were told in the beginning that they test the generators to make sure they’re working in case of an emergency,” one resident told Entin.

“And then as the year and the months have gone on, they’re just never turned off,” she added.

“You just hear this noise,” another resident commented.

“You just want to curse. It’s that bad,” he added.

Some residents have gone as far as putting plexiglass against the window to block the noise or using sound meters to monitor the noise.

NewsNation wrote:

President Trump has encouraged data centers to build dedicated energy sources to help protect utility customers against rate hikes.

There are positives with data centers. They create jobs when they are built, and they generate local tax revenue that can help schools and lower property taxes. And they are pretty much inevitable with the way we use technology, arguably becoming essential infrastructure.

Neighbors of the Vantage data center don’t disagree with some of these points, and they don’t hate all data centers. But they don’t think they should be built so close to neighborhoods.

Hari’s advice to people who learn of plans for new data centers near them?

“Do everything in your power to try to stop it from being built in an area that has any residential properties within 10 to 15 miles of it,” she says.

Company officials have said noise levels are monitored and do not exceed legal limits.

“This is what it sounds like living next to a data center. The video below was recorded at midnight, and the data center is situated next to 100s of residential homes,” X user Merissa Hansen wrote.

This is what it sounds like living next to a data center. The video below was recorded at midnight, and the data center is situated next to 100s of residential homes.

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Japan: The First Domino in the Sovereign Debt Crisis?

Japan: The First Domino in the Sovereign Debt Crisis?

Martin Armstrong 

The Japanese government is now openly admitting what I have been warning about for years. Rising interest rates are beginning to dramatically increase the government’s debt-servicing costs. For decades, Japan survived by suppressing interest rates to nearly zero while endlessly rolling over debt. That strategy only works so long as rates remain artificially low. Once rates begin to rise, the mathematics become impossible to hide.

Japan’s government debt exceeds 230% of GDP, the highest ratio in the developed world. Politicians, academics, and central bankers have spent years arguing that Japan was different because most of the debt was held domestically. I repeatedly rejected that argument. Debt is debt and whether the creditor lives in Tokyo, London, or New York does not change the obligation. The real issue has always been confidence. Once investors demand higher yields to compensate for risk, interest expense explodes and governments enter the classic sovereign debt spiral.

What many fail to understand is that sovereign debt crises never begin because governments run out of money overnight. They begin when interest costs consume an ever-larger share of tax revenue. Governments then borrow more simply to pay interest on previous borrowing. Japan crossed that line years ago. The entire system has been held together by the Bank of Japan purchasing enormous quantities of government debt. Once the central bank attempts to normalize policy, the market immediately begins questioning the sustainability of the entire structure.

This is why I have long argued that Japan would likely be the first major developed nation to face the sovereign debt crisis head on. The population is aging, the tax base is shrinking, and social obligations continue to rise. There is no realistic path to paying down the debt. Governments always believe they can borrow forever until suddenly they cannot. History has demonstrated this repeatedly, from ancient Rome to modern Europe.

The significance extends far beyond Japan. Every major government has followed the same path. The United States, Europe, Britain, and Canada all expanded debt under the assumption that central banks could permanently suppress rates. Japan simply arrived at the end of the road first because it accumulated debt faster than everyone else.

Our models continue to show that the period into 2032 remains the critical phase for sovereign debt. The crisis was never about private debt. Governments became the largest borrowers in history. The next monetary restructuring will emerge not because of banks or corporations, but because governments have accumulated obligations that can never realistically be honored in full. Japan is merely the first warning shot. The sovereign debt crisis has begun, and once confidence starts to crack, governments everywhere will discover that there is no such thing as endless borrowing.

Push To Blanket America With Massive AI Data Centers

Push to blanket America with massive AI data surveillance

Leo Hohmann

We long ago lost all sense of accountability from the federal government, which is now a creature of its own construction, making decisions on its own, with no connection whatsoever to the people it is supposed to answer to. But the advent of the data center boom in America is quickly revealing that state and local officials are no less an island unto themselves, acting in secret for the benefit of the rich and powerful, and to the detriment of their constituents. Citizens are seen as nothing more than a resource to collect taxes from, and the moment they start to ask questions, they get shouted down, ignored or in some cases even treated like suspected terrorists.

That’s a dangerous place for any country to be, but especially one with a history like that which America will celebrate on its 250th anniversary on July 4th, with citizens coming to the conclusion that their interests are no longer represented at any level of government. It’s becoming apparent that the whole shebang is sold out to the big-money crowd — state, local and federal. That’s called an oligarchy. Not a constitutional republic like what we’re supposed to be celebrating.

Take the case of Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, for example.

According to Fox 9 KMSP in Minneapolis, tensions ran high at the Inver Grove Heights City Council meeting on Monday night, June 22, as plans to discuss a controversial data center were derailed by an abrupt adjournment amid looks of disbelief from residents in attendance.

The meeting was set to include a vote on a moratorium on new data centers and a discussion about a proposed 54,000-square-foot data center in town.

But before the council discussed those issues, it voted to adjourn the meeting, rescheduling it for Friday morning.

The room erupted with people shouting, booing, and demanding a chance to speak. Only to be ignored by their elected officials. Mayor Brenda Dietrich left the council chambers without answering questions or addressing citizens’ demands for answers. Sorry, Mayor, but you don’t get to do that if we are still living in a representative democracy, but maybe she knows something we don’t. Maybe that idea only lives in our heads and has been quietly, for all practical purposes, exterminated by unseen power elites?

Many residents were angry, stressing that most people would be at work on Friday morning, leaving them unable to participate in the rescheduled meeting. Did that sway the mayor in her determination to shut down the meeting? Not at all. Take a look at the video below, where the mayor’s arrogance is on full display.

This is the kind of chicanery taking place at city councils and county commissions nationwide when it comes to the barrage of new data surveillance centers.

The anger and feeling of betrayal that is now building in Inver Grove Heights is not very different from what I’ve seen first hand in my own community of Coweta County, Georgia, where at least six data centers have been proposed and are being ramrodded down our throats whether we want them or not. Georgia Power, the state’s biggest electric utility, is using eminent domain to take people’s land, in an attempt to create power-grid expansions that accommodate the data surveillance centers.

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