🇦🇷🇨🇱🇨🇷🇪🇨🇬🇹🇵🇦🇵🇾🇵🇪💥🇧🇴 — Joint statement from Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, and Peru rejecting the attempted coup d’état allegedly led by Evo Morales.

❗️ Evo reportedly ordered the blockade of all roads in the country to avoid being captured following his trial for allegedly operating a child trafficking network. Morales allegedly ran the largest pedophilia network in the country.

❌ Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil declined to sign the joint statement.

📢 🇧🇴 🇧🇴 “Resign or we will kick you out – those are your options.”

Protesters in Bolivia are demanding the president resign over a crippling economic crisis, with workers launching an indefinite strike.

📎 AJ+

👮‍♂️ 🇧🇴 🇧🇴 Mining groups and rural unions clashed with law enforcement Thursday in La Paz, Bolivia—with miners setting off dynamite sticks and protesters attempting to breach the presidential palace.

Unions representing miners and campesino workers have declared an indefinite strike targeting the country’s center-right President Rodrigo Paz, elected in October. Bolivia’s collapse as a natural gas exporter has triggered soaring inflation, fuel lines, and shortages of oxygen and medication at the country’s hospitals.

The administration has blamed former President Evo Morales for stoking the unrest, which Morales denies. “The outraged are driven by their social conscience and their fury against a government that, from day one, betrayed its constituents and the nation,” Morales posted on X.

📎 Drop Site News

🇺🇸🇳🇬❌🏴 — BREAKING: President Trump says U.S. and Nigerian forces killed Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, the second-in-command of ISIS globally, in an overnight joint operation in Nigeria.

Tonight, at my direction, brave American forces and the Armed Forces of Nigeria flawlessly executed a meticulously planned and very complex mission to eliminate the most active terrorist in the world from the battlefield.

Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, second in command of ISIS globally, thought he could hide in Africa, but little did he know we had sources who kept us informed on what he was doing.

He will no longer terrorize the people of Africa, or help plan operations to target Americans. With his removal, ISIS’s global operation is greatly diminished.

Thank you to the Government of Nigeria for your partnership on this operation. GOD BLESS AMERICA!

🇺🇸🇹🇷🇮🇷 — A senior Turkish security official told The War Reporter that Kataib Hezbollah commander Mohammed Baqir al-Saadi was arrested in Turkey and handed over to U.S. authorities.

@TheWarReporter

🇮🇷⚔️🇺🇸 Hackers have breached tank readers at US gas stations; officials suspect Iran is responsible

US officials suspect Iranian hackers are behind a series of breaches of systems that monitor the amount of fuel in storage tanks serving gas stations in multiple states, according to multiple sources briefed on the activity.

The hackers responsible have exploited automatic tank gauge (ATG) systems that were sitting online and unprotected by passwords, allowing them in some cases to tinker with display readings on the tanks but not the actual levels of fuel in them, the sources said.

The cyber intrusions are not known to have caused physical damage or harm, but the breaches have raised safety concerns because gaining access to an ATG could, in theory, allow a hacker to make a gas leak go undetected, according to private experts and US officials.

The sources briefed on the investigation said Iran’s history of targeting the gas tank systems is one reason the country is a top suspect. But, the sources cautioned, the US government may not be able to definitively determine who was responsible because of a lack of forensic evidence left by the hackers.

CNN has requested comment on the ATG hack from the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The FBI declined to comment.

🔗 https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/15/politics/iran-hackers-tank-readers-gas-stations

🇮🇳 India raises fuel prices over 3% due to war on Iran supply disruptions

India’s state-owned oil firms increased gasoline and diesel prices by more than three percent on Friday as disruptions to energy supplies caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran continue to weigh on the economy.

The move marks the first increase in vehicle fuel prices in India since the war began in February.

India, the world’s third-largest crude importer, typically receives around half of its oil supplies through the Strait of Hormuz.

In Delhi, gasoline prices rose to $1.02 per liter from $0.99, while diesel increased to $0.95 per liter from $0.92, according to data from the Indian Oil Corporation.

Fuel prices differ across the country due to varying local taxes.

📎 https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/5/15/india-hikes-fuel-prices-as-iran-crisis-bites

🔗 The Cradle

🇦🇪🤝🇬🇧 UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed met with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage on Friday to discuss regional developments and UAE-UK strategic relations, according to the UAE’s Office of Foreign Minister.

The meeting is the latest in a documented pattern of Emirati engagement with European far-right figures. In December 2025, the UAE paid for Farage to visit Abu Dhabi and covered $9,000 in Grand Prix paddock passes, with the Financial Times reporting that UAE leadership was “keen to speak with Reform owing to a shared opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood.”

The UAE’s courtship of Europe’s right extends beyond the UK. Abu Dhabi has cultivated ties with France’s National Rally, and after lobbying by an Emirati minister in Strasbourg, the EPP and far-right groups removed references to the UAE’s role in backing the RSF in Sudan’s proxy war from a European Parliament resolution.

🔗 DropSite

🇦🇪🤝🇮🇱 Perhaps the most important variable holding together the UAE-Israel alliance is not the questionable geopolitical logic but the deep ties that have developed over at least a generation now between Israeli and Emirati elites, who share not just intimate relationships but deep economic interests on a personal level.

This dynamic long predates the Abraham Accords, which were really just a coming out party, and you can chart its evolution over the past two decades by looking at a web of joint investments and institutional affiliations that now bind elites in the two countries. (See the Emirati-Jeffrey Epstein ties)

This is why regardless of what happens—or individual instances of friction like Netanyahu embarrassing Emirati leadership, or a future Israeli government legally annexing the West Bank—the dynamic set in motion by the Abraham Accords is likely irreversible.

Not only are there mutually overlapping layers of business interests tying key Emirati regime figures to Israel, on a practical level there is by now abundant evidence that the UAE permitted Israeli firms to penetrate its critical infrastructure and even given them ongoing access to sensitive data with national security implications.

MBZ is ideologically committed to the alliance, but even if a different leadership emerged later the sunk costs of those prior actions will make scaling back the Israeli relationship dangerous or even impossible for Emiratis. The joint Israeli-Emirati project of a war against Iran conducted over the objections or caution of other regional countries is just another step forward in a relationship that had already crossed the Rubicon a long time ago.

The Abraham Accords is seen by the UAE now less as a pragmatic political arrangement than a core part of their identity, which also explains their growing hostility to other GCC countries that have turned against the idea. While the advantages for Israel of such a relationship are obvious, from the Emirati perspective going all-in on this alliance seems much more like a high-risk gamble. But it is one from which they can by now not back down, and in fact will probably feel compelled to escalate.

🔗 Murtaza Hussain

🇸🇦🇶🇦❌🇦🇪 The UAE tried to persuade Saudi Arabia and Qatar to join the US-Israeli war with Iran but the Saudis and Qataris refused

UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed held a series of calls with fellow leaders, including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, shortly after the US and Israel began bombing Iran on Feb. 28, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private conversations.

While MBZ quickly opted to work with US President Donald Trump’s administration and the Israelis, his Gulf Arab counterparts told him this wasn’t their war, according to one person familiar with Abu Dhabi’s thinking. An already fractious relationship between the UAE and Saudi Arabia worsened as a result.

During the calls, the UAE President reminded his counterparts that the Gulf Cooperation Council, a six-country body, was founded in 1981 specifically because of threats posed to them by Iran’s Islamic revolution two years previously, the person said.

Saudi Arabia’s approach was to emphasize deterrence and defense, separate from Israeli-American attacks on Iran, and viewed the UAE’s position as escalatory, according to a Gulf official with knowledge of the government’s deliberations in Riyadh.

The UAE carried out limited attacks against Iran without Gulf support starting in early March and again in April, people familiar with the matter have said.

The previously unreported details help explain the UAE’s anger with fellow Arab states, culminating in its momentous decision in late April to leave the OPEC cartel, as well as its closer relations with Israel.

Abu Dhabi shocked the oil world by announcing it would leave OPEC, the cartel led by Saudi Arabia, and is reviewing its membership of regional bodies including the GCC. Beyond the frictions caused by the Iran war, the UAE and the kingdom are economic rivals and have been at odds over conflicts in Yemen and Sudan.

🔗 https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/policy/articles/uae-tried-vain-saudis-partner-130245528.html

🇬🇧❌🛢 UK Moves to Ban New North Sea Oil and Gas Licences Permanently

The government will make it illegal to grant new oil and gas licences in the North Sea, the King said at the state opening of Parliament, in a sign ministers are refusing to buckle in the face of a barrage of criticism that the policy is depriving the UK of billions of pounds in tax receipts without helping the environment.

As part of an Energy Independence Bill announced in the King’s Speech, the government will bake into law its pre-election pledge not to explore new oil and gas fields in a bid to “take control of our energy security”.

In its 2024 manifesto, the Labour Party made a ban on all new exploration and drilling licences in the North Sea a key pillar of its promise to turn Britain into a “clean energy superpower” by 2030.

But since entering government, the party has come under growing pressure to renege on the promise, with critics arguing it strangles one of Scotland’s most vibrant industries and fails to improve the UK’s environmental footprint.

Oil and gas still accounts for three-quarters of the UK’s energy mix. And the majority of those fossil fuels are now shipped in from abroad, meaning other economies benefit from the job creation and tax receipts that are derived from the lucrative drilling and refining processes.

Calls for the ministers to rethink the ban have grown louder since the outbreak of war in Iran led the price of crude oil to nearly double in a month. Last week, Norway, which drills for oil in the same area of the North Sea as Britain, approved plans to reopen three gasfields that had been shut for decades to help sate the global demand for fossil fuels caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz shipping lane.

Two of Labour’s main political opponents – Reform UK and the Conservatives – have both vowed to overturn the ban, in a move they say would help increase the UK’s tax take and inoculate it from any acute supply shocks.

🔗 https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/UK-Moves-to-Ban-New-North-Sea-Oil-and-Gas-Licences-Permanently.html

🇨🇳☀️🌬🔋China Spent More on Clean Energy Than the Rest of the World Combined

China has been outspending the rest of the world on clean energy for years now, and new data shows that the investment is paying off in spades. Beijing’s lead in the global clean energy race is wider than ever, according to new figures from the research firm Atlas Public Policy. While gains in clean energy by the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter are good news for the entire planet, the increasing concentration of global clean energy supply chains in the hands of just one nation – and an authoritarian nation at that – raises some key geopolitical and energy security concerns for the international community.

Atlas Public Policy analyzed global clean energy investment data between the years 2019 and 2025, and found that more than half of the $1.1 trillion invested came from Chinese companies. In other words, this means that the entire rest of the planet put together spent less than China alone. Compared to China’s more-than $500 billion in investments, the United States, the world’s largest economy, received a relatively paltry $236 billion in clean energy investing, only 40% of which came from U.S. companies, “showing the US dependence on foreign direct investment for its manufacturing sector,” according to the report, published just this month.

While these figures alone are staggering and tell us a lot about the scale and seriousness of China’s ambition to become the world’s first electro-state, the details of the investments reveal even more about Beijing’s energy strategy. A significant portion of China’s clean tech investments – about $136 billion – funded clean tech factories in other countries, “an indication of its strategy to enter new markets and dodge trade barriers” according to a report from nonpartisan news outlet Semafor.

China has been working toward consolidating global clean energy supply chains and increasing its energy dominance in emerging economies for years now. Beijing’s positioning in the market affords Chinese companies the ability to produce many clean energy technologies, such as lithium-ion batteries and solar panels, at a fraction of the price compared to competitors. As such, Chinese clean tech has become ubiquitous in global markets and particularly indispensable in more cash-strapped nations struggling to transition their energy systems.

And that was all happening way before the United States and Israel started the war in Iran, setting off a global energy crisis that is playing right into China’s hands. Beijing has set itself up better than any other nation on Earth to withstand just such an energy supply crisis. And not only will the Chinese economy be buffered from the fallout, it will come out the other side even stronger as skyrocketing gas prices and energy supply anxieties catalyze the growth of renewables on a global scale.

“For years, clean energy has been sold as a moral imperative. Now it is simply an economic and geopolitical necessity,” an April Forbes report declared. “It’s not about emissions. It’s about resilience and price stability.”

That translates to a major windfall for Chinese clean energy firms. China controls dominant shares of the world’s solar, wind, battery, and EV supply chains, among others, meaning that a surge in clean energy adoption is a surge in Chinese exports. This will lead to an even wider gap between China and the rest of the world when it comes to clean energy manufacturing, with potentially disastrous ramifications for geopolitics and energy security on a global scale.

🔗 https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/energy/articles/china-spent-more-clean-energy-220000038.html

🇩🇪 Mercedes-Benz CEO tells WSJ carmaker willing to enter defense production

"The world has become a more ​unpredictable place, and I think it is ​absolutely clear that Europe needs to increase its ⁠defense profile," Kallenius told the publication. "Should we ​be able to play a positive role in ​that, we would be willing to do so."

Kallenius told WSJ that defense-related operations would be "a minor share" of its business ​compared with auto production, but added that ​it could be "a growing niche" that could contribute to business ‌results. "So, ⁠we'll see."

Mercedes-Benz did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment outside business hours.

German automakers have been exploring the defense industry as a potential growth ​avenue as ​Europe ramps ⁠up military spending.

In March, the Financial Times reported that Volkswagen was in talks ​with Israel's Rafael to convert its Osnabrück ​plant ⁠from car production to missile-defense manufacturing, though the German automaker denied plans to make weapons.

Earlier this week, ⁠German ​defense group Rheinmetall announced a partnership ​with Deutsche Telekom to develop a defense shield against drones.

🔗 https://www.reuters.com/business/mercedes-benz-ceo-tells-wsj-carmaker-willing-enter-defense-production-2026-05-15/