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By Irina Slav of OilPrice.com

Iraq’s government has signed a deal with Chinese Geo-Jade Petroleum to expand production at the Tuba oil field, build a refinery and two power plants.

Per an AFP report, the deal will also involve the construction of a petrochemicals facility and a fertilizer plant. The refinery that Geo-Jade Petroleum will build will have a capacity of 200,000 barrels daily. One of the power plants will have a capacity of 650 MW and the other, a solar power facility, will have a capacity of 400 MW.

“These projects with Geo-Jade represent a big leap in the development of Iraq’s oil wealth and supporting of the national economy,” Iraq’s oil minister, Hayan Abdel Ghani, said, adding that the deal would create thousands of jobs.

Geo-Jade Petroleum already operates in Iraq – it is in charge of the Khana field, which is slated to begin expanded production in 2026.

Chinese companies as a whole have built a solid presence in OPC’s number-two, driven by Beijing’s strategy to expand supply availability through both domestic and international investments. To date, more than a third of Iraq’s proven oil and gas reserves and as much as 66% of production are under the management of Chinese firms, Simon Watkins reported earlier this year.

The Iraqi government’s ambition to boost production significantly, to as much as 7 million bpd, Chinese companies are among the best placed to take advantage of the opportunity. Currently, Iraq produces around 4 million barrels daily—above its OPEC+ production quota, which has created tensions with OPEC’s number-one, Saudi Arabia.

Chinese companies’ entry into Iraq’s oil and gas sector is a result of an agreement inked back in 2019 and dubbed “Oil for Reconstruction and Investment”, under which Chinese companies are granted entry into Iraq’s energy infrastructure sector as investors in return for oil supplies.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is revisiting a strategy first proclaimed last year, but which appeared to be thwarted or put on hold by Ukraine's Kursk invasion. But now with Kursk liberated from the over six-month Ukrainian troop occupation, Putin is talking a 'buffer zone' along the southern border once again.

Russian troops are seeking to carve out a large security buffer zone along the Russia-Ukraine border, Putin announced Thursday during a meeting with ministers and Kremlin officials. "We have approved the creation of a necessary security buffer zone along our borders. Our armed forces are actively working to accomplish this task," the Russian leader stated.

Kremlin.ru

Putin is fresh off his in-person tour of Kursk region, which happened Tuesday, which was a first since the August cross-border invasion by Ukraine. 

Yet the southern oblasts are still threatened by near-daily artillery and drone fire. A big part of the rationale for a buffer zone is for full stability to return to Russian border towns and villages, for example especially in Belgorod:

He emphasized that, given the recent developments in the Kursk, Belgorod, and Bryansk regions, immediate efforts are required to restore and rebuild areas affected by recent events. This includes assisting local residents in returning to their native villages, provided security conditions allow. Furthermore, it is essential to rehabilitate transportation networks and other infrastructure, ensure the smooth operation of industrial and agricultural enterprises, and support entrepreneurs and their employees.

This month alone has seen hundreds of drones launched from Ukraine onto southern oblasts, with some drones targeting as far as Moscow, which has resulted in commercial flight stoppages this week (not for the first time).

The timing of Putin's buffer zone plan is very significant, as President Trump is currently being widely perceived as 'stepping back' from pursuit of a final peace settlement.

"The enemy chooses targets that have no military significance. It targets ambulances, farm machinery, women and children. We have taken a decision to create a buffer zone along the border of the Kursk, Bryansk and Belgorod regions."

You didn't expect anything else, did you now. pic.twitter.com/t4natuRrqH

The NY Times is currently reporting that Trump is ready to throw his hands up in the air and say 'not my problem' as neither side is ready to compromise:

For months, President Trump has been threatening to simply walk away from the frustrating negotiations for a cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine.

After a phone call on Monday between Mr. Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, that appears to be exactly what the American president is doing. The deeper question now is whether he is also abandoning America’s three-year-long project to support Ukraine, a nascent democracy that he has frequently blamed for being illegally invaded.

The Times concluded, "In a reversal, President Trump appears to have backed off joining a European push for new sanctions on Russia, seemingly eager to move on to doing business deals with it."

And yet, on Thursday, the Western allies are speaking loudly:

G7 FINANCE LEADERS SAYS IF A RUSSIA/UKRAINE CEASEFIRE IS NOT AGREED, THEY WILL CONTINUE TO EXPLORE ALL POSSIBLE OPTIONS, INCLUDING FURTHER RAMPING UP SANCTIONS - COMMUNIQUE

As for Putin, is he readying to expand operations in Ukraine? This buffer zone could mean new efforts of the Russian military to control chunks of Kharkov, Sumy, and Chernigov. Sumy next?

NEW | Russian President Vladimir Putin likely orchestrated a meeting with Kursk Oblast officials on May 20 to set conditions to justify the renewal of Russian plans to seize Sumy City and illegally annex Sumy Oblast. (1/9) pic.twitter.com/482IyJc2b7

It was a mere day ago that Putin expressed the following in a joking fashion:

President Vladimir Putin appeared to make light of militarily seizing Ukraine’s Sumy region during a visit to Russia’s southwestern Kursk region, even as the Kremlin claims to be pursuing a negotiated end to the war.

The moment was captured on video published by the state-run news agency TASS, in which a local official from the Glushkovsky district near the border with Ukraine told Putin: “Sumy should be ours.”

“We cannot live like we’re on some kind of peninsula. There should be more of us [Russians]. At least in Sumy,” the official, Pavel Zolotarev, added. “With you as commander-in-chief, we’ll win.”

All of this makes Kiev and Europe extremely worried that Putin will have a freer hand, given Trump could be lowering the pressure on Moscow. The White House has thus far resisted ramping up sanctions, despite Europe's best lobbying efforts.

Via Open The Books,

Disassembling and “deleting” federal agencies is proving to be a difficult task for the Trump administration, which has been working to slash bureaucratic red tape and federal spending, especially for left-wing radicalism like Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).

Unlike some of the intermediate steps President Trump has taken through Executive Order, truly closing an agency will require a 60-person majority in a Senate vote, a tall order with only 53 Republicans in the upper chamber.

But there are still some low-hanging fruits left for the administration to pick. Chiefly, it can end relationships with all professional societies promoting principles of DEI and radical gender ideology.

The federal government contracts with a myriad of these organizations across all the major agencies. Professional societies set the atmosphere and guidelines for practitioners in their fields, and they can have hundreds of thousands of members.

If those organizations become ideologically captured, the impact will be felt across society.

There is no reason for the federal government to fund such organizations. DOGE should identify these organizations and give Congress and taxpayers the information they need to make informed budget decisions.

Doing so will allow state and local governments to make better decisions as well.

As DOGE continues the work of identifying bloat, some of those activities and decisions will shift to state and local government where they rightly belong. But elected officials will still be presented with the same outside groups seeking their business. Officials at the state and local level, and taxpayers who fund those entities, have the right to know more about organizations seeking public funds.

The following are just a handful of examples of professional societies that have become ideologically captured:

SHAPE America

The Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE) America is a professional organization representing over 200,000 physical education teachers.

Federal spending since 2020: Over $2.5 million
$2.52 million from CDC, $82,245 from the DoDEA

The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA), which runs the Pentagon’s K-12 school system for the children of servicemembers worldwide, contracts with SHAPE to provide training to their teachers. SHAPE creates learning standards for instructors to teach to, such as the 2021 National Sex Education Standards, promoted on its website.

These standards are currently featured on the CDC website.

They include goals like:

• By 2nd grade, define gender identity

• By 5th grade children should be able to describe the role of puberty blockers on those who identify as transgender. Fifth graders should differentiate between sexual orientation and gender identity and explain that gender expression and gender identity exist along a spectrum

• By 8th grade define anal sex and describe “pregnancy options” including abortion.

Gender Spectrum, a nonprofit organization that promotes the concept of “neogenders,” whereby students can “identify” their “gender" as animals, objects, and mental health disorders, also consulted on these standards.

During a 2021 DoDEA presentation on implementing SHAPE standards, a DoDEA teacher articulated the extremist ideology inculcated by SHAPE, writing in presentation materials that talking about “heterosexuality as the ‘norm’” somehow “causes conflict.”

Before the Trump administration issued its executive order on gender ideology, SHAPE promoted the anti-science stance that women and men are biologically equal.

(READ THE EO: Defending women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government)

The SHAPE website included the claim that “even though young people who have gone through a male puberty are taller and stronger than most young people who have gone through a female puberty, it is important to acknowledge that not all boys are stronger, taller, faster or more athletically talented than all girls.” The website also included support for the use of harmful puberty blockers to “neutraliz[e]” that valid concern.

Science is clear: with extremely rare exceptions, males are categorically stronger and faster than females.

The neo-Marxist concept of “equity” is also a fundamental principle at SHAPE. Indeed, the Centers for Disease Control is currently contracting with SHAPE to “engage school administrators as champions to advance healthy schools through equitable and inclusive programs, policies, and practices” in support of the CDC’s “Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child” framework for addressing health in schools.

North American Association for Environmental Education

A professional organization representing about 20,000 members, typically in the education field.

Federal spending since 2020: $15.7 million
$8.8 million from EPA, $4.7 from Commerce, $1.7 from Department of Agriculture, and $505,500 from the Department of the Interior

President Trump’s Executive Order on Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity prohibited DEI practices for federal contractors. Before this order was given, the NAAEE website was replete with “Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion” (JEDI) content. Teachers were recommended resources like “Teaching About Race, Racism, and Police Violence” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, “Your Kids Aren’t Too Young to Talk About Race,” and “A Guide to Gender Identity Terms.”

While the website is seemingly getting scrubbed of DEI verbiage, some remnants remain. NAAEE announced the addition of five new board members in 2021, stating their credentials would help “push for social justice and center equity in all that we do.” Two are still on the board.

The organization houses a Coalition for Climate Education Policy’s steering committee, whose governance documents state that members agree to “always consider equity and justice in our collective work.”

The costliest NAAEE program funded by the federal government is the ee360+ initiative, which supports “a cadre of environmental education leaders to increase environmental literacy for everyone, everywhere.” These education leaders are assisted by federal and state institutions and nonprofits to disseminate NAAEE’s “Environmental Education Guidelines.”

"Decoding Whiteness” educator training provided by NAAEE

The NAAEE Guidelines push left-wing concepts of “environmental justice” and “equity,” and fuse environmental education with “civic engagement.” In other words, students are made to develop a “critical perspective” by fixating on their own and others’ race, “gender identity,” national origin, and socio-economic status. Then, they are asked to advocate for policies taking their new critical perspective into consideration.

While environmental education sounds nice, children are not learning about tadpoles and butterflies. Through NAAEE the federal government is funding left-wing advocacy and woke identity politics in classrooms nation-wide.

IMAGE: Highlights from the Environmental Education Programs Guidelines for Excellence Part 4

National Council for History Education

A 501c3 nonprofit professional society for history educators. The organization does not disclose the number of its members.

The federal checkbook USASpending indicates that federal spending since 2020 is $1.3 million, however these figures are undercounted.

NCHE’s tax documents show that from June 2023-June 2024 the organization received $2.4 million in federal tax dollars between the Department of Education, National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Library of Congress.

Between 2019 and 2021 NCHE received $1,474,657 in American History and Civics grants from the Department of Education. The grants were to develop a “Learning and Exploring American Democracy” (LEAD) project. NCHE was also awarded two other American History and Civics grants in 2023, worth over $2.5 million each, disbursed over five years. While these grants show up on the Department of Education website and on the NCHE tax documents, they are not represented on the federal checkbook, highlighting issues with reporting on USASpending.

By examining some of the NCHE activities funded by these grants, we can get an idea of how the organization is putting its taxpayer dollars to use.

LEAD is intended to provide history and civics-related resources for teachers to incorporate into their lessons. Part of this program includes at least one “Equity Summit,” which, along with select other webinars offered by the program, raise questions about the history and civics lessons the federal government is funding for American children.

The keynote speaker for the 2020 Equity Summit, Hasan Jeffries advocated for the removal of historical monuments, even of Christopher Columbus in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio:

“So here in Columbus, Ohio there have been moves and movements with some success to remove statues of Christopher Columbus for example, so we're not just talking about Confederate soldiers and monuments to them, we're talking about all of these figures, all of these memorials that commemorate—that celebrate rather—white supremacy. And so the Black Lives Matter protests are very much about the past as well.”

Jeffries goes on to say that racism is foundational to the American nation:

“In fact, racism is very much encoded in our DNA. Racism and capitalism together are really that double helix of our DNA; they are intertwined, they have been with us from the beginning. They are encoded in our society. They are encoded in our person.”

Other presentations include the radical left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Hard History program, which provides materials and advice for teachers to engage in the topic of American slavery.

During the talk, speaker Kate Shuster suggested students are complicit in slavery unless they take steps to “redress inequalities:”

“We need to make it clear to students when we teach about slavery that the question is not ‘are they guilty of the crime of enslaving people?’ The question is ‘How are they going to move forward to redress the inequalities that are left over from the abolition of slavery?’ So, complicity can exist without the act of owning slaves, but people don't like to be told that they're complicit.”

Shuster was invited back for another presentation on the same topic for a LEAD program webinar in 2021. That video is not available.

Another Equity Summit was held in 2024, this one kicking off with a “land acknowledgment.” NCHE Executive Director Jessica Ellison displayed a “You are on Dakota/Ojibwe Land” poster behind her.

The irony of an organization -- primarily funded by the U.S. government-- denying the sovereignty of the United States is evidently lost on Ellison.

Jessica Ellison, who became NCHE Executive Director in 2023, recommended the controversial book White Fragility to teachers in June 2020.

Other recent activity includes telling teachers how to fight back against “book bans” of divisive, pornographic content in school libraries

Unfathomably, in the age of DOGE, NCHE received a new grant through the Library of Congress in April 2025. Through this grant, NCHE will direct the Library’s regional granting entity in the Great Plains region, deciding which other organizations in the area can access taxpayer funding.

CONCLUSION

As of May 2, DOGE has claimed an estimated $160 billion in savings for taxpayers. We’re working to verify this total, but more must be done to broaden the impact of their critically important work. All of the organizations profiled here have ongoing grants that have not been cut by DOGE. These organizations have proven to be incredibly effective at spreading their ideas throughout society.

As DOGE finds efficiencies and cuts waste agency by agency, auditors must identify grantees trafficking in radical politics and share their findings with the public and policymakers at all levels of government. Taxpayers have the right to know where their tax dollars are going so they can hold their elected officials accountable.

Authored by Chris Morrison via The Daily Sceptic,

A gleeful, self-satisfied Mr Punch was often heard to remark: “That’s the way to do it.” Today we examine how Mark Poynting, one of the BBC’s top doom-mongering Net Zero activists, uses the trusted ‘scientists say’ message to turn a centennial sea level rise of around 30 cm into prose stating: “The world could see hugely damaging sea-level rises of several metres or more over the coming centuries”. Added fear is inserted into the mix with the warning that the disappearing act will occur, “even if the ambitious target of limiting global warming to 1.5°C is met, scientists have warned”.

Poynting and the BBC are essentially telling a worldwide audience that coastal land and beyond across the world could be overwhelmed with several metres of sea rise if the global temperature is three-tenths of a degree centigrade higher. This message properly belongs on a doomsday sandwich board walker, not least because the rise in temperature is almost within the margin of error of constantly-adjusted and unnaturally-heated global temperature datasets.

Extrapolating computer modelled data rigged with improbable ‘pathways’ that even the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change more or less dismiss as ‘low confidence’ – that’s the way to do it.

The BBC story is based on the recent compilation and interpretation of material from a group led by Geography Professor Chris Stokes. This provides just the sort of findings that are catnip to the BBC. At one point the authors seem to think that humans can control the amount of ice on both Greenland and Antarctica, arguing that the global mean temperature should be reduced with further work “urgently required to more precisely determine a ‘safe limit’ for ice sheets“. Given the catastrophic consequences of a rapid collapse of one or more ice sheets, the authors state, “we conclude that adopting the precautionary principle is imperative and that a global mean temperature cooler than present is required to keep ice sheets broadly in equilibrium”.

That’s the way to do it. Poynting could have informed his gaslit readers that overall ice loss in Antarctica is minimal with suggestions of an annual 100 gigatonnes reduction equivalent to 0.00041% of the total mass – well within the margin of error. At current rates of melting on a continent that has seen no overall warming for at least 70 years, it would take around 300,000 years for all the ice to disappear. And this assumes no intervening glaciations, a new ice age, or just more accurate measurements. Instead he reports the comments of the Stokes crew that the “major concern is that melting could accelerate further beyond ‘tipping points’ due to warming caused by humans”. That’s the way to do it – talk about ‘tipping points’ that never occur and then cover yourself by adding “though it’s not clear exactly how these mechanisms work and where the thresholds sit”.

Instead of “not exactly clear”, try, “haven’t got a clue”. But it is “precautionary” to remove hydrocarbons from modern use and drive humanity back to the dark ages – just in case the model inventions do occur.

It is of course easy to see how the metres-high scare is concocted. Under a low emission ‘pathway’ used by computer models, the rise by 2100 in sea levels due to ice melting ranges from 4 cm to 37 cm. Such is the range, another imputation of cluelessness might be justified. But a mere 37 cm doesn’t look very enticing on the sandwich board even though it is higher than the current trajected growth, so the highest pathway was consulted to give 12-52 cm. Alas, this is still pretty dismal when mass climate psychosis is the order of the day, so the suggestion from the IPCC was noted that it could not rule out that the pathway with ‘low confidence’ could point to a total sea level rise  of over 15 metres by 2300. That’s the way to do it. Treble metres, and more, all round.

It might be noted at this point that the improbable pathway known as SSP5-8.5 is in common use in climate science circles and is behind most if not all the computer modelled alarms that gaslight the readers of almost all mainstream media. The science writer Roger Pielke Jr has long been a critic of the 8.5 pathway that provides the important propaganda messaging backing the collectivist Net Zero fantasy. He states that the continuing misuse of these scenarios has become pervasive and consequential, “so that we can view it as one of the most significant failures of scientific integrity in the 21st century so far”. His short explanation as to why it has been so popular for so long: “Groupthink fuelled by a misinformation campaign by activist scientists.”

Activist journalists as well. Poynting is rapidly emerging as the BBC climate activist to watch in a strong field including Justin Rowlatt and Matt McGrath. Who can forget his recent sterling ‘scientists say’ effort that the Gulf Stream “appears to be getting weaker” under the headline, ‘Could the UK actually get colder with global warming?’ This effort drew much critical appreciation, not least because it headed off the awkward findings published the month before in a Nature paper that observed the Gulf Stream had not declined in strength since the 1960s.

Chris Morrison is the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor.

In another clear indicator of just how drastically everything has changed in Syria in the wake of Bashar al-Assad's ouster in December last year, a militant group attempted to storm Russia's Hmeimim air base on Syria’s coast on Wednesday. Already the future of the base is uncertain, but Russia has still been maintaining it - given also Hmeimim is Moscow's only airbase on the Mediterranean.

"Militants attacked a Russian air base in Syria, killing two soldiers, a Syrian government official and a local activist said Wednesday," according to The Associated Press. Russian statements, which offered little detail, did not indicate if the slain were Russian soldiers or possibly foreign nationals who were contractors.

At least two militants were killed during their assault on the airbase. They are being widely reported as foreign Islamist fighters affiliated with the new Syrian government's military under President Sharaa (Jolani).

Russian Hmeimim Air Base in Jabla in Latakia, Syria. Anadolu Agency

The Jolani/HTS government has tried to distance itself from the attack, as it is still seeking diplomatic normalization with Russia and a reset in relations:

The government official said the two militants who were killed were foreign nationals who had worked as military trainers at a naval college that was training members of the new government’s military. He said they had acted on their own in attacking the base and were not officially affiliated with any faction.

Damascus has on Thursday deployed additional forces in an effort to stabilize the security situation in villages near the airbase.

"The city of Jableh and the villages surrounding the Russian Hmeimim air base in the Jableh countryside are witnessing a security alert. Heavy deployment of public security forces has been observed in the villages of Al-Sharashir and Al-Qubaisa, both close to the base," the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) says.

SOHR had further described "clashes in which medium and heavy machine guns were used, coinciding with the sounding of alarm sirens inside the base" - when the incident unfolded.

One regional outlet has said Russian soldiers were killed, and that it was Uzbek terrorists behind the assault:

According to a report by the Erem outlet, the 20 May attack resulted in the killing of three Russian soldiers and the injury of at least six others. The report says the attack was carried out by an Uzbek-led faction, which afterwards began to mobilize in the village of Al-Sharashir, just two kilometers from the base.

Erem also said the Uzbek armed group, responsible for past atrocities including the killing of children, have displaced and intimidated scores of residents and have seized homes in in the nearby town.

#BREAKING | Islamist militants reportedly affiliated with ruling HTS attacked Russia’s Khmeimim Air Base in Syria around 4–5 AM. Russian forces returned fire, reportedly killing four militants. https://t.co/UQGcfjWqt0 pic.twitter.com/JorasQW3My

This coastal area near Latakia has for months seen attacks and massacres conducted by Islamic militant factions against the minority Alawite community of Syria. Christians and Druze have also been targeted.

Thousands of Alawites have been reported killed, and while the Jolani government has formally condemned the killings, eyewitnesses have consistently said the attacks had the involvement of HTS (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham) fighters, which remains the ruling faction in Damascus.

During the height of the sectarian killings, Alawite families sought refuge at Hmeimim air base in large numbers. Many thousands have been camped out on the base tarmac, with at times Russian troops seen handing out food and water and necessities of survival.

Back in March, Alawites expressed their distrust of HTS provided "security"...

HTS AlQaeda reps try to convince Syrian Alawi refugees to leave the Russian Hmeimim air base and go home. "Trust us now, mistakes happen, things got out of control". pic.twitter.com/JIpzSHpAB0

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier this week expressed particular concern about the chaotic situation in Syria, where he said extremist militant groups are carrying out "real ethnic cleansing and mass killings based on ethnic and sectarian identity". He blasted what he called the West’s "stunning" indifference to mass killings acts of terrorism.

The strong comments followed in the wake of President Trump meeting with Syria's Sharaa while in Saudi Arabia earlier this month. This stunned even some Washington officials, given that Sharaa/Jolani has long been a US-designated terrorist. Trump has said he wants to give Syria a fresh start, and also announced the US will drop sanctions.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio this week told a Senate hearing that Syria could collapse within just weeks; however, he didn't acknowledge in the testimony that it was the CIA's Operation Timber Sycamore which served to weaken and destabilize the country in the first place.