Submitted By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com
The on-and-off U.S. sanctions on Russian oil and the flipping U.S. position regarding India’s oil purchases from Russia highlight the double standards of the Western nations, Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said on Friday.
India turned en masse to Russian oil in 2022, when the U.S. and the EU imposed sanctions on Moscow due to the invasion of Ukraine. Four years later, India is a major buyer of Russia’s crude and Russia is India’s single-largest oil supplier.
“At that time, the US specifically asked India to buy Russian oil to stabilize the oil market,” Jaishankar was quoted as saying at an event in Finland, referring to the situation on the market in 2022.
India buys oil based on price and availability, the foreign minister said in response to reporters’ remarks that India is “too sympathetic to Russia” and “too willing to buy oil from Russia”.
“Circumstances pushed us in a certain direction,” NDTV World quoted Jaishankar as saying.
The U.S. lifted sanctions on Russian oil this year after the Iran war pushed oil prices well above $100 per barrel in April, after having slapped tariffs on India for buying Russian crude.
“Let’s not pretend there’s some great principle involved here. I don’t think making this about sanctimony is really warranted,” the Indian minister said.
In the current supply crisis, Indian refiners have secured crude supply at least through August as they boost purchases from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Africa, and Brazil.
As supply from the Middle East crashes, India is buying growing volumes of crude from West African producers Nigeria and Angola, as well as from South American producers Brazil and Venezuela.
India is now also the key importer of currently de-sanctioned Russian crude on water. Russia has remained India’s top crude supplier in the past two months, thanks to the waivers from the U.S., the same country that was insisting early this year that India slash purchases of Russian oil.
Tyler Durden Fri, 06/12/2026 - 15:00As the U.S. men's national soccer team kicks off its first match against Paraguay in Southern California on Friday night, large swaths of the country are trapped in what feels like a wet sauna, with dangerous heat and humidity forcing households to crank up their air conditioning and straining power grids from the Southeast to the Northeast.
On Thursday, the Department of Energy issued an emergency order to mitigate blackout risks across the Carolinas amid extreme heat that threatens to sharply increase power demand.
The order, issued under Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act, allows Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress to run certain generating units at maximum output.
Secretary of Energy Chris Wright stated, "Maintaining affordable, reliable, and secure power in the Duke Energy service territory is non-negotiable."
"The previous administration's energy subtraction policies weakened the grid, leaving Americans more vulnerable during events like this. Thanks to President Trump's leadership, we are reversing those failures and using every available tool ensuring Americans in the Carolinas' have continued access to affordable, reliable, and secure energy to power and cool their homes," Wright said.
⚠️🔥 One day left of the oppressively hot and humid conditions. A few severe storms will be possible again this afternoon and evening, but not everyone will get a storm. It will turn much less humid for Saturday, but high temperatures will remain in the upper 80s to near 90°. pic.twitter.com/pi6sJDUwKp
— NWS Mount Holly (@NWS_MountHolly) June 12, 2026Maximum temperatures across the Mid-Atlantic, especially around Washington, D.C., have ranged from the 80s to the 90s, reaching as high as 95°F on Thursday. Some relief is expected this weekend, but temperatures are forecast to rebound next week as heat builds back into the region.
"It's super humid in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, but relief is coming by Saturday," Meteorologist Ben Noll wrote on X.
It's super humid in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, but relief is coming by Saturday!
After a brief spike in humidity on Sunday, much more comfortable conditions will arrive early next week. pic.twitter.com/ZN4ilGdMuv
Bloomberg noted that grid stress materialized late Thursday, with PJM real-time power prices rising above $1,300 per megawatt-hour as sweltering heat lingered across the Mid-Atlantic. New York's grid operator prepared to activate emergency demand response, while New England's grid operator declared abnormal conditions as heat indices approached 100°F.
US SPOT POWER PRICES REACH RECORD HIGH OVER $1,000 PER MWH AT PJM WEST HUB IN PENNSYLVANIA AND MARYLAND
we are about to have a very shrill discussion about data center power use
We have seen four-digit territory before. As we covered in April when PJM prices shattered $1,000/MWh after first running during the January freeze to $2,300+, the same structural weakness keeps reappearing. Demand surges, variable resources drop off, and the system leans on whatever thermal capacity can still run.
It is the direct consequence of a generation mix that has shed firm, dispatchable megawatts faster than it has replaced them with anything that actually shows up when the forecast is wrong and the temperature is not.
The blackout in Spain is a phenomenal example of when this is taken to the extreme. And based on some recent warnings from ERCOT, Texas could be the next example.
When push comes to shove on the electric grid, it's not the renewables that are there to help…
Sleep tight America. We got this. Thousands of coal miners, truck drivers, railroaders, river boat workers and power plant employees will make sure that you stay warm and safe on a cold winter night. Fuel Satisfaction. Affordable Power. Grid Reliability. All from American Coal. pic.twitter.com/io0dzRD6vu
— WV Coal Association (@WV_coal1) January 27, 2026Renewables and batteries help at the margin on good days. They do not solve the evening ramp or multi-day heat dome when every household and every server farm is pulling maximum power. The emergency waiver for Duke is the quiet admission that the current fleet cannot carry the load without violating the operating permits it was given.
Nuclear is the obvious technology that could have filled this gap with carbon-free, always-available capacity. A fleet of new reactors sited years ago would be delivering gigawatts of firm power right now without anyone needing to waive emissions rules or beg demand response programs to shed load.
Instead, the United States has spent the better part of four decades adding almost no new nuclear capacity at commercial scale. As we have documented repeatedly, including in our coverage of the NRC’s new fast-track permitting framework promising 6–12 month construction permit timelines, the regulatory environment has improved dramatically under the current administration. Yet the shovels in the dirt remain conspicuously absent for most projects.
Meanwhile...
NHC expanding cone ( though still minor) to the concern I have been showing for a couple of days now pic.twitter.com/rYhTRvtpvI
— The American Storm (@BigJoeBastardi) June 12, 2026On watch for tropical activity in the Gulf of America.
Tyler Durden Fri, 06/12/2026 - 14:40Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,
Outgoing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has retracted intelligence community reports on mysterious health problems known as Havana Syndrome, according to a memorandum released on June 11.
Gabbard found that the intelligence community assessments of the anomalous health incidents, released in 2023 and 2025, failed to meet the community’s analytic standards.
That included selectively excluding intelligence and evidence that did not support the conclusions and relying on an “ethically flawed medical study without noting methodological critiques,” Gabbard’s office said in the memo, sent to members of Congress.
The 2023 assessment concluded it was very unlikely that a foreign adversary was behind the incidents, which have impacted staffers in countries such as Cuba and China.
The updated assessment released in 2025 said most intelligence agencies still held it was very unlikely an enemy was responsible for the syndrome, but two components judged there was a “roughly even chance” that a foreign actor had used a novel weapon to target Americans, or had developed such a weapon.
Gabbard’s team said future assessments on the matter would adhere to “rigorous ethical standards incorporating all available intelligence sources and engaging a broad range of experts from agencies including the CIA.”
Rep. Rick Crawford (R-Ark.), the former chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence CIA Subcommittee, who has criticized the government reports, praised the new development.
“The assessment was deliberately manufactured and used to discredit some of our nation’s bravest and impede their access to medical care. As was the case with other high-visibility intelligence assessments, it fell far short of analytic integrity standards,” Crawford wrote in a post on X.
He added that the retractions were “a glimmer of hope for our nation’s intelligence officers, service members, and diplomats stationed around the world who have defended this country in austere locations and subsequently had the nation they served turn its back on them.”
The subcommittee said in a 2024 report that it was increasingly likely that a foreign adversary was behind some number of the reported health problems, and that the 2023 assessment was developed “in a manner inconsistent with analytic integrity and thoroughness.”
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine said in 2020 that the most likely mechanism behind the incidents was directed, pulsed radio-frequency energy, citing symptoms people have described, such as perceptual dizziness.
Government employees reporting the problems have had difficulty obtaining treatment, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said in July 2024, recommending that the military develop written guidance and create a plan to rectify those difficulties.
Gabbard said last month that she is resigning from her position as the director of national security, citing her husband’s recent cancer diagnosis.
President Donald Trump said on June 11 that he is nominating Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and a former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, as director of national intelligence.
The job oversees the coordination of 18 intelligence agencies.
Tyler Durden Fri, 06/12/2026 - 14:20Graham Platner may have easily won Maine's Democratic Senate primary Tuesday, but his own party is already trying to figure out how to get rid of him. Democrats openly admit they cannot afford to lose this race if they want to retake the Senate, and Platner is already complicating their plans. Yet, the chaos involving Platner may have only just begun. Maine's Democratic establishment is clearly uneasy, and national Democrats are not hiding it.
AP Photo/Robert F. BukatyAccording to a report from NBC News, behind the scenes, party operatives are reportedly circulating negative polling on Platner, exploring whether funding threats might pressure him to withdraw, and testing public opinion with a text poll sent on primary day that asked voters about the allegations of his abusive and demeaning treatment of women.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is fully in Platner's corner, and he made his reasoning transparent. "There is no great secret that there is a strong division within the Democratic Party," Sanders said, criticizing the party establishment and praising Platner for challenging it. On the abuse allegations specifically, Sanders is choosing to take Platner's denials at face value.
"He denies it, she says something else, but what I do know is that there are people in the United States Senate right now who are not saints." He then pivoted to senators who voted for the Iraq War and tax cuts. Sanders is essentially arguing that Platner's personal failings are less disqualifying than the establishment's policy sins. Even Tina Smith (D-Minn.), who replaced Al Franken after his resignation over groping allegations, endorsed Platner without hesitation.
But the anxiety over Platner with the Democratic Party is very real. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) outright said she is "not comfortable" with Platner as the nominee. "I will not defend someone with that kind of history." Former Rep. Tom Malinowski argued that the steady stream of revelations says more than any single allegation. "If a man's past keeps surprising us, it's a safe bet that his present and future will continue to surprise us as well," he said, calling Platner a "moral dilemma" and warning Democrats against repeating what he described as the mistake of embracing candidates more defined by their anti-establishment appeal than their fitness for office.
"The easiest, most logical and most likely path to picking up seats is with Maine in our column," a senior Democratic strategist said. "It's a struggle to see how we get the majority without Maine." Platner's internal polling already shows his lead over five-term incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) shrinking to four points - this in a state that went for Kamala Harris by seven in 2024. He is underperforming the baseline in the most favorable environment Democrats have had in years.
But the Platner campaign is showing no signs of leaving voluntarily.
"The Democrats of Maine have made clear who their choice is," Platner adviser Rebecca Katz said. "And the rest of the party should honor that choice." That may be true. It may also be exactly what the Republican Party is counting on.
Under Maine law, Platner would need to voluntarily withdraw by July 13 for Democrats to replace him on the ballot. According to NBC News, a Republican strategist involved in Senate races said the GOP is deliberately withholding additional opposition research until the candidate-replacement deadline passes, so Democrats are unable to replace him the same way Joe Biden was pushed out of the 2024 presidential race after it became politically impossible to keep him on the ticket.
Once that deadline passes and Republicans unleash whatever opposition research they have been sitting on, the Democrats will have no options left, just a nominee they cannot fully defend in a race they cannot afford to lose.
Tyler Durden Fri, 06/12/2026 - 14:00