CMR is the leading provider of funding and management support for small to medium-sized businesses and entrepreneurs 

Authored by James Gorrie via The Epoch Times,

Since the end of the Bretton Woods system in 1971, the U.S. dollar has dominated global finance as the chief reserve currency. It’s used in international trade, sovereign lending, and central bank reserves.

This dominance allows the United States to borrow cheaply and wield great financial leverage globally.

Recent actions by the Trump administration, sometimes labeled a neo-Monroe Doctrine for its assertive posture toward perceived rivals, can be understood through the lens of preserving dollar supremacy against challenges from rising powers like China and Russia.

The Rise of De-dollarization

Though the dollar remains dominant, its grip has been weakening over decades. According to IMF and central bank data, the dollar’s share of global foreign-exchange reserves has fallen from over 70 percent in 2000 to under 60 percent in recent years; this reflects broader moves by countries to diversify away from U.S. currency dependence. At the same time, China’s share has increased substantially.

Meanwhile, states are increasingly engaging in de-dollarization, which means reducing the use of the dollar in international trade and reserves. This trend is driven in part by a desire to decrease exposure to U.S. monetary policy and sanctions, including increased tariffs and unilateral economic measures against trading partners and adversaries.

BRICS: Geopolitics, Gold, and a Potential Currency Challenge

The group of emerging economies known as BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) has been the focal point of rivalry to dollar hegemony. At various summits, the idea of a BRICS currency or common alternative currency, which have included the notion of backing it with gold as a means of anchoring value and appealing to nations wary of fiat currencies that, by definition, have no gold backing their value, but rather, convention, oil trade flows, and the global economic and military dominance of the United States.

While Kremlin officials have denied any imminent creation of a unified currency to dethrone the dollar, proposals for trade in non-dollar currencies and discussion of alternative settlement systems persist. The historical context of the gold standard and its connection to confidence in currencies is a big part of these discussions.

Trump’s Neo-Monroe Doctrine: Tariffs as Dollar Defense

Since returning to office, President Donald Trump has made defense of the dollar a central part his foreign-economic policy. He has threatened 100 percent tariffs on BRICS nations or any country that backs a currency to replace the dollar in international trade. Clearly, the administration views dollar dominance as non-negotiable.

By linking trade access to acceptance of the dollar’s role, the administration is attempting to reinforce global reliance on U.S. currency for trade settlement and reserves. This strategy also links his broader tariffs and industrial policy agendas to maintaining dollar dominance in the world.

Dollar Supremacy, Oil, and US Strategic Power

The dollar’s special status has been reinforced historically by its role in oil markets known as the so-called petrodollar system. Because oil has been priced and traded primarily in dollars, global demand for U.S. currency has been supported by energy trade flows. The Trump administration’s recent strategic moves in oil-rich regions such as Venezuela have been interpreted by some analysts as efforts to bolster the petrodollar system and keep key energy resources within dollar-centric markets.

This makes sense from a currency preservation perspective. Although the United States has become a major producer and exporter of oil in its own right, efforts to maintain dollar pricing in energy markets remain crucial to preserving demand for the currency.

Trade, Savings, Innovation, and the Dollar’s Role

The dollar’s dominance provides huge benefits for the world as well as the United States. It reduces transaction costs for U.S. exporters and importers and reinforces the U.S. role in global value chains, but it also simplifies trade invoicing and settlement between other nations with less stable currencies. Its status as the primary reserve currency also underpins the liquidity and depth of U.S. capital markets, enabling inexpensive borrowing that fuels investment in technology and innovation. The dollar in the form of U.S. Treasury bonds has also been a safe haven for long term investing and savings for much of the world.

Dollar dominance also helps with American leadership in AI, computing, and finance, since dollar-denominated trade and financial infrastructure allow those to scale globally. A shift away from the dollar could fragment global capital flows and weaken the financing mechanisms that have historically supported U.S. technological leadership.

Military Power and Financial Leverage

Finally, the dollar’s status facilitates U.S. military power by making it easier to finance defense spending and sustain global force projection. If the dollar’s dominance erodes, financing a global military footprint becomes more expensive and complex, diminishing America’s strategic reach, to say the least. Analysts argue that preserving the dollar is therefore as much a defense priority as a financial one.

Without it, competing nations or groups of nations would rush in to fill the vacuum, leading to global instability.

Dollar and US Supremacy at Core of Neo-Monroe Doctrine

Viewed in this light, what some describe as Trump’s neo-Monroe Doctrine reflects not merely an ideological reassertion of hemispheric influence, but a strategic effort to defend U.S. dollar supremacy. With BRICS nations exploring alternatives, including proposals for a gold-linked settlement unit, and de-dollarization pressures growing, Washington faces mounting economic and geopolitical challenges. These factors help explain the administration’s aggressive stance on tariffs, trade, and strategic energy markets.

The survival of dollar dominance is not just about finance; it’s about maintaining a structural position that enables U.S. influence in global affairs—trade, sanctions, capital markets, and defense alike. As long as potential alternatives loom, U.S. policy will likely continue to frame the dollar as not just an economic asset, but a linchpin of national security and global leadership.

That is why the Venezuela operation is fundamentally about preserving a financial architecture that underpins U.S. economic and military power.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

Back in August, when the American population was just waking up to the dire consequences the exponentially growing army of data centers spawned across the country was having on residential electricity bills, we said that the chart of US CPI would soon become the most popular (not in a good way) chart in the financial realm.

In one year, this will be the most popular chart on this site pic.twitter.com/h93gWXMoNL

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 11, 2025

One month later we added that it was only a matter of time before Trump, realizing that soaring electricity costs would almost certainly cost Republicans the midterms, would enforce price caps.

100% wrong. Trump is about to put a cap on power price and will crush utilities. https://t.co/WjiZe8MEnM

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 29, 2025

Turns out we were right.

And while Trump obviously can not pull a communist rabbit out of his hat, and centrally plan the entire US power grid, what he can do is precisely what he is about to announce. 

According to Bloomberg, Trump and the governors of several US Northeastern states agreed to push for an emergency wholesale electricity auction that would compel technology companies to effectively fund new power plants, effectively putting a cap for residential power prices at the expense of hyperscalers and data centers. Which, come to think of it, we also proposed back in October.

The data centers and AI giants are making billions as they drain the power grid dry and get indirect consumer subsidies in the form of 100% bill increases. It's time they allocate some of trillions in circle jerk funds to lowering electricity costs for everyone else

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 15, 2025

The unprecedented plan, set to be announced Friday morning, seeks to address growing tensions over how the nation can supply electricity to power-hungry data centers, critical to help win the global AI race against China, without simultaneously hiking utility bills for homes and businesses.

The Trump administration and some US governors plan to direct grid operator PJM Interconnection LLC, the largest regional power grid in the US serving 67 million customers primarily in the Northeast, to hold an auction for tech companies to bid on 15-year contracts for new electricity generation capacity.

If the auction proceeds as envisaged, tech giants would pay for power over the duration of the contracts, whether they use the electricity or not, providing secure revenues for years in a market notorious for price volatility and generator bankruptcies.

The auction would deliver contracts supporting the construction of some $15 billion worth of new power plants, said a White House official granted anonymity to detail the approach. 

Naturally, since this plan is being introduced under duress, representatives of PJM won’t be in attendance when the plan is laid out Friday according to Bloomberg. 

“We don’t have a lot to say on this,” PJM spokesman Jeffrey Shields said by email. “We were not invited to the event they are apparently having tomorrow and we will not be there.”

The push by the administration and the governors — which will come in the form of a non-binding “statement of principles” signed by Trump’s National Energy Dominance Council and the governors of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia and other states — responds to growing concern about power demand far outpacing supply in the region managed by PJM.

PJM is already home to the world’s biggest concentration of data centers, in northern Virginia. It expects peak demand across its system to jump 17% by 2030 from this year’s high. Furthermore, as we noted two months ago, PJM is one of the 8 (out of 13) regional power markets that are already below critical spare capacity levels.

"eight out of the 13 US regional power markets are already at or below critical spare capacity levels." - Goldman https://t.co/YYAGUukfwR pic.twitter.com/eU4XPFAMrp

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) November 23, 2025

Trump has repeatedly described power plants being built alongside data centers, and on Monday, he doubled down on the idea, insisting in a social media post that the big technology companies that construct data centers must “pay their own way.”

“I never want Americans to pay higher Electricity bills because of Data Centers,” Trump wrote in his post, and now he will try to make that a reality.

As we have warned repeatedly in the past year, cost-of-living concerns - especially when it comes to staples like electricity - are already weighing heavily on Republicans’ bid to maintain control of the House and Senate in this November’s congressional elections. While Trump has stressed the plummeting cost of oil and gasoline since he took office last January, electricity prices have climbed due to rising demand, and there’s a building backlash against data centers that are fueling the surge... which - you guessed it - we warned about too.

between exploding electricity bills and lack of jobs for grads, a new luddite revolution is coming - they will be burning down data centers within a year

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 25, 2025

The average US retail price for electricity gained 7.4% in September to a record 18.07 cents per kilowatt-hour, the biggest gain since December 2023. Residential prices have jumped even higher, rising by 10.5% between January and August 2025, marking one of the largest increases in more than a decade, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association.

Friday’s action is being cast as a one-time emergency intervention into the PJM market, necessary because of the rapid rise in electricity prices in the Mid-Atlantic region. The Trump administration and governors will urge the grid operator to return to market fundamentals after the acute problem is addressed, the White House official said.

The administration’s prescription for PJM is what’s known as a reliability backstop auction — something the grid operator already envisioned in the wake of repeated failed sales. But the administration and governors’ plan would mean holding the emergency auction right away after one clear failure – with unusual terms meant to foster a wave of rapid, new construction and the only bidders being data center owners and operators.

While PJM already holds auctions procuring electricity supplies, those are 12-month periods. In the auction encouraged by Trump and the governors for 15-year contracts, start-up times for the new power plants are likely to be staggered. The White House and governors are urging PJM to hold the special one-time auction by the end of September.

“It sounds like a significant improvement and a logical extension of bring-your-own new generation,” Joe Bowring, president of PJM’ s independent watchdog Monitoring Analytics LLC, said in a telephone interview. Almost as if the Trump admin read something else we wrote...

To prevent skyrocketing electric bills, every state has to follow the Texas example: each data center must have its own "behind the meter" onsite power generation.

“We believe data centers should pay for the full cost of their power,” Dominion Energy spokesperson Aaron Ruby… https://t.co/0u1owTeAs8 pic.twitter.com/8W421s3rzV

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) November 23, 2025

“While a ‘statement of principles’ doesn’t appear to include a legal mandate for PJM to act, pressure from the Trump administration and a bipartisan coalition of PJM states is very likely to motivate a considerable response” from the grid operator, said Timothy Fox, an analyst with the research firm ClearView Energy Partners.

This plan also could fast track the development of natural gas generation and potentially nuclear plants by guaranteeing revenues – and profits – specifically to support data campuses needed to deploy artificial intelligence. The approach could benefit larger tech companies at the expense of smaller firms, as well as companies involved in advanced energy development such as Small and Modular Nuclear Reactors. 

Amazon.com Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Microsoft Corp. are less exposed to electricity price fluctuations since they can pass those costs on to customers, said Gil Luria, analyst at DA Davidson & Co. However, dozens of smaller companies, including Nebius and CoreWeave that offer artificial intelligence infrastructure to cloud-computing companies on multi-year contracts, could be more exposed to big price swings since they are on the hook to absorb higher electricity costs, he said.

“If they have to pay more for electricity, their margins will get squeezed,” Luria said.

Trump's initiative will deliver another benefit: the effort has the potential to help PJM tackle a significant roadblock: improving the accuracy of its forecasts for demand growth. With tech giants paying for the power plants they need, the approach could weed out speculative projects that have skewed demand growth projections, something we discussed earlier.

As Bloomberg notes, the involvement of Democratic governors – including Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro and Maryland’s Wes Moore – is seen by the Trump administration as helping to anchor the effort, since state policies have driven recent changes in the power mix, including the retirement of coal and gas plants. The initiative is also seen aiding hyperscalers by ensuring reliable power supply, and it could be a model for other parts of the country, the White House official said.

Governors are committing to implement and assign these costs to the data centers, ensuring the price of these new power plants doesn’t land on the average household, the White House official said.

PJM’s auctions have emerged as a political flashpoint in the national debate about affordability after prices reached record levels in 2024. Although Pennsylvania’s Shapiro struck a deal with PJM to cap prices in future auctions, costs hit new highs in two subsequent sales. In fact, had it not been for an implicit cap in the latest auction, residential prices would have been 60% higher (see "Inside The PJM Auction Report, Something Crazy: Without Price Controls, Electricity Bills Would Explode".) 

The most recent auction, in December, also fell 6.6 gigawatts short of supplies, which PJM blamed on the frenzy to build massive data centers. PJM is now being asked to extend the price cap for auctions held through this year, the White House official said.

While the statement of principles being signed Friday isn’t a binding legal document, administration officials have discussed the plan with a host of stakeholders, from PJM executives and state officials, to utilities, power-plant developers, Wall Street and the hyperscalers building these data centers, the official said.

In a move that will further inflame already rising tensions over Greenland, the first European troops have quietly begun arriving on the island following President Trump's repeated provocative declarations on the need for Washington to take control of the territory, according to Germany’s Bild.

The newspaper reports that a Danish military transport aircraft landed overnight in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, carrying Danish soldiers alongside members of the French armed forces.

Soon on the first plane's heels, another Danish Hercules aircraft touched down at Kangerlussuaq in western Greenland. Both planes reportedly flew with their transponders switched off - a detail unlikely to go unnoticed in an already tense Arctic standoff.

The initial German contingent of 13 soldiers arrived in Nuuk on Thursday morning. Additionally the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden are also set to participate in the deployment.

While all of these countries are NATO members, the operation is being coordinated directly from Copenhagen rather than through NATO channels, underscoring the political sensitivity of the move.

Here's how Bild describes it, according to machine translation:

Officially, it is NATO countries from Europe that are expanding their presence in Greenland. However, according to information obtained by BILD, the operation is being coordinated from Copenhagen – and NOT through NATO structures.

The reason: The Nordic states in NATO – including Greenland – are under the command of NATO headquarters in Norfolk, USA. The operation is intended to proceed without US involvement. In Germany, the Ministry of Defense and, in a leading role, the Federal Chancellery are involved.

The newspaper notes that the first troops were dispatched only after talks between Danish and Greenlandic officials and the United States collapsed Wednesday at the White House, despite agreements to establish a joint 'working group'.

Greenland remains an autonomous territory of Denmark, but the resource-rich island has long sat at the center of US strategic planning, and there are US Air Force and Space Forces bases and monitoring sites located there - some in very extreme climates.

Troops from Denmark and other European countries are arriving in Greenland to help boost the territory's security after a meeting between American, Danish, and Greenlandic officials ended without resolving "fundamental disagreements" over the strategically critical Arctic island. pic.twitter.com/briR9g0JYe

— DW News (@dwnews) January 15, 2026

One revealing line outside the White House Wednesday came from Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen who said it remains "clear that the president has this wish of conquering over Greenland" - but that dialogue has not been totally abandoned.

* * *

The unraveling of NATO? French President Macron vows further "land, air & sea assets" in the coming days.

Denmark calls. Europe answers.

European troops have arrived in Greenland.
Not to escalate tensions — but to defend sovereignty, deter intimidation, and send a clear political message.

?? Greenland is not for sale.
?? Denmark is not alone.
?? Europe stands together. pic.twitter.com/XFvEHYOCrF

— European Federalists (@federalists) January 15, 2026

Authored by Troy Myers via The Epoch Times,

A deputy inspector general revealed in a Jan. 14 Senate hearing that tens of thousands of Afghan refugees could not provide key identification when entering the United States through a Biden-era parole program.

Additionally, lawmakers revealed that more than 50 individuals in the United States with confirmed or suspected terrorist ties were allowed into the country under the same program. The joint hearing was held with the Senate Border Security and Immigration and Crime and Counterterrorism subcommittees, which spiraled into arguments between Republican and Democratic lawmakers over whether vetting or counterterrorism is to blame.

Under Operation Allies Welcome, a 2021 initiative under President Joe Biden to resettle Afghans in the wake of what was widely called a botched U.S. military withdrawal from the Middle Eastern country, roughly 76,000 evacuees were let into the United States. The operation was meant to help Afghan allies who helped American forces and faced a serious threat from the Taliban because of that employment.

“There was missing information from the [Operation Allies Welcome] population, including first, last names, and date of birth,” Deputy Inspector General Craig Adelman for the office of audits in Homeland Security said.

“There was about 11,000 to 12,000 that did not know their date of birth.”

Although Afghan refugees were asked to provide identification, Adelman testified that about 36,000 could not provide any form of it.

When asked if the Department of Homeland Security systematically interviewed or conducted mental health screenings of evacuees before they were allowed into the United States, Adelman simply replied “no” and “not that I’m aware of.”

The hearing was called “Biden’s Afghan Parolee Program – A Trojan Horse with Flawed Vetting and Deadly Consequences.”

Democrats said this title was misleading and demonized thousands of Afghan individuals.

Republicans said the hearing was appropriately named, and above all else, the safety of Americans should be prioritized over refugee programs. This wasn’t taken into consideration during Operation Allies Welcome, the GOP senators said.

“We have no idea of their potential terrorist connections, and in many cases, we now have no idea where they are or what they’re doing, who they’re connected with, or what they’re capable of,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said.

One report shows the total number of refugees reached a much higher amount at more than 200,000 Afghan nationals through the Biden administration’s policies, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.

“Contrary to popular narratives, most Afghans admitted during and after the evacuation had nothing to do with the U.S. government or any of its contractors,” senior researcher Nayla Rush said in her report. “They were not U.S. ‘allies,’ nor were they ‘persecuted’ individuals in need of refugee resettlement.”

Another senior researcher with the Center for Immigration Studies, Simon Hankinson, testified Wednesday that he has no doubt there are hundreds of Afghan nationals who should be deported.

In December 2025, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said at least 2,000 Afghan refugees in the United States have terrorism ties.

One of the Afghan men who entered the United States through Operation Allies Welcome is the suspect accused of the November 2025 shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, killing one and seriously injuring the other. The FBI called the attack an act of terrorism.

“How did this murderer come to be let in the United States in the first place?” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said. “How do we know that there are no other such Afghan nationals in the United States who might carry out another similar attack?”

Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday argued the Afghan refugees were in fact vetted multiple times, and the shooting of the National Guard members was due to a failure of counterterrorism, not because of a failure of vetting.

Sen. Alejandor Padilla (D-Calif.) pleaded in the hearing that “we not condemn the many for the inexcusable act of one person.”

Multiple witnesses at the hearing, including another deputy inspector general with the Defense Department and one with the State Department, testified that vetting did occur, but their offices found flaws and inadequate practices.

Republican lawmakers said Americans’ safety should still take precedent over letting thousands of Afghan refugees into the United States with insufficient vetting.

Cornyn put this question to the witnesses at the hearing, asking three of them if they disagree that an absolute non-negotiable requirement of any visa or parole program should be the safety and security of the American people. None of the witnesses spoke up.

The first day of the UBS Greater China Conference in Shanghai wrapped up earlier today. It is one of the largest investment conferences hosted by the global wealth manager and investment bank, with a particular focus on Asia.

"Robotics has climbed the agenda from previous years, but humanoids in every home remain many years off," analysts from the bank said while covering highlights from day one.

The analysts noted another developing theme:

AI will divide nations into "AI-developed" and "AI-developing" economies, with China firmly in the former. The US is pursuing a capital-intensive drive towards AGI, whereas China has a more capital efficient focus on more immediate applications; like governance gaps elsewhere, regulation is lagging the technology.

At the company level, Zhang Shipu, CEO of Noetix Robotics, told the audience that China's humanoid robotics development has superior motion control and is considered ahead of the US.

UBS analyst Jolie Ho provided more color on Shipu's comments:

China's humanoid robots are built around rotary-joint architectures, enabling highly flexible, multi-degree-of-freedom movement, Zhang Shipu, CEO of Noetix Robotics, said at the UBS Greater China Conference. He highlighted the robots' impressive progress in hardware stability, control precision, and whole-body coordination. Importantly, these advancements do not require very high costs, positioning China at a leading transitional stage relative to the US. Yuan Bingbing, Vice President of Robot Era, echoed Zhang's view in the same panel discussion, emphasizing Chinese robotics' notable strengths in motion-control technology. She also stressed the importance of software and hardware advancing together, drawing parallels to Tesla's integrated development approach.

This development is particularly concerning, given that the humanoid AI robot race appears to be Tesla's Optimus versus Chinese Unitree robots.

Separate from the humanoid robot race, Ho cited comments from another industry insider that said mass production of these robots hinges on just three things:

Yuan Bingbing, Vice President of Robot Era, said at the UBS Greater China Conference that three factors are required for humanoid robots to reach mass production. First, their performance must be close enough to that of a human; only then will customers be willing to buy them. Second, the economics must work: customers need to be able to "do the math" and justify the purchase.. Third, companies need strong engineering and mass-production capabilities, meaning the ability to supply reliably at scale. Once these three conditions are met, the industry enters the mass-production stage, Yuan said. She added that today, the largest market opportunity is in logistics, where robots are being deployed in factories to supplement human labor.

Related:

• Trump's Next National Strategy Will Center On Humanoid Robots

• 2026 Will Be Breakout Year For Autonomous Driving And Humanoid Robots; Deutsche Bank

Comments from the UBS conference suggest the U.S. may be falling behind China in the global robotics race, highlighting the importance of Tesla's robotics unit. It also serves as a reminder that the Democratic Party was rooting for Tesla's bankruptcy. 

Tim Walz last year: “Tesla $225 and DROPPING. Gives me a boost.”

Tim Walz today: “I’m DROPPING out of the governor’s race.”

Tesla is up, Walz is down.
pic.twitter.com/gJqiBYTRc2

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) January 5, 2026

At times, the Democratic posture appears anti-American and, more curiously, sympathetic to China and to adversarial foreign nations. Why is that? 

Via The Cradle

Several Muslim-majority states are in talks with Pakistan to acquire the JF-17 fighter jet, co-produced with China, as they scramble to upgrade their air forces amid shifting regional security dynamics.

According to multiple reports from Reuters, Pakistan is in talks or has reached preliminary arrangements with Libya, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, and Bangladesh over fighter jets, drones, and related defense systems, with negotiations at varying stages.

Retired Pakistan Air Force air marshal Aamir Masood told Reuters that a preliminary $4 billion agreement had been reached with the Libyan National Army for an unspecified number of JF-17s and other trainer aircraft produced by Pakistan Aeronautical Complex.

Masood also said a separate $1.5 billion package was “effectively” finalized with Sudan’s government for light-attack aircraft, surveillance systems, suicide drones, and “possibly” JF-17s, claiming it could give Khartoum an edge over the UAE-backed Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

He added that Islamabad is discussing a $4 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia. In September, the two nations signed a mutual defense pact “soon after Israeli warplanes bombed Hamas negotiators in Qatar.” 

Pakistan has also floated an “arms-for-debt” component of around $2 billion, Masood said, while warning signs of regional rivalries loom over Sudan, where backers diverge.

During a flash war with India last year, Islamabad showcased the battlefield performance of Chinese-made aircraft.

The battle involved more than 100 fighter jets, with Pakistan claiming it shot down five Indian aircraft, including three French-made Rafales. At the same time, US officials later confirmed that at least two Indian jets were lost, before a US-brokered ceasefire took hold.

The battle was described by analyst Pepe Escobar as "the largest and most high-tech air battle of the young 21st century," arguing that the clash produced no real winners and ultimately served the interests of outside powers rather than either side.

Islamabad’s defence diplomacy is driving new interest in the JF-17 fighter jet following Pakistan-India clashes.

So what is the JF-17 Thunder, what can it do, and why are so many countries showing interest? https://t.co/3XTrlJgtZX pic.twitter.com/SUMPxR8KrJ

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) January 10, 2026

According to an earlier report by Reuters, two Pakistani sources said “Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are in talks to convert about $2 billion of Saudi loans into a JF-17 fighter jet deal,” and one added, “The jets were the primary option among others under discussion.”

Efforts by the Trump administration to push more Venezuelan oil onto the global market, with the goal of lowering prices, are creating concern in West Texas, where producers say cheaper oil threatens drilling, jobs and local business activity, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal.

Oil prices have fallen since last spring, recently dipping below $60 a barrel — a level at which many operators can keep pumping but often avoid starting new wells. President Trump believes exerting greater control over Venezuela’s oil industry could drive prices down to $50 a barrel, The Wall Street Journal has reported. At the same time, tariffs have raised costs for materials such as chemicals and steel tubing, according to Midland oil executives.

In the Permian Basin, the heart of U.S. fracking, drilling activity has slowed. “We’re definitely not drilling right now,” said Taylor Sell, chief executive of Element Petroleum.

The number of active rigs in the region is down 14% over the past year, according to Enverus. Companies have delayed new wells, cut staff and reduced worker hours. Kyle Patterson, engineering manager at Buckeye, said the company laid off about 10% of its workforce. “You can’t just sit around and wait for the market to come back,” he said.

The Journal writes that local industry leaders worry that prolonged low prices will increase U.S. dependence on imports. “It has really cast a shadow over the Permian,” said Ben Shepperd, president of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association.

Some producers say they oppose relying on Venezuelan oil. “We are on a gold mine; we can produce enough oil to supply ourselves,” said Bubba Dobson, a Midland-based business representative who has seen his pay decline as drilling demand weakens.

The slowdown is affecting the wider economy. Hotel occupancy in the region fell 5.6% between November 2024 and November 2025, according to CoStar. As drilling activity declines, spending at local businesses has softened.

Veteran producer Paul Kenworthy said low prices have forced him to pause some projects, adding, “This is a boom-and-bust business.”

While some residents support the administration’s broader policies, frustration is growing among business owners. “We thought he was going to help the economy here in West Texas,” said restaurant co-owner Nemecio Torres, whose revenue dropped about 30% last year.

Others say the downturn may deepen. “It’ll be a year until we really start feeling the pain,” said Pat Dennis, who sells oilfield tools.

In Odessa, where oil paychecks once dominated local commerce, store manager Ruby Ramirez said business has slowed sharply. “It’s an oil-field town,” she said. “The oil field’s not the oil field anymore.”