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The Duran is a news-media platform that advances a realpolitik position The Duran is not right, left or center. It is a media site that focuses on a pragmatic analysis of stories in the news.
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🇮🇷💵 Did Kushner & Witkoff exploit Iran talks to pull off $9B market side hustle?

Trump’s grifter-in-law Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff have been accused of treating talks with Iran less like diplomacy and more like a trading floor.

👉 Iran has drawn a damning through-line from the timing of Axios's diplomatic scoops to $9 billion in oil-market profits – specifically placing both at the heart of the alleged operation, according to Drop Site.

During the late-June US-Iran negotiations in Lake Lucerne, Kushner and Witkoff seemed intent on monetizing insider knowledge of the talks to profit in financial markets, according to a source close to Iranian officials.

Since the US unleashed its war on Iran, market trackers and reporting flagged numerous well-timed speculative bets and oil-futures moves placed ahead of major diplomatic announcements.

🔴 March 23, 2026: More than $800 million in US and international oil futures changed hands within minutes before Trump announced postponing strikes on Iran's energy infrastructure. Oil dropped as much as 13%. At least five firms made gains of $5 million or more

🔴 April 7: Traders bet $960 million on falling oil prices shortly before Trump announced a temporary ceasefire; oil dropped ~15%

🔴 April 17: $760 million in shorts placed approximately 20 minutes before Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz

🔴 May 6: ~$920 million in crude shorts roughly 70 minutes before an Axios report on a near "14-point" memorandum-of-understanding deal; oil dropped ~12%, with an estimated ~$125 million profit on that position alone

🔴 April 21: An additional $430 million in bets on falling oil prices 15 minutes before Trump's extended ceasefire announcement

While JD Vance dismissed the report as “bogus” on X, it fits a Trump circle pattern.

Trump himself loaded up on defense stocks on the eve and during the Iran war, with hundreds of millions of dollars in suspicious trading activity flagged by brokers.

Trump’s sons have not been idle either. Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, through 1789 Capital and American Ventures, have taken stakes in robotic, AI and defense firms that do business with the Pentagon, including SpaceX and Anduril.

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As you all I know I have returned from a stiumulating visit to the United States, where I met many old friends - including and first and foremost members of our Locals Community who were kind and generous enough to travel all the way to Chattanooga and to join us for the 1776 Law Centre Convention - and where I learnt a great deal.

We can absolutely talk about all of that in our Live Stream today.

Briefly and in summary, for all its many well known problems - which we discuss extensively on our Live Streams - I found the United States from every point of view - economic and political - in much better shape than Europe. By way of example, there is still debate and dissent about the current political course in the United States at every level of the political system to an extent which is unknown in Europe. In addition the Constitution and the traditions of the country still provide levels of personal protection to those with dissenting views which simply do not exist elsewhere in the ...

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Scott Ritter: "Vladimir Putin is the ultimate chess player. He has waited until the board is where it needs to be to make the attack on the king. He is now making his final attack." As a long-time chess player myself, I would say that he has done what top chess players do, which is accumulate small advantages rather than launch a risky attack on the king, until a position is reached where such an attack is no longer risky but certain to succeed.

We may also be seeing a situation in West Asia where a similar complete defeat of the US empire is approaching, ending with the the disintegration of the Zionist colonial entity that calls itself "Israel". These twin defeats will mark the end of the US empire, which is that last stage of the five hundred year old Anglo-European colonial empire. In its absence, and suffering an economic depression caused by the endless wars of imperialism, it can be hoped that the people of the United States and Europe will find non-imperialist leaders who will ...

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A quick commentary on the "Piss Summit"
I might not be able to upload much more or do lives for a while

My Fellow Duranianss.

Yes, it's happened again. I have been assaulted by a vicious Malware Bot Virus or whatever 911 Socks is and this thing is bad ! 

However I wanted to give you a "peace" of my mind concerning the "Piece" or piss, as Elensky calls it, as this thing fell to pieces before it even happened.

Coincidentally on the very SAME DAY  this crap happened Saudi Arabia DROPPED the US Petrodollar as a buying currency and NO ONE absolutely NO ONE is talking about this fact anywhere !!!

 

Hope to see you all asap.

 

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September 29, 2023
Locals Community Private Telegram Messaging

Locals will be sunsetting the private messaging feature throughout the Locals website. In order to keep our private messaging active we have created a private Telegram messaging group called 'The Duran Locals.'

This is a private channel open only to our Locals subscriber community. In the private Telegram group you can send a message to the group or a private message to Alex or Alexander via a direct Telegram message. 

You can access Telegram for web, desktop or mobile here: https://telegram.org/

The link for this Telegram group is below (can be viewed by community subscribers).

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