“The prisons are not run by the police, they're not run by the government, they're not run by prison authorities, they're run by the gangs," journalist Esteban Carrillo joined Sputnik’s Fault Lines program Friday to offer his insight on gang violence in Ecuador after the killing of the prosecutor pursuing charges against the perpetrators of a raid on a television station earlier this month.

Carrillo blamed failed neoliberal economic policy for the Ecuadoran state’s powerlessness to thwart the powerful drug cartels.

“It's all under this idea of shrinking the state,” Carillo explained.

Ecuador underwent a radical change in course in 2017, with the country’s ex foreign minister concluding former President Lenin Moreno had been blackmailed by the CIA.

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US President Joe Biden has failed to take responsibility to modernize the US nuclear arsenal, which has currently run into shambles, Senate Armed Services Committee leaders Roger Wicker and Deb Fischer wrote in the Wall Street Journal.

"We must hold the administration accountable for its failures," the senators wrote in the op-ed published on Friday. "But to make up for decades of neglect, our colleagues in Congress must also commit to restoring US industrial health and developing the workforce required to keep America’s nuclear forces armed and ready for any challenge."

Earlier in the day, Bloomberg reported that the US Sentinel Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) program to replace the Minuteman III missiles is estimated to cost nearly $131.5 billion or 37% more than the original cost.

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The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Friday its experts had once again detected mines along the perimeter of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (ZNPP).

"Mines along the perimeter of the ZNPP, in a buffer zone between the facility's internal and external fences, which were previously identified by the IAEA team and were removed in November 2023, are now back in place. This is a restricted area inaccessible to operational plant personnel," the IAEA said in a statement.

The presence of the mines does not meet the IAEA's safety standards, the statement read.

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US home sales decline to lowest in 30 years as Americans cite economic ‘suffering’

Sales for 2023 came in at 4.09 million homes for the year, the lowest level since 1995. Median home prices for 2023 rose to $389,800, a new record, demonstrating the effect of investors in the market.

On another measure of economic security, Gallup found a record high number of Americans responding that they were “suffering” in their annual Health and Well-Being survey. The polling organization found a greater percentage of Americans describing their status as “suffering” than during 2008’s Great Recession, continuing a trend from 2022.

Meanwhile China has made efforts to stabilize housing prices with President Xi Jinping remarking that “houses are built to be inhabited, not for speculation,” but the maxim is unlikely to gain support from either major US political party given the power of the banking sector in the strongly capitalist country.

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💥📹 Russian paratrooper assault groups captured the Ukrainian stronghold northwest of Artemovsk (Bakhmut).

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▪️ Ukrainian troops launched 12 cluster shells on Gorlovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic. A hotel and a kindergarten were damaged, three people were wounded.

▪️ US forces conducted new strikes on Houthi positions targeting missile launchers in Yemen.

▪️ US drone crashed near Iraqi Balad airbase, Iraqi Security Forces have recovered it, no injuries were reported.

▪️Two British Navy minesweepers collided at base in Bahrain and suffered damage to their plating.

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▪️ US lawmakers blame Biden for failing to modernize US nuclear arsenal as the US Air Force’s new Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile program is now estimated to cost at least 37% more than the previously projected $96 billion, triggering a formal Pentagon review.

▪️ Gang violence, bad economy & a CIA asset as President? Learn what’s behind Ecuador’s crisis.

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European Commissioner claims EU will produce 1 million shells by end of March... but will they?

“We will continue to enhance our production capacity, probably around 1.3 to 1.4 million… at the end of this year and continue to increase significantly next year,” European Commissioner Thierry Breton claims.

Earlier, the EU said the bloc was unlikely to fulfill its obligation to provide Ukraine with one million artillery rounds.

The European Union has delivered only 30 percent of the promised amount. In this regard, the EU's foreign policy service has stated that the association will not be able to fulfill its obligations until March 2024.

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How has the Red Sea crisis affected oil supplies?

The Red Sea standoff poses serious risks to oil flows and prices could change quickly if tensions persist, as the Suez Canal and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait are major routes for energy shipping. Goldman Sachs estimates that every day seven million barrels of oil pass through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait only.

The main alternative to the Red Sea goes around Africa via the Cape of Good Hope, adding about two weeks to the voyage and potentially increasing shipping rates by as much as $1 a barrel for crude and $4 a barrel for refined products.

▪️Currently, US crude is trading at about $73 a barrel, compared with an average price of $82.49 in 2023.

▪️Chevron continues to ship crude through the Red Sea thanks to what Chief Executive Michael Wirth called his company's 'close cooperation with the US Navy's Fifth Fleet.'

▪️Brent crude futures are traded 1.4% lower at $77.21 per barrel, as European oil prices are unstable amid fears about supply disruptions through the Red Sea and from Libya prompt refiners to rush to secure cargoes.

▪️British oil giant Shell suspended shipments through the Red Sea, about a month after British Petroleum (BP) halted transits through the region.

▪️Oil deliveries from Saudi Arabia and Iraq totaling almost 9 million barrels are now delayed as tankers switch routes to travel the longer way around Africa, rather than transiting the Red Sea.

▪️Over the past four weeks, Russian crude oil shipments have risen to about 3.43 million barrels per day, an increase of 94,000 barrels compared to previous weeks. This comes amid a pledge by the Houthis not to attack Russian and Chinese ships transiting the Red Sea.

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❗️A residential building was attacked in the Mezzah neighborhood of Damascus, the Syrian state agency SANA says the attack seems to be an act of 'Israeli aggression'

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Slovakia stripped of air defense, fighter jets after helping Ukraine – Defense Minister

Slovakia handed over its only S-300 complex to Ukraine, but did not procure a replacement. The country is looking for a new air defense system, but in general the process of providing air defense can take years, Slovak Defense Minister Robert Kalinak said in an interview with local media.

"The previous government left us without air defense systems, without military aviation, we don't even have 700 million [euros] that were promised in exchange for MiG [fighter] jets, which were also given to Ukraine by the [previous] government," he stressed.

Western countries promised Slovakia a Patriot air defense system in exchange for the S-300s, as well as 700 million euros in monetary compensation for a squadron of fighter jets. However, neither of these promises has yet been fulfilled.

In 2023, after the parliamentary elections, the new Slovak government took a different stance on the Ukrainian conflict and decided to stop military supplies to the Kiev regime, citing its inability to win. PM Robert Fico repeatedly emphasized that aid to Ukraine makes Slovakia defenseless and only prolongs hostilities.

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❗️Al-Mayadin, citing sources, confirmed the deaths of 3 people, including 2 IRGC intelligence officers, as a result of an Israeli airstrike on a house in southern Damascus, Syria.

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What is known so far about the alleged Israeli strike in Damascus, Syria?

▪️ Two members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were killed as a result of an Israeli strike on Damascus, Al-Mayadeen reported, citing its sources.

▪️ The building destroyed in the strike was used by Iranian advisers who support the government of President Bashar al-Assad, Reuters reported, citing a security source that is part of a network of groups close to the Syrian government and its main ally, Iran, adding that it was completely flattened by "precision-guided Israeli missiles". So far, there is no independent confirmation for this claim.

▪️A spokesman for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad told Reuters that no members of their group were wounded in the strike, following reports that some were at the bombed-out building.

▪️ Essam Al-Amin, head of Al-Mowasat Hospital in Damascus, told the local Syrian outlet Al-Watan Online that his hospital had received one body and three wounded, including a woman, after the attack.

▪️ There was no immediate comment from Israel.

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❗️IRGC confirms death of four military advisers

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Is Israel preparing military action against Lebanon?

Israel has stated that if a long-term agreement on the Israeli-Lebanese border is not reached in the next few weeks, the Israeli state plans to escalate its confrontation with the Lebanese Hezbollah, according to the Washington Post.

The Biden administration has previously told the newspaper that Israel may face challenges in waging a two-front war against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Nevertheless, the Israeli military has stepped up its attacks on the militia group in recent weeks, including targeting senior commanders near the border.

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Iran has successfully launched a home-made Sorayya satellite into orbit.

The Iranian Space Agency said the satellite was launched by the Qaem 100 satellite carrier developed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

This is the first time that an Iranian domestically-made satellite has been successfully placed in an orbit above 500 kilometers.

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❗️Russian forces hit a US-built М109 "Paladin" self-propelled artillery unit and the German-built IRIS-T radar station.

🇷🇺🪖 More statements from the Russian MoD briefing on the progress of special military op in Ukraine:

▪️ In the Donetsk region, Ukrainian losses amounted to 320 soldiers, a MSTA-B howitzer and a D-20 gun;

▪️In the Krasny Liman region, the Russian Army repelled four attacks by Ukrainian troops. Ukrainian losses amounted to 280 soldiers;

▪️In the South Donetsk region, Russian forces repelled two attacks by Ukrainian troops and hit enemy personnel near Konstantinovka, DPR;

▪️The Russian Army shot down 20 Ukrainian drones, as well as one HIMARS missile.

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