Weather Watchers,
Paul Craig Roberts notes that, Washington Chose Wars for Israel instead of Health Care for the American People
According to research at Brown University’s Watson School of International and Public Affairs, Washington’s 21st century wars in behalf of the Zionist agenda of Greater Israel have cost American taxpayers about 10 trillion dollars. Twenty-five percent of the US national debt, the interest cost of which is approaching one trillion dollars annually, is the price imposed on Americans by Washington fighting Israel’s wars for Israel. The ten trillion dollar cost consists of:“The cost of the post-9/11 wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, and elsewhere totals about $8 trillion. This does not include future interest costs on borrowing for the wars.” [Or the mounting cost of the war on Iran.]
“The costs of caring for post-9/11 war vets will reach between $2.2 and $2.5 trillion by 2050 – most of which has not yet been paid.”
The American people had no stake in these wars. The Zionist neoconservatives and presstitute media disguised these wars as a “war on terror.” https://paulcraigroberts.org/
Neither side is compelled to change "maximalist" position, as each undergoes attrittion, as does most of the world: Moon of Alabama, War On Iran: A Stalemate With No End In Sight
The U.S. has, as Trump had previously acknowledged, already received Iran’s 10-point proposal.What Trump is acknowledging without saying it is that it is unlikely that there will be any negotiated settlement of the war. The U.S. is structurally incapable of lifting sanctions on Iran or signing a peace treaty.
Iran is unwilling to give up its (enrichment) rights for bare promises Trump or his successors are unlikely to hold.
The conflict will thus continue.
Iran’s military capabilities are sufficient to wage a long war. The intense U.S. and Israeli bombing campaign was unable to disarm the country...
..Main stream opinion writers who, with Trump’s applause, are calling for murdering the allegedly resistive party in Iran are only exposing their ignorance.The conflict will thus continue.
Iran’s military capabilities are sufficient to wage a long war. The intense U.S. and Israeli bombing campaign was unable to disarm the country...
With his latest TACO Trump has pushed the problem out into the future. I expect him to try to ignore the situation he has created until more significant damage in the U.S. economy becomes visible. https://www.moonofalabama.
I'm glad Iran is getting rain again. This article discusses weather-mod mechanisms, now interrupted: Did the war disrupt weather modification on Iran? - Speculations about post-war rainfall
First, cloud seeding over UAE could indeed have deprived Iran of rainfall in proportion to the extra rainfall received by UAE.
Second, if ground-based ionization can be used to encourage condensation, a similar process could be used to discourage condensation and prevent the formation of clouds.
One Iranian poster (@AcEpic69, April 15/26) speculated that THAAD radar arrays could be used to disrupt the formation of clouds over Iran. Another poster (@raminrnp, April 22/26) believes that weaponized weather modification against Iran will continue from other bases (Qatar, Bahrain), drones, HAARP emitters in the northern hemisphere, and more.
In this fourth section we have left the scientific literature and headed on to twitter. The evidentiary standard is lowered. Correlation is not causation. But the radars are destroyed, the UAE’s cloud seeding program is disrupted, and it’s raining in Iran again. https://justinpodur.substack.
He is in a mobile-ICU with burns, they say. He "agrees with the IRGC". Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei Surrounded By 24/7 Medical Team In Hideout As Generals Run Iran: NYT https://www.zerohedge.com/
IRGC seizes a ship it says 'collaborated with US' in provocative move ahead of Pakistan talks; Iran FM preparing written proposal for US side.
President Trump is sending two envoys - Steve Witkoff and Jared Jushner - for talks with Iran in Pakistan, CNN reported, while Tehran sounded a more pessimistic tone on the prospects of further negotiations
US hits Iran 'shadow fleet' with new sanctions, also takes aim at Chinese 'teapot' oil refinery.
Third US aircraft carrier, the George HW Bush, has finally arrived in Mideast regional waters after taking the long way around Africa.
Hegseth in presser renews call, highlighting main issue, for Iran: "All they have to do is abandon a nuclear weapon in meaningful and verifiable ways..."; Warns Iranians over continued mine-laying. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/flurry-reports-signal-breakthrough-us-iran-getting-back-table-pakistan-third-us
President Trump is sending two envoys - Steve Witkoff and Jared Jushner - for talks with Iran in Pakistan, CNN reported, while Tehran sounded a more pessimistic tone on the prospects of further negotiations
US hits Iran 'shadow fleet' with new sanctions, also takes aim at Chinese 'teapot' oil refinery.
Third US aircraft carrier, the George HW Bush, has finally arrived in Mideast regional waters after taking the long way around Africa.
Hegseth in presser renews call, highlighting main issue, for Iran: "All they have to do is abandon a nuclear weapon in meaningful and verifiable ways..."; Warns Iranians over continued mine-laying. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/flurry-reports-signal-breakthrough-us-iran-getting-back-table-pakistan-third-us
The rumor is that the secretary did not want to undertake major risks for vague and improbable objectives: Simplicius, US Secretary of Navy Resigns (Or Is Fired) Just as Third Carrier Group Arrives In Iran Theater
In fact, it appears the US Navy is growing quite concerned, given the latest testimony from the head of IndoPacom Admiral Samuel Paparo this week.
Amongst his statements:
Adm. Paparo said: “I don’t have enough amphibious ships. We don’t have enough surface destroyers. We certainly don’t have enough attack submarines, and our trajectory is on the wrong side.”
WSJ now reports that the Iran war has snuffed out hopes of US standing any chance in helping Taiwan during a hypothetical Chinese intervention.
The U.S. has burned through so many munitions in Iran that some administration officials increasingly assess that America couldn’t fully execute contingency plans to defend Taiwan from a Chinese invasion if it occurred in the near term, U.S. officials said.
It says it could take up to six years for the US to replenish the spent munitions, and that’s if US doesn’t squander another major portion of them, which it may very well do...
..At the same time, estimates regarding Iran’s remaining military capabilities continue gradually sliding upward, as predicted. Trump had claimed Iran’s airforce was “completely destroyed”, but CBS now reports that “two-thirds of Iran’s air force is still believed to be operational”...It says it could take up to six years for the US to replenish the spent munitions, and that’s if US doesn’t squander another major portion of them, which it may very well do...
..They assess 60% of Iran’s navy as still up and running, which was demonstrated in full earlier when Sentinel released images of a massive armada of Iranian speedboats crossing Hormuz...
..Some believe rather than simply “enforcing the closure”, the boats were dropping mines as Axios claims to have “confirmed”. Either way, it was an impressive show of force from a navy said to be completely “obliterated”.....The carrier USS Bush is nearing the theater and is days away from joining the USS Lincoln, which along with the Marine-laden USS Tripoli is pecking at Iran’s crumbs somewhere at the distant edges of the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman.
Many believe that once Bush arrives, Trump will be primed to unleash another round of futile strikes. It’s obvious that Trump is still desperate for an off-ramp and the only way he’d launch another major attack is to get out of dodge with a cheap bit of “victory” theater: “See, now we’ve OBLITERATED all their power plants and have decisively won the war, now we’re going home!”
..There continue to be estimates that Iran has under two weeks left until the storage capacity on Kharg Island runs out, and no one is quite sure what Iran will do...
..One thing Iran has done so far is brought in additional VLCCs (Very Large Crude Carriers) out of retirement to store excess capacity on the water nearby, but even that will run into a limit wall at some point...Many believe that once Bush arrives, Trump will be primed to unleash another round of futile strikes. It’s obvious that Trump is still desperate for an off-ramp and the only way he’d launch another major attack is to get out of dodge with a cheap bit of “victory” theater: “See, now we’ve OBLITERATED all their power plants and have decisively won the war, now we’re going home!”
..There continue to be estimates that Iran has under two weeks left until the storage capacity on Kharg Island runs out, and no one is quite sure what Iran will do...
..The Economist analyzed leading indicators to conclude the situation is already dire, and if the Strait doesn’t soon reopen it can get catastrophic.
Futures markets have a different view of things. Yet even if Hormuz reopened today, it would take months for Gulf crude output, shipping and refinery production to resume in full. Saad Rahim of Trafigura, a trader, reckons a cumulative loss of 1.5bn Gulf barrels, or 5% of annual global output, is almost unavoidable. If the strait does not reopen, it could easily reach double that. The last time oil demand fell by 10% in short order was during the covid-19 lockdowns of 2020, a shock that also brought about a fall in world GDP of more than 3%. The time to avoid a similar tumble is running out.
There is much more to the supply chain damage than just oil. Reuters reports that aluminum is seeing the largest supply shock in decades...
..Meanwhile, Trump was asked what if oil goes to $200 a barrel? His response is that it’s better to have $200 oil than for Israel to be targeted by nuclear weapons...Futures markets have a different view of things. Yet even if Hormuz reopened today, it would take months for Gulf crude output, shipping and refinery production to resume in full. Saad Rahim of Trafigura, a trader, reckons a cumulative loss of 1.5bn Gulf barrels, or 5% of annual global output, is almost unavoidable. If the strait does not reopen, it could easily reach double that. The last time oil demand fell by 10% in short order was during the covid-19 lockdowns of 2020, a shock that also brought about a fall in world GDP of more than 3%. The time to avoid a similar tumble is running out.
There is much more to the supply chain damage than just oil. Reuters reports that aluminum is seeing the largest supply shock in decades...
..We’ve gone from promises not to get embroiled in another forever war, and that Iran would be a “quick job”, to settling for favorable comparisons to Vietnam and WWII—how times change.
On that note, Axios reports that Trump is losing his nerve:
“He’s over it. He wants it done. He doesn’t like Iran holding [its control of the strait] over the Middle East. He doesn’t like them holding this over our heads. He doesn’t want to fight anymore. But he will if he feels he has to,” an administration official told Axios.
Given the dilemma, and given this retweet by Trump himself, he may elect to just keep bombing until “someone to talk to emerges”—unlikely as that prospect is.
On that note, Axios reports that Trump is losing his nerve:
“He’s over it. He wants it done. He doesn’t like Iran holding [its control of the strait] over the Middle East. He doesn’t like them holding this over our heads. He doesn’t want to fight anymore. But he will if he feels he has to,” an administration official told Axios.
Given the dilemma, and given this retweet by Trump himself, he may elect to just keep bombing until “someone to talk to emerges”—unlikely as that prospect is.
But remember, $200 oil and a wrecked economy are very small prices to pay for Israel’s security. https://simplicius76.
Gold & Geopolitics, Daily digest: 2026-04-24
..Iran's oil storage filling — permanent reservoir damage on the clock. Iran reactivated 30-year-old VLCC NASHA as floating storage, buying roughly 48 hours of upstream production ...Maleki & Gordon estimate 300K-500K bbl/day of permanent capacity loss if shut-in completes...
..US munitions critically depleted — Taiwan defense capability at risk. Trump administration officials "increasingly assess" the US could not fully defend Taiwan if China invaded near-term per WSJ... Full replacement: up to 6 years. Zelensky separately noted 2 years of Patriot production was used in day one.....Physical vs paper oil disconnect at historic extremes. Dated Brent physical cargoes landing in Asia at $170/bbl while futures trade mid-$90s per Energy Aspects. The gap is "distorting refining economics, hedging strategies and procurement decisions globally". IEA head Birol: "largest energy crisis we have ever faced".....Israel's Defense Minister Katz openly stated they await US "green light" to resume war, threatening to "return Iran to the Stone Age"
All senior Iranian officials published a joint statement rejecting the "hardliners vs moderates" framing: "one God, one leader, one nation"
Insider trading: US special forces soldier arrested for $400K bet on Maduro capture using classified info. Trump's response: "The world is a casino"...
~50% of global seaborne sulfur exports transit Hormuz. Russia (15% of global supply) exports down 70%. China implementing export ban...
Sulfuric acid is feedstock for fertilizers (50% of global food production), copper/nickel leaching, batteries, water treatment
UN WFP contact described as "desperate" — death toll projections comparable to WWII by 2027.
Jet fuel supplies in "freefall"... Australia receiving emergency fuel shipments from US...
..Semiconductors: Record Streak Meets Peak EuphoriaAll senior Iranian officials published a joint statement rejecting the "hardliners vs moderates" framing: "one God, one leader, one nation"
Insider trading: US special forces soldier arrested for $400K bet on Maduro capture using classified info. Trump's response: "The world is a casino"...
..[Speculation is facilitated] Precious metals futures margins being CUT across the board. CME reducing margins effective Friday: gold -14%, silver -21.4%, platinum -15.3%, palladium -14.2% ... This amid record Chinese silver imports and zero Chinese silver exports in 2025....
..China imported 836 tonnes of silver in March — nearly 3x seasonal average.. Clive Thompson (47 yrs Swiss private banking): silver heading into 6th consecutive deficit year, 170M oz supply gap in 2025.....Prof Michael Hudson: US #1 export for 5 months is gold — to Switzerland, Hong Kong, China. "The empire is liquidating itself"...
..Energy Chokepoint Economics: The Sulfur/Ammonia Catastrophe Nobody's Pricing~50% of global seaborne sulfur exports transit Hormuz. Russia (15% of global supply) exports down 70%. China implementing export ban...
Sulfuric acid is feedstock for fertilizers (50% of global food production), copper/nickel leaching, batteries, water treatment
UN WFP contact described as "desperate" — death toll projections comparable to WWII by 2027.
Jet fuel supplies in "freefall"... Australia receiving emergency fuel shipments from US...
SOX gained for 16-17 consecutive days — longest winning streak in history, +38.7%, on track for largest monthly gain since Feb 2000
Intel surged +20% after hours, surpassing its August 2000 dot-com peak...
..Taiwan market cap tripled since 2020 to $4.14T, surpassing the UK for the first time. TSMC = 40% of Taiwan's total market value...
..DeepSeek V4 & GPT 5.5: The AI Arms Race Just Went NuclearDeepSeek V4 released: zero CUDA dependency (runs entirely on Huawei Ascend chips), 3-100x cheaper than GPT-5.5, fully open-source with open weights. Arnaud Bertrand: "you'd have to be a literal idiot to keep paying OpenAI's prices when this exists"
OpenAI released GPT 5.5 — "new class of intelligence" with expanded Codex browser capabilities
US accused China of "industrial-scale" AI theft — weeks before Trump's scheduled China visit
AI stocks now reflect 45% of S&P 500 market cap and 15.4% of investment-grade debt ($1.4T). Never before has a single theme dominated both equity and credit markets to this degree https://no1sdailydigest.
It really looks like China's Deep Seek would be cheaper and more efficient for their autonomous-killing robots: Pentagon Requests $54 Billion for AI War https://www.
You won't have to decide anything... Palantir’s Manifesto Is the Agenda of the New Class Reconfiguring the System’s Power Structure
The Internet has erupted in condemnation of Palantir’s manifesto. Understandably so. It is the open declaration of a private company to take over government systems and dictate policy. It is the admission by a concrete group that they have enough power to state their claim openly... ..The way we work, communicate, consume, travel, and even rest is now mediated through their technologies. Not only does that allow the owners of those technologies to extract a rent and monitor our behavior, but also to influence it. We have become dependent on their hardware and software devices to do some of the most routine everyday tasks, like checking the weather.
The people who have developed and manage these technologies are not an abstract group. There are countless anonymous foot soldiers, middle managers, and small entrepreneurs—I have relatives involved—who are just doing their jobs. But there is also a defined group with some very well-known faces, like Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, or Mark Zuckerberg, and some less well-known, like Alexander Karp (though he’s eager to be in the well-known group), David Sacks, Balaji Srinivasan, or Palmer Luckey...
..This core group is a tight-knit network of founders, venture capitalists, and thinkers—including Nick Land and Curtis Yarvin—who control some of the biggest hardware and software companies, venture funds, and media companies. They have their own think tanks, usually in the form of podcasts, like the “All-In Podcast,” but they also publish books and articles, and back public-facing institutions, politicians, and campaigns. They have a very particular idea—though, as in any group, there are different strands—of what the world is and how society should function.
The ideological core of this group—often referred to as the “Thielverse” or the “New Right” of Silicon Valley—is a synthesis of radical technological optimism, deep skepticism of modern democracy, and a desire to rebuild the world through “Exit” rather than reform (i.e., accelerationism). They support politicians who might help them achieve those aims, for example, Donald Trump, and have an ideological commitment to Israel. https://www.nakedcapitalism.
The people who have developed and manage these technologies are not an abstract group. There are countless anonymous foot soldiers, middle managers, and small entrepreneurs—I have relatives involved—who are just doing their jobs. But there is also a defined group with some very well-known faces, like Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, or Mark Zuckerberg, and some less well-known, like Alexander Karp (though he’s eager to be in the well-known group), David Sacks, Balaji Srinivasan, or Palmer Luckey...
..This core group is a tight-knit network of founders, venture capitalists, and thinkers—including Nick Land and Curtis Yarvin—who control some of the biggest hardware and software companies, venture funds, and media companies. They have their own think tanks, usually in the form of podcasts, like the “All-In Podcast,” but they also publish books and articles, and back public-facing institutions, politicians, and campaigns. They have a very particular idea—though, as in any group, there are different strands—of what the world is and how society should function.
The ideological core of this group—often referred to as the “Thielverse” or the “New Right” of Silicon Valley—is a synthesis of radical technological optimism, deep skepticism of modern democracy, and a desire to rebuild the world through “Exit” rather than reform (i.e., accelerationism). They support politicians who might help them achieve those aims, for example, Donald Trump, and have an ideological commitment to Israel. https://www.nakedcapitalism.
Autonomous AI Lab Leak World, now in progress: Skynet: Anthropic Has No “Kill Switch” for AI They Gave the Pentagon if the Bots Go Rogue https://discernreport.com/
8 minutes of clear global financial battlefield context: Prof. Michael Hudson: The #1 US export for 5 months straight is gold. Not AI, not aircraft. Gold to Switzerland, Hong Kong, China. In 1971 Nixon shut the gold window to stop it. Now America can't -- it IS the one selling. The empire is liquidating itself. America's broke. https://x.com/i/status/
Is another financial crisis brewing in the US economy? Economist Michael Hudson explains the dangers.” Reports suggest the US economy may be on the verge of another financial crisis, with major problems in the $3 trillion private credit market."
There are growing signs that the United States may be on the verge of another major financial crisis, one that could start in the private credit market, which is already seeing significant turmoil, before spreading to other sectors.
Geopolitical Economy Report editor Ben Norton interviewed economist Michael Hudson to discuss the serious problems on Wall Street. Hudson warned that the US economy is built on a Ponzi scheme that depends on continuing to pour money into a bloated, bubbly financial system based on unsustainable speculation, not industrial production...
..Where exactly could this crisis come from? Well, some financial analysts are worried about the private credit industry in the US.
This has exploded in recent years, because after the 2008 crash, banks were more heavily regulated. So more and more firms on Wall Street began to lend to private companies, and the private credit industry ballooned.
It is now a $3 trillion industry, yet it is not regulated. And many of these private credit firms have given bad loans to bad companies that are now defaulting...
..MICHAEL HUDSON: Yes, the whole problem stems exactly from 2008 or more particularly, 2009, when President Obama took office. His solution to the junk mortgage crisis, the bank fraud crisis, was to turn the economy into a Ponzi scheme.This has exploded in recent years, because after the 2008 crash, banks were more heavily regulated. So more and more firms on Wall Street began to lend to private companies, and the private credit industry ballooned.
It is now a $3 trillion industry, yet it is not regulated. And many of these private credit firms have given bad loans to bad companies that are now defaulting...
He needed to bail out the banks. The banks had made so many fraudulent and bad loans, that exceeded the ability of these banks to collect on their high-interest, junk mortgages that had been given, that the major banking companies were in negative equity.
What was the solution? The solution was a zero interest-rate policy, ZIRP. The Federal Reserve lowered interest rates from the high crisis levels in 2008 and 2009 way down to 0.1%, which is what banks could borrow for.
The Federal Reserve was able to create electronic money on its computers to lend to the banks at a very low interest rates and said, “Well, banks, you have as much money as you want, at 0.1%, that we are providing you to lend out to the economy, to support the price of real estate, stocks, and bonds, so that we will restore the negative equity that the reckless banking sector has created”...
..Well, the banks weren’t set up to evaluate loans to particular companies. They usually make money on collateral being pledged for their loans. Bank credit isn’t extended, in the United States or Britain, to finance industrial capital investment. That’s the job of the stock market, if anything, or of companies to reinvest their earnings.
Banks lend money for assets, real estate, stocks, and bonds, already issued, already in existence. So they lend money out to intermediaries, saying, “You do the job; you find the companies to take over”.
You then begin to have private capital take over companies and make money by essentially looting them...
Banks lend money for assets, real estate, stocks, and bonds, already issued, already in existence. So they lend money out to intermediaries, saying, “You do the job; you find the companies to take over”.
You then begin to have private capital take over companies and make money by essentially looting them...
..The result is that a lot of hospitals went bankrupt. Private equity proceeded to bankrupt whole swaths of the American economy. A new word was added to the English language: enshittification — just cutting back the quality of what companies were doing, slashing expenses, working labor harder, making them work overtime, cutting.
When there was an attrition of the labor force, when workers left, you let the remaining workers pick up all of the slack. Productivity went up. So you had an extractive, predatory financial system in the United States...
..So the financial system has been turned into a predatory system. And all of this enormous growth in financial wealth since 2009 has accrued to the financial and real estate sector, dominated by the wealthiest 10% of the population...
..We’re in a post-industrial society, and that’s a financial society run by the banks, through their control of the central banks, which are controlled by the government, [which is run by politicians] whose campaigns are financed by contributors from the finance and the real estate sector.
So it’s all sort of a self-feeding circular flow. And Ponzi schemes always end in a crash. That’s what’s leading other investors to try to withdraw from the American and European economies. But where can they withdraw to? That’s the problem. What can they do? ...
..When an investment firm deals with an investor — primarily what you call average people are largely pension funds. We’re having pension-fund capitalism being used to bail out the Ponzi scheme.
In other words, when a company sees an investor or a fund manager come in, what do they think? “How can I make money off these people?”
Well, right now, the wealthiest funds, like Blackstone, think, “It’s now how can we make money; we know that we’re entering a depression period where we can’t make money, really. There’s not going to be much more to be made. The market has gone as high as it can be”.
“But what we can do is minimize the losses. What we want to do is avoid making a loss. But there are going to be losses. What do we do? Let’s make labor pay for them. Let’s turn the economy of pension-fund managers and the average people into suckers. https://www.nakedcapitalism.
Paging Average Suckers: S&P 500, Nasdaq close at records, boosted by Intel, as investors hope for a restart to U.S.-Iran talks https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/23/stock-market-today-live-updates.html
CHINA JUST LIQUIDATED ¥1.1477 TRILLION IN U.S. TREASURY HOLDINGS THIS IS THE BIGGEST SINGLE DUMP IN THE LAST 20 YEARS, WHILE ITS GOLD RESERVES HAVE RISEN TO $343 BILLION https://halturnerradioshow.
Iran Announces First Hormuz Toll Fees Successfully Transferred To Central Bank https://www.zerohedge.com/
Katz: Israel Waiting for US ‘Green Light’ To Attack Iran, Plunge Country Into the ‘Stone Age’ - The minister also said the IDF was ready to 'complete the elimination of the Khamenei dynasty' https://news.antiwar.com/
New satellite images have emerged confirming the activity of the Iranian "mosquito" fleet" in the Strait of Hormuz...
..Iran has a fleet of small vessels, numbering thousands of high-speed boats capable of speeds of up to 120 km/h (or even higher, according to other sources). And it has become a real headache for the American Navy. Despite US claims to have destroyed most of the Iranian fleet, these small vessels, equipped with machine guns, guided and unguided missiles, rockets and Kamikaze drones remain an extremely effective tool. They are difficult to detect on radar, and their tactics of surprise attacks and instant disappearance among coastal rocks and islands make them virtually invulnerable.
Iran's opponents claim that such activity directly threatens global oil supplies, as approximately 20% of global exports pass through the strait. Iran, however, counters that it did not start the war and is ready to stop intercepting ships at any moment – as soon as the US unblocks the strait and Iranian ports. https://en.topwar.ru/281481-
Tanker Seizures By Iran Don't Breach Ceasefire: White House https://www.zerohedge.
Since the so-called 'ceasefire' deal was signed in early October 2025, the IDF has killed at least 784 Palestinians in Gaza https://news.antiwar.com/
Most Palestinian female prisoners are held in Damon jail, including two minors and one woman who is three months pregnant, describing the humanitarian conditions inside the facility as “sensitive.”
Among the female prisoners are 25 held under administrative detention without trial or indictment, in addition to three journalists and two women suffering from cancer. https://english.palinfo.com/
Among the female prisoners are 25 held under administrative detention without trial or indictment, in addition to three journalists and two women suffering from cancer. https://english.palinfo.com/
As the impacts of war linger, Gaza is witnessing an unprecedented rise in congenital anomalies and a 140 percent increase in stillbirths. https://www.aljazeera.com/
‘Day of Ordinary Terror’: Israeli Attack on West Bank School Kills Man, Child
..Amin Abu Ulaya, head of the local council, told Reuters that settlers and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers entered the village and then shot at students at the school and other Palestinians who rushed to the scene.
PRCS said that 14-year-old Aws Hamdi Al-Naasan and 32-year-old Marzouq Abu Naim were shot and killed by the attackers. https://israelpalestinenews.
Rabbi Avraham Zarbiva operated a bulldozer in Gaza and has called for Israel to 'flatten' the Palestinian territory https://news.antiwar.com/
A third of the 12-member Palestinian-led Gaza committee have submitted resignations in protest at Israel's refusal to abide by the ceasefire agreement. https://www.newarab.com/news/
Trump unveils three week extended ceasefire in Lebanon, wants country to "protect itself from Hezbollah".
Trump orders US Navy 'shoot & kill' small Iranian boats amid concern over mines in Hormuz. Says US now "doesn't need a deal". Says he has "all the time in the world, Iran does not" - to end the war.
Overnight, US military intercepted two more Iranian oil supertankers that tried to evade the blockade And in Indian Ocean US conducted a maritime interdiction and right-of-visit boarding of the sanctioned stateless vessel M/T Majestic X transporting oil from Iran.
Media sources confirm based on prior Trump post that US has extended the ceasefire indefinitely until 'unified proposal' can be brought forward by Tehran'.
Iran announces first Hormuz tolls paid to the country's central bank. Also asserts US blockade breached & could build atomic bomb "if we wanted to". https://www.zerohedge.com/
Trump orders US Navy 'shoot & kill' small Iranian boats amid concern over mines in Hormuz. Says US now "doesn't need a deal". Says he has "all the time in the world, Iran does not" - to end the war.
Overnight, US military intercepted two more Iranian oil supertankers that tried to evade the blockade And in Indian Ocean US conducted a maritime interdiction and right-of-visit boarding of the sanctioned stateless vessel M/T Majestic X transporting oil from Iran.
Media sources confirm based on prior Trump post that US has extended the ceasefire indefinitely until 'unified proposal' can be brought forward by Tehran'.
Iran announces first Hormuz tolls paid to the country's central bank. Also asserts US blockade breached & could build atomic bomb "if we wanted to". https://www.zerohedge.com/
After Khalil was apparently targeted by Israel, a commentator asserting a connection with the military said journalists "affiliated with Hezbollah" are "destined for death."
Khalil and Zeinab Faraj, a freelance photojournalist, were both on assignment in southern Lebanon, reporting on recent attacks on the southern village of Bint Jbeil. According to Al-Akhbar, which published a timeline of the events, the car they were driving behind was targeted by an Israeli drone at 2:45 p.m, killing two men inside. Khalil and Faraj took shelter in a nearby house.
At 2:50 p.m., Khalil contacted her editors and family, according to Lebanon-based journalist Courtney Bonneau. News of the incident quickly spread, prompting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to put out a statement calling on the Red Cross to rescue the two journalists in coordination with the Lebanese Army and the United Nations.
At 4:27 p.m., the house where the two journalists were taking refuge was bombed by the Israeli military and contact with the journalists was lost. https://www.dropsitenews.com/
At 2:50 p.m., Khalil contacted her editors and family, according to Lebanon-based journalist Courtney Bonneau. News of the incident quickly spread, prompting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to put out a statement calling on the Red Cross to rescue the two journalists in coordination with the Lebanese Army and the United Nations.
At 4:27 p.m., the house where the two journalists were taking refuge was bombed by the Israeli military and contact with the journalists was lost. https://www.dropsitenews.com/
Wednesday, Israeli strikes kill 5 in Lebanon, Beirut to seek truce extension https://www.spacewar.com/afp/
Israel is ‘deliberately’ attacking Lebanon’s water, experts say, aiming to displace or kill southern Lebanon’s population. https://www.aljazeera.com/
Trump had said that an Iranian-flagged ship seized by US forces in the Gulf of Oman on Sunday contained "a gift from China", which "wasn't very nice".
His comments came after former US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley wrote on X that the ship was travelling from China to Iran and was linked to chemical shipments for missiles.
Responding to Haley's accusations at a regular news briefing on Tuesday, foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said the ship was "a foreign container ship", and that China opposed "any malicious association and speculation".
Asked about Trump's comments on Wednesday, Guo said China had already stated its position. "As a responsible major country, China has always set a good example in fulfilling its due international obligation," he added.
Trump had said Tuesday that he was "a little surprised", given he thought he had an "understanding" with China's President Xi Jinping.
A week ago, Trump announced that Xi had assured him there would be no Chinese weapons deliveries to Iran. https://www.spacewar.
Nate Hagens, Oil 201: What Happens When the Oil Stops Flowing
We’ve built everything – our institutions, our governments, our stories, our expectations about the future – on this cheap energy input. Now, its scale and affordability are no longer guaranteed.The Price Trap
When energy prices spike, entire systems can become fragile and often break. Because oil has been so consistently cheap, the economic logic has been to imagine and engineer thousands of mechanical processes around that cheapness. The Industrial Revolution is really the story of adding hundreds or thousands of units of fossil energy to tasks that humans used to do by hand...
..We Eat Oil
Nowhere is this pattern more consequential than in the thing we all do three times per day: eat. To some people this might sound like an exaggeration, but when we sit down for a meal, what most of us are really eating is processed fossil fuels.
Contrary to all of human history, our food system now runs on energy deficit…and a huge one at that. Roughly ten calories of fossil hydrocarbons go into every one calorie of food on your plate. The tractors run on diesel, the fertilizer comes from natural gas, the pesticides come from petrochemicals, and the food is packaged and shipped on trucks and container ships where they’re kept cold the entire way.
What’s truly staggering is that roughly half the nitrogen in your body today carries a chemical signature from the Haber-Bosch industrial process, which makes synthetic fertilizer from natural gas. That single industrial process is what allows Earth to feed roughly four of our eight billion humans. Beyond food, our clean water, pumping, treating, desalinating and distributing it, also requires fossil fuel inputs.
When people talk about oil and gas, they’re mostly thinking of our cars, but we should also be thinking of groceries and dinner...
..Oil is woven into virtually everything we touch. Only about 40% of a barrel of oil becomes gasoline. The rest is diesel, jet fuel, heating oil, bunker fuel, asphalt, and feedstock for roughly 6,000 other products like medicines, plastics, surgical devices, synthetic clothing, electronics, contact lenses, tents, kayaks, the interior of our cars, and the list goes on.Nowhere is this pattern more consequential than in the thing we all do three times per day: eat. To some people this might sound like an exaggeration, but when we sit down for a meal, what most of us are really eating is processed fossil fuels.
Contrary to all of human history, our food system now runs on energy deficit…and a huge one at that. Roughly ten calories of fossil hydrocarbons go into every one calorie of food on your plate. The tractors run on diesel, the fertilizer comes from natural gas, the pesticides come from petrochemicals, and the food is packaged and shipped on trucks and container ships where they’re kept cold the entire way.
What’s truly staggering is that roughly half the nitrogen in your body today carries a chemical signature from the Haber-Bosch industrial process, which makes synthetic fertilizer from natural gas. That single industrial process is what allows Earth to feed roughly four of our eight billion humans. Beyond food, our clean water, pumping, treating, desalinating and distributing it, also requires fossil fuel inputs.
When people talk about oil and gas, they’re mostly thinking of our cars, but we should also be thinking of groceries and dinner...
Assumptions that electric cars or other substitutions would eliminate our need for oil misses the overwhelming majority of what non-gasoline oil actually does...
..Low priced oil is running out faster than most people, and our financial system, realize. Most people are unaware that depletion, the rate at which we’re drawing down and drying up oil fields and wells, is accelerating, especially in the United States...
..You might be thinking I’ve been ignoring other forms of energy throughout this brief analysis: hydro, nuclear, solar, and wind. But there’s a reason substitutes can’t simply step in.Energy quality matters almost as much as energy quantity. Oil is liquid at room temperature, energy dense, portable, and storable. These qualities are what made modern civilization possible. Replacing it isn’t a matter of just matching kilowatt hours from another source. Our entire mining, shipping, rail, trucking, and personal transport system runs on oil. Despite the headlines about solar and electric vehicles, that is not likely going to change.
Here’s a key distinction: energy is the total amount of work available, while power is the rate at which you get that energy per unit time.
Biological creatures on Earth do not optimize for energy, we optimize for power. Organisms and economies that get more energy sooner outcompete those that don’t.
Oil and its products – gasoline, diesel, heating oil, and jet fuel – contain unbelievable power. When burned, they give us ginormous amounts of work quickly, whenever and wherever we want it...
..Alternative energy sources will play a role in the human energy portfolio, but our current system was built around the qualities and cheap price of oil. The time, land, and material dimensions are almost never discussed, but they’re some of the main reasons direct substitution is so much harder than people assume, and why there are now warships in the Persian Gulf.....The current popular stories of an energy transition are really built upon a myth, a false narrative about the history of humans and energy. The reality is that we have never in human history fully transitioned off an energy source, we always add new sources on top of the old...
..The deeper question here is about what happens when there is less energy available overall. Cheap energy builds complex systems. Complex systems depend on cheap energy. When energy gets tight, complexity unravels. Current alternatives cannot replace what cheap oil does. https://natehagens.substack.Judge Blocks Trump Admin's Move To Halt Wind, Solar Approvals https://www.zerohedge.com/political/judge-blocks-trump-admins-move-halt-wind-solar-approvals-0
Trump signs five executive orders to promote fossil fuels as essential to national security
The five orders seek to address a number of bottlenecks and impediments to coal, natural gas and petroleum production, including financial support, infrastructure development, improved supply chains, and permit expediting. https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/energy/trump-signs-five-executive-orders-promote-fossil-fuels-essential-national
How the energy shock due to Iran war compares with past disruptions
The 1979 Iranian Revolution resulted in a smaller-scale loss than the current disruption, but led to a larger cumulative loss.
Mercuria, Goldman, JPMorgan See Major Aluminum Market Shock
"Russia is killing ten times more": the Ukrainian Armed Forces have already lost over two million people. https://en.topcor.ru/70608-rf-ubivaet-v-desjat-raz-bolshe-vsu-uzhe-poterjali-svyshe-dvuh-millionov-chelovek.html
The five orders seek to address a number of bottlenecks and impediments to coal, natural gas and petroleum production, including financial support, infrastructure development, improved supply chains, and permit expediting. https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/energy/trump-signs-five-executive-orders-promote-fossil-fuels-essential-national
The 1979 Iranian Revolution resulted in a smaller-scale loss than the current disruption, but led to a larger cumulative loss.
Unlike earlier crises, the Iran war has simultaneously hit crude, natural gas, refined fuel and fertiliser supplies, exposing new vulnerabilities created by decades of rising demand, deeper global trade links and the Middle East’s expanded role as a supplier of finished fuels.
The peak supply loss from the current crisis stands at more than 12 million barrels per day, the IEA said earlier this month. That is equivalent to 11.5 percent of global oil demand, which this year is expected to average around 104.3 million bpd.
The outright daily supply loss is larger than earlier peak supply losses of 4.5 million bpd during the 1973 Arab oil embargo and of 5.6 million bpd during the Iranian revolution in 1979 combined, the IEA said. It is also higher than the estimated peak supply losses of 4.3 million bpd during the 1991 Gulf War, the IEA said.
The Iran war has also triggered the shutdown of roughly a fifth of the world's liquefied natural gas production in Qatar.
The world consumes much more gas than it did during the oil shocks of the 1970s and 1990s. During the Arab oil embargo and the Iranian Revolution, the LNG industry was nascent. Qatar first exported LNG in 1996. https://www.trtworld.com/
The peak supply loss from the current crisis stands at more than 12 million barrels per day, the IEA said earlier this month. That is equivalent to 11.5 percent of global oil demand, which this year is expected to average around 104.3 million bpd.
The outright daily supply loss is larger than earlier peak supply losses of 4.5 million bpd during the 1973 Arab oil embargo and of 5.6 million bpd during the Iranian revolution in 1979 combined, the IEA said. It is also higher than the estimated peak supply losses of 4.3 million bpd during the 1991 Gulf War, the IEA said.
The Iran war has also triggered the shutdown of roughly a fifth of the world's liquefied natural gas production in Qatar.
The world consumes much more gas than it did during the oil shocks of the 1970s and 1990s. During the Arab oil embargo and the Iranian Revolution, the LNG industry was nascent. Qatar first exported LNG in 1996. https://www.trtworld.com/
"We are already in a 'black swan' event. No one could have foreseen something on this scale." ... Snowdon's alarm over the global aluminum market is mainly because the Gulf region accounts for 9% of world supply, and with major smelters already declaring force majeure and the Hormuz chokepoint blocked for much of this week, this is shaping up to be one of the most memorable shocks in the metal market in decades.
Aluminum prices have already surged to a four-year high, and Mercuria estimates the market could face at least a 2 million-ton deficit by the end of the year, potentially worse. https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/mercuria-goldman-jpmorgan-see-major-aluminum-market-shock
Aluminum prices have already surged to a four-year high, and Mercuria estimates the market could face at least a 2 million-ton deficit by the end of the year, potentially worse. https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/mercuria-goldman-jpmorgan-see-major-aluminum-market-shock
No other option now: EC to adopt 20th sanctions package without ban on Russian oil transportation https://tass.com/economy/2120771
Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s former defense minister and now the secretary of the Security Council, warned that Russia could intervene if the unrecognized region of Transnistria were threatened.
The Moscow Times reported this.
He claimed that Moldova’s capital, Chișinău, allegedly with Ukraine’s involvement, has imposed a “blockade” on the region and is worsening living conditions for residents by creating barriers in trade, banking, and transportation.
“These include restrictions on freedom of movement, illegal customs charges, and arbitrary deprivation of citizenship… The situation, I’ll say it plainly, is difficult. Key industries are either not operating or functioning intermittently, and there is a chronic shortage of energy resources,” Shoigu said. The Moscow Times reported this.
He claimed that Moldova’s capital, Chișinău, allegedly with Ukraine’s involvement, has imposed a “blockade” on the region and is worsening living conditions for residents by creating barriers in trade, banking, and transportation.
He added that “the rhetoric of Moldova’s leadership regarding Transnistria increasingly resembles statements made by Ukraine’s authorities about Donbas after 2014,” and warned Chișinău against escalation, threatening possible Russian intervention. https://militarnyi.com/en/news/russia-warns-moldova-of-possible-intervention-over-threats-to-transnistria/
Gilbert Doctorow, Communist Party Leader Zyuganov warns of a 1917 style revolution if government policies do not change
Those words touched off a vast controversy in the Russian social networks and the Party later issued a transcript which defined his warning more precisely: “If you do not change course in a fundamental way, then by autumn we may expect what happened in February 1917.”
For those unfamiliar with Russia’s two revolutions in 1917, the first one, in February was in fact a coup d’etat in which the Russian army commanders and chief politicians from the liberal centrist parties forced the abdication of the tsar. Put in modern language, it was a ‘palace revolution’ by the elites.
Note that Zyuganov was initially quoted as calling for financial and economic reform. What is that all about? Of course, it means that Nabiulina has to be fired and the insane high Central Bank interest rates must be brought down to levels that the small and medium sized enterprises can live with.
But as I have been saying in recent days, the Nabiulina interest rates which Putin has backed supposedly to counter inflation are a hidden way that the Putin government has been shutting down the consumer economy and subsidizing the war economy, so the issue is much bigger than just the prime rate by itself. It has everything to do with Russia’s current foreign policy that is preparing for a war with Europe several years down the road and with its military policy which is dragging out the war with Ukraine to absurd lengths for the profit of the oligarchs.
Russian elites, the foreign policy establishment, wants the war to end now. They have gotten no satisfaction from Putin. And now Zyuganov is saying in the Russian parliament what some prominent politicians within Russian have been saying: enough is enough; time to finish off Kiev right now. https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2026/04/23/communist-party-leader-zyuganov-warns-of-a-1917-style-revolution-if-government-policies-do-not-change/
For those unfamiliar with Russia’s two revolutions in 1917, the first one, in February was in fact a coup d’etat in which the Russian army commanders and chief politicians from the liberal centrist parties forced the abdication of the tsar. Put in modern language, it was a ‘palace revolution’ by the elites.
Note that Zyuganov was initially quoted as calling for financial and economic reform. What is that all about? Of course, it means that Nabiulina has to be fired and the insane high Central Bank interest rates must be brought down to levels that the small and medium sized enterprises can live with.
But as I have been saying in recent days, the Nabiulina interest rates which Putin has backed supposedly to counter inflation are a hidden way that the Putin government has been shutting down the consumer economy and subsidizing the war economy, so the issue is much bigger than just the prime rate by itself. It has everything to do with Russia’s current foreign policy that is preparing for a war with Europe several years down the road and with its military policy which is dragging out the war with Ukraine to absurd lengths for the profit of the oligarchs.
Russian elites, the foreign policy establishment, wants the war to end now. They have gotten no satisfaction from Putin. And now Zyuganov is saying in the Russian parliament what some prominent politicians within Russian have been saying: enough is enough; time to finish off Kiev right now. https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2026/04/23/communist-party-leader-zyuganov-warns-of-a-1917-style-revolution-if-government-policies-do-not-change/
An Ecuadorian fishing crew describe their ordeal as victims of Trump’s purported war on ‘narcoterrorists’ https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/apr/21/ecuador-us-boat-strike-survivors
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz announced a requirement for all 50 states to audit their Medicaid provider networks to address waste... https://dailynewsfromaolf.substack.com/p/hhs-shuts-down-500-la-hospices-some
During the mass mRNA injection campaign, brain tumors, colon and rectal cancers, small intestine cancer, and ovarian cancer all rose sharply among Americans under 50. https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/breaking-us-government-cancer-data
She was repeatedly threatened, not suicidal: Read the chilling texts UFO-linked scientist sent before being found dead that raise major questions over suicide ruling https://www.dailymail.com/sciencetech/article-15748877/amy-eskridge-ufo-scientist-suicide-huntsville.html?ito=rss-connatix
Typical Earthling (took this picture of a sunrise)
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