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22 hours ago

Gaza Needs Over $71BN In Next Decade If Enclave Hopes To Recover: New UN Report

More than $71 billion will be required over the next decadHamas Threatens ‘Ceasefire Is Over’ Amid Rising Israeli Airstrikese to recover and rebuild Gaza following the brutal Israel-Hamas war, according to a new report. Hamas leadership has been largely decimated, though the group has yet to be completely disarmed, and there are still calls within the Israeli government among some hawkish officials to simply conquer and promote Jewish settlement of the whole territory. In their final Gaza Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (RDNA) which was released Monday, the European Union and the United Nations said the conflict has had a “catastrophic impact on human development” and left the enclave in urgent need of massive funding. A massive $26.3 billion will be needed in just the first 18 months to restore essential services and rebuild infrastructure, per the report. And much more will be needed in the years to follow if Gaza is ever returned to ‘normal’. “Physical infrastructure damages are estimated at $35.2 billion, with economic and social losses amounting to $22.7 billion,” a joint statement said. Gaza official remains under a fragile ceasefire agreed in October following two years of war triggered by the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on […]

22 hours ago

How The Iranian Regime Destroyed Its Economy… Long Before The War

As negotiations edge towards a ceasefire, Tehran is trying to blame the country’s economic collapse on the war and foreign pressure. Yet the data tell a different story: Iran’s economy was already structurally broken before the war. Years of ideological policymaking, institutionalised corruption, and the militarisation of the economy have caused Iran’s economic ruin. Iran has been in a state of permanent economic emergency since at least 2018. Official inflation has remained above 40% year after year, destroying the country’s middle class. World Bank estimates show average inflation in the high 30s for most of the 2018–2025 period, with spikes of up to 60%, driven by massive currency depreciation and the constant monetisation of fiscal deficits. Monetary collapse and the myth of sanctions Since 2018, the rial has lost almost 95% of its value against the dollar, including a depreciation of more than 60% just between 2024 and 2025. This collapse stems from relentless money printing to finance uncontrolled budget deficits, a domestic loss of confidence in the currency, capital flight, and a regime that has treated the central bank as a mere financing arm of the state. All of this has happened while the government received billions of dollars from oil exports and enormous financial […]

22 hours ago

IMO Draws Up Hormuz Evacuation Plan For 800 Ships Trapped In Gulf

Tanker traffic through the Hormuz chokepoint remained muted as of Tuesday morning, with maritime movement still far below pre-US-Iran conflict levels. The ship backlog in the Gulf has now swelled to a staggering 800 vessels, underscoring the scale of the disruption, while the International Maritime Organization is reportedly drawing up evacuation plans for stranded ships. Bloomberg quoted the Secretary-General of the IMO, Arsenio Dominguez, who stated on the sidelines of Singapore Maritime Week earlier today that the IMO is preparing a humanitarian evacuation of 800 ships stranded in the Gulf after the nearly two-month conflict. “In order for us to do anything at all, we need to make sure that the conflict has come to an end, that there are no threats of any ships being attacked, and that the region is clear from any hazards, including mines,” Dominguez said. The proposed evacuation plan would prioritize ship departures based in part on how long crews have been stranded in the Gulf, with vessels using the long-established Traffic Separation Scheme through the strait. Dominguez said the effort is focused on evacuating seafarers, not necessarily protecting cargo values, describing it as a humanitarian corridor rather than a commercial reopening. “This is about […]

22 hours ago

Europe’s EV Sales Jump 51% As Iran War Sends Gasoline Prices Soaring

Registrations of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in Europe’s key automotive markets surged by 51% in March as the Iran war pushed gasoline prices to multi-year highs, data published by research firm New Automotive and trade association E-Mobility Europe showed on Monday. More than 224,000 new electric passenger cars were registered in March alone across 15 key EU + EFTA markets, the analysis found. These sales accounted for as much as 22% of all new passenger car sales across the key European markets. In another sign that expensive gasoline is pushing drivers to EVs, European Union member states registered more than 500,000 new electric cars in the first quarter of 2026, a surge of 33.5% compared to the same period last year, the data showed. New BEV registrations accelerated across every major EU market in the first quarter of 2026. Europe’s five largest countries — Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and Poland — all recorded BEV growth above 40% year-to-date. Europe’s biggest car market, Germany, saw a rebound in EV sales after the introduction of new incentives, with around one in four cars registered in March fully electric – a 42% year-to-date jump, according to the data. Italy’s BEV registrations soared by […]

23 hours ago

“We’re On Borrowed Time”: Vitol LNG Chief Warns Of Coming Food Price Shock

Pablo Galante Escobar, the head of liquefied natural gas (LNG) at Vitol, warned the audience at the FT Commodities Summit earlier today that the “world is on borrowed tiU.S. Navy Deploys Sea Robots To Sweep Hormuz Chokepoint For Minesme” and that the Gulf energy shock will develop into a food crisis unless LNG flows resume through the Hormuz chokepoint. “We are on borrowed time. Every day this trade remains closed and every day production does not come back, we are building a problem for the future, and we are building a problem that, as I said, will be transferred from the energy side into many different sectors, with the food sector being a very important one,” Escobar said, who works world’s biggest independent energy trader. Escobar continued, “This is not sustainable, or the energy crisis will become a food crisis. Only gas can supply the feed for fertilizers. We are building a problem for the future.” He added that even if the Hormuz chokepoint reopened today, it could still take three to five months for undamaged LNG production to fully recover. Longer term, the Gulf market could lose about 20 million tons per year of global LNG supply growth in […]

23 hours ago

Trump Demands Iran ‘Release These Women’ As World Tensely Awaits 2nd Pakistan Talks, US Navy Boards Another Vessel

Trump to Iran: Release These Women President Trump has suddenly pivoted to making the ‘humanitarian’ or ‘protect the protesters’ argument once again. He has just written on Truth Social the following words, while sharing the below image of eight Iranian women allegedly on death row: To the Iranian leaders, who will soon be in negotiations with my representatives: I would greatly appreciate the release of these women. I am sure that they will respect the fact that you did so. Please do them no harm! Would be a great start to our negotiations!!! Thank you for your attention to this matter. Whether these women are actually about to be hanged is another, lingering question (there’s no legitimate sourcing confirming that a group of eight women are about to be hanged) – but clearly Trump is trying to inject some more leverage on the US side before the second-round Pakistan talks even get started. He had quickly followed the above with the below message talking about having ‘obliterated’ Iran’s ‘nuclear dust’ to the point that the Iranians can’t get to it: Trump: Iran Has No Choice, ‘Expect’ Bombs President Trump on Tuesday said he expects a strong outcome from negotiations with […]

https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/saylors-strategy-holdings-top-800000-bitcoin-after-3rd-biggest-purchase-history

1 day ago

Saylor’s Strategy Holdings Top 800,000 Bitcoin After 3rd Biggest Purchase In History

Michael Saylor’s Strategy, the world’s largest public Bitcoin holder, has blasted past 800,000 BTC in total holdings after announcing its latest purchases. Strategy acquired 34,164 Bitcoin for $2.54 billion between April 13 and 19, according to an 8-K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. As Helen Partz reports for CoinTelegraph.com, the buy ranks as Strategy’s third-largest Bitcoin acquisition on record by coin count, behind purchases of 55,500 BTC and 51,780 BTC in November 2024. Holding around 780,897 BTC after a $1 billion purchase just a week ago, the company now holds 815,061 BTC, purchased for $61.56 billion. Source: SEC The new acquisition was made at an average price of $74,395 per coin, slightly below the company’s average acquisition price of $75,527. Strategy’s STRC funds more than 85% of the purchase Similar to a few recent acquisitions, the majority of Strategy’s latest purchase has been funded through Stretch (STRC), the company’s perpetual preferred security. According to the filing, STRC generated $2.18 billion, or about 85.7% of total proceeds, while sales of Class A common stock (MSTR) contributed $366 million. Source: SEC Last week marked several new records for STRC, including the company’s largest single-day buying spree through its at-the-market, or ATM, program. On April 13, STRC set a new […]

1 day ago

Hormuz Traffic At Standstill After US Ship Seizure

Confirming the Schrodinger nature of the notorious waterway, the Strait of Hormuz is now just closed even more than before Iran and the US said the vital oil channel had been reopened. Traffic through the strait on Sunday and Monday was reduced to a trickle following a Saturday surge, after Tehran rejected a continuing US naval blockade and moved to seal the waterway again. The reduced movement underscores just how quickly hopes unraveled that cargoes could once again resume. On Friday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the strait was “completely open” for commercial shipping, while US President Donald Trump said Iran was removing sea mines from the waterway. That prompted oil prices to plunge and dozens of tankers to race toward the strait at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. But Iran quickly declared that the passage was closed again as it emerged that the US operation in place since April 13 would not be lifted. And rejected: the two tankers taking the neutral route, Minerva Evropi and Nissos Keros, have turned around; the Sanmar Herald which appears to be taking the Iran-sanctioned Larak island route is proceeding. https://t.co/aceBI7ki0B pic.twitter.com/gmkM37iA1U — zerohedge (@zerohedge) April 18, 2026 Here it is, the moment of […]

1 day ago

USS Ford Carrier Returns To Mideast After Extensive Fire Repairs

Over the weekend it was confirmed by Pentagon statements that the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier strike group has belatedly redeployed to the Middle East after a month in port for repairs following a fire aboard the ship. The world’s largest aircraft carrier returned to operations after what’s been officially described as a blaze in its laundry area, which headlines have presented as accidental. The incident injured sailors and forced significant maintenance work, and ever since it happened on March 12, there’s been an avalanche of public speculation that Iranian forces my have hit it in a missile or drone attack. However, US and military officials have repeatedly rejected that the Ford was damaged as a result of Iranian attack, as Tehran has claimed. The carrier is rejoining an expanding US military buildup in the region – with the USS Abraham Lincoln strike group already deployed, and the USS George H.W. Bush expected to soon join, which would bring the number of US carriers in the Middle East to three. By comparison, the 2003 US invasion of Iraq was supported by a total of five US Navy aircraft carriers, with some in the Persian Gulf and some in the Mediterranean. The Ford had been operating in the eastern Mediterranean when the US and Israel […]

1 day ago

World’s Biggest Physical Oil Trader Warns Of Months Of Price Volatility

Seasonally lower demand ahead of the peak summer driving season and the continued turbulence in the Middle East could extend the violent oil price swings for months ahead, the top executive of oil trader Gunvor has told the Financial Times. “It is a little bit of a more challenging, softer period that we need to be careful of,” Gary Pedersen, chairman and CEO of Gunvor Group, told FT in an interview published on Monday. “Frankly, it could be very choppy,” commented on the oil market Pedersen, who took over the top job at one of the world’s biggest physical oil trading groups after a management buy-out in December 2025. Before the big shake-up at the group, Gunvor was accused by the U.S. Treasury Department of being a Kremlin puppet and was denied a license to take over the international operations of Russia’s second-largest oil producer Lukoil, which the United States sanctioned last autumn. The recent violent swings in oil futures prices were partly due to what Gunvor’s new head Pedersen attributed in the FT interview to a “masterclass” in political messaging from U.S. President Donald Trump. Oil futures prices have sold off sharply several times in recent weeks following various comments from President Trump that a deal […]

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Gaza Needs Over $71BN In Next Decade If Enclave Hopes To Recover: New UN Report

How The Iranian Regime Destroyed Its Economy… Long Before The War

IMO Draws Up Hormuz Evacuation Plan For 800 Ships Trapped In Gulf

Europe’s EV Sales Jump 51% As Iran War Sends Gasoline Prices Soaring

“We’re On Borrowed Time”: Vitol LNG Chief Warns Of Coming Food Price Shock

Trump Demands Iran ‘Release These Women’ As World Tensely Awaits 2nd Pakistan Talks, US Navy Boards Another Vessel

Saylor’s Strategy Holdings Top 800,000 Bitcoin After 3rd Biggest Purchase In History

Hormuz Traffic At Standstill After US Ship Seizure

USS Ford Carrier Returns To Mideast After Extensive Fire Repairs

World’s Biggest Physical Oil Trader Warns Of Months Of Price Volatility

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