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1 day ago

Iraq’s Ruling Pro-Iran Bloc Races To Choose PM, While US Rejects Main Candidates

The US has suspended all funding and security coordination with Iraq, and shipments of dollars the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI), until a new Baghdad government acceptable to Washington is formed, Saudi state-owned Al-Hadath reported Monday. The US is also conditioning continued security cooperation on the disclosure of those involved in the bombing of its embassy, the news channel added. Nevertheless, on Monday, the CBI released a statement rejecting the Al-Hadath report. Since 2003, a decision issued by Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) head Paul Bremer has required that all Iraqi oil revenues be paid into an account at the US Federal Reserve Bank of New York, giving the US the ability to control how many US dollars are returned to the CBI. From that point until today, the Iraqi Ministry of Finance has had to submit funding requests to the US Treasury, which then approves or denies them based on its own criteria. This monthly transfer of US dollars, flown into Baghdad in pallets of hard cash, determines Iraq’s ability to pay for basic needs such as salaries, food, and medicine. Whenever Washington believes that Iraq is not aligned with US regional goals, including enforcing economic sanctions on Iran, Baghdad’s major trading partner and a source of natural gas for electricity production, these fund […]

2 days ago

From Leverage To Liability: The Hormuz Strait Is Now Iran’s Biggest Weakness

For half a century, the Strait of Hormuz was Iran’s weapon. Today, it is its noose. The mathematics of energy have flipped, and with them the balance of coercive power in the Persian Gulf. Iran’s implicit deterrent was geographic, spanning from the tanker wars of the 1980s to the sanctions standoffs of the 2010s. Almost 20% of global seaborne oil, and a similar share of liquefied natural gas, passes through the Strait. The formula was simple: any military confrontation that threatened the Tehran regime risked a closure that would halt trade supplies, spike crude prices, bleed Western consumers, and, above all, inflict pain on the United States, who was the world’s largest oil importer. The strait served as Tehran’s insurance policy and its most powerful bargaining tool. The threat was predicated on the regime’s belief that it could block everyone except its exports. The Iranian regime revealed its biggest weakness by constantly threatening to damage the global economy through a shutdown of the Strait. In reality, a total shutdown has the most severe impact on Iran. Almost 90 per cent of Iran’s crude exports, and about 80 per cent of its total exports, depend on the transit through Hormuz. Around […]

2 days ago

Xi Urges Immediate Opening Of Hormuz Strait For First Time, In Call With Saudi Crown Prince

China’s President Xi Jinping on Monday demanded the uninterrupted passage of vessels through the Strait of Hormuz in a phone call with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, state news agency Xinhua reports. He urged the normalization of shipping traffic after about 50 days of disruption which obviously and significantly impacts Chinese oil imports. “Normal navigation through the Strait of Hormuz should be maintained, this is in the shared interests of regional countries and the international community,” Xi said, in the statement also carried by AFP. He called for an immediate, comprehensive ceasefire and insisted disputes be resolved through political and diplomatic means. He added that China will deepen strategic mutual trust with Saudi Arabia and expand practical cooperation. South China Morning Post observes that it was “the first time the Chinese leader had called for the reopening of the strategically vital waterway, which has been repeatedly blockaded since US-Israeli strikes on Iran began on February 28.” China imported 5.86 million tons of crude oil from Saudi Arabia, down 10% from February, according to customs data released Monday. As for where things stand on the negotiations front, Iran hesitated over sending diplomats to Pakistan for a second round of […]

2 days ago

‘Highly Unlikely’ US Will Extend Iran Ceasefire, ‘Lots Of Bombs Will Go Off’ If No Deal: Trump

Trump: ‘Highly Unlikely’ He Extends Ceasefire Lots of contradictory messaging this morning from Washington, Tehran, and Islamabad. Trump has said he will note open the Strait of Hormuz until a deal is signed (as both sides inside they in effect control the waterway). Trump has also asserted that it remains ‘highly unlikely’ that he extends the ceasefire with Iran, at a moment Tasnim reports that “Iran’s decision not to participate in the negotiations has not changed until this moment.” ‘Lots of Bombs Will Go Off’ If Ceasefire Ends With No Deal: Trump President Trump says bombs will go off if the ceasefire expires (set to end by Wed April 22), PBS reports. But he also said he doesn’t know if Iran is doing the next round of talks but says it is fine if Iran is not at the Pakistan talks. So who does Washington, led by VP Vance’s team, plan to talk to… itself? Or it might just plan to keep sending messages to the Pakistanis. The US could also be seeking to ‘demonstrate’ that the Iranians have simply refused negotiations, and so this will ‘justify’ bombs away again. Here are the latest Monday statements from Trump given to PBS: […]

2 days ago

Will Ukraine End Up Forcibly Conscripting Women To Fight On The Frontline?

The authorities in Kyiv, however, must bring the army size required by Commander-in-Chief Zelensky (800,000 active soldiers), and since the number of men eligible for military service (between the ages of 18 and 60) is slowly running out, the Ukrainian leadership is now trying to fill the gaps by conscripting women. As of early 2024, approximately 5 million men are considered to be of conscription age in Ukraine, reduced from about 8.7 million before the February 2022 invasion due to death and emigration. And yet, many of these 5 million are exempt, unfit for service, or already serving. Ukraine has long been shown to use forced conscription methods, with increasing violence, leading men to attempt to leave the country, often at the risk of their lives. Last year, Hungarian channel M1-Hirado recently ran a special compiling some of the latest footage of Ukrainians being beaten and shoved into vans in forced mobilization operations. Citizens across the country have fought back since the war began, especially in areas populated by ethnic Hungarians, who feel they have been targeted. As of now, there is no full mobilization of women. According to lawyer Rostislav Kravec, the fact that women can also be included in the list of those who refuse military service or deserters could […]

2 days ago

Cracks Appear In Climate Consensus As Germany’s Energy Minister Admits Renewables Are Ruining The Country

When Simon Wakter, Political Adviser to Sweden’s Minister for Energy, posted on X last Wednesday with a simple “Wow, incredible article” and a clapping emoji, he captured the shock rippling through Europe’s energy commentariat. The target of his applause was not some fringe sceptic but Germany’s own Economy and Energy Minister, Katherina Reiche. In a guest column for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Reiche delivered a verdict that would have been career-ending heresy only a year ago: “One fact has been concealed for too long: an energy transition that ignores system costs will ruin the country it claims to save.” To anyone who has watched Germany’s Energiewende — that totemic experiment in decarbonisation-by-decree — unfold like a slow-motion train wreck, Reiche’s words land like a thunderclap from the Establishment itself. Here is a senior CDU Minister in Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Government openly admitting that two decades of Green-inspired fantasy have saddled the continent’s industrial powerhouse with hidden costs now running, according to estimates she cites, at €36 billion a year and climbing towards €90 billion. Grid expansions, backup power for intermittent wind and solar and the sheer inefficiency of trying to run a modern economy on the weather: all of it, she says, must stop being airbrushed out of the official narrative. The […]

2 days ago

Europe Faces Summer Jet Fuel Crisis As Iran War Slashes Supply

Accelerated refinery closures in the past decade and increased dependence on kerosene from the Middle East have exposed Europe’s energy supply vulnerability once again. For years, European consumers have had to contend with last-minute strikes of ground personnel and cabin crew during peak summer travel. This year, strikes may be viewed as a minor nuisance compared to what’s coming within weeks—a jet fuel supply crisis that could ground flights and hike fares. The war in Iran has cut most of Europe’s imports of jet fuel, while local output has been falling for nearly two decades due to dozens of refineries closing permanently or being converted to biofuel production. The war in Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz have severely constrained Europe’s jet fuel supply, while jet fuel prices have spiked to over $200 per barrel. The last imports from the Middle East on tankers that had passed Hormuz before the war began have arrived, and there is only one alternative to source jet fuel—from the United States. These supplies are not only insufficient to replace the loss of Middle Eastern jet fuel. Europe faces increasingly fierce competition from Asia for these cargoes as the crisis first hit […]

2 days ago

Scientist Claims The Universe Has Seven Dimensions

This idea emerges not from science fiction, but from an attempt to resolve one of modern physics’ most enduring puzzles—the black hole information paradox first highlighted by Stephen Hawking in the 1970s. Richard Pinčák, a senior researcher at the Slovak Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Experimental Physics, leads the team behind the new model. The work, published in the journal General Relativity and Gravitation, explores how extra dimensions arranged in a specific geometric structure could prevent black holes from fully evaporating. Stephen Hawking's theory of black hole evaporation clashes with the laws of quantum mechanics. A new paper finds a way around this paradox, provided that the universe has seven dimensions. https://t.co/NR5a0HoFXQ — Live Science (@LiveScience) April 16, 2026 The four dimensions we know—three of space and one of time—form the basis of everyday experience and Einstein’s general relativity. But Pinčák’s framework adds three more. “We experience three dimensions of space and one of time — four dimensions in total,” Pinčák explained. “Our model proposes that the universe actually has seven dimensions: the four we know, plus three tiny extra dimensions curled up so tightly that we cannot directly perceive them.” These hidden dimensions take the form of highly symmetrical G?-manifolds. In this geometry, a property called torsion creates a twisting effect in spacetime. At the extremely small […]

2 days ago

8 Of The Top 10 ‘Most Surveilled’ Cities Are Asian

While quantifying the total number of surveillance cameras in the world remains an almost impossible task, IHS Markit suggested that there would be around 1 billion surveillance cameras worldwide This visualisation, via Visual Capitalist, ranks major global cities by the number of CCTV cameras per 1,000 people using data from Comparitech, showing where surveillance is most concentrated. China is the most-surveilled nation overall, with 700 million cameras (494 per 1,000 people), though per-city data is unavailable. That’s almost one camera for every two people. While China yet again dominates this study for its vast surveillance tactics, there are other countries whose surveillance tactics are of growing concern, including several Indian, Russian, and South Korean cities, Lahore, Kabul, Singapore, London, Istanbul, New York, and Los Angeles. Indian cities dominate the rankings, with Hyderabad (79 cameras per 1,000 people) leading globally. Eight of the top 10 cities are Asian. The other two most surveilled cities are in Russia. London is the top ‘western’ nation on the list with 13.4 cameras per 1,000 people) with New York City topping the list for American cities with 10.12 cameras per 1,000 people). A number of cities have added (or are adding and/or are encouraging businesses/private residents to add) private surveillance cameras to police networks as part of crime-fighting initiatives. In some […]

2 days ago

Washington’s Renewed Russian Oil Sanctions Waiver Will Help Their Shared Indian Partner

The Treasury Department renewed the US’ Russian oil sanctions waiver on Friday two days after Secretary Scott Bessent said that this wouldn’t happen. It remains unclear what exactly accounts for this flip-flop, but it’s possible that Trump 2.0 concluded that a deal with Iran might not be reached as soon as some optimists expected, so it’s better to keep Russian oil on the global market for another month to maintain global economic stability. Russia and the US’ shared Indian partner gains the most from this. The IMF recently assessed that India will remain the world’s fastest-growing major economy for this year and the next at 6.5% growth in both, and maintaining this is imperative for both Russia’s and the US’ interests. That’s because India balances between both, having been perceived as tilting a bit closer towards the US in February after the interim Indo-US trade deal was agreed to but then recalibrating back to Russia last month due to the global systemic consequences of the Third Gulf War. As was explained here in March when the US issued its Russian oil sanctions waiver for India before making it global, “The new world order that it envisages has India playing a prominent geo-economic and geopolitical role, especially vis-à-vis China, ergo why it temporarily waived the […]

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Iraq’s Ruling Pro-Iran Bloc Races To Choose PM, While US Rejects Main Candidates

From Leverage To Liability: The Hormuz Strait Is Now Iran’s Biggest Weakness

Xi Urges Immediate Opening Of Hormuz Strait For First Time, In Call With Saudi Crown Prince

‘Highly Unlikely’ US Will Extend Iran Ceasefire, ‘Lots Of Bombs Will Go Off’ If No Deal: Trump

Will Ukraine End Up Forcibly Conscripting Women To Fight On The Frontline?

Cracks Appear In Climate Consensus As Germany’s Energy Minister Admits Renewables Are Ruining The Country

Europe Faces Summer Jet Fuel Crisis As Iran War Slashes Supply

Scientist Claims The Universe Has Seven Dimensions

8 Of The Top 10 ‘Most Surveilled’ Cities Are Asian

Washington’s Renewed Russian Oil Sanctions Waiver Will Help Their Shared Indian Partner

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