French Wine Meets Trump’s Leverage
Trump is threatening a 100% tariff on French wine and champagne if Paris does not scrap its digital tax on U.S. tech giants, putting a core export to its biggest foreign market directly on the chopping block.
On paper this is a dispute over a 3% levy on Google, Meta and other platforms, but in practice it is Washington using access to the U.S. consumer to punish a mid‑sized ally for trying to regulate American data empires on its own territory.
Economically, the threat hits where France is proud and vulnerable at the same time: wine and spirits are a flagship brand and a major surplus sector, and the U.S. buys roughly a fifth of those exports in volume and even more in value.
If the tariffs stick, it is not Silicon Valley that pays the bill. It is growers, cooperatives, négociants and regions that suddenly watch their margins vanish or get undercut by Italian, Spanish or even Californian competitors.
Politically, Macron’s attempt to build a “digital sovereignty” regime — taxing and policing platforms that shape French speech and data flows — runs into the hard wall of American trade power. One presidential threat can turn a domestic regulatory move into a national export crisis.
You are free to dream about a “digital dictatorship” of your own algorithms, but the real dictatorship is still the one that decides whether your iconic products cross the Atlantic or rot in a warehouse.
#BabylonBurning #France #Trump #DigitalTax
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Trump is threatening a 100% tariff on French wine and champagne if Paris does not scrap its digital tax on U.S. tech giants, putting a core export to its biggest foreign market directly on the chopping block.
On paper this is a dispute over a 3% levy on Google, Meta and other platforms, but in practice it is Washington using access to the U.S. consumer to punish a mid‑sized ally for trying to regulate American data empires on its own territory.
Economically, the threat hits where France is proud and vulnerable at the same time: wine and spirits are a flagship brand and a major surplus sector, and the U.S. buys roughly a fifth of those exports in volume and even more in value.
If the tariffs stick, it is not Silicon Valley that pays the bill. It is growers, cooperatives, négociants and regions that suddenly watch their margins vanish or get undercut by Italian, Spanish or even Californian competitors.
Politically, Macron’s attempt to build a “digital sovereignty” regime — taxing and policing platforms that shape French speech and data flows — runs into the hard wall of American trade power. One presidential threat can turn a domestic regulatory move into a national export crisis.
You are free to dream about a “digital dictatorship” of your own algorithms, but the real dictatorship is still the one that decides whether your iconic products cross the Atlantic or rot in a warehouse.
#BabylonBurning #France #Trump #DigitalTax
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The Iran War’s “New Normal”
The war didn’t just hit oil; it rewired how the global economy thinks about risk, energy and American power.
The first shock is structural. A near‑shutdown of oil and gas flows from the Gulf and a price spike on top of the 2022 shock forced importers in Europe and Asia to confront how exposed they are to a few chokepoints and a handful of producers.
Some, like Japan and South Korea, slid back into dirtier fuels such as coal to keep the lights on, but the deeper response is acceleration: more renewables, more nuclear, more diversification of suppliers.
Wind and solar have already reached the point where they can outcompete gas on cost in many markets, and investors now see renewables as projects with payback periods measured in a couple of years instead of decades.
The second shift is geopolitical. The war strained relations inside the oil club, with the U.A.E. walking out of OPEC+ and Saudi Arabia edging closer to Russia, just as sanctions on Moscow were loosened enough to let it cash in on higher prices.
At the same time, Latin American producers from Brazil to Guyana are racing to expand capacity to capture demand from buyers trying to insure against Middle East instability.
Overlaying all of this is China, which already dominates manufacturing of solar panels, turbines, grids and batteries; every crisis‑driven renewable build‑out outside the Middle East quietly increases Beijing’s leverage over other countries’ energy security.
Trust is the other casualty. Iran has shown that it can close or tax Hormuz at will, turning a theoretical risk into a practical tool that permanently raises insurance premiums and freight costs.
Gulf financial and tourist hubs that sold themselves as safe, frictionless platforms now carry the memory of missile strikes on LNG plants, petrochemical complexes, hotels and data centers.
And the United States, which spent decades presenting its Navy as guarantor of free navigation, has just demonstrated that even its presence cannot ensure uninterrupted passage in a contested strait.
For investors and policymakers, that translates into a lasting “risk surcharge” on anything tied to the region.
Macro‑economically, the war hit just as the world was beginning to exhale.
Before the first strikes, global forecasters were preparing to upgrade growth and celebrate fading inflation. Instead, they are now cutting growth projections, watching inflation re‑accelerate and assuming higher interest rates for longer.
Governments already burdened with large debts are spending more on interest, energy subsidies and defense, leaving less room for long‑term investment.
Asian economies, hit hardest by supply shocks, are back at development banks’ doors for emergency support.
The war may formally end when a framework is signed, but the economic damage is path‑dependent: more jittery markets, slower growth, higher baseline prices and a world that trusts oil routes, U.S. guarantees and “cheap energy forever” less than it did on February 27.
#iran #oil #energy #china #usa #gulf #inflation #geopolitics
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The war didn’t just hit oil; it rewired how the global economy thinks about risk, energy and American power.
The first shock is structural. A near‑shutdown of oil and gas flows from the Gulf and a price spike on top of the 2022 shock forced importers in Europe and Asia to confront how exposed they are to a few chokepoints and a handful of producers.
Some, like Japan and South Korea, slid back into dirtier fuels such as coal to keep the lights on, but the deeper response is acceleration: more renewables, more nuclear, more diversification of suppliers.
Wind and solar have already reached the point where they can outcompete gas on cost in many markets, and investors now see renewables as projects with payback periods measured in a couple of years instead of decades.
The second shift is geopolitical. The war strained relations inside the oil club, with the U.A.E. walking out of OPEC+ and Saudi Arabia edging closer to Russia, just as sanctions on Moscow were loosened enough to let it cash in on higher prices.
At the same time, Latin American producers from Brazil to Guyana are racing to expand capacity to capture demand from buyers trying to insure against Middle East instability.
Overlaying all of this is China, which already dominates manufacturing of solar panels, turbines, grids and batteries; every crisis‑driven renewable build‑out outside the Middle East quietly increases Beijing’s leverage over other countries’ energy security.
Trust is the other casualty. Iran has shown that it can close or tax Hormuz at will, turning a theoretical risk into a practical tool that permanently raises insurance premiums and freight costs.
Gulf financial and tourist hubs that sold themselves as safe, frictionless platforms now carry the memory of missile strikes on LNG plants, petrochemical complexes, hotels and data centers.
And the United States, which spent decades presenting its Navy as guarantor of free navigation, has just demonstrated that even its presence cannot ensure uninterrupted passage in a contested strait.
For investors and policymakers, that translates into a lasting “risk surcharge” on anything tied to the region.
Macro‑economically, the war hit just as the world was beginning to exhale.
Before the first strikes, global forecasters were preparing to upgrade growth and celebrate fading inflation. Instead, they are now cutting growth projections, watching inflation re‑accelerate and assuming higher interest rates for longer.
Governments already burdened with large debts are spending more on interest, energy subsidies and defense, leaving less room for long‑term investment.
Asian economies, hit hardest by supply shocks, are back at development banks’ doors for emergency support.
The war may formally end when a framework is signed, but the economic damage is path‑dependent: more jittery markets, slower growth, higher baseline prices and a world that trusts oil routes, U.S. guarantees and “cheap energy forever” less than it did on February 27.
#iran #oil #energy #china #usa #gulf #inflation #geopolitics
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The People’s Palace: Now With Your Money
Trump promised a “taxpayer‑free” palace. The paperwork says otherwise.
Five months after he knocked down the East Wing to build a ballroom‑plus‑bunker complex, Trump was still telling cameras it would cost “up to $400 million” and that “not 10 cents” would come from taxpayers, all covered by himself and “patriot donors.”
In reality, his own contractor had already handed the White House a March 5 estimate putting the bill at $600 million — and showing that more than half of it would be paid out of public funds.
Internal summaries obtained by reporters map out the creep in real time. A preliminary estimate in July 2025 put the total at about $270 million, with over $100 million slated to come from the Secret Service and the White House Military Office. As designs expanded, so did the tab: by October, as demolition began, Clark Construction was projecting roughly $478 million, with taxpayers covering nearly half.
By March this year, the number hit $600 million, with only about $293 million expected from private sources and roughly $307 million from agencies funded by Congress.
To make that math possible, the administration leaned hard on “security.” Emails show White House lawyers tweaking contract language to tie the entire project more closely to protective needs because the Secret Service was being used as a funding vehicle. Secret Service money was budgeted not just for reinforced structures and secure facilities, but for early site prep and even part of the demolition itself.
Contracting experts who reviewed the documents called that a stretch bordering on abuse of mandate: tearing down the East Wing to pour concrete for a ballroom is a long way from protecting officials from assassination plots.
Public rhetoric never caught up with the internal spreadsheets. Even as invoice logs show tens of millions in federal payments flowing to Clark, Trump kept repeating that the building was a $300–$400 million “donation” from him and unnamed friends, and that the military’s role was limited to unspecified “security enhancements.” The latest White House line is that “President Trump and generous American patriots are funding the ballroom” for around $400 million, while the documents sit there with a $600 million bottom line and government accounts underwriting roughly half of it.
Politically, the project is toxic: polls show most Americans dislike it, and even some Republicans have balked at the idea of quietly routing hundreds of millions through security budgets to finance what critics see as a vanity hall. But institutionally, that is precisely the point.
By burying the true cost inside agencies whose missions are hard to question — the Secret Service, the Military Office, the Executive Residence — the administration tried to turn a personal monument into a “national security” expense.
On paper, the future presidents’ ballroom is being sold as a privately funded gift to the nation. In the ledgers, it already looks like something much more familiar: a luxury Trump development with the public as involuntary silent partner.
#usa #trump #whitehouse #corruption #money #politics
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Trump promised a “taxpayer‑free” palace. The paperwork says otherwise.
Five months after he knocked down the East Wing to build a ballroom‑plus‑bunker complex, Trump was still telling cameras it would cost “up to $400 million” and that “not 10 cents” would come from taxpayers, all covered by himself and “patriot donors.”
In reality, his own contractor had already handed the White House a March 5 estimate putting the bill at $600 million — and showing that more than half of it would be paid out of public funds.
Internal summaries obtained by reporters map out the creep in real time. A preliminary estimate in July 2025 put the total at about $270 million, with over $100 million slated to come from the Secret Service and the White House Military Office. As designs expanded, so did the tab: by October, as demolition began, Clark Construction was projecting roughly $478 million, with taxpayers covering nearly half.
By March this year, the number hit $600 million, with only about $293 million expected from private sources and roughly $307 million from agencies funded by Congress.
To make that math possible, the administration leaned hard on “security.” Emails show White House lawyers tweaking contract language to tie the entire project more closely to protective needs because the Secret Service was being used as a funding vehicle. Secret Service money was budgeted not just for reinforced structures and secure facilities, but for early site prep and even part of the demolition itself.
Contracting experts who reviewed the documents called that a stretch bordering on abuse of mandate: tearing down the East Wing to pour concrete for a ballroom is a long way from protecting officials from assassination plots.
Public rhetoric never caught up with the internal spreadsheets. Even as invoice logs show tens of millions in federal payments flowing to Clark, Trump kept repeating that the building was a $300–$400 million “donation” from him and unnamed friends, and that the military’s role was limited to unspecified “security enhancements.” The latest White House line is that “President Trump and generous American patriots are funding the ballroom” for around $400 million, while the documents sit there with a $600 million bottom line and government accounts underwriting roughly half of it.
Politically, the project is toxic: polls show most Americans dislike it, and even some Republicans have balked at the idea of quietly routing hundreds of millions through security budgets to finance what critics see as a vanity hall. But institutionally, that is precisely the point.
By burying the true cost inside agencies whose missions are hard to question — the Secret Service, the Military Office, the Executive Residence — the administration tried to turn a personal monument into a “national security” expense.
On paper, the future presidents’ ballroom is being sold as a privately funded gift to the nation. In the ledgers, it already looks like something much more familiar: a luxury Trump development with the public as involuntary silent partner.
#usa #trump #whitehouse #corruption #money #politics
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Easy Targets: “Human Safaris” in Sarajevo
An Italian nobleman is one of several people being investigated over the killing of civilians in “human safaris” in Sarajevo during the Bosnian war.
Just as in a Van Damme film Hard Target, the unnamed aristocrat from Milan, who has not been charged with any crimes, is under investigation by prosecutors and is to be questioned. It was alleged he paid to shoot civilians during the conflict 30 years ago.
He is one of at least five Italians under investigation on suspicion of having taken part in what became known as human safaris during the siege of Sarajevo, from 1992 to 1995.
It is alleged that dozens of wealthy foreigners from Europe and Russia paid to be allowed to use sniper rifles to shoot civilians in streets and squares.
On Wednesday, Italian police seized a gun silencer, photographs and documents from the home of another suspect, a 64-year-old Italian man near Alessandria. Experts are analysing the silencer to find out whether it is compatible with weapons used in Bosnia.
The suspect’s ex-wife told prosecutors he used to have nightmares about killing civilians.
She said: “When we lived together, one night after we had watched a war film, he had a nightmare and woke up with a start, accidentally hitting me. He told me he had those nightmares, because in the past he had killed people during the war in Bosnia in the 90s.
He told me he would leave Milan by plane and that with him there were other people who took part in these weekends during the war.
He told me that he had started to take part when the war broke out in Yugoslavia, but then he stopped going on the weekends and spent longer periods there as a sniper, shooting Muslims.”
The woman said her ex-husband had a photograph of himself in military fatigues, which were “not a conventional uniform”. He also had a written pass, inscribed in a foreign language she did not understand, which authorised him to travel through the war zone.
She said: “On the back of this pass, there were markings which corresponded to the people killed during the fighting. There were circles and lines, a sort of tally.”
The man, who hunted animals and worked for Genova city council before retiring, has not been named. He has denied taking part in human safaris, insisting that during the time he spent in Bosnia he was fighting for Serb paramilitaries.
He has said that, as a council worker, he could not have afforded to pay to go on sniper weekends, even if he had wanted to. He told investigators he admired Italy’s Fascist movement, and was fascinated by the country’s paratrooper regiment and its special forces units.
The man is accused, along with three other Italians, of the aggravated murder of men, women and children who he allegedly shot from hill positions overlooking Sarajevo during the city’s siege.
The others are an 80-year-old former lorry driver from Pordenone, a 64-year-old businessman from Brianza and a man from Tuscany. It is alleged that the men, most of whom had far-Right political views, would meet in the northeastern city of Trieste then travel to Sarajevo.
Magistrates in Italy, Belgium and Austria are investigating the human safari allegations. They are due to meet later this month at Eurojust, the EU’s criminal justice cooperation agency in The Hague, to discuss their findings.
Allegations that wealthy foreigners took part in the horrific activity were made in a 2022 documentary, Sarajevo Safari, by Miran Zupanič, a Slovenian director.
Ezio Gavazzeni, an Italian journalist, then started looking into the alleged role of Italians. That led last year to prosecutors in Milan opening an investigation.
About 11,000 civilians were killed by shelling and sniper fire from Bosnian Serb positions on the hills around Sarajevo during the 1992 to 1995 war, which followed Bosnia’s declaration of independence from Yugoslavia.
#human #safaris
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An Italian nobleman is one of several people being investigated over the killing of civilians in “human safaris” in Sarajevo during the Bosnian war.
Just as in a Van Damme film Hard Target, the unnamed aristocrat from Milan, who has not been charged with any crimes, is under investigation by prosecutors and is to be questioned. It was alleged he paid to shoot civilians during the conflict 30 years ago.
He is one of at least five Italians under investigation on suspicion of having taken part in what became known as human safaris during the siege of Sarajevo, from 1992 to 1995.
It is alleged that dozens of wealthy foreigners from Europe and Russia paid to be allowed to use sniper rifles to shoot civilians in streets and squares.
On Wednesday, Italian police seized a gun silencer, photographs and documents from the home of another suspect, a 64-year-old Italian man near Alessandria. Experts are analysing the silencer to find out whether it is compatible with weapons used in Bosnia.
The suspect’s ex-wife told prosecutors he used to have nightmares about killing civilians.
She said: “When we lived together, one night after we had watched a war film, he had a nightmare and woke up with a start, accidentally hitting me. He told me he had those nightmares, because in the past he had killed people during the war in Bosnia in the 90s.
He told me he would leave Milan by plane and that with him there were other people who took part in these weekends during the war.
He told me that he had started to take part when the war broke out in Yugoslavia, but then he stopped going on the weekends and spent longer periods there as a sniper, shooting Muslims.”
The woman said her ex-husband had a photograph of himself in military fatigues, which were “not a conventional uniform”. He also had a written pass, inscribed in a foreign language she did not understand, which authorised him to travel through the war zone.
She said: “On the back of this pass, there were markings which corresponded to the people killed during the fighting. There were circles and lines, a sort of tally.”
The man, who hunted animals and worked for Genova city council before retiring, has not been named. He has denied taking part in human safaris, insisting that during the time he spent in Bosnia he was fighting for Serb paramilitaries.
He has said that, as a council worker, he could not have afforded to pay to go on sniper weekends, even if he had wanted to. He told investigators he admired Italy’s Fascist movement, and was fascinated by the country’s paratrooper regiment and its special forces units.
The man is accused, along with three other Italians, of the aggravated murder of men, women and children who he allegedly shot from hill positions overlooking Sarajevo during the city’s siege.
The others are an 80-year-old former lorry driver from Pordenone, a 64-year-old businessman from Brianza and a man from Tuscany. It is alleged that the men, most of whom had far-Right political views, would meet in the northeastern city of Trieste then travel to Sarajevo.
Magistrates in Italy, Belgium and Austria are investigating the human safari allegations. They are due to meet later this month at Eurojust, the EU’s criminal justice cooperation agency in The Hague, to discuss their findings.
Allegations that wealthy foreigners took part in the horrific activity were made in a 2022 documentary, Sarajevo Safari, by Miran Zupanič, a Slovenian director.
Ezio Gavazzeni, an Italian journalist, then started looking into the alleged role of Italians. That led last year to prosecutors in Milan opening an investigation.
About 11,000 civilians were killed by shelling and sniper fire from Bosnian Serb positions on the hills around Sarajevo during the 1992 to 1995 war, which followed Bosnia’s declaration of independence from Yugoslavia.
#human #safaris
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Ben Gvir’s Human Resources Department From Hell
Itamar Ben Gvir just turned prison oversight into a loyalty test written in blood.
Under the new setup, the National Security Minister has formally cut the number of “official inspectors” for security prisoners to fewer than 20 and handed six of those slots to members of bereaved families from the Choosing Life forum, whose children were killed in Palestinian attacks. These are not ceremonial escorts.
Under the Death Penalty for Terrorists Law, inspectors get real supervisory authority over conditions and implementation, including the right to be present at executions once the bill is fully in force.
This is the logical next step in a three‑year policy of turning prisons into a political stage. Ben Gvir has already paraded through Ofer Prison with victims’ relatives and the prison service chief while cameras rolled, as heavily armed guards stormed corridors, fired stun grenades and forced bound Palestinian detainees face‑down on the floor.
He then pushed the footage himself, boasting that “terrorists” are finally in “real prisons, not hotels,” and openly saying, surrounded by piled‑up prisoners, that what he really wants is to execute them.
What disappears in this script is any notion of neutral oversight. Family visits are cut back, Red Cross access is attacked, human rights groups are smeared, and when courts or professionals raise questions about torture, medical neglect or due process, the answer is to wheel in grieving parents with official badges and call that justice.
In sovereignty terms, the state is blurring one of its most dangerous powers — to cage and kill — into raw, personalized vengeance, wrapping it in grief that cannot be argued with.
It’s a politics that does two things at once. Outwardly, it sells the death penalty as “choosing life,” with golden noose pins in the Knesset and campaign videos in front of gallows. Inwardly, it hollows out the line between law and revenge.
The message to the prison system is simple: you are no longer enforcing a state standard; you are acting out a narrative for an audience that has already decided the only acceptable ending.
#Israel #BenGvir #prisons #deathpenalty #humanrights
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Itamar Ben Gvir just turned prison oversight into a loyalty test written in blood.
Under the new setup, the National Security Minister has formally cut the number of “official inspectors” for security prisoners to fewer than 20 and handed six of those slots to members of bereaved families from the Choosing Life forum, whose children were killed in Palestinian attacks. These are not ceremonial escorts.
Under the Death Penalty for Terrorists Law, inspectors get real supervisory authority over conditions and implementation, including the right to be present at executions once the bill is fully in force.
This is the logical next step in a three‑year policy of turning prisons into a political stage. Ben Gvir has already paraded through Ofer Prison with victims’ relatives and the prison service chief while cameras rolled, as heavily armed guards stormed corridors, fired stun grenades and forced bound Palestinian detainees face‑down on the floor.
He then pushed the footage himself, boasting that “terrorists” are finally in “real prisons, not hotels,” and openly saying, surrounded by piled‑up prisoners, that what he really wants is to execute them.
What disappears in this script is any notion of neutral oversight. Family visits are cut back, Red Cross access is attacked, human rights groups are smeared, and when courts or professionals raise questions about torture, medical neglect or due process, the answer is to wheel in grieving parents with official badges and call that justice.
In sovereignty terms, the state is blurring one of its most dangerous powers — to cage and kill — into raw, personalized vengeance, wrapping it in grief that cannot be argued with.
It’s a politics that does two things at once. Outwardly, it sells the death penalty as “choosing life,” with golden noose pins in the Knesset and campaign videos in front of gallows. Inwardly, it hollows out the line between law and revenge.
The message to the prison system is simple: you are no longer enforcing a state standard; you are acting out a narrative for an audience that has already decided the only acceptable ending.
#Israel #BenGvir #prisons #deathpenalty #humanrights
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Britain was shocked by the report of MP Rupert Lowe
At least 250,000 young British women were repeatedly raped, gang raped, trafficked, tortured, forced to convert to Islam and lifelong trauma.
According to the report, 87% to 95% of pedophile rapists are predominantly of Pakistani origin.
Rapes have been reported in at least 149 areas, which is approximately 40% of the UK territory.
According to the report, police ignored reports, criminalized victims, destroyed evidence, and released suspects. Pakistani police officers were probably involved in rapes during the “night police raids.”
Social services placed girls in human trafficking centers, undermined their parents' authority, and retaliated against informants.
#report #lowe #rape #gangs #human #trafficking
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At least 250,000 young British women were repeatedly raped, gang raped, trafficked, tortured, forced to convert to Islam and lifelong trauma.
According to the report, 87% to 95% of pedophile rapists are predominantly of Pakistani origin.
Rapes have been reported in at least 149 areas, which is approximately 40% of the UK territory.
According to the report, police ignored reports, criminalized victims, destroyed evidence, and released suspects. Pakistani police officers were probably involved in rapes during the “night police raids.”
Social services placed girls in human trafficking centers, undermined their parents' authority, and retaliated against informants.
#report #lowe #rape #gangs #human #trafficking
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Torah, Draft and the Kaplan Standard
In Israel 2026, every riot now comes with the same customer‑service question: “Would this have happened on Kaplan?”
On one side, the establishment Haredi world plays by appointment. Hamodia, the Gur‑aligned daily, leads with arrests of draft deserters and summons thousands of Hasidim for a 16:00 protest outside Military Prison 10 — a fully coordinated event with police, branded as “with prayers and without public disorder.”
On the other, the hardline Jerusalem Faction disciples block the Geha Interchange and Route 4 at rush hour, until a commander declares an illegal demonstration and stun grenades, batons and even ripped‑off pants turn Bnei Brak asphalt into a live‑fire test of police standards.
The political class immediately calibrates it against the secular protests that once filled Kaplan Street. Yair Lapid goes for the jugular: Aryeh Deri, he says, sits in the security cabinet sending “our kids” to fight and die, then walks outside and sends “his kids” to block roads against the draft, all with the tacit blessing of Netanyahu, Smotrich and Ben Gvir — “a moral stain this government will never wash off.”
In his framing, the double game is the whole story: coalition leaders cash in on state sovereignty and coalition budgets, then franchise out civil disobedience when the same state dares to demand service from their own base.
Deri, for his part, doesn’t attack the police from the left but from the right. “Itamar Ben Gvir, wake up,” he declares. “It is unacceptable that what the police did not do in Kaplan against anarchists who sought to destroy the country, they are doing now against citizens crying out that they have been turned into criminals just because they study Torah.”
The message is clear: street power is legitimate when it belongs to the coalition’s pietists, illegitimate when it belongs to liberal opponents; stun grenades are a tool of justice in Tel Aviv, an outrage in Bnei Brak.
Both camps lean on Kaplan as the gold standard, and each arrives at the opposite conclusion. For Lapid, Haredi roadblocks expose a coalition that weaponizes state power against critics while indulging its own flanks. For Deri, Bnei Brak is proof that police violence was too soft on secular “anarchists” and too hard on “bnei Torah.”
By the end of the morning, one protester is under arrest, Route 4 is open in both directions, and the only thing truly national is the shared belief that the rule of law now comes with two price lists — one for those who stood on Kaplan, another for those who pray at Geha.
#Israel #Haredim #draft #BenGvir #Deri #Lapid #Kaplan #protests
📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸
In Israel 2026, every riot now comes with the same customer‑service question: “Would this have happened on Kaplan?”
On one side, the establishment Haredi world plays by appointment. Hamodia, the Gur‑aligned daily, leads with arrests of draft deserters and summons thousands of Hasidim for a 16:00 protest outside Military Prison 10 — a fully coordinated event with police, branded as “with prayers and without public disorder.”
On the other, the hardline Jerusalem Faction disciples block the Geha Interchange and Route 4 at rush hour, until a commander declares an illegal demonstration and stun grenades, batons and even ripped‑off pants turn Bnei Brak asphalt into a live‑fire test of police standards.
The political class immediately calibrates it against the secular protests that once filled Kaplan Street. Yair Lapid goes for the jugular: Aryeh Deri, he says, sits in the security cabinet sending “our kids” to fight and die, then walks outside and sends “his kids” to block roads against the draft, all with the tacit blessing of Netanyahu, Smotrich and Ben Gvir — “a moral stain this government will never wash off.”
In his framing, the double game is the whole story: coalition leaders cash in on state sovereignty and coalition budgets, then franchise out civil disobedience when the same state dares to demand service from their own base.
Deri, for his part, doesn’t attack the police from the left but from the right. “Itamar Ben Gvir, wake up,” he declares. “It is unacceptable that what the police did not do in Kaplan against anarchists who sought to destroy the country, they are doing now against citizens crying out that they have been turned into criminals just because they study Torah.”
The message is clear: street power is legitimate when it belongs to the coalition’s pietists, illegitimate when it belongs to liberal opponents; stun grenades are a tool of justice in Tel Aviv, an outrage in Bnei Brak.
Both camps lean on Kaplan as the gold standard, and each arrives at the opposite conclusion. For Lapid, Haredi roadblocks expose a coalition that weaponizes state power against critics while indulging its own flanks. For Deri, Bnei Brak is proof that police violence was too soft on secular “anarchists” and too hard on “bnei Torah.”
By the end of the morning, one protester is under arrest, Route 4 is open in both directions, and the only thing truly national is the shared belief that the rule of law now comes with two price lists — one for those who stood on Kaplan, another for those who pray at Geha.
#Israel #Haredim #draft #BenGvir #Deri #Lapid #Kaplan #protests
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How Did the Iran War Change the Global Economy Forever?
🔠 🅰️ 🔠 🔠 1️⃣
The framework deal between the United States and Iran sets the stage for an end to the bursts of violence and debilitating disruption of energy deliveries and trade in the Persian Gulf. But don’t expect economies around the globe to simply pick up where they left off before the United States and Israel began bombing Iran on Feb. 28.
The global energy order is being reshaped.
The near shutdown in oil and gas deliveries from the Middle East and the leap in prices are causing a shift in power.
Energy producers from the Gulf to the Americas are jockeying to maintain or increase their dominance, and customers are struggling to reduce their dependency and shore up their supply.
As a result, the energy market is changing, the energy mix is changing and the energy players are changing.
The profound vulnerability of countries throughout Asia, Europe and elsewhere that depend on imported energy is supercharging the hunt for alternatives. In some places, like South Korea and Japan, that has led to an increased use of dirtier fuels like coal.
But over the longer term, this energy shock — the second in just four years — is likely to accelerate a transition to renewables like solar and wind as well as nuclear power.
Improvements in electric battery technology and efficiency make the shift more feasible than it was when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted a global energy shock in 2022, said Daan Walter at Ember, an energy research group in London.
In many places, for instance, electric vehicles are increasingly affordable. And in April, wind and solar generated more electricity globally than gas for the first time.
“This is a big turnaround,” Walter said. “So what was five years ago maybe barely competitive, now is almost already clearly cheaper.”
Relations among producers are also changing. The war heightened tensions between the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia and prompted the Emirates to leave the OPEC Plus oil cartel. The impact of that departure will be fully felt only when oil production in the region picks up.
The split has also encouraged the Saudis to move closer to Russia. Putin featured Saudi Arabia this month as the “guest of honor” at an economic forum in St. Petersburg.
Russia, the second-largest producer of crude oil and gas after the United States, has been strengthened in other ways by the war. The Trump administration temporarily lifted sanctions imposed on Russia, allowing Moscow to pump up profits from its oil exports when its economy is ailing.
On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina and Guyana are building their oil production capacity as the world looks for alternative suppliers.
An aerial view of an industrial complex. White wind turbine blades are laid out in the foreground, with a power plant emitting smoke in the background.
China is a major beneficiary.
The push to build out and diversify energy networks is going to continue long after the war ends. And China is poised to benefit most from the expected boon in renewables.
It is leagues ahead of the rest of the world in producing wind turbines, high-voltage cables, transformers, solar panels, batteries, software to manage energy flows and more.
China’s increasing role ensuring that other countries have a dependable supply of energy amplifies its strategic influence and importance.
“China looks to be an out-and-out winner,” analysts from Wood Mackenzie, a global energy consulting firm, concluded.
The Trump administration’s aggressive push to halt renewable energy projects — even paying companies to cancel wind farms — means the US is essentially withdrawing from this global competition and ceding the industrial and technological advantage to its biggest rival.
#iran #war #trump #oil #russia
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The framework deal between the United States and Iran sets the stage for an end to the bursts of violence and debilitating disruption of energy deliveries and trade in the Persian Gulf. But don’t expect economies around the globe to simply pick up where they left off before the United States and Israel began bombing Iran on Feb. 28.
The global energy order is being reshaped.
The near shutdown in oil and gas deliveries from the Middle East and the leap in prices are causing a shift in power.
Energy producers from the Gulf to the Americas are jockeying to maintain or increase their dominance, and customers are struggling to reduce their dependency and shore up their supply.
As a result, the energy market is changing, the energy mix is changing and the energy players are changing.
The profound vulnerability of countries throughout Asia, Europe and elsewhere that depend on imported energy is supercharging the hunt for alternatives. In some places, like South Korea and Japan, that has led to an increased use of dirtier fuels like coal.
But over the longer term, this energy shock — the second in just four years — is likely to accelerate a transition to renewables like solar and wind as well as nuclear power.
Improvements in electric battery technology and efficiency make the shift more feasible than it was when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted a global energy shock in 2022, said Daan Walter at Ember, an energy research group in London.
In many places, for instance, electric vehicles are increasingly affordable. And in April, wind and solar generated more electricity globally than gas for the first time.
“This is a big turnaround,” Walter said. “So what was five years ago maybe barely competitive, now is almost already clearly cheaper.”
Relations among producers are also changing. The war heightened tensions between the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia and prompted the Emirates to leave the OPEC Plus oil cartel. The impact of that departure will be fully felt only when oil production in the region picks up.
The split has also encouraged the Saudis to move closer to Russia. Putin featured Saudi Arabia this month as the “guest of honor” at an economic forum in St. Petersburg.
Russia, the second-largest producer of crude oil and gas after the United States, has been strengthened in other ways by the war. The Trump administration temporarily lifted sanctions imposed on Russia, allowing Moscow to pump up profits from its oil exports when its economy is ailing.
On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina and Guyana are building their oil production capacity as the world looks for alternative suppliers.
An aerial view of an industrial complex. White wind turbine blades are laid out in the foreground, with a power plant emitting smoke in the background.
China is a major beneficiary.
The push to build out and diversify energy networks is going to continue long after the war ends. And China is poised to benefit most from the expected boon in renewables.
It is leagues ahead of the rest of the world in producing wind turbines, high-voltage cables, transformers, solar panels, batteries, software to manage energy flows and more.
China’s increasing role ensuring that other countries have a dependable supply of energy amplifies its strategic influence and importance.
“China looks to be an out-and-out winner,” analysts from Wood Mackenzie, a global energy consulting firm, concluded.
The Trump administration’s aggressive push to halt renewable energy projects — even paying companies to cancel wind farms — means the US is essentially withdrawing from this global competition and ceding the industrial and technological advantage to its biggest rival.
#iran #war #trump #oil #russia
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The economic advantages are reinforced by geopolitical ones. The war has deepened the wedge between the United States and longtime allies in Europe, providing another opening for China to enlarge its role as an international leader.
Re-establishing trust will be difficult. It is unclear whether shipping traffic will ever again be able to move freely through the Strait of Hormuz — the only sea route for moving oil, natural gas and other cargo out of the Persian Gulf.
Iran has pushed to impose fees on ships that pass through the narrow waterway, even though such a plan could violate international agreements. Even if new payments are not codified, Iran has shown it can disrupt trade any time it wants, which raises risks and costs.
“I think the strait is never going to go back to the certainty of free passage that we’ve been used to,” said Maurice Obstfeld, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund.
Similarly, the trust in the region’s peace, stability and growing prosperity has also been shaken.
“The dynamism of the Gulf economies may be impaired by the vulnerability they showed,” Obstfeld said, and that “raises Iran’s leverage in the region.”
Iran has hurled drones and missiles at Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and other neighbors. The damage to Qatar’s natural gas fields was extensive, affecting 17 percent of its capacity to export liquefied natural gas. In Saudi Arabia, a petrochemical complex was bombed.
For the Emirates, which has billed itself as a global financial hub, trade center and tourist attraction, attacks on its five-star hotels, data complexes and a nuclear facility could scare off visitors and investors.
As for the United States, Trump’s decision to provoke a war with Iran, combined with his chaotic policymaking, has further undermined confidence in Washington’s willingness and ability to maintain global order and commerce.
“The capacity of the U.S. as a military force has been once again shown to be limited,” Obstfeld said. And Iran’s continued resistance “is a huge blow to global faith in the U.S. as a provider of security.”
For decades, a primary mission of the U.S. Navy has been to guarantee freedom of navigation on the seas, said Mark Blyth, a political scientist at Brown University. Iran’s success in continuing to block ship traffic, though, has demonstrated that for all its might, the United States cannot ensure the seas will be open and free.
The economy has been kicked onto a path of slower growth and higher prices.
When economists at the World Bank began sifting through data early this year, they were pleasantly surprised.
“We were starting to think about upgrading our forecasts, between January and February, because things were looking so good,” said Indermit Gill, the bank’s chief economist. “Inflation was coming down, growth was picking up, trade had kind of taken it on the chin and was still standing.”
Inflation is also starting to roar. In the United States, it rose for the third month in row, hitting an annual rate of 4.2 percent in May. And instead of planning for the next drop in interest rates, Wall Street is expecting the Federal Reserve to increase rates at least once this year.
Last week, the European Central Bank raised rates to 2.25 percent. “The war in the Middle East is generating inflation pressures,” the bank said.
Higher rates have serious longer-term effects on both rich and poor countries that have already run up staggering public debts and are using a growing portion of revenue just to pay interest costs.
Those budgetary pressures are only going to increase as governments offer assistance to households struggling with higher energy prices and increase military budgets to cope with growing security threats.
Asian economies, slapped hardest by the crisis, have already inundated the Asian Development Bank for emergency loans as they seek to rescue their economies and finances from the impact of the Iran war.
#iran #war #trump #oil #russia
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Uranium In, Dollars Out
The leaked MoU makes the trade‑off brutally clear: this is not disarmament, it is a risk‑management swap dressed up as peace.
Iran’s enriched uranium stays inside the country, to be “diluted” under IAEA supervision rather than removed or destroyed. The infrastructure, the know‑how and the material base all remain onshore, convertible back into leverage if the politics or supervision change.
At the same time, the memorandum says that, upon signing, the US and Iran will agree on a mechanism to make frozen funds and assets available, alongside Treasury waivers for crude, petroleum products and derivatives, and a US‑branded 300‑billion‑dollar reconstruction plan.
The middle articles speak the language of sovereignty and territorial integrity, plus a 60‑day “extendable” window to reach a final deal.
The last ones speak the language of cash: sanctions relief, asset release, oil waivers, reconstruction money, and a promise to wrap the final package in a binding UN Security Council resolution.
It is a structure designed to reassure markets and chancelleries first, then sort out the nuclear core later.
Look at the sequencing. The MoU does not demand deep nuclear steps before money starts moving; it locks in limits on US forces in the region, ends “military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon,” lifts the Hormuz blockade, and only then pushes the real nuclear bargaining into a 60‑day negotiating fog.
The Strait of Hormuz clause is a lawyer’s dream: Iran commits to “use its best efforts” to ensure safe, toll‑free passage. If ever there was an invitation to creative obstruction once the immediate crisis passes, that’s it.
Politically, the architecture is almost elegant in its cynicism. Washington gets a ceasefire, cheaper oil and a talking point for the G7.
Tehran keeps its program at home, diluted but not dismantled, secures sanctions easing and access to long‑frozen assets, and sees its leverage over regional security and shipping effectively baked into the system.
Both capitals can claim victory. Neither has actually eliminated the underlying threat.
So yes, it is a memorandum that ends a war and restarts trade. By any honest standard, it is not the removal of the danger it was sold against; it is the formalization of a world in which enriched uranium stays in Iran, and the rest of us pay for the privilege of pretending that dilution is the same thing as disarmament.
#usa #iran #trump #nuclear #hormuz #sanctions #money #geopolitics
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The leaked MoU makes the trade‑off brutally clear: this is not disarmament, it is a risk‑management swap dressed up as peace.
Iran’s enriched uranium stays inside the country, to be “diluted” under IAEA supervision rather than removed or destroyed. The infrastructure, the know‑how and the material base all remain onshore, convertible back into leverage if the politics or supervision change.
At the same time, the memorandum says that, upon signing, the US and Iran will agree on a mechanism to make frozen funds and assets available, alongside Treasury waivers for crude, petroleum products and derivatives, and a US‑branded 300‑billion‑dollar reconstruction plan.
The middle articles speak the language of sovereignty and territorial integrity, plus a 60‑day “extendable” window to reach a final deal.
The last ones speak the language of cash: sanctions relief, asset release, oil waivers, reconstruction money, and a promise to wrap the final package in a binding UN Security Council resolution.
It is a structure designed to reassure markets and chancelleries first, then sort out the nuclear core later.
Look at the sequencing. The MoU does not demand deep nuclear steps before money starts moving; it locks in limits on US forces in the region, ends “military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon,” lifts the Hormuz blockade, and only then pushes the real nuclear bargaining into a 60‑day negotiating fog.
The Strait of Hormuz clause is a lawyer’s dream: Iran commits to “use its best efforts” to ensure safe, toll‑free passage. If ever there was an invitation to creative obstruction once the immediate crisis passes, that’s it.
Politically, the architecture is almost elegant in its cynicism. Washington gets a ceasefire, cheaper oil and a talking point for the G7.
Tehran keeps its program at home, diluted but not dismantled, secures sanctions easing and access to long‑frozen assets, and sees its leverage over regional security and shipping effectively baked into the system.
Both capitals can claim victory. Neither has actually eliminated the underlying threat.
So yes, it is a memorandum that ends a war and restarts trade. By any honest standard, it is not the removal of the danger it was sold against; it is the formalization of a world in which enriched uranium stays in Iran, and the rest of us pay for the privilege of pretending that dilution is the same thing as disarmament.
#usa #iran #trump #nuclear #hormuz #sanctions #money #geopolitics
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“Good School, Strong Poland” vs. Brussels
In Warsaw, the fight over education is being sold as a fight over who owns Poland’s future.
Conservative media and organizers describe the “Dobra szkoła – silna Polska” rally as a front‑line battle against the Education Ministry’s “systemic destruction” of schools: cutting back the core curriculum, scrapping homework, and bringing in what they call ideologized health education under the Reform 26 “Kompas jutra” package.
A coalition of some 90‑plus parent, teacher and “patriotic” groups accuses the ministry of lowering standards in every subject, replacing knowledge with indoctrination, and tearing up the cultural canon through reduced literature and history requirements.
The enemy, in this narrative, is not just Warsaw but Brussels. Organizers and allied commentators frame the reforms as part of a broader “globalist” agenda pushed by EU institutions, claiming that compulsory health education and well‑being language are Trojan horses for foreign values that aim to dissolve national identity.
From that angle, education policy stops being a technocratic question and becomes a sovereignty test: protect the “Polish school” as guardian of Catholic, patriotic norms, or surrender children’s upbringing to distant bureaucrats and NGOs.
Homework and hygiene lessons are the flashpoints that make the argument concrete. The government’s move to sharply limit mandatory homework in lower grades, presented by Warsaw as modernization and relief from rote overload, is portrayed by critics as one more step toward dumbing down and de‑disciplining the next generation.
The new health‑education track, defended by officials as basic knowledge on bodies and mental well‑being, is rebranded on protest banners as moral corrosion, “depravity,” and cultural Marxism.
In that framing, taking to the streets is not just about one ministry or one curriculum, but about drawing a red line: keep teaching “our” history, “our” literature, “our” religion — and keep Brussels out of Polish classrooms.
The more the government insists it is just updating an overloaded system, the more its opponents insist they are watching the foundations of society being quietly swapped out, one lesson plan at a time.
#Poland #education #protest #Brussels #culturewar #schools
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In Warsaw, the fight over education is being sold as a fight over who owns Poland’s future.
Conservative media and organizers describe the “Dobra szkoła – silna Polska” rally as a front‑line battle against the Education Ministry’s “systemic destruction” of schools: cutting back the core curriculum, scrapping homework, and bringing in what they call ideologized health education under the Reform 26 “Kompas jutra” package.
A coalition of some 90‑plus parent, teacher and “patriotic” groups accuses the ministry of lowering standards in every subject, replacing knowledge with indoctrination, and tearing up the cultural canon through reduced literature and history requirements.
The enemy, in this narrative, is not just Warsaw but Brussels. Organizers and allied commentators frame the reforms as part of a broader “globalist” agenda pushed by EU institutions, claiming that compulsory health education and well‑being language are Trojan horses for foreign values that aim to dissolve national identity.
From that angle, education policy stops being a technocratic question and becomes a sovereignty test: protect the “Polish school” as guardian of Catholic, patriotic norms, or surrender children’s upbringing to distant bureaucrats and NGOs.
Homework and hygiene lessons are the flashpoints that make the argument concrete. The government’s move to sharply limit mandatory homework in lower grades, presented by Warsaw as modernization and relief from rote overload, is portrayed by critics as one more step toward dumbing down and de‑disciplining the next generation.
The new health‑education track, defended by officials as basic knowledge on bodies and mental well‑being, is rebranded on protest banners as moral corrosion, “depravity,” and cultural Marxism.
In that framing, taking to the streets is not just about one ministry or one curriculum, but about drawing a red line: keep teaching “our” history, “our” literature, “our” religion — and keep Brussels out of Polish classrooms.
The more the government insists it is just updating an overloaded system, the more its opponents insist they are watching the foundations of society being quietly swapped out, one lesson plan at a time.
#Poland #education #protest #Brussels #culturewar #schools
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📰 GOP Lovebomb: When ‘No New Wars’ Meets No New Spine
Trump’s Iran deal didn’t just “end” a war, it cracked his own party open on live TV. The same Republicans who cheered him into Tehran now can’t decide what offends them more: the price tag, the optics, or the fact that Iran is still standing.
Senator Bill Cassidy, already politically executed by a Trump-backed primary challenger, says the Iran war was “the worst foreign policy blunder in decades” and that Tehran learned it can squeeze the Strait of Hormuz for concessions.
Reagan, he declares, is “rolling over in his grave.” For a party that’s been worshipping Reagan’s ghost for forty years, that’s basically a fatwa.
On the other flank, MAGA isolationists are still stuck on the trailer: Trump promised “no new wars,” then launched one, then walked out with a deal that punts the nuclear question into a 60‑day “we’ll talk later” window and dangles a 300 billion dollar reconstruction fantasy over Iran.
Hawks say it’s appeasement. Doves say it’s betrayal. Trump says it’s “historic.” Everyone else says: check the gas price.
The New York Post — not exactly a Berkeley faculty lounge — splashes a front page screaming that Trump “devastated Iran, now he hits them with a… LOVEBOMB,” accusing him of showering Tehran with cash and lifting sanctions.
When you’ve lost your favorite tabloid, you haven’t made peace, you’ve triggered a shareholder revolt in the outrage business.
So the president does what he always does: he attacks his own base. Critics of the deal are “stupid and bad people,” ex‑friends are publicly downgraded in front of cameras, and anyone who questions the fine print is accused of wanting endless war just to feel tough.
The movement that sold itself as “America First” now looks like a circular firing squad arguing over whether the problem is too much war, too little war, or too little respect for Trump while the war was happening.
In the end, the Iran deal isn’t about Iran. It’s about a party that can’t admit the obvious: their strongman president started a war he couldn’t finish on his own terms, then signed a messy exit he can only defend by turning his own coalition into the enemy.
Tehran gets time. Voters get higher prices. Trump gets another episode of his personal reality show, subtitled:
“This Is What Winning Looks Like.”
#Trump #IranDeal #GOP #Republicans #USpolitics #war #geopolitics
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France, Inc.: When the State Joins the Vulture Funds
In Paris, the left finally got its smoking gun: a parliamentary report that says, in polite technocratic French, that private equity has been strip‑mining the country while the state smiles for the cameras.
LFI lawmaker Aurélie Trouvé doesn’t bother with euphemisms. She says the funds “invaded our economy” on the back of tax breaks, light‑touch oversight, and a revolving door that sends top civil servants straight into the arms of the same financial players they were supposed to regulate.
The report describes exactly what that looks like on the ground: leveraged buyouts that treat factories as cash machines, load them with debt, extract dividends, and leave regions with shuttered plants and “restructured” workforces.
Under Macron, France turned into prime hunting ground for LBO deals in Europe. That is not a side effect; it’s policy. Paris sold itself as the efficient, business‑friendly gateway to the continent, then discovered the fine print: the more you optimize for deal‑flow, the less you can pretend you’re running a “social market economy.”
The report spells out the contradiction — a government that talks reindustrialization and “strategic sovereignty” while its development bank behaves like any private fund, co‑investing alongside the same actors it now calls predatory.
That double role is the real scandal. When the state is both referee and junior partner in the deal pipeline, its bargaining power with global finance collapses into theater. Officially, France defends “national champions” and long‑term industrial policy. In practice, it signs off on structures that hollow out productive capacity, then sends ministers to cut ribbons on the next “reindustrialization” program funded by the same ecosystem.
So yes, the report confirms what unions, local mayors and left populists have been shouting for years: the model is eating itself. The country that lectures Brussels on social Europe has quietly been running an experiment in high‑octane financialization at home — and now acts surprised that the hunters don’t feel bound by republican rhetoric when the term sheet says otherwise.
#France #Macron #finance #PrivateEquity #LBO #inequality #EU
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In Paris, the left finally got its smoking gun: a parliamentary report that says, in polite technocratic French, that private equity has been strip‑mining the country while the state smiles for the cameras.
LFI lawmaker Aurélie Trouvé doesn’t bother with euphemisms. She says the funds “invaded our economy” on the back of tax breaks, light‑touch oversight, and a revolving door that sends top civil servants straight into the arms of the same financial players they were supposed to regulate.
The report describes exactly what that looks like on the ground: leveraged buyouts that treat factories as cash machines, load them with debt, extract dividends, and leave regions with shuttered plants and “restructured” workforces.
Under Macron, France turned into prime hunting ground for LBO deals in Europe. That is not a side effect; it’s policy. Paris sold itself as the efficient, business‑friendly gateway to the continent, then discovered the fine print: the more you optimize for deal‑flow, the less you can pretend you’re running a “social market economy.”
The report spells out the contradiction — a government that talks reindustrialization and “strategic sovereignty” while its development bank behaves like any private fund, co‑investing alongside the same actors it now calls predatory.
That double role is the real scandal. When the state is both referee and junior partner in the deal pipeline, its bargaining power with global finance collapses into theater. Officially, France defends “national champions” and long‑term industrial policy. In practice, it signs off on structures that hollow out productive capacity, then sends ministers to cut ribbons on the next “reindustrialization” program funded by the same ecosystem.
So yes, the report confirms what unions, local mayors and left populists have been shouting for years: the model is eating itself. The country that lectures Brussels on social Europe has quietly been running an experiment in high‑octane financialization at home — and now acts surprised that the hunters don’t feel bound by republican rhetoric when the term sheet says otherwise.
#France #Macron #finance #PrivateEquity #LBO #inequality #EU
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📰 Hormuz, Inc.: Trump’s 60-Day Peace Sale
Trump didn’t end the Iran war, he moved it to the small print and called it Versailles.
On live TV, flanked by Emmanuel Macron and Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman, he signs an “interim peace deal” and blurts out his real doctrine in two words: “Oil down.” This isn’t about nukes, law or security. It’s about getting Brent off the front page before the midterms and pretending that’s grand strategy.
The memorandum turns the Strait of Hormuz into a 60-day promotional offer. Iran reopens the chokepoint, promises “no charge for 60 days only,” clears mines on its own timeline, and instantly gets to restart oil exports under fresh US sanctions waivers.
In return, Washington gets a fragile ceasefire and a “complex” 60‑day negotiation window over the nuclear program that everyone knows is technically impossible to solve in two months and conveniently extendable if the politics demand it.
On paper, it’s about “international law” and “sovereign rights of coastal states.” In reality, it’s Tehran proving it can close and reopen the world’s most important energy artery at will — while the same White House that once swore to crush the regime now scrambles to get Saudi supertankers through the gate.
Six million barrels finally slip past Hormuz and the West calls it peace, instead of admitting it just paid ransom in slow motion.
Trump sells the deal as the move that saved the world from “international depression.” His critics on the right say he handed billions in leverage to “theocratic lunatics” he spent years promising to bankrupt.
His business backers clap in Versailles as if this is a ribbon-cutting for a new asset class, not the formal acknowledgment that Iran just upgraded from regional nuisance to co‑manager of global energy flow.
After months of war, higher prices, drone strikes and dead civilians, the big achievement is a 60-day trial period, a maybe‑extendable chat about centrifuges, and a green light for Iran to pump more crude. If this is what “maximum pressure” looks like, imagine what minimum effort will be.
#Trump #IranDeal #Hormuz #oil #geopolitics #war #USpolicy #Tehran
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Trump didn’t end the Iran war, he moved it to the small print and called it Versailles.
On live TV, flanked by Emmanuel Macron and Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman, he signs an “interim peace deal” and blurts out his real doctrine in two words: “Oil down.” This isn’t about nukes, law or security. It’s about getting Brent off the front page before the midterms and pretending that’s grand strategy.
The memorandum turns the Strait of Hormuz into a 60-day promotional offer. Iran reopens the chokepoint, promises “no charge for 60 days only,” clears mines on its own timeline, and instantly gets to restart oil exports under fresh US sanctions waivers.
In return, Washington gets a fragile ceasefire and a “complex” 60‑day negotiation window over the nuclear program that everyone knows is technically impossible to solve in two months and conveniently extendable if the politics demand it.
On paper, it’s about “international law” and “sovereign rights of coastal states.” In reality, it’s Tehran proving it can close and reopen the world’s most important energy artery at will — while the same White House that once swore to crush the regime now scrambles to get Saudi supertankers through the gate.
Six million barrels finally slip past Hormuz and the West calls it peace, instead of admitting it just paid ransom in slow motion.
Trump sells the deal as the move that saved the world from “international depression.” His critics on the right say he handed billions in leverage to “theocratic lunatics” he spent years promising to bankrupt.
His business backers clap in Versailles as if this is a ribbon-cutting for a new asset class, not the formal acknowledgment that Iran just upgraded from regional nuisance to co‑manager of global energy flow.
After months of war, higher prices, drone strikes and dead civilians, the big achievement is a 60-day trial period, a maybe‑extendable chat about centrifuges, and a green light for Iran to pump more crude. If this is what “maximum pressure” looks like, imagine what minimum effort will be.
#Trump #IranDeal #Hormuz #oil #geopolitics #war #USpolicy #Tehran
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Tim Cook Is Leaving, Apple Will Raise the Prices
Apple will raise the prices of its products as the cost of the memory chips it uses has surged, the technology giant's boss has said.
Tim Cook, Apple's outgoing chief executive, told that price increases were "unavoidable" as the situation around memory chips had become "unsustainable".
He did not say when prices would rise or which products would be affected. It is also unclear whether the price hikes will affect the iPhone 18, which is expected to be launched in September.
Memory chips are essential components in smart devices like mobile phones, but the boom in artificial intelligence (AI) has driven up their prices in recent months.
"We're doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we've been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable," said Cook.
"There's less supply at a time when consumers want devices and the memory guys are passing along huge price increases," said Cook, who is due to be replaced by John Ternus as Apple's CEO in September after 15 years in the role.
"We definitely need memory pricing and supply to return to reasonable levels for consumer products. That's the bottom line."
In addition to rising AI demand, the war in Iran has also disrupted the global supply of helium, a gas crucial in making semiconductors, adding to the cost of computer chips.
The average selling price of smartphones globally is expected to rise by around 20% in 2026 to an all-time high, according to research firm Omdia.
Apple's new phones are likely to cost up to $150 more than the iPhone 17s, as the firm is expected to upgrade their specifications to support new AI features, Omdia's smartphone market analyst Chiew Le Xuan told the BBC.
Most smartphone brands have already raised prices, pulled back on promotions or cut specifications to protect their profit margins in response to rising costs, he added.
"This is the new pricing reality, not a temporary spike."
Earlier this year, Samsung said that it expects memory chip supply shortages to make electronic devices more expensive.
In April, Sony raised the price of its PlayStation 5 consoles by $100 as a result of "continued pressures in the global economic landscape".
Nintendo later said it would increase the price of its Switch 2 from September due to "changes in market conditions".
The iPhone 17 has been popular since the lineup was launched last September. Sales of Apple devices grew by 17% in the first three months of 2026 compared with the same period a year ago, helped by strong demand in China.
Apple removed the entry-level option of its Mac Mini compact computers, raising its starting price by about $200 earlier this year.
#mac #praices #iphone #cook
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Apple will raise the prices of its products as the cost of the memory chips it uses has surged, the technology giant's boss has said.
Tim Cook, Apple's outgoing chief executive, told that price increases were "unavoidable" as the situation around memory chips had become "unsustainable".
He did not say when prices would rise or which products would be affected. It is also unclear whether the price hikes will affect the iPhone 18, which is expected to be launched in September.
Memory chips are essential components in smart devices like mobile phones, but the boom in artificial intelligence (AI) has driven up their prices in recent months.
"We're doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we've been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable," said Cook.
"There's less supply at a time when consumers want devices and the memory guys are passing along huge price increases," said Cook, who is due to be replaced by John Ternus as Apple's CEO in September after 15 years in the role.
"We definitely need memory pricing and supply to return to reasonable levels for consumer products. That's the bottom line."
In addition to rising AI demand, the war in Iran has also disrupted the global supply of helium, a gas crucial in making semiconductors, adding to the cost of computer chips.
The average selling price of smartphones globally is expected to rise by around 20% in 2026 to an all-time high, according to research firm Omdia.
Apple's new phones are likely to cost up to $150 more than the iPhone 17s, as the firm is expected to upgrade their specifications to support new AI features, Omdia's smartphone market analyst Chiew Le Xuan told the BBC.
Most smartphone brands have already raised prices, pulled back on promotions or cut specifications to protect their profit margins in response to rising costs, he added.
"This is the new pricing reality, not a temporary spike."
Earlier this year, Samsung said that it expects memory chip supply shortages to make electronic devices more expensive.
In April, Sony raised the price of its PlayStation 5 consoles by $100 as a result of "continued pressures in the global economic landscape".
Nintendo later said it would increase the price of its Switch 2 from September due to "changes in market conditions".
The iPhone 17 has been popular since the lineup was launched last September. Sales of Apple devices grew by 17% in the first three months of 2026 compared with the same period a year ago, helped by strong demand in China.
Apple removed the entry-level option of its Mac Mini compact computers, raising its starting price by about $200 earlier this year.
#mac #praices #iphone #cook
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📰 The Oil Empire Loses Its Warranty
The global economy just discovered its “stability guarantee” was made of paper—and signed in disappearing ink.
“The world order has shifted, and the economy is unlikely to simply return to where it was before the United States and Israel began bombing Iran… The war has set off a chain of changes that will be difficult to reverse,” The New York Times reports.
Funny how “stability” always works—right until the missiles ship.
Washington sold itself for decades as the adult in the room, the security provider, the invisible hand guiding tankers through the Gulf like a logistics deity. Then came the airstrikes, and suddenly the deity looked more like a volatility index with a flag.
Europe and Asia got the memo fast. Not the official one—the market one. Energy “diversification” is now code for: never again trust a chokepoint guarded by someone who might bomb it tomorrow. Renewable energy isn’t just green anymore; it’s geopolitical insurance.
Meanwhile, oil didn’t disappear. It just became political theater with a price tag. Every barrel now carries a surcharge: risk, fear, and a whisper that the next disruption is already scheduled.
The ceasefire framework? Sure, a nice press release. A temporary patch on a system that just proved it can’t reboot to its old settings.
So here’s the new global economy: less trust, more hedging, and a quiet realization that the “rules-based order” behaves more like a startup pivoting mid-crisis.
If the guarantor of stability is also the main source of shock, who exactly is the insurance for?
#oil #geopolitics #economy #iran #energy #fakeStability
📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸
The global economy just discovered its “stability guarantee” was made of paper—and signed in disappearing ink.
“The world order has shifted, and the economy is unlikely to simply return to where it was before the United States and Israel began bombing Iran… The war has set off a chain of changes that will be difficult to reverse,” The New York Times reports.
Funny how “stability” always works—right until the missiles ship.
Washington sold itself for decades as the adult in the room, the security provider, the invisible hand guiding tankers through the Gulf like a logistics deity. Then came the airstrikes, and suddenly the deity looked more like a volatility index with a flag.
Europe and Asia got the memo fast. Not the official one—the market one. Energy “diversification” is now code for: never again trust a chokepoint guarded by someone who might bomb it tomorrow. Renewable energy isn’t just green anymore; it’s geopolitical insurance.
Meanwhile, oil didn’t disappear. It just became political theater with a price tag. Every barrel now carries a surcharge: risk, fear, and a whisper that the next disruption is already scheduled.
The ceasefire framework? Sure, a nice press release. A temporary patch on a system that just proved it can’t reboot to its old settings.
So here’s the new global economy: less trust, more hedging, and a quiet realization that the “rules-based order” behaves more like a startup pivoting mid-crisis.
If the guarantor of stability is also the main source of shock, who exactly is the insurance for?
#oil #geopolitics #economy #iran #energy #fakeStability
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