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Category: Politics

‘There’s a day of reckoning coming’: Energy experts expect another spike at the pump

‘There’s a day of reckoning coming’: Energy experts expect another spike at the pump

Politico reports: Energy experts say another oil price spike is coming — and it may be made worse by the president’s social media posts. President Donald Trump has repeatedly spurred temporary dips in oil prices by claiming on Truth Social that the Iran war is near an end and that U.S. oil production would ensure sky high gas prices would soon retreat. The jawboning has mostly worked. Even as the global price of oil has crept up over $100 per…

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Middle East crisis could cost world $1 trillion while oil firms make ‘obscene’ profit, analysis finds

Middle East crisis could cost world $1 trillion while oil firms make ‘obscene’ profit, analysis finds

The Guardian reports: The Middle East oil and gas crunch will impose as much as a trillion dollars of additional costs on the global economy while petroleum companies rake in spectacular profits from elevated fuel prices, analysis has revealed. The uneven distribution of risk and reward comes amid rising concern that the US-Israeli attack on Iran is worsening inequality, poverty and hunger across a world that has become dangerously dependent on fossil fuels. Even if the strait of Hormuz swiftly…

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How the UAE’s decision to leave OPEC could recast the Middle East

How the UAE’s decision to leave OPEC could recast the Middle East

Patrick Wintour writes: The United Arab Emirates’ decision to walk out of Opec is a political as much as business decision, and will reignite the simmering rows between the UAE and Saudi Arabia – which had been covered up by their shared anger with Iran over its attacks on the Gulf states since the start of the US-Israel war on Tehran. In the short term, leaving the oil producing cartel it joined in 1967 gives the UAE the freedom to…

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How the Trump administration ended independent science at the EPA

How the Trump administration ended independent science at the EPA

The New York Times reports: For more than a half-century, a prestigious scientific arm of the federal government did groundbreaking research aimed at saving American lives. It studied fertility, asthma, wildfires, drinking water, climate change and myriad other health threats. In just one year, it has been almost completely dismantled. One scientist, a doctor and expert in lung health, has recently been reassigned to a finance office. Another, an epidemiologist, has been told she has a new job issuing permits…

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The hidden messages in King Charles’ speech to Congress

The hidden messages in King Charles’ speech to Congress

Politico reports: King Charles III deployed the first royal address to the U.S. Congress in 35 years today — and he had plenty to say to Washington’s gathered political leadership. His speech to a bipartisan crowd of elected officials, Supreme Court justices and U.S. military officials was delivered with trademark British understatement but was strong on subtext. POLITICO decodes some of the key passages of the biggest public speech of the British monarch’s four-day U.S. state visit. What he said: “In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, when NATO invoked Article 5 for the first…

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Appeals court rules against ICE’s mandatory detention policy

Appeals court rules against ICE’s mandatory detention policy

Politico reports: A federal appeals court has rejected the Trump administration’s bid to lock up the majority of people it is seeking to deport without an opportunity for release on bond — even if they have no criminal records and have resided in the country for decades. In a 3-0 ruling, a panel of the New York-based 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals found that ICE’s policy was based on a flawed, implausible and unprecedented interpretation of decades-old laws. But more…

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Vance doubts Pentagon’s depiction of war in Iran. Germany’s chancellor says U.S. is being ‘humiliated’

Vance doubts Pentagon’s depiction of war in Iran. Germany’s chancellor says U.S. is being ‘humiliated’

The Atlantic reports: In closed-door meetings, J. D. Vance has repeatedly questioned the Defense Department’s depiction of the war in Iran and whether the Pentagon has understated what appears to be the drastic depletion of U.S. missile stockpiles. Two senior administration officials told us that the vice president has queried the accuracy of the information the Pentagon has provided about the war. He has also expressed his concerns about the availability of certain missile systems in discussions with President Trump,…

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So you want to negotiate with Iran …

So you want to negotiate with Iran …

Nahal Toosi writes: President Donald Trump recently dismissed claims he’s anxious to end the Iran war, insisting on Truth Social that he’s “possibly the least pressured person ever to be in this position” and has “all the time in the World.” If only. Trump and his aides could use some more time to think through what they want to accomplish in discussions with Tehran’s Islamist regime. The administration’s preparations for launching the war were … not great, and its negotiating…

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The U.S. started the war against Iran. The rest of the world is suffering the consequences

The U.S. started the war against Iran. The rest of the world is suffering the consequences

The New York Times reports: The fallout from two months of war in Iran is shuttering textile mills in India and Bangladesh, grounding airplanes in Ireland, Poland and Germany, and prompting energy rationing in Vietnam, South Korea and Thailand. The only country, it seems, that has been relatively spared from the economic chaos is the one that started the war: the United States. While warning signs of a recession are flashing across countries in Asia and Europe, the United States…

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How Trump is moving to control U.S. elections, one state at a time

How Trump is moving to control U.S. elections, one state at a time

Reuters reports: In January, the Franklin County Board of Elections in Ohio received a surprising call. The man on the line said he was an agent at the Department of Homeland Security – and he needed immediate access to voter records. Franklin County has a large population of Democrats and has long been a focal point of Republican skepticism about urban voting centers in Ohio. In the weeks that followed, the requests multiplied. According to emails reviewed by Reuters, the…

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U.S. government ramps up mass surveillance with help of AI tech, data brokers – and your apps and devices

U.S. government ramps up mass surveillance with help of AI tech, data brokers – and your apps and devices

The U.S. government is using AI to speed analysis of government and commercial data about you. Anton Petrus/Moment via Getty Images By Anne Toomey McKenna, Penn State On a Saturday morning, you head to the hardware store. Your neighbors’ Ring cameras film your walk to the car. Your car’s sensors, cameras and microphones record your speed, how you drive, where you’re going, who’s with you, what you say, and biological metrics such as facial expression, weight and heart rate. Your…

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Corruption: How Trump’s family is cashing in on his presidency

Corruption: How Trump’s family is cashing in on his presidency

Rolling Stone reports: “FOUNDATION FUTURE INDUSTRIES LANDS $24 MILLION PENTAGON CONTRACT” screamed the Fox Business Network chyron Thursday morning. Host Maria Bartiromo teed up her segment, explaining that the defense tech startup was developing “autonomous humanoid robots” to help troops “breach enemy sites more safely.” Bartiromo’s guest? Eric Trump, Foundation Future Industries’ chief strategy adviser who also happens to be the son of the man in charge of the government that doled out the eight-figure contract. The host congratulated Trump…

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We will all be paying for the Iran war for a very long time

We will all be paying for the Iran war for a very long time

Haider Ali Hussein Mullick writes: America’s spending on the war in Iran will far outlast active combat. The U.S. government has already made contracts and other commitments to repair damaged bases, field counter-drone platforms, feed and shelter thousands of troops and replenish munitions. Even if President Trump signs a deal ending the war tomorrow, we will harden bases in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, by reinforcing aircraft shelters, building blast walls around fuel and…

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Mood in Russia turns bleak as war in Ukraine drags on and economy suffers

Mood in Russia turns bleak as war in Ukraine drags on and economy suffers

The Washington Post reports: President Vladimir Putin is facing rising discontent across Russian society as the war against Ukraine drags on, the economy flounders and public dissatisfaction mounts over government restrictions on internet access. Russia’s biggest state-owned pollster, the Russian Public Opinion Research Center, on Friday recorded that Putin’s approval rating fell to 65.6 percent, its lowest level since before the beginning of the war and a drop of 12.2 percentage points since the start of the year. Gauging genuine…

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Ukraine has picked up the torch that America dropped

Ukraine has picked up the torch that America dropped

David French writes: A remarkable thing has happened on the world’s battlefields. Ukraine — a nation that was supposed to dissolve within days of a Russian invasion — has fought Russia to a stalemate, revolutionizing land warfare in the process. It has become an indispensable security partner in the western alliance, including in the war against Iran. Now, Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, is taking the next step, one that would have been unthinkable even as recently as 2024. By word…

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Orbán associates rush to move wealth out of Hungary after election defeat

Orbán associates rush to move wealth out of Hungary after election defeat

The Guardian reports: Along the banks of the Danube, news that the Viktor Orbán era had come to an end set off an hours-long party. The joy echoed across Hungary as people traded hugs and high-fives. For some, however, the landslide loss set off a frantic scramble. Private jets allegedly laden with the spoils of those whose wealth swelled during Orbán’s 16 years in power have steadily been taking off from Vienna, while other individuals are racing to invest their…

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