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Category: Renewable energy/fossil fuels

Iran issues list of demands, complicating efforts to reopen Strait of Hormuz

Iran issues list of demands, complicating efforts to reopen Strait of Hormuz

The New York Times reports: A top Iranian national security official delivered a sweeping set of demands on Saturday that he said the United States must meet before the Strait of Hormuz can reopen to maritime traffic, throwing the fate of the critical trade waterway into question. Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, issued a statement carried by state media laying out multiple requirements for reopening the strait. He called for the United States to…

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Greenland issues ‘strong warning’ as Trump-linked oil firm prepares to drill

Greenland issues ‘strong warning’ as Trump-linked oil firm prepares to drill

The Guardian reports: An American oil company connected to Donald Trump is preparing to sink wells in remote Greenland despite not having received permission from the local authorities. As the US president renews his threats to claim the vast Arctic territory, materials to prepare for drilling were brought ashore in recent days on Greenland’s eastern coast. That has prompted Greenland’s government to issue a “strong warning” that no approval had been granted to land the kit. “All future logistical matters…

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Iran plots to deal Trump a blow in midterms by keeping him entangled in war

Iran plots to deal Trump a blow in midterms by keeping him entangled in war

Patrick Wintour writes: Tehran has set out a protracted negotiating timetable designed to keep Donald Trump embroiled in the Iran conflict until the midterm elections, in the hope of inflicting the same ruinous blow on his presidency as Jimmy Carter suffered over the 1979-81 US embassy hostage crisis. For many inside Iran, inflicting meaningful revenge on Trump is a legitimate and self-standing war aim, reflected in the mood of those attending the funeral of the supreme leader Ali Khamenei where…

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An emerging deal with Oman could cement Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz

An emerging deal with Oman could cement Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz

The New York Times reports: Iran and Oman are closing in on an agreement to reopen shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian and American officials, but if the accord goes into effect it could come at a high price — ratifying Tehran’s control over what, before the war, was an open, international waterway. As described by officials familiar with the emerging accord, vessels heading into the Persian Gulf will transit a channel controlled by Iran, and…

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Data centers become the new frontlines of global power

Data centers become the new frontlines of global power

Henrique Schneider writes: Data centers have emerged as a crucial element in the realms of geopolitics, energy security and industrial strategy. On the morning of March 1, 2026, three coordinated Iranian drone strikes hit Amazon Web Services facilities in the Gulf, disrupting regional cloud services for days to weeks. The episode crystallized a transition that had been building for years: The quiet warehouses of the digital economy are now contested strategic assets. The scale of what is being built is…

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Oman presents Iran with Gulf-backed plan for voluntary fees to use Strait of Hormuz

Oman presents Iran with Gulf-backed plan for voluntary fees to use Strait of Hormuz

Reuters reports: Oman has presented Iran with a plan backed by Gulf states to manage the Strait of Hormuz, including collecting voluntary fees for using it, ​a Gulf source and a Western diplomat told Reuters on Tuesday. The plan could serve as a basis to end the disruption to trade through the strait caused by the ‌U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. President Donald Trump, who abruptly called off a two-week U.S. bombing campaign over the weekend in his latest strategic U-turn,…

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Millions of farmers around the globe are contending with scarcity and higher prices for fuel

Millions of farmers around the globe are contending with scarcity and higher prices for fuel

The New York Times reports: For three days, he waited at the gas station in a crush of hundreds of villagers, as the temperature rose to 104 degrees. People tried to cut the line, and fights broke out, drawing police officers wielding batons. This, Dulal Hossain endured for the chance to buy diesel fuel. He was tormented by worries about his rice plants, the source of most of his livelihood. The diesel he eventually carried home by bicycle, in a…

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Data center forecasts keep climbing and so does public opposition. Something has to give

Data center forecasts keep climbing and so does public opposition. Something has to give

Dan Gearino writes: Forecasts of U.S. data center growth defy belief—and common sense. “The math isn’t mathing,” as many observers have said. Growth forecasts continue to climb, but there is little evidence that AI data center developers have profitable, sustainable business models. And nearly every major project is facing local opposition over concerns about land, power and water use. On Tuesday, BloombergNEF revised its estimate for data center electricity demand to 194 gigawatts by 2035, an 83 percent increase from…

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In the wake of the oil supply shock came a demand shock

In the wake of the oil supply shock came a demand shock

David Goldman writes: A decline in Chinese demand for the world’s oil has weighed significantly on global oil prices. That’s a big reason why crude never approached its 2022 prices or the record set in 2008, despite an oil shock several orders of magnitude larger than either of those preceding crises. China relies almost entirely on imports for oil. But its crude imports have fallen dramatically during the course of the war, tumbling below 8 million barrels per day from…

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Iran tells Houthis to close Red Sea gateway if U.S. hits power network, sources say

Iran tells Houthis to close Red Sea gateway if U.S. hits power network, sources say

Reuters reports: Iran has asked Yemen’s Houthi movement to stand ready to close the Red Sea oil route if the United States strikes Iranian power infrastructure, three sources told Reuters on Thursday, posing a potent new threat ​to global energy supplies. The idea has been discussed within the Islamic Republic’s leadership, and the message has been conveyed to Iran’s Houthi allies, two senior Iranian ‌sources and a regional source familiar with the matter said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The…

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A forever war in the making

A forever war in the making

Ali Vaez writes: The memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran halted their war and provided a framework for talks over Iran’s nuclear program. Less than a month after it was signed, it has failed, and a document intended to halt a war has instead become a reason for resuming it. The immediate dispute concerns who controls the Strait of Hormuz, but more is at stake. The collapse of even this minimal understanding could remove the last barrier…

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How Trump failed to secure the Strait of Hormuz in his poorly developed ‘deal’ with Iran

How Trump failed to secure the Strait of Hormuz in his poorly developed ‘deal’ with Iran

The New York Times reports: For two months, under a quiet arrangement with the U.S. Navy, commercial tankers turned off their transponders to avoid detection by Iran as they crossed the perilous Strait of Hormuz to carry oil and gas out to the world. The military offered some air cover in case Iran attacked, as naval officers directed the vessels over the radio to hug Oman’s coast, opposite Iran’s shore. That enabled a steady increase in traffic through the strait…

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Global economy, hit by Iran war and inflation, faces sharp slowdown

Global economy, hit by Iran war and inflation, faces sharp slowdown

The New York Times reports: The global economy is set to slow sharply in 2026 after the war with Iran disrupted energy supply chains and triggered a fresh bout of inflation, the International Monetary Fund warned on Wednesday. The forecasts reflect the damaging toll from the decision by the United States and Israel to attack Iran this year. Those attacks spurred Iranian retaliation on energy infrastructure in the region, destabilizing a world economy that had already been rocked by the…

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U.S. strikes Iran and reimposes sanctions in retaliation for tanker attacks

U.S. strikes Iran and reimposes sanctions in retaliation for tanker attacks

The New York Times reports: The United States carried out airstrikes against several targets in Iran on Tuesday, hours after revoking a waiver allowing the sale of Iranian oil around the world, in a dual response to what the Pentagon said were Iranian attacks on three commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The military’s Central Command said on social media that U.S. forces “have begun launching a series of powerful strikes against Iran to impose heavy costs for targeting…

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Gasoline shortages in wartime Russia evoke memories of the Soviet Union

Gasoline shortages in wartime Russia evoke memories of the Soviet Union

The New York Times reports: Alyona Sadovnikova first experienced gasoline shortages in mid-June, when she pulled into a station and was told it was only serving customers who had ration coupons. “I was horrified: Are we in the Soviet Union now where you had to get coupons to buy sausage?” she said in a telephone interview. Just a few days later, Ms. Sadovnikova found herself waiting 18 hours to fill up in the city of Irkutsk, in eastern Siberia, almost…

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China is the only clear winner from Trump’s war against Iran, report concludes

China is the only clear winner from Trump’s war against Iran, report concludes

The Guardian reports: China has emerged as the sole winner in Asia from the strait of Hormuz crisis, according to a report published on Tuesday. The report by the Asia Group thinktank concluded that China had weathered the storm of the global commodities crisis resulting from the closure of the Middle Eastern waterway, and also stood to gain from the economic and geopolitical trends sparked by the wider conflict. Iran virtually closed the strait, a vital waterway through which much…

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