curated news excerpts & citations
Hans Christensen: Oil War Boosts Renewable Energy
Many governments are now—perhaps not the US, but most other—looking for ways to push for a faster and more effective transition to non-fossil fuels. The IMF shows how previous oil shocks worked.
IMF (the International Monetary Fund) and World Bank’s spring meetings next week in Washington, DC will see economic policymakers from all over the world gather to assess the damage caused by Trump’s war on Iran has caused. …
International institutions are under pressure, again by Trump, but at least most of the main ones are still able to gather influential leaders, like the IMF does.
[From IMF video] So what hit us? A supply shock that is large, global, and asymmetric:
- It is large because the world’s daily oil flow cut by some 13 percent, and its LNG flow by some 20 percent;
- It is global because all of us now paying more for energy and with supply chains disrupted across the world;
- And it is asymmetric because its impact depends on proximity to the conflict, whether you are an energy exporter or importer, and your policy space.
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Daniel Moattar @ Mother Jones: Trump: Fine, We’ll Blockade the Strait Too
A “you can’t fire me, I quit” approach to the Hormuz problem.
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Meanwhile, Trump’s two main promises on Hormuz this weekend, to clear Iranian sea mines from the strait—efforts he said were “starting” in another Truth Social post Saturday—and to detain “every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran,” are dubious.That’s first and foremost because the US doesn’t have the resources to get rid of the sea mines. State-of-the-art demining vessels, if left alone by Iran, could clear the strait in a matter of weeks or months. But the Navy has no “significant mine clearing capability,” the Wall Street Journal reported in March, and its unmanned anti-mine vessels are unreliable even in clear waters that pose far less of a challenge than Hormuz.
Detaining the ships that pay Iran’s tolls also seems pretty unlikely. …
(Daniel Moattar @ Mother Jones more…)
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – April 12, 2026
By the end of 2024, inflation in the U.S., which had soared in the aftermath of the Covid-19 lockdowns, was almost back to the Federal Reserve’s goal of 2%. Even so, during the 2024 presidential campaign, candidate Donald Trump promised he would bring prices down on Day One, beginning with energy prices, thanks to new high tariffs, business deregulation, and tax cuts.
…Statistics released by the Labor Department on Friday showed that Trump’s war with Iran has pushed inflation to 3.3%. That’s the fastest rate of growth in almost two years, tripling the 0.3% rate in February, when inflation was 2.4%. Gasoline prices rose 21.2%, a record.
Economist Heather Long told Alicia Wallace of CNN: “It’s going to get a lot worse before there’s any relief. Even if the war on Iran ends in two weeks, and there’s magically an agreement, inflation will continue to rise for months to come.” …
…Trump’s promise to voters that he would lower prices, along with his crusade against immigrants, attacks on education and the courts, and vow to resurrect a patriarchy in which white Christian men would dominate women and people of color, was closely patterned on the “illiberal democracy” of Viktor Orbán in Hungary. MAGA Republicans embraced Orbán as the leader of a movement to replace democracy with an authoritarianism that empowered the far right.
…“We have done it,” Magyar told a crowd after Orbán conceded. “We have liberated Hungary and have taken back our country.” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen posted on social media: “Hungary has chosen Europe. Europe has always chosen Hungary. A country reclaims its European path. The Union grows stronger.”
…Trump responded to Orbán’s defeat with a long screed attacking Pope Leo XIV, who has spoken out against the religious justification for wars …
…Today is Orthodox Easter, and about 45 minutes after attacking the Pope, Trump posted an image of himself in the place of Jesus, apparently healing a sick man in a bed, surrounded by a soldier, a nurse, a woman praying, and an older man. Behind him are the Statue of Liberty, the Lincoln Memorial, and a giant American flag, while in the sky are two eagles, three fighter jets, soldiers, and what seems to be a monster.
Amid popular revulsion at what people are calling heresy and blasphemy, former U.S. representative Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote: “It’s more than blasphemy. It’s an Antichrist spirit.”
A minute after posting the image of himself as Jesus, Trump posted an image of a Trump tower on the moon.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Rebecca Solnit: Flowers Bloom on Soldiers’ Graves: Lessons in Power and Consequence
(Rebecca Solnit more…)
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Ali Awada @ zeteo: ‘I’ll Die Here in My House’: In Southern Lebanon, Many Simply Can’t or Refuse to Flee
I drove through the destroyed villages of southern Lebanon, speaking to several families who are risking their lives to stay in the area as Israel escalates its bombing and ground invasion.
(Ali Awada @ zeteo more…)
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NY Times Editorial Board: Trump’s War Has Weakened America
- The most tangible blow to the United States and the world is the increased influence that Iran has secured over the global economy by weaponizing the Strait of Hormuz. …
- The second setback is to America’s military standing around the world. This war, together with recent U.S. assistance to Ukraine, Israel and other allies, has burned through a substantial portion of the stockpile of some weapons, such as Tomahawk missiles and Patriot interceptors (which can shoot down other missiles). …
- The war’s third big cost is to America’s alliances. …
- The fourth setback is to America’s moral authority. …
(NY Times Editorial Board more…)
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Ruth Ann Crystal MD: Dr. Ruth Report, 4/12/26
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Borowitz: Ghost of Pope Francis to Viktor Orban: “I Warned You Not to Let Vance Near You”
Al Jazeera Death toll and injuries live tracker
ICE Accountability Project
ICE deaths 2026 – They deserve remembrance and justice.
- March 16: Royer Perez-Jimenez
- March 14: Naseer Paktiawil
- February 25: Nurul Amin Shah Alam
April 1 – Jennifer Peltz and Jake Offenhartz @ AP: Death of a refugee left at a Buffalo doughnut shop by Border Patrol is ruled a homicide - January 24: Alex Pretti
- January 14: Heber Sanchaz Dominguez
- January 14: Victor Manuel Diaz
- January 9: Parady La
- January 7: Renée Good
- January 6: Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz
- January 5: Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres
- January 3: Geraldo Lunas Campos
- December 31, 2025: Keith Porter
Suffering Under President Obama
NACDL Criminal Case Tracker
Texas Tribune: A Walk for Peace: photos of Fort Worth monks’ journey to Washington
Walk for Peace – Dhammacetiya – The Ancient Sacred Buddhist Scripture Stupas
Margaret Chase Smith: Declaration of Conscience
NPR: January 6, 2021: A visual archive
Accountability Initiative ICE List
GriftMatrix
Trump Action Tracker
Timeline: Tracking the Trump Justice Department’s Anti-Voting Shift
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
Trump Pardons Database
Project 2025 Tracker
DOGE Tracker
ProPublica: Elon Musk’s Demolition Crew
Wired: 6 Tools for Tracking the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Civil Liberties
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