The new oil route through Turkey may bypass the Strait of Hormuz

“…The head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, points out that instability in the Strait of Hormuz is forcing the search for alternative oil supply routes.


According to him, the project of transporting oil from Iraq through Turkey is able to simultaneously solve several tasks: to ensure stable exports for Baghdad, strengthen Ankara’s role as an energy hub and increase Europe’s energy security.


The expert emphasizes that the implementation of the project will require political coordination between Turkey and Iraq, as well as attracting international financing, including from European countries interested in diversifying supplies…”

~ Full article…

Democrats Warned Not to Upset Multi-Million Dollar AI Lobbyists, Even Though It’d Be a Slam Dunk With Voters

“…According to the Financial Times, Democrats running in the 2026 midterm elections have been advised by party strategists not to antagonize pro-AI interests, even as polls show AI regulation is incredibly popular with voters.

Specifically, the Democratic establishment is telling politicians to play nice with any “pro-AI group” with over $300 million to toss around, evidently in an effort to court that money for the political machine. So far, only a small handful of progressive Democrats have made AI regulation a key part of their platform, as the majority of party functionaries bite their tongues.

“You are definitely seeing a chilling effect [on campaigns],” Alex Jacquez, former White House advisor and head of policy at Groundwork Collaborative told the FT. “There’s just not a lot of upside in the potential of getting $20mn [spent by pro-AI campaign groups] in your race…  in a lot of cases it is going to be easier to say nothing.”…”

~ Full article…

New Jersey governor hits out at Fifa over reported $100 World Cup train tickets: ‘They should pay’

“…New Jersey’s governor, Mikie Sherrill, has hit out at Fifa after reports her state’s transport system will charge $100 for a return ticket to World Cup matches this summer.

New Jersey Transit lists the price for a round-trip ticket from New York’s Penn Station to MetLife Stadium, which will host eight World Cup matches this summer, including the final, as $12.90. The new pricing, reported by The Athletic earlier this week, puts the return ticket at more than $100 with no reductions for children, seniors or people with disabilities.

(…)

Transit costs at this year’s World Cup have been widely discussed, alongside the sky-high prices of match tickets. The Massachusetts transit authority has raised its prices for travel from Boston to Foxborough’s Gillette Stadium from $20 to $80…”

~ Full article…

Tax Day 2026: Taxpayers Are Paying More than $4,000 for War

“…We broke down last year’s typical tax bill and what each household actually spent, on average, for different programs and priorities in 2025.

We learned, for example, that the average taxpayer paid over $4,000 for weapons and war last year — a huge sum in a time of rising costs of living and stagnant wages — even as the programs to help families get by are getting cut. We’ve compiled some of those findings below.

Meanwhile, Trump and his allies are planning a repeat of last year’s Big Ugly Bill. The president has requested $1.5 trillion in war funding for next year – a huge increase from the $1 trillion budget this year. That would make the numbers below — including the shockingly high line items for militarism and the dwindling sums for human needs — all the more lopsided…”

~ Full article…

Tax Day 2026: Notes and Sources

Meta creating AI version of Mark Zuckerberg so staff can talk to the boss

“…Until Zuckerberg launches his AI self, however, he will have to present in person at meetings with thousands of Meta staff, such as the one he carried out in 2023 two days after he announced that 10,000 employees would be laid off. Then, the tech chief was questioned by “rattled” staff about job security and the future of remote working.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that Zuckerberg could be helped to prepare for such sessions by a “CEO agent”, a personalised AI system that is being developed at Meta and is already helping him to get internal company information faster. Zuckerberg is driving Meta to use AI more internally, in the expectation that it will help lower costs and accelerate the pace of work.

Through integrating AI into its business, the company, which also owns the messaging service WhatsApp, aims to minimise its organisational structure and increase efficiency, which Zuckerberg has said is key to “get more done”. “We’re elevating individual contributors and flattening teams,” he said in January.

The reported moves form part of a company-wide effort to invest in AI in a drive to remain competitive with tech rivals that are also pouring billions of dollars into the technology. Zuckerberg is presiding over a multibillion dollar investment in AI in an attempt to create “superintelligence”, the term for a system that can perform any cognitive task far better than a human…”

~ Full article…

Whitney Webb: Why Does BlackRock Keep Showing Up When the System Breaks?

“…Why does BlackRock keep showing up when the system starts breaking?
This video breaks down the fear that BlackRock is becoming more than a company — and getting closer to the controls.

What if one private firm became so large, so connected, and so embedded in the financial system that it kept appearing whenever the system itself started to shake? In this video, we break down why BlackRock has become such a lightning rod — not just because it manages trillions, but because it sits unusually close to the machinery of markets, corporate governance, and crisis response.

Whitney Webb argues that BlackRock keeps surfacing at key turning points, and Reuters documented one of the clearest examples: in 2020, the Federal Reserve hired BlackRock to help execute bond purchases during the COVID market shock. Jerome Powell said BlackRock was “just our agent” and that conflicts were being handled “extremely carefully,” but critics see that episode as part of a larger pattern — a private financial giant repeatedly positioned near public emergency power.

The official story is straightforward: BlackRock is an asset manager and fiduciary. BlackRock says investment stewardship is core to its role, that it engages with companies and votes at shareholder meetings on behalf of clients, and that about 90% of its clients’ public equity assets under management are held in index equity strategies. It also says eligible clients can participate more directly in proxy voting through BlackRock Voting Choice. That may sound dry, but it is exactly why scale becomes influence: when one institution sits between trillions of dollars and thousands of public companies, power often looks less like a command and more like constant proximity.

And now the debate is moving beyond Wall Street into digital money. Circle says it deepened its partnership with BlackRock and began investing a portion of USDC reserves in the Circle Reserve Fund, with reserves expected to remain about 20% cash and 80% short-duration U.S. Treasuries. BlackRock’s site lists the Circle Reserve Fund as a BlackRock-managed product. That does not prove BlackRock “controls crypto,” but it does reinforce the concern that the same institutions dominating traditional finance are positioning themselves around the rails of digital finance too. Circle

This video keeps the nuance intact: BlackRock does not literally own the world, managing client assets is not the same as personally controlling every company in a portfolio, and a reserve partnership is not proof of total control over digital money. But even with all of that said, the core concern survives: when a private institution gets this large, this connected, and this embedded in both markets and public-private crisis response, people stop worrying about one transaction and start worrying about the architecture.

This video uses clips from Whitney Webb on Coin Stories and builds around a bigger question: are we watching innovation, stabilization, and market plumbing — or centralization wearing a new costume?…”

`~ Full article…

The Myth that Won’t Die: “War is Good for the Economy”

“…War is the ultimate government intervention. It is the excuse for all kinds of evils to be imposed on the governed. From confiscation through taxes and inflation to restriction of freedom of speech and the redirection and even nationalization of whole industries, nothing increases state power such as war.

As the state is predatory and produces nothing of use, it is the ultimate impoverishing situation. From an ideological point of view, it is even worse, mixing love for one’s culture and homeland with the state itself. It reduces individual’s resistance to loss of liberty and creates in their minds the myth of the protecting government.

There is also another insidious idea that a lot of people hold: That is that war has economic and other benefits, not to certain individuals or groups, but to the community at large. It is worth examining these supposed benefits to show that no, war does not benefit the community, it is just death and destruction…”

~ Full article…

Right-wing media’s narrative that high gas prices are “short-term” and “temporary” is undermined by reporting from major energy conference

“…During S&P Global’s CERAWeek, a Houston-based energy industry conference held this year from March 23-27, attendees and other experts expressed concern over the long-term consequences of President Donald Trump’s war constraining energy supply in the Strait of Hormuz, making clear to reporters that the situation is likely worse than the market is showing.

Some on Fox Business agreed. On other Fox programs, however, network figures and guests dismissed concerns from the energy industry about crude oil prices, instead echoing messaging from Trump administration Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that higher gas prices are the result of a “short-term disruption” and will be “temporary.”

In interviews with CNBC, experts explained why future crude oil prices may actually be much higher than the market is currently predicting. Head of investment at BRI Wealth Management Toni Meadows explained to CNBC that right now, “the market thinks this current uplift in the oil price is transitory.” Katy Stoves, investment manager at Mattioli Woods, attributed this to people “expecting sort of a reduction in hostilities,” a possibility President Donald Trump has hinted at repeatedly. But, Stoves warned, “Even if we do get a resolution, I think it’s very, very important to note that there’s been a lot of energy infrastructure destroyed during this, and even if we do get some sort of ceasefire … repairing those facilities, bringing those facilities back online is going to take time — and I’m not entirely sure the market is probably pricing that in.” [CNBC, 3/26/26; Axios, 3/30/26]

Chevron CEO Mike Wirth also expressed concern to CNBC that chaos caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz may not yet be “fully priced into the futures curves on oil.” According to CNBC, Wirth suggested that because “the market is trading on ‘scant information’ and ‘perception’ … The physical supply of oil is tighter than the futures contracts suggest.” [CNBC, 3/23/26]…”

~ Full article…

Volkswagen in talks to make Iron Dome parts at struggling German auto plant: report

“…The Federal Association of the German Security and Defence Industry last year proposed repurposing idle auto capacity for defense output, as Berlin began unlocking hundreds of billions of euros in new military spending under the country’s ambitious rearmament plans and the EU’s ReArm Europe framework.

(..)

Under a prospective deal, the facility would manufacture support components for the Iron Dome − heavy-duty transport trucks, launch units and power generators − rather than interceptor missiles, which Rafael plans to produce at a separate German facility. Regarding the jobs at the plant, an insider told the FT the goal was to “save everybody, maybe even to grow.”

The talks come as Volkswagen contends with its worst financial performance in nearly a decade. The group’s operating profit collapsed 53.5% in 2025 to €8.9 billion ($10.3 billion), and net profit fell 44% to €6.9 billion − the lowest since the “Dieselgate” scandal.

VW announced plans in March to cut 50,000 jobs in Germany by 2030, including at subsidiaries Audi and Porsche. Negotiations to sell the Osnabrück plant to Rheinmetall stalled, and the defense giant ultimately turned down the deal in mid-March…”

~ Full article…

How bankers, bureaucrats and bystanders sustain Israel’s genocide in Gaza

“…Modern genocide functions as a system encompassing a wide array of responsibilities, some of them invisible or fundamentally unexpected. These may include, for example, the involvement of a university research centre somewhere in developing technologies and software used in practices of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

They may also include the allocation of funds from sovereign wealth funds or social security institutions into military industries that support the Israeli occupation and the war crimes it commits.

(…)

A detailed report issued in July 2025 by Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, identified more than 60 companies, including major US and European firms, as allegedly embedded in what she described as an “economy of genocide”.

The list of potential accomplices extends further, to include paid commentators and influencers who attempt to sanitise atrocities and persuade audiences with simplistic arguments they themselves may not believe.
Silence and power

It must also be recalled that those who fail to take appropriate action in response to genocide are likewise complicit in enabling it when they choose to look away, remain silent about its atrocities, and avoid demonstrating serious reactions.

Their silence became a partner in paving the way for the horrors inflicted by Israeli leadership upon the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

In this context, the slogan “Silence kills” rings true. Those who fail to take even minimal action in the face of a genocide visible to all resemble individuals who ignore a fire consuming an inhabited house nearby, making no effort to respond or even to call emergency services, but instead continuing to indulge in their hobbies…”

~ Full article…