Category: World News

By Cathy Bussewitz / Associated Press PBS News / July 31, 2026

American oil and gas giants raked in massive spring profits while fighting between Iran and the U.S. impeded petroleum shipments and consumers around the world paid more for fuel and confronted shortages.

The conflict, now in its sixth month, halted most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway that previously served as a delivery route for a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas. With global supplies constrained, prices for Brent crude, the international standard, soared from about $70 to above $100 a barrel for much of March, April and May, and at one point reached $126.

The money that oil companies accrued between the beginning of April and the end of June could receive extra scrutiny this year. Gasoline, diesel and jet fuel prices climbed sharply during that period, increasing costs for drivers and airline passengers. Supplies ran low in some countries, leading to sporadic fuel rationing in Australia and government office closures in Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Exxon Mobil on Friday reported that its second quarter profits doubled to $14.53 billion, boosted by record diesel production. The oil giant, based in Spring, Texas, brought in $116.02 billion in revenue, up 42%.

Chevron, based in Houston, nearly quadrupled its profits to $12.07 billion and revenue jumped 56% to $70.06 billion.

Six of Europe’s largest oil companies posted combined first-quarter profits of $22 billion, more than 40% higher than last year.

by Ernie McCray

With the tragedy
at the mosque
still on my mind
I’ve been thinking
of a wonderful book
I just finished,
“The Future is Peace,”
written by Aziz Abu Sarah,
a Palestinian,
and Maoz Inon,
an Israeli,
who, rather than focusing on their ethnicities,
choose to view themselves
as human beings
who are trying to cultivate

U.S. Hits 81 Targets in Iran; Iran Attacks 85 U.S. “Assets”; Oil and Gas Prices Rise, Stocks Fall

Just when you thought you could settle into the summer, with gas prices coming down and some things appearing to get normal — BOOM! Trump’s war with Iran is back on and he says the MoU is over.

Ostensibly because Iranian forces attacked three tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, Trump’s military unleashed a barrage against 81 Iranian targets and in response, Iran attacked 85 targets considered U.S. “assets” within the region.

The Iranian foreign ministry stated that the U.S. attacks violated Article 1 of the MoU relating to the ceasefire, Article 5 – related to the management of the Strait of Hormuz, which says Iran is responsible for managing passage through the waterway – and Article 10, which pertains to a waiver on Iranian oil exports.

The impacts of all this was immediate. Oil prices rose and the Dow Jones initially fell 700 points this morning.

The tankers Iran struck were attempting to skirt the passage way that according to the MoU, Iran is responsible for managing.

Now Trump says the ceasefire deal with Iran is “over”, and that dealing with Tehran is a “waste of time”.

In the middle of the NATO summit in Turkey, Trump also threatened more attacks tonight, Wednesday. (He also ramped up his insane pressure to get Greenland.)

Everyone is urging calm and a return to the ceasefire and more negotiations.

strong>By Anonymous #6

Words cannot cover what it’s  been like since Donald Trump got elected President again.Worry, anxiety, doubt, despair and bad dreams are  my companions these days. I have been flying a small flag upside-down at my front door until Trump’s war on Iran ends.

There is always the mitigating gob-smacking Crime du Jour: President Trump’s unprecedented annual earnings report of $2.2 billion for his family and their private businesses — like crypto (which is “regulated by the government” Trump heads, Trump Bibles, Trump shirts-and-shoes merch — all while he holds public office. Critics are calling this a potential conflict of interest.

But what preoccupies  me is Trump’s arrogant ignorant  misalliance with Israel’s criminal prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is jonesing to destroy Iran.  Trump has joined Bibi’s war with no notice, no consultation, no consent sought from the U.S.Congress. Trump tore up Obama’s 10-year nuclear weapons production detente with Iran and instead, Trump/Hegseth/Rubio/Vance/Lutnick/Kushner have twice interrupted diplomatic negoatiations with Iran, first to “obliterate” (kill off) Iran’s leadership hierarchy and then to bomb Iran’s infrastructure and tighten economic sanctions against its people.

Opening of Strait of Hormuz and End to Israel’s Attacks on Lebanon Parts of Murky Details

By Jason Burke / The Guardian / Mon 15 Jun 2026

A framework peace deal between the US and Iran has been reached, Donald Trump and senior Iranian officials have said, bringing the 15-week conflict to a tentative end and offering hope of relief for the Middle East and the world economy.

The secretariat of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said war and military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon, would end permanently from Monday night.

The precise terms of the deal remain unclear but in a statement posted to Truth Social on Sunday evening, the US president announced the opening of the strait of Hormuz as well as the removal of the US naval blockade. “Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!” he wrote.

Trump later clarified that reopening the strait would depend on the signing of an initial memorandum of understanding on Friday, which Pakistan, acting as mediator, said would take place in Geneva.

Leaked drafts suggest the memorandum will trigger an immediate 60-day period of intensive technical talks, during which the most contentious issues, including Iran’s nuclear programme, will be discussed. Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, confirmed that negotiators would seek to reach a broader agreement that would include sanctions relief for Iran.

By Theodoric Meyer and  Mariana Alfaro / Washington Post / June 3, 2026

The House passed a resolution Wednesday to block President Donald Trump from ordering further strikes on Iran, ratcheting up pressure on the administration to find a way to end the unpopular war.

The 215-208 vote marked the first time that such a measure has cleared the House or Senate on a final vote since the start of the conflict more than three months ago. The Senate advanced a similar resolution last month on a procedural vote, reflecting growing impatience with a war Congress hasn’t authorized.

The effort faces sizable hurdles, however, before Congress could force Trump to end hostilities.

In the House, four Republicans — Reps. Thomas Massie (Kentucky), Tom Barrett (Michigan), Warren Davidson (Ohio) and Brian Fitzpatrick (Pennsylvania) — joined Democrats in voting to force Trump to end the war.

By Kurt Johnston / UCSD The Guardian / May 26, 2026

1. FIFA ‘Americanizes’ the game

In about two weeks, the U.S., Mexico, and Canada will host the most bizarre World Cup that FIFA has ever organized. Yes, that includes Benito Mussolini’s personal propaganda tournament in 1934, Vladimir Putin’s personal propaganda tournament in 2018, and the Qatari regime’s personal propaganda tournament in 2022. Take a bow, Gianni Infantino.

FIFA is billing the 2026 edition of the world’s biggest sporting event — soon to be President Donald Trump’s personal propaganda tournament — as an overdue expansion of the beautiful game. The month-long spectacle will span three host countries, increasing to 48 participants for the first time in World Cup history. It will instead be remembered for a number of other first-time inclusions that threaten the sport’s integrity.

Most egregiously, all matches will be paused for mid-half water breaks.

4 Republicans — Including Bill Cassidy — Joined Democrats Led by Tim Kaine in Voting to Enforce War Powers Resolution

By Theodoric Meyer / Washington Post / May 19, 2026

The Senate voted Tuesday to advance a resolution to block President Donald Trump from ordering further strikes on Iran, defying the White House nearly three months into an unpopular war.

Four Republicans — Sens. Rand Paul (Kentucky), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Bill Cassidy (Louisiana) — joined Democrats in voting to discharge a war powers resolution from committee, the first step toward forcing Trump to end a war that Congress never authorized. Sen. John Fetterman (Pennsylvania) was the lone Democrat to vote no.

The 50-47 procedural vote was a breakthrough for Democrats, but the measure still faces considerable hurdles before it could force Trump to end the war.

Are you confused as I am about whether we’re still at war with Iran?

For me to even ask the question displays a lot about this particular moment. Are we at war still, after over 2 months of war? Who knows? I wish somebody would please tell us, to get us out of this confusion.

We have good reasons for our confusion. The Trump White House, Trump himself, and his cabinet secretaries all are saying different things. We aren’t at war, we are at war, it’s an “excursion,” a “blip”, it’s an operation, not war.

Yet, for good times, try this.

Supposedly, the White House and Iran are looking at an agreement spelled out in a one-page memorandum of understanding to end the war and set a framework for more detailed nuclear negotiations. On this news, the DOW shot up.

Then also Trump put Project Freedom on pause last night,

By Marc Snelling

The distance between the Trump regime and the American people continues to grow, as the United States and Canada are set to renegotiate their trade pact. Trump’s fellow Epstein Island visitor Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick recently offered his insightful analysis of the deep ties between the countries saying of Canada “they suck.” Lutnick is following Trump’s lead who earlier stated “We don’t need anything from Canada.”

Headlines in Canada are being made with foreign support being uncovered in Alberta’s proposed referendum over separation. Many have likened the Trump regime support for Alberta separatism with the disinformation campaign from the Putin regime in Ukraine’s Donbas region leading up to the Ukraine-Russian War. Trump minion, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaking of Alberta said “they want sovereignty, they want what the US has got.”

While regime officials run their mouths the American people, particularly in the States that border Canada, have been singing an entirely different tune. The Trump Slump continues unabated with Canadian’s boycott of American tourism and products growing. The boycott is not easily reversed by government action on either side of the border as it is a grassroots effort.

By Jordan Atwood / Nation of Change / April 30, 2026

A deadline written in the aftermath of Vietnam to prevent presidents from waging open-ended wars without congressional approval is colliding with President Donald Trump’s military campaign in Iran, raising the prospect of a constitutional test over whether Congress can still restrain unilateral war-making. On May 1, the 60-day limit established under the War Powers Resolution expires for military operations Trump initiated without formal authorization from lawmakers. Under the 1973 law, hostilities undertaken without congressional approval are supposed to end unless Congress authorizes the conflict or the president invokes a narrow extension tied to “unavoidable military necessity.”

That legal deadline has transformed what began as a fight over the Iran campaign itself into a broader struggle over presidential power, congressional authority, and whether statutory checks on war-making still have force.

By Rev. Michael J. Christensen

Don’t be naïve: what’s being sold right now in renewed negotiations with Iran— and in the wider conflicts touching Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, and Ukraine— is not really peace. It’s a deal.

Cap uranium enrichment at a negotiated threshold. Reopen inspections. In exchange, ease sanctions, unfreeze assets, lower the temperature. Declare a breakthrough. Claim victory.

We’ve seen this script before. It’s essentially a reboot— an updated version of the same nuclear framework under President Biden, repackaged for a new political moment.

To be sure, deals like this can slow a crisis. They can buy time. They may even avert immediate catastrophe.

But they don’t reach the deeper fractures driving the conflict in the first place—generational wounds, historical grievances, cycles of injustice and retaliation.
The biblical prophet Jeremiah would call it out for what it is:

“They have treated the wound of my people lightly, saying ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.”

Call it peace lite.