jet fuel shortfall Archives - The Automatic Earth

Jensen Huang just killed the AI jobs panic.

Not with a forecast. With a pattern.

Huang: “The fact of the matter is PCs made us more busy. The internet made us more busy. Mobile devices made us super busy.”

Every tool that promised to free us expanded what we could reach… pic.twitter.com/wi6tiFA404
— Dustin (@r0ck3t23) April 5, 2026

Pay attention to this America, this is a warning

“Islam is taking over Europe faster than you think

– France is already nearly 10% Muslim
– Sweden, over 8%
– Germany and UK around 7% and integration is going absolutely fantastic (sarcasm)
– In the uk, only 51% of working-age… pic.twitter.com/WQfOT0dBlg
— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) April 5, 2026

TOP 10 richest people in the world from 1996 to 2023. pic.twitter.com/gmoYpS2Wfw
— Xavi Ruiz (@xruiztru) April 5, 2026

The City of London is collapsing and they're terrified. New Epstein files expose Mandelson, Rothschild banks, and the WEF. Watch Christopher Steele desperately blame Russia (again) while their entire corrupt empire burns. pic.twitter.com/SS7jf2Nrs7
— matrixbot (@thematrixb0t) April 5, 2026

Elon Musk has been predicting the death of the gas-powered car for over two decades, but his latest reality check for the legacy auto industry is the sharpest one yet. The massive shift to EVs isn't just about saving the environment; it’s about finally acknowledging a vastly… pic.twitter.com/fkMrGNApu0
— Ian Miles Cheong (@ianmiles) April 5, 2026

“And notice how nonchalant it sounds. Trump didn’t go for epic, carnage-heavy branding. He branded it the way you’d casually announce National Potato Chip Day.” American Debunk on X.

• Not Bluffing (James Howard Kunstler)

Note: you are living through the FAFO of all FAFOs just now. The USA is brooking no more aspersions from whomever is still left alive to speak for the jihad posse in Iran. These are the terms: open the strait, layoff the other Gulf states, surrender those thousand pounds of enriched uranium. You can still go forward in time as a developed nation, enjoy the modern Persian life. Or, you can go backward in time to the twelfth century without electric service, bridges, and other conveniences. Your choice.

Over the weekend, further demonstration of what we can do. Such as, against all odds and expectations, rescue an American airman stuck under fire in the middle of Iranian mountain nowhere and do it with no casualties. The Lefty-lefties were so disappointed! No body-bags to celebrate. No Trump failure to trumpet. They were praying out loud Sunday to the Easter Bunny for war crimes they can do a hate-dance over. They insist the USA must be defeated in Iran so that Chuck Schumer and Hakim Jeffries can win the mid-terms. . . so they can destroy Trump in Congress. (Uh, okay, and then what?)
Meanwhile, another couple of dozen Iranian military higher-ups got kinetically removed from operations Saturday. Good luck with your military command structure over there. Got carrier pigeons? But, as far as is known, President Masoud Pezeshkian is still above ground, along with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, with whom US negotiators have at least been messaging, if not talking directly.
Trouble is, their civilian government has no authority over the Revolutionary Guard (the IRGC), which controls all the missiles and drones, the proxy Quds forces outside Iran, and what’s left of the Basij secret police for terrorizing Iran’s people. Remember, it was the Revolutionary Guard who started this jihad long ago in 1979 when they seized the US embassy in Teheran and held 52 Americans hostages for more than a year.
The ultimatum to roll over Iran’s vital infrastructure on Tuesday is a forcing function to clarify who exactly can speak for the Iranian nation if they sincerely want the punishment to stop. It is unlikely to be anyone atop the IRGC, which is the rectified essence of the Islamic death cult. It lives for death! Death to America. . . death to ourselves for that ticket to paradise where the seventy-two virgins beckon. . . death to the global economy, if Allah requires it! Lovely, lovely death!
What part of that does Western Civ not understand? Jihad rolls across Europe without opposition. Nightclub massacres, trucks smashing through bodies in the Christmas markets, rape gangs, beheadings of teachers and Christian priests in broad daylight — none of that was enough to bestir the prime ministers and presidents of Euroland to consider expelling the uninvited hordes. New York City, the bastion of Lefty-left masochism, now lives under the sway of Momdani’s soft jihad, the Islamic call-to-prayer rings through the neighborhoods twenty-five years after 9-11. The Jews of the Upper West Side voted for it. Compassion for the oppressed, as always. . . at one’s own expense.
The US President will have none of that, of course. So, he put it in the starkest form possible, with a touch of manic glee to annoy his homeland enemies. Developments since then? An Israeli air strike overnight took out Majid Khademi, the IRGC Intel chief. Who’s next? Step right up. Foreign Minister Araghchi hastily proposed a forty-five-day ceasefire through Egyptian-Turkish-Pakistani mediators. I doubt that our side wants to give them forty-five days to re-shuffle their remaining assets around. Mr. Trump is not bluffing about those bridges and power plants. Russia and China are not riding to the rescue. And Europe is still off in its corner, pearl-clutching and sniveling while its economies sputter.
Epic Fury leads to epic change on the global landscape. The old arrangements are over, especially the sponsored export of jihadi terror. The Hormuz crisis is the actualization of the global resource scramble underway. The winners and losers are sorting themselves out now, and Mr. Trump seeks to make sure that America is on the winners’ side. So, you must ask: why does the American Left, as personified in the Democratic Party, so desperately want our country to lose?

“On April 9, the last tanker carrying jet fuel from the Persian Gulf will reach Rotterdam; existing reserves are likely to sustain European flight operations for three to four weeks.”

• Europe Is On The Verge of a Massive Jet Fuel Shortfall (Kolbe)

Politics has established a new routine. Right at 12 noon, prices at German gas stations now rise day after day. The government’s pricing decree, a hastily assembled mechanism, acts like an accelerant in an already dramatically strained fuel supply situation. Anyone with rudimentary economic understanding already knew that this form of price regulation would amount to political posturing with fatal consequences. The market is reacting as expected. Gas station operators anticipate general price increases and indirectly coordinate their pricing behavior. If everyone is only allowed to raise prices once per day, that shot will be fired deliberately — better too high than too low.

After that, it becomes a waiting game, observing how competitors react. If the next move can only be a price reduction, the risk can be solved in simple game-theoretical terms: prices are simply kept high as long as competitors do not move. This creates a cartel-like situation that avoids the risk of rapid price cuts and the resulting loss of individual margins. Market dynamics thus turn into generalized tactical hesitation. At the same time, political leadership is marked by a striking lack of direction in the face of real scarcity and a rapidly worsening supply situation. Hormuz is exposing the limits of political emergency measures.
The measures taken so far by the German government to curb rising prices are classic political camouflage — a well-rehearsed play for the public. The fundamental question of how to deal with energy imports is not being seriously addressed. Europe must import 60 percent of its energy to meet demand. And the stubborn stance toward Russia, Europe’s most important supplier of energy and raw materials, will likely prove to be the most fatal mistake of European policy — quite an achievement, given that it is already riddled with misjudgments and ideologically driven, erratic decisions.
It is also significant that Brussels’ CO2regime has severely damaged Europe’s refining capacity. Europe no longer has the infrastructure required to rapidly activate refining capacity in an emergency and close the widening gap in oil and gas supply, regardless of where new raw materials might be sourced. EU policy is knowingly and deliberately escalating the current situation. This finding applies in particular to jet fuel imports. Europe’s aviation sector imports around 40 percent of its jet fuel from the Persian Gulf, making the current situation effectively unsolvable.
Since the beginning of the war, the price of jet fuel has roughly doubled, from $800 to $1,800 per ton. The fact that the United States is taking its time to bring the Strait of Hormuz under military control is putting enormous pressure on European airlines. Scandinavian carrier SAS has already canceled 1,000 flights in April. Lufthansa is also considering grounding parts of its fleet. Airlines that have hedged their fuel purchases may be able to cushion price increases somewhat — Lufthansa among them — but this does nothing to address the physical shortage of available jet fuel. Europe is on the verge of a massive jet fuel shortfall.
On April 9, the last tanker carrying jet fuel from the Persian Gulf will reach Rotterdam; existing reserves are likely to sustain European flight operations for three to four weeks. What happens afterward remains completely uncertain.Given the destruction of refining capacity and related infrastructure in the name of the Green Deal, European policymakers find their hands effectively tied. The Hormuz crisis is likely to erupt with full force. If there is no rapid resolution to the Iran conflict, a loss of 40% of available jet fuel simply cannot be compensated.

The Hungarian prime minister warned that “Europe is nearing an extremely serious energy crisis, and the coming days will be critical”

• Orban Urges End To Sanctions Against Russian Energy (TASS)

Hungary is firmly advocating for the lifting of sanctions on Russian oil and gas supplies to Europe, emphasizing the urgency of this move amid the looming threat of a global energy crisis linked to the ongoing situation in Iran. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban conveyed this stance during a visit to inspect a section of the gas pipeline and the measuring station in Kiskundorozsma, near the border with Serbia.”The Hungarian position is clear: we must end sanctions against Russian energy,” Orban declared, with his remarks broadcast on Hungarian television. He warned that “Europe is nearing an extremely serious energy crisis, and the coming days will be critical.” In his view, “competition for energy resources could resemble the scramble we saw with vaccines during the coronavirus pandemic.”

Orban’s inspection followed an attempted terrorist attack on the Serbian segment of the TurkStream pipeline, which supplies gas to Hungary and Slovakia. In response, on April 5, he ordered the entire 250-kilometer stretch of the pipeline within Hungarian territory to be placed under military protection. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto accompanied him to the Serbia border. “Currently, Hungary’s energy supplies are secure, but the pipeline must be protected,” Orban emphasized, adding that “the situation is extremely serious.” He warned that “if this pipeline were to be cut, Hungary’s economy would come to a standstill.”
When questioned by journalists, Orban said it was too early to identify those responsible for the sabotage attempt, as investigations by Serbian authorities were ongoing. He also recalled that Ukraine had previously blown up the Nord Stream pipeline, halted Russian gas transit to Hungary, and this year imposed an oil blockade on Hungary by refusing to resume supplies via the Druzhba pipeline. Szijjarto further stated that “the Ukrainians aim to completely exclude Russian gas and oil from Europe.” He pointed out that “political actions, as well as terrorist attacks, have been undertaken to achieve this goal,” citing the explosion of the Nord Stream pipeline as the first such act.

“While US Boosts Ship Reinsurance Guarantees To $40BN ..”

Note: Iraq, not Iran

This is where the US (Trump) takes over Britain’s long-standing (re-)insurance business.

• Iraq Tells Buyers To Collect Crude Which Can Now Cross Hormuz (ZH)

Over the long weekend, we reported that with traffic across the Hormuz strait continuing to rise, and reaching the highest since the war began, one particularly favorable development was Iran’s permission for Iraqi ships to use the Strait. We also noted that this declaration had the potential to unleash as much as 3 million barrels a day of Iraqi oil cargoes.That said, there was the caveat that it was not immediately clear if the exemption will apply to all Iraqi oil or just the nation’s tankers, or indeed how it will be enforced. Furthermore, an Iraqi official cautioned that the usefulness of the exemption will depend on whether shipping companies are willing to risk entering the strait to collect cargoes.

Today Iraq underscored this last point when the Gulf state told traders and refiners they can collect crude cargoes as vessels carrying the country’s oil are now able to transit the Strait of Hormuz thanks to an Iranian exemption, testing buyers’ confidence in the security guarantee. In a notice sent on Sunday, the country’s State Organization for Marketing of Oil, known as SOMO, said Iraqi shipments were now “exempt from any potential restrictions,” citing media reports. It asked buyers for lifting schedules, including vessel details and volumes requested, adding all loading terminals including Basrah were “fully operational.” Customers were given 24 hours to respond.
As previously reported, Iran said over the weekend that its neighbor was now free from shipping restrictions around the vital waterway. The country’s military spokesman did not provide details on whether the arrangement applied to vessels or cargoes. The Turkish-owned tanker Ocean Thunder, carrying a million barrels of Iraqi crude to Malaysia crossed the narrow waterway after the announcement. As Bloomberg notes, Iraq often sells oil on a free-on-board (FOB) basis, meaning refiners sort out their own shipping, but it has struggled to export crude since the effective closure of Hormuz a month ago. Asian buyers reached by Bloomberg said they were seeking clarity on conditions, including whether Iraq would offer the use of its own tankers, thereby providing extra security, although judging by Iraq’s comments it is inviting buyers to send their own tankers.
Separately, the Iraqi Basra Oil company announced that Iraq can restore oil exports to 3.4 million barrels per day within a week if Hormuz shipping resumed. Meanwhile, in hopes of kickstarting frozen traffic – and potentially taking over the lucrative shipping insurance market from London – on Friday the US announced it would double to $40 billion its commitment to provide reinsurance guarantees to ships willing to travel through the Strait of Hormuz with the addition of new insurance partners, including AIG and Berkshire Hathaway. The move was the latest US effort to ease worries over the vital waterway and to encourage traffic to resume.
Recall a month ago the US International Development Finance Corp. announced a $20 billion reinsurance program. On Friday, the agency said Travelers, Liberty Mutual Insurance, Berkshire Hathaway, AIG, Starr and CNA will join Chubb to provide an additional $20 billion in reinsurance for the agency’s maritime facility. “Along with Chubb, these leading American insurers bring deep underwriting experience in marine and marine war coverage, strengthening our efforts to help restore confidence in maritime trade,” DFC Chief Executive Officer Ben Black said in a statement.
The DFC also said in the statement that the agency and insurance partners will determine which vessels are eligible for the reinsurance facility. To qualify, the DFC is requiring applicants to provide, among other details, the origin and destination country of the vessel; major beneficial owners of the ship and domicile; owner of the cargo and domicile of the owner; and information about the lenders financing the vessels. Trump on Friday reiterated his frustration over the strait’s closure and the failure of allies to help the US reopen the waterway.
“With a little more time, we can easily OPEN THE HORMUZ STRAIT, TAKE THE OIL, & MAKE A FORTUNE,” Trump said in a social media post. It wasn’t immediately clear what actions the president was considering. Shippers remain doubtful, though, of a wholesale return to the Strait of Hormuz even after Trump’s promise to protect ships and his primetime speech on Wednesday in which he repeated that the war will soon end. The key concern about traversing the sea route is that it puts the lives of crews at risk as Iran continues to threaten vessels with drone attacks, missiles and water mines.

“Trump revealed that he thinks there can be no alternative for a state or a people or a god but submission or destruction. Theirs, or his.”

• The Collapse of Trump’s Mind Leaves No Alternative (Helmer)

In the four days between April 1 and April 5, President Donald Trump made a record of the collapse of his mind into genocidal violence which none of his officials can dissuade, limit, control, if they try, or even conceal. Not the military experts of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; not the pollsters of the White House Chief of Staff; not the lawyers of the White House Counsel; not even the spell-checkers of the Director of Communications. Between declaring “we’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages where they belong” and “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell. JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah”, Trump revealed that he thinks there can be no alternative for a state or a people or a god but submission or destruction. Theirs, or his.

In Moscow, there has been silence except for Trump’s advocate inside the Kremlin, Kirill Dmitriev. He has tweeted in support of Trump’s attacks on one of his domestic bugbears, the New York Times, and one of his foreign ones, Europe.This record has been compiled by analysing Trump’s remarks from his rehearsal of the “Stone Ages” line just before his national television speech at 9 pm on April 1 through his early morning tweet on April 5; putting them in the sequence out of Trump’s mouth and time log of their publication; and then locating them in the chain of official meetings and other activities, including inactivities and secrets, identified in the published “Presidential Public Schedule”.
The words speak for themselves. For political analysis of the April 1 speech, read this. The legal standard for genocide includes both intention as Trump has expressed it in this record and acts as he has both threatened and decided, then celebrated in this record. This is how the United Nations sets the standard: “To constitute genocide, there must be a proven intent on the part of perpetrators to physically destroy a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. Cultural destruction does not suffice, nor does an intention to simply disperse a group. It is this special intent, or dolus specialis, that makes the crime of genocide so unique. In addition, case law has associated intent with the existence of a State or organizational plan or policy, even if the definition of genocide in international law does not include that element.”
Trump’s words and the calendar context in which he said them do more than this. The April 1 speech was composed by a committee of advisors who met with him at 3 pm to compose the final draft. In the Calendar, this is noted as a “policy meeting”. According to the account of White House decision-making reported by Time Magazine on April 2, and the motives of the anonymous sources and leakers behind it, there is a deep division in Trump’s policy-making group on the risks he is running in continuing the war against Iran, and escalating instead of exiting from it.

New war, new tools.

• Iran Threatens “Annihilation” of OpenAI’s $30BN Data Center In Abu Dhabi (ZH)

In a move that may well have been sponsored by Dario Amodei or Elon Musk, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) issued a clear public warning to the US that any damage inflicted on Iran’s power infrastructure will be met with decisive retaliation. Specifically, IRGC spokesperson Brigadier General Ebrahim Zolfaghari threatened the “complete and utter annihilation” of U.S. and Israeli facilities, with Stargate’s $30 billion “hidden” AI datacenter in Abu Dhabi singled out as a juicy target for Iranian destruction later in the video. The threats come on the heels of Iran reportedly delivering enough damage via rocket strikes to some Amazon AWS data centers that they have shut down.

Iran leveling up
They released a video of threatening to strike 1GW Stargate AI datacenter in the UAE.

The data center is hidden on Google maps they even shown that pic.twitter.com/LuOGIp3BVj
— Furkan Gözükara (@FurkanGozukara) April 3, 2026

In the video, Zolfaghari warned that “should the USA proceed with its threats concerning Iran’s power plant facilities the following retaliatory measures shall be promptly enacted: All power plants, energy infrastructure, and information and communications technology of the Zionist regime, and all similar companies within the region that have American shareholders shall face complete and utter annihilation.”
As Tom’s Hardware notes, after Zolfaghari’s remarks end, the video switches to a shot of the Earth from space, which zooms into Abu Dhabi on Google Maps. A zone not far from the coast is then centered on, showing an apparently ‘empty’ area of desert. However, a message is overlaid on this bleak view, stating “Nothing stays hidden to our sight, though hidden by Google.” The video then switches to a ‘night vision’ view of the same area of the map with the full extent of the Stargate AI datacenter in Abu Dhabi clear to see.

The threat comes after the IRGC claimed they targeted Oracle’s data centers in Dubai.

IRAN'S REVOLUTIONARY GUARDS SAY THEY HAVE TARGETED ORACLE'S DATA CENTER IN DUBAI – STATE MEDIA
— Phil Stewart (@phildstewart) April 2, 2026

There has been no confirmation whether the facility was hit or what damage it may have sustained.

Between Trump and Iran, it looks like a bragging competition.

• Trump Dragging Americans “Into Hell” – Iranian Parliament Speaker (RT)

US President Donald Trump’s war with Iran is making life worse for ordinary Americans, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said in response to ultimatums over the Strait of Hormuz.In an expletive-laden post on Truth Social on Sunday, Trump warned that Iran would be “living in hell” unless the vital waterway is reopened to shipping by Tuesday, 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time (Wednesday, 12:00 a.m. GMT). He also repeated his threat to bomb Iran’s power plants and bridges.Responding on X hours later, Qalibaf urged Trump to end what he described as a “dangerous game.”

“Your reckless moves are dragging the United States into a living HELL for every single family, and our whole region is going to burn because you insist on following Netanyahu’s commands,” Qalibaf wrote, referring to the Israeli prime minister. “Make no mistake: You won’t gain anything through war crimes,” the Iranian official added.Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz to “enemy ships” shortly after the US and Israel initiated their air campaign on February 28. Tehran later said navigation rules would change and that the strait would remain inaccessible to the US and Israel for an extended period.
Traffic through the strait normally accounts for 20–25% of global oil shipments and around 20% of liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade. Disruptions linked to the ongoing conflict are driving up energy prices, including in the US, where the average price of gasoline has risen to $4 per gallon for the first time since 2022. Russia’s envoy to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, said Washington fails to understand that Tehran would only accept agreements based on “reasonable compromises,” not ultimatums.

“We’re in a new world now … where eight billion people are one plane ride away from having a child who’s a U.S. citizen.”

• Is it Time for a New Amendment on the Meaning of Citizenship? (Turley)

“Well, it’s a new world. It’s the same Constitution.” Those words from Chief Justice John Roberts during this week’s oral arguments signaled that the conservative justices are unlikely to reject birthright citizenship. Of course, nothing is certain until this summer when the Court issues its opinion in Trump v. Barbara. However, we need to consider the need for a 28th Amendment to reaffirm the meaning of citizenship.

As some of us stressed before the oral argument, the odds were against the administration prevailing in the case, given more than a century of countervailing precedent. There are good-faith arguments against reading the 14th Amendment as supporting citizenship for any child born in this country. It is doubtful that the drafters of the 14th Amendment could have envisioned millions of births to illegal aliens. They surely did not imagine foreigners coming to this country for the purpose of giving birth — or even, without ever entering the U.S., contracting multiple U.S. residents to carry babies to term for them as surrogates.
The historical record is highly conflicted. Some drafters expressly denied that they intended for birthright citizenship to be covered by the 14th Amendment. The rampant abuse in this country and the widespread rejection of birthright citizenship by other countries (including some that once followed it) did not seem to impress the conservative justices. Roberts’s statement was in response to Solicitor General John Sauer’s argument that “We’re in a new world now … where eight billion people are one plane ride away from having a child who’s a U.S. citizen.”
Although President Trump has lashed out with personal attacks on the conservative justices as “disloyal” and “stupid,” they are doing what they are bound by oath to do: apply the law without political favor or interest. I expect most of the justices agree with the vast majority of countries — and the president — that birthright citizenship is a foolish and harmful policy. But they are not legislators; they are jurists tasked with constitutional interpretation. Trump appointed three principled justices to the court. To their (and to his) credit, Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett have proven that they are driven by the underlying law, not the ultimate outcome of cases.
For conservatives, constitutional interpretations offer less leeway than their liberal colleagues or believers in the “living constitution.” If you believe in continually updating the Constitution from the bench to meet contemporary demands, constitutional language is barely a speed bump on your path to the preferred outcome in any given case. In my Supreme Court class, I call this a “default case” in which justices tend to run home. When a record or the law is uncertain, conservative justices tend to avoid expansive, new interpretations. That was precisely what Trump said he wanted in nominees.
These justices are not being “disloyal” to him, but rather loyal to what they view as the meaning of the Constitution. I have at times disagreed with their view of the law, but I have never questioned their integrity. None of this means we should accept the expected outcome in this case as the final word on birthright citizenship. Justice Robert Jackson once observed that he and his colleagues “are not final because we are infallible, we are infallible because we are final.” The final word actually rests with the public. We can amend the Constitution to join most of the world in barring birthright citizenship. There is no more important question in a republic than the definition of citizenship.
We are becoming a virtual mockery as we watch millions game the birthright citizenship system. China alone has hundreds of tourism firms that have made fortunes in arranging for Chinese citizens to come to U.S. territory to give birth and then return home. No republic can last without controlling its borders and the qualifications for citizenship. We have allowed U.S. citizenship to become a mere commodity for the most affluent or unscrupulous among us.
The combination of open borders and open-ended citizenship can be an existential threat to this Republic. It is not that we cannot absorb millions of births, but rather that no republic can retain its core identity without more clearly defining and controlling the meaning of being a citizen. The U.S. is and will remain a nation of immigrants. We welcome lawful immigrants who come to this country to embrace our values and our common identity. But being a nation of immigrants does not mean that we are a nation of chumps.

“It’s basically Trump in architectural form: the deal-doing warrior and man with the Midas touch, presided over by his gleaming, gloating, engorged effigy.” —The Guardian

• April 2026 | Eyesore (James Howard Kunstler)

Behold: the proposed Donald J. Trump Presidential Library coming in for a landing on Biscayne Boulevard, Miami a few years hence. It is already catching a lot of TDS flak, and deservedly so, for its gilded grandiosity — including a gigantic golden statue of “47” himself inside somewhere, and the gold “Trump” brand logo plastered on the 47th floor. Mr. Trump has always been a comedian, and this monument is, at least partly, a bit of trollery against his millions of hate-inflamed detractors, a 47-story middle finger (with a smile). All of that is too self-evident to belabor.

Don’t expect this library to house many books, either. Rather, the building is a combo temple / museum, filled with artifacts and objects of worship, like the jumbo jet (of various Air Force Ones) to be installed in the ground floor entrance.

The more curious aspect of this project is its manifestation as a skyscraper. Such megastructures are just now going obsolete all over the world, and the world is stuck with them. Working from home, or the corner cafe, or just about anywhere, killed the need for organizing office work in this manner, and artificial intelligence is apt to sweep away countless middle-management, information handling jobs in any case. Another skyscraper is just not what the world needs these days.
So, you’d also have to ask: aside from exhibit halls, study rooms, and auditoriums, what the heck else is expected to occupy the many other floors of the building? Document storage makes more sense in low-slung structures (filing cabinets are heavy) or underground, with elaborate climate-control. Is the plan to offer some upper floor market rental space to companies who might want to locate at a “prestige address?” But, we’ve already established that the traditional office milieu is on its way out.
The answer probably is that building skyscrapers is just what DJT did in life, besides being president of the USA twice. It’s what he knows how to do, and this scheme reflects on the triumphs of his prior career in real estate development. Really, it’s just another Trump Tower, perhaps, ultimately, another Trump hotel for folks who want to bask in the glow of the Golden Golem of Greatness and his legendary doings. The final joke is that it’s being financed with the awards from the various lawsuits Mr. T has won against the old legacy media giants who defamed him over years. For all that, we say GO, MAGA. . . !

What are the odds the royal family will survive? The only reason they’re still there is Elizabeth. But all her kids are retards. And some day Charles will face his own crisis. Look at how he treated Lady Di. A king first should behave as one.

• British King Makes Easter Message After Backlash Over Ramadan Greeting (RT)

British King Charles III has issued an Easter message to Christians, after Buckingham Palace came under fire earlier this week for stating that he would not make one. He recently delivered greetings to Muslims on Ramadan. The British monarch is traditionally the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. On Thursday, GB News quoted a Buckingham Palace representative as saying that King Charles would not issue an Easter message. The announcement drew criticism from social media users, many of whom described the king’s Easter silence as “disappointing.” “We are hurting as a nation, we needed a message of Easter hope,” one user wrote.

Some critics took issue with the fact that, in February, the Royal family posted a message on its social media accounts marking the beginning of Ramadan, the holiest month in the Islamic calendar. “Wishing all Muslims in the UK, the Commonwealth and around the world a blessed and peaceful Ramadan,” the greeting read. In March, as Muslims around the world celebrated Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the month-long fast, Buckingham Palace also published a post reading, “Eid Mubarak to Muslims celebrating in the UK and around the world.”Several British Christian clerics criticized the Royal family’s initial refusal to do the same for the country’s largest religious community.
Gavin Ashenden, a former chaplain to the late Queen Elizabeth II, issued a statement in which he suggested that the King’s silence gave his subjects the impression that the monarch “is more sympathetic to Islam.” He added that this was particularly disheartening at a time when “Christianity throughout the West – but particularly in this country, and Anglicanism above all – is beginning to sink into decay.” Bishop Ceirion H. Dewar similarly wrote on X that the Royal family’s silence on Easter was a “grave disappointment.” On Sunday, the Royal family ultimately released a short message to wish “a joyous Easter Sunday to Christians celebrating in the UK, the Commonwealth and around the world.”

“Beyond building an expanded facility to host guests, the Trump administration said the White House construction project includes new protective measures.”

• Trump Admin Appeals Order Halting White House Ballroom Construction (ET)

The Trump administration on April 3 appealed a judge’s order to halt construction on a new White House ballroom, elevating security concerns associated with the project. On March 31, Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued an order declaring that the president lacked the authority to order the $400 million addition on the presidential residence. Leon’s ruling came as a win for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a congressionally chartered nonprofit for the preservation of U.S. monuments and historic sites, which has challenged the White House renovation.

The National Park Service filed an emergency motion before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on April 3, arguing that halting the construction in progress exposes a construction site with highly sensitive security features. Beyond simply building an expanded facility to host guests, the National Park Service said the ongoing construction includes the installation of new protective features to withstand attacks from high-powered rifles, drones, missiles, and other unspecified “emerging national-security technologies and threats.”
Supporting the National Park Service in the case, Secret Service Deputy Director Matthew Quinn described the open construction site as a “managed safety hazard” that creates added challenges for the president’s security detail. The National Park Service argued that the project should be finished quickly, writing, “Time is of the essence!” In his ruling enjoining the construction project, Leon said that as president, Trump is the steward of the White House, but not an owner who can do with the residence as he chooses. The district judge wrote that the true authority over federal property rests with Congress, not the president.
However, in its appeal, the National Park Service argued that presidential authority covers security-related renovations at the residence. “The district court took the erroneous, sweeping view that Congress did not authorize the ballroom construction at the White House—yet correctly allows construction ‘necessary to ensure the safety and security of the White House and its grounds, including the ballroom construction site, and provide for the personal safety of the President and his staff,’” the National Park Service wrote. Leon acknowledged security issues in his March 31 order to halt the construction.
In a separate order, the district judge said construction could not proceed on the development of the ballroom, but left room for the Trump administration to proceed with construction actions “strictly necessary to ensure the safety and security of the White House and its grounds, including the ballroom construction site, and provide for the personal safety of the President and his staff.” Leon’s order calls for a halt to the ballroom construction by April 14.

Ha ha.

• Ukrainian Children ‘Harassing’ Draft Officers – Ombudsman (RT)

Ukrainian schoolchildren are increasingly “harassing” draft officers on the streets after watching viral TikTok videos of the officers attempting to press reluctant recruits into service, Ukraine’s military ombudsman, Olga Reshetilova, has said. Speaking on NV Radio on Saturday, Reshetilova accused Russia of spreading videos of violent acts amid the conscription campaign – which has become known in Ukraine as ‘busification’ – but conceded that the narrative has found “fertile ground.” “Schoolchildren, having watched Russian TikTok videos about the recruitment centers, start harassing people in military uniform on the streets,” she said, calling it “a very dangerous signal, because children’s psyche is not ready.”

Reshetilova also noted that parents are compounding the problem by openly discussing forced conscription in front of their children. She added that when “teenage aggression is directed at servicemen, this requires our counteraction,” such as pursuing a “nationwide information policy… in cultivating respect for a person in uniform.”nReshetilova’s comments come amid Ukraine’s contentious draft campaign, which has spawned thousands of videos showing officers clashing with reluctant recruits. Some altercations result in serious consequences, including injuries and even death in some documented cases. Many of the clips also feature ordinary civilians trying to protect people from being pressed into military service.
A Council of Europe report in July 2025 found systemic human rights violations in Ukraine’s recruitment process, citing beatings and the conscription of people with disabilities. While Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has acknowledged issues with the draft and ordered defense officials to implement the necessary reforms, the head of his office, Kirill Budanov, dampened hopes for swift reform, stressing that forced conscription is vital to staving off a collapse of the front lines and replenishing battlefield losses.

How many kids do it long enough to qualify for “long-term use”?

• Long-Term Social Media Use Linked to Depression, Self-Harm (ET)

An Australian-led study has found children and teenagers who spend more time on social media are more likely to experience depression, self-harm, substance use, and lower achievement later in life. Published in JAMA Pediatrics, the systematic review examined data from 153 studies consisting of over 350,000 children and adolescents aged between 2 and 19 years, for up to two decades. “The strongest pattern we saw was between social media use and later problematic media use, suggesting early patterns of engagement may become more entrenched and difficult to manage over time,” said Sam Teague, a senior research fellow at James Cook University.

The study focused on longitudinal research, which follows participants over time and offers stronger insight into how behaviours and outcomes develop. Teague said previous research in the field often relied on snapshots collected at a single point in time, making it harder to determine whether social media use preceded negative outcomes. However, she stressed the findings do not prove social media causes harm. Instead, the results show consistent links between higher use and a range of developmental outcomes, including cognitive, social-emotional, physical health, and motor development.
Amy Orben, a professor at the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at the University of Cambridge, said the relationship may be more complex.“It may be that children who are already struggling spend more time on social media, rather than social media being the cause of their difficulties,” Orben said. “Similarly, some personality traits or life circumstances might make certain children both more likely to use social media heavily and more likely to experience poorer developmental outcomes.” Teague said one possible explanation is that time spent online may displace activities linked to better mental health.
“Time spent on digital media [could] displace time that would otherwise be spent on things that are linked to improved mental health, like exercise and connecting with family and peers in real life,” Teague told The Epoch Times in an email. She also contrasted the interactive nature of social media with traditional media.“Unique to digital media over traditional media, is its interactive nature, whereby children and teens are encouraged to keep engaging with content through addictive features like auto-play and auto-scroll,” she said. Adolescents in particular were identified as more vulnerable to the effects of social media.
“Early adolescence is when identity formation and peer relationships become key developmental systems for young people,” she said. She added that social media can magnify these pressures through constant external feedback and large social comparison. “Action is needed at the policy and platform level most to make our online environments, that are designed largely for adults, appropriate for children,” she said. “Addictive design features particularly need attention, like auto-play and auto-scroll, as well as exposure to harmful content.”

“..it takes a year to build an aircraft. It takes 200 years to build a military tradition where you don’t leave anybody behind.”

• Former CENTCOM Commander Discusses US Rescue Operation in Iran (CTH)

Former Commander of CENTCOM, General Frank McKenzie, appears on CBS to give his analysis of ongoing Operation Epic Fury, along with the successful rescue of the F-15 crew.

[Transcript] – ED O’KEEFE: We’re joined now by the former head of U.S. Central Command, retired General Frank McKenzie. General, Happy Easter.
GEN. FRANK MCKENZIE: And the same to you, Ed.
ED O’KEEFE: So it took just under 48 hours to find the missing weapons systems officer. After the jet they were in went down in a remote and mountainous area of southwestern Iran, the weapons officer was hiding in a mountainous crevice. We’re told by a senior administration official, what’s your assessment of how the search and rescue operation went?
GEN. MCKENZIE: So I think I’d draw two lessons from it, Ed. First of all, the excellence of the joint force, our ability to rapidly pivot, to look for a downed air crewman. We train for this endlessly. It’s a part of every time we send air crew over enemy territory, we have detailed, elaborate plans to go get them. It’s a very basic part of who we are as American fighting men and women. So that plan swung into action. I think it was executed pretty effectively. As always, you’ve got somebody on the ground, may be injured. They got to get to a position where they can hide until you can get to them. All that seemed to work out very well. And you know, we did, in fact, lose a couple of aircraft in that in that mission.
But I would just tell you, it takes a year to build an aircraft. It takes 200 years to build a military tradition where you don’t leave anybody behind. You take the aircraft trade any day in a situation like this. The other lesson, I think, is a hard lesson for Iran. First of all, they were not able to find the missing air crewman. Second, you know, they put out a broad appeal to their people to turn him in reward, asking for all kinds of leads, that does not appear to have been successful. And that would- I think that’s maybe a sign of disaffection, don’t know, but you can’t, you can’t be happy with that if you’re a senior leader in Tehran this morning.
D O’KEEFE: Yeah, you know Iran’s Revolutionary Guards now claiming responsibility for attacks on petrochemical plants in the UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain. They warn its attacks against U.S. economic interests will intensify if attacks on civilian targets in Iran are repeated, does Iran and its proxies retain the capacity to inflict serious damage at this point?
GEN. MCKENZIE: They have the ability to inflict damage. They do not have the ability to gain mass effects. And by mass effects, I mean firing many, many dozens of rockets, missiles or drones. I think that capability has been eroded steadily since this campaign began. And frankly, at about plus 30 days into this campaign, I think if you’re at Central Command, you’ve got to be reasonably satisfied with where you are right now. In fact, Ed, when I was the CENTCOM Commander, if you had given me this situation at plus 30 days, I would have rejected it as being too optimistic by far. So we’ve had good effect. Our effects are going to continue. It’s going to be increasingly harder for them to launch missiles and rockets. We may not get to zero for a while, and I think there’s still some time ahead, but everyone realizes that. But I think we’re on track here. This campaign is moving very effectively, and I believe the pace will pick up every day.

WSO=Weapons Systems Officer.

• The European Mind Can’t Comprehend Why We’re Such Bad A****s (Stephen Green)

After an F-15E Weapons Systems Officer ejected injured over Iranian territory, the United States military and intelligence community moved Heaven and Earth to find him, rescue him, and return him safely home. While we might never know the exact figures, somewhere between 100-200 personnel were involved in the rescue, including perhaps two small Night Stalker helicopters, and two MC-130J Commando II Special Forces cargo planes that had to be destroyed on the ground. Four specialized aircraft for one WSO? What a bargain! But it isn’t a bargain our NATO partners in Western Europe can afford.

Let me take you on a quick detour through exactly how American forces were able to track and finally pinpoint the location of the injured WSO. It’s a nifty little device called the Combat Survivor Evader Locator (CSEL), and it’s worn by pilots and combat aircrews at risk of getting shot down over enemy territory. CSEL looks a little like an old-school satellite phone, and that’s because they share some DNA. Automatically activated during ejection, a CSEL communicates in short, encrypted bursts the ejectee’s location and movement. Short bursts prevent the enemy from triangulating a position (assuming they knew what to listen for), frequency hopping prevents repeated attempts at listening, and encryption means the bad guys can’t read the location data if even they did manage to intercept a transmission.
When a rescue team gets close, CSEL changes modes, “guiding helicopters straight to them in terrain that would otherwise swallow a man alive,” as Gene Robinson put it on X.Even with near-perfect data, rescue crews don’t necessarily have it easy. Tehran’s $60,000 bounty on our WSO’s life drew all kinds of armed vermin out of the woodwork, and our Special Forces are believed to have killed an unknown numbers of them during the extraction, estimated anywhere from dozens up to 100.
So let’s put this all together. U.S. forces established a hasty airhead in enemy territory, landed two Special Forces cargo planes there, held it against heavy enemy fire — and when things went south, destroyed the planes before calling in two more just like them to complete the rescue. We got our man out and lost zero men doing it. So, yeah, when President Donald Trump says this was one of the most “daring” rescues in history, he’s right. All made possible by a CSEL whose only purpose is to “phone home” via satellite by the most secure means possible — and there’s no other country on Earth that can make that kind of extraction so deep in enemy territory.
If one of our NATO allies, God forbid, had a pilot shot down over Iran — I know, I know; they’d have to send some warplane first — it would be American men and women putting their lives on the line to bring them out. This post is indicative of the mindset, and Western Europe’s comparative inability to conduct such rescues But as I replied on X, we don’t call it our “greatest military success of all time.” We call it “business as usual.” “If you want to know why the U.S. & IAF have the best and most committed pilots/aviators in the world, it’s because they know we will do everything in our power to bring them home.”
Or as former CENTCOM commander Ret. Gen. Frank McKenzie put it Sunday on Face the Nation, “It takes a year to build an aircraft, and it takes 200 years to build a military tradition where you don’t leave anybody behind.” As another wit said, France can’t afford to lose two of its 14 cargo planes, but we have hundreds. That’s the inevitable result of free-rider military budgets that countries like France and Britain are willing to make. Our air crews know that when they go out, they have the entire force and will of the United States military backing them up. Is it any wonder they’re so damn good?

Greece is hardcore Christian and Nationalistic. Every day there is something historic to honor for the nation!

The town of Mesolonghi combined the traditional religious celebration of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem with a major national commemoration through their procession!

The… https://t.co/20UpAPYuXh pic.twitter.com/ye3UXYy5UU
— TheBlackWolf (@thewolvenhour) April 5, 2026

The Muslim occupation of Spain, lasted for 780 years. From 711 to 1492.

In 711 a Muslim army from North Africa crossed the product of Gibraltar. At the head of the force was Tarek Ibn Ziad, a barbaric commander who acted on behalf of the national khalifat.

They defeated the… pic.twitter.com/6eUvZgWZGk
— Imtiaz Mahmood (@ImtiazMadmood) April 5, 2026

In 1978, Luciano Pavarotti returned to his hometown cathedral in Modena and sang Panis Angelicus—not alone, but beside his father.

His father wasn’t a global star. Just a man who loved to sing.

One voice, polished to perfection. The other, warm and human. Together, they created… pic.twitter.com/vGEvGFpWX0
— 🎶𝗖𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗠𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗱𝗶𝗲𝘀 ✨ (@Old_But_Gold50s) April 6, 2026

Here are some goats on a vertical cliff face.

They are not alarmed. They are not reconsidering their choices. They are licking salt deposits with the energy of animals that have been doing this for ten thousand years and find your concern mildly irritating.

The Zagros… pic.twitter.com/oqKzFegiVe
— Sama Hoole (@SamaHoole) April 5, 2026

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