Pray for Asian naphtha consumers
Robin Wigglesworth
Published MAR 19 2026
FINANCIAL TIMES
The ominous headline comes from JPMorgan’s team of oil analysts, who have been churning out good stuff over the past few weeks.
Saturday, March 21, 2026
‘Demand destruction has begun’
Pray for Asian naphtha consumers
Robin Wigglesworth
Published MAR 19 2026
Dire Straits
By Reuters
March 20, 2026
Trump is strategizing means to seize Iran's nuclear stockpiles, sources say
EXCLUSIVE
Politics
Washington — The Trump administration has been strategizing methods and options to secure or extract Iran's nuclear materials, according to multiple people briefed on the discussions, as a U.S.-Israel-led military campaign against Tehran enters a more uncertain phase.
Friday, March 20, 2026
Trump is dismantling democracy at 'unprecedented' speed, global report finds
Frank Langfitt
Three major reports out this month say President Trump has done serious damage to American democracy at remarkable speed since his return to the White House.
An annual report from V-Dem, an institute at Sweden's University of Gothenburg, concluded democracy had deteriorated so much in the U.S. that it lowered the country's democracy ranking from 20th to 51st out of 179 countries.
U.S. sends more marines to the Middle East as Iran threatens world tourism sites
Deployment at odds with Trump's statement that U.S. is considering 'winding down' operations
Jon Gambrell, Sam Mednick, David Rising · The Associated Press ·
Posted: Mar 20, 2026 1:43 AM PDT
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that the United States is considering "winding down" its Middle East military operation, a statement that seemed at odds with his administration's move to send more troops and warships to the region and request another $200 billion US from Congress to fund the war.
Cuba's Fragile Power Grid Finds a Powerful New Partner
By Haley Zaremba - Mar 19, 2026
The recent extended blackout in Cuba, following a weeks-long US oil blockade, has served to deepen Cuba's energy alliance with China
China is significantly increasing its support for Cuba's energy transition, including a massive ramp-up in solar equipment exports and pledges to help build nearly 100 solar parks and the island’s largest wind farm.
Joe Kent hints to Tucker Carlson that Israel may have killed Charlie Kirk to stoke Iran war
Days after resigning and under investigation for sharing classified information, the former counterterrorism head stokes a growing debate over Israel and antisemitism on the right
Today, 3:30 pm
JTA — After resigning this week over what he said was Israel’s manipulation of US President Donald Trump into war with Iran, former national counterterrorism director Joe Kent is now insinuating Israel may have also killed Charlie Kirk as part of its pressure campaign.
The Economist: War in Iran is making Donald Trump weaker—and angrier
Editor BizNews Published on: 20 Mar 2026, 4:20 am
Thursday, March 19, 2026
Iran hits Gulf energy sites, escalating war, as U.S. mulls sanctions rollback
As attacks rattled markets, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration might lift restrictions on Iranian oil already loaded onto vessels.
Today at 4:03 p.m. PT
By Rachel Chason, Evan Halper, Victoria Craw, Siham Shamalakh and Tara Copp
DUBAI — Iran’s escalating strikes on energy infrastructure across the Persian Gulf are stoking fears of a full-blown energy crisis, sending already high oil and gas prices surging and widening the scope of a war that has spilled across the region and upended the global economy.
Nanos survey finds record-high support for Liberals a year after Carney became PM
March 17, 2026
Pollster Nik Nanos of Nanos Research takes a closer look at three April byelections that could push the Carney government into majority status.
At the first anniversary of Mark Carney’s tenure as prime minister, the federal Liberals are seeing record-high support, according to the latest data from Nanos Research.
Trump is following Netanyahu's lead to a place where no one has gone before
The Greek Courier
Source: Reuters
Donald Trump wants us to believe that he knew nothing about the Israeli strike on Iran’s South Pars gas field, as he publicly chastised it and warned that he would not allow further unilateral Israeli attacks on the facility unless Tehran escalated. Too little too late, as Israel's unilateral strike — one of the most consequential since the conflict began — triggered Iranian missile strikes on gas infrastructure in Qatar and attempted strikes on Saudi facilities, exacerbating already severe disruptions to global energy supplies. The deliberate escalation and ensuing tit‑for‑tat attacks have already driven oil and gas prices higher and prompted the U.S. to consider sending additional troops to the region to secure shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. However, targeting major energy infrastructure transforms an asymmetric regional conflict into one with global economic consequences and raises moral and legal questions about striking sites that serve civilians across borders.
Wednesday, March 18, 2026
Defiant in the Face of Doom: Cuba Stands Firm Amid Existential US Threats and Hollow Russian Promises
March 18, 2026
Washington’s bluster and Moscow’s platitudes look threadbare next to Havana’s determination to survive on its own terms.
Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz‑Canel, answered President Donald Trump’s recent boasts about an “honor” in “taking Cuba” with a blunt declaration: any attempt to seize the island would meet “unbreakable resistance.”
BBC LIVE: Israel strikes central Beirut as US targets Iran's missile sites along the Strait of Hormuz
Summary
Israel launches a series of strikes on Lebanon's capital Beirut and orders evacuations in the country's south, as it continues its offensive against Hezbollah
One blast flattened a building in the city centre - this isn't the so-called Hezbollah heartland of southern Beirut, but an area surrounded by businesses and hotels, writes the BBC's Wyre Davies from the scene
Meanwhile, the US military says it has used powerful "deep penetrator" bombs to hit Iranian missile sites along the Strait of Hormuz; the vital waterway for transporting oil has been effectively blocked by Iran since the war began
Historians Say They’ve Discovered a Long-Lost Page From the Archimedes Palimpsest, a Treasure Trove of Rare Ancient Mathematical Treatises
Cool Finds
Three leaves had been missing for more than a century. Researchers found one of them when they decided on a whim to check the archives of a French museum
Christian Thorsberg
Correspondent
March 17, 2026 7:00 a.m.
Tuesday, March 17, 2026
How the Iran War Ignited a Geoeconomic Firestorm
Six CFR fellows assess the geoeconomic fallout of the war in Iran, and they analyze the challenges that the United States and the world will have to navigate as the conflict enters its third week.
By experts and staff
Published March 17, 2026 7:00 a.m.
The power goes out in Cuba, leaving hospitals dark and highways deserted
It's been three months since any oil shipment has reached the island nation.
March 17, 2026, 6:43 AM PDT
By George Solis, Mary Murray and Patrick Smith
HAVANA — Cuba was plunged into darkness by an island-wide electricity blackout that affected its 11 million people Monday, hours after the country said it would allow foreign investment for the first time.
Top US counterterrorism official resigns over Iran war, urging Trump to 'reverse course'
30 minutes ago
Bernd Debusmann Jr at the White House
The Trump administration's top official on counterterrorism has resigned over the war in Iran, and has urged the president to "reverse course".
In a letter posted to his X account, National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent said that Iran posed "no imminent threat" to the US and claimed that the administration "started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby".
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