Leading economists call for windfall profit taxes on energy firms

By AFP
April 16, 2026


While consumers are facing pain at the pump from sharply higher oil prices, shareholders are set to rake in windfall profits unless governments step in - Copyright AFP STR

Prominent economists called Thursday for governments to introduce windfall profit taxes on energy companies who are set to reap financial benefits from the US-Israeli war on Iran.

The war has triggered a surge in prices of oil and gas which will boost the bottom lines of energy firms but is putting the pinch on consumers.

“ICRICT is calling on governments to immediately impose a windfall profits tax on the oil, gas and fertiliser sectors as both economically sound and morally imperative,” said the group of economists led by Nobel prize winner Joseph Stiglitz said in statement sent to AFP.

The surge in energy prices “disproportionately hurts ordinary workers, farmers, and fossil fuel importing nations, while a small group of large corporations and state producers accumulate windfall profits at their expense,” they said.

In addition to higher fuel prices the costs of a number of other critical inputs such as fertiliser have also jumped, raising the risk of a surge in inflation throughout economies.

The economists said a windfall tax on energy and fertiliser firms would target profits made due to the impact of the conflict, not those due to innovation or entrepreneurship.

“Taxing these windfall profits will not worsen inflation; it will recapture unearned gains from corporations and resource owners and can be used to protect vulnerable populations,” they wrote.

They noted that a number of countries had introduced windfall profit taxes on the energy and agribusiness sectors following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The European Commission said last week it would look into a windfall profits tax on energy companies after five member countries including Germany, Italy and Spain called for one to ease the burden of high fuel prices on consumers.

IMF warns of war’s human impact far from Middle East


By AFP
April 16, 2026


IMF economists are warning of 'human consequences' far from the Middle East as economic effects of the war in Iran reverberate far from the region - Copyright AFP Kent Nishimura

Erwan LUCAS

IMF economists warned Thursday that the war in Iran could have “very, certainly severe” consequences far outside the region – especially for energy-importing countries.

Countries in East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa are among the countries most affected now — and who could suffer the most — outside the region, as the conflict stretches on.

Ironically, the ongoing virtual closure of the Strait of Hormuz — through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas passes — has been a windfall for some petroleum-exporting nations, like Nigeria or Algeria.

But for those that rely on imports for food, fertilizer, and energy, the elevated prices are proving worrisome.

“Oil impacted importers, particularly non-resource-rich and fragile states, face deteriorating trade balances, rising living costs and limited buffers” to absorb future shocks,” warned Abebe Selassie, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Director for Africa, at a press conference Thursday.

“The human consequences are almost certain to be severe,” he added.

IMF economists are briefing government officials and media on their latest economic analysis as they hold their spring meetings alongside the World Bank this week in Washington.



– Hitting the most vulnerable –



Sub-Saharan Africa — which for IMF statistical purposes does not include Sudan and parts of the Horn of Africa — could see 20 million people pushed towards hunger, an IMF report said.

For Sahel countries, where poverty is widespread, factors that are expected to drive up the cost of food include scarce, expensive fertilizer and rising transportation costs.

“Already transportation costs are very high for people in urban areas, rural areas even more so,” Selassie explained. “We are already seeing quite a bit of a pinch from the crisis on people, impoverishing people — it’s making life difficult for people.”

The economic effects of the crisis hit at a time when international aid is in steep decline, another source of concern for the IMF.

The aid declines aren’t a temporary ebb, but are “more structural,” Selassie said. “It is falling hardest on the region’s most vulnerable countries — fragile states and low-income economies — that depend on aid, not as a supplement but as a critical source of budget financing for healthcare and food assistance.”



– Heavy oil reliance –



Further afield, small Pacific islands are of great concern, said the IMF’s Asia-Pacific Director Krishna Srinivasan, due to their heavy reliance energy imports and the amount of time it takes ships to reach them — even when shipping disruptions are minimal.

Zooming out, the entire region — not just small islands — faces unique risks because it spends almost double what Europe does on oil and gas, as a percent of GDP.

Some countries, such as Malaysia and Thailand spend around 10 percent of their GDP on oil and gas — a sign of how reliant they are on energy imports.



– Downgrades like 2008 –



None of this is to downplay the effects in the Middle East, where the IMF’s regional director, Jihad Azour, told reporters that their updated estimates of economic activity are “among the largest six-month downgrades to regional growth projections we have made since the global financial crisis.”

Markets are now demanding higher interest rates across the board, further driving up the cost of borrowing for countries in the region that were already facing difficulties.

Here again, food is a pressure issue, especially in the region’s poorest.

“Food items already account for 45 to 50 percent of total imports in Yemen, Sudan, Somalia and more than half of their population are already experiencing food insecurity,” Azour said.

So what’s to be done?

IMF officials have repeated the same mantra all week: governments should adopt only temporary, limited measures to avoid further stretching already thin budgets.

IDIOT

Venezuela’s Machado doesn’t regret gifting Nobel Peace Prize to Trump


By AFP
April 18, 2026


Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado says Trump deserved her Nobel medal for 'risking' American lives to oust strongman Nicolas Maduro - Copyright AFP Giuseppe CACACE

Venezuela’s opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said on Saturday “I have no regrets” about symbolically handing over her Nobel Peace Prize to US President Donald Trump back in January.

“There is a leader in the world, a head of state in the world who risked the lives of his country’s citizens for Venezuela’s freedom,” she told a news conference in Madrid.

Machado presented her Nobel prize to Trump when she met him in the White House just two weeks after he ordered US forces to attack Caracas and snatch Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.

Trump, who has long coveted the Nobel Peace Prize, is currently embroiled in the Middle East war he started with his ally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with airstrikes on Iran at the end of February.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awards the peace prize, made clear after Machado handed her 2025 Nobel medal to Trump that the actual honour it represents “cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to others”.

Machado said that Trump’s military operation to snatch Maduro, who is currently detained in New York facing US drug charges, “is something we Venezuelans will never forget”.

“Consequently,” she said, “no, I have no regrets” about gifting her Nobel medal to Trump.

Machado, who was in hiding before leaving Venezuela in December to collect her Nobel prize in Oslo, said she was organising her return to the country in coordination with Washington.

“I am speaking with the US government, and we are working in coordination, with mutual respect and understanding,” she said.

She added that she believed that Washington was “key to advancing a democratic transition” in Venezuela.

Venezuela’s opposition last week called for presidential elections.

Machado, who has not yet said if she would run in a future poll, was banned from running for president in the 2024 election that resulted with Maduro claiming a reelection victory.

IMF, World Bank say restoring relations with Venezuela, recognizing interim government

ByAFP
April 16, 2026


Recognition of the Rodriguez government grants legitimacy and potentially unlocks new financial support, both from official sources and potentially from the private sector, an expert told AFP - Copyright AFP Kent NISHIMURA

Paul BLAKE

The IMF and World Bank said Thursday they are restoring relations with Venezuela, further legitimizing the interim government and opening new doors to financial support.

“Guided by the views of International Monetary Fund members representing a majority of the IMF’s total voting power, and consistent with long standing practice, the Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva today announced that the IMF is now dealing with the Government of Venezuela, under the administration of acting President Delcy Rodriguez,” it said in a statement.

Over recent days, the Fund polled its members on whether they saw Rodriguez as the legitimate leader of Venezuela.

The World Bank quickly followed the Fund in recognizing the Rodriguez government, saying in a statement, “Guided by the outcome of the IMF’s polling process, the World Bank Group today announced that it is resuming dealings with the Government of Venezuela, under the administration of acting President Delcy Rodríguez.”

Recognition of the Rodriguez government by both institutions paves the way them to formally begin economic data-gathering, provide technical advice, and to potentially offer financial support to the government, if Venezuela were to ask for it.

Relations between the financial institutions and Venezuela broke down in March 2019 when the Fund recognized the country’s opposition — which controlled parliament — as the legitimate government of the South American country.

Rodriguez was the country’s vice president until early January, when US forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a shock overnight operation. Rodriguez was subsequently made interim president.

Since then, Washington has exerted heavy pressure on the country to open its economy to foreign investment — especially its energy sector.

“Trump frequently and publicly talks about how much he likes Delcy and how closely they’re working together,” Henry Ziemer at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington told AFP. “But the institutional recognition is, I think, an important next step — going beyond the personal to the institutional.”

“It’s important for Delcy’s appearance of legitimacy,” he said.

Beyond the funds that could now flow from the IMF and the World Bank, the institutional recognition could reassure foreign private investors who were anxious about taking bets on the country.

“I think as many green lights is good, I should say necessary for foreign direct investment to start flowing into Venezuela,” Ziemer said, while noting that the security situation was still fragile.

The announcement comes during the week-long IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings that has drawn thousands of government officials, economists, investors and observers to Washington.

Behind the scenes, the US has encouraged greater engagement with Venezuela under Rodriguez.

On Tuesday the US eased sanctions on the Venezuelan Central Bank, while on the same day US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent previewed this decision, saying the Fund was “working on bringing Venezuela back in, to make it look more like a normal economy.”

Rodriguez, a veteran of the left-wing “Chavista” Venezuelan political movement, is the first woman to sit atop Venezuela’s government.

Her position over the long-term is not guaranteed, however.

Last week, Venezuela’s opposition called for fresh presidential elections, citing the country’s constitution.

Repsol taking back control of Venezuelan oil assets


By AFP
April 16, 2026


Repsol said it is prepared to quickly increase oil production in Venezuela - Copyright AFP/File PHILIPPE DESMAZES

Spanish energy group Repsol said on Thursday it has reached an agreement with the Venezuelan government to regain control of its oil business in the country and sharply increase production over the coming years.

Repsol’s operations in Venezuela have been sharply limited since 2025 after Washington unilaterally revoked its operating license, a move that also affected other foreign companies in the country.

The deal will allow Repsol to resume operational control of its Petroquiriquire joint venture created to develop and operate oil fields in eastern Venezuela, the company said in a statement.

Repsol said it is prepared to increase gross oil production in the country — which currently averages some 45,000 barrels daily — by 50 percent within 12 months and potentially triple output within three years, provided “necessary conditions” are met.

“This agreement underscores Repsol’s commitment to Venezuela, where we have operated continuously since 1993,” the company’s head of exploration and production, Francisco Gea, said in a statement.

“We have the assets and the technical, operational, and human capabilities on the ground to increase our production in the country.”

The deal was signed between Repsol, Venezuela’s hydrocarbon ministry and Venezuela’s state oil and gas firm PDVSA, which owns 60 percent of the Petroquiriquire joint venture.

A new bonanza from Venezuela’s vast oil reserves has been touted after the United States captured its socialist strongman Nicolas Maduro in January in a lightning military operation on Caracas.

The new authorities, led by interim president Delcy Rodriguez, have cooperated with US President Donald Trump’s administration and introduced reforms to liberalise the sector.

The United States has eased a seven-year-old oil embargo on Venezuela and issued licenses allowing a handful of multinationals including Repsol to operate in the country under certain conditions.

US oil giant Chevron and the government of Venezuela signed two deals on Monday that will expand oil production in the country.

The possibility of increased Venezuelan oil output comes as global markets face disruptions to Middle East oil supplies from the conflict in Iran which have driven up oil prices.

Venezuela sits on the world largest proven oil reserves and the once-thriving sector helped make it one of Latin America’s wealthiest countries in the 20th century.

But production plummeted during two decades of socialist rule, with observers pointing to underinvestment, mismanagement and corruption, as the country plunged into a protracted political, social and economic crisis.

Speaking to AFP in Paris in February, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Venezuelan oil production was “a little bit less than a million barrels a day” in January.

But output could grow by 30 to 40 percent by the end of 2026 — “that’s a big deal,” he said.

Cuba ‘ready’ for possible US attack: president


By AFP
April 16, 2026


A woman holds a poster reading "Long live our socialist revolution" during celebrations marking victory on the 65th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion - Copyright AFP YAMIL LAGE

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said Thursday his country was “ready” for a possible US attack on the communist island following months of mounting pressure from President Donald Trump.

“We don’t want that (confrontation) but it is our duty to be ready to avoid it, and if it were unavoidable, to win it,” Diaz-Canel told thousands of people attending a rally in Havana to mark the 65th anniversary of the failed US invasion of the island at the Bay of Pigs.

Cuba has been bracing for a possible attack following repeated warnings from Trump that Cuba is “next” after he toppled Venezuela’s leader Nicolas Maduro and went to war against Iran.

Washington and Havana have held talks on de-escalating tensions but the discussions between the arch-foes have failed to make significant headway, according to US media reports.

Mariela Castro, daughter of late president Raul Castro, said Cubans “want dialogue” with Washington but “without putting our political system up for debate.”

She said her 94-year-old father — who oversaw a historic 2015 rapprochement with the United States under Barack Obama that Trump later reversed — was indirectly involved in the talks.

Raul’s grandson Raul Rodriguez Castro, a colonel, is reportedly among the negotiators.

Diaz-Canel admitted that the current moment was “very grave” but stressed Cuba’s “socialist” nature, as proclaimed by Fidel Castro on April 16, 1961.

The 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion was launched two years after Castro’s revolutionaries took control of the island and began nationalizing US-owned properties and businesses.

Between April 15 and 19, around 1,400 anti-Castro Cuban exiles in Miami, trained and financed by the CIA, landed at the Bay of Pigs, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of Havana.

Cuban forces repelled the invaders, inflicting a humiliating defeat on the Americans.

Six decades later, Washington now has Cuba again in its sights.

After Maduro’s capture in Caracas Trump imposed an oil blockade of Cuba, aggravating the impoverished island’s worst economic and energy crisis in decades.

Diaz-Canel rejected what he referred to as a US portrayal of Cuba as a “failed state.”

Havana largely blames its woes on a US trade embargo imposed shortly after Castro’s arrival to power, still in place today, and the more recent oil blockade.

“Cuba is not a failed state, it’s a besieged state,” he said.

Maria Reguiero, an 82-year-old attending the rally, said that like in 1961, Cubans were “ready to defend their sovereignty, whatever the price.”

Australian tycoon battles Meta over fake ads

By AFP

April 16, 2026

Holding internet firms responsible for their roles in creating or promoting user content has become a promising legal tactic in the United States - Copyright AFP Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV

Australian mining magnate Andrew Forrest is asking a US federal court in Silicon Valley to hold Meta accountable for scam ads using his likeness without permission.

Forrest’s legal team is asking a judge to rule that the social media colossus cannot hide behind Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act that spares internet firms from being accountable for content posted by users on its platform.

“This is the first case brought in any court, but in particular in California where a verdict can resonate that says Facebook was never intended to get the benefit of this immunity for their advertising business,” the billionaire’s attorney Simon Clarke told AFP.

A hearing Thursday focused on whether Meta wrongly ditched evidence, forfeiting its ability to take shelter behind Section 230, according to Clarke.

The judge is expected to rule on Forrest’s motion in the coming weeks.

Meta has countered that the offending marketing messages were not its doing, and that it made reasonable efforts to preserve the desired data.

The social media giant is also standing behind Section 230 when it comes to being held to account for what the advertisers posted.

Earlier this year, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and YouTube liable for harming a young woman because of an addictive design of their social media platformsm rather than just their content.

The jury concluded that Meta and YouTube were negligent in the design and operation of their platforms and that their negligence was a substantial factor in causing harm to the plaintiff, focusing on their business models rather than content.

Forrest’s attorneys are using a similar legal tactic to navigate around Section 230, accusing Meta’s ad business and its tools with being complicit in the creation and distribution of the bogus marketing messages, according to Clarke.

Forrest “has been plagued for years by paid ads and sponsored content produced by Meta Ads and run on Meta’s Australian social media platforms, in which he falsely appears to be promoting fake cryptocurrency and other fraudulent financial schemes,” the complaint filed in US District Court argues.

Since 2019, thousands of deceptive advertisements on Facebook have used the likeness of the highly prominent figure in Australia to promote scams, racking up thousands of victims, according to the suit.

The billionaire’s legal team argues that Meta’s artificial intelligence tools optimized and personalized fraudulent ads before distributing them, thereby making Meta an active participant, rather than a mere intermediary.

Early this month, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that Section 230 does not protect Meta from the state’s lawsuit concerning Instagram’s design being addictive to children.

Game over: Players press EU to ban ‘destroying’ video titles


By AFP
April 17, 2026


More than a million people from across Europe have backed a citizens' petition to stop publishers from dropping older video games - Copyright AFP Ina FASSBENDER
Frederic POUCHOT

It’s a bitter pill for video gamers: a growing number of older but still-popular titles are being dropped by publishers — with servers going dark overnight — in a practice the EU is being urged to outlaw.

More than a million people from across Europe have backed a citizens’ petition called “Stop Destroying Videogames”, and are now pressing for action in Brussels.

At the heart of the issue: in the past decade, hundreds of video titles have been rendered unplayable at the whim of their publishers, for a variety of reasons ranging from profitability to changes in strategy.

A significant part of popular culture is being wiped out in the process, with no compensation for gamers who in many cases have invested substantial sums, notably on microtransactions inside the playing environment.

The phenomenon has concerned older versions of hugely popular franchises such as the FIFA football simulation series.

But it was the shutdown of car-racing game The Crew that proved the final straw in 2024, prompting players to mobilise with a European petition.

“It’s a bit like buying a book from a publisher and then suddenly opening it to find the pages have gone blank because they’ve decided you can’t play your game anymore,” Brendan Fourdan, organiser of the French chapter of the petition, told AFP.

– Lawmakers ‘listening’ –

Buoyed by the success of the citizens’ initiative, gamers’ rights campaigners have been lining up meetings to persuade the EU’s different institutions to step in.

After meeting in February with the European Commission’s digital chief Henna Virkkunen and consumer protection head Michael McGrath, they made their case to members of the European Parliament at a hearing on Thursday.

“MEPs were listening to our demands, and their interventions largely went in our direction, with lawmakers who understood the problem and seemed determined to put an end to what we are denouncing,” Fourdan said.

Campaigners are calling for existing consumer protection rules to be enforced when it comes to gaming — but also for EU legislation to be updated, a far bigger challenge.

“Our movement has no intention whatsoever of preventing publishers from stopping the sale of a game,” Fourdan said.

“What we want is simply that when they shut down a game, they leave it in a state where it can still be played,” for example on private servers run by volunteers.

Failing that, the idea is to require publishers to systematically refund players.

The issue is far from trivial: video games are Europe’s largest cultural industry, generating billions of euros in revenue each year.

“It’s an industry with a huge amount of revenue, with a lot of cultural and technological importance,” said Moritz Katzner, head of the advocacy group Stop Killing Games.

“It most definitely should be on the radar of the European Commission and the European Parliament.”

Green EU lawmaker Catarina Vieira says the issue is resonating among lawmakers.

“The desire is there for all political groups to come to a good solution for those who buy games and deserve to use them for a long term,” she told AFP.

The European Commission, which has until the end of July to respond to the petition, has already warned solutions would not be easy to implement, due to intellectual property issues in particular.

Gaming companies, for their part, have rejected the solutions proposed by campaigners.

“Private servers are not always a viable alternative option for players,” industry group Video Games Europe said in a statement.

It argues that without the protections publishers put in place to secure players’ data, remove illegal content, and combat unsafe community content, such a system would “leave rights holders liable” for abuses.

Under blackout threat, Wikimedia to hold talks with Indonesia


By AFP
April 17, 2026


Indonesia is one of the world's biggest internet users - Copyright AFP YASUYOSHI CHIBA

The Wikimedia Foundation said Friday it will hold talks with the Indonesian government after Jakarta threatened to block Wikipedia over registration rules the firm says “departs from international human rights norms”.

A meeting will take place next week to discuss Indonesia’s demands for Wikimedia to register as an “electronic system provider” (PSE), the Wikipedia parent company said in a statement sent to AFP.

Under a 2020 regulation, all PSE companies, including those based outside the country, are required to register for what the government says are for legal and user protection purposes.

Critics have pointed to a provision that requires registered PSEs to take down content deemed as “causing public unrest and disturbing public order” as a free speech restriction.

The government on Wednesday gave the foundation seven days to register or face its services, including Wikipedia Indonesia, being blocked in the country of 284 million people.

“We intend to explain the Foundation’s unique position as a nonprofit technology host for Wikipedia… and the significant ways that registration under Indonesia’s MR5 regulation departs from international human rights norms and threatens the privacy and security of Wikipedia editors,” the foundation’s statement said.

It added “we will resist inappropriate orders, and we push back on laws that require very rapid and guaranteed disclosure of user data without the ability to raise appropriate legal objections”.

A blockage of Wikipedia in Indonesia will “deny the fourth most populous country in the world access to the largest free knowledge repository”, the statement said.

The Communication and Digital Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Earlier in the week, the ministry said the Wikimedia Foundation had repeatedly sought extensions to registration.

Last October, Indonesia briefly suspended TikTok’s local operating licence after the social media platform refused to share information sought by Jakarta about violent anti-government protests earlier in the year.

France reports over 40 cryptocurrency kidnappings so far this year


ByAFP
April 16, 2026


Crypoto-related abductions and confinements, barely known before 2024, have been on the rise - Copyright AFP/File Martin BUREAU

France has seen more than forty cases of kidnappings or hostage takings linked to cryptocurrencies since January, a worrying surge since last year as criminals seek to extort digital currency investors for ransom, authorities said Thursday.

Since late 2024 French authorities have been dealing with a string of kidnappings and extortion attempts targeting the families of wealthy individuals dealing in cryptocurrencies.

Some of the cases targeted institutional digital currency players or individuals with crypto holdings, while others involved other crimes not involving kidnappings, Philippe Chadrys, deputy national director of the judicial police, told journalists Thursday.

“The modus operandi, the masterminds — often based abroad — and the targeting methods” vary, Chadrys said, with the names of targets sometimes revealed to henchmen at the last moment.

The phenomenon of crypto-related abductions, still “marginal” in 2024, gained momentum in 2025 when around thirty cases were reported, said Annabelle Vandendriessche, head of the interior ministry’s Service for Information, Intelligence, and Strategic Analysis on Organised Crime (Sirasco).

On Mondaym a woman and her 11-year-old son were kidnapped in the central Burgundy region ahead of a crypto ransom demand.

After an operation involving around 100 officers, they were freed by Tuesday and seven men were taken into custody.

Also this month, a kidnapping took place in the southern French town of Anglet on April 10, carried out by five individuals searching for a crypto investor. They allegedly stole luxury jewelry, computers and phones.

Police arrested the suspects at Paris’s Montparnasse train station after they apparently “mistook their target,” Chadrys said.

In a particulalry grisly case from January 2025, kidnappers seized French crypto boss David Balland, co-founder of a crypto firm called Ledger, valued at the time at more than $1 billion.

Balland’s kidnappers cut off his finger and demanded a hefty ransom before he was freed the next day, with his girlfriend found tied up in the boot of a car outside Paris.

Desperate' Trump will be even more dangerous after his midterm beating: Conservative

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media as he flies from Florida to Washington, aboard Air Force One, U.S., October 19, 2025. REUTERS Elizabeth Frantz

Adam Lynch

April 17, 2026  

ALTERNET

Conservative commenter William Kristol says things are looking bad for President Donald Trump and his Republican Party in November, but if things go down in November as voting trends suggest it will still leave in charge a desperate and angry president with staff willing to jettison both the law and self-respect to conduct Trump’s agenda.

“If you’re going into a midterm when your party has controlled both the White House and Congress, and that party is joined at the hip to a president who’s losing 29 percent to 49 percent among those who care the most and who are the most likely to vote, your prospects are . . . not good,” said Kristol. “So April’s electoral good news from Hungary could well be followed by good news from the United States in November.”

“But! An increasingly desperate Trump will still be in charge of the executive branch,” Kristol warned. “He’ll have all the levers of presidential power at his disposal, and he has subordinates seemingly as willing as ever to use them as he wishes.”


“Trump administration apparatchiks seem ever ‘more fanatic about making the president happy, either by carrying out his vendettas more aggressively or by aping his worst impulses more doggedly,’” said Kristol, quoting Dispatch writer Nick Catoggio. And vengeful Trumpist fanatics will likely come with consequences.

“To protect their hold on power, he and his menagerie will need to be considerably more ruthless about challenges to it than [Deposed Hungarian leader] Viktor Orbán was,” said Catoggio. “As Trump and his aides become more convinced that a Democratic midterm wipeout is a fait accompli, they may surmise that there’s nothing left to lose by leaning all the way in on unpopular autocratic gambits.”


With Trump’s unpopularity and his desperation both mounting, the next thirty-three months — especially the next eight months before the new Congress is seated — are likely to be ever more dangerous.

MS NOW unloads withering supercut of all the 'deals' Trump claims Iran wants to make

U.S. President Donald Trump gestures during a visit to Verst Logistics in Hebron, Kentucky, U.S., March 11, 2026. REUTERSKevin Lamarque

Adam Lynch 

April 18, 2026 

ALTERNET


Critics say President Donald Trump is a walking example of projection. If so, the president’s description of Iran’s leaders over the course of his war with that nation may be telling, considering a steady rollout of claims recorded and presented for MS NOW’s The Weekend on Saturday.

“I think Iran looks like they want to make a deal very badly,” Trump said February 6, in the weeks leading up to the February 28 joint U.S./Israeli attacks.

“They want to make a deal,” he said March 16, weeks after the attacks. And then: “They want to make a deal very badly,” on March 23 in Palm Beach, Florida.


“They want to make a deal so badly. You have no idea how badly they want to make a deal,” he repeated on March 24 at the White House.

“They want to make a deal so badly, but they're afraid to say it because they figure they'll be killed by their own people,” Trump claimed on March 25.

“They are begging to make a deal — not me. They're begging to make a deal very badly,” he insisted yet again March 26.

“They want to make a deal,” he proclaimed on March 27, followed by: “They’re begging to make a deal. They’re begging to make a deal” that same day at a new location.

“They want to make a deal. They want to make a deal more than I want to make a deal,” he claimed in the Oval Office on March 31.

“They’d like to make a deal very badly,” he repeated yet again April 13 at the White House.

Former CIA Director John Brennan told Weekend anchors that he doubted Trump had any credibility left to squander at this point.

“I don't think he's ever had credibility on this issue because he has consistently misrepresented and lied about the situation. And the Iranians know that,” said Brennan. “And that's why when we're talking about the Strait [of Hormuz] right now, it's absurd to think that the Iranians would allow the strait to remain open if the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports continues.”

“So, he's making all these claims about they've agreed to suspend uranium enrichment and, open up. And the Iranians know that he is lying. And why should they believe anything that he might be saying that has an element of truth in it?” Brennan added.

 

Inside the pattern of bungled decisions exposed in Trump's late-night screeds

U.S. President Donald Trump watches a match during the UFC 327 event at Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida, U.S., April 11, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Sabrina Haake 

April 18, 2026  

ALTERNET

Trump’s domestic agenda is so dystopian it’s hard to believe. Unleashing masked goons onto U.S. streets, building concentration camps, punishing the media, threatening judges, and labeling critics ‘enemies of the state’ all vie for his most Hitlerian maneuvers.

Trump has systematically destroyed institutions, privatizing agencies wherever possible to award billions to his cronies, while his family has earned over $4 billion in untraceable cryptocurrency ventures, to say nothing of suspiciously-timed stock transactions. After gutting food assistance, healthcare, and education to provide tax cuts to his wealthy donors, Trump recently announced “it’s not possible” to provide such services. He plans to spend the money instead on “military protection” while he does his best to provoke a military attack.

As bad as it is at home, Trump’s foreign policy blunders are even worse, setting us up for long term security consequences no one is talking about. In every bizarre late night social media post, Trump keeps modeling multi-faceted incompetence to explain his dastardly deeds. From threatening Greenland, to kidnapping Venezuela’s president and stealing their oil, to attacking the Pope, to exploding boats on the high seas then publishing snuff videos to brag about it, Trump has committed one hubristic, sophomoric, and dangerous act of aggression after another.

At 50 days into his “easy” and illegal war in Iran, he remains surprised that our NATO allies won’t join in. He still fails to comprehend that NATO is a defensive pact, not an offensive one.

Iran: A showcase of Trump’s insanity


In Iran, Trump keeps mocking the old adage: when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. Instead, he brandishes shinier shovels.

Frustrated by Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz, which has strangled 20% of the world’s oil transport, Trump nonsensically decided to impose his own blockade on Iran’s blockade. Blockading their blockade will only worsen the problem he’s trying to solve.

Trying to educate the economically illiterate, the WSJ explained, “The U.S. blockade on ships entering or exiting Iranian ports is set to drain more oil from a tight market, prolong the squeeze on other key commodities flowing through the Strait of Hormuz and inject significant uncertainty into the global economy.” They assessed, “Trump’s naval blockade of Iran risks further upending a global economy already battered by weeks of (Trump’s) war, escalating a regional clash into a worldwide financial shock that could prove more devastating than the fighting itself.”


Trump’s war in Iran will end up costing American taxpayers over $1 trillion, without factoring in energy prices, lack of healthcare, inflation, or the long-term costs of global economic contraction. And for what? Middle East policy experts say the war has made Iran’s cabal of religious fanatics even more dangerous.

How stupid does he think Americans are?

Trump blames the media for widespread public opposition to his war, but seems incapable of considering why Americans are opposed. He needs to look no further than his own words and deeds.


After Trump bombed Iran last June, he claimed to have “completely obliterated” Iran’s enriched uranium supply. Strutting on the world stage with great bombast, he declared that Iran’s nuclear capacity had been annihilated. Eight months later, he’s using Iran’s nuclear capacity to justify a war, without explaining what changed. Even his most diehard supporter wonders: was he was lying then or is he lying now?

It’s bizarre that Trump thinks Americans can’t track such a major incongruity, demonstrating either his deep contempt for them, or his own mental infirmity.

Signaling more incompetence during negotiations

Trump, who proudly rules by his “gut” instead of intelligence reports, doesn’t recognize that he’s swimming in geopolitical complexities above his head. It’s no surprise that the first round of negotiations to end the war he started failed.


To resolve the highly complex quagmire he created, Trump needs negotiators steeped in Iran’s history, geography, culture, and technological capacities. But he’s relying on loyalists: VP Vance, real estate developer Steve Witkoff, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, all of whom lack the expertise and diplomatic experience needed to achieve an agreement. Two diplomats from the failed negotiations immediately identified Trump’s problem: choosing negotiators for personal loyalty instead of subject-matter expertise.

The results reflect the obvious, and it’s nothing new. Kushner and Witkoff failed in negotiations between Russia and Ukraine and failed in talks between Israel and Hamas while Israel continued bombing Gaza. For his part, Vance seems to have failed at everything.

The Pope’s moral clarity should shame Republicans

After Trump insulted Pope Leo XIV as if he were a rival politician instead of the religious leader of 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide, JD Vance said the Pope needed ‘to be careful’ when discussing war.


Three days later, the Pope warned that the world is “being ravaged by a handful of tyrants.” He reiterated Catholic teachings of peace— “Blessed are the peacemakers. But woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic, and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.” Looking at you, Hegseth.

Every member of Congress swore an oath to uphold the Constitution. Every one of them, except perhaps Lindsey Graham, knows that what Trump is doing is illegal, dangerous, and unconstitutional, but they have chosen power over honor.

Jamie Raskin’s 25th Amendment removal has no chance given Republicans’ immoral choice, long term consequences to America be damned. Watching the Pope hold steadfast in Chistian messaging, his clarity about wars of aggression, and his forceful opposition to evil forces manifesting in Trump, is a welcome balm to Republicans’ shameful depravity.

Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. She writes the free Substack, The Haake Take.

Three nutty moments from Trump’s Turning Point speech

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a Turning Point USA event at Dream City Church in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., April 17, 2026. REUTERS/Evan Vucci

Adam Lynch

April 17, 2026 

ALTERNET

President Donald Trump delivered the cap to the Turning Point USA event in Phoenix, Arizona, and he had a friendly audience to take his words. This might explain the absence of rolling eyes and questioning looks on a few claims that Trump inflated, played down or made a point not to mention at all due to their controversy.

1.The U.S. will march in and take the Iranian nukes that he claimed were obliterated.


Months ago, Trump claimed to have “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities — the lingering existence of which he then later cited as one of the reasons to attack Iran last month and blow-up global fuel prices. But at the Friday TPUSA event, Trump said Iran’s nuclear capabilities are still somehow both “obliterated” yet in need of collection.

“You'll be very happy. The USA will get all nuclear dust,” he told the cheering TPUSA crowd. “You know what the nuclear dust is? That was that white powdery substance created by our B-2 bombers, those great B-2 bombers. Late one evening seven months ago. … And you know how we're going to get the dust, right? We're going to take it anyway. But taking it, taking it that way is slightly more dangerous. But we were going to get it anyway. … They will never have a nuclear weapon.”

But this information was immediately fact-checked by CNN reporter Nick Robinson, who told CNN anchor Jake Tapper that Iran has agreed to no such plan.

“[W]e’re hearing from Iranian sources who say that is just not the case. So, the Iranians are pushing back on some of what the president is claiming,” said Robinson.


2. The U.S. is paying Iran no compensation for Trump’s unilateral war.

Trump must be hotly aware of critics accusing him of hypocrisy for agreeing to pay Iran $20 billion after criticizing former President Obama for giving the country $1.7 billion because he denied that very fact at TPUSA.

“No money will exchange hands in any way, shape or form,” Trump insisted, in defiance of news that the U.S. has tentatively agreed to unfreeze $20 billion in Iranian assets.


British ambassador to the United States, Christian Turner claimed to CNN that he was “not close enough to the detail of how that would work” to say whether or not the transaction counted as a gift, but he conceded that as part of U.S./Iran negotiations Iran and Syria is “asking for an economic lifeline” from the U.S.

Bulwark Editor Jonathan Last called the transaction of money for Iran’s nuclear arsenal “a purchase … to the tune of $20 billion, which would be something that Donald Trump criticized the Obama administration for doing, but at a much greater scale.”


3. Ten wars ended.


The number of wars Trump has allegedly singlehandedly put an end to appears to be creeping up. This apparently includes the ending of the war he voluntarily started himself with February airstrikes on Iran, that left the nation’s more combative leadership in charge of the country.

Trump called his second term “by far the most successful first year of any administration in the history of our country, acknowledged by everybody.”

“To begin with, I ended eight wars, and it may be a little early to say this, but if we add Iran and Lebanon, that will be ten wars ended and many, many millions of lives saved,” Trump said.

Critics rated much of that claim bogus, with various international leaders denying either Trump’s intervention, or that the wars really ended at all.