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Donald Trump's administration may be ready to form an exit plan explanation for the Iran war, but it will fail to convince a key group, according to a political analyst. Strikes on Iran last month affected crude oil prices, putting pressure on the United States' economy. Further explanations from the president's team left much to be desired, and, according to CNN analyst Stephen Collinson, the economic experts and markets are unlikely to be moved by an exit plan proposal. Collinson wrote, "Walking away might leave turmoil. But it would be consistent with Trump’s methodology, which in practice has been more effective in destroying status quos than building new systems. "It would also extend the America First principle that the country should act at all times within the confines of its exclusive national interests. And it would indulge Trump’s anger at NATO allies he regards as leeching off American security guarantees."But America doesn’t exist in a vacuum defined by Trump’s rhetoric. He’d struggle to outrun the economic and political reverberations of keeping the strait under the control of a reinvigorated Iran. Trump may be able to create political spin to explain his exit — but the markets are unlikely to be as easy to convince."Collinson went on to warn that a sudden exit from Iran while the Strait of Hormuz remains closed could trigger a global economic crisis and even threaten global relations between the US and NATO allies. "That economic blow threatens to set off a global recession that would crash onto US shores — possibly months before the midterm elections, in which Democrats hope to score a big win that will help them rein in Trump’s second-term power," Collinson wrote. "More broadly, the fallout of the Iran war now threatens another consequence: an even deeper fracture in the transatlantic alliance. This would only underscore the need for European allies — and those Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney calls ''middle powers' — to invest more in their own militaries with the understanding that America’s post-World War II security umbrella has become unreliable."

An anti-Donald Trump protest has taken place outside the US Embassy in London, England today (April 1).Protestors from the campaign group Fossil Free London gathered outside the embassy to host a demonstration against the president and his administration. Campaigners on the ground say the protest has been carried out over the Trump admin's actions in Iran and the subsequent impact on crude oil prices. A gathering outside of the US Embassy started around 8:15am British Summer Time (3:15am EST), where attendees painted their faces and posed next to a mock-up of a gas station pump. Fake oil was also poured on the heads of some protestors. Two protestors speaking with The Mirror explained the aims of the protest. One, who gave their name as Rainbow, said, "We're here because we're protesting that we're locked into a really damaging and dangerous fossil fuels industry. We need to break away from these.""We need to have a just position to renewables. Oil is essentially killing us - it's killing the planet. We're just really trying to make a symbolic protest at how damaging it is. We're hurtling towards energy catastrophe and we're locked into systems that are damaging for people and energy bills."Fellow activist Rosie added, "We're outside the US Embassy because Trump's illegal war on Iran has led to massive spikes in the cost of our energy here in the UK. "As oil bosses profit massively, BP and Shell alone are set to make five billion dollars from the war in Iran and worse still Trump and Nigel Farage are using this crisis that they fueled and started as an excuse to drill for more fossil fuels.""It means that we should harness the power of the wind all around us on this island, the waves and the sun, because we don't fight imperial violent wars to get energy from the sun. It's all around us.""You look at what has happened since the war in Iran started - a massive spike in our energy prices and with more to come if this war doesn't stop soon."Campaigners from Fossil Free London held up signs saying “Stop Trump tying us into fossil fuels,” “Break free from climate crisis” and “Break free from big oil."

Donald Trump's plan for the war with Iran could cause even further trouble for taxpayers across the country, according to a Nobel Prize winner. Paul Krugman has warned that the president's current task in Iran is to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Crude oil prices reached a staggering $100 a barrel earlier this week, and the veteran economist does not see the price improving any time soon. Even though the United States' own oil exporters profited from the Strait of Hormuz closure, Krugman claims there is no way this will help the average citizen. Writing in his Substack, he explained, "Now, America produces a lot of oil, and the domestic oil industry will be earning large windfall profits even as U.S. consumers suffer. But so what? "We don’t have any mechanism in place to capture and redistribute those windfall gains, so ordinary U.S. families will bear the full brunt of the global oil shock even though America is a net oil exporter.""The Fed could, in principle, try to look through the effects of the Strait crisis on business costs as well as direct effects on consumer prices. But given how nervous everyone is about the risk of 70s-type stagflation, it probably won’t."Krugman went on to suggest the reaction of the Federal Reserve could be a cause for concern. "There’s an additional, technical but important reason to be even more worried about soaring prices for diesel, jet fuel and industrial materials than about gasoline prices," he wrote. "It involves how the Federal Reserve is likely to react."The Fed normally bases its decisions about whether to reduce or increase interest rates on 'core' inflation — inflation excluding food and energy prices. The reason it does this is that food and energy prices are highly volatile and are usually a poor indicator of what inflation will be over the next few years.""So the Fed tries to 'look through' inflation fluctuations driven mainly by the prices of groceries and gasoline. For example, it didn’t raise rates in 2011, when there was a temporary uptick in inflation driven entirely by oil prices."

President Donald Trump's off-the-cuff statements about the Iran war have sowed confusion among foreign leaders and financial markets, and within his own administration.Some of the 79-year-old president's aides and allies confirmed to Axios that Trump has been improvising his plan for the war, saying he likes to keep his options open and spitball ideas for the joint U.S.-Israeli military operation with various audiences, and they said he has vacillated between a major escalation and a swift resolution."Nobody knows in the end what he's really thinking," said one senior adviser."They had a plan for the first week and since then, they are making the plan up as they go along," added a former U.S. official.Some administration officials and outside allies argue the ambiguity is intentional. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who recently spoke with Trump, told Axios: "That's the plan — for you to not have a clue." Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed this sentiment, stating the objective is to remain "unpredictable." An unnamed official characterized the strategy as "12-dimensional" chess, claiming Trump deliberately contradicts himself to obscure his intentions.Current signals suggest Trump may be preparing to withdraw and declare victory within two to three weeks. He has repeatedly discussed U.S. success and potential exit scenarios. However, his private conversations increasingly focus on hawkish advisers like Graham and conservative commentator Mark Levin rather than those cautioning against escalation.The contradictions are apparent in simultaneous actions: Trump discusses exit strategies while simultaneously massing additional forces in the region, including potential invasion capabilities. Officials speculate that if an April 6 deadline passes without a negotiated settlement, Trump may authorize heavy bombing of Iranian infrastructure and nuclear facilities before withdrawing.Regional allies like Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates worry about leaving Iran weakened but unbowed."The Saudis sound like Mark Levin," one Trump adviser said. "They want the U.S. to finish the job by wiping Iran off the globe now. We don't want to."Additional complications include unresolved challenges regarding the Strait of Hormuz and potential ongoing "mowing the grass" operations — periodic strikes conducted after major combat concludes."The president said early on we might have to come back," another administration official said, "and we might have to. If we have to mow the lawn again, the grass won't be nearly as tall next time."Trump is scheduled to address the nation on Iran Wednesday evening, potentially offering the clarity his own advisers and international partners desperately seek.

CNN anchor Jake Tapper questioned President Donald Trump's ultimate game plan in Iran, calling out the president and his administration for mixed messaging. Tapper was responding to Secretary of State Marco Rubio's claims about objectives in the war and what the United States had aimed to achieve in its military strikes that first launched on Feb. 28. Now weeks into the war, Americans were unsure what the actual objectives were following confusing communications over what prompted the military action in the Middle East."If the mission is just as Secretary Rubio noted, the destruction of the air force and the navy and missiles and missile-making capability, it would seem that the U.S. would be close to accomplishing that," Tapper said. "But according to reports in The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, the Trump administration is preparing for more. The Pentagon is preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran, troops on the ground. President Trump is weighing deploying another 10,000 more ground troops to the Middle East region in general. And they are also considering a complex operation to extract with boots on the ground."Trump hasn't made clear what his next decision will be — and that has left Americans confused, Tapper explained. "Again, one can want a denuclearized and democratic Iran and still wonder if President Trump is kind of making some of this up as he goes along," Tapper said. "One can support President Trump and wonder if he's fully aware of how often wars spiral out of control little by little, with unanticipated responses by the enemy requiring increasing commitment." "President Trump said he would end the Iran war when he, 'feels it in his bones,' when so many lives are on the line. That is a remarkably vague and impulsive metric... Some people believe Trump's constant back and forth is street strategic, four-dimensional chess," Tapper added.

Reports, based on X post from unofficial account, follow JD Vance’s accusations and threats of finding ‘legal remedies’Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxSeveral news outlets have falsely reported that Somaliland’s government called for the extradition of Ilhan Omar, basing their stories on a post from an X account that does not represent the state despite its claims to the contrary.Fox News, the New York Post, Sinclair Broadcast Group’s the National News Desk and the Independent ran stories on the US representative. The reports centred on a post by @RepOfSomaliland in reaction to claims by JD Vance that Omar had committed immigration fraud, which echoed prior allegations against the Somali-born Minnesota Democrat that she has vehemently denied. Continue reading...

Football federation president on the run with wife and sonConviction in absentia of wide-ranging corruption chargesAuthorities in Congo-Brazzaville have applied to Interpol for an international arrest warrant against Jean-Guy Blaise Mayolas, the president of the country’s football federation, Fecofoot, after he was convicted of embezzling $1.1m in Fifa funds.Mayolas is on the run with his wife and son after they were all sentenced to life imprisonment this month for embezzling funds provided by world football’s governing body as part of its Covid-19 relief plan in February 2021. As the Guardian revealed last year, that included almost $500,000 earmarked for the Congo women’s team. Continue reading...

Abnormally strong jet stream triggers deluge in Middle East, while north Africa braces for 60-80mph gustsAn unusual weather pattern unleashed severe thunderstorms across parts of the Middle East last week, battering countries including the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. The Arabian peninsula – typically dominated by arid desert climates – received up to 150mm of rain in just a few days.The deluge was caused by an abnormally strong jet stream, which helped a deep area of low pressure to develop north of Saudi Arabia. This, in turn, drew moist tropical air from the Indian Ocean and triggered intense storms. Continue reading...