Opinion

The US has unnerved the world oil market by ramping up the pressure in its long-running dispute with Iran. It has announced that, after May 1, it won’t renew the exemptions given to eight countries that enable them to buy Iranian oil. Those affected, which include China, India, Japan, Italy and South Korea, will face sanctions from Washington if they don’t comply. The move will likely squeeze global oil supply at a time when it is already struggling from disruptions in Venezuela, Libya and Nigeria. Indeed, the Brent crude price has already risen on the back of the announcement to US$74 (£57) per barrel, the highest since last November.

American society is failing at the most essential covenant of any civilization; that is, the identification and elimination of movements that threaten the very essence of civilization. It is a challenge to any journalist, no matter how committed and observant, to monitor all of the horrific, ignorant and false utterances that President Donald Trump projectile vomits at the American people on a daily basis, but one of his recent verbal explosions demonstrates dangerous flirtation with the other “f” word that the FCC has, evidently, prohibited from the television news — “fascism.”

He says so again and again right in the report.

Red State conservatives may insist that the rest of us should keep aspirin between our knees and be forced to bear Divine Justice Babies when we don’t. They may refuse to provide cake or flowers for gay weddings, or even to attend. They may pretend that teens won’t do it if we just don’t tell them how. They may adopt the Church Lady posture if anyone mentions sex that doesn’t involve one man, one woman, the missionary position and a pulsing desire for more offspring . . . . But online search traffic from behind closed doors in Jesusland suggests that the bad, nasty sexual impulses that righteous believers are trying so hard to shut down may be their own. And if Google search patterns mean anything, they’re not succeeding too well.

The 35-page dossier that purported to outline Russian interference in the election and the Trump campaign’s alleged role in that interference is facing renewed scrutiny following the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, according to the New York Times.

In the 1950s, there was a famous study led by three psychologists into the inner workings of a UFO cult that believed space aliens were coming to take them away from the planet before a catastrophic worldwide flood. The researchers, who embedded by pretending to be cult members, described how the cultists repeatedly prophesized a date the aliens were supposed to come and were repeatedly disappointed when the prophecy did not pan out.

In the 1950s, there was a famous study led by three psychologists into the inner workings of a UFO cult that believed space aliens were coming to take them away from the planet before a catastrophic worldwide flood. The researchers, who embedded by pretending to be cult members, described how the cultists repeatedly prophesized a date the aliens were supposed to come and were repeatedly disappointed when the prophecy did not pan out.

“If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President of the United States did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. … However, we are unable to reach that judgment.”

Beijing and Washington have been engaged in long-standing negotiations to resolve an increasingly contentious trade dispute. It looks like we are approaching the endgame, but, as James Politi and Lucy Hornby report in the Financial Times, “the two sides remain apart on two key issues—the fate of existing US levies on Chinese goods, which Beijing wants to see removed, and the terms of an enforcement mechanism demanded by Washington to ensure that China abides by the deal.”

When President Obama took office in January of 2009, the country was still reeling from the trauma of a war begun on the basis of lies and obfuscation. We were deep in the throes of an epic recession caused by rampant greed and flagrant malfeasance on the part of the financial leaders of the country. Many of the people who voted the new president and a Democratic congressional majority into power expected there would be a reckoning for those responsible. Instead, Obama and Democratic leaders decided that it would be a mistake to "look in the rearview mirror" or "play the blame game," and a full account of what had happened was left for history to sort out.

Here we are at last, staring at the end of the world and what may be the very last time that we see all of the people we love together, in one place, alive.