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The Middle East war and the oil supply squeeze have supercharged the shift in businesses away from diesel towards renewable energy. Australia's biggest business lender, NAB, said the uptake of loans to finance green equipment between March and May this year was almost double the uptake over the same period a year ago. Surging fuel prices have left firms clambering to find alternative energy sources or risk a major squeeze on budgets. "It is rapidly, thanks to (Donald) Trump's war on Iran, coming up the learning curve," Climate Energy Finance founder Tim Buckley said, of businesses understanding how they could use renewable energy. NAB's green program offers discounted finance in partnership with the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. It said electric vehicles (EVs) dominated the program, with EVs accounting for about half of all assets financed, as businesses reduced exposure to volatile fuel prices and supply disruptions. Construction firms are also investing in batteries to power cranes. The explosion of batteries on the market means energy can be stored and released during what would otherwise be peak time and cost of electricity usage.

Even as gas prices tick down, it has never been this expensive to own and drive a car in the United States. But tariffs and bans on Chinese technology are keeping some more affordable, electric vehicles out of reach from American drivers. NBC News’ Allie Canal reports.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/52083

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros ⁠Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned Monday that the swiftly spreading Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda "will get worse before it gets better," as a deadly delay in detecting infections has responders to the epidemic "playing catch-up."

"The outbreak is spreading rapidly," Tedros said during a virtual ministerial meeting on the matter. "So far, 101 cases have been confirmed in DRC, with 10 confirmed deaths. But we know the epidemic in DRC is much larger. There are now more than 900 suspected cases and 220 suspected deaths."

"Countries bordering DRC are at especially high risk and should take immediate action," he asserted. "In Uganda, there are five confirmed cases and one death."

Tedros pointed out that "there are several aspects of this outbreak that make it especially challenging."

"First, the delay in detecting the outbreak means that we are now playing catch-up with a very fast-moving epidemic," he said. "We are urgently scaling up operations, but at the moment, the epidemic is outpacing us."

"Second, as you know, the provinces of Ituri and North Kivu are highly insecure, with intensified fighting in recent months, causing more than 100,000 people to be newly displaced," the WHO chief continued. "There is also significant distrust of outside authorities among the local population. In the past week, there have been two security incidents at health facilities."

"WHO is fully committed to working under the leadership of the governments of DRC and Uganda, side by side with Africa [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and all other partners," Tedros added. "We will not rest until we bring this outbreak under control."

Ebola—which typically kills between 25% and 90% of infected people, depending upon the strain of the virus and quality of available medical care—causes widespread and often catastrophic damage to the body’s blood vessels, immune system, and organs.

Critics say US President Donald Trump's ideologically driven decision to withdraw the US from the WHO, his administration's dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and reduced funding for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's global public health efforts have adversely affected the response to the current Ebola epidemic, compared with 2014 and 2019 outbreaks.

After US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week that the WHO was "a little late" in identifying new Ebola infections, Tedros retorted that "we don’t replace the country’s work, we only support them," and suggested that Rubio's comments could be rooted in "a lack of understanding" of the agency and countries' responsibilities.

While Rubio said that “our number-one objective on Ebola, before anything else... has to be, we can’t have it affect the United States,” public health experts warn that Trump administration actions could make it more likely that the virus will make its way to the country.

There is currently no confirmed CDC director, Food and Drug Administration commissioner, or surgeon general.

Taking aim at Trump's evisceration of key public health agencies and programs, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) said last week: “Ebola does not wait for bureaucratic reorganizations. It spreads when surveillance systems are weakened, health workers are laid off, clinics lack protective equipment, and communities lose the trusted partners who help detect and contain outbreaks before they become public health emergencies."

"This is the perfect storm President Trump created," she continued. "He recklessly dismantled USAID, withheld and slashed other United States assistance to the region, fired critical staff, and created global health chaos. This is not efficiency. It is dangerous neglect."

"The United States spent years building the relationships, supply chains, laboratories, and community health networks that help stop deadly diseases at their source," DeLauro added. "The Trump administration tore into that capacity and now wants to pretend the consequences were unforeseeable.”

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

A reminder that as the US continues to threaten countries around the world, fedposting is to be very much avoided (even with qualifiers like "in Minecraft") and comments containing it will be removed.

Image depicts Bolivian trade unionists on strike in La Paz, Bolivia.

Long preamble/summary below of recent news events.

Last week's thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.

Please check out the RedAtlas!

The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.

US carmakers are pivoting back to combustion engines as the Trump Administration rolls back Biden-era subsidies and EV-friendly policies. But China and the EU are ramping up. Is the US at risk of being left behind? Transforming Business looks at the consequences of the big EV rollback.

more like thucydideez nuts, gottem

A reminder that as the US continues to threaten countries around the world, fedposting is to be very much avoided (even with qualifiers like "in Minecraft") and comments containing it will be removed.

Image is of a satellite image from MizarVision, a Chinese firm that has recently shown pride in being sanctioned for showing uncensored images of the Middle East. The West is not allowing up-to-date satellite imagery of the region to hide destruction.

As always, my weekly summary/preamble is in spoilers below.

Last week's thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.

Please check out the RedAtlas!

The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/49925

The 57 confirmed bombings of boats that the Trump administration has carried out so far since last September have shattered families and communities across Latin America, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and US Southern Command never acknowledging the identities of the at least 192 people they've killed, beyond declaring them "narco-terrorists."

But despite the concerted effort to keep the names and any information about the victims hidden—their identities "blown away over vast stretches of ocean," as a new report states—20 journalists led by the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP) managed to identify 13 of the men whose killings have been called "murders" by legal experts and rights advocates.

The journalists and researchers represented CasaMacondo, Verdad Abierta, 360-grados.co, and NGO El Veinte in Colombia; Alianza Rebelde Investiga in Venezuela; the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian; and Airwars in the UK.

The investigation, titled "Bombed, Without the Right to a Defense," was completed despite widespread fears of speaking out about the bombings in the affected communities.

"Some relatives of victims in Venezuela and in Santa Marta, Colombia, say they have received threats, as sources confirmed to journalists in this alliance," reads the report. "Authorities have remained largely opaque, and the officials willing to talk do so only off the record, wary of dragging their countries into conflict with [US President Donald] Trump."

Three people named in the report had already been identified publicly in legal complaints—Trinidadians Chad Joseph and Rishi Samaroo, whose families filed a complaint in the US federal court; and Colombian Alejandro Carranza Medina, whose family filed a petition with the US-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

The men identified for the first time by CLIP include:

• Juan Carlos Fuentes, a bus driver who told his family he was "going to have to do something risky to see if I can make ends meet" after his bus broke down, and who left behind three children and a grandson;
• Luis Ramón Amundarain, a motorcycle taxi driver and fisherman with a wife and five children;
• Eduard Hidalgo, a fisherman who had been deported from the US in December 2025;
• Jesús Carreño of Venezuela;
• Eduardo Jaime, a "beloved indoor soccer player" in his hometown of Güiria, Venezuela;
• Dushak Milovcic, a student at the National Guard Academy in Venezuela who became involved in drug transporting, starting as "a lookout for smugglers";
• Ricky Joseph, a well-known fishmerman in Savannes Bay, Saint Lucia, whose family lost contact with him after a bombing on February 13 and who is believed to be one of the victims;
• Pedro Ramón Holguín Holguín, who was registered as a fish and seafood wholesaler in Ecuador;
• Carlos Manuel Rodríguez Solórzano, who was rescued by Costa Rican authorities but died following an attack on his boat;
• Luis Alí Martínez, who had a criminal record for drug trafficking and other crimes;
• Ronald Arregocés of Riohacha, Colombia;
• Adrián Lubo, of Riohacha, Colombia, who was called "a great captain" by a person who knew him; and
• Robert Sánchez, who was traveling with his cousin, Amundarain, when the boat they were on was bombed.

Another man was identified by his nickname, and two unnamed people, including an Ecuadorian man who helped survivor Jonathan Obando escape a bombing and later died, were included in the report.

“It’s a double tragedy—not only because of the unlawful killings, but because the victims are erased, reduced to anonymity,” John Walsh, of the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), told CLIP and the reporting alliance.

The report emphasizes that all of the victims it identified came from poor families and communities. In Uribia, Colombia, where at least two bodies washed ashore after a boat attack, 92% of residents "lack adequate education, healthcare, or basic public services."

"In those conditions, recruiting young men to transport cocaine is easy work—and the pay can be good," reads the report.

A boatman in Uribia told CLIP that "most people here aren’t the owners" of vessels or the drugs they carry. “The people who own the cargo are almost always outsiders—even international players."

María Teresa Ronderos, director and co-founder of the CLIP, told The Guardian the report affirms that despite the administration's repeated claims that the military is defending "our nation’s interest" and protecting Americans from those who are "trafficking deadly narcotics" like fentanyl and cocaine, “the US is not taking down any Pablo Escobar or Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán."

“Despite the US claim that the strikes are fighting narco-terrorism, what is actually happening is that young people living in extremely precarious conditions, doing whatever work they can to support their families, are being targeted," Ronderos said.

As the investigation into the identities of the boat strike victims illustrates, the people the Trump administration is killing are not in fact the "al Qaeda of our hemisphere" as repeatedly claimed by SecDef.www.elclip.org/los-bombarde...

[image or embed]
— Brian Finucane (@bcfinucane.bsky.social) May 15, 2026 at 10:13 AM

The boat that Fuentes and Amundarain, who had both gone to Trinidad and Tobago to work, were on was traveling from the Caribbean country to Venezuela, calling into question the claim that the vessel was trafficking drugs.

"Boats carry drugs from South America northwards, not the reverse,” Ronderos told The Guardian.

Legal experts have emphasized that even in the cases of victims who were involved in the drug trade, the bombings still legally qualify as extrajudicial killings, or even murder. Trump informed Congress in October that the White House views the US as being in an armed conflict with drug cartels in Latin America, claiming a rationale for carrying out the boat strikes. But no conflict has officially been declared, and rights experts warn that the military has clearly violated international law by targeting the survivors of some of the boat attacks in "double-tap" strikes.

“The deaths of Joseph and Samaroo were clearly extrajudicial killings,” Steven Watt, an attorney with the ACLU who is working on the case brought by the two Trinidiadian families, told CLIP. He added that "the Trump administration’s argument—that a 'war on drugs' justifies violent strikes like these—cannot legally excuse the killings."

Brian Finucane of the International Crisis Group told CLIP that "the law of war permits violence otherwise prohibited, but only during genuine armed conflict—a threshold the Trump administration has failed to meet, as it has not even identified who the US is supposedly fighting."

“Beyond that foundational problem, the administration’s suggestion that vaguely defined ‘enablers’ may be targetable raises further concerns that it is violating the rules of its own bogus legal paradigm," Finucane said.

Ronderos added that “there is no death penalty for cocaine trafficking."

"So the fact that they were killed without even having the chance to defend themselves is deeply troubling," she told The Guardian.

In accordance with international and domestic laws, the US has historically treated drug trafficking on the high seas as a criminal offense and has ensured those who are found trying to bring drugs to the US are brought to justice in court.

A spokesperson for US Southern Command told the reporters that the bombings have been “deliberate, lawful, and precise, directed specifically at narco-terrorists and their enablers," and that the US has "full confidence in the operations and intelligence professionals who inform our missions.”

But the administration has not released any evidence showing the strikes have targeted major drug trafficking operations, and as Common Dreams reported last month, data from US Customs and Border Protection shows little evidence that the strikes are stopping the flow of illicit substances.

“CBP’s seizures of fentanyl at the US-Mexico border had been declining, often sharply, since mid-2023. But since early 2025, the declines stopped,” said Adam Isacson of WOLA at the time. “Halfway into fiscal 2026, seizures are almost exactly half of 2025’s full-year total: a flat trendline.”

Finucane told The Guardian that the boat strikes have never been “a serious counter-drug operation."

"I think this was in part a military spectacle to give the illusion of the administration doing something ‘macho’ about drugs,” Finucane said.

Walsh said Hegseth and Trump "want to impress the public, to make Americans believe that they, unlike previous governments, are finally ending the terrible problem of drug trafficking."

"The profound cruelty and indifference with which they order these systematic and intentional killings allows them to project this menacing image of faceless ‘narco-terrorists,'" he added. "In doing so, they shock many Americans while numbing their sense that the US officials responsible for these murders should be held accountable.”

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/49097

On May 8 and 9, left and progressive movements in Europe marked Victory Day – the 81st anniversary of fascism’s defeat in World War II. “For the Left this cannot be merely an act of remembrance,” wrote the European Left Party. “It is a call to continue the struggle for a peaceful and antifascist Europe.”

Victory Day memorializes Nazi Germany’s official surrender in 1945, marking the end of war in this part of the world and the victory of partisans, national resistance movements, Red Army soldiers, and allied forces. The extreme atrocities committed by Nazis and fascists over previous years – notably mass persecution, torture, and killing of Jews, Roma, communists, and other groups – resulted in millions of deaths, with many more killed in combat and bombardments: the USSR alone lost 27 million citizens during World War II.

Read more: Victory Day: reclaiming the Global South’s legacy

Events took place across the region to commemorate the anniversary. Many emphasized similarities between trends that led to the rise of fascism and today’s militarization and armament, calling for urgent action. The European Left Party echoed words of Mauthausen concentration camp survivors, who pledged after liberation: “We are determined to carry on the struggle against imperialism and nationalist hatred. The construction of a new world of peace and freedom is our goal.”

While progressives view Victory Day as a lesson for future action, many local, national, and EU bodies paid lip service to the day’s origin while erasing contributions of communist and resistance groups from official history. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas focused exclusively on Europe Day – occurring in the same period – featuring EU flags and highlighting the bloc’s stated aims of “unity, cooperation, and democratic values.” During a press conference, Kallas stated that not all EU countries can celebrate May 8-9 as Victory Day because of their Soviet past – which she described as a period of “atrocities.”

Read more: Nobody is forgotten, nothing is forgotten: The 80th anniversary of a victory still contested

Berlin authorities pursued a similar discourse, banning, once again, the display of USSR and communist symbols during celebrations traditionally held next to Soviet memorials. The ban extended to Russian Federation flags and songs like “Katyusha” and “Kalinka”. “Since according to Russian propaganda, Russian soldiers are fighting Nazis in Ukraine, there is a direct link between the victory over fascism in World War II and the Russian Federation’s current war in Ukraine,” Berlin Police wrote when announcing the ban.

“The ban,” wrote the German Communist Party (DKP), “is a slap in the face to all those who, on May 8 and 9, pay tribute at Soviet memorials to the tens of thousands of Soviet soldiers who fell in the battle of Berlin. At the same time, it is an insult to the peoples who, as part of or alongside the Red Army, liberated Europe from fascism.”

“Despite anti-Soviet bans and restrictions, we remembered in humility the fallen soldiers of the Red Army and their families, who sacrificed everything in the fight against German fascism,” the DKP added.

Read more: Liberation Day in Italy marked in solidarity with Cuba and Palestine

In Italy, a large demonstration took place in Rome, reclaiming the narrative around World War II from revisionists. Potere al Popolo’s Marta Collot stressed the importance of ensuring solidarity with ongoing popular struggles around the world – notably in Palestine and Cuba – drawing inspiration from sacrifices made by communist movements and activists. It was largely communists and partisan fighters who gave their lives to defeat fascist forces, she emphasized, driven by a vision of a different world.

“They are the ones who have lifted millions and millions of people out of poverty,” she said. “They are the ones who believe that, in the face of barbarism, human dignity comes before any kind of profit.”

“Socialism, as well as communist men and women, remind us that there is always an alternative to barbarism; that there is – and that we need – a vision that allows us to imagine a different world so that we can build it,” Collot added. “In the face of barbarism, the only possible alternative is communism.”

The post Victory Day in Europe: EU revisionism continues, while Left honors resistance and Soviet contributions appeared first on Peoples Dispatch.

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Snip:

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy has announced a major strategic expansion of Iran’s defensive perimeter in the Strait of Hormuz, warning that it will not allow any violation of the country’s territorial waters or national interests.

Rear Admiral Mohammad Akbarzadeh, the political deputy of the IRGC Navy, said on Tuesday that Iran has fundamentally redefined the operational boundaries of the strategic waterway.

[...]

What Iran considers the scope of the strait has been expanded, stretching from the coasts of Jask and Sirik to beyond the Greater Tunb Island, redefined as a strategic zone, he explained.

“It has expanded from a width of 20 to 30 miles in the past to over 200 to 300 miles, that is, 500 kilometers, from Jask and Sirik to beyond Qeshm Island and Greater Tunb. This is a complete crescent.”

Snip:

On Saturday, Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío denounced the effort to normalize the threat of military aggression against Cuba by the United States as part of a coldly calculated communications strategy. He warned that this strategy is part of a crime and those who participate in it will be complicit in the bloodbath.

Previously, the Cuban diplomat responded to statements by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who, without any evidence, accused the Havana administration of wasting resources and neglecting social priorities.

Fernández de Cossío pointed out that the objective of these statements is to justify the collective punishment currently being waged against the Cuban people and the possibility of military aggression.

In response to this narrative, the Deputy Foreign Minister detailed the guidelines for state investment, emphasizing that, even under U.S. blockade, Cuba has focused its investment efforts on maintaining the national electricity system, with a significant boost to renewable energy, the modernization of telecommunications, and the expansion of internet access.

Snip:

Public broadcasters from Spain, Ireland, and Slovenia announced on 11 May that they will not air this week’s Eurovision Song Contest in protest of Israel’s participation.

“For the next 10 days, instead of the Eurovision circus, the national television program will be colored by the thematic program series ‘Voices of Palestine,’” Slovenian broadcaster RTV said.

Featured documentaries and films will include Gaza Twins, Come Back to Me, No Other Land, The Voice of Hind Rajab, and The Teacher.

Ireland’s RTE will air a comedy show instead, while Spain will broadcast a special musical program during the contest, which begins on Tuesday in Vienna.

The Pentagon is racing to rebuild munitions stocks, which have been drained to feed wars in Ukraine, Iran, Gaza, and Lebanon.

The War Department is seeking a record $1.5 trillion budget, and new weapons suppliers recruited from the civilian sector.

The Pentagon's strategy is to attract smaller companies to build for the defense industry, by offering longer-term contracts, with guaranteed high volumes of orders.

China's dominance of the rare earth supply chains mean that the problem is not merely a ack of manufacturing, but also of mining and refining.

Vast reserves of raw materials reserves are found outside China, but those are typically found in countries closely allied with the Chinese, instead of with Washington.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/48586

A top Iranian official on Monday said the peace proposal rejected by President Donald Trump was a "reasonable and generous" path toward ending the war that the US and Israel launched in late February, plunging the Middle East and global energy markets into chaos.

Esmail Baghaei, the spokesperson for Iran's Foreign Ministry, said during a press conference that "the only thing we have demanded is Iran's legitimate rights," accusing the US side of insisting on "unreasonable demands."

Baghaei's remarks came after Trump dismissed the Iranian proposal—a counter to the latest US offer—as "totally unacceptable" in a social media post.

"I don't like it," Trump wrote, without specifying what he found objectionable. The president's reply sent oil prices surging.

"Is our proposal for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz unreasonable?" Baghaei asked in response to the US president. "Is establishing peace and security across the entire region irresponsible?"

The details of the US offer and Iran's counter have not been fully made public, though some of both sides' demands have been divulged in media reports and vaguely outlined by government officials. Trump, who has repeatedly issued genocidal threats against Iran and called the country's leaders "lunatics," told Axios that he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Iran's response.

"It was a very nice call," said Trump. "We have a good relationship."

Baghaei, for his part, rejected the notion that Iran is the party behaving irrationally. "It is enough to look at Iran's record," he said. "Were we the ones who deployed troops? Are we the ones bullying countries in the Western Hemisphere? Were we the ones who committed assassinations twice during negotiations?"

Citing an "informed source," Iran's semi-official Tasnim News Agency reported Monday that "Iran's text emphasizes the necessity of an immediate end to the war and guarantees against renewed aggression toward Iran, along with several other issues within the framework of a political understanding."

"Iran’s text also stresses the necessity of lifting US sanctions and ending the war on all fronts, as well as Iranian management of the Strait of Hormuz should certain commitments be fulfilled by the United States," Tasnim added. "The necessity of ending the naval blockade against Iran immediately after the signing of the initial understanding is also among Iran’s emphasized demands, the source said."

Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, wrote late Sunday that it appears Iran is offering to compromise significantly on its uranium stockpile and future enrichment.

"The US demands that the entire Iranian stockpile be shipped out of the country. In the past, Tehran rejected shipping any of it out; it only agreed to downblending it. In its latest proposal, however, it offers to have some of it diluted and the rest shipped to a third country," Parsi wrote. "As I understand it... Iran is also offering to accept an arrangement in which it will not need to enrich uranium at all for 12 years. This is not the 15-20 years Trump originally wanted, but longer than the 3-5 years Terhan originally offered."

"That Iran is willing to pause enrichment at all is a significant concession that I am not sure is fully appreciated by the American side," he continued. "It remains unclear to me why this and the stockpile have become so central in Trump’s perspective. His earlier red line was simply no nuclear weapons... The insistence on shipping the entire stockpile out appears to be another example of Trump allowing America’s red lines to be replaced by Israel’s. It would be a shame if the entire negotiation collapses over this issue."

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/48883

Gulf sources have told western media that Abu Dhabi now sees Tehran as a ‘rogue actor’

Abu Dhabi has not officially acknowledged the strikes. According to WSJ, one of the strikes targeted an oil refinery on the island of Lavan in the Persian Gulf.

The attack on the oil refinery specifically took place in April, around the time the ceasefire between the US and Iran was reached.

The sources did not specify if it was before or after the declaration.

Anonymous Gulf officials told WSJ that Iran’s retaliatory strikes on US allies in West Asia “prompted a fundamental shift in the [UAE] strategic outlook to one that now sees Iran as a rogue actor bent on undermining the country’s economic and social model based on expatriate talent and a reputation for safety and stability.”

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