DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Arab Emirates said Tuesday it will leave OPEC effective May 1, stripping the oil cartel of its third-largest producer and further weakening its leverage over global oil supplies and prices.

The UAE’s decision had been rumored as a possibility for some time, as it pushed back in recent years against OPEC production quotas it felt had been too low — meaning it wasn’t able to sell as much oil to the world as it had wanted.

“Having invested heavily in expanding energy production capacity in recent years, the bigger picture is that the UAE has been itching to pump more oil,” Capital Economics wrote in an analysis. “The ties binding OPEC members together have loosened,” it said, particularly after Qatar withdrew from the cartel in 2019.

Regional politics are also likely at play. The UAE has had increasingly frosty relations with Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s largest producer, over political and economic matters in the Mideast, even after both came under attack by fellow OPEC member Iran during the war.

(article continues, clicky linky)

Yep, Iran War's goin' great, all according to keikaku.

(keikaku means plan)

Along the banks of the Danube, news that the Viktor Orbán era had come to an end set off an hours-long party. The joy echoed across Hungary as people traded hugs and high-fives. For some, however, the landslide loss set off a frantic scramble.

Private jets allegedly laden with the spoils of those whose wealth swelled during Orbán’s 16 years in power have steadily been taking off from Vienna, while other individuals are racing to invest their assets abroad, sources have told the Guardian. Meanwhile, high-level figures close to Orbán have been looking into US visa options, hoping to find work at Maga-linked institutions.

It is a glimpse of the upheaval that has gripped Hungary as it prepares to turn the page on Orbán’s rule. Since he took power in 2010, a small circle of associates aligned with the leader and his Fidesz party have amassed vast fortunes, party due to their expanding control over the country’s economy and EU-funded contracts for public infrastructure.

Since the election, the Guardian has learned of three members of this inner circle who have begun moving their assets abroad. The wealth is being moved to countries in the Middle East – Saudi Arabia, Oman and the UAE – while others have their sights set on Australia and Singapore, two Fidesz sources said.

In the heart of ancient Athens, on narrow streets and around archaeological sites, visitor groups appear to be everywhere, snaking their way behind tour guides.

Previously, officials would have welcomed such scenes. But for Haris Doukas, the socialist mayor who is determined to reclaim the capital’s congested city centre for its citizens, the start of tourist season leaves much of its historic heart at risk of “over-saturation.” Entire neighbourhoods, he believes, are in danger of losing their authenticity because of uncontrolled tourist development.

“Athens cannot operate as if it were a giant hotel,” he said in an interview. “Restrictions and rules are needed. Cities must also have a say in the way they develop.”

Last year, more than 8 million people visited Athens, a record for a metropolis that not long ago was regarded as a pit stop to the Greek isles. In short-term rentals alone, overnight stays in the popular Plaka district beneath the Acropolis have more than doubled since 2018, a study commissioned by the municipality recently revealed.

British police investigating the former prince Andrew and Peter Mandelson are preparing to start interviewing witnesses in Royal and government circles.

It comes as police fear that prosecutors will be “reluctant” to bring charges unless the Trump administration agrees to hand over the original documents from the Epstein files.

The two police forces that have launched full criminal investigations as a result of revelations in the Epstein files have been in discussions with the special crime division of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which authorises criminal charges in England and Wales.

Thames Valley police is investigating Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, King Charles’s brother, for misconduct in public office, over claims sensitive material was passed to Epstein while he was serving as a UK trade envoy.

The Metropolitan police is investigating the former Labour grandee Peter Mandelson for misconduct in public office over claims he passed on sensitive information while a cabinet minister to Epstein.

Both men have been arrested and released and are understood to deny wrongdoing.

So far, redacted documents relating to the disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his associates have been published on the US Department of Justice website.

The DoJ, seen as being under Trump’s control, has told British police it will not consider handing over the original documents without a formal request being made. That is a bureaucratic and lengthy process.

Nothing to see here!

The oil crisis triggered by the Iran war has changed the fossil fuel industry for ever, turning countries away from fossil fuels to secure energy supplies, the world’s leading energy economist said.

Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), also said that, despite pressure, the UK should forgo much of its potential North Sea expansion.

Speaking exclusively to the Guardian, Birol said a key effect of the US-Israel war on Iran was that countries would lose trust in fossil fuels and demand for them would reduce.

“Their perception of risk and reliability will change. Governments will review their energy strategies. There will be a significant boost to renewables and nuclear power and a further shift towards a more electrified future,” he said. “And this will cut into the main markets for oil.”

Birol said there was no going back from the crisis: “The vase is broken, the damage is done – it will be very difficult to put the pieces back together. This will have permanent consequences for the global energy markets for years to come.”

Oops.

Ukraine’s defence ministry has fired a top commander after photos emerged of a group of emaciated soldiers who have been left on the frontline for months without proper food and water.

The scandal erupted after the wife of one of the soldiers, Anastasiia Silchuk, posted the images on social media. The four men appeared to be pale and visibly malnourished, with prominent ribcages and thin arms. An emaciated soldier standing with his shirt off The fourth soldier. Photograph: i.petrovna_/Threads

The soldiers had spent eight months defending a shrinking bulge of territory on the left bank of the Oskil River, near the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Kupiansk, their relatives said. Supplies of food and medicines could only be flown in by drone.

“When the lads arrived at the frontlines, they weighed over 80–90kg. But now they weigh around 50kg,” Silchuk posted. After one delivery, she said, no more food turned up for 10 days. The soldiers were forced to drink rainwater and melt snow to survive.

Israel’s killing of a prominent Lebanese journalist in a double-tap strike has been greeted with international outrage as Lebanon’s prime minister described the attack as a “war crime”.

Amal Khalil, 43, who worked for al-Akhbar newspaper, was buried on Thursday after she was killed in what colleagues described as a sustained attack by Israeli forces. Rescuers attempting to dig her out of the rubble of a building were also targeted and prevented from providing life-saving assistance.

Her death prompted renewed accusations that Israel has a policy of targeting media workers, despite its repeated denials.

Khalil had previously spoken of receiving a threat via an unidentified Israeli phone number that she would be killed if she did not leave southern Lebanon, where she had long been based.

The Indian government has denounced a social media post shared by Donald Trump that described India as a “hellhole”, calling the comments inappropriate and “in poor taste”.

On Wednesday, Trump posted a four-page transcription of remarks made by the conservative podcast host Michael Savage that denounced the US constitutional right to citizenship of everyone born in the country.

Without evidence, the post accused Indian immigrants in the tech industry of not hiring white native-born Americans and inaccurately alleged that Indian immigrants lacked English proficiency.

“A baby here becomes an instant citizen, and then they bring the entire family in from China or India or some other hellhole on the planet,” the post said. Trump also posted a video of Savage delivering the comments.

Trump really puts the "ass" in "classy."

Downing Street has been forced to insist that Britain will not yield sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, after a leaked Pentagon email proposed the US should reassess its support for the UK’s claim on the islands because of a lack of British support over Iran.

The memo reflected ways in which the Trump administration could punish Britain for failing to follow the US lead in bombing Iran, and comes before a potentially fraught three-day state visit to the US by King Charles.

It argued, according to Reuters, that the US could review a policy of endorsing European claims to longstanding “imperial possessions”, and highlighted the Falklands, subject of the 1982 war between Britain and Argentina.

The report immediately prompted pushback from the UK government, opposition leaders, veterans and the Falklands, underscoring a rapid decline in the tone of Anglo-American relations in the past few weeks.

“We could not be clearer about the UK’s position on the Falkland Islands,” the prime minister’s spokesperson said when asked about the email. “It’s longstanding. It’s unchanged. Sovereignty rests with the UK, and the islands’ right to self-determination is paramount.”

Berlin’s top culture official, British-born Sarah Wedl-Wilson, has stood down over a funding scandal involving the the irregular distribution of €2.6m in public money for programmes to fight antisemitism.

As culture senator for the Berlin regional government, Wedl-Wilson had already sacked a state secretary in her department, Oliver Friederici, over the affair this week, but the opposition called him a mere scapegoat.

The city’s mayor, Kai Wegner, who is waging a tough fight for re-election in September, said on Friday he accepted her resignation.

“Sarah Wedl-Wilson has assumed political and personal responsibility – for that she deserves respect,” said Wegner, who must now find a replacement to manage the department with a €110m annual budget for the remaining five months of his term.

Wedl-Wilson, who for weeks had resisted accepting blame in the affair, earlier on Friday declared she was leaving office “above all to prevent harm to the vital fight against rising antisemitism in Berlin”.

Rising antisemitism in Germany ... what could possibly go wrong?

Brussels officials will draw up a plan on how to use the EU’s little-known mutual assistance pact in the event of a foreign attack, as Donald Trump’s criticism of Nato intensifies.

EU leaders have agreed that the European Commission “will prepare a blueprint” on how the bloc will respond if the mutual assistance clause is triggered, according to Nikos Christodoulides, the president of Cyprus, who is hosting the talks.

They discussed the mutual defence clause, article 42.7 of the EU treaty, on Thursday night, before reports emerged that the US was exploring how to suspend Spain from Nato.

Trump, a long-term critic of the transatlantic military alliance, has stepped up his invective at “very disappointing Nato” after European countries refused to get involved in the US-Israeli war on Iran. This month he said he was “absolutely without question” considering withdrawing the US from Nato, pushing the 77-year-old alliance into the worst crisis in its history.

Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s prime minister – who has been the most vociferous European critic of the war in Iran – said on Friday that Spain was a loyal Nato member, while renewing his criticism of “the failure of brute force in the Middle East”.

The EU risks a confrontation with Donald Trump after it sought to stall the awarding of a lucrative Balkans pipeline contract to a company fronted by his personal lawyer, documents seen by the Guardian show.

Brussels has clashed with Trump over trade, Ukraine and military spending, but the intervention in the Southern Interconnection pipeline project appears to mark the first time it has challenged a commercial venture by those close to the president.

The pipeline will run through Bosnia and Herzegovina. Under what Bosnian sources say have been months of pressure from US officials, its leaders have been moving quickly to award the contract to a previously little-known company based in Wyoming.

AAFS Infrastructure and Energy was incorporated in November last year and has not disclosed its owners. It is fronted by two leading members of Trump’s campaign to overturn his 2020 election defeat: Jesse Binnall, a lawyer who defended him against allegations of inciting the Capitol riots after his defeat, and Joe Flynn, the brother of the president’s former national security adviser.

Nothing to see here!

A bill banning anyone born after 2008 from buying tobacco in the UK has completed its progress through parliament in a move that ministers hope will create a “smoke-free generation”.

Under the tobacco and vapes bill anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 will never be able to be legally sold tobacco across the UK, in an effort to save lives and reduce the burden on the NHS.

The bill will become legislation when it receives royal assent next week. Its long journey through both houses of parliament began when it was introduced on 5 November 2024 and ended on Tuesday, when the House of Lords approved amendments made by MPs in House of Commons.

Ministers hope it will end the sale of tobacco products altogether over time and break the cycle of addiction and the disadvantages associated with tobacco.

The world’s top condom producer, Malaysia’s Karex Bhd, plans to raise prices by 20% to 30% and possibly further if supply chain disruptions drag on due to the Iran war, its chief executive has said.

Karex is also seeing a surge in condom demand as rising freight costs and shipping delays have left many of its customers with lower stockpiles than usual, CEO Goh Miah Kiat told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.

“The situation is definitely very fragile, prices are expensive … We have no choice but to transfer the costs right now to the customers,” Goh said.

Karex produces more than 5 billion condoms annually and is a supplier to leading brands like Durex and Trojan, as well as national health systems such as the UK’s NHS and global aid programmes run by the United Nations.

I'm tired of all this winning.

Air Canada has announced a temporary suspension of flights from Toronto and Montreal to New York’s John F Kennedy airport, citing rising fuel prices.

The move comes amid growing concerns that airlines worldwide may scale back services as aviation fuel costs climb in the wake of the US and Israel’s ongoing war with Iran, which entered a fragile ceasefire earlier in April. Although Iran announced on Friday that the strait of Hormuz had reopened, helping ease oil prices, fuel costs remain significantly elevated after weeks of disruption.

Separately on Friday, Spirit Airlines has asked the US federal government for hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency funding to offset a surge in fuel costs, the Air Current industry website reported, citing unnamed sources. Spirit did not immediately return a request for comment.

“Jet fuel prices have doubled since the start of the Iran conflict, affecting some lower profitability routes and flights which now are no longer economically feasible,” Air Canada said in a statement on Friday. “Schedule adjustments including some frequency reductions are being made in response.”

Just wait until we bomb tomorrow to cover the spread on oil futures for these oligarchs. Nothing about this war feels real in terms of motives.

Oil and gas prices fell sharply on Friday after Iran said the strait of Hormuz was open to commercial shipping, potentially clearing the way for tankers holding millions of barrels of oil and gas to reach the global market.

Iran’s foreign minister said vessels would be free to transit the strait of Hormuz for the duration of the 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, which was struck on Thursday.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, fell more than 10% to $88.8 a barrel. That is well below a peak of $119 last month, but still much higher than the $72 before the war.

Donald Trump later said the US naval blockade on Iran’s use of the strait would remain in full force until Washington had struck a deal with Tehran. He said the process “should go very quickly” because “most of the points are already negotiated”.

Europe has only six weeks’ supply of jet fuel left before shortages will hit because of the Iran war, according to the head of a global energy watchdog.

Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, said there would be flight cancellations “soon” if oil supplies from the Middle East were not restored within the coming weeks.

“I can tell you soon we will hear the news that some of the flights from city A to city B might be cancelled as a result of lack of jet fuel,” he told the Associated Press.

Good time to take a train.

meduza.io/en/feature/2026/04/1…

Travellers going through some European airports are reportedly waiting up to three hours at border checks because of the EU’s new entry-exit system (EES).

Passengers in airports in countries such as France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Greece are waiting several hours at border checks, the Airports Council International (ACI) body has said.

Olivier Jankovec, the director of the ACI European division, told the Financial Times: “This situation, in the coming weeks and certainly over the peak summer months, is going to be simply unmanageable.

“We are seeing those queueing times now, at peak times, when traffic is just starting to build up.”

The EES came into effect on Friday in the Schengen countries – 25 of the EU’s 27 states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. It requires passengers from non-EU countries, such as the UK, to register their personal information and biometrics at the border.

Kinda makes "papers, please" seem quaint.

The world’s top 100 oil and gas companies banked more than $30m every hour in unearned profit in the first month of the US-Israeli war in Iran, according to exclusive analysis for the Guardian. Saudi Aramco, Gazprom and ExxonMobil are among the biggest beneficiaries of the bonanza, meaning key opponents of climate action continue to prosper.

The conflict pushed the price of oil to an average of $100 (£74) a barrel in March, leading to estimated windfall war profits for the month of $23bn for the companies. Oil and gas supplies will take months to return to pre-war levels and the companies will make $234bn by the end of the year if the oil price continues to average $100. The analysis uses data from a leading intelligence provider, Rystad Energy, analysed by Global Witness.

The excess profits come from the pockets of ordinary people as they pay high prices to fill up their vehicles and power their homes, as well as from businesses incurring higher energy bills. Dozens of countries have cut fuel taxes to help struggling consumers, meaning those nations, including Australia, South Africa, Italy, Brazil and Zambia, are raising less money for public services.

A further escalation in the Iran war could trigger a global recession, spiralling inflation and a sharp backlash in financial markets, the International Monetary Fund has warned.

Against an increasingly volatile backdrop, the Washington-based fund said the economic damage from the Middle East conflict was steadily rising as it cut its growth forecasts for 2026 based on the impact from the war so far.

In its half-yearly update, the IMF said the UK would suffer the sharpest growth downgrade and joint highest inflation rate in the G7 this year, even if the fallout from soaring energy costs can be contained by the middle of 2026.

However, under a worst-case “severe scenario”, involving a drawn-out war and persistently higher energy prices, it said the world would face “a close call for a global recession” for only the fifth time since 1980.