New specialist in the town
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- April 24, 2026
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New specialist in the town
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Sometimes the world doesn't make sense, nor the reports about it, both at the grand and trivial scales. From what I read this problem is not isolated to Australian papers but is becoming more common
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A US naval blockade of Iranian ports is likely to squeeze Iran’s oil output in the coming weeks but claims it will throw the Islamic republic into economic free fall remain premature, analysts say. After weeks of bombing and counter-strikes, focus has shifted to the standoff in the Strait of Hormuz, which ordinarily carries around a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas. In response to Iran’s blockade of the strait since the start of the Middle East war, the US imposed a counter-blockade of the Islamic republic’s ports, a push to force its leaders into a compromise in peace talks. That bid, however, looks set to fail, at least in the short term. “If the blockade lasts for more than two or three months, it can cause more damage” to Iran, economic analyst and professor at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran Saeed Laylaz told AFP. “If Iran suffers any damage, the damage to the countries in the southern Persian Gulf will definitely be greater,” he added. There’s a limit on how long Iran can bide its time, however. Arne Lohmann Rasmussen, chief analyst at Global Risk Management said Iran “was expected to run out of storage capacity within approximately one month, but it may already be forced to shut in part of its oil production within a couple of weeks”. Trump said Tuesday that Iran was “collapsing financially” under the blockade imposed by the US Navy on April 12, claiming that the country was “starving for cash”. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the blockade meant storage at Iran’s Kharg Island, the main export terminal through which most of the country’s crude is shipped, “will be full and the fragile Iranian oil wells will be shut in”. Jamie Ingram, managing editor of Middle East Economic Survey (MEES), told AFP it was likely the timeline for Iran to hit its oil storage limits would be measured in “weeks rather than days”. He added it was likely that “Iran will slightly reduce production before getting to the stage where storage constraints start to bite”. According to analysis by oil expert Homayoun Falakshahi shared by energy intelligence firm Kpler, Iran’s crude production has already slowed since the start of the war. Output fell by around 200,000 barrels per day in March to 3.68mn bpd and is expected to drop a further 420,000 bpd in April to about 3.43mn bpd, reflecting “the broader impact of export disruptions and refining constraints linked to the ongoing conflict,” Falakshahi said. But Laylaz in Tehran said beyond the psychological effect of the blockade, the “real material effect has been small so far”. Ingram said Kharg Island “shouldn’t be a particular bottleneck,” for Iran. “This is the final storage facility used before oil is exported and Iran can divert crude oil to other facilities rather than straight to Kharg,” he said. The MEES expert also said Iran’s dependency on oil exports via Hormuz had “deepened due to the damage caused by US and Israeli strikes to other sections of the Iranian economy”. “But Iran has also proven its ability to withstand huge oil-revenue declines during previous rounds of sanctions. I would not underestimate the regime’s resilience in this regard,” he added. As the initial two-week truce between Iran and the US was set to expire Trump had said Tuesday he would maintain the ceasefire to allow more time for peace talks. Iran said it welcomed the efforts by mediator Pakistan but made no other comment on Trump’s announcement, while vowing not to reopen Hormuz so long as the US blockade remains in place. Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, said “Iran’s economy was battered before the war, is contending with added strains caused during it, and now faces the combination of sanctions, seizures and potential strikes”. “Iran’s leadership has previously shown a high threshold for pain even if the pressure on ordinary Iranians increases. It also likely calculates that its own efforts to subdue traffic through Hormuz act as a sort of mutually assured disruption,” he added. —
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The International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace is celebrated on April 24 each year and is considered an occasion for one of the most prominent aspects of international institutional work with diverse roles. In recent decades, it has occupied a large space in the area of cross-border co-operation, where negotiated diplomacy aims to make efforts to establish peace and resolve conflicts in different parts of the world succeed and save the lives of millions. It represents an expression of a shared political and humanitarian commitment, stemming from a system of values and principles agreed upon by those concerned with international affairs. The vocabulary of political consultation committed to international laws, along with openness to different viewpoints and bridging the gaps between them, and guaranteeing the rights of affected, fragile and weak groups, constitutes solid foundations upon which purposeful diplomatic interaction to defuse conflicts is based. Its path is guided by rules that ensure the continuity of co-operation, provided that the rules are applied equally to all parties, so that everyone achieves their rights and ensures the fulfillment of their duties through a fair distribution of responsibilities. World leaders adopted what became known as the Pact for the Future at the summit held at the United Nations headquarters in September 2024, reaffirming their commitment to peace, sustainable development and the protection of human rights. As the UN embodies the highest form of multilateralism, its Charter not only defines its structure and functions, but is also a pillar of the international system, which Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has described more than once as the “moral compass to promote peace, advance human dignity, prosperity and uphold human rights and the rule of law.” In December 2018, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on the International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace, calling on member states and stakeholders to celebrate this day and promote awareness of the benefits of multilateralism. The multilateral framework has witnessed remarkable development, with the number of countries under its umbrella increasing from 51 members in 1945 to 193 currently, in addition to the growing participation of non-governmental organizations and the private sector, with more than a thousand organizations having observer status at the UN. International praiseQatar adopts a unique approach to promoting multilateral diplomacy and plays a pivotal role through fruitful diplomacy that has proven effective in resolving many intractable conflicts. It also hosts numerous rounds of dialogue and negotiations between the parties to the conflict, and has received international praise for its consistent commitment to supporting the UN and its active partnership with humanitarian and development organizations operating under the UN’s umbrella, which has strengthened its active and responsible role as an influential member of the international community. The latest diplomatic efforts of the State of Qatar in the international arena included its request to include an emergency item on the agenda of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), which convened in Istanbul from April 15-19, in partnership with a number of countries and with the support of geopolitical groups. The emergency item was titled: “the urgent need for coordinated parliamentary efforts to uphold ceasefire agreements and support the achievement of peace in the Middle East and other regions.’ The emergency item submitted by the State of Qatar, represented by the Shura Council, won an overwhelming majority to be included on the agenda of the IPU’s 152nd General Assembly, held in Istanbul. This is the first time that an emergency item submitted by an Arab country has received the necessary votes to be included on the agenda of the General Assembly. In this regard, Research Assistant Professor of International Affairs, Security, and Defence at Qatar University Dr Ali Bakir said in an interview with QNA that the initiative of “Emergency Item” embodies a practical example of multilateral diplomacy, as it represents Qatar’s ability to mobilise international support for peace and stability issues. He noted that it is not possible to isolate this achievement from Qatar’s well-established approach, as this initiative depicts the culmination of over two decades of diplomatic efforts in mediation, trust building, and favouring political solutions over conflicts. Dr Bakir affirmed that Qatar played a pivotal role in bridging the gap between the conflicting parties across various regional and international issues, and contributed in lowering tensions and encouraging opportunities for dialogue. From this standpoint, this initiative comes to reinforce the role of Qatar as a responsible international actor seeking to entrench collective security and leverage international parliamentary tools in the service of peace. This underscores that Qatari diplomacy is not a situational response, but a steadfast policy with a long-term strategic vision. For his part, Editor-in-Chief of Al-Arab daily newspaper Faleh bin Hussein al-Hajri said in a statement to QNA that Qatar’s experience manifests as a mature expression of a political vision that has woven its presence through a steady and systematic accumulation, where mediation has evolved into a permanent fixture of its foreign policy, and dialogue has become a primary tool for navigating international complexities. In this context, the “Emergency Item” initiative proposed by Doha came to consolidate this trajectory, as it offers a vision that integrates parliamentary diplomacy into the efforts aimed at stabilising the ceasefire, protecting civilians, and entrenching the rules of international humanitarian law. Al-Hajri added that the broad approval and registration of the initiative mark an Arab precedent in placing an emergency item on the union’s agenda. This, he said, reflects the crystallisation of international credibility over two decades of active engagement in mediation, ranging from conflict resolution to managing complex humanitarian files. He pointed out that this credibility is rooted in a Qatari foreign policy that has turned de-escalation into a priority and made the bridging of perspectives an institutional practice, thereby strengthening regional and international stability. He emphasised that this approach, especially in an international environment characterised by accelerating and intertwined crises, stands out as a practical contribution to revitalise the international system through multilateral tools capable of transforming principles into executive mechanisms, thereby entrenching peace and establishing long-term stability. Qatar’s efforts in mediation and good offices have escalated gradually since 2004, gaining a distinct credibility that has propelled it into the arena of mediation with diverse objectives, such as ceasefires, restoring diplomatic relations, releasing hostages, exchanging prisoners, supporting national dialogues, ending border disputes, enhancing humanitarian efforts, and reaching peace agreements at both regional and international levels.
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The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has forced policymakers in Asia to face questions over the security of other maritime chokepoints, including the Strait of Malacca, which is the world’s busiest waterway for international trade. The 900-km (550-mile) long Malacca Strait, bounded by Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, provides the shortest sea route from East Asia to the Middle East and Europe. It carries nearly 22% of the world’s maritime trade, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. This includes oil and gas shipments from the Middle East to the energy-hungry economies of China, Japan and South Korea. Malacca is the largest “oil transit chokepoint” in the world and the only one that outpaces Hormuz, according to the US Energy Information Administration. In the first half of 2025, some 23.2mn barrels of oil per day were transported through the Malacca Strait, accounting for 29% of total maritime oil flows. The next largest chokepoint, Hormuz, saw about 20.9mn bpd pass through. More than 102,500 ships, mostly commercial vessels, transited through the Malacca Strait in 2025, up from around 94,300 in 2024, data from Malaysia’s Marine Department showed. These include most tankers, but some very large vessels avoid the strait because of draught restrictions and go south around Indonesia instead. This route allows the Strait of Malacca to be bypassed if it were closed, but it adds to journey time that would delay shipments and drive up prices. At its narrowest point in the Phillips Channel of the Singapore Strait, the Malacca Strait is only 1.7 miles (2.7km) wide, creating a natural bottleneck, as well as potential for collisions, grounding, or oil spills. Some parts of the strait are relatively shallow, with a depth of 25-27m (82-90 ft), restricting the largest vessels, but even very large crude carriers (VLCCs) measuring more than 350m long, 60m wide, and with a draft of more than 20m, make the transit. For years, the strait has been a hotbed of piracy and attacks on merchant vessels. Last year saw criminal attacks spike to at least 104, but these have fallen off in the first quarter of this year, according to the ReCAAP Information Sharing Centre, an organisation established by regional governments to combat piracy. The narrow and congested waterway has been strategically important to Beijing, with around 75% of China’s seaborne crude oil imports passing through it from the Middle East and Africa, data from tanker tracker Vortexa shows. The Iran crisis has crystallised long-standing worries about how chokepoints such as Malacca could be affected if a conflict breaks out in the South China Sea or the Taiwan Strait, where another 21% of global maritime trade transits, according to CSIS. Malaysian authorities say the Malacca Strait is also a growing spot for illegal ship-to-ship transfers, where oil is shifted between tankers at sea to obscure its origin. Indonesian Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa made waves on Wednesday by openly musing about ways countries could impose tolls on ships as a way to monetize the strait, before noting that such an arrangement is not possible. When asked about the risks of tolls or other restrictions on movement in the strait, Singapore Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan told CNBC that the nations along the strait share a strategic interest to keep it open, and have agreed not to collect tolls. He also said Singapore had assured the United States and China that the right of passage was guaranteed for all and it would not participate in any efforts to block the strait or impose tolls. Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan told a forum on Wednesday that no unilateral decisions can be made about the strait and that Malaysia is on the same page with Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand, and they conduct joint patrols to ensure the waterway remains open.
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The opioid epidemic has claimed thousands of lives in Illinois since it started in the late 1990s. Finally, there’s some good news to share. Overdose deaths from opioids are falling sharply, down 35.6% in 2024
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Mary Ellen Klas, Tribune News ServiceThe resignations of three members of Congress over misconduct allegations demonstrate that the US House — which most Americans think can’t get its act together — not only has the
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The communicative path of life is strewn with uncertainties. One misstep and the course of your entire life could change. And irreversibly at that. Permit me to discuss an experience.He drove up to her lawn,
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It has been a crazy first quarter of the year with so many things going on around the world in all fields. This week we are focusing on the most outrageous pop culture moments that
