Baltic
Dry Index. 2030 +35 Brent Crude 107.53
Spot Gold 4688 Spot
Silver 71.83
US 2 Year Yield 3.81 +0.02
US Federal Debt. 39.065 trillion
US GDP 31.290 trillion.
“Why, sometimes I've
believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland.
What to make of President Trump’s televised
speech to the US nation and the world?
My take, President Trump is living
in his own deluded world. Out of touch with reality, surrounded by a team of
yes men, unable or unwilling to bring President Trump back to the reality of
the global economy or the miniscule threat Iran was to America and the rest of
the world.
Is Trump planning a ground invasion
of Iran on Good Friday?
Tuesday March 31 2026,
9.35pm BST, The Times
President Trump has suggested he
could walk away from Iran and leave other nations to police the Strait of
Hormuz, threatening that America “won’t be there to help you anymore”.
Traditional allies of the US, told
one day that he does not need them, another day taunted as “cowards” and then
told they should hurry up and “go to the Strait”, are wondering how best to
respond — or whether Trump is playing a different game altogether.
Ever since the start of the
conflict, Trump has been sending out a blizzard of conflicting messages: the
war is won; it is not a war but an “excursion”; Iran has ten more days to stop
fighting and make a deal; shipping companies should “show some guts”; Iran
should “open up the Strait of Trump, I mean Hormuz”; and “we don’t need” it
anyway.
·
Is Strait of Hormuz hesitation Trump’s Suez moment?
In Washington, the ever-changing
threats and demands are being referred to as “weaponised uncertainty”. That is
not to “sane-wash” the process, which is hugely destabilising for the Middle
East and the entire globe. But there is a growing feeling that Trump’s
rhetorical somersaults are simply his way of buying time to prepare for a
ground invasion.
----But Trump has also needed to
convince markets constantly that a conclusion was just around the corner,
especially at times of stress when it looked like a sell-off could be gathering
pace.
A pattern has developed of terrible
threats followed a day or so later by calming reassurance. Trump has huge
belief in his own power to manipulate situations in his favour, even when the
odds or logic are stacked against him: this was shown in his attempts to negate
President Biden’s election victory in 2020, when he told two senior Department
of Justice officials to “just say that the election was corrupt and leave the
rest to me”. (They refused.)
·
Trump threatens obliteration of Kharg Island if no deal made
With his rhetorical brinkmanship,
Trump has allowed the US military to build up the troops it will need to raid
Iran, if not to fight a prolonged land battle. This could enable a series of
coastal forays to try to clear the land nearest the Strait of threats to
shipping.
The best time to do this is when
markets are closed, especially if the military has only short, sharp missions
in mind before they reopen. When better than the coming three-day weekend, when
Wall Street and Europe will closed for Good Friday?
This raises the prospect of an
Easter ground offensive, despite the Pope’s Palm Sunday warning that “God …
does not listen to the prayer of those who wage war”.
As usual with Trump, he is keeping
everyone guessing, but he may be following a pattern, especially now that a
2,200-strong Marine expeditionary force has arrived and is being joined by
thousands of paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne, as well as — it has been reported — by
hundreds of Special Forces.
More
Is Trump planning a
ground invasion of Iran on Good Friday?
Trump slurs his way through Iran war
speech with no clear end in sight
2 April 2026
A weary President Donald Trump
slurred his way through a disjointed national TV address Wednesday night in
which he repeated the same justifications for his war with Iran that he's been posting on social
media throughout the month-long conflict.
The primetime speech, which pre-empted scheduled television programming on all
broadcast networks at the request of the White House, had been billed as a
major address in which Trump would finally lay out the justifications for the
military action he started against Iran — one that would finally provide
details on how and when the conflict would end to an American populace that has grown weary of it.
Instead, the president spent nearly
20 minutes speaking from a lectern in the White House’s main foyer, in prepared
marks that often repeated, word for word, his Truth Social posts, and offered
contradictory statements about the war, Iran and the now bogged down Strait of Hormuz, while repeatedly having
trouble pronouncing words like “enemies,” “Venezuela” and “battlefield.”
Addressing both the cameras and an
audience of cabinet members who’d been summoned to offer support — including
Vice President JD Vance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Secretary of Defense
Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio — Trump began by claiming the
joint U.S.-Israeli campaign, dubbed “Operation Epic Fury,” had “delivered swift, decisive, overwhelming victories on the
battlefield, victories like few people have ever seen before” before
repeating many of the same claims he has made about damage to Iran’s military
capabilities for the last month in appearance after appearance.
He bragged about Iran’s navy being
“gone,” their Air Force “in ruins,” and crowed that “most” of the country’s
leaders are “now dead” from decapitation strikes in the opening days of the war
while claiming that Tehran’s ballistic missile capability has been
“dramatically curtailed.”
“Never in the history of warfare has
an enemy suffered such clear and devastating, large scale losses in a matter of
weeks,” Trump said before claiming that the U.S. was “winning and now winning
bigger than ever before” as a result of his decision to attack Iran in the
midst of negotiations on Feb. 28.
He then pivoted to bragging about
oil production in both the U.S. and Venezuela and claimed the country is now
“totally independent of the Middle East.”
“We don't have to be there. We don't
need their oil. We don't need anything they have, but we're there to help our
allies,” he said.
The president’s rambling address
took place just hours after a new CNN poll revealed that Americans have largely soured on the
war, with just 34 percent of respondents voicing approval of it. The poll also
found a super-majority of 66 percent of Americans disapproving of the war, with
43 percent of those reporting that they strongly disapprove.
Trump proceeded to change subjects
once more by launching into another series of grievances as justification for
launching the war, including blatantly false claims about Iran’s alleged
culpability for the 2000 bombing of the U.S.S. Cole for which
al-Qaeda terrorists are preparing to go on trial before military commissions at
the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
He later returned to discussing
present events by repeating his oft-used lines about America’s purported
objectives of “crippling” Iran’s military capabilities and said he was
“pleased” to say the “core strategic objectives are nearing completion.”
Without offering any evidence, he
claimed that the families of the 13 American service members who’ve been killed
since the start of the conflict had each asked him to “finish the job” while
suggesting that failing to “complete the mission” would dishonor the fallen
soldiers and airmen.
And inexplicably, he boasted that
U.S. “has never been better prepared economically” to deal with the
skyrocketing gasoline prices his war has caused while blaming the sky-high
energy costs solely on Iran “launching deranged terror attacks against commercial
oil tankers in neighboring countries that have nothing to do with the
conflict.”
“We were a dead and crippled country
after the last administration, and made it the hottest country anywhere in the
world, by far with no inflation, record setting investments coming into the
United States — over $18 trillion and the highest stock market ever, with 53
all time record highs in just one year. It all positioned us to get rid of a
cancer that has long simmered. It's known as the nuclear Iran, and they didn't
know what was coming,” he said.
More
Trump
slurs his way through Iran war speechwith no clear end in sight
Two Weeks To An Iranian Nuke—The
Ultimate False Flag Lie
March 30, 2026 David Stockman
The now endlessly repeated notion
that Iran’s stockpile of 60% enriched uranium (HEU) is tantamount to having a
nuclear weapon within weeks is downright malefic. Indeed, this gross deception
is so thoroughly fallacious and dangerously misleading that it needs be
debunked lock, stock and barrel.
So we begin with the War Party’s
hoary claim that the roughly 400 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium possessed by
Iran as of May 2025, according to the IAEA, could have been further processed
to weapons-grade levels (90 percent or higher) in a matter of a few days or
weeks using existing centrifuge cascades.
And, then, poof, they would
supposedly have had ten nukes.
Actually, they would not have had
any nuclear bombs at all. Not even remotely.
That’s because producing fissile
material is only the first—and in many respects the easiest—step on the long
road to a reliable, deliverable nuclear weapon. If building the latter is akin
to a grueling 20-mile journey across rugged terrain, acquiring 60 percent HEU
gets you perhaps to the “mile-one” marker.
Metaphorically speaking, you would
have cleared the initial foothills of uranium isotope separation. But the
remaining 19 miles are chock-a-bloc with uncharted engineering valleys, sheer
technical manufacturing cliffs and a final summit that no nation has ever
scaled without extensive trial, error, and empirical proof that the wherewithal
for successful weaponization of a nuclear reaction has been obtained.
Indeed, this crucial
distinction—between producing fissile material and building a functional
weapon—has been at the very center of U.S. National Intelligence Estimates
(NIEs) for nearly two decades. From the 2007 NIE (national intelligence
estimate) on the matter right up to and including the March 2025 testimony of
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard before the US Congress, the
intelligence agencies have attested to Iran’s proficiency in uranium enrichment
but have also noted its complete lack of activity or capability with respect to
bomb weaponization.
More
Two
Weeks To An Iranian Nuke—The Ultimate False Flag Lie
In sock casinos and commodity market
news. [ Or even stock casinos. Ed.]
Asia-Pacific markets reverse gains
as investors assess Trump’s speech on Iran war
Published Wed, Apr 1 2026 7:46 PM
EDT
Asia-Pacific markets reversed gains
on Thursday as investors assessed U.S.
President Donald Trump’s address to the nation on the Iran war.
During his speech, Trump reiterated
that the U.S. objectives in Iran were almost met and said that “we have all the
cards” in the conflict. He also said that Washington will hit Iran “very hard”
over the next two to three weeks.
Early Wednesday stateside, Trump claimed that
Iran’s “New Regime President” had asked the U.S. for a ceasefire,
a claim that Tehran has denied.
Trump added that the U.S. will
“consider” the offer only once the Strait
of Hormuz was “open, free, and clear,” he said on Truth Social.
Trump previously said he was willing
to end the U.S. military campaign against Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz
remained closed, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.
South Korea’s Kospi dropped 4.25%, leading
Asian losses, and the small-cap Kosdaq was down 4.71%, both the indexes opened
more than 1% higher.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 2.3%
after Trump’s address, while the Topix fell 1.5%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 started the
day in positive territory, but was also down 1.11%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell
1.08% after the speech, while the CSI 300 index on mainland China lost 0.77%.
U.S. stock futures fell, with
S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq-100 futures down over 1%. Dow futures were down
439 points, or 0.94%.
Overnight in the U.S., the S&P 500 advanced 0.72%,
and the Nasdaq Composite gained
1.16%. The Dow Jones
Industrial Average added 0.48%.
Asia-Pacific
markets reverse gains as investors assess Trump's speech on Iran war
Stock futures fall after Trump says
Iran war will continue for weeks: Live updates
Updated Thu, Apr 2 2026 10:09 PM EDT
U.S. stock futures fell on Wednesday
night after President Donald Trump indicated that the Iran war would continue.
S&P 500 futures declined
0.8%, and Nasdaq 100 futures lost
1%. Futures tied to the Dow
Jones Industrial Average slid 352 points, or about 0.8%.
Trump delivered
an address Wednesday night, providing updates on the Middle East
conflict. Though he said that the U.S. is “getting very close” to ending the
Iran war, Trump added that the nation would “hit” Tehran “extremely hard.”
“Over the next two to three weeks,
we’re going to bring them back to the stone ages where they belong,” the
president said.
Stock futures slid during the
speech, and oil prices surged. West
Texas Intermediate crude futures were last up 3.5% at more than $103 a
barrel, while Brent crude
futures advanced more than 4% to top $105. At one point in the
evening, Brent briefly hit $106 a barrel.
All three major indexes advanced in
regular trading Wednesday, as investors became more optimistic that the end of
the U.S.-Iran war was in sight. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite respectively
gained 0.72% and 1.16%. The Dow rose
224.23 points, or 0.48%.
In a Truth Social post on Wednesday morning, Trump said
that Iran’s president had asked the
U.S. for a ceasefire. However, Trump said that the U.S. would only
“consider” the offer once the Straight of Hormuz was “open, free, and clear.”
The announcement came after the
president told reporters at the White House on Tuesday afternoon that he
expects U.S. military forces will leave Iran in
“two or three weeks.”
“We don’t know how long this is
going to last, but as market participants we need to understand the damage that
has already been done,” Sebastien Page, head of global multi-asset and CIO at
T. Rowe Price, said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime”
on Wednesday afternoon. “I don’t think we stabilize quickly back to normal
levels of inflation. It’s a slow-moving macroeconomic chain.”
“You have this background of still a
robust economy, but you have to worry you’re on the knife’s edge for a growth
shock,” Page added.
Thursday marks the last trading day
of the shortened week, as markets are closed for Good Friday. On Thursday
morning traders will watch out for initial jobless claims for the week ending
March 28, while March’s jobs report is set for release on Friday morning.
Stock
market today: Live updates
Oil prices surge with Brent rising
5% as Trump vows to hit Iran ‘extremely hard’ within weeks
Published Wed, Apr 1 2026 9:17 PM
EDT
Oil jumped in volatile trading as
U.S. President Donald Trump warned of further military aggression against Iran
in the next two or three weeks, dampening hopes for an imminent de-escalation
in the conflict.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude
futures for May gained 4.1% to $104.21 a barrel as of 9:45 p.m. ET.
International benchmark Brent crude futures for June rose 5% to $106.42 per
barrel.
Trump in his speech attributed the
increase in oil prices to the “Iranian regime launching deranged terror attacks
against commercial oil tankers and neighboring countries that have nothing to
do with the conflict.”
He said the U.S. will “hit”
Iran “extremely hard” over the next two or three weeks during a
national address on Wednesday, while adding that the war won’t last long and
discussions with Tehran “are ongoing,” leaving a diplomatic resolution on the
table.
“We are going to finish the job, and
we’re going to finish it very fast,” he said.
George Efstathopoulos, portfolio
manager at Fidelity International, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” that
markets had braced for a “binary outcome” where the president may either signal
his plans for a war exit or further escalation and prolonged uncertainty —
“clearly we seem to be on the latter path right now.”
----Traffic in the Strait of
Hormuz, which used to see a fifth of the world’s oil and gas flows through, has
effectively ground to a halt since the U.S.-Israel war against Iran began on
Feb. 28, sending energy prices soaring in one of the world’s most devastating
energy crises.
Oil tanker traffic through the
Strait of Hormuz was unlikely to resume anytime soon, said Giles Alston,
political risk analyst at Oxford Analytica.
“It’s becoming increasingly clear
that the U.S. position on what you do to get your oil out of and through the
Straits of Hormuz is now something which Washington has largely washed its
hands off. This is now something for those who take oil through the Strait to
sort out for themselves,” he said on CNBC on Thursday.
Earlier on Wednesday, Trump said
in a post on Truth Social that Iran had asked for
a ceasefire, briefly raising hopes for more oil tanker movement through the
waterway, sending oil prices lower.
Iran’s “New
Regime President” has asked the U.S. for a ceasefire, a request that
will only be considered if the Strait of Hormuz is “open, free, and clear,”
Trump said. “Until then, we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say,
back to the Stone Ages!!!”
The Islamic Republic, however,
has denied Trump’s claim, saying that the waterway won’t be
reopened based on the U.S. leader’s “absurd displays” and that the key transit
route remains “decisively and dominantly under the control of the IRGC Navy.”
More
Oil
prices surge with Brent rising 5% as Trump vows to hit Iran 'extremely hard'
within weeks
Oil supply crunch will worsen in
April, IEA warns as it weighs releasing more strategic reserves
Published Wed, Apr 1 2026 7:31 AM
EDT
The coming month will see an
intensification of the oil supply glut [? Ed.] that has driven prices sharply
higher since the start of the Iran war, according to the head of the
International Energy Agency.
Speaking to the “In Good Company”
podcast hosted by Nicolai Tangen, CEO of Norges Bank Investment
Management, Birol said the energy crisis sparked by the U.S.-Iran war was the
worst in history.
“The next month, April, will be much
worse than March,” he said. He explained that in March there were already some
cargo ships carrying oil and gas that transited through the Strait of Hormuz
before the war broke out.
“They are still coming to ports,
still bringing oil and energy and other [things],” he said. “In April, there is
nothing. The loss of oil in April will be twice the loss of oil in March. On
top of that you have LNG and others. It will come through to inflation, I think
it will cut economic growth in many countries, especially emerging economies.
In many countries the rationing of energy may be coming soon.”
U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that
American forces would leave Iran “in two or three weeks,” prompting a broad
relief rally across financial markets.
But Birol said the war, currently in
its fifth week, had already created a deeper glut than those seen in previous
crises such as those in the 1970s and following Russia’s full-scale invasion of
Ukraine in 2022.
“When you look at the [1973 and
1979], in both of them we lost each about 5 million barrels per day of oil.
These oil crises led to global recession in many countries,” he told Tangen.
“Today, we lost 12 million barrels per day — more than two of these oil crises
put together.”
He added that the gas supplies being
lost as a result of the conflict and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a
critical shipping route, also exceed the amount lost to the market when Russian
gas flows were disrupted four years ago.
“The current crisis is more than all
these three put together. Plus, in addition to this, there are many vital
commodities — petrochemicals, fertilizers, sulfur — they are very important for
the global supply chains,” he said. “We are heading towards a major, major
disruption, and the biggest in history.”
IEA weighs further reserve release
Birol also said the IEA was mulling
another release of its strategic oil reserves, as the conflict in the Middle
East drags on.
More
Oil supply crunch will worsen in April, IEA warns
In other news, when a win is not a
win.
Trump’s panicked White House seeks end to costly
war
31 March 2026
Five weeks on, the
White House is struggling to find a way out of a conflict that has
inflicted much greater economic pain than it bargained for.
In the days before the bombing of Tehran
began, Donald Trump was buoyant.
Fresh from what aides cast as
extraordinary military success – a daring
raid to capture Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan leader – the president
and his generals were convinced Tehran would buckle in a similar fashion.
The plan was simple: hit hard, hit fast,
and Tehran would have no choice but to submit to Washington’s demands.
But the opposite has happened. Bolstered
by the success of its missile strikes and intimidation of Gulf neighbours, Iran
turned its missiles on the Strait of Hormuz, bringing the
global shipping lane to a standstill. Iran’s stockpile of uranium, the fuel
needed to build a nuclear weapon, remains in the regime’s hands.
At the same time, oil
prices have soared,
major airports fear fuel shortages and the cloud of sustained economic harm
hangs over a president facing a difficult
midterm election and
falling approval ratings.
“They [the administration] underestimated
it, they were shocked by the response from Iran”, a senior Gulf diplomatic
source said.
“The question is: do they care? They don’t
seem to care about the global economic impact, they care about the domestic
impact. If they can control the oil, they can present it as a win to the
American people, like Venezuela,” the source added.
Mr Trump’s options seem limited. Down one
path is a fast-escalating conflict that could put
US troops on the ground and push the world’s economies towards global
recession. The other – an un-Trumplike retreat – could be humiliating.
The Pentagon has drawn up plans for a
weeks-long invasion, including potential
raids on Kharg Island,
Tehran’s main oil export hub, and attacks on coastal sites near the Strait of
Hormuz. The 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, including about 2,200 troops,
arrived in the Middle East over the weekend in preparation.
Another force – the 11th Marine
Expeditionary Unit – is expected to arrive soon. And 3,000 paratroopers from
the 82nd Airborne Division have also been ordered to the region. They are
trained to carry out helicopter assaults behind enemy lines and seize critical
infrastructure.
If operations are launched it will be
expensive monetarily and, in all likelihood, in terms of dead American
servicemen. The high costs of a military battle for the president, who
had campaigned
to end foreign wars,
have given the White House reason to rein in a conflict that has gotten out of
control and could get much worse.
And so, the administration appears to be
adjusting its objectives. Mr Trump is said to have told aides privately that
he’s willing to end the conflict even if the Strait remains largely closed,
likely extending Tehran’s grip on the shipping lane.
Instead, he increasingly wants Britain,
and other Nato allies, to be responsible for reopening the strait.
“All of those countries that can’t get jet
fuel because of the Strait of Hormuz, like the United Kingdom, which refused to
get involved in the decapitation of Iran, I have a suggestion for you,” Mr
Trump wrote
on Truth Social on Tuesday.
“Number 1, buy from the US, we have
plenty, and Number 2, build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just
TAKE IT.”
He added: “You’ll have to start learning
how to fight for yourself, the USA won’t be there to help you any more, just
like you weren’t there for us. Iran has been, essentially, decimated. The hard
part is done. Go get your own oil!”
Amid the anger, a climbdown has been
coming.
On Monday, Karoline Leavitt, the White
House press secretary, omitted reopening the strait as a key priority to ending
the war.
“The full reopening of the strait is
something the administration is working towards, but the core objectives of the
operation have been clearly defined for the American people by the
Commander-in-Chief,” Mrs Leavitt told reporters.
There is just one problem, of course: a
peace deal requires Iran to negotiate. Mr Trump insists the US is having
“serious discussions” with a “new and more reasonable regime in Tehran” in
talks led by Pakistan. Iran, however, insists
no direct talks are happening.
The need for peace is not lost on some of
the president’s most loyal supporters. “Our ‘allies’ depend on the Strait as
their lifeline for energy – yet they neither have the forces nor the will to
step in,” Steve Bannon, the president’s former chief strategist, told The
Telegraph. “The fact that they are not coming in any meaningful way is just
starting to sink in – it’s a terrible betrayal, one not lost on the American
people.”
Regardless, America’s own military is
showing its limitations. Iran has chosen to leverage its ability to create a
costly, long-term war by continuing to disrupt global energy supplies and has
threatened more instability in the Middle East.
“For the Iranians, the longer this war
goes on the better. They can leave the conflict with more demands,” the Gulf
diplomatic source said.
More
Trump’s panicked
White House seeks end to costly war
Global Inflation/Stagflation/Recession
Watch.
Given
our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians.
Middle East war could drive UK food inflation to 9%
this year, trade body warns
1 April 2026
Food inflation could soar
higher than 9% by the end of 2026 as war in the Middle East risks pushing up
the cost of living for British households, a trade body has predicted.
The Food and Drink
Federation (FDF), which represents 12,000 food and drink manufacturers, hiked
its inflation forecast for the year in light of the conflict.
Economists for the trade
body are now predicting that food inflation will reach at least 9% by the end
of the year, up from the 3.2% that it had forecast in September last year.
The shift has been caused
by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz and disruption and damage to
energy infrastructure in the Middle East.
This has sent Brent crude
oil and natural gas prices skyrocketing to their highest level since 2022.
The FDF said the
situation is fast-changing, but its revision to the inflation forecast is based
on the assumption that the Strait of Hormuz opens to cargo traffic within the
next two to three weeks and the majority of key facilities, such as oil, gas and
fertiliser sites, return to normal within a year.
Disruption to oil and gas
markets is having a direct and immediate impact on production costs for UK food
and drink manufacturers, the FDF said.
This is because it is an
industry that requires a lot of energy for the manufacturing process.
Many larger businesses
are able to hedge costs by fixing energy contracts, but they are preparing for
sharp price rises when contracts end, according to the FDF.
Meanwhile, it said
smaller producers tend to buy energy “on the spot” and were already
experiencing higher prices.
"Despite companies’ best efforts not to pass
price increases on, it’s clear that food inflation is going to rise in the
months ahead"
— Dr Liliana Danila,
FDF's chief economist
Dr Liliana Danila, FDF’s
chief economist, said: “The food and drink sector is already feeling the force
of this geopolitical shock.
“As one of the UK’s
energy intensive industries, manufacturers are facing mounting energy bills,
rising transport and packaging costs and disruption across key supply chains.
“These pressures are
hitting simultaneously, and are a significant challenge for businesses to
absorb.”
She added: “The current
situation is unprecedented and hard to predict, however given the scale and
speed of these cost increases, and despite companies’ best efforts not to pass
price increases on, it’s clear that food inflation is going to rise in the months
ahead.”
Sir Keir Starmer is
expected to provide an update on the cost of living on Wednesday amid concerns
over the amount energy bills could rise as a result of the conflict.
Furthermore, Chancellor
Rachel Reeves will meet supermarket bosses and regulators to discuss the impact
on consumers.
Middle East war could drive UK food inflation to 9% this year, trade body
warns
Technology
Update.
With events happening fast in the
development of solar power and graphene, among other things, I’ve added this
section Updates as they get reported.
How Advances
in Battery Technology Are Shaping Key Global Industrial Trends
April 1, 2026
The battery has evolved in recent years
from little more than a supporting innovation for portable electronics and
other niche applications to an essential component across transportation,
energy, digital infrastructure and several other high-value industries. Having
moved to the forefront of how much of the world today generates power,
transports goods and people, and manages energy across industries and
geographies, the battery-technology transformation has profound implications
for industrial trends, the global economy, geopolitics and investment patterns.
Advances in energy-storage technology,
chemistry, manufacturing and systems integration are drastically changing the
cost, performance and range of applicability of today’s batteries, which, in
turn, are reshaping the potential of many industrial sectors. From heavy
transportation and data centres to consumer electronics and defence, battery
technology has become a critical factor in the major gains in industrial
performance that have been widely observed.
Several forces have combined to make
this seismic impact possible—the electrification of transport being perhaps the
most significant. According to estimates, electric vehicle (EV) sales reached
historic levels in 2025, exceeding 20 million new battery-powered vehicles and
accounting for the bulk of global lithium-ion battery demand. Benchmark Mineral
Intelligence, specialising in EV and battery supply-chain research and
insights, reported on January 16 that “2.1 million electric vehicles were sold
globally in December 2025, bringing the end-of-year figure to 20.7 million EV
units sold in the passenger car and light-duty vehicle segment”.
And it’s not just passenger cars that
are enjoying the battery revolution. Logistics fleets, delivery vans, buses and
even heavy trucks—vehicle categories traditionally dominated by diesel and
internal-combustion technologies—are undergoing rapid electrification to such a
degree that Chinese battery industry leader CATL (Contemporary Amperex
Technology Co., Limited) recently predicted that half of new Chinese trucks
could be electric by 2028.
From a climate perspective, moreover,
the strategic importance of battery technology cannot be overstated. The rapid
adoption of intermittent renewable-energy sources, such as wind and solar, and
distributed generation has created a critical need for reliable energy storage
to balance supply and demand. Today, batteries play a central role in managing
variability, stabilising grids and deferring expensive transmission upgrades.
“Batteries are already the beating heart
of our technology-led societies and essential to the devices, such as phones
and computers, that are embedded in modern life. Now, as clean-energy
transitions pick up pace, the role of batteries is expanding significantly, and
so too is our reliance on them,” according to the International Energy Agency’s
(IEA’s) executive director, Fatih Birol, who also recently stressed that
reducing emissions and getting on track to meet international energy and
climate targets will “hinge” on whether the world can scale up batteries
quickly enough.
“More than half the job that we need to
do will rely, at least in some part, on battery deployment,” Birol added. “Our
analysis shows that energy storage more broadly will need to increase sixfold
by 2030 to help meet the goals set at COP28, a target that will be met almost
exclusively by batteries.”
More
How Advances in Battery Technology Are Shaping Key Global Industrial
Trends
Next, the
world global debt clock. Nations debts to GDP compared.
World Debt Clocks
(usdebtclock.org)
“Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to
keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at
least twice as fast as that!”
Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland.
