Ted Moult

@yagirlky_ @FoxNews Operation make the stock markets up. No US warships involved.

@FoxNews Finally. American leadership is back. Neutral ships stuck in Hormuz while the world watches? Not on Trump’s watch. Project Freedom starting Monday ， this is what winning looks like. If you’re mad about this, you’re the problem. Simple as that. 🇺🇸

BREAKING: President Trump said the United States will begin to help free neutral foreign ships locked up in the Strait of Hormuz. He called the operation "Project Freedom" and said it will begin Monday morning.

@humblebee84 @AhronBregman @FoxNews What evidence has there been that Iran were building a nuclear bomb?

@AhronBregman @FoxNews If you think Iran having nuclear capability is silly, then Im glad your opinion is the minority.

@ExtremismIsBad @AhronBregman @FoxNews They weren't building a nuclear bomb

@AhronBregman @FoxNews So you think it’s a better idea that a terrorist state gets a nuclear weapon and starts a nuclear arms race in the Middle East and likely starts World War III? Don’t listen to so much left-wing mainstream news idiot

@John_FKN_Brown @ScottWalker Covid

@ScottWalker Which policies exactly were responsible for gas price increases in 2022?

Gas was more than $5 per gallon when I filled up in Pewaukee near my home on June 10, 2022 when Joe Biden was President. I must have missed your post about his terrible policies driving up gas prices.

@ScottWalker Nothing to do with the pandemic and the Russian war? It was $12 a gallon in the UK. Was Biden responsible for high gas in the UK?

@ChrisO_wiki Impossible. Trump would just need to spread a new lie and prices would crash

1/ This is what $200 per barrel of oil would mean for US gas prices, which currently average $4.30 per gallon. It could go much higher. As one analyst says, once oil stockpiles are functionally exhausted by the end of May, "price increases become exponential rather than linear."

@martinez_j7902 @SpencerHakimian Fantastic news. In the UK people are worried about their holidays and jet fuel. They haven't got a clue about food and fertiliser.

@SpencerHakimian "The American empire is driving the world toward economic ruin." Professor Mohammad Marandi

🚨BREAKING: Gas hits $5.00/Gallon in Texas.

@SpencerHakimian People are happy to pay $5 because they support Trump.

@Barchart Impossible. Its mostly governments who buy stocks

Stock Market could plunge 30% this year warns Legendary Economist Gary Shilling 🚨🤯📉👀

@EchooOfTruth @BRICSinfo About half of what the US is losing then

@BRICSinfo Europe is reportedly losing €500 million per day due to decoupling and energy crises...

JUST IN: Serbian President Vucic says US relations with the European Union have reached a point of no return.

@ObongUsanga @BRICSinfo Donald Trump feels the EU betrayed and turn their back against them when they needed them the most during the fake nuclear bomb war.

@BRICSinfo The US feel EU betrayed and turn their back against them when they needed them the most during the middle east crisis

@BRICSinfo The US is falling out with everyone

@Blade_Ernest @BRICSinfo If the military strategy is to make the West go into a global recession with high inflation and high energy costs its working brilliantly. People are so happy to be paying double for everything

@BRICSinfo Do you think this is actually piracy or just military strategy? Be honest 👇

JUST IN: 🇮🇷🇺🇳 Iran calls on United Nations to condemn US 'piracy' after President Trump said US navy are "like pirates."

@RebelGoy88 @Glenn_Diesen @georgegalloway Theres no oil in China

@Glenn_Diesen @georgegalloway Good. Please i beg you: go to a DIRECT war with China. China has Nukes, Trump can't bomb Chinese kids like it bombed kids of: Iraq Iran Gaza Syria Libya Yemen Somalia Lebanon Afghanistan etc.

The US decided to pick a fight with China, at a time it is already fighting wars against Russia and Iran

@Glenn_Diesen Will the US threaten China the way it threatens every other country if it doesn't get its way?

@RnaudBertrand Fantastic news. This should make oil prices fall

What China just did with the blocking statutes against U.S. extraterritorial sanctions sets quite a major precedent, probably the financial equivalent of what happened with rare earths last year (in the sense that this is China taking a major step to push back against a U.S. hostile measure as opposed to taking it on the chin). It's a little complex but, to start with, what many people ignore (and will probably be surprised by) is that - by and large - Chinese companies and financial institutions have largely complied with extraterritorial U.S. sanctions. Anecdotal story on this: I know for a fact, because I personally know the person, that a very famous guy (whose name I won't reveal but that everyone of you would know) sanctioned by the U.S. was in China recently and tried to exchange money at the counter of a random Chinese bank. Just simply exchange dollars for a Chinese yuan, in mainland China. And he was refused, because he is sanctioned by the U.S. - despite the fact that China as a country has absolutely no problem with the person. This goes to illustrate just how much goodwill China extended to the U.S. on this - a Chinese bank, in China, refusing to serve someone China has no problem with, just to comply with U.S. extraterritorial sanctions. It also goes to illustrate why this blocking order marks such a sharp departure. What triggered it is not new sanctions by the U.S. but recent efforts under the so-called "Operation Economic Fury" to dramatically ramp up enforcement of existing sanctions on Iran. The U.S. notably issued at the end of April alerts to financial institutions worldwide - including in China - on "the sanctions risks associated with independent 'teapot' oil refineries in China, primarily in Shandong Province, given their continued role in importing and refining Iranian crude oil" (home.treasury.gov/news/press-rel…) Even more importantly, they also specifically went after Hengli Petrochemical Dalian (home.treasury.gov/news/press-rel…), one of China's largest private refineries, with 400,000 barrels per day capacity and a parent company (the Hengli Group) that's a Fortune Global 500 company. In effect, what the U.S. extraterritorial sanctions mean is that Hengli - and all other Chinese 'teapot' oil refineries being targeted - is cut off from the dollar system, and any bank, insurer, or trading partner anywhere in the world - including in China - that deals with them risks being cut off too. Which is obviously a major hostile move by the U.S. against China (and, of course, Iran). Except that China, this time around, is not having it. Since 2021 they've had regulations ("Measures to prevent the improper extraterritorial application of foreign laws and measures", mofcom.gov.cn/zcfb/zhzc/art/…) that gives the Chinese government power to formally prohibit compliance with foreign sanctions, and that, since this April (morganlewis.com/pubs/2026/04/c…) are also extraterritorial in nature. In effect what these regulations - and their April addendum - say is that if you comply with U.S. extraterritorial sanctions by cutting off a Chinese company, you are violating Chinese law. Any entity - Chinese or foreign - that refuses to deal with a sanctioned Chinese company because Washington told them to can be sued in Chinese courts, fined by MOFCOM, and since April, placed on a 'Malicious Entity List' with asset freezes and trade restrictions. In a nutshell on one side you have the U.S. saying "cut them off or we cut you off" and now China says "well, if you do cut us off we're going to be real nasty with you, in China and potentially beyond." These regulations were - until yesterday - purely theoretical: they've never actually been applied. But, yesterday, China's MOFCOM made it crystal clear this time is different: they used a statement with a triple negative, saying the U.S. sanctions "shall not be recognized, shall not be enforced, shall not be complied with" ("不得承认、不得执行、不得遵守", mofcom.gov.cn/zwgk/zcfb/art/…). In effect you now have companies that are in the middle of this - for instance financial institutions serving Hengli - caught in quite a bind: face U.S. or Chinese hostility. It's a no-win, they need to choose a camp on this. Concretely speaking, given that the overwhelming majority of companies affected are operating inside China, they'll obviously choose the China side. The real question therefore is: Is the U.S. ready to act on its threat and cut off Chinese banks or other institutions that keep servicing these refineries? Because that probably means sanctioning major Chinese financial institutions, which is a whole different level of escalation. The moment the U.S. designates a major Chinese bank for dealing with Hengli, this stops being about Iranian oil and becomes a direct financial confrontation between the two largest economies on earth, which is a much bigger deal with probable consequences for the entire global financial system. Or will the U.S. back off, meaning China would have effectively caught their bluff, showing that extraterritorial sanctions are a lot of bark but not a lot of bite? We'll know in the next couple of weeks I guess. One thing is sure though: whatever happens with these refineries, the broader damage is done. China used to extend remarkable goodwill on sanctions compliance - voluntarily cooperating with extraterritorial sanctions inside its own borders even though it had no legal obligation to respect them. That goodwill has been spent. And, from a U.S. standpoint, a China with less goodwill vis a vis U.S. financial hegemony is undoubtedly a far bigger issue than a few teapot refineries buying Iranian oil.

@Currentreport1 Good. For a moment, I was thinking the US thinks it can control the whole world

China says it does not recognize US sanctions on Iranian oil purchases and will not comply with them.

@priscabdrO Fantastic news. People are happy paying this price now they aren't threatened with a fake nuclear bomb

REPORTER: "The average price of a gallon of gas is now $4.30 in this country..." PRESIDENT TRUMP: "And you know what? And we're not going to have a nuclear weapon in the hands of Iran." "The gas will go down. As soon as the war is over, it'll drop like a rock. There's so much of it. It's all over the place, sitting all over the oceans of the world."

@MarioNawfal Nope.

🇮🇷🇺🇸Iran's peace proposal would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the U.S. blockade now, with nuclear talks pushed to a later stage. But Trump rejected it, at least for now. That’s because kicking the nuclear question down the road is exactly what got everyone here in the first place. Source: Al Jazeera

@FirstSquawk US Agriculture Department reports food price increases from Iran war, tariffs and drought - World Socialist Web Site share.google/gMkunTy0tbLHPf…

Trump: Iran's food stockpile will run out within 3 months