Trita Parsi has a lifetime of experiences that make his opinion on the Iranian war noteworthy. Born in Iran, he earned a PhD from Johns Hopkins University under Francis Fukuyama. He has worked at the United Nations, served as a congressional aide, and been an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University SAIS. He is also a co-founder and Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. Parsi was a founder of the National Iranian American Council, which has been accused by some critics of advocating positions aligned with the Islamic Republic. In 2007, Parsi wrote Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States, published by Yale University Press. In 2012, Parsi wrote A Single Roll of the Dice: Obama’s Diplomacy with Iran, which was chosen by Foreign Affairs magazine as the best book of 2012 on the Middle East. He appears on American television programs and has given a TED Talk. Parsi resides in the United States with his wife and three children.
Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Getty Images
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Depending on who you ask, AI was the financial growth story of 2025. In the first nine months of 2025, spending related to AI accounted for around 38 percent of real GDP growth across the United States, according to analysis by the St. Louis Fed.
Not every economist agrees with that math, but the Trump administration has evidently seen enough to know where they stand. With AI just about only thing propping up an otherwise crumbling economy, fueling a supposed wave of innovationand helping the Pentagon choose who to bomb next, it stands to reason the feds would want to keep the tech on a short leash.
If recent events are any indication, that leash is only getting tighter. Take, for example, the ongoing spatbetween AI firm Anthropic and the Department of Defense — a struggle that suggests Uncle Sam has stopped asking the tech industry for what it wants, and started taking.
That’s prompted a new round of fears and discussions from AI industry leaders, some of whom aren’t pulling any punches about the looming threat of nationalization.
Palantir CEO Alex Karp, for example, had some pretty harsh criticism for his industry colleagues at OpenAI and ChatGPT: “If Silicon Valley believes we’re going to take everyone’s white collar jobs… and [say] ‘screw the military’… If you don’t think that’s going to lead to the nationalization of our technology — you’re ret***ed,” he mused at the recent a16z summit, underscoring his point with a slur against people with disabilities.
Over the weekend, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman opined that, in the long-term, the threat of nationalization is to be expected. “It has seemed to me for a long time it might be better if building AGI [artificial general intelligence] were a government project,” he said.
“I obviously don’t know,” Altman continued, adding that he has “thought about it of course… it doesn’t seem super likely on the current trajectory.”
On a recent episode of the Hard Fork podcast, hosts Casey Newton and Kevin Roose explored the implications of nationalization and AI industry leaders’ attitudes on the matter.
“Some people who I consider quite serious and credible have been talking about this threat of nationalization for several years now,” Roose said. “So I guess my worry… is that we are living through an early dress rehearsal for what something like nationalization of the AI companies could look and feel like.”
“[Altman] does not want the United States government to come in and nationalize the AI companies, at least not right now,” Newton concurred. “And so maybe if OpenAI could reach some sort of agreement that would provide at least some protections for Americans and other AI companies would sign on to it, that would just release the pressure on the industry overall.”
Russia is emerging as the clearest economic winner from the war with Iran, Axios Markets‘ Emily Peck writes.
Why it matters: Higher oil prices are good for countries that export oil.
You can see it in the data. The price of Russian crude oil has skyrocketed since the war began, surpassing the international oil benchmark this week (charted above) despite heavy Western sanctions.
Other winners includemajor oil exporters insulated from Gulf instability: Norway and Canada in the developed world, and Nigeria and Colombia among emerging markets.
A projectile approaches what the Pentagon described as an Iranian naval vessel near the Strait of Hormuz yesterday. Photo: CENTCOM
Pictured above: The U.S. military destroyed 16 Iranian mine-laying naval vessels yesterday amid concerns that Iran is preparing to deploy mines in the Strait of Hormuz, Axios’ Barak Ravid writes.
A senior U.S. official told Axios the strike on the inactive ships was a preemptive measure resulting from intelligence about Iran’s operational plans.
President Trump threatened Iran in a Truth Social post with “military consequences” at a level “never seen before” if the regime places mines in the Strait.“If, on the other hand, they remove what may have been placed, it will be a giant step in the right direction! Additionally, we are using the same Technology and Missile capabilities deployed against Drug Traffickers to permanently eliminate any boat or ship attempting to mine the Hormuz Strait. They will be dealt with quickly and violently. BEWARE!“Keep reading.
Watch TV, scroll social media or listen to politicians, and the verdict seems clear: Americans are hopelessly divided and increasingly hateful, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a “Behind the Curtain” column.
It’s a ubiquitous, emphatic, verifiable … lie.
Why it matters: Most Americans are too busy for social media, too normal for politics, too rational to tweet. They work, raise kids, coach Little League, go to a house of worship, mow their neighbor’s lawn — and never post a word about any of it.
This isn’t a small minority. It’s a monstrous, if silent, majority. Most Americans are patriotic, hardworking, neighbor-helping, America-loving, money-giving people who don’t pop off on social media or plot for power.
The hidden truth:Most people agree on most things, most of the time. And the data validates this, time and time again.Oh, but you’re so naive, so delusional and detached from reality. Everywhere I look, I see dispute and decline!
But it’s the terminally online news junkies who are detached from the actual reality.
We’ve been manipulated by algorithms and politicians amplifying the worst of humanity. Our feeds and screens spread a twisted, inaccurate view of America.
It makes it seem like the nation is hopelessly broken … Political enemies are evil … Facts are no different than fiction … Morality, honesty and service don’t matter … And salvation can only come from magical technologies or a powerful few.
What if we told you it’s a big lie that makes you stop believing your own two eyes?
Every day, people battle over outrageous things said on X. Did you know that four out of five Americans don’t use X, and therefore don’t see what you see? Pew Research Center found last year that only 21% of U.S. adults use X, and just 10% visit it daily.
But what about the wacky claims made on cable TV? Did you know that during most hours of most prime-time nights, less than 1% of the country watches Fox News, CNN or MS NOW, combined?
Maybe, just maybe, it’s the very people on these platforms who are the crazy ones.
Maybe, just maybe, most people are simply normal, sane, real.
A Gallup World Poll out last week found Americans are more anxious about their political system than citizens of almost any other country — yet the data consistently shows this anxiety is driven by the noise, not the neighbors. The system feels broken. The people are not.
Here’s a good test: In a given year, you see hundreds of people frequently enough to appraise their character. Are they good people? Would they help shovel after a snowstorm or lift groceries for an aging neighbor? Do they volunteer and give to others?
We bet the answer is a resounding yes. This is America’s Super Majority.
The numbers back this up. Americans gave $592.5 billion to charity in 2024 — a record, with individuals accounting for two-thirds of it.
Over 75 million Americans formally volunteer each year, and 130 million informally help their neighbors. Gallup research out last month found that 76% of U.S. adults gave money to a religious or other nonprofit organization in the past year, and 63% volunteered their time.
This isn’t a broken nation. This is a generous one, where the vast majority quietly do the right thing every single day.
The bottom line: The next time your screen tells you America is broken, close it. Walk outside. Talk to your neighbor. Coach the team. Go to the town meeting. That’s the real America — and it’s a hell of a lot better than the one being manufactured for clicks, clout and cash.Want proof this is true for politics? Read Axios Finish Line tonight. Watch our “Behind the Curtain” YouTube on America’s big lie … Share this story.
There is a persistent, if far-fetched, theory that the Ark of the Covenant lies hidden beneath the Hill of Tara in County Meath. This idea originated with the British-Israelite movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a fringe ideology that sought to link the inhabitants of the British Isles to the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.
According to this pseudohistorical narrative, during the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem in the 6th century BCE, a princess named Tea Tephi, daughter of King Zedekiah of Judah, fled to Ireland, bringing the Ark of the Covenant with her.
Legend claims she married King Érimón of Tara, forging an ancestral connection between the Israelites and the Gaelic nobility. This belief drove the British-Israel Association of London, led by Edward Wheeler Bird, to undertake a destructive excavation at Tara between 1899 and 1902. Convinced the Ark lay beneath the Rath of the Synods, they dug with zeal but little regard for historical preservation. The excavation, a collision of religious myth and imperial ideology, provoked fierce backlash from Irish nationalists, who saw it as a desecration of one of their most sacred sites.
Arthur Griffith, editor of the United Irishman and future founder of Sinn Féin, led a campaign against the dig. He, along with W.B. Yeats, Douglas Hyde, and George Moore wrote an outraged letter to The Times of London. Maud Gonne, ever the theatrical patriot, took more direct action, hijacking a bonfire meant to celebrate the coronation of Edward VII and instead setting it alight in honor of Irish independence, singing A Nation Once Again to the fury of the authorities.
But the British-Israelites were searching for more than just a lost relic. Like the Nazi occultists who followed them, they sought to validate their belief that the Anglo-Saxon race was divinely chosen and that Tara was the spiritual capital of the British Empire. Their obsession with what they termed the “Great Irish-Hebraic-cryptogramic hieroglyph,” supposedly proof of an ancient Israelite presence, was met with scepticism by leading archaeologists of the time. R.A.S. Macalister, a Masonic historian and expert on the Ark of the Covenant, later dismissed their theories as “so utterly removed from normal sanity, that piety rather than ridicule should be accorded to those who have been infected with it.”
Despite their fervour, the British-Israelites found no Ark, no Tea Tephi, and no evidence to support their claims. The story of Tea Tephi lacks any historical credibility. No contemporary Irish or biblical sources corroborate her existence. The clash at Tara was more than an eccentric archaeological misadventure; it was a battle between colonial and nationalist narratives, between pseudohistory and emerging scientific archaeology. While the British-Israelites sought to claim Tara for their vision of empire, the Irish Revivalists reclaimed it as a powerful symbol of Gaelic identity. Today, the closest you’ll get to the Ark of the Covenant is an elegant scale model in the magnificent museum at Freemasons’ Hall on Molesworth Street. Buy the Dublin Time Machine a pint and support the DTM Book https://ko-fi.com/buchanandublintimemachine
BREAKING: Japan is preparing to tap its strategic petroleum reserves for the first time since the system was created in 1978. The government has instructed the Shibushi national oil storage base in Kagoshima to prepare for possible crude release. Refiners are lobbying for drawdown. The reserve holds 254 days of national consumption, 146 in government-controlled underground tanks. One of the largest strategic buffers on Earth, built specifically for this scenario.
The scenario Japan spent 53 years preparing for has arrived. And it was not triggered by an embargo, a blockade, or a war at sea. It was triggered by seven insurance letters. Japan imports over 90% of its crude from the Middle East. Seventy percent transits the Strait of Hormuz. When seven P&I clubs cancelled war-risk extensions on 5 March under Solvency II capital rules, they severed the financial verification layer that permits Japanese refineries to legally accept delivery. Without P&I coverage, letters of credit fail. Customs clearance stalls. The physical barrel floats in a tanker. The legal barrel does not exist.
The Nikkei fell 6.54% today. KOSPI fell 7.62%. Brent above $108. The largest weekly oil gain since 1983. And the world’s third-largest economy is opening storage tanks it has never opened before.
Japan created the reserve because the 1973 Arab oil embargo nearly broke the economy. A nation with zero domestic production and total Gulf dependence was held hostage by a political decision in Riyadh. The trauma was existential. Tokyo built underground caverns at Tomakomai, Mutsu-Ogawara, Shibushi, and Kushikino. Mandated private stockpiling.Maintained reserves above 200 days for half a century. In 48 years, Japan has never fully tapped the national reserve.
Not during the 1991 Gulf War. Not during Fukushima. Not during the 2022 Ukraine invasion when it released 7.5 million barrels from private stocks in an IEA-coordinated action. The government reserve has never been touched. Until now.
The US SPR holds 370 million barrels in Gulf Coast salt caverns, released multiple times including 180 million barrels during the 2022 Ukraine crisis.
Japan’s system is different. Smaller in absolute volume but larger in days of coverage. More conservative. Designed not for price stabilisation but for existential survival. When Japan opens Shibushi, it is not managing a market. It is activating a system built for civilisational emergency. And the emergency was not caused by OPEC.Not by a tanker war. Not by a naval blockade.
It was caused by the Solvency II capital adequacy requirements of European reinsurance syndicates forcing seven mutual insurance clubs to withdraw coverage from the Persian Gulf.
The 1973 embargo taught Japan that political decisions in distant capitals could starve an island nation of energy.
The 2026 crisis is teaching something worse: regulatory capital rules in London can do the same thing faster, with no political actor to negotiate with and no timeline for resolution that military force can compress. The reserves exist because of 1973. They are being activated because of Solvency II. That is the entire history of energy security in two sentences. Full analysis in the link!https://open.substack.com/pub/shanakaanslemperera/p/actuarial-warfare-how-seven-insurance?r=6p7b5o&utm_medium=ios
Russia wins economic war
Data: 
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