🇨🇳 🤝 🇹🇼 Chinese President Xi meets Taiwan opposition leader Cheng Li-wun in China:

At the historic meeting on Friday, China's President Xi Jinping said he had 'full confidence' that China and Taiwan would be united

📎 Insider Paper

🇹🇼 🤝 🇨🇳 Taiwan opposition leader Cheng Li-wun to Chinese President Xi in Beijing:

Today... I deeply feel the concerned gaze of the entire world.

Kuomintang and the Communist Party to jointly promote the institutionalization of cross-strait peace.

Based on the common political foundation of adhering to the 1992 Consensus and opposing Taiwan independence, the two sides should further plan and construct institutional and sustainable dialogue and cooperation mechanisms.

To make the peaceful development of the two sides irreversible, and to fundamentally eliminate all root causes of conflict.

📎 Clash Report

—❗️🇺🇸/🇮🇷/🇵🇰 BREAKING: Iran’s Parliament Speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, who is expected to lead the Iranian delegation in Islamabad, says there must first be a ceasefire in Lebanon AND the release of Iranian blocked assets before negotiations begin

@Middle_East_Spectator

✈️ 🇪🇺 🇮🇷 European airports face jet fuel shortages within three weeks

European airlines say they should have enough fuel for several weeks, but suppliers are unable to guarantee deliveries into May

Some Asian countries such as Vietnam have begun rationing jet fuel because of shortages, but Europe has so far not had widespread shortages, though fuel prices have doubled and airlines have warned about cancellations.

Despite US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a two-week ceasefire in the Iran war, global oil prices have remained high.

“A supply crunch would severely disrupt airport operations and air connectivity, with the risk of harsh economic impacts for the communities affected and for Europe in case of a systemic shortage of jet fuel.”

📎 Financial Times

— 🇺🇸/🇮🇱/🇮🇷 NEW: Iran has rebuilt Yahyabad railway bridge in Kashan, after it was bombed by Israel on April 7th, just three days ago

Reconstruction efforts around the country, especially of vital infrastructure, are progressing at a rapid pace.

@Middle_East_Spectator

—❗️🇮🇱/🇵🇸 NEW: The Board of Peace’s deadline for the disarmament of Hamas ends today

If Hamas does not agree to disarmament, Israel will resume the war in Gaza to ‘completely and utterly destroy’ Hamas.

@Middle_East_Spectator

—❗️🇺🇸/🇮🇷 Iran’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araqchi: ‘It’s very simple; America must abide by its commitments, or we’re done.’

@Middle_East_Spectator

📢 🇺🇸 🇮🇷 Trump says the results of talks with Iran will be clear "in about 24 hours. We’re going to know soon."
Trump added, "We have a reset going. We’re loading up the ships with the best ammunition... even at a higher level than we use to do a complete decimation." — NYP

📎 Disclosetv

🛢 🇯🇵 🇮🇷 Japan to Release More State Oil Reserves

Japan will start releasing additional state oil reserves equivalent to about 20 days of domestic consumption as early as the beginning of May, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Friday.

"We will ensure stable crude oil supplies," Takaichi said at a meeting of relevant cabinet ministers to discuss how to cope with the fallout from the ongoing Middle Eastern crisis.

The decision comes as it remains uncertain whether oil tankers can safely pass through the Strait of Hormuz even after the United States and Iran agreed on a ceasefire.

Since March 16, the Japanese government has released in step 15 days' worth of oil from private reserves, 30 days' worth from national reserves and roughly six days' worth from oil producer countries' joint reserves. The country had 228 days' worth of oil reserves in total as of Tuesday, down 13 days' worth from the start of the release.

https://www.nippon.com/en/news/yjj2026041000284/

🏭 🇨🇳 🌏 Eric Yeung: I was speaking with one of my mainland China factory contacts today.

Apparently, a number of factories that relocated to Southeast Asia in recent years are now rapidly moving large parts of their production back to China. The main reason is that China has the energy capacity to keep factories running, whereas Southeast Asia is struggling with power shortages and skyrocketing energy costs.

This is happening especially among factories that maintained some production in China or still have good contacts there who can take on the manufacturing.

📎 Eric Yeung

🇺🇸 🌏 🇨🇳 "The U.S. Is Pushing Southeast Asia Toward China. The Iran War Made It Worse." by Joshua Kurlantzick

https://www.cfr.org/experts/joshua-kurlantzick

📎 Geoff Wade

🇮🇱🇧🇪⚡️- Israel has been using at least one civilian cargo airline to move military equipment across the world.

Belgian media RTL revealed today that Belgian authorities uncovered military equipment from the United Kingdom that was supposed to be loaded as the cargo of a Challenge Airlines aircraft in Liège's airport in late March. Belgium had banned the transit of military equipment destined to Israel several weeks prior to this discovery.

Challenge Airlines is an Israeli civilian company specialized in non-standard air cargo but has never mentioned military equipment on their website nor on their registered cargo. This airline has been operating numerous flights between Tel-Aviv, the U.S. and Belgium for months.

📢 🇺🇸 🇮🇷 President Trump tells Iran that they "have no cards" other than the Strait of Hormuz.

📎 KobeissiLetter

🌾 🇺🇸 🏜 With wheat barely a foot tall, the flag leaf is already emerging—a sign the crop is rushing to reproduce under stress, leaving too little structure to support a harvest. Less than 10% may be harvested in West Texas.

https://www.agweb.com/news/crops/wheat/harvest-hopes-fade-winter-wheat-withers-west-texas-fields

📎 AgWeb Editors

⛰️ 🇺🇸 🏞 Colorado’s worst snowpack year on record

The latest forecasts for Colorado River water supply are strikingly poor, and the impacts of a dry winter on the region are starting to come into sharp, upsetting focus.

Wide swaths of the Rocky Mountains saw meager snowfall, setting the region on course for the driest conditions in recorded history.

That shortage could threaten major reservoirs, dams and the water supply for central Arizona. About 85% of the Colorado River starts as mountain snow, largely in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.

“The notion that a wet April, May, June, might save us is quickly leaving the building,” said Nels Bjarke, a research scientist with the Western Water Assessment. “There is a possibility that we could experience the driest or historical low flows on record.”

Dave DuBois, the New Mexico state climatologist, said those dry conditions would have widespread consequences such as enhanced wildfire risk. He said ranchers may be forced to cut their herds because of limited ability to grow cattle feed.

https://www.kjzz.org/science/2026-04-07/dismal-depressing-and-seriously-dry-low-snow-threatens-colorado-river-water-supply

⛰️ 🇺🇸 🏞 A century ago when the Colorado River Compact was agreed upon, the Colorado River Basin had a population of about 200,000. Today that figure is 40,000,000. But do go on blaming climate change: “Water conservation works, but climate change is outpacing it: Phoenix, Denver and Las Vegas offer a glimpse of the future.”

Water conservation the like of what we have never seen is not a 'nice to have', it is inevitable.

https://theconversation.com/water-conservation-works-but-climate-change-is-outpacing-it-phoenix-denver-and-las-vegas-offer-a-glimpse-of-the-future-279837

📎 Wrath of Gnon