🔋 🇨🇳 🚢 The world's biggest battery maker across EVs, energy storage and AI data centres, is now electrifying ships. CATL batteries have been deployed in 900 ships, mostly smaller craft which operate close to the Chinese coastline, ports and river systems.

The Chinese group, which controls 37 per cent of the market for EV batteries and 22 per cent for energy storage systems in power grids and data centres, has deployed batteries on about 900 ships, mostly smaller craft operating close to the Chinese coastline, at ports or in rivers.

Electrifying parts of the maritime sector is central to Beijing’s broader goals of decarbonisation and reducing reliance on foreign resources. The International Maritime Organization aims to halve global shipping emissions, which account for 3 per cent of total carbon emissions, by 2050.

Batteries, which are best suited to nearshore operations, are among a suite of alternatives to highly polluting heavy-fuel oil. Chinese companies are also exploring commercialisation of clean fuels such as green methanol, ammonia and hydrogen.

The hunt for alternatives has gained greater urgency after the world’s energy supply chains were rocked by US-Israeli attacks on Iran and the subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital transport route for oil and gas from the Middle East.

Battery prices have declined sharply over the past two decades, with lithium-ion costs falling 90 per cent since 2010. Cheaper batteries have been fundamental to the boom in EVs.

📎 Financial Times

📢 🇨🇦 ♀️ 'We have to get ready for large-scale conflicts,' says Canada's military chief

As well as being the first woman to lead Canada's armed forces, General Jennie Carignan is also in command as her country pushes to rearm on a scale not seen since the Cold War.

This includes expanding the full-time military, bolstering the number of reservists and attempting to get up to 300,000 civilians to join a "strategic reserve" - a pool of people with some form of training that could be called upon in the event of a major crisis.

"The world has changed," General Carignan told Sky News. "We have to get ready for large-scale conflicts, more conventional, so we need a different military to do that and different capability."

A need to protect vital interests is one reason why Mark Carney's Canadian government is exploring the possibility of joining a multinational force of like-minded nations led by the UK, with a focus on this region as well as the Baltic Sea and North Atlantic.

"I think I'm here today because Canada decided to remove systemic barriers in our military 40 years ago," she said, when asked how she broke through that glass ceiling.

As for the main challenges that she faced along the way, the military chief said: "Perceptions. Perceptions that women are weak, perceptions that you can't be in a combat role and be a mother at the same time.

"I'm sure there will be [more female military chiefs] because it's totally possible and NATO allies are removing systemic barriers as well, and it's only a question of time."

https://news.sky.com/story/we-have-to-get-ready-for-large-scale-conflicts-says-canadas-military-chief-13530556

—❗️🇺🇸/🇮🇷 President Trump:

‘I could take out Iran in one day. One hour.’

@Middle_East_Spectator

🇺🇸 🇨🇳 🇻🇪 Trump: "As far as China's concerned, China can send their ships to us, China can send their ships to Venezuela... we have a lot of overcapacity, and we'll probably sell [oil] for even less money."

📎 Rapid Response 47

🇸🇦 🇶🇦 🇦🇪 Gulf Allies Turn Away From U.S. for Fresh Ammo

Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the U.A.E., some of America’s best customers for weapons systems, now are looking to South Korea, the U.K. and Ukraine to restock defenses against Iranian drones

📎 The Wall Street Journal

🇺🇸 🇮🇷 🇯🇵 The U.S. military has used around 850 Tomahawk missiles in operations against Iran, significantly reducing stockpiles, with replenishment expected to take at least three years. This has begun to affect allied supply, including Japan’s order for around 400 missiles.

Originally scheduled for delivery by March 2028, Washington has informed Tokyo that the timeline will likely be delayed as the U.S. prioritizes rebuilding its own inventory.

https://www.19fortyfive.com/2026/04/the-u-s-fired-850-tomahawk-missiles-at-iran-it-takes-3-years-to-replace-them-japans-order-just-got-delayed-china-is-watching/

📎 Arin Yuni

🇭🇺⚡️- For the first time in 16 years Hungary will have a new Prime Minister as Victor Orban and his party have been kicked out of power.

Orban's party had been one of the only pro-Israel/pro-Russia forces in mainstream European politics. They have now been replaced by the newly formed Tisza party running on a platform of anti immigration, anti corruption, pro EU conservatism.

The Tisza party is teetering on the edge of achieving a supermajority which will allow them to undo all of Orban's reforms.

🗳 🇨🇱 🇺🇸 Republicans Could Lose Control of Texas for First Time in 30 Years

For three decades, Texas has been the Republican Party's fortress, with no Democrat winning statewide since 1994. President Donald Trump carried the state by 14 points in the last presidential election, and the GOP holds overwhelming fundraising advantages and gerrymandered maps that should render the Lone Star State untouchable.

Yet on April 8, Dan Patrick, the fiercely pro-Trump lieutenant governor, delivered a warning that reframed everything at the Texas Public Policy Foundation conference. "We're going to have a tough time holding the Texas House," he said, urging the warring Republican Senate factions to "get over it and come together as one," explicitly linking the Senate runoff's destructiveness to down-ballot vulnerability.

The indicators are stacked. Democratic primary turnout surpassed Republican turnout for the first time since 2002. A special election in deep-red Tarrant County in January produced a 31-point swing toward Democrats. Trump's approval among Texas voters has plunged 20 net points since February 2025. Latino voters who broke historic records for Republicans just 16 months ago are abandoning the party in measurable numbers.

The single most significant data point came on January 31, when Democrat Taylor Rehmet won a special election for a state Senate district in Tarrant County by 57 percent to 43 percent. Trump carried the district by 17 points in 2024. The swing toward Democrats was roughly 31 points.

Rehmet is a 33-year-old Air Force veteran and machinist union president. He was outspent approximately 12-to-1. Trump personally endorsed his opponent. Yet he won an estimated 80 percent of Hispanic voters and nearly 30 percent of voters who had previously participated in Republican primaries.

Texas is now a majority-minority state. Hispanics are the largest ethnic group at 40.2 percent, surpassing non-Hispanic whites at 39.8 percent. Growth is concentrated in the Texas Triangle: Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and Austin-San Antonio. Suburban counties cast 47 percent more ballots in 2024 than in 2016.

Latino support was instrumental for Trump's win in Texas, where he won an estimated 55 percent of Texas Latino voters in 2024. But the Latino vote has undergone a dramatic reversal in just 16 months. A University of Houston poll from September 2025 found only 41 percent of Trump's 2024 Latino voters would support him again.

Yet the current environment matters. Patton noted Republican enthusiasm has softened, adding, "The current political environment, marked by the start of a new war, is generating real frustration among some reliable MAGA and GOP voters. This softening could matter at the margins."

https://www.newsweek.com/republicans-may-lose-control-of-their-biggest-stronghold-11814048

—❗️🇺🇸/🇮🇷 BREAKING: U.S. Central Command announces that the naval blockade against Iran will start tomorrow at 10 AM Eastern Time

Notably, Central Command clarifies that it is a total naval blockade against ALL Iranian ports, not just the Strait of Hormuz.

It also clarified that vessels originating from / going to non-Iranian ports will not be affected.

@Middle_East_Spectator