News roundup, 25 March 2026

- The investigation into the fatal accident at New York's LaGuardia Airport is focusing on the role of ATC, specifically how a controller could have cleared a fire truck to cross an active runway shortly after clearing an airliner to land on it. The fire truck was responding to a previously declared emergency, namely a report of fumes in the cabin of another aircraft; there are reports that the same controller was handling both ground and tower communications. No doubt investigators will be looking at the role of fatigue and understaffing here.

- The Trump regime is warning the EU not to delay passage of a trade deal, lest they lose "favourable access" to liquefied natural gas from the US. Europeans are naturally a bit suspicious of signing such a deal with a regime that keeps threatening to steal territory from one of their member states, of course. One hopes that this spurs Europe to abandon their reluctance to electrify transportation and heating, rather than just kowtow to the Americans, but this remains to be seen.

- The Public Service Alliance of Canada is calling on the federal government to allow its employees to work from home in order to dampen the impact of rising fuel prices resulting from the war in Iran. Several countries are already doing this; whether the obvious benefits will be enough to outweigh concerns in this country about commercial real estate values, the desire of middle managers to micromanage, and the fear of populist fury from people who don't have the option of working from home remains to be seen.

- The Federal Communications Commission has prohibited the import of new routers for home internet use. Existing models are grandfathered in, but any new model to hit the market must be designed and made in the US. This move is being justified on the grounds of security, with fears that foreign-made products might grant hostile governments (such as China) undue access; presumably the grandfathering is necessary because there aren't enough domestic-made routers to satisfy the market.

- A jury in New Mexico has found Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, liable for $375 million in damages for its failure to protect children from sexual predators and warn users about hazards of that sort. The company plans to appeal of course, presumably hoping that they'll get a judge who's friendly to the tech industry.

- Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, who was the technical genius in the early days of the company while Steve Jobs served as the marketing guy, says he seldom uses AI, and generally is disappointed with the results when he does.

- Crispin Blunt, who served as the UK's parliamentary undersecretary of state for prisons and youth justice under David Cameron, has pleaded guilty to possession of several illegal drugs, including methamphetamine (as well as cannabis, as befits someone named Blunt).

Rubin: Expect a new peak for oil next year

They aren't making any more of it, so this should come as no surprise:

What does $80-per-barrel oil say to you?

Three years ago, it would have told you that global oil markets were at record tightness. Back then, the U.S. president was making a personal pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia to vainly plead for more production. And economists were worrying about the implications for global economic growth.

Today, it seems the goalposts have suddenly moved. After filling up on $4-per-gallon gasoline only two Memorial Day weekends ago, today’s $2.20-per-gallon average gasoline price doesn’t seem so expensive to American motorists anymore.

And suddenly, $80-per-barrel oil is no longer seen by the Saudis as threatening global oil demand, but is instead viewed as a minimum price for their nation to invest in new supply. And as far as my fellow economists are concerned, we’ve heard not even a peep from them about what these types of oil prices may mean for the global economy in the days ahead.

But how much longer can the world pretend that it won’t soon be facing another energy shock, one every bit as challenging as the one it faced two years ago?

From the Globe.

Praying at the pump

Where else but in America?

At a Shell petrol station in Washington, Rocky Twyman and an unusual group of activists were mad as hell about soaring fuel prices.

"Last week, this station was $US3.51 ($A3.72). Now it's practically $US3.60 ($A3.82). So it's gone up nine cents in one week," Twyman said as he pumped five dollars worth of petrol into his thirsty American car.

"Someone's making a lot of money and it's really, really wrong," added Twyman, who founded the Prayer at the Pump movement to seek help from a higher power to bring down fuel prices, because the powers in Washington haven't.

The half-dozen activists - Twyman, a former Miss Washington DC, the owner of a small construction company and two volunteers at a local soup kitchen - joined hands, bowed their heads and intoned a heartfelt prayer.

From here.