04-04 00:02 · AI,技术,HackerNews,AI
Run Linux containers on Android, no root required
Run Linux containers on Android — no root required.
Podroid spins up a lightweight Alpine Linux VM on your phone using QEMU and gives you a fully working Podman container runtime with a built-in serial terminal.
- arm64 Android device
- Android 14+ (API 34)
- ~150 MB free storage
- Install the APK from Releases
- Open Podroid and tap Start Podman
- Wait for boot (~20 s) — progress is shown on screen and in the notification
- Tap Open Terminal
- Run containers:
podman run --rm alpine echo hello
podman run --rm -it alpine sh
podman run -d -p 8080:80 nginx
The terminal is powered by Termux's TerminalView
with full VT100/xterm emulation wired directly to the VM's serial console.
Extra keys bar (scrollable):
ESC
TAB
SYNC
CTRL
ALT
arrows
HOME
END
PGUP
PGDN
F1–F12
-
/
|
- CTRL / ALT are sticky toggles — tap once, then press a letter
- SYNC manually pushes the terminal dimensions to the VM
- Terminal size auto-syncs on keyboard open/close so TUI apps (vim, btop, htop) render correctly
- Bell character triggers haptic feedback
Forward ports from the VM to your Android device:
- Go to Settings
- Add a rule (e.g. TCP 8080 -> 80)
- Access the service at
localhost:8080
on your phone
Rules persist across restarts and can be added or removed while the VM is running.
Android App
├── Foreground Service (keeps VM alive)
├── PodroidQemu
│ ├── libqemu-system-aarch64.so (QEMU TCG, no KVM)
│ ├── Serial stdio ←→ TerminalEmulator
│ └── QMP socket (port forwarding, VM control)
└── Alpine Linux VM
├── initramfs (read-only base layer)
├── ext4 disk (persistent overlay)
├── getty on ttyAMA0 (job control)
└── Podman + crun + netavark + slirp4netns
Boot sequence: QEMU loads vmlinuz-virt
+ initrd.img
. A two-phase init (init-podroid
) mounts a persistent ext4 disk as an overlayfs upper layer over the initramfs. Packages you install and containers you pull are written to the overlay and survive reboots.
Terminal wiring: The app cannot fork host processes, so TerminalSession
is wired to QEMU's serial I/O via reflection — keyboard input goes to QEMU stdin, QEMU stdout feeds the terminal emulator. Terminal dimensions are synced to the VM via stty
so TUI apps see the correct size.
Networking: QEMU user-mode networking (SLIRP) puts the VM at 10.0.2.15
. Port forwarding uses QEMU's hostfwd
, managed at startup via CLI args and at runtime via QMP.
Requires Docker with multi-arch support:
./docker-build-initramfs.sh
./gradlew assembleDebug
adb install -r app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk
Dockerfile # Multi-stage initramfs builder (Alpine aarch64)
docker-build-initramfs.sh # One-command build script
init-podroid # Custom /init for the VM
app/src/main/
├── java/com/excp/podroid/
│ ├── engine/ # QEMU lifecycle, QMP client, VM state machine
│ ├── service/ # Foreground service with boot-stage notifications
│ ├── data/repository/ # Settings + port forward persistence
│ └── ui/screens/ # Home, Terminal, Settings (Jetpack Compose)
├── jniLibs/arm64-v8a/ # Pre-built QEMU + libslirp
└── assets/ # Kernel + initramfs (generated)
- QEMU — machine emulation
- Alpine Linux — VM base
- Podman — container runtime
- Termux — terminal emulator libraries
- Limbo PC Emulator — pioneered QEMU on Android
GNU General Public License v2.0
▸ 展开全文
04-04 00:02 · AI,技术,HackerNews,AI
Iran strikes leave Amazon availability zones "hard down" in Bahrain and Dubai
Iran Strikes Leave Amazon Availability Zones “Hard Down” in Bahrain and Dubai, Per Internal AWS Communication
Amazon tells its employees to deprioritize these regions as the Iran war deals meaningful damage to its infrastructure in the Gulf.
Iranian strikes have rendered two Amazon Web Services availability zones “hard down” in Dubai and Bahrain and the company expects them to be “unavailable for an extended period,” according to internal Amazon communication reviewed by Big Technology.
Within Amazon Web Services, the strikes have rendered so much damage that employees have been advised to deprioritize both regions.
“These two regions continue to be impaired, and services should not expect to be operating with normal levels of redundancy and resiliency,” an internal memo read. “We are actively working to free and reserve as much capacity as possible in the region for customers, and services should be scaled to the minimal footprint required to support customer migration.”
Reached for comment, an Amazon spokesperson pointed Big Technology to an Amazon blog post about the disruptions. “We continue to support affected customers, helping them to migrate to alternate AWS Regions, with a large number already successfully operating their applications from other parts of the world,” the post read. “As this situation evolves, and as we have advised before, we request those with workloads in the affected regions continue to migrate to other locations.”
With the war now nearing its sixth week, Iran has made Amazon infrastructure in the Gulf an economic target and is now eyeing its peers. Amazon’s Bahrain facilities have been hit multiple times, including a Wednesday strike that caused a fire. And its facilities in the UAE also sustained multiple hits. The IRGC is threatening multiple other U.S. tech giants, including Microsoft, Google, and Apple.
Amazons infrastructure in Bahrain and Dubai each have three ‘availability zones’ or clusters of compute. Both Bahrain and Dubai have a zones that are “hard down” and and “impaired but functioning.” per the internal communication.
“We do not have a timeline for when DXB and BAH will return to normal operations,” the internal post said.
This week on Big Technology Podcast: OpenAI President Greg Brockman: AI Self-Improvement, The Superapp Bet, Path To AGI, Scaling Compute
Greg Brockman is the President and co-founder of OpenAI. Brockman joins Big Technology to discuss OpenAI’s product strategy, the rise of its coming super app, and why he believes AI is entering a new takeoff phase. Tune in to hear Brockman explain OpenAI’s bet on the GPT reasoning model tree over video generation, what the “Spud” pre-training run means for upcoming models, and why he believes AGI is 70-80% achieved. We also cover the competitive landscape, the economics behind OpenAI’s $110 billion infrastructure bet, and public skepticism toward AI. Hit play for one of the most revealing conversations yet about where AI is headed and what it means for everyone.
You can listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your podcast app of choice
Thanks again for reading. Please share Big Technology if you like it!
My book Always Day One digs into the tech giants’ inner workings, focusing on automation and culture. I’d be thrilled if you’d give it a read. You can find it here.
Join Big Technology’s Private Discord Server!
Where we’ll talk about this story, the latest in AI, the week’s podcast, and plenty more. You can sign up via the link below:
▸ 展开全文
04-04 00:02 · AI,技术,HackerNews,AI
How to Write Unmaintainable Code (1999)
How To Write Unmaintainable Code
Last updated Thursday, 18-Nov-1999 20:27:28 PDT by Roedy
Green ©1997-1999 Canadian Mind Products.
This essay is also available in Spanish.
In the interests of creating employment opportunities in the Java programming
field, I am passing on these tips from the masters on how to write code
that is so difficult to maintain, that the people who come after you will
take years to make even the simplest changes. Further, if you follow all
these rules religiously, you will even guarantee yourself a lifetime
of employment, since no one but you has a hope in hell of maintaining the
code.
General Principles
To foil the maintenance programmer, you have to understand how he thinks.
He has your giant program. He has no time to read it all, much less understand
it. He wants to rapidly find the place to make his change, make it and
get out and have no unexpected side effects from the change.
He views your code through a tube taken from the centre of a roll of
toilet paper. He can only see a tiny piece of your program at a time. You
want to make sure he can never get the big picture from doing that. You
want to make it as hard as possible for him to find the code he is looking
for. But even more important, you want to make it as awkward as possible
for him to safely ignore anything.
Specific Techniques
-
Lie in the comments. You don't have to actively lie, just fail to keep
comments as up to date with the code.
-
Pepper the code with comments like /* add 1 to i */ however, never
document wooly stuff like the overall purpose of the package or method.
-
Make sure that every method does a little bit more (or less) than its name
suggests. As a simple example, a method named
isValid(x) should
as a side effect convert x to binary and store the result in a database.
-
Use acronyms to keep the code terse. Real men never define acronyms; they
understand them genetically.
-
In the interests of efficiency, avoid encapsulation. Callers of a method
need all the external clues they can get to remind them how the method
works inside.
-
If, for example, you were writing an airline reservation system, make sure
there are at least 25 places in the code that need to be modified if you
were to add another airline. Never document where they are. People who
come after you have no business modifying your code without thoroughly
understanding every line of it.
-
In the name of efficiency, use cut/paste/clone/modify. This works much
faster than using many small reusable modules.
-
Never never put a comment on a variable. Facts about how the variable
is used, its bounds, its legal values, its implied/displayed number of
decimal points, its units of measure, its display format, its data entry
rules (e.g. total fill, must enter), when its value can be trusted etc.
should be gleaned from the procedural code. If your boss forces you to
write comments, lard method bodies with them, but never comment a variable,
not even a temporary!
-
Try to pack as much as possible into a single line. This saves the overhead
of temporary variables, and makes source files shorter by eliminating new
line characters and white space. Tip: remove all white space around operators.
Good programmers can often hit the 255 character line length limit imposed
by some editors. The bonus of long lines is that programmers who cannot
read 6 point type must scroll to view them.
-
Cd wrttn wtht vwls s mch trsr. When using abbreviations inside variable
or method names, break the boredom with several variants for the same word,
and even spell it out longhand once in while. This helps defeat those lazy
bums who use text search to understand only some aspect of your program.
Consider variant spellings as a variant on the ploy, e.g. mixing International
colour,
with American color and dude-speak
kulerz. If you spell out
names in full, there is only one possible way to spell each name. These
are too easy for the maintenance programmer to remember. Because there
are so many different ways to abbreviate a word, with abbreviations, you
can have several different variables that all have the same apparent purpose.
As an added bonus, the maintenance programmer might not even notice they
are separate variables.
-
Never use an automated source code tidier to keep your code aligned. Lobby
to have them banned them from your company on the grounds they create false
deltas in PVCS (version control tracking) or that every programmer should
have his own indenting style held forever sacrosanct for any module he
wrote. Banning them is quite easy, even though they save the millions of
keystrokes doing manual alignment and days wasted misinterpreting poorly
aligned code. Just insist that everyone use the
same tidied format,
not just for storing in the common repository, but while they are editing.
This starts an RWAR and the boss, to keep the peace, will ban automated
tidying. Without automated tidying, you are now free to accidentally
misalign the code to give the optical illu
▸ 展开全文
04-04 00:02 · AI,技术,HackerNews,AI
We replaced RAG with a virtual filesystem for our AI documentation assistant
Dens Sumesh
Engineering
Share this article
RAG is great, until it isn't.
Our assistant could only retrieve chunks of text that matched a query. If the answer lived across multiple pages, or the user needed exact syntax that didn't land in a top-K result, it was stuck. We wanted it to explore docs the way you'd explore a codebase.
Agents are converging on filesystems as their primary interface because grep
, cat
, ls
, and find
are all an agent needs. If each doc page is a file and each section is a directory, the agent can search for exact strings, read full pages, and traverse the structure on its own. We just needed a filesystem that mirrored the live docs site.
The obvious way to do this is to just give the agent a real filesystem. Most harnesses solve this by spinning up an isolated sandbox and cloning the repo. We already use sandboxes for asynchronous background agents where latency is an afterthought, but for a frontend assistant where a user is staring at a loading spinner, the approach falls apart. Our p90 session creation time (including GitHub clone and other setup) was ~46 seconds.
Beyond latency, dedicated micro-VMs for reading static documentation introduced a serious infrastructure bill:
At 850,000 conversations a month, even a minimal setup (1 vCPU, 2 GiB RAM, 5-minute session lifetime) would put us north of $70,000 a year based on Daytona's per-second sandbox pricing ($0.0504/h per vCPU, $0.0162/h per GiB RAM). Longer session times double that. (This is based on a purely naive approach, a true production workflow would probably have warm pools and container sharing, but the point still stands)
We needed the filesystem workflow to be instant and cheap, which meant rethinking the filesystem itself.
The agent doesn't need a real filesystem; it just needs the illusion of one. Our documentation was already indexed, chunked, and stored in a Chroma database to power our search, so we built ChromaFs: a virtual filesystem that intercepts UNIX commands and translates them into queries against that same database. Session creation dropped from ~46 seconds to ~100 milliseconds, and since ChromaFs reuses infrastructure we already pay for, the marginal per-conversation compute cost is zero.
ChromaFs is built on just-bash by Vercel Labs (shoutout Malte!), a TypeScript reimplementation of bash that supports grep
, cat
, ls
, find
, and cd
. just-bash exposes a pluggable IFileSystem
interface, so it handles all the parsing, piping, and flag logic while ChromaFs translates every underlying filesystem call into a Chroma query.
ChromaFs needs to know what files exist before the agent runs a single command. We store the entire file tree as a gzipped JSON document (__path_tree__
) inside the Chroma collection:
{
"auth/oauth": { "isPublic": true, "groups": [] },
"auth/api-keys": { "isPublic": true, "groups": [] },
"internal/billing": { "isPublic": false, "groups": ["admin", "billing"] },
"api-reference/endpoints/users": { "isPublic": true, "groups": [] }
}
On init, the server fetches and decompresses this document into two in-memory structures: a Set<string>
of file paths and a Map<string, string[]>
mapping directories to children.
Once built, ls
, cd
, and find
resolve in local memory with no network calls. The tree is cached, so subsequent sessions for the same site skip the Chroma fetch entirely.
Notice the isPublic
and groups
fields in the path tree. Before building the file tree, ChromaFs prunes slugs using the current user's session token and applies a matching filter to all subsequent Chroma queries. If a user lacks access to a file, that file is excluded from the tree entirely, so the agent can't access or even reference a path that was pruned.
In a real sandbox, this level of per-user access control would require managing Linux user groups, chmod
permissions, or maintaining isolated container images per customer tier. In ChromaFs it's a few lines of filtering before buildFileTree
runs.
Pages in Chroma are split into chunks for embedding, so when the agent runs cat /auth/oauth.mdx
, ChromaFs fetches all chunks with a matching page
slug, sorts by chunk_index
, and joins them into the full page. Results are cached so repeated reads during grep workflows never hit the database twice.
Not every file needs to exist in Chroma. We register lazy file pointers that resolve on access for large OpenAPI specs stored in customers' S3 buckets. The agent sees v2.json
in ls /api-specs/
, but the content only fetches when it runs cat
.
Every write operation throws an EROFS
(Read-Only File System) error. The agent explores freely but can never mutate documentation, which makes the system stateless with no session cleanup and no risk of one agent corrupting another's view.
cat
and ls
are straightforward to virtualize, but grep -r
would be far too slow if it naively scanned every file over the network. We intercept just-bash
’s grep
, parse the flags with yargs-parser
, and translate them into a Chroma query ($contains
for fi
▸ 展开全文
04-04 00:02 · AI,技术,HackerNews,大模型,AI
Tell HN: Anthropic no longer allowing Claude Code subscriptions to use OpenClaw
Received the following email from Anthropic:
Hi,
Starting April 4 at 12pm PT / 8pm BST, you’ll no longer be able to use your Claude subscription limits for third-party harnesses including OpenClaw. You can still use them with your Claude account, but they will require extra usage, a pay-as-you-go option billed separately from your subscription.
Your subscription still covers all Claude products, including Claude Code and Claude Cowork. To keep using third-party harnesses with your Claude login, turn on extra usage for your account. This will be enforced April 4 starting with OpenClaw, but this policy applies to all third-party harnesses and will be rolled out to more shortly (read more).
To make the transition easier, we’re offering a one-time credit for extra usage equal to your monthly subscription price. Redeem your credit by April 17. We’re also introducing discounts when you pre-purchase bundles of extra usage (up to 30%).
We’ve been working to manage demand across the board, but these tools put an outsized strain on our systems. Capacity is a resource we manage carefully and we need to prioritize our customers using our core products. You will receive another email from us tomorrow where you’ll have the ability to refund your subscription if you prefer.
▸ 展开全文
04-04 00:02 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
Judge Boasberg says Trump administration’s arguments ‘do not come close to convincing Court’ of subpoenas’ legitimacy.
A United States federal judge has once again batted down a pair of subpoenas from the administration of President Donald Trump seeking information about Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, the country’s central bank.
In a brief, six-page opinion published on Friday, Judge James Boasberg rejected the Department of Justice’s motion to reconsider his earlier ruling rejecting the subpoenas.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 items- list 1 of 3US Treasury secretary declines to rule out future Federal Reserve lawsuits
- list 2 of 3US Fed keeps interest rates steady amid economic uncertainty, Iran war
- list 3 of 3US judge nixes two subpoenas against Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell
“The Government’s arguments do not come close to convincing the Court that a different outcome is warranted,” Boasberg wrote.
On March 13, Boasberg, a judge for the federal court in the District of Columbia, nullified the subpoenas on the basis that they were issued for an “improper purpose”: to pressure Powell into compliance with the president’s demands.
Trump and Powell — an appointee from the president’s first term — have been at loggerheads since the Republican leader returned to the White House in January 2025.
Although the Federal Reserve is an independent government agency, not subject to political demands, Trump has repeatedly called on the bank to slash interest rates, and he has denounced Powell as “incompetent”, “crooked” and a “fool” for not following suit.
For months, pressure had been building from the Trump White House to investigate Powell and push him prematurely from his job as Federal Reserve chair. Powell’s term is slated to expire in May.
Much of the Trump administration’s focus has fallen on renovations to the Federal Reserve’s historic 1930s buildings in Washington, DC, which have gone over budget.
The administration has pointed to the cost overruns as evidence of malfeasance.
Last July, for instance, Trump appointee William Pulte called on Congress to investigate Powell for “political bias” and “deceptive” testimony related to the renovation project.
The following month, Trump posted on his platform Truth Social that he was considering “a major lawsuit against Powell” in response to “horrible, and grossly incompetent” work on the renovations.
The pressure reached a climax on January 11, when Powell made a rare statement announcing he was under a Justice Department investigation over the renovation project. He dismissed the probe as a “pretext” to undermine the Federal Reserve’s leadership over monetary policy.
“The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president,” Powell said.
The Federal Reserve has since sought to have the subpoenas into Powell’s behaviour tossed.
Boasberg sided with the central bank in his initial ruling, and in Friday’s opinion, he called the Trump administration’s efforts to change his mind insufficient.
The Justice Department had argued that it does not need to produce evidence of a crime to seek a grand jury subpoena.
Boasberg agreed with that point, but he said subpoenas were also subject to a legal standard that bars them from being issued for “improper” purposes.
“The subpoena power ‘is not unlimited’ and may not be abused,” Boasberg wrote, citing court precedent.
He therefore ruled that the lack of evidence overall against Powell was relevant to the legality of the subpoenas.
“The controlling legal question is what these ‘subpoena[s’] dominant purpose’ is: pressuring Powell to lower rates or resign, or pursuing a legitimate investigation opened because the facts suggested wrongdoing,” Boasberg said.
“Resolving that question requires probing whether the Government’s asserted basis for the subpoenas — suspicions of fraud and lying to Congress — is colorable or tenuous. That inquiry, in turn, means asking how much evidence there is to back up the Government’s assertions.”
Boasberg underscored that he has seen no suggestion that Powell committed criminal wrongdoing and pointed to the long list of statements Trump has made attacking the Federal Reserve chair, suggesting an ulterior motive.
“The Government’s fundamental problem is that it has presented no evidence whatsoever of fraud,” he concluded.
Friday’s ruling is likely to set the stage for the Trump administration to appeal. US Attorney Jeanine Pirro has previously denied any political motivation for the investigation.
She has also asserted that Boasberg is “without legal authority” to nullify the subpoenas.
▸ 展开全文
04-04 00:02 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
Traore reneged on promises to hold elections and has since scrapped political parties in the country.
Burkina Faso’s military leader, Ibrahim Traore, says that people need to “forget” about democracy, just three months after his government dissolved all political parties in the West African nation.
Speaking to journalists in a lengthy interview on state television on Thursday, Traore referenced Libya as an example of a country where he said outsiders attempted to “impose democracy” but failed.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 items- list 1 of 4Moscow confirms Russian forces helped repel ISIL attack on Niger airport
- list 2 of 4Are ‘low-cost, high-impact’ drones making Sahel fighters tougher to beat?
- list 3 of 4US deploys 100 soldiers to Nigeria as attacks by armed groups surge
- list 4 of 4‘Sahel is no longer fooled’ Niger civil society leader
“People need to forget about the issue of democracy,” he said. “We have to tell the truth: democracy isn’t for us.”
“Democracy kills”, Traore said, according to French broadcaster RFI.
“Look at Libya, it’s a prime example right next to us! Everywhere they try to establish democracy in the world, it’s done with bloodshed … Democracy is slavery…”
It’s the latest sign of Traore’s government distancing itself from the initial promises it made to set the country back on a democratic path.
Traore seized power in September 2022, eight months after an earlier military coup he was involved in overthrew the democratically elected government of President Roch Marc Kabore.
The military governments promised to battle al-Qaeda and ISIL-linked armed groups that have swarmed the country and now control large areas of territory. However, the country has continued to come under repeated attacks and hundreds of thousands of civilians are displaced.
Traore, who has gained widespread admiration from the African diaspora for his anti-Western rhetoric, initially promised to organise elections in 2024. A year later, the leader reneged and said elections would not be held until all parts of Burkina Faso are safe for voting.
Concerns from political opposition, journalists, lawyers
In January, Traore’s government scrapped more than 100 political parties in the country and seized their assets.
Parliament and all political activity had previously been suspended after Traore took power. The Independent National Electoral Commission was dissolved in July 2025 after Traore’s government claimed the agency was too expensive.
Analysts have also raised concerns about the government’s apparent targeting of other institutions, including the media and judiciary.
Journalists, political opposition leaders and prosecutors critical of the military government have been forcibly conscripted and sent to the front lines in recent months, with some later released.
Similar moves against political parties have been taken by neighbouring military governments in Niger and Mali, which are also battling armed group violence.
All three countries exited the regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) bloc to form their own Alliance of Sahel States (AES) last January after pressure to hold elections.
They have also turned to Russian paramilitary fighters after evicting former colonial power, France, which had deployed some 5,000 soldiers to help fight armed groups in the Sahel region.
Violence has continued to mar Burkina Faso. Fatalities tripled in the three years since Traore took power reaching 17,775 by last May. That’s compared with the three years prior, when combined recorded deaths were 6,630, according to analysis by the US-based Africa Center for Strategic Studies.
Most of those killed were civilians, many by government forces and allied militias.
▸ 展开全文
04-04 00:02 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
CMA CGM’s vessel becomes the first French-owned ship to traverse Hormuz since the US–Israel war on Iran began.
A French container ship, three Oman-linked tankers and a Japanese-owned gas carrier have crossed the Strait of Hormuz, as some vessels make the passage through the contested waterway.
The container belonging to French shipping giant CMA CGM is the first Western vessel known to have made the passage since Iran effectively closed the strait, the Marine Traffic vessel website showed on Friday.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 items- list 1 of 4GCC chief urges UN to halt Iranian attacks, protect Gulf waterways
- list 2 of 4As war drags on, US reiterates Trump open to diplomacy with Iran
- list 3 of 4How war on Iran turned Pakistan’s LNG surplus into a looming shortage
- list 4 of 4How China’s ‘teapot’ refineries are cushioning it from Iran war oil crisis
The Malta-flagged Kribi, owned by CMA CGM, crossed the Strait on April 2. It was not immediately clear how the vessel, which the data shows is sailing south along the coast of Oman, secured safe passage.
There was no immediate comment from CMA CGM.
However, LSEG shipping data showed the vessel on Thursday changed its destination to “Owner France”, signalling to Iranian authorities the nationality of its owner, before crossing the strait’s Iranian territorial waters.
The vessels appear to have switched off their AIS transponders during the crossing because their signal disappeared on vessel-tracking data.
Two very large crude carriers and one LNG tanker operated by Oman Shipping Management also exited the Gulf on Thursday, according to MarineTraffic and LSEG data.
Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines said on Friday that the LNG tanker, Sohar LNG, which it co-owns, had crossed the strait, making it the first Japan-linked vessel and the first LNG carrier to do so since the conflict began on February 28.
Only about 150 vessels, including tankers and container ships, have transited the strait since March 1, according to data firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence. Most were linked to Iran and countries such as China, India and Pakistan.
Beijing expressed “gratitude” on Tuesday after three of its ships passed through the strait, including two container ships on Monday belonging to state-owned shipping giant Cosco.
Energy crisis
Until the war led to the effective blocking of the strait, it was the route for about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies. As a result, fuel prices have skyrocketed worldwide.
On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump insisted that petrol prices would fall quickly once the war concluded, but offered no solution for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Instead, he invited sceptical US allies to do it themselves. He insisted that the war would be worth it.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday it would be unrealistic to launch a military operation to open the strait, and that only diplomatic efforts would work.
Macron has worked with European and other allies to build a coalition to guarantee free passage through the strait once hostilities have stopped.
Meanwhile, writing in the US journal Foreign Affairs, Iran’s former top diplomat said that Tehran should make a deal with the United States to end the war by offering to curb its nuclear programme and reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for sanctions relief.
Tehran could “declare victory and make a deal that both ends this conflict and prevents the next one”, wrote Mohammad Javad Zarif, foreign minister from 2013 to 2021.
▸ 展开全文
04-04 00:02 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
Years of war have fundamentally changed Israel’s politics, economy and society, analysts say.
Two and a half years of launching brutal attacks on its neighbours and the besieged enclave of Gaza have transformed Israel’s politics, economy and society, analysts say.
Now, as Israel engages in what many within the country have been repeatedly told is an “existential battle” with regional nemesis Iran, what the future might hold for Israel remains to be seen. The conflict’s ultimate end will likely be determined by lawmakers in Washington rather than planners in Israel.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 items- list 1 of 4Eight countries condemn Israel’s one-sided death penalty for Palestinians
- list 2 of 4How Israel’s record budget will finance expanding illegal settlements
- list 3 of 4‘Israel has been avoiding any diplomacy’ and pursuing escalation
- list 4 of 4What might end Israel’s war on Iran?
Even before its war on Iran, Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza had taken its toll on the country’s standing and financing. According to the Bank of Israel’s own numbers, the nation’s wars on Gaza, the Houthis, Lebanon and Iran since October 2023 have already cost it 352 billion shekels ($112bn), equating roughly to an average cost of 300 million shekels ($96m) per day.
At the International Court of Justice, Israel faces what jurists have already ruled are credible accusations of genocide, while both its prime minister and former minister of defence are the subject of arrest warrants for war crimes issued by the International Criminal Court in November 2024. Now, economically, the country is bracing for what could be the catastrophic financial consequences of its war on Iran.
And it seems no definite end is in sight.
Long road ahead
Israel’s stated war aims of degrading Iran’s military capabilities and creating the conditions whereby its public might rise up against the government seem somewhat distant.
After four weeks of constant bombardment, there are no strong signs of public disquiet in Iran or challenges to the government.
Despite United States officials’ public claims to have essentially defanged Iran militarily, Reuters reported on March 27 that only one-third of Tehran’s missile stock had been destroyed, citing five sources within US intelligence.
In the meantime, Israel’s public faces irregular but frequent air raid warnings, signalling yet another retreat to the shelters and shattering any semblance of normality each time.
There is a paradox at play. At home, emergency measures which have seen many schools closed while parents are expected to continue working have increased strain on families. But analysts within Israel say these same families still regard the war they are experiencing as always having been inevitable.
“There’s a graveness that’s fallen over people, a sort of a pall,” political consultant and pollster Dahlia Scheindlin told Al Jazeera from a location near Tel Aviv. She described something close to a grim public determination among Jewish Israelis to press on with the war for the time being, however.
People are exhausted, but for now, 78 percent of Jewish Israelis told the Israel Democracy Institute in late March that they supported continuing the war.
Significantly, however, a majority also thought that planners in the US and Israel had underestimated Tehran’s abilities.
How long they will continue to support the conflict, therefore, Scheindlin can’t say. “It’s not like the 12-day war [between Israel and Iran in June 2025] because this has gone on for so much longer. And it’s not like rocket fire from Hamas in the past.
“Iran fires ballistic missiles, meaning that everyone needs to shelter each time. It’s also gone on for much longer, and how long it will continue, we don’t know,” she said.
“To be honest, I don’t know how we’ll emerge from this. No one does. We’re still in the middle of it all.”
Politics on the edge
The backdrop to all this is a politics which few would recognise from that which ratified the Oslo Accords in the 1990s. Or that which in the 1980s expelled the ultranationalist Meir Kahane, the proponent of extremist beliefs that hardline National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and many of his Jewish Power party’s current members implicitly support.
Indeed, figures such as Ben-Gvir and ultra-Orthodox Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich – a settler whose movement believes it is biblically entitled to the land of the West Bank – now play central roles in government with both cross-party and public support.
Then there were the celebrations that greeted the passage of Ben-Gvir’s death penalty law, designed specifically to target Palestinians.
Topping it off this week was the passing of a record $271bn budget – voted on by lawmakers from a fortified bunker – which diverted millions of shekels to the country’s ultra-Orthodox and hardline settler groups in what analysts and opposition groups say was a bid to shore up support for Netanyahu’s government in the face of continued military action.
“Anyone who votes against the budget is voting against Israel’s security, against tax reli
▸ 展开全文
04-04 00:02 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
Despite weeks long Iranian blockade on Strait of Hormuz, US president claims Washington can ‘easily’ reopen waterway.
Donald Trump has suggested that the United States is looking to seize Iran’s oil industry, appearing to argue that more time is needed for the war.
“With a little more time, we can easily OPEN THE HORMUZ STRAIT, TAKE THE OIL, & MAKE A FORTUNE,” the US president wrote in a social media post on Friday.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 items- list 1 of 3Iran condemns US-Israeli ‘moral collapse’ after attacks on civilian sites
- list 2 of 3Kuwait desalination plant, oil refinery hit by missile and drone strikes
- list 3 of 3Over 100 US legal experts condemn strikes on Iran as possible ‘war crimes’
“IT WOULD BE A ‘GUSHER’ FOR THE WORLD???”
It is not clear how the US would open Hormuz, which Iran effectively blocked early in the conflict, sending energy prices soaring.
Trump has been promising for weeks that the US will reopen the strait soon. One month ago, he said that US Navy ships would accompany oil ships through the strategic waterway.
But the US military has said that it is “not ready” to escort slow-moving vessels in the narrow strait, where its ships could become an easy target for Iranian drones and missiles.
Trump’s assertion that the US would “take” Iran’s oil marks an escalation in his rhetoric.
The US president appeared to double down on his call later on Friday. “KEEP THE OIL, ANYONE?” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Under the international law doctrine of Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1962, oil and minerals belong to the countries where they are located.
“The free and beneficial exercise of the sovereignty of peoples and nations over their natural resources must be furthered by the mutual respect of States based on their sovereign equality,” the resolution says.
Trump has regularly called for “taking the oil” in countries where the US has been militarily involved, including Iraq and Venezuela.
The Iranian governing system has remained intact despite the assassinations of some of its top officials and the daily bombardment by the US and Israel, and it remains in control of the country’s natural resources.
The US has no publicly known military presence on the ground inside Iran. Trump did not provide details on how his administration plans to control the country’s oil.
In Venezuela, since US forces abducted President Nicolas Maduro in January, his successor, Delcy Rodriguez, has been working with the Trump administration to sell large amounts of oil.
Earlier this week, Trump suggested that replicating the Venezuelan model in Iran is possible, but it would require prolonging the war.
“We could just take their oil. But, you know, I’m not sure that the people in our country have the patience to do that, which is unfortunate,” Trump said.
“They want to see it end. If we stayed there, I prefer just to take the oil. We could do it so easily; I would prefer that. But people in the country sort of say, ‘Just win. You’re winning so big, just win. Come home.'”
At the outset of the conflict, the Trump administration said the war would last four to six weeks.
The war will enter its sixth week on Saturday.
Trump has been claiming that US forces have crushed Iran’s military capabilities, but Tehran continues to block Hormuz and fire missiles and drones at Israel and other targets across the entire region.
Trump has been threatening to bomb civilian infrastructure across Iran, including power stations and water desalination plants.
On Wednesday, he shared footage of the destruction of a major civilian bridge in Iran, warning of similar attacks in the future.
Bombing civilian sites amounts to collective punishment and is prohibited under international law, legal experts say.
On Friday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei likened the US attack on the bridge to ISIL (ISIS) tactics.
“This DAESH/ISIS-style terrorist war crime, along with similar attacks on Iran’s critical infrastructure, reveals one undeniable truth: their ultimate goal is the destruction of Iran,”
▸ 展开全文