On an official level at least, Oman remains a close strategic partner and key ally of the United States in the Middle East; however, that relationship has been severely strained this month amid apparent Iranian-Omani cooperation regarding a potential toll system for the Strait of Hormuz. This of course flies in the face of the US posture in the region.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is the latest top Trump admin official to chastize Oman: "The United States Government will not tolerate any effort to impose a tolling system in the Strait of Hormuz," he said on X Thursday.
"Oman, in particular, should know that the U.S. Treasury will aggressively target any actors involved - directly or indirectly - in facilitating tolls for the Strait and any willing partners will be penalized," Bessent continued. "All nations should reject outright any efforts by Iran to disrupt the free flow of commerce. Tehran’s days of terrorizing the region and the world are over."
Sky News/Getty ImagesStarting a week ago, official 'discussions' between Oman and Iran were widely reported:
Iran and Oman have discussed setting up a toll system to charge vessels transiting through the Strait of Hormuz, despite President Trump’s condemnation of charging fees to pass through the waterway.
“Iran and Oman must mobilize all their resources both to provide security services and to manage navigation in the most appropriate manner,” Iranian Ambassador to France Mohammad Amin-Nejad on Wednesday told Bloomberg News, which first reported the talks.
Given the country's geography, in the southeastern Arabian Peninsula, it is likely to play a key role in any final agreement or outcome, in terms of opening Hormuz back up to international maritime transit.
Bessent is continuing the pressure campaign soon on the heels of President Trump in somewhat shocking and surprise remarks saying that Oman could come under American military attack if it doesn't cooperate.
Trump said in the Oval and in front of cameras that the US would "blow up" Oman if it doesn’t "behave". The serious threat was issued in response to a reporter's question on whether the US would accept a short-term deal that involved Iran and Oman jointly controlling the Strait of Hormuz.
"No, the strait’s got to be opened to everybody, it’s international waters. Nobody’s going to control it. We'll watch over it, but nobody’s going to control it. That’s part of the negotiation," Trump told reporters during a cabinet meeting.
"Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we’ll have to blow them up. They understand that they’ll be fine," the president then emphasized.
President Trump threatens to attack Oman if they don't "behave."
"Oman will behave just like everybody else or else we'll have to blow em up." pic.twitter.com/Eae4h8BcmP
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei sought to explain earlier this week: "There is no toll. We need to pay attention to the words we use. We’re not after money. Iran and Oman need to create protocols for the safe passage of ships, and this will be based on international laws."
But then came the catch: "It’s only natural that the services we provide, like navigation and the preservation of the ecosystem of the Strait, the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman will have costs. These should not be considered tolls. Iran and Oman are being responsible in our efforts and I hope we will reach a conclusion soon," the spokesman said.
Tyler Durden Thu, 05/28/2026 - 11:40Authored by AG News Staff via American Greatness,
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday that his administration will seek to impose a 100 percent tax on any California residents who receive money from President Donald Trump's newly created $1.776 billion "anti-weaponization" fund.
Speaking to reporters, Newsom denounced the fund as a "slush fund" and pledged to block Californians from financially benefiting from it.
"Anyone from California that receives any of those funds, we want to tax 100 percent of those proceeds," Newsom said during a press conference.
"He pardoned all of those folks that were beating up cops and absolved them, providing them 1.776 billion dollars," Newsom said. "So not only do you get a pardon, you get rewarded. That's why this is needed."
The fund was established as part of Trump's settlement with the Department of Justice stemming from his lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns.
Trump has described the program as restitution for Americans harmed by what he called politically motivated government actions during the Biden administration.
Last week, Trump defended the fund as compensation for people "badly abused by an evil, corrupt, and weaponized Biden Administration."
Democrats in several blue states are now attempting to block recipients from keeping any payouts tied to the program.
In New York, Democratic Assemblyman Alex Bores introduced legislation that would similarly impose a 100 percent tax on recipients of the fund.
State Sen. Mike Gianaris said Democrats in Albany are pushing to advance the measure before the legislative session ends next week.
"There's widespread, bipartisan agreement that this is baldfaced corruption at its worst and if we have the ability in New York to combat it by ensuring that none of this money benefits anyone in our state's borders, I'd expect there'd be widespread support for that idea," Gianaris said.
Democratic lawmakers in New Jersey are also drafting similar legislation.
State Sen. Andrew Zwicker called the proposal "a brilliant counter move to Trump's corruption."
Tyler Durden Thu, 05/28/2026 - 11:20Earlier this week, we covered Oklo’s approval by Chris Wright’s DOE to convert plutonium previously set for disposal into new fuel. “Fuel supply constraints are a key throttle to advanced reactor development,” Oklo CEO Jacob DeWitte said following the announcement.
Jacob’s wife and Oklo’s COO Caroline DeWitte joined ZeroHedge and Radiant Energy Group’s Madison Hilly. Caroline laid out Oklo’s ambitious vision: recycle spent nuclear fuel, build fleets of reactors for AI hyperscalers like Meta, and turn what the industry currently treats as a liability (nuclear waste) into a strategic asset.
And unlike many of the “PowerPoint reactor” startups flooding the space, she says they are already building.
Nuclear Waste And A New Energy OrderOne of the company’s core theses is that the U.S. is sitting on a massive untapped energy reserve in the form of spent nuclear fuel already stockpiled around the country.
“It has enough energy in it to power the entire country for 150 years. So let’s use it.”
Unlike conventional light-water reactors, Oklo’s fast reactors are designed to utilize fuel currently treated as waste, potentially bypassing future uranium bottlenecks while lowering long-term fuel costs.
The company is also pushing aggressively into isotope production, a market DeWitte suggested remains critically undersupplied after years of Western dependence on Russian supply chains.
“Some of these isotopes… if you had a kilogram, it might be a trillion dollars.”
Oklo is now racing to bring an isotope test reactor online in Texas and DeWitte says they hope to hit criticality around July 4th.
— ZeroHedge Debates (@zerohedgeDebate) May 27, 2026 Silicon Valley’s AI Boom Fast-Tracking Nuclear EnergyThe AI infrastructure arms race has abruptly transformed advanced nuclear energy from a niche policy idea into a strategic national priority.
DeWitte said the current policy environment, under Trump’s energy secretary Chris Wright, has dramatically accelerated Oklo’s deployment timelines.
“It’s been a world of difference since about a year ago.”
According to DeWitte, working through a Department of Energy partnership framework allowed Oklo to begin construction activities roughly two years earlier than would have been possible under the traditional Nuclear Regulatory Commission process. And Oklo currently has six DOE projects underway.
The company’s recent deal with Meta highlights where much of the demand is coming from: hyperscale AI infrastructure desperate for reliable baseload electricity.
“Everyone needs as much as they can get as soon as they can get it.”
Public sentiment around nuclear power appears to be shifting as communities increasingly resist giant AI server farms.
“Is there going to be a data center in my backyard?... Oh no, no, no, just a nuclear power plant. And they’re like, ‘Oh, good.’”
— ZeroHedge Debates (@zerohedgeDebate) May 27, 2026Check out the full interview below or listen on our Spotify.
Tyler Durden Thu, 05/28/2026 - 11:05By Michael Every of Rabobank
It’s remarkable screen oil prices are little changed at below $100 today after Trump said the US is “not satisfied” over talks with Iran, days after claiming a deal was imminent, and hours after saying the terms the Iranians had leaked that the US agrees to --a real TACO-- were a “complete fabrication.”
It’s more remarkable when Trump added Iran and Oman will not control the Strait of Hormuz, which they say they will; vowed to blow up Oman if it misbehaves; struck Iran again in another “defensive action”; and reiterated a deal requires the region to sign up to the Abraham Accords, underlining it has to be a turning point to a new geopolitical/economic architecture.
It’s truly remarkable given Trump added he can outwait Iran and dismissed the growing economic impact of this crisis and the looming midterm elections; and that Israel ordered the mass forced displacement for all the population of south Lebanon as the IDF-Hezbollah conflict intensifies, destroying terror infrastructure across thousands of civilian homes.
Meanwhile, another think tank report argues US munitions depleted by the Iran war will take until 2030 or 2031 to restore. That leaves a global shortfall already being felt in Europe and Asia and requiring them to develop their own systems, and supply chains, at very high cost – and it will require the kind of ‘reverse perestroika’ change to the US political-economy previously discussed for it to overcome that bottleneck more rapidly.
Relatedly, the UK claims half a million Russians are dead in the war, as a senior Ukrainian commander claims a 'turning point' in its favor, but Zelenskyy asked Trump for immediate air defence support that might not be available. On the other side, Russia is tasking bankers with shooting down Ukrainian drones. The grimness of war aside, and in the best Russian black-humour tradition, the latter brings to mind the joke about three econometricians shooting at a target, one 20 feet to the left, one 20 feet to the right, and the third crying, “I hit it!” without firing.
Brussels now has a timetable for Ukraine's and Moldova’s EU bids, which should be made public mid-June, as Albania says it will accept membership with a probation on vetoes as it is the “EU Taliban” in its fanaticism about joining. The former move will only increase EU-Russia tensions, as another ex-Soviet republic, Armenia, signs a strategic partnership deal with the US.
Elsewhere, India-Pakistan border tensions simmer; Japan welcomed the Philippines’ President Marcos as their defence ties deepen; China says it drove away a Dutch warship near the Paracel Islands; and US Secretary of War Hegseth is heading to Asia ‘with Taiwan questions swirling.’
In related geoeconomics, the ECB warned of a financial crisis triggered by the Iran war impact; a ‘plastic shock' is hitting Asia; Central Asia could turn to China over water security fears; and China and Cuba are holding agriculture talks as Beijing backs it against US pressure.
The US Trade Representative just stated, “We've just come to terms with the fact that there is not going to be some giant comprehensive reform of the way the Chinese political system works.” US policy will adapt accordingly. France said it may accept 'Made in Europe’ subsidies for UK cars; an EU wind turbine maker called non-western rivals ‘a security threat’; and it’s argued Germany can’t tariff China as its so reliant on inputs from it; as US tariffs and slumping EV sales are reportedly crippling the Canadian auto sector, with the local press asking if it will survive.
In technology, Nvidia chief Huang is to join a Tim Cook-chaired board at a prestigious Beijing university as the Chinese press share that their scientists claim AI is massively increasing China’s new weapon development speed – as it is in the US, of course, but not in those who don’t have that AI muscle.
In politics, what were once unthinkable Overton outcomes are becoming normal and so is political turmoil. New York lawmakers just passed a billionaire’s pied-a-terre tax; Australia is pressing ahead with its new property and capital gains taxes; Britain faces a ‘lost generation’ as youth worklessness heads for 1.25 million, claims one paper - as former PM Blair attacks current Labour PM Starmer and the pretender Andy Burns for a lack of vision; indeed, the Financial Times argues the UK has ironically become a European country since Brexit in that it now has high public debt and permanent political instability; and, in Europe, a police raid on the party headquarters of Spanish PM Sanchez, whose wife is already charged with corruption, has increased the pressure on him.
In markets, as oil --so everything else-- clutches at favoured straws, the FT has another op-ed which argues, ‘Want to predict central banker behaviour? Look to their birth date’, because “Formative experiences shape our views on future inflation as much as the data.” If so, what will the deeply dissatisfied youth growing up with the background described above take as normal regarding inflation and monetary policy?
Will they think in the same way those born when “I can’t get no satisfaction” was written, and look to technocratic econometrics as the answer to their multifaceted geopolitical and socio-economic problems? The election of Mamdani in New York, and of right and left populism globally, suggests not. Also note a 2025 YouGov poll showed a quarter of self-described US ‘very liberals’ say political violence is sometimes justified to achieve desired outcomes - as Luigi Mangione, on trial for murdering a US health executive, is as a social-media icon. Hikes followed by cuts can take on an entirely new meaning in that kind of socio-political context.
Of course, technocrats can clutch at straws, and at more technocracy, too. The Australian press this week saw a Rolling Stones-era author make a decent historical argument that immigration policy shouldn’t be politicized, and is complex, so “Perhaps it's time to consider relieving politicians of responsibility for it, just as they were relieved of monetary policy 30 years ago.” The Overton window looks so over!
But for now, it’s what is and isn’t over the Middle East that’s the primary focus.
Tyler Durden Thu, 05/28/2026 - 10:45The Netherlands has become the latest Western nation to tangle with Beijing and exchange tense words after testing its sweeping claims to the South China Sea.
A tense military encounter unfolded involving a Dutch warship, identified as the HNLMS De Ruyter, after it had entered waters near the disputed Paracel Islands. China's military reportedly used electronic warfare measures to force it out of the China-claimed waters in the incident on Wednesday.
source: Defensie.nlChinese military spokesperson Zhai Shichen later charged that the Dutch ship violated "China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime and air security," while further alleging that the ship illicitly launched multiple helicopter sorties and entered Chinese airspace.
"The Dutch side’s actions…seriously undermine peace and stability in the South China Sea and could easily lead to misunderstanding and miscalculation," Zhai said.
"We firmly oppose such acts and solemnly demand that the Dutch side immediately cease its infringement and provocative actions. The Chinese military will maintain a high state of alert at all times and resolutely safeguard China's national sovereignty, security and regional peace and stability," the PLA statement added.
However, the Netherlands has rejected this account, instead saying "the frigate has not been in territorial waters" and "operates in accordance with international law," according to the words Dutch navy spokesperson Marinka Hiraldo Vos-van Kooten.
USNI News details the Dutch frigate's mission as follows:
The Royal Netherlands Navy De Zeven Provinciën-class frigate is deployed to the Indo-Pacific for Amsterdam’s five-month-long Pacific Archer mission. The mission aims to promote freedom of navigation and foster ties with allies and partners. De Ruyter is also set to attend the Rim of Pacific naval drills around Hawaii later this summer.
One week before the incident, De Ruyter moored in Manila for a port visit and activities with the Philippine Navy. The frigate’s captain told local media outlet Manila Bulletin that the ship’s previous interactions with a Chinese helicopter was “professional” and did not involve a territorial challenge.
Following a brief but intense naval clash with Vietnam in the 1970s, Beijing seized control of the Paracel Islands. There remain overlapping claims among many nations in the region.
Encylclopaedia BritannicaIn the decades since, China has systematically militarized the region, constructing extensive military infrastructure across a network of sprawling artificial islands. The US, Europe, and regional allies see much of this as international territory and waters.
Tyler Durden Thu, 05/28/2026 - 10:15