Dispatches on war,
power, and who pays the price

On Sunday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright told NBC's "Meet the Press" that the Trump administration is "open to all ideas" — including suspending the federal gas tax of 18.4 cents per gallon — to relieve rising pump prices. Average US gas prices have hit $4.52/gallon, a 50%+ increase since the start of the Iran war.

The structural facts being buried in the gas-price framing: The federal gas tax funds approximately 85% of the Highway Trust Fund's revenue, which finances most federal spending on highways and mass transit. The Highway Trust Fund is already in structural collapse. Per the Congressional Budget Office, the cumulative shortfall over 2024-2033 is projected at $181 billion in the highway account and $60 billion in the mass transit account. The fund has not been adjusted for inflation since 1993 — 18.4 cents bought 55% less in 2025 than in 1993. Since 2008, Congress has transferred $275 billion from the Treasury's General Fund to keep the HTF solvent. The trust fund is projected to be completely depleted by FY2028.

What suspending the tax would actually do: An 18.4-cent suspension would reduce average pump prices to $4.34 — barely $0.18 lower, and still $1.36 higher than the pre-war $2.98. Meanwhile, every month of suspension would eliminate roughly $3.5 billion in HTF revenue. The framing — Iran-war-caused gas prices → consumer-relief tax suspension — obscures that (a) the war was the administration's own choice, (b) suspending the tax provides only marginal pump relief, and (c) the cost is borne by federal road and transit infrastructure that's already on the brink. This is a structural transfer from infrastructure to consumers (or to oil-industry margins, depending on pass-through) framed as relief from a self-inflicted foreign-policy crisis.

On Sunday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk ended a five-day visit to Sudan with a stark warning: "the horrific violations and abuses committed during the capture of El Fasher must under no circumstances be repeated in Kadugli and Dilling, in South Kordofan." Reports indicate additional RSF and SPLM-North troops are now about 20 kilometers from Kadugli, which is currently under SAF control and where famine conditions have already been confirmed. Over 25,000 people have been displaced from South Kordofan since the Kordofan offensive began. Three strikes on health facilities in the region killed 31 people last week per WHO.

The structural context being buried: El Fasher fell to the RSF in late October 2025 after an 18-month siege. The UN's Independent Fact-Finding Mission concluded in February that the events bore "hallmarks of genocide" against the Zaghawa and Fur communities — finding three of the Genocide Convention's prohibited acts present. Yale's Humanitarian Research Lab estimated that 250,000 remaining civilians have been killed, displaced, or are in hiding in El Fasher following the initial massacre. The exact same pattern — an 18-month siege producing famine, followed by a takeover with mass killings of ethnically targeted populations — is now visible in Kordofan. The casualty page on this site has Sudan at ~22,000 YTD deaths and rising — second only to Ukraine. UAE weapons continue to flow to the RSF in breach of the existing arms embargo; this fact is mentioned in regional press but largely absent from US coverage.

Today, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Tehran's counter-proposal to end the Iran war was "reasonable and generous," demanding an end to the US blockade, release of frozen assets, and an end to "piracy" against Iranian ships. Trump called the proposal "totally unacceptable." Iran's Revolutionary Guard warned today it would launch "heavy assault" on US forces after recent tanker strikes. Iran also warned that any UK or French warships in the Strait of Hormuz "will be met with a decisive response."

The structural fact being treated as Iranian rhetoric: The Strait of Hormuz has been under a dual blockade since the start of the war — US naval forces enforcing tanker traffic restrictions on one side, Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces on the other. Tanker crews from third countries — Greek, Filipino, Indian, Bangladeshi — are caught between them. The Energy Secretary on Sunday told CBS's "Face the Nation" that the administration would "go back to the military method to open the strait" if the next few days do not produce a negotiated settlement. That is a public commitment to escalation. Britain and France will host defense ministers tomorrow to discuss military plans for "restoring trade flow in the Strait of Hormuz" — i.e., to plan a multinational naval operation.

What's missing from US coverage: The "piracy" framing as Iranian propaganda obscures the documented record of bidirectional tanker seizures since February 28. Maritime insurance rates have surged. Roughly 20% of the world's oil normally passes through Hormuz; that flow has been substantially disrupted since the war began. The Strait of Hormuz story — the mechanism by which the Iran war is creating the gas-price crisis driving the gas-tax-suspension proposal in Story № 01 — is largely absent from US broadcast in its own right. It's treated as background to the negotiations story rather than as the primary site of the war's ongoing damage. The multinational naval operation being planned in London tomorrow is not being framed as the escalation it represents.