But first, from Time magazine: $100 The price of oil hit $100 a barrel on Thursday for the first time since May. It comes after the Houthis of Yemen struck two Saudi tankers in the Red Sea, enforcing a long-threatened blockade of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, another shipping route crucial to the world’s energy supplies. From the New York Times (Sam Sifton) this morning: The Trump administration has imposed new tariffs on goods from more than 80 countries . The tariffs, along with the war in Iran, are threatening the U.S. economy . For my readership, here are some upcoming journeys. August-September 2026:   Total Eclipse of the Sun . Ever see a total eclipse of the Sun?   This is the one where you will feel that extra chill, gets almost dark and some animals think it is the end of the day.   My one experience was on 11July1991 over the Big Island of Hawaii on by wife's birthday .  To quote that posting, it is pretty amazing that the coverage is...

There are 4 types of solar eclipse. Total  Partial  Annular  Hybrid  About the above graphic. On the left is a total solar eclipse. In middle is an annular solar eclipse. A hybrid eclipse appears as either a total or an annular eclipse depending on the observers location.  These only occur once in a decade. A partial eclipse is to the right. A total solar eclipse occurs about every 18 months.  However a specific location will see a total eclipse only once every 375 years.  So if you recently saw one, you'll need to travel to see another.   My wife was born on July 11.  She found out that there would be total eclipse over her Big Island on that day in 1991, so off we flew to Kailua-Kona and stayed at the King Kamehameha Hotel.  Turned out that if we had just watched from the hotel beach, we would have had the best view.  But we had a friend who lived high up on Mauna Loa, so off we went to join him.   But it was so clo...

If you follow this blog site, you know that our global cruise on the Island Princess scheduled to depart Los Angeles in January on a 111-day global journey was cancelled by the company.  They were unable to confirm a sufficient number of port arrival sites, so just gave up.  We were disappointed.  We means my travel partner and I.  Our last three trips were exciting and monumental:   wine-tour of France , on the  Diamond Princess  just before the COVID-19 outbreak and  Thailand  when this country was #2 to China in total cases. But life goes on, and I got enterprising, for I still want to somehow experience the Dubai World Expo, which opened yesterday, and will be available until the end of March.  Thus, my challenge is to find my way there and back to Honolulu.  However, it seems a shame to just go there and return home. But using Kayak.com I checked anyway and was  astonished to find this itinerary, all on Star Alliance ...

  From  Worldometer  (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):          DAY    USA    WORLD     Brazil      India      South Africa June     9    1093     4732       1185        246        82 July    22     1205     7128        1293      1120       572 Aug    12     1504     6556        1242       835       130 Sept     9     1208      6222       1136      1168        82 Oct     21     1225      6849         571      ...