Trump Tells Aides US Preparing For Extended Blockade, But Could Be Open To Interim Deal With Iran Summary Trump prepares for ‘extended blockade’ – WSJ reports he has informed aides of risky planning. Trump TS claim: Tehran has informed Washington they are in a “state of collapse” and that the Iranians want the US to “open the Hormuz Strait” – as ‘tank tops’ loom. Trump doesn’t appear open to Iran’s proposal which […]

Ft. Knox Full Of Impure Gold Unfit For International Transactions Authored by Jp Cortez via The Mises Institute, The bulk of the US gold reserves held in Fort Knox are made up of impure “non-standard” bars that don’t qualify for use in international settlements. In practice, this means that most of America’s massive gold stockpile is illiquid and wouldn’t be readily accepted on the international market should the need […]

DOJ Sues Cloudera For Deliberately Excluding American Workers From High-Paying Tech Jobs The Justice Department on Tuesday sued Cloudera Inc., accusing the enterprise data and artificial intelligence company of deliberately engineering a hiring process that excluded American workers from at least seven lucrative technology positions while the firm pursued permanent residency sponsorship for foreign workers on temporary visas. In […]

DHS To Vet Immigrants For ‘Extremist Views’ Authored by Guy Birchall via The Epoch Times, The U.S. Department of Homeland ​Security (DHS) said on April 27 that past statements expressing what it labeled extremist views from immigrants applying ‌for green cards and naturalization would warrant closer scrutiny. The DHS statement was in response to a New York Times report over the weekend that, citing internal DHS training […]

The US Grid Wasn’t Built For This Authored by Tejasri Gururaj via Interesting Engineering, Global data center power demand is projected to hit 84 GW by 2027—a 50 percent jump from 2023 levels—with AI workloads accounting for 27 percent of that total, according to Goldman Sachs Research. The grid is strained by increasing demand from electricity-hungry data centers and electric vehicles.Getty Images The grid cannot keep up […]

Homeowner Floats Mansion Swap For Anthropic Equity A LinkedIn profile for a luxury property in Marin County, just north of San Francisco and across the Golden Gate Bridge, states that the homeowner is open to exchanging the 14-acre estate for Anthropic equity. “I own a 14 acre estate in Mill Valley, CA (See link below) and would like to exchange the property for Anthropic equity (understanding in advance that this would be […]

Joby Kicks Off Weeklong Campaign After Successful JFK–Manhattan Test Flights Authored by Rob Sabo via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), Electric air taxi developer Joby Aviation stated on April 27 that it will begin a weeklong testing campaign in New York City, having successfully completed three days of test flights across the city’s heliport network. ANA Holdings and Joby Aviation show a public demonstration flight of the Joby […]

Jim Quinn: Kill Switch Of Freedom Authored by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog, “The government should be afraid of the people, the people shouldn’t be afraid of the government.” ― Edward Snowden “The freedom of a country can only be measured by its respect for the rights of its citizens, and it’s my conviction that these rights are in fact limitations of state power that define exactly where and when a […]

Citadel’s Griffin To Meet With NY Gov. Hochul After Mamdani’s Socialist Games Citadel’s Ken Griffin told the audience at the Norges Bank 2026 Investment Conference in Oslo earlier on Tuesday that he is planning to meet with left-wing New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday to discuss the “future direction” of the state after far-left NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani singled out Griffin in a promotional video stunt to push his proposed new […]

Improper US Government Payments Rose To $186 Billion In 2025: Watchdog Authored by Sylvia Xu via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), Federal government agencies reported a total estimate of about $186 billion in improper payments in fiscal year 2025, an increase of $24 billion from 2024. The U.S. Government Accountability Office building in Washington on May 22, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times About $153 billion—roughly 82 […]

The Assassination Wasn’t “Staged”, Leftists Are Just Evil Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us Why is it that every time a leftist tries to kill conservatives, it’s immediately called a “false flag”? And why is every single person who dares to question the false flag narrative attacked by a vicious (and suspiciously organized) online mob? The reason should be obvious but some people just don’t seem to see it: It’s […]

Trump Belatedly Blasts Merz Over Pointed Iran War ‘Humiliation’ Remarks  President Trump on Tuesday belatedly hit back at Chancellor Friedrich Merz after on Monday the German leader told students in a talk that the United States is being “humiliated” by Iranian leaders, amid struggling on-and-off negotiations, and as a crisis in the Strait of Hormuz shows no signs of de-escalating. Merz had said he didn’t see “what […]

US Farmers Are Facing Two Historic Catastrophes At The Same Time In 2026 Authored by Michael Snyder via End Of The American Dream, This is the worst of times for U.S. farmers. Coming into 2026, we were already in the midst of the worst farming crisis in at least 50 years. Now the war in the Middle East has caused fertilizer prices to go absolutely haywire, and a historic drought has created nightmare conditions for farmers from […]

Comey Indicted As Trump DOJ Takes Second Bite At The Apple The U.S. Department of Justice has secured a new federal indictment against former FBI Director James Comey, marking the second criminal case brought against him by the Trump administration in under a year. The charges center on a controversial May 2025 Instagram post in which Comey shared a photograph of seashells arranged on a beach to form the numbers “86 47.” […]

First Loaded Crude Supertanker Clears Hormuz Without Using Larak Channel Summary:  Idemitsu Maru did not use Larak Channel Loaded Idemitsu Maru crude supertanker exited Hormuz this afternoon, marking the first such crude transit since the conflict began. Loaded Mubaraz LNG tanker exited Hormuz earlier this month, also marking the first such LNG transit since the conflict began. Polymarket  First Crude […]

Four Nuclear Companies Selected For High-Speed Project Development After the wild success experienced by multiple companies under the Department of Energy’s Reactor Pilot Program (RPP) and Fuel Line Pilot Program (FLPP), four new fuel chain and reactor development companies have been selected under the Nuclear Energy Launch Pad (NELP). JUST IN: @Energy’s @GovNuclear & @NRICnuclear announced the first developers selected for […]

Tailing 7Y Auction Sees Lukewarm Foreign Demand, Jump In Direct Buyers The week’s final coupon auction per the truncated pre-FOMC schedule has come and gone, and like yesterday’s 2Y and 5Y, was also mediocre at best. The sale of $44BN in 7Y paper stopped at a high yield of 4.175%, down from 4.255% in March; and like the week’s previous auctions, the 7Y also tailed the 4.170% When Issued by 0.5bps, which makes it 4 auctions that […]

Appeals Court Temporarily Allows Pentagon To Require Escorts For Reporters Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), A U.S. appeals court on April 27 temporarily allowed the Department of War to require reporters entering Pentagon grounds to be escorted while the government appeals a lower court ruling. The Pentagon is seen from a flight taking off from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, […]

Vegas Casino Stocks Hit A Cold Streak As Visitor Growth Muted Las Vegas casino stocks have been largely mixed year to date on New York exchanges, as soaring costs for alcohol, parking, food, hotel rooms, bottled water, and other basic items have deterred cash-strapped visitors from the Strip. Visitor volumes have been under pressure for more than a year, with Canadian travel down sharply in 2025. Major operators such as MGM and […]

More Than 1,000 TSA Officers Have Quit Amid Shutdown Authored by Troy Myers via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Monday that more than 1,000 Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers have left the agency since the partial shutdown began on Feb. 14. An employee with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checks the documents of a traveler at Reagan National Airport […]

Top Fauci Advisor David Morens Charged In COVID Records Cover-Up: DOJ With Pam Bondi out (related?), the U.S. Department of Justice announced today that it has indicted Dr. David M. Morens, a longtime senior advisor to former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci. The 78-year-old Morens faces charges including conspiracy against the United States, destruction, alteration, or falsification […]

A Nation Divided: The Chilling Embrace Of Political Violence In The US Authored by Jonathan Turley, We are seeing increasing support for violent action across social media, including those lamenting that the recent presidential assassination was not successful. Conservative sites have been featuring teachers and others who were upset that the recent effort failed, including one who has now lost her job. The current violence and […]

BOJ Keeps Rates On Hold In Rare 6-3 Vote Split As It Warns Of Looming Stagflation In the first G5 central bank announcement of the week, overnight the Bank of Japan held its benchmark interest rate in a 6-3 vote, despite forecasting a sharp rise in inflation as the war in the Middle East sends commodity prices higher and clouds the global economic outlook while testing Japan’s given its exposure to rising energy prices. While the […]

US Energy Chief Says Hormuz Can Reopen Without Clearing All Mines, Warns Iran Shut-ins Could Be Devastating US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that not all mines placed by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz need to removed for ships to resume transiting the vital passageway: “You just need a pathway for ships to be moved in and out,” Wright said in an interview on the sidelines of the Three Seas Summit and Business Forum in […]

Collateral Damage By Molly Schwartz, Cross-ASset Macro Strategist at Rabobank Negotiations between the US and Iran are going nowhere. In fact, they’re not really even happening at all. Over the weekend, Axios reported that Iran gave the US a proposal to reopen the Strait — not to end the war. The proposal includes extending the ceasefire and an assertion that any conversations about Iran’s nuclear program are off the table […]