Tanker Seizures By Iran Don’t Breach Ceasefire: White House Not only did President Trump this week unilaterally extend the Iran ceasefire by at least three to five days (upon initial announcement), but he has refrained from ordering new attacks against the Islamic Republic even as the IRGC navy continued intercepting foreign tankers. By Tuesday, he had extended the ceasefire indefinitely, writing on Truth Social: “Based on the fact […]

Pot Stocks Soar As DoJ Reclassifies Medical Marijuana As Less Dangerous Drug Pot stocks are moving higher in premarket trading in New York after the Justice Department and DEA announced that FDA-approved marijuana-based drugs and state-licensed medical marijuana products will be moved immediately from Schedule I to Schedule III. This is a major shift in how the federal government classifies these types of cannabis products. *DOJ […]

9th Circuit Kills California’s ICE Unmasking Law The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals handed the Trump administration a significant legal victory Wednesday, issuing a formal injunction blocking California’s No Vigilantes Act from being enforced against federal law enforcement officers. The court ruled that the state law – which required non-uniformed federal agents to visibly display identification while performing their duties – likely […]

Trump Orders Navy ‘Shoot & Kill’ Iranian Boats Laying Mines, As US Intercepts Tankers From Hormuz To Indian Ocean Summary Iranian sources to Chinese state media says ‘breakthrough’ toward restarting US talks again could come ‘tonight or tomorrow’. Trump orders US Navy ‘shoot & kill’ small Iranian boats amid concern over mines in Hormuz. Overnight, US military intercepted two more Iranian oil supertankers that […]

Futures Fall As Iran Talks Remain In Limbo, More Ships Intercepted US equity futures are lower, but rapidly rising and now at premarket highs after a CCTV report that talks between Iran and the US in Pakistan may see a breakthrough “tonight or tomorrow”; still the optimism of recent days is being tested, with peace talks in limbo, software concerns reemerging and the bond market flashing warning signals. As of 8:15am ET, S&P […]

“Mo Hire, No Fire” Economy Emerges As ADP Surges With Jobless Claims Flat Following the surge in ADP’s weekly job additions index earlier in the week… Today we see that the number of Americans filing for jobless benefits last week was just 214k – hovering back near record lows… Continuing jobless claims inched back above 1.8 million Americans last week but remains near two year lows… So are we morphing from “no hire, […]

American Airline Cuts Outlook After Jet Fuel Shock Bill American Airlines slashed its full-year outlook on Thursday morning, warning it could post a loss in 2026 as the Iran-U.S. war, which sent jet fuel prices soaring, adds roughly $4 billion in fuel costs. The airline now expects full-year results ranging from a 40-cent loss to a $1.10 profit, down from its earlier forecast of $1.10 to $2.70 in earnings per share. “Based on […]

Here’s What Happened Inside Convenience Stores When Gas Hit $4 Continuing our coverage of consumer behavior shifts at petrol stations and convenience stores, the U.S. national average for 87-octane gasoline has remained above the politically sensitive $4-a-gallon level for three weeks. Goldman analysts have released a new note indicating that a majority of convenience stores are seeing drivers buying less fuel and trading down […]

European Car Sales Jump 11% As Fuel Shock Drives EV Demand European auto sales posted their strongest monthly gain in almost two years in March, as robust demand emerged for fully electric and hybrid models. The surge in demand follows the US-Iran conflict, which disrupted energy flows through the Hormuz chokepoint. As a result, petrol and diesel prices at the pump in Europe soared. Another issue is China flooding the continent […]

White House Working On NATO ‘Naughty & Nice’ List Based On Iran War Support US officials are drafting what diplomats provocatively describe as a “naughty and nice” list ranking NATO allies based on their support for the US-Israeli war against Iran. Fresh reporting in Politico describes the proposal, developed ahead of NATO chief Mark Rutte’s visit to Washington this month, as placing member states into tiers while […]

Judge Blocks Trump Admin’s Move To Halt Wind, Solar Approvals Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, Landlords in London and the south-east of the UK are openly advertising flats and rooms exclusively for Muslim tenants – a practice that directly breaches the Equality Act 2010. The listings, spotted on Facebook, Gumtree and Telegram, use phrases such as “only for Muslims”, “for two Muslim boys or two Muslim girls” […]

Voting Rights Groups Sue To Stop DOJ From Collecting State Voter Lists Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times, Voting rights groups filed a lawsuit on April 21 seeking to block the Department of Justice (DOJ) from collecting, compiling, and analyzing state voter registration lists. As of April 1, the DOJ has sued 30 states, including Washington, for failing to turn over voter rolls. The department has said the U.S. […]

Russia To Stop Kazakh Oil Flows To Germany Via Druzhba Pipeline After several weeks of the main oil artery into Europe being halted – perhaps as Ukraine awaited the outcome of the Hungary election and the greenlighting of Europe’s €90 billion loan to Kiev – Zelenskyy stated the Druzhba oil pipeline will be ready to ship Russian oil again. There is just one problem: Russia said it would halt halt Kazakh crude-oil shipments to […]

UK High Court Backs Facial Recognition Rollout Authored by Kit Knightly via OffGuardian.org, Yesterday evening, the UK’s High Court ruled in favour of the Metropolitan Police in a legal challenge pertaining to the use of Live Facial Recognition Technology (LFR) across London’s transport network. The case had been brought by Silkie Carlo of Big Brother Watch and Shaun Thompson, a youth worker who was previously misidentified by […]

Outrage After Von Der Leyen Groups Turkey Into Malign Axis With Russia, China Turkey’s government as well as some members of the European Parliament on Wednesday criticized recent remarks by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen suggesting Europe should not fall under the influence of Russia, Turkey, or China – calling the comments misleading and divisive. Von der Leyen on Monday had casually grouped NATO member […]

Nuclear Fuel Consortium To Provide Update On Approved Plans of Action The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Nuclear Fuel Defense Production Act (DPA) Consortium will be meeting on Thursday morning to “provide updates to the public on the progress of the Consortium and provide commentary on approved Plans of Action”. Trump: “The US is going heavy into nuclear. I wasn’t a fan of nuclear, but the safety progress they’ve made with […]

UK, France Lead 30-Nation Military Push To Reopen Strait Of Hormuz Submitted by Michael Kern of OilPrice.com, The UK is hosting (yesterday and today) a two-day multinational conference convening military planners from more than 30 countries as Britain and France renew efforts to re-open the Strait of Hormuz. The two-day conference takes place just after U.S. President Donald Trump late on Tuesday extended the U.S.-Iran […]

Curious Timing: Ukraine Declares Druzhba Pipeline Repaired After New Hungarian PM Elected Ukraine announced Tuesday it completed repairs to the damaged Druzhba oil pipeline and stands ready to resume pumping Russian oil to Europe, a step Ukrainian officials expect will unlock a long-delayed EU aid package. The timing is quite interesting and surely not coincidental given that Hungary’s newly elected PM Péter Magyar and his […]

Newly Elected Hungarian PM Vows To Arrest Netanyahu If He Enters Country Via The Cradle Hungary’s incoming Prime Minister, Peter Magyar, stated on April earlier this week that his government will arrest Israeli Prime Minister and ‘wanted war criminal’ Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits, as Budapest reconsiders the previous government’s plan to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC). “I made myself clear to the […]

Oil Conundrum: Record Inventory Draws And Stable Crude Prices Something strange is taking place in oil. Crude prices have been remarkably stable over the last week, with Brent mostly trading in the high 90s on mixed prospects for the resolution of the over 7-week conflict in the Persian Gulf, despite signs to the contrary: the second round of talks between the US and Iran has been postponed indefinitely following Iran’s decision […]

From Gaza To BRICS: The Revolt Against The Dollar Order Authored by Freddie Ponton via 21stCenturyWire.com, Washington spent decades marketing the dollar as the natural language of world trade, a neutral vessel carrying commerce across borders. In practice, it became the armed currency of an imperial system that bombed states into ruin, sanctioned whole societies, and reserved the right to strangle any country that refused […]

US Drains Half Its Patriot Arsenal During Iran War, New Military Study Finds The seven-week Iran war, currently on pause due to an extended ceasefire, has raised alarm in Washington over the question of how fast the US has burned through its missile interceptor stockpile. The two-week ceasefire, having just been extended, provided an opportunity for both sides to restock and regroup. A fresh analysis from the Washington-based […]

China Tests Directed Energy Beam That Recharges Drones Mid-Flight Authored by Bojan Stojkovski via Interesting Engineering, A Chinese research team has successfully tested a wireless power transfer system that beams energy from the ground to a drone in flight using microwaves.  The setup relies on a mobile emitter that directs energy to an antenna array mounted beneath the aircraft, enabling continuous power delivery without […]

US Treasury Secretary Presses Senate To Pass Crypto Market Structure Legislation Authored by Micah Zimmerman via BitcoinMagazine.com, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told a Senate panel Wednesday that passing comprehensive crypto legislation is essential to securing U.S. financial leadership and protecting the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency, using an appearance before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee […]

U.S. Deploys Ukrainian Acoustic Sensors, Interceptor Drones At Prince Sultan Air Base Last month’s Iranian drone strike on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia appears to have inflicted a costly toll on U.S. forces in the region. The attack destroyed a U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft and damaged multiple KC-135 refueling tankers, highlighting a major gap in U.S. air defenses against cheap […]