Escalation On All Fronts As Iran Says Never Requested US Energy Strike Pause; Israel Goes After Industrial Targets Summary No pause from Tehran, war footing deepens: Iran denies requesting Donald Trump’s 10-day halt; Israel attacks steel & industrial sites. Escalation on all fronts: IRGC HQ targeted by US-Israsel; Iran signals expansion by naming UAE targets, hitting Kuwait ports and sending drones on Riyadh […]

Logic, Logistics, And At Least Another 10 Days… By Michael Every of Rabobank Thursday was a rocky day in markets ahead of today’s deadline for the US to shift from bombing Iran’s nuclear, missile, drone, military-industrial, and regime sites to destroying its electricity grid, potentially taking out its power generation for a generation, and unleashing an Iranian response against the broader region’s power, water, and energy […]

Iran War Triggers Jump In Americans’ Inflation Expectations, Slump In Sentiment While the preliminary UMich survey was undertaken between February 17 and March 9, with about half completed after the start of the US military conflict in Iran, today’s final print includes the full month with all the conflict’s escalations (and de-escalations). Expectations were for the headline sentiment index to tumble with expectations projected […]

QatarEnergy Declares ForceMajeure For LNG Shipments Through May, Representing As Many As 90 Cargoes The already dismal LNG supply situation just got worse. With up to 20% of global LNG flows shuttered due to the ongoing blockade of the Hormuz Strait and the extensive damage of Qatar LNG infrastructure, QatarEnergy has declared force majeure on some of ⁠its long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply contracts, including ‌for […]

“There’s A Lot Of Concern”: GOP Lawmakers Predict Midterm Disaster If Troops Deployed To Iran While most Republicans are still with Trump on Iran, beneath the outward show of unity, something more politically dangerous is beginning to emerge: a growing fear that a war sold as limited could turn into the kind of Middle East quagmire MAGA voters thought they had already rejected. And it isn’t just the usual anti-interventionist […]

Peak Lobotomized American Consumer Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance There’s a very specific kind of financial confession I’ve had to make to myself recently. I see charges pop up on my phone’s home screen on various credit cards all the time. A lot of times they just say “Apple” or “Amazon.” No details. No explanation. Just a clean, confident withdrawal from my account like I’m renting air to breathe from both of […]

AI Disruption Returns: Cybersecurity Stocks Tumble On Report Of New Anthropic “Step Change” AI Model Cybersecurity stocks are slumping in premarket trading on Friday as the AI disruption trade returns after a Fortune report said Anthropic is testing a new AI model that “poses significant cybersecurity risks.” According to the report, Anthropic is “developing and has begun testing with early access customers a new AI model more […]

Senate Passes DHS Funding Bill To End 40-Day Shutdown, Airport Chaos At 2:22 a.m. EST, the Senate unanimously passed a spending bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security after a 40-day shutdown that disrupted airport security and sparked travel chaos for millions of Americans. The bill, which excludes funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, still needs House approval and President […]

Trump Fails To Jawbone Market As Futures, Bitcoin Tumble; Oil And Yields Soar Futures are sharply lower, erasing modest overnight gains and trading near session lows as Brent crude futures are back above $110 a barrel after erasing an earlier fall and knocking broader risk sentiment off course in the process. There didn’t appear to be a single catalyst for the oil turnaround, although a steady stream of drone and missile […]

First Qatar Supply Shock, Now Cyclone Chaos Slams Major Australian LNG Plants In a troubling overnight development that could further deepen the Gulf energy shock, especially in global LNG markets, a tropical cyclone has disrupted operations at three major Australian LNG facilities, which together account for roughly 8.4% of global supply. The timing is alarming: Iranian strikes have already knocked out about 17% of Qatar’s LNG […]

Did Melania Trump’s White House Walk With Humanoid Robot Signal Admin’s Push Into Physical AI The White House on Wednesday hosted an education summit featuring first lady Melania Trump walking side by side with an American-made humanoid robot.  “Figure 03” AI-powered robot accompanies first lady Melania Trump to a White House summit on empowering children with educational technology. pic.twitter.com/RShdfvEG38 — CSPAN (@cspan) […]

K-Shaped Economy Bites Back: Retail CRE Transactions For Shops, Malls Plunge February U.S. commercial real estate transaction activity appeared soft on the surface, but Goldman analysts believe the weak initial print will likely be revised meaningfully higher. The most notable area of weakness in last month’s transaction data was across the retail space, which is not especially surprising as the K-shaped economy continues to […]

UK Pushes Ahead With Temporary Ban On Political Crypto Donations Authored by Stephen Katte via CoinTelegraph.com, The UK government is advancing plans for a moratorium on political donations made through cryptocurrencies, following an independent review and pressure from multiple high-ranking politicians. Cointelegraph reported on Wednesday that the Rycroft Review, an independent inquiry into foreign financial interference in […]

Pentagon Weighs Sending Another 10,000 Ground Troops To Middle East, Suggests Seizing Iran-Controlled Islands Summary The Pentagon is looking at sending up to 10,000 additional ground troops to the Middle East to give the US President more military options even as he weighs peace talks with Tehran, according to unnamed Department of War officials     The earlier five-day deadline for resumption of US attacks on Iranian energy […]

EU Accuses Hungary Of ‘Pro-Russian Espionage’ Authored by Lucas Leiroz de Almeida via InfoBrics, The rhetorical escalation between Budapest and Brussels continues to grow. Now, the EU accuses Hungary of actively sabotaging Europe by passing strategic information about the bloc to the Russian side. This type of serious accusation could never be made without proof, yet it has become common practice for the Western liberal regimes to […]

Iran Conflict Drives Surge In China EV Demand A sharp rise in oil prices tied to the US-Israel confrontation with Iran is likely to speed up the global transition to electric vehicles, strengthening a shift that has already helped China overtake Japan as the world’s top car seller, according to South China Morning Post. Crude prices have surged past $100 a barrel amid fears of disruption to energy supplies, particularly through […]

The German Bureaucratic Dream Of “Society with Bound Capital” Submitted by Thomas Kolbe They form a massive workforce, the last continuously growing sector of our society: civil servants. Approximately 5.5 million employees work in the public sector, and last year alone, 205,000 new civil servants were added. This is by no means a blind attack on the bureaucracy. Civil servants indispensable to our society work to maintain […]

Key Russian Baltic Oil Port Of Primorsk Resumes Loading After Ukraine Attack Russia’s top oil port in the Baltic Sea, Primorsk, resumed loading days after it came under attack from Ukrainian drones, although Bloomberg notes that the company that pipes crude there said it is trying to divert barrels elsewhere because of the incidents. Ukraine attacked Russia’s largest oil port in the Baltic Sea to prevent it from benefiting […]

A Turning Point For Europe: Historic EU Parliament Votes Signal Rightward Realignment On Migration, Privacy, And Transatlantic Ties On Thursday, the European Parliament in Strasbourg delivered what many are calling one of the most significant setbacks in recent memory for the EU’s traditional bureaucratic and centrist consensus. In a single day, MEPs advanced stricter mass deportation rules, rejected controversial mass […]

UN Adopts Slavery Resolution Calling For Reparations Despite US, European Objections Authored by Chris Summers via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), The U.N. General Assembly on March 25 adopted a resolution declaring the trafficking of enslaved Africans “the gravest crime against humanity” and calling for reparations. U.S. First Lady Melania Trump (R) and Kwesi Essel-Blankson, museum educator, tour the Cape Coast Castle, a […]

Eurasia Energy War? As analysts and traders continue to assess the Gulf energy shock and its implications for the global economy, another alarming development has emerged across the energy sector: Ukrainian kamikaze drone strikes have reportedly disrupted a significant portion of Russia’s oil export capacity, according to Reuters. Reuters calculates that recent Ukrainian drone strikes on Russia’s oil and fuel export […]

‘Changes Everything’: The A-10 ‘Warthog’ Proves Its Worth Again Over The Strait Of Hormuz Authored by Mike Fredenburg via The Epoch Times, Despite Air Force claims that the A-10 has no place on the modern battlefield, a claim they have been making for decades, the A-10 is once again using its unmatched versatility and loitering capability to destroy fast-attack watercraft, drones, and enemy positions. And for the role it is […]

Judge Blocks Trump Admin’s ‘Orwellian’ Supply Chain Risk Label On Anthropic – For Now It looks like Anthropic isn’t as radioactive to other defense contractors – for now, and on paper.  In a sharply worded 43-page order issued Thursday, U.S. District Judge Rita F. Lin (Biden) of the Northern District of California granted Anthropic PBC’s motion for a preliminary injunction, blocking key punitive measures imposed by the Trump […]

BYD And VinFast Race To Dominate Southeast Asia’s EV Market BYD and VinFast are rapidly expanding their presence in Southeast Asia, where electric vehicles are gaining traction and competition is intensifying, according to Nikkei. Both companies have emerged as the fastest-growing car brands in the region’s six largest markets in 2025, with sales rising about 95% for BYD and 90% for VinFast compared with the previous year. […]

Former Taiwanese Presidential Candidate Sentenced To 17 Years In Corruption Case Authored by Dorothy Li & Frank Fang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), TAIPEI, Taiwan – A Taipei court on March 26 found a former presidential candidate guilty of corruption-related charges and sentenced him to 17 years in prison, a verdict that has attracted domestic media attention amid the ongoing political deadlock in Taiwan. Ko Wen-je, […]