Asia Begins Pricing US Oil Against Brent As Dubai Volatility Spikes Submitted by Michael Kern of OilPrice.com Asian refiners have started pricing their orders for U.S. crude oil against the ICE Brent benchmark instead of the typical pricing on Dubai crude, as the Middle Eastern benchmark has seen wild fluctuations amid choked physical supply from the Persian Gulf. Dubai crude prices soared last week to an all-time high of $169.75 […]

Disturbing “Five Nights At Epstein’s” Online Game Spreads Rapidly Through Classrooms A disturbing browser game called Five Nights at Epstein’s is spreading in schools, with students playing it during class and sharing videos online, according to Bloomberg. In the game, players take on the role of victims trapped on Jeffrey Epstein’s island, trying to survive five nights by avoiding assault. Its popularity has been fueled by […]

“Too Many Things Are Out Of Whack…” Authored by James Howard Kunstler, “The people we care about most, the undocumented migrants…” – Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) Cult Classics Tensions rise as the green fuse drives the flowers of springtime (and thank you, Dylan Thomas, for the loan.) Too many things are out of whack. Some are actually breaking. A physics of events is at work that will bring our affairs back to true, but […]

CPAC Shocker: Dallas Crowd Cheers For Trump Impeachment Hearings In a moment that captured the growing unease within conservative circles, Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, found himself in an awkward spot at this year’s CPAC in the Dallas area on Friday. While attempting to rally the crowd, Schlapp asked, “How many of you would like to see impeachment hearings?” The audience erupted in cheers. Visibly […]

US Signals Allies ‘No Immediate Plans’ For Ground Invasion, As Iran Warns ‘Heavy Price’ To Pay For Nuclear & Steel Plant Attacks Summary US signals to allies no ground invasion coming, with thousands of troops still en route: Iran denies requesting Donald Trump’s 10-day halt; Israel attacks steel & industrial sites. Also, Khondab Heavy Water Research Reactor, part of the Arak Nuclear Complex, targeted. Yellow Cake […]

Tiger Woods Involved In “Rollover Crash” On Jupiter Island Golf pro Tiger Woods has reportedly been involved in a “rollover crash” on Jupiter Island, just north of Palm Beach County in Martin County, according to local media outlet WPTV. The Martin County Sheriff’s Office said the accident occurred near 281 Beach Road on Jupiter Island in Hobe Sound. Property records from Zillow show the closest house to the accident is valued at […]

Soaring Prices Set To Crash China’s LNG Imports To 8-Year Low Submitted by Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com Surging LNG prices amid the war in the Middle East are set to lead to the lowest monthly LNG imports into China in eight years as Qatari and UAE supply is off the market and Chinese buyers look to raise supply from domestic gas production and pipeline deliveries. China is on track to import about 3.7 million tons of LNG in […]

Trump Signs Memo Directing DHS To Pay TSA Agents; First Paychecks Could Arrive Monday Summary:   Reuters says 50,000 TSA agents could be paid as early as Monday Trump officially puts out a presidential memorandum instructing DHS to pay TSA agents House Speaker Mike Johnson agreed to put a short-term DHS funding package on the floor The resolution would fund all of DHS, including ICE and CBP It would replace […]

In Surprise Move, Iran Blocks Two Chinese Ships From Transiting Hormuz In a surprise twist, Iran appears to have turned its back on its best (and only) client, Beijing, when it blocked two China-owned container vessels from the Strait of Hormuz in what the WSJ said was an unusual move by Tehran, which has focused its shipping blockade on countries it deems supporters of Israel and the U.S. Paper says “open.” Reality says […]

Musk Targets Retail Investors For Up To 30% Of SpaceX’s IPO Shares Elon Musk is planning a highly unconventional IPO for SpaceX, aiming to make it one of the largest public offerings ever, with a target raise in the tens of billions, according to the Wall Street Journal. Instead of relying solely on the standard investor roadshow, he is considering bringing investors directly to SpaceX sites, where they could tour facilities and […]

A Panicking Japan Considers Shorting Oil To Prop Up The Crashing Yen With the yen collapse accelerating, and pushing the USDJPY above 160 for the first time since 2024, markets are on edge expecting a BOJ intervention at any moment as this was the price when the BOJ intervened last time. However, with BOJ interventions having been consistently proven futile with a half life of just weeks if not days, Japan – facing soaring […]

Iran-Linked Hackers Breach FBI Director Kash Patel’s Personal Email Account, DOJ Confirms Iran-linked hackers have claimed responsibility for breaching the personal email account of FBI Director Kash Patel, publicly releasing photographs of him, a purported resume, and excerpts of old emails. A U.S. Justice Department official has confirmed the compromise, marking the latest escalation in cyber tensions between the United States and […]

Cartels Are Going ‘Broke’ As US Fentanyl Supply Drops By Almost 60%: Homan Authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times, The Trump administration’s border crackdown is slowing the flow of deadly drugs into the country to the point that cartel profits have plummeted. ​Border czar Tom Homan said during an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Thursday that President Donald Trump’s […]

Will QatarEnergy’s LNG Fiasco Derail Goldman’s Prewar View Of A Mega LNG Wave Global energy flows are being rewired across Eurasia as the Russia-Ukraine war and the latest U.S.-Iran conflict disrupt Gulf energy flows in what may be the worst energy shock on record. One major new development is that roughly 20% of global LNG flows remain shut in the Gulf region because of the Hormuz chokepoint, with QatarEnergy warning last week […]

Schiff: “Real Rates Are Going To Collapse”; Dollar Confidence Crisis Gold or Bitcoin: which can anchor the next reserve system?  Last night, in a ZH debate hosted by Real Vision’s Ash Bennington, Peter Schiff argued for gold’s role as the future global reserve currency, while Mark Moss made the case for Bitcoin, arguing that it is gaining traction on sovereign balance sheets as of 2025. They covered America’s dwindling reserve […]

Newspaper Apologizes For Accurately Describing Suspected Killer As ‘Illegal Immigrant’ Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, The student journalists at Loyola University Chicago’s Phoenix newspaper have issued a groveling apology for initially reporting the facts about the man charged with murdering 18-year-old Sheridan Gorman. In an editor’s note, the paper stated: “Additionally, in the body of the original post, […]

UAE Pushes For Hormuz Security Force, While Turkey Argues Against Gulf Entry Into War It’s one of those things that sounds nice on paper, but when missiles and drones are inbound, no one is going to want to be on a military ship sitting in the middle of the Strait of Hormuz: the United Arab Emirates, which has been among the hardest-impacted Gulf states in Iran’s ongoing retaliation, is pressing for a multinational maritime […]

House Ethics Panel Finds Florida Democrat Congresswoman Committed 25 Violations Authored by Chase Smith via The Epoch Times, A bipartisan House Ethics Committee panel found on March 27 that Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) committed 25 ethics violations, a ruling that sets the stage for a sanctions hearing and a potential expulsion vote on the House floor. The adjudicatory subcommittee, composed of four Republicans and […]

China Dismisses Report Of Top Chipmaker Aiding Iranian Forces As “Fake News” Beijing moved into damage-control mode on Friday, with its foreign ministry dismissing a Reuters report that cited two senior Trump administration officials alleging that SMIC, China’s largest chipmaker, had sent chipmaking tools to Iran, as “false information.” Asked about the report at a regular news conference in Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Lin […]

Someone Tell Lloyd Blankfein The Fire In Private Credit Has Already Started Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance As I’ve been writing about, private credit has been under immense stress for months, with liquidity strains, redemption pressure, and growing questions around valuations all surfacing at once. And now with things on the verge of imminent collapse and literally all of f*cking Wall Street already on notice, one former […]

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 Authored by Liam Cosgrove, ZeroHedge Washington Correspondent 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 rejected at […]

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 […]