Rabobank: “More War Seems Inevitable” By Michael Every of Rabobank Summit… then ‘summit’ worse? “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE,” was President Trump’s response to Iran’s belated reply to his peace proposal, which they have rejected as a “surrender.” Tehran thinks the US must do so instead: rather than handing over enriched uranium, pledging to never build a nuke, reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and dropping ballistic missiles […]

America’s 250th: Here’s Where Celebrations Are Taking Place Authored by Savannah Halsey Pointer via The Epoch Times, Celebrations across the United States are expected in the coming months as Americans mark the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding. Americans can find parties, fireworks, sporting events, and opportunities to learn about history in various locations. The events are being hosted by individual states and the […]

Global Fertilizer Shortage Means Spring Planting Season Disaster In The Northern Hemisphere Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog, Nobody is going to be able to save the spring planting season in the northern hemisphere now, and that is really bad news because according to the UN the number of people in the world experiencing acute hunger was already at an all-time high even before the war began. A historic […]

Spencer Pratt Surges In L.A. Mayoral Race As Democrats Grow Nervous Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt, best known for his role on MTV’s The Hills, is gaining traction on online prediction markets, including Polymarket and Kalshi, as well as local polling, after a series of viral campaign videos and last week’s mayoral debate. Pratt’s campaign has released hard-hitting viral ads that have spread across social media […]

Why Socialism Fails Authored by Deborah Palma via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), Economics is not a zero-sum game in which one person’s gain comes at another’s expense; nor is it just about numbers or purposeless statistical aggregates, but conscious human action. Custom image by FEE Ludwig von Mises, in his work “Human Action,” explains that individuals act to replace a less satisfactory state of affairs with a more […]

US Firm Unveils Ground Bot With Enough Power To Fire Laser Guns Utah-based defense tech firm Hypercraft has unveiled a 300 hp diesel-hybrid-electric unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) that can power directed-energy weapons, charge drones, and sustain a forward command post, all autonomously. Defense Blog’s Dylan Malyasov reports that Hypercraft’s Razorback UGV can travel 280 miles on a single charge, reach speeds of 60 mph, and […]

More States Enact New Laws Curbing Teachers Unions Authored by Aaron Gifford via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), New organized labor reforms signed into law by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last week require a majority of members to be present for teachers union certification or recertification votes, increase fines for illegal strikes, and establish merit-based pay for educators. Students join striking teachers as they demand higher […]

Kraft Heinz CEO: “Consumers Are Literally Running Out Of Money Toward The End Of The Month” While the digital US economy, if proxied through the earnings growth and stock prices of AI companies and their “picks and shovels” support ecosystem, has never been stronger, the traditional US consumer, responsible for 70% of US GDP, has rarely been more depressed than right now (and according to the latest University of Michigan sentiment […]

The Gerrymander Debacle In Virginia Leaves The Democratic Party With A Dangerous Agenda Authored by Jonathan Turley via jonathanturley.org, “Eff around and find out”: That taunt from Hakeem Jeffries celebrating Virginia’s gerrymander did not age well. On Friday, the House minority leader found out that Virginia’s Supreme Court was not quite as gleeful as he about Democrats’ attempt to virtually eliminate Republican […]

SPLC Leader Pleads Not Guilty To Charges Of Funneling Millions To Neo-Nazis Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, The Southern Poverty Law Center’s leader entered a not guilty plea in federal court this week, desperately fighting charges that the organization defrauded its donors by secretly funneling more than $3 million to the very white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups it claimed to oppose. The SPLC was forced to […]

Kim Jong Un Creates Ultimate Deadman Switch: North Korea To Auto-Launch Nukes If Assassinated North Korea just casually revised its constitution to automatically launch a nuclear strike if leader Kim Jong Un is assassinated, or if the country’s nuclear command-and-control system is placed in danger by hostile forces’ attacks.  The change was adopted during the first session of the 15th Supreme People’s Assembly in […]

How The American System Reshaped The World Authored by J.B. Shurk via American Thinker, Freedom exists in the absence of government control.  We are free when we are able to worship, speak, write, make a living, and protect our families and property without fear that government agents will punish us for our actions.  America’s Founding Fathers embraced an expansive view of personal liberty that recognizes the inherent right […]

Vegetable-Oil Inflation Sends World Food Prices Higher The benchmark for global food commodity prices rose for a third consecutive month in April, hitting its highest level since early 2023, as Middle East supply disruptions, elevated energy costs, and tightening supplies of certain agricultural products appear to be driving the next leg higher in global food prices. This is a major risk we have warned about throughout the […]

“They’ll Be Laughing No Longer”: Trump Rejects Iran Peace Deal Response As “Totally Unacceptable” Summary Trump calls Iran’s peace proposal response “totally unacceptable” Iran warns of ‘decisive, immediate’ response to British or French warships approaching Hormuz Strait. Iran responds Sunday to US peace proposal, finally submitting something official to Pakistan. Details not initially disclosed. Trump TS: Iran […]

Traders Puzzled As Physical Oil Prices Tumble Amid Surging Chinese Crude Sales, Plunging Imports Yesterday when discussing China’s unexpected flip-flopping on its decision to order local banks to ignore the latest US sanctions on Chinese, followed days later by a demand that they pause loans to sanctions refiners, we highlighted something remarkable: in the aftermath of the Strait of Hormuz blockade, which throttled the transit of […]

Earnings Estimate Revisions Are Very Optimistic Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, 💰 Earnings Estimate Revisions Are Very Optimistic Last week, we discussed the S&P earnings record and why such record earnings could be a warning for the market. I want to continue that discussion by focusing not only on what has happened but also on what is expected to happen in the future. While the Q1 2026 earnings […]

Secret Israeli Base Hidden In Iraqi Desert Backed Operations Inside Iran In a revelation sure to outrage Baghdad and broad swathes of the Iraqi public, Israel established a secret military base in Iraq’s desert region to support air operations against Iran, related to the start of Trump’s Operation Epic Fury, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. Israeli forces even at one point launched airstrikes early in the conflict on […]

Bahrain Intensifies Crackdown On Shia Communities, Arrests Dozens Over Alleged IRGC Links Via The Cradle Bahrain’s Interior Ministry announced on Saturday the arrest of 41 citizens, including multiple Shia religious leaders, over alleged ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The ministry said security services uncovered the alleged network through “investigations, security reports, and previous Public […]

Hantavirus-Plagued Cruise Ship Begins Evacuations Early Sunday morning, the Dutch-flagged cruise ship MV Hondius, anchored off Spain’s Canary Islands, began evacuating passengers after a deadly hantavirus outbreak triggered a multinational public health response and put global health authorities on red alert. “The docking took place at 6:30 a.m. and has been a success in spite of all the adversities,” Health Minister Mónica […]

Housing Market’s Crucial “Spring Selling Season” Is In Tatters Authored by Wolf Richter via Wolf Street, Late last year and early this year, the story was that dropping mortgage rates, powered by big rate cuts from the Fed, would unleash demand in the housing market in the spring – the key spring selling season – and that sales volume would take off and that Realtors’ commissions would rocket to the moon. And so that […]

Soaring Death Toll In Lebanon As Full-Fledged Israel, Hezbollah Fighting Returns Full-fledged war has returned to Lebanon as the government has announced that at least 23 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes on Saturday alone.  Stretching back into Friday, this brings the total death count to at least 50 killed over the past 24 hours of Israeli bombings, also as Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) late on Saturday said […]

Winning? Do We Need To Understand UBI Submitted by Peter Tchir of Academy Securities Winning? Do We Need To Understand UBI Iran (and the potential for a deal) has continued to move markets. As the 30-year bond rose above 5% earlier this week, we got news that we have a new approach to resolving the conflict – a one-page MOU. Markets (ex-oil) rallied around various “deal” headlines all week. Spider, Bret, and I spent some […]

Iran-Linked Media Floats Data Tax On Hormuz Undersea Internet Cables An Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-linked media outlet has signaled that submarine fiber-optic cables running through the Strait of Hormuz remain in Tehran’s crosshairs. Tehran views Hormuz not only as an energy chokepoint but also as a digital chokepoint, with undersea cables beaming internet across the Gulf and into the global network. Source: Retuers  […]

What Would Be Truly Bullish? Actually Fixing What’s Broken Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via Of Two Minds, We’ve come to an interesting juncture in history, interesting because while we’re being assured that AI will solve all problems, including any it creates, back in the real world, AI is incapable of fixing what’s broken because too many people are getting rich off the status quo, and since the status quo is the problem, those […]

Housing Cost Pressure Varies Widely Across The EU Housing affordability in the EU has an uneven spread across the continent according to data from Eurostat. As Statista’s Jack Lillis details below, the share of people whose housing costs exceed 40% of disposable income ranges from as low as 2.4% in Cyprus to as high as 28.9% in Greece. The EU 27 average stands at 8.2%, but this figure masks significant disparities between […]