Iran Fires On Third Ship In Hormuz Chokepoint, Says US Navy Blockade ‘No Different Than Bombing’ Summary IRGC seized the MSC Francesca and a Greek-owned ship named Euphoria, which had been attempting to transit the Hormuz chokepoint earlier today. Within hours, a third ship comes under fire by the IRGC Senior Iranian adviser says the US naval blockade is “no different than bombing” and must be met “with a military […]

Futures Rise After Trump Extends Ceasefire Even As Brent Tops $100 Futures are higher with earnings in full swing and AI winners soaring. Trump indefinitely extended the ceasefire with Iran just before its Taco Tuesday expiration, while maintaining a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, after plans for peace talks fell apart. Still, the market doesn’t seem too concerned about the lack of a resolution, and is instead focused on a […]

Psychedelic Stocks Just Went Mainstream Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance Donald Trump just did something that would have sounded borderline impossible a couple of years ago: he signed an executive order aimed at accelerating research and access to psychedelic therapies, backing it with $50 million in federal funding and directing regulators to remove barriers that have long kept this entire category stuck on the sidelines. This […]

Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile Weigh Potential Mega-Merger A new Bloomberg report states that Deutsche Telekom AG is exploring a mega merger with its U.S. subsidiary, T-Mobile US, in a move that would create a telecom giant valued at roughly $400 billion. If completed, the deal would rank as the largest public M&A transaction ever. Deutsche Telekom shares fell 4% in Germany on Wednesday morning after Bloomberg reported overnight […]

Trump’s “Sock Puppet” By Philip Marey of Rabobank Summary The confirmation hearing of Fed Chair nominee Kevin Warsh by the Senate Banking Committee was a very partisan affair. In his prepared remarks, Warsh stressed that monetary policy independence is essential, but he does not believe that the operational independence of monetary policy is particularly threatened when elected officials state their views on interest rates. Warsh […]

Conservative-Targeting SPLC Indicted By Trump DoJ For Fraudulently Funding KKK & Other Extremist Groups The Southern Poverty Law Center was indicted on federal fraud charges that accused it of illegally raising millions of dollars to pay informants in white supremacist and other extremist groups, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said. An Alabama grand jury returned an indictment on April 21 with 11 counts of wire fraud, […]

The Middle Corridor Emerges As A Strategic Lifeline For Global Trade Via RFE/RL, Global trade is shifting away from vulnerable maritime chokepoints toward overland routes like the Middle Corridor amid rising geopolitical instability A $3.3 billion World Bank-backed investment push aims to address infrastructure gaps and unlock the corridor’s long-term potential While promising, the route still faces major capacity […]

China “Aggressively” Selling Oil In Recent Weeks We knew there was a reason why China had accumulated a cool 1.5 billion barrels in its strategic petroleum reserve: the reason, to become the world’s strategist petroleum reserve when the time arises… for a price of course. According to the chief executive officer of commodity trader Mercuria, Chinese oil companies have been aggressive sellers in recent weeks, selling barrels to […]

What Does This Guy Have To Do To Get Deported? Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, Britain’s immigration system has hit a new low. A convicted Islamist terrorist who helped plot a bombing at the London Stock Exchange remains free to live in the UK, protected by human rights laws despite his asylum application being thrown out years ago. The case of Shah Rahman exposes exactly how foreign terror offenders exploit […]

Nearly 1 In 4 Americans Over 65 Are Still Working For a growing share of Americans, retirement no longer starts at 65. This map, via Visual Capitalist’s Gabriel Cohen, shows where people aged 65 and older are still working across U.S. states, based on 2024 data from the U.S. Census Bureau via FinanceBuzz. About 22% of Americans 65+ remain in the workforce, but the share climbs to nearly one-third in some states. The gap […]

Study Shows Some Humans Are Evolving To Be ‘Foxier’ Authored by David Randall via RealClearScience, The latest report from David Reich’s genetics lab at Harvard is that “Ancient DNA reveals pervasive directional selection across West Eurasia.” In other words, humans have been continuing to evolve in Europe and the Middle East for the last 10,000 years, with significant effect. Reich’s paper broadly substantiates the thesis […]

US Throttles Intelligence-Sharing With South Korea After Nuclear Disclosure Row The United States has reduced intelligence sharing with South Korea pertaining to eavesdropping on North Korea following an alleged leak tied to sensitive information, according to local media reports. But it is a major allegation that the government has dismissed as ‘absurd’. South Korean President Lee Jae Myung took to X at the start of this week to […]

Coinbase Now Lets UK Users Borrow Against Their Bitcoin And Ethereum Via Decrypt.co, Coinbase launched crypto-backed USDC lending for U.K. users on Monday. Bitcoin holders can borrow up to $5 million in USDC, with Ethereum-backed loans capped at $1 million. The service uses Morpho, an open-source lending protocol on Ethereum layer-2 network, Base. Crypto exchange Coinbase has expanded its lending service, now […]

China Loads Up On US Chip Tools Via Southeast Asia Amid Supply Chain Shift China’s imports of chipmaking equipment from Malaysia and Singapore rose sharply in 2025 to surpass those from the US, which sank to an eight-year low, an analysis by Nikkei Asia has found – even as American companies remain a vital source of advanced tools for the country. While the Netherlands and Japan remain China’s primary foreign sources of critical […]

Spain’s Services Crumble; Military-Aged Male Migrants Overwhelm Registry Offices Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, Huge queues of migrants continue to snake through Spanish cities this week as Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s socialist government opened the floodgates on its controversial mass regularization program. Applications for legal status and work permits kicked off last Thursday following cabinet approval, and […]

Ukraine Billionaire Spends $554 Million For World’s Most Expensive Apartment In Monte Carlo It makes sense that a nation which has consistently ranked at the top in all global corruption rankings, produces some of the most extravagant demonstrations of stolen wealth.  Take billionaire Rinat Akhmetov, among many other assets owner of the Azovstal steel complex in Mariupol which became one of the defining clashes in the Ukraine […]

Nobel Physicist Predicts ‘End-Date’ For Modern Civilization Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, Nobel Prize-winning physicist David Gross has provided a sobering timeline for the potential end of modern civilisation, citing the escalating risks of nuclear war. The 2004 Nobel laureate estimates that humanity may have roughly 35 years remaining before facing existential catastrophe from nuclear conflict. In an interview, […]

South Korea Curbs Syringe Hoarding As Iran War Cripples Supply The downstream consequences from the Hormuz closure are popping up in the most unexpected places.  According to Bloomberg, South Korea’s health regulators are stepping in to curb syringe hoarding as supply chain disruptions tied to the Middle East conflict threaten the availability of essential medical supplies. While overall syringe production remains steady at […]

Trump Blinks Again, Unilaterally Extends Iran Ceasefire After Pakistan Talks Fail To Launch Summary Trump unilaterally extends ceasefire after Vance calls off trip to Pakistan – says Iranian port blockade to remain in place. Tasnim says Iran’s ‘final decision’ is to not attend talks. Trump warns: ‘Expect…bombs’ & urges Tehran “release women” said to be on death row. Overnight, US forces conducted a right-of-visit, […]

From Tank Rides To Overseeing Missile Tests: Kim Jong Un’s Teenage Daughter Prepped As Likely Successor Longtime North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un oversaw a test launch of missiles equipped with multiple reentry vehicles, a move that drew limited international attention despite its escalation risk. “The purpose of the test-fire is to verify the characteristics and power of cluster bomb warhead and fragmentation mine warhead applied […]

US, Philippines Launch Their ‘Biggest Ever’ Balikatan Drills With Large Japanese Contingent Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com, The US and the Philippines on Monday launched what’s being billed as the “biggest ever” Balikatan Exercise, an annual military drill that, for the first time, includes a significant contingent of Japanese troops as Tokyo increases its military activity in the region, ramping up tensions with […]

Halliburton Sees First Signs Of Life In America’s Oil Patch: “We Are In Early Innings” An emerging theme we are focusing on is the early stage of a major capex upcycle in America’s oil patch, with even Goldman now moving in that direction and forecasting a boom that could echo the industry’s expansion cycle of the early 2000s. Continental Resources CEO Doug Lawler was the first of the major oil patch players to mention in early […]

US Treasury Sanctions 14 Targets For Helping Iran Obtain Weapons Authored by Joseph Lord via The Epoch Times, The U.S. Treasury Department on April 21 announced that it is imposing sanctions on 14 targets “for their involvement in helping the Iranian regime obtain weapons,” in contravention of international sanctions. “As the regime attempts to reconstitute its production capacity, the United States will continue to deplete […]

NewMexit: Secession In The Southwest? Authored by Stephen Anderson via The Mises Institute, Lea and Roosevelt counties in the US state of New Mexico (NM) in 2026 are seeking to secede and join the state of Texas. “There was a state representative or two from New Mexico who were expressing frustration with the government in Santa Fe,” Texas State Representative Carl Tepper said. “They have expressed an interest in being […]

‘Eliminating Energy Blockade Top Priority’ As Cuba Confirms Direct Talks With US Cuba confirmed on April 20 that it recently held direct talks with U.S. officials in Havana, marking a rare diplomatic engagement as tensions persist over Washington’s long-standing economic restrictions on the communist nation. Alejandro Garcia del Toro, deputy director general for U.S. affairs at Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in […]