OpenAI Rewrites ‘Sloppy’ Pentagon AI Deal After Backlash Over Surveillance Risks OpenAI – which millions of users trust with everything from legal documents to tax returns – is revising its newly signed contract with the US Department of War, just days after it was announced that they would replace Anthropic for use in government systems because the rushed rollout “looked opportunistic and sloppy.”  Hours after negotiations […]

Regime Change Will Not Be Easy: Tehran’s Goal Is To Survive By Any Means Necessary By Molly Schwartz, cross-asset macro strategist at Rabobank My Circus! My Monkeys! Europe was hit with the first strike to its energy supply chain after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and had to start diversifying its inflows from elsewhere. Now that Middle Eastern LNG is losing reliability, Europe might have to get involved just to keep the lights […]

US B-2 Bombers Belatedly Authorized To Use British Bases To Hit Deep Inside Iran In the modern era Britain has always been America’s junior partner when it comes to launching Middle East wars, and so in the opening days of Trump’s Operation Epic Fury targeting Iran, there was anger in Washington as the Starmer government appeared to waffle and was fence sitting. However by Monday and Tuesday, the United Kingdom is as expected now […]

Oil Spikes To Session High As Iraq Starts Shutting Output At Massive Oil Field Here are the most critical developments unfolding in the US-Iran conflict:  Iraq’s crude oil output is being significantly curtailed. An update from Iraq specifies a shutdown of 460,000 bpd at West Qurna 2 and a cut of 700,000 bpd at Rumaila, while warning that more than 3 million bpd could be forced offline in the coming days if tanker access remains […]

China Panics, Urges Ceasefire To Reopen Strait Of Hormuz As Beijing Is Addicted To Cheap Iranian Crude Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said at Tuesday’s regular press briefing in Beijing that all parties in the Iran conflict must ensure the safe transit of commercial shipping through the critical maritime energy chokepoint of the Strait of Hormuz. “China urges all parties to immediately cease military operations, […]

“From Orderly Selloff, To Panic”: Stocks, Bonds Plunge As Oil, Dollar Soar On Iran War US equity futures are down sharply, along with all global markets, as the Iran war expands and escalates (attack on US embassy in Saudi Arabia; uncertainty over duration of Strait of Hormuz closure; targeting non-military infra / businesses) rattling markets and sending oil and the dollar surging. Global bonds also plunge on fears that Trump’s […]

Supreme Court Sides With Parents Over Kids’ Gender Disclosure In California Golden State groomers were dealt a devastating blow on Monday after the Supreme Court sided with parents challenging school policies in California that restrict when educators may disclose changes to a student’s name or pronouns, handing parental rights advocates an early but significant victory in a closely watched culture-war dispute. In an unsigned […]

Iran Expands Strikes On Gulf Energy Infrastructure As More Oil Hubs Hit One day after a reported Iranian drone strike forced Saudi Arabia’s largest oil refinery offline, with high-resolution post-strike satellite imagery showing visible damage, multiple reports on Tuesday morning suggest additional energy infrastructure in two Gulf states has also been targeted in suspected Iranian drone attacks. Bloomberg reports that “falling […]

European Commission Wants Your Free Speech. X Is In The Way Authored by Adina Portau via RealClearPolitics.ocm, Last week, Elon Musk’s X launched a landmark legal challenge against a $140 million fine issued by the European Commission last December under the Digital Services Act, an EU censorship law. The case was filed at the General Court of the EU, which hears high-stakes challenges to EU regulatory and enforcement […]

‘DEPART NOW’: US Tells Citizens To Flee Middle East, But Most Airspace Closed As Iran’s response to Israeli and US warfare causes havoc across the Middle East, the US government is urging its citizens to immediately evacuate if they’re in any of 14 countries in the region –something far easier said than done.  “The [State Department] urges Americans to DEPART NOW…using available commercial transportation, due to serious safety […]

Persian Gulf Goes Dark For Container Shipping And There’s No Detour Left By Stuart Chris of FreightWaves Ocean lines flee Strait of Hormuz as Iran targets Persian Gulf ports While tanker vessels came under fire in the Strait of Hormuz, container lines were suspending operations to Persian Gulf ports following the joint Israel-U.S. attack on Iran. Media reports said ports in the United Arab Emirates and Dubai’s port of Jebel […]

Drone Impacts US Embassy In Riyadh After Rubio Warns Iran ‘Hardest Hits Yet To Come’ Summary: President Trump opened Monday’s Medal of Honor ceremony in the White House East Wing with a carefully prepared, somewhat brief statement on Operation Epic Fury. Speaking deliberatively – but not quite with the level of his typically confident and energetic tone and demeanor – he spoke initially and broadly on the rationale for ordering the […]

Will Soaring War Risk Send Civilian Ammunition Prices Higher? President Trump signaled on Sunday that Operation Epic Fury could extend for four weeks, shifting our focus beyond the likely decline of certain air-delivered munition stockpiles to the question of whether a prolonged conflict begins tightening small-arms ammunition supplies and spilling over into civilian markets. “It’s always been a four-week process. We figured it […]

Vienna Is Nice This Time Of Year… Right? Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, Vienna, once hailed as one of Europe’s safest capitals, is grappling with a wave of violent crimes linked to unchecked migration, alongside a deepening crisis in schools where German is becoming a minority language.  Parents are fleeing public education, random assaults are making headlines, and the city’s demographic fabric is […]

Russian Guidance Chip With Western Parts Found In Iranian Drone That Hit UK Air Base In Cyprus The wreckage of an Iranian drone that targeted the British Royal Air Force base at Akrotiri, Cyprus, on Sunday reportedly contained a Russian-made “Kometa” satellite navigation chip using Western-made components, according to OSINT accounts on X. The British military air base Akrotiri in Cyprus was hit by a drone strike, resulting in […]

Britain Reconsiders 78% North Sea Oil Tax As Investment Slows Authored by Julianne Geiger via OilPrice.com, The UK may be quietly inching toward an awkward admission: the windfall tax experiment on oil and gas has been a flop. The Treasury is holding talks with North Sea oil and gas producers about potentially scrapping the Energy Profits Levy before its scheduled 2030 expiry, according to people familiar with the discussions. […]

Macron Throws Out French Nuclear Policy Over Russia And China Threats President Emmanuel Macron on Monday broke several decades of French nuclear taboos, promising to increase the country’s arsenal and positioning France for a lead role in European security.  Macron also called for the deployment of French nuclear capable aircraft to allied nations (which could potentially include Ukraine).  The new policies are some of the most […]

Trump Says He’s ‘Disappointed’ by Starmer For Blocking Use Of Diego Garcia For Iran Strikes Authored by Evgenia Filimianova via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), U.S. President Donald Trump said he was disappointed by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s refusal to use the joint UK–U.S. military base on Diego Garcia island to strike Iran. A US Air Force weapons loader delivers a 2,000lbs bomb for loading into a B1 bomber at the […]

Telegram Has Reportedly Become A Pressing National Security Threat For Russia Authored by Andrew Korybko via substack, Authorities in Russia believe that Ukraine has quick access to Russian servicemen’s messages and exploits this for military purposes, which wouldn’t be possible without some degree of complicity on Telegram’s part, thus impugning its founder’s character after he denied working with foreign spooks. The […]

Box-Cutter Thug Gets 16.5 Years In Prison After Framing Immigrant With Fake Trump Death Threats A Milwaukee man who slashed a bicyclist with a box cutter and then tried to frame his own victim with fake death threats against President Trump – hoping immigration authorities would deport him before trial – was sentenced Friday to 16½ years in prison. Demetric DeShawn Scott, 52, was convicted in January of felony identity theft, […]

CIA: Khamenei Replacement Will Likely Be More Hardline Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com, Before the US and Israel launched a war against Iran on Saturday morning and killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the CIA assessed that if the Iranian leader were killed, his rule would likely be replaced by “hardline” figures from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Reuters has reported. The report said that the assessment was […]

Bernie Sanders Goes Nuclear On Billionaires With Craziest Tax Proposal Yet Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT.) is rolling out yet another exercise in class-warfare fantasy legislation on Monday, this time a proposal to extract a staggering $4.4 trillion from the nation’s roughly 1,000 billionaires through an annual 5 percent annual wealth tax, according to The Washington Post. The bill will be introduced in the House by Rep. Ro Khanna […]

DHS Interdicts 6 Suspected Smuggling Vessels, Captures 82 Migrants Off San Diego Coast Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), Six suspected human smuggling boats were taken into custody by authorities during the weekend, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a Feb. 27 post on X. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem participates in a tour at the U.S. Coast Guard Station Charleston, in […]

Putin Decries ‘Cynical Murder’ Of His Friend Ayatollah Khamenei Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sunday comments blasted the United States and Israel’s “cynical” assassination of Ayatollah Khamenei which happened the day prior in the opening salvo of the US-Israeli Operation Epic Fury. Other translations in European media have used the word “murder” – citing Putin. He expressed condolences to the Islamic Republic: “Please […]

China Conducts Patrol In South China Sea, Accuses Philippines Of Disturbing Regional Peace Authored by Alex Wu via The Epoch Times, The Chinese regime’s navy conducted patrols in the South China Sea from Feb. 23 to Feb. 26, while the United States, Japan, and the Philippines were holding joint military exercises in international waters. The Chinese regime criticized the Philippines for “disturbing peace” in the region. […]