The Latest AI Developments In 60 Seconds As the tempo of AI newsflow approached the frenzied rollercoaster pace of geopolitical headlines during the biggest oil shock in decades, it’s becoming easy to get lost in all the latest developments and drama surrounding OpenAI, Anthropic, Nvidia, government blacklists, the AI circle jerk, sentinent killer robots, and so on… To help readers keep on top of things, we are launching a brief […]

Vance’s Pakistan Trip ‘On Hold’ After Iran Demands Lifting Blockade Of Its Ports, Talks Appear Off Summary Vance’s trip to Islamabad ‘on hold’ as talks appear off for now after Iran demanded US lift blockade of ports. Neither side wants to appear ‘weak’ by flying to Pakistan first without the other side having already clearly committed. Trump warns: ‘Expect…bombs’ & urges Tehran “release women” said to be on death […]

California School Excludes White Kids From Segregated ‘Social Justice’ Field Trip Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, In a stunning display of racial exclusion dressed up as “equity,” a California school district barred white students from a taxpayer-funded field trip centered on “social justice.” Albany Unified School District (AUSD) organized the overnight trip to Virginia exclusively for “young men and […]

US Senator Urges Delay Of CLARITY Act Senate Markup Until May: Report Authored by Brayden Lindrea via CoinTelegraph.com, A US senator has reportedly urged Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott to delay the markup for the crypto market structure bill until May, as banking and crypto representatives need more time to resolve disagreements over stablecoin yield provisions. US Republican Thom Tillis of North Carolina told reporters Monday […]

AI “Circle Jerk” Returns: Anthropic To Spend $100 Billion On AWS In Amazon Deal Circular AI vendor financing is back and back in a big way… As we noted last fall, when we walked readers through the stunning math behind what we called the AI “circle jerk,” this latest iteration centers on Amazon and Anthropic, with the left-leaning AI company now committing to spend more than $100 billion over the next decade on AWS […]

Watch Live: Warsh Blasts Fed’s ‘Fatal Policy Error’ On Inflation, Pledges Strict Independence As Tillis Confirms Hold On Fed Chair Nomination Latest:  Warsh labeled the Fed’s 2021-2022 response a “fatal policy error” on inflation. He demands a new policy framework, tools, and major communications reform. Warsh rejects forward guidance and refuses to preview future rate moves. Price stability exists when no one talks about […]

ActBlue Employees Invoked Fifth Amendment 146 Times During House Probe Authored by Bryan Hyde via American Greatness, The House Administration, Oversight, and Judiciary Committees has released a joint interim staff report on its investigation into alleged donor fraud by ActBlue. According to Breitbart, the report released Monday says five current and former employees of the Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue took the Fifth […]

Trump Cryptically References US Intercepted Chinese ‘Gift’ To Iran President Trump made an interesting and somewhat cryptic China reference in a series of Tuesday morning Iran-related statements, given to CNBC. He stated that US forces recently intercepted a vessel carrying what he described as a “gift” from China to Iran as Tehran seeks to rebuild its military during a ceasefire. via Flickr The ship had “a gift from China” which […]

Oil Spikes, Stocks Suddenly Dump During Warsh Hearing It’s unclear what exactly is driving but the markets are reverting back to old habits this morning with oil spiking… …dragging Treasury yields higher… Stocks are tanking… And so is gold… There were no obvious geopolitical headline catalysts for the move – though uncertainty remains high about the next 24-48 hours in the Middle East. Some have suggested the […]

Wheat Spread Blows Out As Drought Chaos Plagues America’s Breadbasket Hard red winter wheat (HRW) futures widened to their largest premium over soft red wheat (SRW) in more than two years as severe drought intensified across key breadbasket regions in the Great Plains and Midwest. This means traders are pricing in weather impacts and tightening expectations for higher-protein wheat supplies. It is important to note that HRW is a […]

The High Man In The Castle By Michael Every of Rabobank The world is again waiting to see what comes out of US-Iran peace talks in Pakistan as the two-week ceasefire deadline looms. Again, it’s a binary outcome: war, with threatened strikes on bridges and power plants in Iran, then perhaps regionally, and an extended closure of Hormuz; or peace, and energy and key goods flowing again. The markets have decided peace will be the […]

US Pending Home Sales Rebound Off Record Lows, Despite Rising Mortgage Rates After rising in February, US Pending Home Sales were expected to continue to improve in March (+0.5% MoM) but – despite apparently rising mortgage rates – sales rose 1.5% MoM (even with February revised up to +2.5% MoM). This dragged pending home sales up to +1.8% YoY (to the highest level since Nov 2024)… Source: Bloomberg …extending its bounce off […]

Texas Electricity Demand Could Quadruple Due To Soaring Data Center Demand: ERCOT Peak demand in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) territory could more than quadruple to 367,790 MW by 2032, driven primarily by data centers as well as other large load customers, the grid operator said in a preliminary forecast published Wednesday and noted by Utility Dive. Source: ERCOT ERCOT, which serves most of Texas, set […]

Scammers Demand Crypto From Stranded Ships In Strait Of Hormuz: Report Authored by Amin Haqshanas via CoinTelegraph.com, Fraudulent actors posing as Iranian authorities have reportedly sent messages to shipping companies whose vessels remain stranded west of the Strait of Hormuz, demanding payment in cryptocurrency for safe passage. On Monday, maritime risk company Marisks issued a warning saying unknown groups had contacted […]

DHL CEO Warns Prolonged Energy Shock Could Push Global Economy To “Tipping Point” DHL Group CEO Tobias Meyer warned Bloomberg TV earlier this morning that a persistent Gulf energy shock could morph into broader trouble for the global economy. “Well we have seen this before, that you have recognized by consumers as having an impact that sparks broader discussion, the real economic implications for people. Now, this hasn’t happened […]

Trump Invokes Defense Production Act To Sign Energy-Related Directives Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times, President Donald Trump on April 20 invoked the Defense Production Act to issue a series of memorandums focused on strengthening coal supply chains, ​natural gas transmission, and ​liquefied natural gas capacity. Trump also signed memos aimed at boosting domestic petroleum production, enhancing grid […]

“We’re On Borrowed Time”: Vitol LNG Chief Warns Of Coming Food Price Shock Pablo Galante Escobar, the head of liquefied natural gas (LNG) at Vitol, warned the audience at the FT Commodities Summit earlier today that the “world is on borrowed time” and that the Gulf energy shock will develop into a food crisis unless LNG flows resume through the Hormuz chokepoint. “We are on borrowed time. Every day this trade remains closed and […]

US Employment Additions Accelerate As Retail Sales Soar In March BofA’s (almost) omnipotent analysts forecasted a stronger than expected retail sales print this morning as tax refunds trump surging gas prices… BofA credit/debit card spending data suggests stronger retail sales than estimates (consensus 1.4% headline, 1.4% ex auto, 0.2% control group) despite surging gas prices, driven by higher YTD tax refunds […]

US Futures Resume Rally As Iran Optimism Returns The optimism that helped list the S&P on 11 of the prior 12 days, and the Nasdaq on 13 consecutive days until Monday’s modest pullback, is back – because one can apparently draw the same exact event for 3 weeks now – and sending US equity futures higher again on signs that Iran will attend talks with the US, while the US president said it’s “highly unlikely” that he’d […]

Europe’s EV Sales Jump 51% As Iran War Sends Gasoline Prices Soaring By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com, Registrations of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in Europe’s key automotive markets surged by 51% in March as the Iran war pushed gasoline prices to multi-year highs, data published by research firm New Automotive and trade association E-Mobility Europe showed on Monday. A Tesla charging on a street in Amsterdam More than […]

IMO Draws Up Hormuz Evacuation Plan For 800 Ships Trapped In Gulf Tanker traffic through the Hormuz chokepoint remained muted as of Tuesday morning, with maritime movement still far below pre-US-Iran conflict levels. The ship backlog in the Persian Gulf has now swelled to a staggering 800 vessels, underscoring the scale of the disruption, while the International Maritime Organization is reportedly drawing up evacuation plans for […]

How The Iranian Regime Destroyed Its Economy… Long Before The War Authored by Daniel Lacalle, As negotiations edge towards a ceasefire, Tehran is trying to blame the country’s economic collapse on the war and foreign pressure. Yet the data tell a different story: Iran’s economy was already structurally broken before the war. Years of ideological policymaking, institutionalised corruption, and the militarisation of the […]

Data Centers Drove Half Of All Growth In US Electricity Use In 2025 Global electricity demand rose by 3% in 2025, with growth nearly triple compared to the 1.3% increase in total energy consumption, as data centers and electric vehicles continued to push power use higher, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a report on Monday. Overall global energy demand growth slowed to 1.3% in 2025, slightly below the previous […]

‘Highly Unlikely’ US Will Extend Iran Ceasefire, ‘Lots Of Bombs Will Go Off’ If No Deal: Trump Summary Trump says ‘highly unlikely’ will extend ceasefire if deal not signed in Pakistan. Pakistan PM Sharif reportedly asked US & Iran, pressing for another 2-week extension. President Pezeshkian cites “historical distrust” and states on X: “they seek Iran’s surrender. Iranians do not submit to force.” Vance intends to […]

“Use The Momentum”: The EU Moves To Destroy The Last Vestiges Of National Sovereignty Authored by Jonathan Turley, The defeat of Viktor Orban in Hungary last weekend was celebrated by many who saw the former president as establishing single-party rule in his central European nation. The irony is that this claimed victory for democracy may fuel the establishment of a global governance system that is neither democratic nor […]