A New Iran (Military?) Base Case By Michael Every of Rabobank Our central assumption for the Iran war had been that by end the third week of April at latest, the Iranian regime faction willing to make a deal in line with Trump’s tweets would have asserted itself over those who won’t, Hormuz would slowly reopen, and energy markets gradually normalise. As neither the Iranian nor US negotiating teams traveled to Pakistan for the […]

WTI Extends Gains As US Oil Product Exports Hit Record Highs, Huge SPR Release, Production Dips Oil prices are modestly higher this morning, erasing overnight losses on Trump’s ‘ceasefire extension’ after Iran attacked three ships in the Strait of Hormuz. While headline roulette continues to drive oil prices incrementally, this morning’s inventory/supply data from DOE will provide some color on how the API Crude -4.5mm […]

Roblox Settles With 3 States Over Endangering Children, Will Pay $36 Million Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times, Online interactive gaming platform Roblox has agreed to settle with West Virginia, Alabama, and Nevada for a combined $35.78 million, committing to strengthen children’s safety through measures such as mandatory age verification and chat restrictions. Roblox reached an $11.08 million settlement with […]

Trump Extends Ceasefire By 3-5 Days After Iran Attacks Third Ship In Hormuz Chokepoint Summary Trump extends ceasefire by 3-5 days, per White House statement to Fox. 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 […]

Democrats Lose A Vital Propaganda Machine With The Fall Of The SPLC When creating a short list of nefarious NGOs that manipulate government policy and socially engineer public opinion, the Southern Poverty Law Center is usually near the top.  The group has been fading in influence due to excessive exposure, with new and less visible left wing NGOs taking it’s place.  However, it remains a key pillar of the Democratic Party’s […]

‘Time Is Running Out For Iran’: The Market Is Calling ‘Bullshit’ On Mainstream’s Narrative, Hugh Hendry Explains… The stock market is telling a different story from the ‘Iran is strong, America is overreaching’ narrative being spewed by mainstream media. For weeks, the financial war narrative has been ‘Iran, strong; America, reckless’, risk’s like mercury and the thermometer rising. And yet, the stock market has done the […]

In Latest Shot At Nvidia, Google Unveils Two Chips For The Agentic Era In a blog post titled “Our Eighth Generation TPUs: Two Chips for the Agentic Era,” Google Senior Vice President and Chief Technologist for AI and Infrastructure Amin Vahdat unveiled the latest generation of the company’s in-house AI chips, splitting the lineup into two versions. The TPU 8t is designed for training AI models, while the TPU 8i is built for […]

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, […]