Six weapons experts have contested the US claim that video evidence suggests an Iranian missile could have hit the hall. Continue Reading »

The crew will not land on the Moon on this current mission, though Nasa is preparing for a potential lunar landing by 2028. Continue Reading »

A boy, 14, shot dead in south-east London is named as Eghosa Ogbebor, as three people are arrested. Continue Reading »

Thinus Keeve's comments come days after an M&S store was targeted during disorder in south London. Continue Reading »

The US president's new budget would cut non-defence spending by 10%, partly by slashing domestic programmes. Continue Reading »

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• Fox-Dominion trial delay 'is not unusual,' judge says • Fox News' defamation battle isn't stopping Trump's election lies Continue Reading »

The judge just announced in court that a settlement has been reached in the historic defamation case between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems. Continue Reading »

A settlement has been reached in Dominion Voting Systems' defamation case against Fox News, the judge for the case announced. The network will pay more than $787 million to Dominion, a lawyer for the company said. Continue Reading »

Nonfarm payrolls were expected to increase by 59,000 in March, with the unemployment rate holding at 4.4%. Continue Reading »

It is unclear if the plane was shot down or went down for another reason. Continue Reading »

The threat comes a day after he said in a nationwide address that the U.S. military will be hitting Tehran "extremely hard" for the next two or three weeks. Continue Reading »

A year after his "liberation day," Trump's trade war has reshaped how companies in industries such as retail and autos are modeling economic and policy risk. Continue Reading »

Internet platforms have long been able to rely on special protections to avoid liability for what takes place on their sites. But that may be changing. Continue Reading »

Par AFP Par Lisandra COTS © 2026 AFP Les autorités de Cuba ont commencé à libérer des prisonniers vendredi après avoir annoncé la veille la grâce de 2.010 détenus, une deuxième vague de libérations en moins d'un mois alors que La Havane fait face à une pression accrue de la part des Etats-Unis.Une vingtaine de prisonniers ont été libérés dans la matinée, ont constaté des journalistes de l'AFP. A leur sortie de la prison de La Lima, dans l'est de La Havane, plusieurs personnes libérées pleuraient et embrassaient les proches qui les attendaient."Merci pour cette opportunité", a déclaré Albis Gainza, 46 ans, qui a purgé la moitié de sa peine de six ans de prison pour vol. "Il faut que cela continue" et que "davantage" de détenus soient relâchés, a-t-il dit à l'AFP.Jeudi soir, le gouvernement cubain avait annoncé une vague de grâces présentée comme un "geste humanitaire" à l'occasion de la Semaine sainte. Fichier vidéo ... Continue Reading »

Par AFP Par Sylvie MALIGORNE, Philippe GRELARD © 2026 AFP L'eurodéputée Rima Hassan a dénoncé vendredi un "harcèlement judiciaire" après avoir été entendue par la police vendredi à Paris, dans le cadre d'une enquête différente des soupçons d'"apologie du terrorisme" pour lesquels elle avait déjà été placée la veille en garde à vue."Je fais l'objet d'un véritable harcèlement judiciaire et politique en raison et exclusivement en raison de mes opinions politiques", a dénoncé l'élue LFI de 33 ans lors d'une conférence de presse tenue dans le bureau de son avocat Vincent Brengarth."La temporalité de cette dynamique de harcèlement a commencé dès mon entrée en politique" et "n'a pas cessé depuis", a-t-elle déploré avant d'ajouter : "Beaucoup de fake news ont été relayées par des dizaines de journalistes en l'espace de 24 heures, avant même que je puisse m'exprimer (...) que je puisse répondre à vos questions"."Les deux auditions de ce (vendredi) matin" devant la brigade de répression de la délinquance aux personnes (BRDP) sont liées à une plainte "déposée par l'organisation juive européenne OJE et l'organisation juive française OJF" et une "plainte déposée par le collectif d'extrême droite Némésis", avait fait savoir la députée européenne sur X à la ... Continue Reading »

Par AFP Par Sébastien RICCI et Mostafa DADKHAH © 2026 AFP Ce pont était comme "notre enfant": les larmes aux yeux, l'ingénieur Roozbeh Yazdi est inconsolable devant ce qu'il reste de l'ouvrage à haubans, le plus grand d'Iran et du Moyen-Orient, dont Donald Trump a salué le bombardement.L'AFP a pu se rendre vendredi sur les lieux lors d'une visite pour la presse organisée par les autorités iraniennes à Karaj, ville périphérique en grande banlieue ouest de Téhéran.Un responsable a affirmé que "12 bombes" avaient été larguées jeudi. Les deux piliers principaux ont résisté et le mot "Iran" écrit en calligraphie domine toujours la structure. Mais la puissance des explosions l'a coupée en deux, en plein milieu. Des frappes supplémentaires ont fini par terrasser ses extrémités. Des tiges d'acier de la structure tortillées et des blocs de béton pendent désormais dans le vide au point que les experts ne savent pas s'il sera possible un jour de le réparer. "Nous avons travaillé dur pour assembler ces éléments, nous avons versé des larmes, nous avons transpiré à grosses gouttes", déclare Roozbeh ... Continue Reading »

Par AFP Par Nicholas ROLL © 2026 AFP Trois mois après l'ouverture du procès de cinq hommes accusés d'avoir tué plus de 40 personnes dans une église au Nigeria en 2022, les versions divergent quant à l'organisation jihadiste dont ils relèvent, compliquant encore les audiences sur ce massacre qui a choqué le pays et la communauté internationale.Le 5 juin 2022, des hommes armés avaient ouvert le feu pendant la messe dominicale dans une église catholique d'Owo, dans le sud-ouest du pays, une région où les violences religieuses sont rarissimes.Ce procès intervient alors qu'une série d'attaques dans l'ouest du Nigeria ravive l'attention sur les groupes jihadistes locaux et les bandes criminelles. Les actes d'accusation déposés l'année dernière indiquent que les prévenus sont accusés d'avoir rejoint un "groupe terroriste Al-Shabaab disposant d'une cellule dans l'Etat de Kogi", voisin de celui d'Ondo où a été commis le massacre.Or "Al-Shabaad" désigne aussi bien un groupe jihadiste affilié à Al-Qaïda en Somalie, de l'autre côté du continent africain, que le simple terme "la jeunesse", en arabe.Il a longtemps été impossible d'interroger les suspects sur leur appartenance ou non au groupe somalien, car arrêtés en août 2022, ils ont été détenus pendant trois ans dans ... Continue Reading »

Par AFP © 2026 AFP Dix ans après la révélation du scandale mondial des "Panama papers", l'administration fiscale française a mis en recouvrement 271 millions d'euros dans des procédures liées à cette affaire, a indiqué la Direction générale des finances publiques (DGFiP) à l'AFP vendredi, confirmant une information du journal Le Monde."En additionnant régularisation et contrôles terminés au 31 décembre 2025, les résultats (droits et pénalités) des opérations menées par la DGFiP en lien avec les Panama Papers s'élèvent à 271 millions d'euros pour 230 dossiers", selon l'administration fiscale. L'affaire des "Panama Papers" avait éclaté en 2016 après des révélations du Consortium international de journalistes d'investigation (ICIJ).Plus de 11,5 millions de documents confidentiels issus du cabinet d'avocats Mossack Fonseca détaillant des informations sur plus de 214.000 sociétés offshore avaient été dévoilés. Quelque 150 milliardaires, hommes politiques, célébrités ou chefs d'Etat ou de gouvernement avaient été mis en cause pour avoir caché au fisc des propriétés, des entreprises, des capitaux et des bénéfices.Depuis avril 2016, les services de l'administration fiscale française ont examiné plus de 600 dossiers en lien avec cette affaire. Le montant de 271 millions d'euros ne correspond pas à la somme effectivement recouvrée par l'Etat, et ... Continue Reading »

Volkswagen is planning to convert one of its factories to produce Iron Dome components Read Full Article at RT.com Continue Reading »

A search is underway for the crew of a downed F-15E fighter, US officials confirm, while Tehran claims it is an F-35 Read Full Article at RT.com Continue Reading »

Over 100 US-based international law experts warn that US strikes on Iran may constitute war crimes, citing violations of the UN Charter Read Full Article at RT.com Continue Reading »

Rahm Emanuel has called on the Democratic Party to abandon its left-wing activism as he prepares for a potential 2028 campaign Read Full Article at RT.com Continue Reading »

Iran has assured South Africa that its vessels can transit the Strait of Hormuz amid the ongoing tensions with the US and Israel Read Full Article at RT.com Continue Reading »

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Министр цифрового развития и связи региона Александр Синелобов сообщил, что стороны проведут несколько мероприятий в этом направлении Continue Reading »

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Такие погодные условия будет сохраняться в регионе с 5 по 7 июня Continue Reading »

Заместитель директора инвестиционного департамента КРДВ Мария Бадмацыренова сообщила, что в год 80-летия Победы регионы Дальнего Востока и Арктики готовы также предложить патриотические туры Continue Reading »

HEGSETH OUSTS ARMY CHIEF... (Top headline, 1st story, link) Related stories:DEPT OF WAR -- AT WAR WITH ITSELF!'THIS IS INSANE'...White House Seeks Record $1.5 Trillion for Military Spending... Drudge Report Feed needs your support!   Become a Patron Continue Reading »

DEPT OF WAR -- AT WAR WITH ITSELF! (Top headline, 2nd story, link) Related stories:HEGSETH OUSTS ARMY CHIEF...'THIS IS INSANE'...White House Seeks Record $1.5 Trillion for Military Spending... Continue Reading »

'THIS IS INSANE'... (Top headline, 3rd story, link) Related stories:HEGSETH OUSTS ARMY CHIEF...DEPT OF WAR -- AT WAR WITH ITSELF!White House Seeks Record $1.5 Trillion for Military Spending... Continue Reading »

White House Seeks Record $1.5 Trillion for Military Spending... (Top headline, 4th story, link) Related stories:HEGSETH OUSTS ARMY CHIEF...DEPT OF WAR -- AT WAR WITH ITSELF!'THIS IS INSANE'... Drudge Report Feed needs your support!   Become a Patron Continue Reading »

IRAN DOWNS U.S. FIGHTER JET (Main headline, 1st story, link) Related stories:1 CREW RESCUED, SEARCH FOR OTHERUPDATESBATTLE OF KHARG ISLAND Continue Reading »

Justice Minister Keut Rith says the law aimed to enhance the "cleaning operation" across the country. Continue Reading »

White House says March jobs report 'blew out expectations' with gains made in the healthcare and construction sectors. Continue Reading »

The White House has confirmed Donald Trump has been briefed on the shooting down of a US fighter jet in Iran. Continue Reading »

CMA CGM's vessel becomes the first French-owned ship to traverse Hormuz since the US–Israel war on Iran began. Continue Reading »

Drone footage from Israel shows damage to a factory in Petah Tikva from debris from an intercepted Iranian missile. Continue Reading »

Six weapons experts have contested the US claim that video evidence suggests an Iranian missile could have hit the hall. Continue Reading »

The crew will not land on the Moon on this current mission, though Nasa is preparing for a potential lunar landing by 2028. Continue Reading »

A boy, 14, shot dead in south-east London is named as Eghosa Ogbebor, as three people are arrested. Continue Reading »

Thinus Keeve's comments come days after an M&S store was targeted during disorder in south London. Continue Reading »

The US president's new budget would cut non-defence spending by 10%, partly by slashing domestic programmes. Continue Reading »

In sharp contrast to the Trump administration’s calls for Christian prayers for the war effort, Pope Leo XIV says military domination is “entirely foreign to the way of Jesus Christ.” Continue Reading »

Pam Bondi had a feeling her days as attorney general were numbered. But she didn’t expect President Trump to drop the curtain quite so soon. Continue Reading »

Payrolls expanded and unemployment dropped last month after a health care strike ended and a harsh winter abated. Continue Reading »

Robust job growth in March suggests that the labor market remains relatively healthy, allowing officials at the central bank to focus on fighting inflation. Continue Reading »

Artificial intelligence hasn’t disrupted the labor market, economists say, but they are increasingly convinced that it will — and that policymakers are unprepared. Continue Reading »

The Chinese upstart says it has trained high-performing AI models cheaply, without using the most advanced chips. Continue Reading »

DeepSeek, SoFi and more in the latest Market Talks covering Technology, Media and Telecom. Continue Reading »

DeepSeek is called “amazing and impressive” despite working with less-advanced chips. Continue Reading »

The LinkedIn co-founder is starting Manas AI with “The Emperor of All Maladies” author Siddhartha Mukherjee. Continue Reading »

Apps can add flexibility and freshness to your routine. Just try not to get injured. Continue Reading »

Israel allowed displaced Gazans to begin crossing a military zone that bisects the enclave after a deadlock over hostage releases was broken. Continue Reading »

Troubles at Vanke raise questions about the continued spread of the property crisis and whether the Chinese state will step in. Continue Reading »

Some of the women were held alone for extended periods and spent eight months in tunnels, an Israeli medical official said. Continue Reading »

The alliance mounted its first coordinated response to a suspected sabotage campaign against critical infrastructure after another cable was severed in the Baltic Sea. Continue Reading »

Residents of Goma reported gunfire and shelling after rebels overran Congolese troops. U.N. officials estimated that more than one million displaced people were now inside the city. Continue Reading »

Before Donald Trump declared "liberation day" on 2 April 2025 and shocked the world by raising import tariffs on nearly every country the US did business with, he had spent almost three months causing chaos in Washington. Continue Reading »

A year ago Thursday, President Trump raised the average effective tariff rate to 22.5%, and proclaimed April 2 "Liberation Day," which would "forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn." Financial markets convulsed. Within a week, the president began suspending and modifying his tariffs. By the time the Supreme Court ruled that tariffs issued under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act were unlawful, the average effective rate had fallen to 11.6%, still higher than at any point between World War II and Liberation Day. Convinced that his tariffs were "quickly building the greatest economy in the history of the world," Mr. Trump responded by invoking Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 to impose a 10% across-the-board tariff, that he promises to raise to 15%. A year into this experiment, how is Mr. Trump's tariff policy working out? Continue Reading »

One year ago today, President Trump stood in the Rose Garden and declared Liberation Day. He announced sweeping reciprocal tariffs to end decades of unfair trade, bring factories and jobs back, and restore economic independence. The language was bold: factories and jobs would come "roaring back," and we would "supercharge our industrial base." Continue Reading »

In Shakespeare's tragedy "Titus Andronicus," a general's daughter, Lavinia, is raped by Chiron and Demetrius, two powerful princes. To prevent her from revealing their crime, her assailants carve out her tongue and amputate both her hands. Lavinia has been on my mind as I've combed through countless emails between Jeffrey Epstein and his vast network. In them, tongue-severing swords take the form of threats, settlements and confidentiality agreements. But unlike Chiron and Demetrius, Mr. Epstein seemed to know that even these vows of silence can crack under pressure, that women can still speak out. The recent release of millions of pages of court filings, correspondence and other records spanning decades show that Mr. Epstein had been developing a playbook on how to silence women since his conviction, in 2008, for soliciting a minor for prostitution (a polite way of describing the crime of paying a teenager in order to sexually assault them). These documents show how he cultivate… Continue Reading »

President Trump's biggest fans and strongest critics agree on something: The downfall of Pam Bondi as attorney general had two causes. The largest failure was her inability to secure convictions of the president's enemies despite his adamant urging that she should do so. "He is looking for scalps but she hasn't delivered," said one GOP strategist well connected to Trump's orbit, granted anonymity to speak candidly. "She didn't deliver the kind of results that the president was hoping for. She tried and didn't succeed — and in Trump World that doesn't fly." Trump's critics have the slimmest sliver of sympathy with Bondi in that regard. They contend a vengeful president expected her to accomplish the impossible — securing guilty verdicts without clear and compelling evidence. But, they also note, she was an eager partner in that quest. Continue Reading »

President Trump is once again trying to alter the American legal landscape via executive order. His latest missive instructs the Department of Homeland Security to assemble definitive lists of eligible, voting-age U.S. citizens, using data provided by the Social Security Administration; to synchronize those lists with voting officials in the states before each federal election; and then to cooperate with the U.S. Postal Service to ensure that any illegitimate ballots cast by mail are nixed at the source. According to a White House spokesman, Trump's plan would enable the federal government to "verify" that ballots are not only "being sent to people who are eligible to vote" in the first instance, but ensure that those which are returned are "returned by eligible voters only." Continue Reading »

If last year's Republican megabill served as Congress' gateway drug to party-line government funding, the GOP's latest spending plan makes clear it was habit-forming. Nine months ago, Republicans used the budget reconciliation process to skirt a Democratic filibuster and enact more than $280 billion for the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security. It shattered conventional wisdom on Capitol Hill that reconciliation's special power couldn't — and shouldn't — be used to circumvent the across-the-aisle work Congress does each year to fund federal agencies. Continue Reading »

A month after the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran, President Donald Trump addressed the nation in a prime-time speech on April 1, saying the military operation was "getting very close" to completing its mission. Trump repeated some false and questionable claims we've written about before. Trump said the U.S. "totally obliterated" three nuclear facility sites in Iran last June. Experts and a classified U.S. intelligence report said the sites were damaged and Iran's uranium enrichment program was set back, but the sites and the country's nuclear capabilities weren't completely destroyed. The president said that Iran was "right at the doorstep" of "a nuclear bomb." Arms control experts have said that there's a lack of evidence that Iran was rebuilding its nuclear program before the U.S./Israeli military operation and that a nuclear weapon wasn't "imminent." Continue Reading »

Legal setbacks at the Supreme Court — including visible skepticism from justices about the administration's bid to limit birthright citizenship — are being cited by Reuters, CNN, and other outlets as a central factor in President Donald Trump's decision to fire Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday. Conservative legal scholar John C. Yoo — the Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law at University of California, Berkeley School of Law; nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute; and former Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel official who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas — told commentators Trump may have concluded "he needs new lawyers" after watching key cases play out unfavorably. Continue Reading »

Wilshire Boulevard runs like an artery through Los Angeles, stretching 16 miles from downtown to the Pacific Ocean. It's named after Henry Gaylord Wilshire, an influential real estate developer who once marketed a strange 1920s invention called the Ionaco, an electric healing belt. According to Wilshire's advertisements, the device was plugged into a household light socket and worn around the body, where it was said to improve the blood and increase oxygen in the body, restoring the user to health. It was promoted as a cure for a wide range of diseases, including cancer, diabetes, tuberculosis, and arthritis. Medical experts later dismissed it as quackery, but that didn't stop people from buying it. Wilshire sold more than 50,000 belts. It's easy to laugh at something like the electric healing belt. But there's a deeper reason people bought them: Wounded people long for healing. Continue Reading »

The Rev. Franklin Graham topped headlines this week after President Donald Trump shared a letter Graham wrote to him about salvation, including a powerful explanation of the gospel. Now Graham is about to share a powerful message once again, on Resurrection Sunday, on the CBN Newschannel. Graham, the president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan's Purse, told CBN News he wrote the letter last fall after Trump's comments about eternity went viral. MORE 'You Can't Save Yourself': Why Did Trump Share the Raw Gospel Plea That Franklin Graham Sent Him? At the time, the president commented about trying to get to heaven. "This letter was written in October, after President Trump had made a comment to the media — maybe in jest — about not knowing if he would make it to heaven," the evangelist said. "I wanted him to know what the Bible says and that he could be sure." Continue Reading »

An AllSides analysis of NewsBreak’s bias in December 2025 found the news aggregator displayed more sources with an AllSides Media Bias Rating™ on the left than the center or right. Continue Reading »

The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran — which has been largely but not entirely supported by major right-wing media outlets — is threatening to upend not just international oil markets but also world food production, with fertilizer costs soaring just as farmers in the global north enter the spring planting season. Some figures in right-wing media have taken notice, alarmed that a spike in domestic food prices could be disastrous for President Donald Trump and Republicans in the fall midterms. Globally, poor countries are set to take the brunt of the disruption, which could trigger famine or political instability in especially vulnerable areas. The right-wing comments on the potential looming food crisis largely break along two lines. The first is pro-war voices, mostly at Fox and Newsmax, who have argued that Iran's closing of the Strait of Hormuz (the primary driver of the fertilizer shortages) is proof that the United States and Israel should escalate the war to ensure that Tehran … Continue Reading »

The Elitist Media's evening newscasts have shown that they have a hard time reporting on counteragenda items that expose blue states to accusations of incompetence or malfeasance. News related to public assistance fraud is especially rare among the nightlies, as is demonstrated by the latest news out of California. Watch as the CBS Evening News is the sole evening newscast to report on the massive early morning raid carried out by the FBI in Covina, California: CBS EVENING NEWS, 4/2/25, 6:42 PM TONY DOKOUPIL: CBS News is first to report the arrest today of a married couple in Southern California accused of ripping off Medicare for nearly $7.5 million through a series of fraudulent hospice claims. Over 700 hospices in Los Angeles County alone have red flags for fraud, according to our investigative team. In this particular case, the flags included a five year survival rate of 97%, high for what is supposed to be end of life care. The FBI says additional arrests are expected. Continue Reading »

The 21st century’s technology boom has had unforeseen side effects on humanity. Continue Reading »

President Donald Trump made a lot of promises on the 2024 campaign trail. Which have been kept, and which are unfulfilled? Continue Reading »

The EPA announced Wednesday it will issue an emergency waiver allowing the nationwide sale of gasoline containing a higher percentage of ethanol as legislation that would allow the same remains stalled in Congress. Continue Reading »

The governors of Florida and Mississippi signed legislation on Wednesday to require documented proof of citizenship to register to vote and to begin a process that will eventually unenroll voters who have not provided citizenship documentation. Continue Reading »

A new lawsuit has been filed challenging a recently enacted Florida law that mirrors the language of the federal Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act — President Trump's self-described "No. 1" legislative priority. Continue Reading »

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation Wednesday aimed at safeguarding the state's elections, including a measure that requires verification of U.S. citizenship for voter registration. Continue Reading »

Acting AG Todd Blanche: Investigating ActBlue Allegations Is A Top Priority The Democratic Party's premier fundraising machine is in serious legal jeopardy, and the new man running the Justice Department just made clear he intends to do something about it. The New York Times reported on Thursday that ActBlue’s own lawyers had warned its leadership in early 2025 that it may have lied to Congress about how it screens out illegal foreign donations.  In 2023, ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones sent a letter to Republican congressional investigators assuring them the platform used rigorous safeguards. The letter described "multilayered" screenings that helped "root out" overseas contributions. What the platform's own legal team later discovered was considerably more inconvenient: those protections weren't consistently applied in practice. “This presents a substantial risk for ActBlue,” the law firm, Covington & Burling, wrote in one of two memos expressing legal concerns. One memo raised the specter of a criminal investigation if prosecutors believed that ActBlue had tried to conceal facts about its efforts to prevent foreign contributions. Federal election law prohibits foreign citizens or people who are not permanent residents from donating directly to federal candidates or political action ... Continue Reading »

Oil Shocks & Recessionary Outcomes Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, After more than three decades of watching oil markets upend economies, one pattern keeps repeating: investors learn the wrong lessons from the last shock. The 1973 OPEC embargo taught us that geopolitical disruptions are temporary. That lesson then got everyone killed, financially speaking, in 1979. The 2003 Iraq War produced only a mild oil bump and no recession, so traders got comfortable. Then 2008 happened. Today, with Brent crude having spiked over 60% since U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran began in late February, the same dangerous reasoning is circulating again. That narrative is that this “event” is manageable and will resolve quickly. If that is the case, then the economy will absorb it. That may indeed be the case. However, the conditions that determine whether an oil shock becomes a full recession are specific, quantifiable, and worth examining with clear eyes. That is what this analysis does. Not All Oil Shocks Are The Same The post-World War II era has produced a half-dozen oil price crises significant enough to reshape the global economy. They share a surface-level similarity: prices spike, headlines scream, and ... Continue Reading »

US Fighter Jet Shot Down In Iran, One Crew Member Reported Rescued Update(11:55ET): The NY Times has cited US and Israeli officials who has given confirmation that a US fighter jet was downed and that a major rescue operation is underway, with the fate of the plane's crew unclear: The fate of the plane’s crew was unclear, as American officials scrambled to mount a search and rescue operation before Iran could get to any survivors, said the U.S. and Israeli officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss military operations. The situation creates a military and diplomatic challenge for the United States, as President Trump has threatened in recent days to bombard Iran “back to the Stone Ages.” Over the past 24 hours, the United States and Iran have been trading attacks on military and civilian infrastructure in the region. The U.S. jet was an F-15E, U.S. officials said, which has a standard crew of two, and not one of the stealth fighters of more recent design. Just days ago, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Iran’s air defenses were so degraded that the United States was sending B-52 bombers over the ... Continue Reading »

Senior Iranian Official Involved In Reaching Out To Vance Severely Wounded In Airstrike A top Iranian official who was involved in diplomatic outreach and indirect talks or messaging with the United States and Pakistani mediators was reportedly critically wounded in a US-Israeli strike. Kamal Kharazi, an 81-year-old senior adviser to Tehran and former foreign minister, lost his wife in the Wednesday strike on his home, state media has said. Kharazi chairs Iran's Strategic Council on Foreign Relations and has been viewed as a potential backchannel negotiator involving Islamabad, but now he's been hospitalized with serious injuries, state media has also said. "We have seen what looks like an assassination attempt against the former foreign minister, Kamal Kharazi … We don’t know why he’s been targeted. He has been gravely wounded, and his wife was killed," said an Al Jazeera correspondent in Tehran. Iranian officials described to Mehr News Agency that Kharazi was overseeing outreach to Pakistan tied to a possible meeting with US Vice President JD Vance. A potential Vance trip to Pakistan was initially reported as possibly being in the works late last month. But Middle East Eye has reported that Kharazi was not ... Continue Reading »

Poison Ivey: Chicago Bulls Release Forward After He Speaks Out Against Pride Month Authored by Jonathan Turley, This week, the Chicago Bulls waived guard Jaden Ivey for “conduct detrimental to the team.” No, Ivey did not assault anyone or gamble on games. He did not call for violence. Ivey expressed his opposing religious beliefs, including criticizing the NBA’s Pride Month celebrations. There is no question that private companies have the right to control employees’ on-the-job speech, including barring demonstrations such as kneeling during the national anthem. However, the Ivey controversy exposes the hypocrisy of sports associations and teams in the combination of corporate virtue signaling and athlete speech limitations. Companies in various fields have asserted the right to condition contracts on the possibility of termination due to public behavior or comments that are detrimental to the company. Notably, this was a player speaking off the basketball court who was deemed “detrimental” to the brand. The main concern is the lack of consistency. Actors such as Rachel Zegler have tanked their own movies to use their platforms to advance their own political viewpoints. Likewise, athletes have routinely espoused controversial views on racial divisions or law enforcement without losing their contracts. Recently, teams supported ... Continue Reading »

Services Sector Contraction In March Screams Q1 Stagflation Following S&P Global's Manufacturing PMI's better than expected print higher (signaling resilience in the face of March's war in Iran), the data released this morning showed the US Services Sector experienced a contraction of activity at the end of the first quarter of 2026. The headline S&P Global US Services PMI Business Activity Index recorded 49.8 in March, down from February’s 51.7 and lower than the earlier ‘flash’ estimate of 51.1. It was the first decline recorded in over three years amid the weakest rise in new work since April 2024. “The PMI survey data show the US economy buckling under the strain of rising prices and intensifying uncertainty, as the war in the Middle East exacerbates existing concerns regarding other policy decisions in recent months, notably with respect to tariffs," said Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence The service sector has slipped into contraction for the first time since January 2023, dragging the overall economy down to a near-stalled 0.5% annualized rate of growth in March... Worst hit is consumer-facing service sectors where, barring the pandemic lockdowns, the downturn reported in March ... Continue Reading »

March Jobs Shocker: Payrolls Soar By 178K Most Since 2024, Blowing Away All Estimates; Unemployment Rate Drops We titled our nonfarm payroll preview post "a substantial bounce" and boy were we right: with consensus expecting a material rebound from February's negative print (which was revised as usual worse, from -92K to -133K), what the BLS reported instead was a huge beat to expectations of a 65K increase, with March jobs reportedly rising by 178K, the biggest increase since December 2024. The number was driven entirely by a surge in private workers which added 186K in March, far above estimates of 78K. Government workers continued to drop, sliding by 8K in March and now negative 8 of the past 9 months, This was not only higher than all estimates but was a 3 sigma beat to the median forecast, something we haven't seen in over a year. In keeping with tradition, the previous month's data was revised sharply negative, from -92K to -133K, despite expectations of an upward revision. Yet for once there was an upward revision in the historical data: the change in total nonfarm payroll employment for January was revised up ... Continue Reading »

Why Are They So Obsessed With This? Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, As NASA’s Artemis II mission — the first crewed flight around the Moon in over half a century — gets underway, some in the media couldn’t resist injecting race into humanity’s greatest technical achievement. Instead of celebrating the engineering triumph and the daring crew pushing the boundaries of exploration, certain outlets fixated on skin colour and “representation.” This is the same crowd that claims to champion science, yet they reduce every milestone to identity politics. A Sky News reporter declared that the Apollo missions to the Moon “didn’t represent humanity because ‘Apollo was all white men…’” highlighting how even lunar history must now be filtered through the lens of grievance. Sky News Reporter says that the Apollo missions to the Moon didn't represent humanity because "Apollo was all white men..."pic.twitter.com/xuvLEeWFOu — Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 2, 2026 They couldn’t even exclude a manned moon mission, a stepping stone to colonising Mars, from this twisted obsession. In a separate incident, a reporter attempted to goad NASA astronaut Victor Glover, pilot on Artemis II and incidentally the first person of colour to venture beyond low Earth ... Continue Reading »

Hegseth Ousts Chief Of The Army As Iran War Persists The Pentagon shake-up under Trump has not ended, as on Thursday Pete Hegseth has dismissed Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, asking him to step down into early retirement. The move is unusual, given this is the head of the Army and the United States is past the one-moth mark in Trump's Operation Epic Fury. A reason hasn't been given as to what amounts to Gen. George being effectively fired. CBS writes, "One of the sources said Hegseth wants someone in the role who will implement President Trump and Hegseth's vision for the Army." A top defense official has also said: "We are grateful for his service, but it was time for a leadership change in the Army." The chief of the Army is typically a four-year term, and already there's speculation over who will be the likely candidate to lead next: The current vice chief of staff of the Army, Gen. Christopher LaNeve, who was formerly Hegseth's military aide, will likely be considered as a replacement. He previously served as the commanding general of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division from 2022 to 2023. The ... Continue Reading »

Cash Is King, Dowd Sees $10,000 Gold As The Credit Market "Is Starting To End The Party" Via Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com, Wall Street money manager and financial analyst Ed Dowd of PhinanceTechnologies.com warned at the end of January that the “Credit Destruction Cycle” was showing up in something called private credit.  Dowd was worried about extreme risk in the economy, especially with all the growth in lending in the last two years coming from private credit.  Has this gotten better or worse?  Dowd says, “It’s gotten worse, and it has spread..." "The number if credit funds that have gated their investors keeps growing.  This is important because high net worth individuals, insurance companies and pension funds put millions of dollars in these private credit funds and now they want to redeem them, and there is a gate.  The last two years of loan growth in the economy was from banks loaning to private credit. . .. There have been earth shaking events in private credit land.  That started a cascading effect of people becoming worried about their private credit fund.  Then, redemptions started, and some funds like Blue Owl have taken massive hits.  They had to gate ... Continue Reading »

Liberal Council In UK Moves To Ban "Intimidating" National Flags Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, In the latest salvo against British identity, a Liberal Democrat-run council has formally branded the simple act of flying the England flag an “act of intimidation and division” – and backed it up with a legal notice threatening residents with prosecution. Oxfordshire County Council is pushing a county-wide crackdown by on the grassroots Raise the Colours campaign, which has been putting up Union Flags and St George’s Crosses in public spaces as a straightforward show of patriotism. The council’s message is clear: national symbols are now suspect. A Liberal Democrat-run council is attempting to ban residents from raising "intimidating" St George’s Cross and Union flags, issuing a formal stop notice to the Raise the Colours campaign group. https://t.co/IlHHsPZG0v — Toby Young (@toadmeister) April 1, 2026 The council issued the formal stop notice to the Raise the Colours group, warning that continued flag displays could lead to civil and even criminal proceedings. Council leader Liz Leffman charged that “The widespread installation of flags by Raise the Colours is not a sign of patriotism. It is an act of intimidation and division ... Continue Reading »

Trump Says 'A Little More Time' Needed To Open Hormuz, 'Take The Oil & Make A Fortune' - As Israel Hit Hard During Passover Summary Trump: US needs "a little more time" to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, while floating the prospect of seizing oil amid potential island or ground campaign Iran and Hezbollah fire 140+ rockets during Jewish Passover, with sustained barrages hitting Israel French-owned vessel becomes first Western-linked/European ship to transit Hormuz since war began, signaling a tentative thaw after weeks of near-total shipping freeze Iran targets Gulf infrastructure, including a Kuwaiti desalination plant, while UAE defenses intercept large-scale missile and drone waves and energy facilities face disruptions *  *  * 'More Time' To Retake Strait, 'Make A Fortune': Trump With some US Special Forces units already in the region, and with thousands more Marines and Sailors en route, and after Trump earlier floated at least two to three more weeks of major strikes on Iran, the president on Friday morning wrote on Truth Social that "with a little more time, we can easily OPEN THE HORMUZ STRAIT, TAKE THE OIL, & MAKE A FORTUNE...  This as the question of some kind of direct ground ... Continue Reading »

US Futures Drop Ahead Of Payrolls With Most Markets Closed US equity futures dipped ahead of today's payrolls report in a holiday-shortened session, with most cash markets including US stocks closed globally for Good Friday. Sifma, the US financial markets trade association, recommended trading of dollar-denominated bonds during US hours only and a 12pm New York time stop. As of 8:15am, S&P and Nasdaq futures are down 0.2%. Bonds dipped modestly in a holiday-shortened session, the 10Y yield rising 1bp to 4.31%. The dollar was mixed against its Group-of-10 peers.  Oil rallied above $110 a barrel Thursday after Trump issued fresh threats against Iranian infrastructure in an effort to pressure Tehran in negotiations. West Texas Intermediate surged 11%, while the global Brent benchmark settled near $109. The jobs report is the main event on today's calendar and is due at 8:30am (preview below).  Iran targeted more sites in Arab Gulf states overnight and into Friday. A container ship signaling French ownership exited the Strait of Hormuz, in what appeared to be the first known transit by a vessel linked to Western Europe since the Iran war all but shuttered the vital waterway. The main highlight ... Continue Reading »

Iran Attacks Kuwaiti Desalination Plant, Bringing Gulf Water Supplies Into Focus Just three days into Operation Epic Fury, we pointed out what may be the more consequential second-order risk, arguably even more important than the risk of data centers getting bombed (identified a month earlier): Are desalination plants the next targets in the U.S.-Iran war? Not even a week after we raised that question, the first worst-case scenario emerged. On March 8, one week into the conflict, an Iranian attack drone struck a water desalination plant in Bahrain. Fast forward to Friday morning, on the conflict's 35th day: Kuwaiti authorities claimed Iranian forces targeted a power and desalination plant, sounding even more alarm bells that civilian infrastructure is increasingly moving into the crosshairs. Bloomberg quoted Kuwait's Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy as saying an Iranian strike damaged components of the water desalination plant. This suggests Tehran has exposed the vulnerability of critical water infrastructure across a region that relies heavily on these facilities, which remove salt and impurities from seawater or brackish water for drinking water and other agricultural or industrial uses. Al Jazeera's Mohamed A. Hussein recently explained why Gulf ... Continue Reading »

Abu Dhabi Halts Operations At Main Gas Plant After "Falling Debris" From Iranian Strike Operations at Habshan, the UAE’s massive onshore gas-processing hub operated by ADNOC Gas in Abu Dhabi, were halted on Friday after local authorities said a fire broke out at the facility due to "falling debris" from a "successful interception by air defense systems" of an Iranian air-delivered munition.  "Abu Dhabi authorities are responding to an incident of falling debris at the Habshan gas facilities following a successful interception by air defense systems," the UAE's Emergency, Crisis, and Disaster Management Center wrote on X. The UAE's emergency crisis center continued, "Operations have been suspended while authorities respond to a fire. No injuries have been reported." Abu Dhabi authorities are responding to an incident of falling debris at the Habshan gas facilities, following successful interception by air defence systems. Operations have been suspended while authorities respond to a fire. No injuries have been reported. The public is… — مركز إدارة الطوارئ والأزمات والكوارث (@Adcmc_ae) April 3, 2026 Habshan is at the core of the process by which raw natural gas from Abu Dhabi’s upstream energy assets is cleaned, treated, and split into usable ... Continue Reading »

"Make A Deal Before It's Too Late": Trump Threatens Tehran (Again) As Iran/Oman Draft Protocol To Re-Open Hormuz Summary World's most important oil price hits record high as Trump threatens Iran: "make a deal before it's too late" Oil drops on reports of Iran-Oman coordination to reopen strait. Iran issues Israel/Gulf logistics hubs target list; IRGC targets Amazon Cloud computing center in Bahrain US intelligence assessments say Iran is not ready to negotiate given it believes it has the strategic upper-hand, and doesn't believe Trump is 'serious' about talks: NYT Highest bridge in Iran, connecting Tehran and Karaj, destroyed - amid reports of expanding attacks on civilian infrastructure. Iran threatens Port of Haifa in response. UK's Starmer chairs virtual summit of over 30 countries to discuss methods of how to reopen Hormuz Strait No mention of ceasefire while vowing to keep hitting Iran 'extremely hard' in Wed. night Trump speech. Escalating tit-for-tat overnight strikes. *  *  * You can support us here President Trump Issues Another Threat: "Make A Deal... Before There's Nothing Left" President Trump just issued another threat after bragging about blowing up Iran's highest bridge: "The biggest bridge in Iran comes tumbling down, never to be used again — ... Continue Reading »

Germany's Economy Minister Urges Nuclear Rethink As Energy Prices Surge, Growth Forecasts Slide Germany’s Economy Minister Katherina Reiche has openly called for a fundamental reassessment of the country’s long-standing rejection of nuclear power, warning that heavy dependence on gas has left Europe’s largest economy dangerously exposed to repeated energy shocks. Speaking at the launch of a new international investor conference aimed at drawing foreign capital into Germany, Reiche told the Financial Times that the decision by previous governments to phase out nuclear generation has eliminated any realistic alternative for reliable baseload electricity. “We need gas to secure our supply - that is the only baseload supply I have left,” she said. “Politically speaking, I have no alternative.” Reiche, a senior figure in Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union, made the remarks as fresh data highlighted the mounting costs of the nuclear exit, originally decided under Angela Merkel in 2011 and completed under Olaf Scholz. While the policy was accompanied by a massive push for renewables, it has left Germany more reliant on gas-fired power stations to keep the lights on when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine. Related: German Chancellor ... Continue Reading »

Foreigners Commit Nearly Half Of All Rapes In Austria, Syrians Largest Foreign Group Of Suspects Via Remix News, The number of rape suspects in Austria has more than doubled since 2015, with foreign nationals — and Syrians in particular — driving a disproportionate share of the increase. In addition, foreigners nare now responsible for nearly half of all rapes, a major increase from 2015 as well. The figures, provided by Austria’s Interior Ministry in response to a request by Austrian newspaper exxpress, paint a striking picture of a decade-long trend. The composition of those suspects has shifted markedly. In 2015, 250 of the 688 suspects were foreign nationals — 36.3 percent of the total. By 2025, that number had risen to 538, representing 46.9 percent of all suspects, despite foreign nationals making up only 20.5 percent of Austria’s population. Reported rapes under section 201 of the Austrian criminal code rose from 826 cases in 2015 to 1,359 in 2024 — an increase of roughly 64.5 percent. The number of suspects rose in parallel, from 688 to 1,196. Preliminary figures for 2025 show a slight decline to 1,147 suspects, but that still represents an increase of ... Continue Reading »

Iraq Revives Syria Land Route, Post-Assad, To Export Oil To Europe Via Middle East Eye Iraq has restarted overland oil exports through Syria, marking a significant shift in regional energy logistics as the US-Israeli war on Iran continues to wreak havoc on traditional shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz. Ali Nazar, director general of Iraq’s state oil marketer Somo, said on Wednesday that the company had agreed to export 50,000 barrels per day of Basra medium crude via Syria to the Mediterranean, with plans to increase volumes. The crude will reach European markets through the Syrian port of Baniyas. AFP/Getty Images Syria's state news agency SANA reported that fuel convoys had begun entering the country through al-Tanf crossing, signalling what it described as a renewed role for Syria as a transit hub. The Syrian Petroleum Company said it would store the shipments before transferring them to Baniyas for export. Safwan Sheikh Ahmad, the company’s communications director, said the first convoy includes 299 tankers and called the move a "step toward restoring Syria’s role as a key energy corridor in the region". The operation is expected to generate revenue for Damascus and revive transit infrastructure damaged during years of civil [proxy] war. ... Continue Reading »

Ukraine Becomes World's AI Weapons Laboratory By Craig S. Smith of Eye on AI,  I was in Ukraine in February and wrote this piece before the start of the war with Iran, but its implications are even more relevant today. My interest in lethal autonomous weapons dates back to my time with the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, where full autonomy was debated but largely dismissed as ethically unacceptable. But in practice, the step to full autonomy is smaller than it sounds. Once a human is no longer actively controlling a system and is only monitoring it with the option to intervene, the shift to removing that human entirely is incremental. It’s similar to how Iran describes its nuclear program. Uranium enrichment for civilian energy is presented as benign, but once enrichment reaches reactor-grade levels, the remaining technical steps to weapons-grade material are a matter of time and intent, not capability. It is becoming increasingly difficult to argue that fully autonomous weapons will not arrive. They follow naturally from realities already on the battlefield. What is easier to grasp is the fear they generate. Watch first-person-view footage of a quadcopter chasing a soldier ... Continue Reading »