One War & Five Scenarios To End It Authored by Amir Taheri, With the war between the Israel-US duo and the Islamic Republic in Iran entering its fourth week, two questions are asked in policy circles across the world. The first is: how long will it last? The answer is: how long is a piece of string? Which means: because no one knows, no speculation is warranted. The second question may be beyond a journalist’s bailiwick: […]

French Election: Socialists Secure Paris, LePen’s Populists Make Historic Local Gains Marine Le Pen’s National Rally delivered its strongest performance ever in French local elections on Sunday, capturing dozens of municipalities and installing an ally as mayor of Nice – while socialists predictably held onto key urban centers, including Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Lille.  NR celebrates in 2024 The results of the second-round […]

How Much Of The Gulf’s Water Comes From Desalination Plants? Authored by Mohamed A. Hussein, The United States-Israeli war on Iran has exposed the vulnerability of critical water infrastructure in a region that is among the most water-scarce in the world. Last week, Iran’s foreign minister accused the US of striking a desalination plant on Qeshm Island off the coast of Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. The strike reportedly […]

Trump HHS Launches Probe Into 13 States Over Abortion Coverage Mandates The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR), is investigating 13 Democrat-run states for allegedly forcing employers’ health insurance plans to cover abortions. Officials say these rules trample the Weldon Amendment’s federal conscience protections.  The Weldon amendment blocks states from punishing health insurers, […]

Blackstone’s Flagship Private Credit Fund, World’s Largest, Posts First Monthly Loss Since 2022 It only took a constant barrage of negative news surrounding the private credit space, including a surge in redemptions, investor gating, questions about loan markets as well as outright fraud, not to mention relentless criticism from of some of the biggest luminaries in credit, including Saba’s Boaz Weinstein and Diameter’s Scott […]

Glitch Shuts Australia’s Biggest Maker Of Vital Fertilizer Input For 2 Months At Worst Possible Time Australia’s largest ammonia plant will be shut for two months to repair damage caused by a power outage, amidst a global supply crunch for the vital fertiliser and explosives ingredient. To say that the shutdown comes at the worst possible time for the global fertilizer market would be an understatement: more than a quarter of the […]

Pritzker Criticizes AIPAC After Pro-Israel Group Spends Heavily In Illinois Primary Authored by Jackson Richman via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker sharply criticized the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) following the group’s significant spending in the March 17 Illinois primary elections. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker speaks on stage during Vox Media’s Pivot Tour at The Chicago Theatre in […]

AOC Splashes Thousands In Campaign Funds On Psychiatrist Specializing In Ketamine Therapy Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D- NY) campaign splashed close to $19,000 in campaign funds last year to a Boston-area psychiatrist affiliated with a chain of clinics that specialize in ketamine-based treatments for mental-health conditions, according to the New York Post. Disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission indicate that […]

Oil & Stocks Mixed To Start Week As War Escalates & Gamma Unclenches Update (1845ET): After an initial kneejerk higher in oil and lower in stocks, things have settled a little with both hovering around unch… Brent is sliding a little from Friday’s highs… Equity futs are back around unch… There’s a long way til dawn… *  *  * Following a weekend where geopolitical headlines swung from “winding down” (Friday […]

Tanker Carrying Fuel Bound For Cuba Diverts, While Another Russian Tanker Is Set To Challenge US Blockade A tanker carrying fuel originally ‌bound for Cuba on Friday changed its destination to Trinidad and Tobago, according to LSEG ship-tracking data, a blow for the island amid a severe fuel scarcity that has triggered power blackouts. The Hong Kong-flagged vessel Sea Horse loaded a Russian diesel ​cargo earlier this year […]

US Treasury To Partner With Education Department To Collect Student Loan Debt Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Department of Education (ED) jointly announced a new partnership under which the Treasury will assume responsibility for collecting on defaulted federal student loan debt, according to a March 19 joint statement from the departments. Secretary […]

Florida Cities Enforce Curfews And Mass Arrests After Spring Break Chaos Do certain groups of people deliberately seek out chaos?  Do they revel in it so much that they choose to create it from thin air wherever they go?  Or, are they completely unaware of the destruction that follows them around?  One thing is certain – they obviously don’t care about how it affects the people around them.   Spring Break in Florida has […]

Georgia Governor Signs Bill Suspending State Gas Tax For 60 Days Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill on March 20 suspending the state’s gasoline tax for 60 days, the first such move taken by a U.S. state since the U.S.–Israeli war with Iran began in late February. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp delivers the State of the State address on the House floor of the state […]

Clinton-Appointed Federal Judge Blocks Trump’s Pentagon Media Access Restrictions Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), A federal judge on March 20 issued an order blocking the Trump administration’s media access policy at the Pentagon after The New York Times sued over the restrictions. An aerial view of the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., on Dec. 15, 2025. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times The Department of […]

“Our Military Is Prepared”: Havana Communists See Writing On The Wall After Trump’s Iran Bombing In a new note from Zoltan Pozsar’s advisory firm, Ex Uno Plures, he explained that the Trump administration is “methodically building a portfolio of assets” to pressure China, centered on strategic energy supply nodes and maritime chokepoints that have historically supported Beijing’s cheap crude imports. His note highlights the Panama […]

Iran Issues 10 Million Rial Banknote Amid Soaring Inflation As the Iran war rages, Tehran has rolled out a new 10 million rial banknote, its highest-ever denomination, as authorities seek to “manage” soaring inflation and meet demand for hard cash… but mostly to “manage” soaring inflation, similar to how Venezuela would add a new 0 to its currency every week in the late days of the Maduro ergime before everyone simply gave up.  […]

Don Lemon Claims US Does ‘Very Same Things’ To Protesters As Iran… Which Slaughtered 1000s Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, Don Lemon has hit rock bottom in his radical spiral, openly claiming the United States treats protesters the exact same way as Iran — the regime that massacred thousands of anti-government demonstrators in just three months. This jaw-dropping comparison arrives as the Trump DOJ pursues […]

Iran Threatens To Destroy Region-Wide Infrastructure As Trump’s 48-Hour Ultimatum Ticks Down, Mass Casualties In Southern Israel Summary Iran vows regional and US infrastructure will be “irreversibly destroyed” in response to Trump’s 48-hour timeline to open Hormuz or else Iranian power plants will be obliterated. Iran announces imposition a $2 million transit fee on ‘non-enemy’ ships wishing to transit strait. […]

‘Punish Iran’: Saudi Arabia & UAE Inch Closer To Joining US-Israeli War Via Middle East Eye Earlier this month, Elbridge Colby, a senior official in the US Department of War, held a call with Saudi Arabian Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman, who is also the brother and top adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Iran’s attacks on US bases in the Gulf were heating up, and the US needed expanded access and overflight […]

Senate Democrats Are Quietly Plotting To Oust Chuck Schumer Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has had a fractured relationship with the Democratic Party base ever since he voted to fund the government last March. Unfortunately for him, time hasn’t healed that wound, and there’s a growing resistance to Schumer that hopes to oust him from his leadership position after the midterms. The Wall Street Journal, drawing on more […]

“On Our Way To Cuba”: Left-Wing Nonprofit Boss Flies First Class For Virtue Signaling Tour The head of a left-wing nonprofit, reportedly linked to a Marxist propaganda network connected to a China-based billionaire, flew first class while her supporters traveled in coach to Cuba. This appears to be an effort aimed at disrupting U.S. foreign policy operations in the Caribbean. “NOW we’re on our way to Cuba!” Code Pink wrote on X on […]

Another Manic Monday Coming Submtted By Peter Tchir of Academy Securities I expect that we will see a lot of “green dots” on the Bloomberg Terminal Sunday night, as there was almost no asset (other than energy) up on Friday. I do know that my Monday will start bright and early, at 5am on CNBC. Away from that everything is a bit up in the air. There are headlines that can push us in either direction. Some developments that seem […]

What Do Bonds Know That The Stock Market Doesn’t? Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, Most investors spend their time watching the S&P 500. That’s a mistake, because the credit market is the real “tell.” The bond market has been whispering a warning for weeks now, and credit spreads are now shouting it. As of this writing, the CDX Index, a benchmark measure of credit default swap spreads, has climbed […]

Jaw-Dropping TSA Lines Continue To Hobble Major Airports; Trump Confirms ICE On The Way In a post on his TruthSocial feed, President Trump has confirmed that ICE agents will be joining forces with TSA agents as of tomorrow to aid in the safe-keeping of Americans: On Monday, ICE will be going to airports to help our wonderful TSA Agents… … who have stayed on the job despite the fact that the Radical Left Democrats, who are […]

More Than 5,500 Residents Ordered To Evacuate In Hawaii Over Dodgy Dam Authored by T.J. Muscaro via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), More than 5,500 people on Hawaii’s most populous island have been ordered to evacuate on March 20 as weather conditions continue to worsen and threaten the integrity of a 120-year-old dam. Map of the evacuation zone in response to the risk of a dam failure amid torrential rains on Oahu, Hawaii, on […]