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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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%. […]

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 […]

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 […]

“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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

Allegations Of Pentagon “Casualty Cover-Up”: The Intercept Well-known national security news site The Intercept has issued fresh reporting which alleges a Pentagon cover-up when it comes to mounting US casualties from Trump’s Operation Epic Fury. Speculation and questions have lately surged among the public and analysts given that casualty updates put out by the Pentagon have been very few and far between. It actually accuses the […]

Why States Are Right To Reject AI Legal Personhood Authored by Siri Terjesen and Michael Ryall via The Epoch Times, A quiet but consequential legal movement is gathering momentum. Idaho and Utah have enacted statutes declaring that artificial intelligence systems are not legal persons. Ohio’s House Bill 469 proposes to declare that AI systems are “nonsentient entities” and bars them from acquiring any form of legal […]

Putin To Saudi Crown Prince: Russia Ready To Do Everything To Stabilize Mideast Crisis Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Russia is willing to do anything toward bringing stability to the Persian Gulf and Iran crises.  “Russia is counting on an early end to the conflict in the Middle East, and is ready to do everything to bring the situation back to normal,” Putin’s words were paraphrased in state media as telling […]

DOJ Sues New Jersey Town Over Natural Gas Ban Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit against Morris Township in New Jersey over its ban on natural gas and other fossil fuels in newly constructed buildings, the department said in an April 1 statement. Blue flames from a gas stove at a home in Arlington, Va., on May 3, 2023. Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty […]

Russian Embassy Outraged After US-Israeli Strikes Damage Orthodox Church In Tehran The Russian Embassy in Tehran has issued an angry denunciation of Wednesday US-Israeli airstrikes which damaged a Russian Orthodox Church and an adjacent nursing home.  “Two missile strikes on the morning of April 1st in the immediate vicinity of St. Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral in Tehran caused damage to the main building and outbuildings (windows […]

Australia Considers Emergency Powers To Protect Domestic Gas Supply Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com, Australia’s government intends to consider using emergency powers to protect domestic natural gas supply in case of a shortfall on its east coast in the third quarter of 2026. The potential consideration of using such powers would be part of the steps the Albanese Government is taking to secure domestic gas […]

Oracle’s Dubai Data Center Reportedly Hit As Iran Expands Attack On AI Infrastructure According to Reuters national security reporter Phil Stewart on X, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has targeted a data center facility operated by Oracle in Dubai.  IRAN’S REVOLUTIONARY GUARDS SAY THEY HAVE TARGETED ORACLE’S DATA CENTER IN DUBAI – STATE MEDIA — Phil Stewart (@phildstewart) April 2, 2026 Not much is known about the IRGC […]

The Case Against Federal Reserve Independence Authored by Alexander William Salter via AmericanMind.org, It’s illegal in theory and ineffective in practice. The independence of the Federal Reserve System has become a major source of public controversy. As political leaders signal dissatisfaction with monetary policy, officials and commentators rush to defend the central bank’s insulation from democratic pressure. We […]

“Save Every Drop Of Fuel”: South Korea Tells Citizens To Conserve, Ride Public Transit Amid Energy Shock The Gulf energy shock is now hitting Asian economies with full force. In Seoul, President Lee Jae Myung on Thursday urged citizens to “save every drop of fuel,” a new sign policymakers are moving quickly into crisis mode as the U.S.-Iran conflict raises the risk of nasty fuel shortages across some of Asia’s most energy- and […]

A Second Amendment Roadmap For The Next Attorney General Authored by Aidan Johnston via Gun Owners of America, President Trump campaigned on restoring robust protections for the Second Amendment. Yet more than a year into his second term, gun owners feel disillusioned, and many are planning to sit out the midterm elections. Having viewed President Trump’s election as a generational opportunity to course-correct, the stark […]

Inanity Of Identity Politics Exposed At Canadian NDP Convention Authored by Jonathan Turley, The recent convention of the Canadian New Democratic Party (NDP) became a microcosm of the inanity of identity politics found in forums ranging from politics to higher education. Participants were given familiar “equity cards” as literal card-carrying members of groups demanding preferred treatment. The problem is when one identity […]

Houthis Confirm Coordination With Iran, Hezbollah In Several Attack Waves On Israel Amid several waves of missile strikes out of Yemen onto Israel from Tuesday into Wednesday, the Iran-aligned Houthis have made it clear they are coordinating with both Tehran and Hezbollah. Yemeni Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the Houthis have carried out several missile launch operations on “sensitive targets” in “southern occupied […]