Iran Strikes Back Over Energy Asset Attack Amid “All-Out Economic War”; Vance To Meet With Oil Chiefs Summary Some Gulf states want to ensure Iran’s missile arsenal destroyed for good, as EU, Russia, China demand ceasefire; Beijing ignores Trump’s Hormuz plea Israel says Iran’s intelligence chief Esmail Khatib was eliminated overnight as pace of top leadership killings accelerates. Iran says upstream oil and gas assets […]

John Roberts Calls For Restraint After Years Of Judicial Overreach Authored by David Manney via PJMedia.com, Chief Justice John Roberts, the person in charge of the Supreme Court of the United States, recently stepped forward with a familiar appeal, urging Americans to dial back personal attacks on judges and to show respect for the judiciary. The message landed with a tone of concern, almost paternal, as if the country had […]

Gabbard Showdown: DNI Scrubs “Obliterated” Iran Nuke Line from Testimony, Dodges Imminent Threat Question Update 1250ET: Things are getting spicy on Capitol Hill – as DNI Tulsi Gabbard faced intense scrutiny from Democrats during a Senate hearing on worldwide threats, while Sen. Markwayne Mullin endured a fiery intra-GOP confrontation during his DHS confirmation, and the SAVE America Act debate dragged into its second day amid […]

Some Gulf States Egg On US Iran Strikes As EU, Russia, China Demand Ceasefire – Beijing Ignores Trump’s Hormuz Plea Fresh reports suggest that at least some Gulf states are now egging on the US-Israeli bombardment of Iran, hoping that the Islamic Republic’s significant ballistic missile can be blunted forever, after countries from Bahrain to UAE to Saudi Arabia have been target of literally thousands of drones and missiles since […]

Polymarket’s New DC ‘Situation Room’ Bar Lets Patrons Sip Old Fashioneds And Monitor WW3 Headlines Polymarket, the crypto-based prediction market, announced on X the grand opening of “The Situation Room” in Washington, D.C., a bar where patrons can sip Moscow Mules, Old Fashioneds, or beer (preferably not Bud Light, perhaps a local IPA like Dogfish) while monitoring X feeds, Bloomberg terminals, and Polymarket bets on […]

Why AI Malware (And Harmful Second-Order Effects) Are Out Of Control Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog, Fixing all this doesn’t scale. What scales is the spread of uncontrollably harmful consequences. When something scales faster than it can be absorbed or controlled, the resulting extremes break the system. That’s the problem of asymmetric scaling. Let’s take a current example: the malicious use of AI and the […]

No One (?) By Michael Every of Rabobank One of the central beliefs of neoclassical economics is that we are all One. One world market; One global central bank; One base interest rate; with temporary aberrations and interventions, One price. Except, as has been evident for some time, that doesn’t work very well, so increasingly we aren’t One. And that division is perhaps even spreading to something we all rely on: energy. The […]

U.S. Waives Jones Act After Iran Gas Field Attack Shortly after Israeli fighter jets struck Iran’s upstream oil and natural gas production assets for the first time in Operation Epic Fury, sending WTI futures to $98.5/bbl, the Trump administration appears to have pulled another emergency lever from JPMorgan’s six-option playbook we recently outlined: a 60-day Jones Act waiver that allows foreign-flagged ships to transport oil, gas, […]

US Crude Stockpile Hits Highest Since June 2024, Exports Surge Summary: US crude stockpiles surged for the fourth consecutive week. The build takes inventories to the highest level since June 2024. The increase is likely to reinforce perceptions of ample supply in US markets, and though prices are significantly higher, WTI continues to lag global benchmark, Brent.  US oil imports rose to the highest level since November […]

Did Trump Doom The SAVE America Act? Recent polling makes one thing abundantly clear: the American people are firmly behind election integrity, and the SAVE America Act is right in line with where voters already are.  According to the latest Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll, support for the legislation clocks in at 71%, with strong backing from independents and even a sizable chunk of Democrats. That shouldn’t surprise anyone when you […]

Russia Evacuates Hundreds Of Its Specialists From Iran’s Nuclear Bushehr Complex After Missile Strike Russia has lodged formal protest with Israel following its reported strikes near Iran’s Bushehr nuclear facility, angrily warning that the attacks directly endangered Russian personnel on the ground. Israeli and Russian media have confirmed that Moscow issued a sharp condemnation and warnings of a red line after Israeli forces […]

US Core Manufacturing Orders Up For 3rd Straight Month In January After tumbling to end 2025, US Factory Orders were expected to rise very modestly in January and did so – up 0.1% MoM (as expected) with December’s 0.7% decline revised up to a 0.4% decline… Source: Bloomberg Core Factory orders (es Transports) rose 0.4% MoM – slightly better than expected – and December’s 0.4% MoM shift was revised up to a 0.6% MoM rise. This […]

What Has The Iran War Done To Trump’s Approval Rating? Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, Mainstream coverage of the ongoing Iran conflict has framed it as a potential turning point for the Trump administration, with endless speculation about political damage and shifting voter sentiment. However, new data presented on CNN tells a far different story. The network’s own senior data analyst Harry Enten delivered a […]

Appeals Court Refuses Trump’s Request To Reconsider CNN Defamation Suit President Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against CNN appears to be dead for the time being, as an appeals court denied his motion to rehear the case. A three-judge panel had held in November that Trump hadn’t done enough to show that CNN compared him to Adolph Hitler when it described his claims about the 2020 election as “the Big Lie.” In a brief […]

Data Centers Look To Liquid Cooling As AI Future Heats Up Authored by Bruce Parker via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), The boom in artificial intelligence (AI) technology and hyperscale facilities has created a growth opportunity for businesses that keep cloud- and AI-related computer servers from overheating. A worker walks among racks and network switches at the LightEdge Solutions data center in Altoona, Iowa, on Oct. 15, 2019. […]

Iran Intel Chief Killed As Israel Grants IDF ‘Free Hand’ To Eliminate Leaders; Trump Muses Tehran Could Be ‘Finished Off’ Summary:  Israel says Iran’s intelligence chief Esmail Khatib was eliminated overnight as pace of top leadership killings accelerates. Israeli attack on Iran’s major South Pars gas field could trigger retaliation on Saudi oil fields. President Trump issues posts musing whether US should ‘finish […]

Futures Slump, Erasing Overnight Gains After Iran’s Giant Pars Field Attacked; FOMC Looms Stocks were set to extend gains into a third day as Iraq’s deal to reroute crude via Turkey, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz, eased some supply concerns as Iranian strikes target Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and UAE, but it all unwound shortly after 7am ET,  following an Iranian report that US and Israeli airstrikes hit its giant South Pars […]

Rate-Cut Odds Tumble As US Producer Prices Surged In February – Hottest In Over A Year After a hotter than expected print in January, US Producer Prices were expected to continue to rise (but only modestly) in February data released today. The consensus direction was right but the scale was way off as headline PPI accelerated 0.7% MoM (vs +0.3% exp and +0.5% prior) – the biggest monthly jump since July 2025. That lifted producer […]

Daily Multivitamin Linked To Slower Biological Aging In New Clinical Trial Authored by Rachel Ann T. Melegrito via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), Most people who take a daily multivitamin couldn’t tell you exactly why – but their bodies might know. A new clinical trial suggests there may be something measurable behind the routine: Older adults who took a daily multivitamin for two years showed slightly slower biological […]

Why Is Wyoming Stashing Gold Inside This Old Newspaper Building? It’s no secret that despite President Donald Trump’s occasional tough talk about slashing the United States’ monstrous $38.9 trillion debt bomb, his administration has zero real political will to slam the brakes on Washington’s out-of-control spending spree. The inaction has Wyoming Republicans gearing up for the inevitable economic trainwreck when the day comes […]

Will Republicans Fight For The SAVE Act – Or Fold Again? Authored by Heather Higgins via RealClearPolitics, Republicans didn’t win the Senate so their leaders could manage expectations. They won it to deliver results. Will Republicans leaders actually deliver? We are about to find out with the SAVE America Act. The legislation requires proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections. That’s not some fringe idea. It’s the […]

These Are The Gig Worker Jobs That Pay The Most (And Least) The gig economy includes many platforms such as Uber, DoorDash, and Instacart, but the amount workers earn can differ significantly depending on the app they use. Data from Gridwise, which reviewed about one billion gig jobs in 2025, shows wide differences in average hourly pay across platforms, according to Business Insider. Workers on Taskrabbit earned the highest […]

Iran Confirms Death Of Ali Larijani In Another Key Loss Of Leadership Summary: Iranian state media confirms deaths of top national security chief Larijani and Basij chief Gholamreza Soleimani. Israel issues widest evacuation order for Lebanon since the major 2006 war. Russia is trying to keep its regional ally Iran “in the fight”; Pentagon eyes ramping up Kamikaze drone use and production. Trump: War will be over […]

Zelensky Confirms 200 Ukrainian Drone Operatives Are In Mideast Assisting Against Iran Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday offered rare confirmation that his government has sent 200 Ukrainian air defense experts to the Middle East, where they are helping allies to counteract Iranian drone attacks, and on the cheap. Zelensky, who has publicly backed President Trump’s decision to attack Iran, explained in statements […]

Berlin Accused Of Prioritizing Migrants Over Merit In Hiring Judges & Prosecutors Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News, A diversity hiring policy affecting the recruitment of judges and public prosecutors in Berlin has come under renewed scrutiny after the city’s justice senator warned that the system may conflict with Germany’s constitutional requirement that public offices be filled strictly on merit. The policy, […]