Individual Economists

Map Shows Homebuilders Pulling Back Nationwide "Given Limited Visibility To Demand"

Zero Hedge - March 29, 2026 - 9:55am

Map Shows Homebuilders Pulling Back Nationwide "Given Limited Visibility To Demand"

Even as homebuilders offer mortgage-rate buydowns, closing-cost incentives, and upgraded amenities to attract buyers on the sidelines, clouds of uncertainty continue to build over the housing market. New U.S. single-family permit activity fell again in January, highlighting yet more caution among builders ahead of the spring selling season as they respond to softer demand.

Goldman analysts, led by Susan Maklari, provided clients on Friday with a snapshot of homebuilders across America and a housing heat map suggesting continued sluggishness across the industry.

On a trailing 12-month basis, single-family permits fell 8% in January, versus 7% in the previous month, and were up 6% in December 2025.

Maklari said, "Ongoing moderation comes as builders look to limit unsold inventory given limited visibility to demand."

Some of the January weakness stemmed from severe winter weather and dangerously cold temperatures, which delayed permits and construction in parts of the eastern U.S., including major homebuilding markets such as Texas, Florida, and the Southeast. However, the snow and sub-zero temperatures are only one part of the slowdown story.

The analyst added that builders are dealing with a challenging macroeconomic environment for buyers, noting that sales traffic improved earlier in the year but vanished in March, according to the latest industry checks, as consumers "react to the effects of the Middle East conflict."

At the same time, mortgage rates have jumped about 40 basis points over the last month, making monthly payments even less affordable as the housing market is stuck in the worst affordability crisis in a generation, a leftover gift from the Biden-Harris era.

The slowdown is most visible in some of the biggest new-home states:

Single-family permits for the 3-months ended January fell 11% YOY, compared to -9% in December, and -1% a year ago. That said, they were up 7% vs the comparable pre-pandemic period. Looking at the largest new home markets, the deceleration was led by Colorado (-21%), Texas (-20%), and Nevada (-19%) while the Northeast and Pacific Northwest outperformed. Nationally, we note 8 states were flat to up vs 11 in December. This comes as builders continue to align starts to demand while focusing on profitability and cash generation. As such, we expect permits will remain under pressure in the near-term.

At the metro level, the permit picture is deteriorating across the top 50 metro areas, with permits down 15% from one year ago, and some of the sharpest declines are in places such as Stockton, Richmond, and Cape Coral.

Permits in the top 50 MSAs declined 15% YOY for the 3 months ended December vs -13% in December and -4% in January 2025. On a YOY basis, Miami, FL (+33%), North Port, FL (+31%), and Portland, OR (+17%) showed the greatest gains while Stockton, CA (-47%), Richmond, VA (-39%), and Cape-Coral, FL (-36%) lagged. On a 2-year stack, growth was led by Colorado Springs, CO (+33%), Oklahoma City, OK (+30%), and Columbus, OH (+13%) while Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL (-52%), Myrtle Beach, SC-NC (-48%), and Denver, CO (-45%) had the largest losses.

Trailing 12 Month Single-Family Permits by State

Trailing 3 Month Single-Family Permits by State

Permits for Top 50 MSAs

A look at home prices shows the market is still rising nationally, but momentum has cooled.

Zillow's single-family home value index showed prices were modestly higher in February versus one year ago, in line with January and below the 3% annual gain seen a year ago. The data shows that home values remain up 55% since February 2019.

Regionally, home price strength was concentrated in the Midwest and parts of the Northeast, with Wisconsin, North Dakota, Illinois, and New York each posting 5% annual increases, while Connecticut, Michigan, and Iowa rose 4%. Sun Belt weakness persisted due to oversupply concerns, led by a decline in Florida, while Colorado, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia were down around 2%.

The slowdown in permits suggests the spring selling season may be weaker than expected. Builders remain wary of demand, and with mortgage rates moving higher and uncertainty growing due to the US-Iran conflict, the housing market as a whole appears to be in continued paralysis.

Professional subscribers can read the full "Americas Building" note at our new Marketdesk.ai portal

Tyler Durden Sun, 03/29/2026 - 09:55

Trump Asks Congress To Pass Clean Reauthorization Of FISA Spy Powers

Zero Hedge - March 29, 2026 - 9:20am

Trump Asks Congress To Pass Clean Reauthorization Of FISA Spy Powers

Authored by Joseph Lord and Nathan Worcester via The Epoch Times,

President Donald Trump asked Congress this week to pass a clean reauthorization of a critical—but controversial—spying authority as the U.S. military operation in Iran continues.

“I have called for a clean 18-month extension,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social, noting that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) are working toward passing such a bill.

Specifically, Trump is asking Congress to extend the authorities in Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a sweeping War on Terror-era spying authority that has seen wide abuse by federal intelligence agencies in the past.

Section 702 targets intelligence from foreign nationals thought to be outside the United States. Yet, it also enables intelligence agencies to gather information from Americans who are in contact with targeted non-U.S. persons—all without a warrant. The controversial authority was at the center of National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden’s 2014 disclosures.

Although intelligence officials must obtain a warrant to access Americans’ data, Section 702 has long caused bipartisan discomfort on Capitol Hill and beyond.

Trump noted in the post that he himself had been on the receiving end of what he described as “the worst and most illegal abuse of FISA in our Nation’s History,” referencing disclosures that revealed that the FBI had used Section 702 of FISA to spy on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign as part of the Crossfire Hurricane operation.

Nevertheless, Trump said, “When used properly, FISA is an effective tool to keep Americans safe."

“For these reasons, I have called for a clean 18-month extension, HOWEVER, the Critical and Common Sense Reforms that were made in the last Reauthorization of FISA must remain intact to protect the American People from abuses.”

In an extension of the authority passed last year, Congress imposed new training requirements for those with access to the FISA Section 702 database, stricter requirements for justifying queries into the database, requiring high-level approval to query the information of politically-sensitive individuals, and mandatory consequences for willful abuse of the program.

“Since the first day ... my Administration has worked tirelessly to ensure these Reforms are being aggressively executed at every level of the Executive Branch to keep Americans safe, while protecting their sacred Civil Liberties guaranteed by our Great Constitution,” Trump wrote.

The president said that permitting the program to continue was crucial in view of the ongoing hostilities with Iran.

“The fact is, whether you like FISA or not, it is extremely important to our Military. I have spoken to many Generals about this, and they consider it vital. Not one said, even tacitly, that they can do without it—especially right now with our brilliant Military Operation in Iran,” Trump wrote.

Bipartisan Skepticism

However, bipartisan doubts about the extensive program remain, despite efforts among supporters of Section 702 to amplify the reductions in abuse brought about in the wake of the reforms.

Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) signaled opposition on March 17 in posts on X. That same day, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) endorsed reforms to the law in a conversation with reporters.

Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), who chairs the House Freedom Caucus, told reporters on March 18 that 18 months is too long.

“I hope there’s some room for negotiating a couple of smaller reforms into it to show good faith, that they know there are problems,” he said.

Meanwhile, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio)—like Trump, a past critic of FISA—has backed its renewal.

Ahead of a March 18 briefing, he told reporters that the FBI has boosted compliance with Section 702’s querying procedures—guardrails to shield Americans from FISA wiretapping.

A review of FBI Section 702 compliance from the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General identified more than 60,000 noncompliant queries in 2021 alone.

During a March 19 press conference, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said, “It’s clear that FISA reforms are necessary."

“Every single Democrat will oppose the rule,” Jeffries said, referring to a procedural step that Johnson could take to advance the extension that would come ahead of a final vote.

Tyler Durden Sun, 03/29/2026 - 09:20

'Incredibly Problematic' - Iran Destroys US AWACS Jet At Saudi Airbase

Zero Hedge - March 29, 2026 - 8:45am

'Incredibly Problematic' - Iran Destroys US AWACS Jet At Saudi Airbase

In a major feat that comes weeks after the White House claimed that Iran's ballistic missile capability had been "functionally destroyed," Iran has laid waste to one of only 16 American E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft in the world, sending $500 million worth of technology up in smoke and crimping the US military's ability to maintain situational awareness. The same attack also "damaged" several aerial refueling tankers and added a dozen service members to the tally of more than 300 who've been wounded in the month-long US-Israeli war on Iran. Thirteen have been killed.

In recent days, foreign satellite images showed what appeared to be major damage at Prince Sultan Air Base, a U.S. military base located in Al Kharj, Saudi Arabia.

The images show damage on the base's main apron, which holds high-value aircraft.

While high-resolution commercial satellite imagery of the region from U.S.-based geospatial companies will be delayed for days, if not weeks, new ground-level photos apparently show the aftermath of Iranian drone and missile strikes.

Images have emerged revealing that the Wall Street Journal's initial report that the half-billion-dollar aircraft was merely "damaged" was an enormous understatement. Rather, a large portion of the fuselage has been obliterated, along with the distinctive 30-foot-diameter, 6-foot-thick rotating radar dome that's mounted atop AWACS aircraft.

The images of the destroyed E-3 Sentry were first posted on the Air Force amn/nco/snco Facebook page:

According to military aviation aficionados, the identifier "OK 81-0005" -- visible on the severed tail -- confirms this particular aircraft was an E-3G named "Captain Planet," which deployed to the Middle East theater from Oklahoma's Tinker Air Force Base. It's not clear if any of the recently-wounded service members were associated with the aircraft, which was destroyed in a missile-and-drone attack on PSAB.

"The loss of this E-3 is incredibly problematic, given how crucial these battle managers are to everything from airspace deconfliction, aircraft deconfliction, targeting, and providing other lethal effects that the entire force needs for the battle space," Heather Penney, a former F-16 pilot and director of studies and research at AFA's Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

The now-destroyed "Captain Planet" E-3G on a better day (via entxuncutt)

The destroyed E-3 was one of six stationed at the Saudi base and only 16 active craft in the entire Pentagon inventory -- and all of them can't even be counted on, on any given day:

The E-3 is aging, and its capabilities are falling behind those of some major adversaries. The Air Force’s E-3 fleet has dwindled down to 16 as the service retires less-capable planes. In fiscal 2024, E-3s had a mission-capable rate of about 56 percent, meaning a little more than half were able to fly and carry out their missions at any given time. -- Air & Space Forces

Despite its B-list status, earlier Iranian successes have elevated the E-3 Sentry's importance. Iran reportedly damaged a $1.1 billion AN/FPS-132 radar at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar -- one of just six in the world -- and blew up a nearly $500 million AN/TPY-2 THAAD radar at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan. There's reason to believe other radars suffered similar fates, thwarting US detection and response to incoming fire. The radars take years to replace. In the ultimate example of financially-asymmetric warfare, Iran may have used drones that cost between $10,000 to $30,000 each to inflict some or all of that damage.

The AN/FPS-132 phased-array radar in Qatar was damaged by Iran.

Satellite imagery shows debris from the damaged radar face scattered across the roof of the main building, along with visible water runoff from firefighting efforts. pic.twitter.com/HvPEIwF4la
— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) March 4, 2026

AWACS have figured in every major US military engagement since their debut in the 1970s. Speaking of history...at a time when people like recently-resigned Counterterrorism Center director Joe Kent are calling for President Trump to stand up to Israel and chart a new America-first course in this war and in the future, note that the AWACS played a central role in one of the few times an American president has rebuffed Israel's attempts to steer US foreign policy.

In 1981, Israel and the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) mounted a fierce campaign to thwart an arms deal with Saudi Arabia, because it included AWACS. Israel and its US-based backers argued that the move would erode Israel's military superiority in the region. President Reagan stood firm against the Israel/AIPAC backlash, calling a press conference in which he declared:

"While we must always take into account the vital interests of our allies, American security interests must remain our internal responsibility. It is not the business of other nations to make American foreign policy."

Reagan's aggressive lobbying of legislators pushed the deal across the finish line. However, in an exasperating postscript, we must note that Reagan felt compelled to promise Israel another F-15 squadron and $600 million in credits to smooth things over. Alas, even when Israel was rebuffed, the conveyor belt that ceaselessly redistributes wealth from America to Israel ran only harder.

The takeaway is that the Iranian strike on PSAB, which may have eliminated one E-3 from the USAF's already tiny fleet, exposed weaknesses in U.S. counter-drone and counter-missile defenses, as well as broader battlespace awareness.

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Tyler Durden Sun, 03/29/2026 - 08:45

North Sea Oil Fight Escalates As Starmer Cites Legal Limits

Zero Hedge - March 29, 2026 - 8:20am

North Sea Oil Fight Escalates As Starmer Cites Legal Limits

Authored by Mauricio Alencar via City A.M.,

Sir Keir Starmer has said he doesn’t hold legal powers to approve fresh exploration of North Sea oil and gas fields, with the decision falling in the hands of net zero secretary Ed Miliband.

Starmer said current legislation determined that a quasi-judicial decision relating to cases for more gas extraction at Shell’s Jackdaw site and Equinor’s Rosebank oil field was left to Miliband.

The Prime Minister reiterated the government’s commitment to expanding renewable energy. He said the introduction of fresh legislation would “slow the process down” and accused the leader of the opposition, Kemi Badenoch, of failing to know about the law before raising questions in Parliament.

“Its absolutely clear that the quasi judicial [process] lies with secretary of state,” Starmer said.

“In the last four weeks, because we are on a fossil fuel rollercoaster, everyone is being held to ransom."

He added: “The most important thing to get energy security is to make sure we de-escalate the war.”

Starmer backed by Davey

Scottish courts ruled government approvals for more extraction at each field as unlawful on environmental grounds.

The power now falls on the energy secretary to make a decision while considering economic and environmental reasons for projects.

Badenoch accused Starmer of “hiding behind legal process every time” though Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey, who served as the energy secretary in the coalition government, said he agreed with the Prime Minister.

The Tory leader heckled Davey to “stop sucking up”. She also shouted out “you can change the law” and repeated the word “weak” several times.

Starmer is facing growing pressure to remove restrictions on North Sea oil and gas projects from officials working across clean energy.

Jurgen Maier, who oversees Great British Energy, the publicly owned investment company, said in a post on LinkedIn that more drilling in the region would support a “managed energy transition”, slow job losses and improve tax receipts.

However, he said that energy costs would not be brought down and later emphasised he was “fully supportive” of the government’s position to use existing fields for further exploration.

Prime Minister’s Questions also came just a day after the lobby group Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) called on the government to “urgently” allow new drilling projects to take place.

Its annual report said much as half of the UK’s liquified natural gas (LNG) will come from international suppliers by 2035.

David Whitehouse, chief executive of OEUK, said:

“As demand rises and electricity use accelerates, weakening domestic supply would only increase our reliance on imported LNG, leaving consumers more exposed to global volatility and higher emissions.”

Tyler Durden Sun, 03/29/2026 - 08:20

Watch: Top Arms Control Official Refuses To Confirm Israel Has Nukes

Zero Hedge - March 29, 2026 - 7:35am

Watch: Top Arms Control Official Refuses To Confirm Israel Has Nukes

In the latest indication of America's deteriorating relationship with the State of Israel, a federal legislator used a Capitol Hill hearing to ask a simple but long-forbidden question of America's top arms control official: "Does Israel have nuclear weapons?"

The official repeatedly refused to say what everyone knows -- that Israel has hundreds of nuclear weapons. Worse, straining credulity, he told his interrogator, Texas Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro, that "it would be outside of my purview as the arms control and arms proliferation under secretary to discuss that specific question." Castro replied, "Sir, that is a dereliction of duty."

The exchange took place in a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Wednesday, with Castro grilling Under Secretary of State for Arms Control Thomas G. DiNanno. Castro persisted through DiNanno's repeated dodging of the question. "The consequences, as you know, are grave. This war continues to escalate," said Castro. DiNanno also refused to say if he himself knew the answer but was not allowed to say so.

We are four weeks into a war where both sides have targeted each other's nuclear facilities.

We risk nuclear disaster. Yet the main Trump official on arms control refused to answer my question on Israel's nuclear capabilities and told me to ask the Israeli government. pic.twitter.com/Sxnru3EIrl
— Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) March 25, 2026

"Tell us something -- as Congress, as the oversight body -- what is Israel's nuclear capability in terms of weapons?" asked Castro. In reply, DiNanno didn't refer Castro to US intelligence agencies, but -- compounding the insult to the committees' intelligence -- told Castro to ask "the Israeli government."

"You're the main person in charge of knowing this and understanding it," said Castro. "I don't understand why this issue is so taboo, when it's a basic question, and we're in a war alongside Israel against Iran, we're dealing with the potential for nuclear fallout, and you won't answer this basic question."

A big reason why it's taboo went unmentioned during the hearing. Because Israel is not a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and also has nuclear weapons, every dollar of aid to Israel breaks American law. Beyond that, the feigned official ignorance about Israel's nuclear arsenal is meant to obscure the sheer hypocrisy of nuclear-armed Israel -- a country with a government increasingly dominated by expansionist and religious zealots -- decrying Iran's enrichment of uranium, particularly given the US intelligence community has repeatedly assessed that Iran stopped its initial pursuit of such weapons 23 years ago.

As Brian McGlinchey explains at Stark Realities, US officials' refusal to talk about Israel's nuclear arsenal isn't a mere unwritten understanding:

Perversely, U.S. government employees who dare discuss or release information about Israel’s nuclear weapons program—and thus illuminate the ongoing criminality of U.S. aid to Israel—would themselves be subject to prosecution, thanks to a secret classification directive issued by the Obama administration.

The two-page gag order was released in 2015 in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. Other than the title—“Guidance on Release of Information Relating to the Potential for an Israeli Nuclear Capability”—nearly every word has been redacted.

Castro is just one of many legislators who have enjoyed the financial backing of the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), but who is now going astray. Over his political career, Castro has received $115,000 from the pro-Israel lobby and its backers, according to TrackAIPAC, whose entry on Castro suggests he's been straying from the lobby's directives.

At a 2012 AIPAC luncheon in San Antonio, a speaker enthused over the prospect of an Israel-catering candidate Joaquin Castro eventually ascending to powerful House committees (via YouTube)

Castro's grooming by Israel and AIPAC goes all the way back to at least 2008. When he was merely a 33-year-old, up-and-coming member of the Texas legislature, the Israeli government hosted him and 19 other Latino politicians on a two-week trip to Israel. In an obscure video of a 2012 AIPAC luncheon in San Antonio, an unidentified speaker enthused over the AIPAC-groomed Castro's pending election to a reliably Democratic US House seat, and what that meant for the pro-Israel cause: "He has tremendous opportunity to...ascend into some very strong committees, because...he basically has the opportunity to be there as long as he wants to be there."

This week, Castro was able to grill DiNanno thanks to Castro's membership on the "very strong" House Foreign Relations Committee. How do you like your guy now, AIPAC?

Tyler Durden Sun, 03/29/2026 - 07:35

UK's Ofcom To Investigate Complaints Of Climate-Change Denial

Zero Hedge - March 29, 2026 - 7:00am

UK's Ofcom To Investigate Complaints Of Climate-Change Denial

Authored by Paul Homewood via notalotofpeopleknowthat blog,

This is frightening. Indeed it is truly Orwellian...

From the Guardian:

A U-turn by the UK’s broadcasting regulator Ofcom means it will investigate complaints of climate change denial on television and radio for the first time since 2017. The move marks a victory for campaigners who have accused the regulator of allowing some broadcasters “to spout dangerous climate lies” and “flout” rules on accuracy and impartiality.

Complaints about programmes on TalkTV and TalkRadio were assessed by Ofcom, which then decided not to investigate, the same result as more than 1,000 other climate complaints since 2020. However, after a letter from the Good Law Project (GLP) in January, requesting an explanation for the rejections, Ofcom said it had withdrawn its original decision and would “consider afresh” the complaints.

One complaint was about comments from a Talk guest who said in November that climate change “was a deliberate effort to create fake anxiety … out of something that is false”. In the second case, also in November, another guest said the Labour government’s energy policies were “suicidal”, “driven by pseudoscience in many cases” and “a kind of cultish behaviour”.

A reassessment led Ofcom to conclude its approach to “due impartiality” in the broadcasts “required reconsideration”, with the results of the investigations to be published in due course. Ofcom stuck by its decision to not investigate three other climate complaints.

“Rightwing channels have been allowed to spout dangerous climate lies, unchecked, for too long,” said a GLP spokesperson. “We’re glad Ofcom is finally listening and await the conclusion of the investigations. Should it fail to take action against Talk’s misinformation, we will not hesitate to hold them to account.”

An Ofcom spokesperson said: “In re-examining the programmes, we concluded that they raise potentially substantive issues under the broadcasting code which warrant investigation. We have, therefore, opened investigations [on] whether they breached our rules on due impartiality and material misleadingness.” Ofcom said it had also opened another climate-related investigation after a viewer complaint about another TalkTV programme.

A spokesperson for Talk said: “We, as we always would, will cooperate with Ofcom in these matters.”

Full story here.

The first point to make is that there are already rules in place to address factually inaccurate news reporting. But this is not what is at issue here.

OFCOM, it appears, now want to police free speech. Both of these new complaints concern the views of guests, not the journalists or presenters.

Guests on these sort of shows make all sorts of outlandish, and sometimes patently false, comments about all sorts of topics. That is their right. We still have something called freedom of speech in this country.

OFCOM does not get involved in these other cases, so why should they intervene when the topic is climate change?

This decision to intervene in free speech by OFCOM opens a whole new barrel of worms.

What will happen in future if somebody challenges the establishment line on, say, hurricanes?

There is a wide variety of scientific opinion on most climate topics. Will OFCOM be the new arbiter of which version is “correct”?

Will they ban anybody who dares offer a different opinion, or, heaven forbid, dare to quote some facts?

Maybe OFCOM will also ban all use of fraudulent weather attribution models, but I somehow doubt it!

This is a chilling suppression of free speech. “Truth” is fine, but who decides what is true and what is not? OFCOM? The Government? BBC? UN?

And it won’t stop with climate change. How long before we are not allowed to call Starmer the worst PM ever? Or dare to criticise his Government?

We will end up with George Orwell’s Ministry of Truth, where the Government decides what is right and what is wrong.

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command”

Tyler Durden Sun, 03/29/2026 - 07:00

10 Sunday Reads

The Big Picture - March 29, 2026 - 6:30am

Avert your eyes! My Sunday morning look at incompetency, corruption and policy failures:

• Why Kalshi Won’t Pay Winners: Kalshi has refused to pay $54 million to traders who won their bets on when Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would leave office. Gamblers will put up with a game, if it’s the only game in town, even when they know the game is rigged so that insiders will win. What they won’t put up with is no one winning. So, why is Kalshi risking its reputation? Why won’t Kalshi pay winners? A legal quagmire facing prediction markets when it comes to actually paying out. The regulatory cracks are already showing. (Gambling and the Law)

• It turns out that legalising gambling is bad: The gambling industry is huge, even if you exclude the stock market and newfangled “prediction” sites. But how healthy is it for society? Fortunately, a perfect natural experiment in the US offers an easy way to find out — so easy that Alphaville is a little surprised we haven’t seen research like this before. (Financial Times) see also We Haven’t Seen the Worst of What Gambling and Prediction Markets Will Do: Derek Thompson connects the dots between sports betting, prediction markets, and the gamblification of everything. The house always wins, and the house is getting bigger. (Derek Thompson)

• What’s Going on With the IRS? The Trump administration’s budget cuts are looming over Tax Day. DOGE cuts plus an already understaffed agency equals a looming disaster for taxpayers. (The Atlantic)

• The broligarchy’s war on journalism: The capture of US media by Trump allies is accelerating and the UK is the next in line. Plus: the mystery money behind my old newspaper. (Broligarchy)

• Inside the Turmoil at Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s C.D.C. Forty-three current and former C.D.C. employees on the changes they say are replacing science with ideology — and making Americans more vulnerable. (New York Times Magazine)

• A Dunning-Kruger War, Courtesy of the Dunning-Kruger President: Ignorance plus overconfidence gets you the Iran War. (The Cross Section) see also Crazy, Stupid, False, Impotent, and Blind: The Cognitive Biases of the Iran Coverage (emptywheel)

• It’s the ‘Worsties’ – Listing the 25 Worst People in News Media: A delightfully savage ranking of the most harmful figures in media. Agree or disagree, you’ll enjoy the carnage. Being awful pays off in today’s attention economy, but it also deserves ridicule (Stop The Presses)

• MAGA’s Mueller Myths: The Bulwark dismantles the revisionist history around the Mueller investigation. The myths are politically useful, but they don’t survive contact with the actual record. The 7 lies that Trumpists still cling to. (The Bulwark)

• Trump showed classified map to passengers on his plane in 2022, memo says: The document offers a snapshot of an early moment in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation and adds new shading to the public understanding of Smith’s probes. Another day, another revelation about classified documents being treated like in-flight entertainment. The casual disregard for national security is staggering. (Washington Post)

• Is Doomscrolling Giving You Wrinkles? You May Have ‘Tech Neck.’ Growing anxiety about the affliction has sparked a race for a cure; ‘I am too young for this.’ (Wall Street Journal)

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Judd Kessler, the Howard Marks Endowed Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. The winner of the Vernon L. Smith Ascending Scholar Prize,he is the author of is Lucky by Design The Hidden Economics You Need to Get More of What You Want.

Why Americans think other Americans are bad people

Source: The Argument

Sign up for our reads-only mailing list here.

~~~

To learn how these reads are assembled each day, please see this.

The post 10 Sunday Reads appeared first on The Big Picture.

Escobar: The Long And Winding Petro-Gold Road

Zero Hedge - March 28, 2026 - 11:20pm

Escobar: The Long And Winding Petro-Gold Road

Authored by Pepe Escobar,

The 15-point plan that Team Trump presented to Iran is already D.O.A.

It’s an imposed capitulation: a surrender document disguised as “negotiation”.

The non-plan plan – imposing demands while begging for a one-month ceasefire – includes zero uranium enrichment on Iranian soil; full dismantlement of Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow installations; all enriched uranium out of Iran; the missile program extremely restricted; no funding for Hezbollah, Ansarallah and Iraqi militias; the Strait of Hormuz totally opened.

All that in exchange for a vague “cancelling the threat of reimposing sanctions”.

The only realistic Iranian response to this accumulated wishful thinking might be Mr. Khorramshahr-4 showering his business card across selected targets – consistent with leveraging economic and military deterrence to dictate the real terms.

And the real terms are harsh:

Closure of ALL US military bases in the Gulf; guarantee of no more wars; end of the war on Hezbollah; lifting of ALL sanctions; war damage reparations; a new order in the Strait of Hormuz (already in effect: collecting fees just like Egypt in Suez); missile program intact.

Conclusion: the infernal escalation machine keeps rolling.

A Member’s Club With an Entrance Fee in Petroyuan

Meanwhile, oil and gas prices are mired in a kaleidoscope of volatility, affecting currencies, equities, commodities, supply chains, inflation scares. This is already an out-of-control global economic shock with devastating consequences in progress.

Before the war, Iran was producing a little less of 1.1 million barrels of oil a day, sold at $65 a barrel with a $18 discount: thus, in practice only $47. Now, Iran has increased production to 1.5 million barrels a day, selling at $110 (and counting), mostly to China, with a maximum $4 discount.

And that does not even include petrochemical sales: on the up and up, and for an array of extra customers. To round it all up, all payments are conducted via alternative mechanisms. Which brings us to a startling fact: for all practical purposes, this is sanctions relief in effect.

Now for the Holy Grail in the war: the Strait of Hormuz. It is de facto open, but with a toll booth controlled by the IRGC.

A toll booth with a twist: veto power over the guest list. Like entering an exclusive private club.

To get the IRGC clearance, a tanker needs to pay the toll: $2 million per vessel.

This is how it works.

You contact an IRGC-linked broker. The broker relays to the IRGC the essential info: vessel ownership, national flag, cargo manifest, destination, crew list, and AIS transponder data.

The IRGC runs background checks. If you are not US-linked, not shipping any Israel-linked cargo, and your flag is not part of “aggressor states”, you’re in. Japan and South Korea, for instance, still have not been cleared.

Then you pay the toll. In cash – whatever currency you have – but preferably in yuan. Or in crypto.

It’s a complex mechanism. The IRGC uses multiple addresses; cross-chain bridges to other networks; over-the-counter desks in jurisdictions way beyond American reach; and integration with all sorts of yuan settlement channels.

After the toll is paid, the IRGC issues a VHF radio clearance – complete with a specific time window linked to a narrow 5-mile nautical corridor through Iranian territorial waters, between Qeshm and little Larak island, where the IRGC Navy can visually identify your vessel. You’re free to go. No need for an escort ship.

All of the above applies, for now, to tankers from China, India, Pakistan, Turkiye, Malaysia, Iraq, Bangladesh, Russia. Some don’t need to pay the full toll. Some get exemptions – on government-to-government basis (as in Sri Lanka and Thailand, both described as “friendly nations”). And some don’t pay anything.

So welcome to a member’s club with an entrance fee mostly in petroyuan. It took a single move from Iran to achieve what endless global summits could not: establishing an alternative settlement system – under fire, tested under supreme stress, and on top of it applied in the most consequential chokepoint on the planet.

Each toll paid in petroyuan bypasses the petrodollar, SWIFT and US sanctions – all in one go. The Iranian parliament will approve legislation institutionalizing the toll booth as “security compensation.” No one saw this coming – and so fast: legalized chokepoint monetization. Without firing a shot. This is what de-dollarization trade is really all about.

The problem is what is not transiting Hormuz: fertilizers. Over 49% of urea for export comes from the Persian Gulf. Ammonia needs natural gas; but Qatar declared Force Majeure after the Epstein Syndicate attack on South Pars and the Iranian counter-strikes. The IRGC is focused on oil because oil finances the tool booth and long term, is at the heart of the post-dollar energy settlement system, fully supported by the Russia-China strategic partnership.

So it’s no wonder the Empire of Chaos and Plunder has gone bonkers. In a flash, in three weeks, we have the petroyuan ruling over the – de facto privatized – most important naval connectivity corridor on the planet. So CENTCOM will go all out Terminator to demolish the tool booth, attempting everything from bombing IRGC installations along the coast and setting up naval escorts for allied tankers to a tsunami of sanctions on toll booth brokers.

What CENTCOM cannot bomb is the precedent of the petroyuan in effect. The whole Global South is watching and doing the math. The whole demented war is actually helping a new payment infrastructure to come to light. The war’s financial dimension is even more crucial than missile breakthroughs.

What Awaits the GCC

Qatar warned Trump 2.0, over and over again, that attacking Iran’s energy infrastructure would destroy Doha’s own energy infrastructure. That’s exactly what happened. Qatar’s energy minister al-Kaabi revealed that he warned the US Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, as well as executives at ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips day after day.

To no avail. Qatar ended up losing 17% of its LNG capacity: $20 billion in lost revenue, and as many as 5 years to fix it. Al-Kaabi: oil could hit $150 a barrel, and this war could “bring down the economies of the world.”

We reach absurdist territory when it’s clear that striking Iran’s South Pars generated less than zero strategic advantage. On the contrary: the counterpunch hit the Persian Gulf energy sector. Yet perversity actually rules. Who ultimately benefitted? American gas companies.

Iran is betting – and that is immensely ambitious – that the Gulf monarchies will eventually do the math. It’s as if Tehran is making it quite clear: if you learn to do business with us, we will let you continue to do your own business.

The new rules include everything from the GCC bypassing the petrodollar to getting rid of US data centers. And if the GCC wants a new security arrangement, better talk to China. All that while the GCC also has to learn how to deal with this oil shock permanently repricing the risk premium on their energy supply. Structural reset does not even begin to describe it.

As it stands, there’s only one certainty: the GCC will be instrumental in the international financial system implosion as it gets ready to pull at least $5 trillion out of the US market so they may be able to fund their survival.

The Long and Winding Petro-Gold Road

To sum it all up: after the attack on the South Pars gas field – the largest on the planet – and the toll booth in the Strait of Hormuz, it’s yuan-gold settlements, all across the spectrum, that are giving the Russia-China strategic partnership an upper hand unthinkable only a few weeks ago.

The strategic partnership is locking in no less than a new, rising global settlement mechanism, where petroyuan trades flow straight into physical gold.

As Russia sells massive volumes of oil and gas not touched by the war on its ally Iran, China as the top refiner buys Russian energy while at the same time trying to support its Southeast Asian partners outside of the US dollar.

Russia is converting yuan payments into physical gold at the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Iran is accumulating yuan payments in Hormuz – boosting yuan oil contracts that are convertible to gold. And China is building overseas gold vaults and corridors. The new Primakov triangle, RIC (Russia-Iran-China) is in control via real physical energy and gold.

So this is the major take away of the Epstein Syndicate war on Iran. Russia-China reach the Holy Grail: energy dominance and a gold-backed yuan settlement that bypasses the petrodollar to Kingdom Come.

For all practical purposes, the architecture set up by the “indispensable nation” since the 1990s is showing structural cracks for everyone to see, with global markets updating every possible model variation in real time.

It’s as if the Persians had reinterpreted Sun Tzu, Clausewitz and Kutuzov (the conqueror of Napoleon) into a whole new hybrid. And as a bonus, accomplishing in only three weeks what years’ worth of summits could not.

The petrodollar is on the way out. Alternative payment systems are up and running. And the Global South is watching in real time how the Empire of Endless Bombing can be brought to a standstill by a decentralized war of attrition engineered by a sovereign nation with one-fiftieth of the imperial defense budget.

Multipolarity won’t be born by suits reading papers in executive rooms. Multipolarity will be born in the battlefield, under fire, against all odds.

You will see why it matters so much:

“Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn

Suicide remarks are torn

From the fool’s gold mouthpiece the hollow horn

Plays wasted words, proves to warn

That he not busy being born is busy dying”

Bob Dylan

It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)

* * *

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.

Tyler Durden Sat, 03/28/2026 - 23:20

Trump Ready To Take US Arms For Ukraine & Divert Them To Middle East

Zero Hedge - March 28, 2026 - 10:45pm

Trump Ready To Take US Arms For Ukraine & Divert Them To Middle East

The Iran war has been bad for Ukraine, and President Zelensky knows it. He's frequently been warning partners not to let the global focus on the latest Middle East war distract from supporting Kiev.

But President Trump himself made fresh remarks highlighting just this situation, signaling he's willing to reroute arms originally tied to Ukraine toward the Middle East theater against Iran, reinforcing the obvious and growing pivot in US priorities.

Reporter: Is the U.S. diverting some munitions that were meant for Ukraine to the Middle East?

Trump: We do that all the time. We have a lot of munitions. Sometimes we take from one and use for another. pic.twitter.com/yxxCB7TlLb
— Clash Report (@clashreport) March 26, 2026

Pressed on reports that shipments were being redirected on Thursday, Trump shrugged it off as standard practice: "We do that all the time. We have a lot of munitions. Sometimes we take from one and use for another."

He added Washington is no longer directly supplying the Ukrainian government and armed forces, but is instead "selling" weapons to NATO states that then pass them along. This has for many months been the White House's stated plan.

According to The Washington Post, officials say the Pentagon is weighing whether to divert missile interceptors initially intended for NATO purchase for Ukraine and send them to the Middle East.

While a final decision hasn't been made, or has at least not been publicly declared, this would be reasonable given how much US bases in the region have struggled to intercept Iran's inbound missiles and drones.

On Friday Prince Sultan airbase in Saudi Arabia was hit, wounding at least a dozen US troops, with reports of several in serious condition. Expensive US Air Force planes were also hit.

Clearly the US needs more interceptors, and yet Ukraine has for months been raising the alarm over its need for more Patriots and other air defense systems. Russia's assault on Ukrainian cities has not waned, but has been consistent and devastating.

In early March, Zelensky stated that "We understand that a long war–if it is long–and the intensity of the military actions will affect the amount of air defense we receive." He emphasized: "Everyone understands that, for us, this is a matter of life."

* * *

Make sure your protein stack is dialed in... Go with peptides.

Tyler Durden Sat, 03/28/2026 - 22:45

Israeli Forces Raise Flag Over Syrian Town In Latest Raid: 'Provocative Act'

Zero Hedge - March 28, 2026 - 10:10pm

Israeli Forces Raise Flag Over Syrian Town In Latest Raid: 'Provocative Act'

Authored by Jason Ditz via AntiWar.com,

Israeli military vehicles rolled into the town of Hadr in Syria’s Quneitra Governorate days ago and raised the Israeli flag over the town's entrance. Locals say they also closed all but one road leading into or out of the town, and established a checkpoint on that road as well.

Though Israel routinely raids Quneitra's towns and villages of late, raising the Israeli government's flag over a town is more provocative than what usually happens in these incidents, and like most of Israel’s military forays on Syrian soil, they've yet to issue a statement to even attempt to explain the purpose of the operation.

Illustrative via AFP

Hadr is a relatively small town of about 5,000 people along the frontier between Quneitra Governorate and the UNDOF demilitarized zone, a zone which has subsequently been occupied militarily by Israel. Some suburbs of Hadr extend into the demilitarized zone.

Israel also launched operations against multiple other villages in Quneitra earlier this week, including Saida al-Golan and Saida al-Hanout. They captured two young men who were herding sheep to the west of the village.

The troops also captured two village elders in Saida al-Golan, though the elders were ultimately released without incident. The fate of the shepherds remains uncertain, and again the IDF has not commented.

As for the flag-raising incident, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which the mainstream media had long relied on as its main anti-Assad source throughout the prior war, detailed the following of the "provocative act":

Al-Quneitra province: Israeli forces raised the Israeli flag at the entrance of Hadr Town in northern Al-Quneitra countryside [on Wednesday], raising local questions regarding the escalation in the area.

According to sources, these forces closed secondary roads leading to the town from the side of Al-Qanaif checkpoints, and only kept the main road leading to the town open.

This isn't the first time the Israeli flag has been spotted in these southern towns:

SYRIA – Militia forces, affiliated with the Druze spiritual leader Hikmat al-Hijri, raised the Israeli flag in the streets of Suwayda. pic.twitter.com/nM0XyhFBV2
— DOAM (@doamuslims) November 24, 2025

A day before these operations, Israeli troops stopped a wedding convoy near the town of Mashirfa, searching the wedding goers before firing shots in the air and scaring them off. No casualties or detentions were reported in this incident.

Tyler Durden Sat, 03/28/2026 - 22:10

6 Things To Know As Iran Conflict Hits 1-Month Mark

Zero Hedge - March 28, 2026 - 9:00pm

6 Things To Know As Iran Conflict Hits 1-Month Mark

Authored by Ryan Morgan via The Epoch Times,

A month has passed since U.S. and Israeli forces jointly launched a surprise attack on Iran, delivering the opening blow in an ongoing effort the U.S. military has dubbed Operation Epic Fury.

Iranian forces have since retaliated with attacks on targets across the region and spooked international trade.

President Donald Trump has recently raised the prospect of a peace deal, but his administration is also preparing additional military options.

Here’s where things stand after four weeks of fighting.

Iranian Military, Intelligence, and Political Leaders Killed

The opening U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran, on Feb. 28, included decapitation strikes aimed at killing numerous senior Iranian military and political leaders.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the 86-year-old Shia Islamist cleric sitting at the pinnacle of leadership in the Iranian regime, was killed in those initial strikes.

Mojtaba Khamenei, the 56-year-old son of the late ayatollah, has since replaced his father as the supreme leader of Iran. U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has said the younger Khamenei was likely disfigured in the strikes on the first day of the conflict, but the exact status of the new Iranian leader remains unclear.

A banner depicting the Iranian regime's new leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, in Tehran, Iran, on March 11, 2026. Khoshiran/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

Other senior Iranian leaders killed on the opening day of the conflict included Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Mohammad Pakpour. Israel’s military reported a senior Iranian intelligence official named Saleh Asadi was also killed in the opening attacks, along with dozens of other senior Iranian military and intelligence leaders.

An Israeli strike killed Ali Larijani on March 17. Larijani was a senior security advisor to the late Khamenei and had previously served as a top international negotiator dealing with Iran’s nuclear program.

On March 26, Israeli forces killed Commodore Alireza Tangsiri, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s naval component.

Iran’s Forces Battered, Still Fighting

As of March 26, U.S. forces have reported striking more than 10,000 Iranian targets during Operation Epic Fury.

The Israeli military has reported several thousand more strikes on Iranian targets over the past month.

In addition to targeting top Iranian leaders, U.S. and Israeli forces have worked to destroy Iran’s offensive military capabilities.

A group of men inspects the ruins of a police station hit by an air strike in Tehran, Iran, on March 3, 2026. Vahid Salemi/AP

At a March 26 White House cabinet meeting, Hegseth said more than 150 Iranian vessels have been sunk. Those vessels include larger traditional warships as well as numerous smaller vessels capable of laying mines in key regional waterways, such as the Strait of Hormuz.

The joint U.S. and Israeli operations have also sought to drive down the number of Iranian missile and drone attacks.

The Pentagon has said Iran’s missile and drone attacks are down around 90 percent from their peak. Officials have declined to specify how many missiles, drones, or launchers have been destroyed.

Meanwhile, countries around the region are dealing with dozens of drone and missile attacks each day.

Ongoing efforts are also focused on destroying Iran’s military industrial capacity.

A Pentagon official said U.S. operations have “damaged or destroyed over 66% of Iranian missile, drone, and naval production facilities and shipyards.”

Conflict Awakens Iranian Proxy Network

Tehran’s regional partners and proxies have rallied to their side since the start of Operation Epic Fury.

Fighting has intensified along the Israel-Lebanon border over the last month. There, Israeli forces have renewed skirmishes with Hezbollah, a designated terrorist group long considered an ally to Iran’s Shia Islamic leadership.

Israeli forces have reported dozens of strikes and ground raids targeting Hezbollah positions. Israel’s military has also confirmed several of its troops have been killed or wounded in the fighting.

Hezbollah has also launched rocket and drone attacks against Israel.

An Israeli self-propelled howitzer artillery gun fires rounds towards southern Lebanon from a position in the upper Galilee in northern Israel near the border on March 20, 2026. Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on March 2 when Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists launched rockets at Israel after the killing of the Iranian regime's supreme leader. Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty Images

In Iraq, U.S. forces are fighting with Iranian-aligned militia groups that exist within Iraq’s state-sponsored Popular Mobilization Forces. At a March 19 Pentagon briefing, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine reported U.S. airstrikes targeting these Iranian-linked groups.

Yemen’s Houthi movement, another designated terrorist group aligned with Iran, has also threatened to resume attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea, as they did in the fall of 2023 and throughout 2024.

Rising Demands on US Forces

Weeks into the Iran conflict, the Pentagon dispatched two separate amphibious ready groups to the Middle East. Each group can consist of up to 5,000 U.S. sailors and Marines, including amphibious landing forces, fighter jets, and troop transport and attack helicopters.

More recently, the Pentagon also dispatched elements of the 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East, including the division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team.

A growing number of U.S. ground troops have been diverted to the region. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the recent troop deployments are just to provide contingency options.

Speaking with reporters as he arrived in France on March 27 for a G7 Foreign Affairs Ministerial meeting, Rubio said the United States is ahead of schedule on its military objectives in the Iran conflict and can complete them without needing ground troops.

“We can achieve all of our objectives without ground troops, but we are always going to be prepared to give the president maximum optionality,” Rubio said.

U.S. Marines with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit conduct a live fire deck shoot aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli, in the Philippine Sea on March 16, 2026. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Gerardo Méndez

13 US Military Personnel Killed

Thirteen U.S. military personnel have been killed in operations against Iran since Feb. 28.

Of these, six U.S. soldiers were killed in a single drone strike on a tactical operations center at the Port of Shuaiba in Kuwait on March 1. Another six U.S. airmen were killed when their KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refueling aircraft crashed over western Iraq on March 12.

On March 27, around a dozen U.S. military personnel were injured at the Prince Sultan Airbase in Saudi Arabia, a U.S. official familiar with the matter told The Epoch Times.

There have been more than 300 U.S. troops wounded in action, according to a U.S. Central Command spokesman. Of that number, 273 have returned to duty.

Three U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets were shot down in an apparent friendly fire incident early in the conflict.

An F-35A Lightning II stealth fighter was damaged during combat operations over Iran on March 19.

A U.S. official has told The Epoch Times that 10 more unmanned U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drones have been shot down in the conflict.

The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, which was dispatched to the region shortly before the conflict began, sustained fire damage on March 12. The carrier subsequently relocated to Greece to undergo maintenance and repairs.

Peace Talks Ongoing, US Leaders Say

At a U.S.-Saudi investment conference in Miami on March 27, Trump’s special presidential envoy Steve Witkoff said meetings on the Iran conflict are expected within the week, adding, “We’re certainly hopeful for it.”

Witkoff confirmed during a White House Cabinet meeting on March 26 that he has relayed a 15-point proposal to end the ongoing armed conflict with Iran.

“I can report to you today that we have, along with your foreign policy team, presented a 15-point action list that forms the framework for a peace deal,” Witkoff told Trump.

Witkoff declined to specify the terms of the U.S. proposal, which he said was relayed through Pakistani intermediaries.

Iranian officials, meanwhile, have downplayed any such talks.

In a statement shared by Iranian state media, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran had received messages from Washington by way of intermediaries, but said, “this is not considered a negotiation.”

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi looks on after he delivered a speech during a session of the United Nations Conference on Disarmament, in Geneva, on Feb. 17, 2026. Valentin Flauraud/AFP via Getty Images

In recent days, Trump has highlighted progress in negotiations with Tehran to end the conflict.

“They say, ‘Oh, we’re not talking’ ... They are begging to work out a deal,” Trump said during the March 26 Cabinet meeting.

Trump also revealed that Iranian leaders had offered permission for 10 oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz unharmed as a gesture of goodwill.

In a separate comment on Truth Social on March 26, Trump threatened worsening consequences for Tehran if a deal isn’t reached soon.

“They better get serious soon, before it is too late, because once that happens, there is no turning back,” he wrote.

The push to negotiate an end to the fighting comes as Iranian attacks have targeted fuel facilities along the Persian Gulf, as well as commercial traffic in the Strait of Hormuz—through which around 25 percent of the world’s oceangoing oil and other global commodities pass.

Gas prices in the United States have risen by an average of $1 a gallon since the start of the conflict, as the fighting continues to threaten fuel markets.

Additional Middle East energy sites hang in the balance.

On March 21, Trump issued a 48-hour deadline for Iran to completely reopen the Strait of Hormuz or see its energy sites destroyed. Following Trump’s initial ultimatum, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps threatened to completely close down access to the Strait of Hormuz and target energy facilities in Middle Eastern countries that host U.S. forces. They also threatened to attack crucial water desalination facilities operated by those neighboring countries.

Trump has since postponed his strike deadline to April 6.

* * *

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Tyler Durden Sat, 03/28/2026 - 21:00

US Monitoring Surge In China's Detention Of Panama-Flagged Vessels

Zero Hedge - March 28, 2026 - 7:50pm

US Monitoring Surge In China's Detention Of Panama-Flagged Vessels

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission on March 26 accused China of detaining Panama-flagged vessels in response to Panama’s termination of Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison’s concessions for two key ports.

Panama’s Supreme Court ruled in late January that the concessions held by Panama Ports Company, a unit of CK Hutchison, for the Balboa and Cristobal terminals in the Panama Canal were unconstitutional.

The ruling followed an audit by Panama’s comptroller, which alleged irregularities in the 25-year extension of the concession granted in 2021.

Following the ruling, Panama named U.S. subsidiaries Maersk APM Terminals and Mediterranean Shipping Company’s (MSC) Terminal Investment Limited as interim operators of the ports under 18-month contracts.

Laura DiBella, commissioner at the Federal Maritime Commission—an independent federal agency regulating the U.S. international ocean transportation system—said on March 26 that China has increasingly detained Panama-flagged vessels “under the guise of port state control” and the level of detentions was “far exceeding historical norms.”

“These intensified inspections were carried out under informal directives and appear intended to punish Panama after the transfer of Hutchison’s port assets,” DiBella said in a statement.

“Given that Panama‑flagged ships carry a meaningful share of U.S. containerized trade, these actions could result in significant commercial and strategic consequences to U.S. shipping.”

DiBella said that detaining or impeding vessels documented under U.S. law, as well as those from other nations engaged in commerce with the United States, are “inconsistent with the Commission’s mandate” to protect America’s global supply chain.

“The [Federal Maritime Commission] is charged with ensuring an efficient, competitive, and economical transportation system for the benefit of the United States,” she said.

The commissioner added that China’s Ministry of Transport has summoned Maersk and MSC to Beijing for high‑level discussions, but details had not been provided on the talks.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters on March 27 that the U.S. government had made “wrongful allegations” and accused Washington of trying to assert control over the Panama Canal.

CK Hutchison has denounced the ruling as unconstitutional and launched international arbitration proceedings against the Panamanian government, seeking more than $2 billion in damages, according to the Federal Maritime Commission.

“CKH considers the ruling, the executive decree, the purported termination of PPC’s concession, and the takeover of the terminals to be unlawful,” CK Hutchison said in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on March 23.

The Panama Canal carries about 5 percent of worldwide maritime commerce, and U.S. President Donald Trump has sounded an alarm about the Chinese influence on the critical waterway that connects the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

CK Hutchison, which has ties to the Chinese Communist Party, has plans for a $23 billion sale of global ports, including the Panama assets, to a consortium led by BlackRock and MSC.

Tyler Durden Sat, 03/28/2026 - 19:50

Secret Service Agent Assigned To Jill Biden Shoots Himself In The Leg At Philadelphia Airport

Zero Hedge - March 28, 2026 - 6:05pm

Secret Service Agent Assigned To Jill Biden Shoots Himself In The Leg At Philadelphia Airport

Perhaps incompetence is contagious...

A Secret Service agent tasked with protecting Jill Biden managed to become his own biggest threat, accidentally shooting himself in the leg at Philadelphia International Airport last week, according to Reuters.

Thankfully, Biden wasn’t anywhere nearby, presumably because the universe decided one crisis at a time was enough.

Photos: Daily Mail

The report says that the incident, politely labeled a “negligent discharge” (bureaucratic code for oh sh*t), happened in an unmarked car just before 9 a.m. Other officers rushed in to help, and the agent was taken to the hospital in stable condition—injured pride not listed but heavily implied.

"The Secret Service's Office of Professional Responsibility will be reviewing the facts and circumstances of this incident," Secret Service spokesman Nate Herring said, according to the Daily Mail. He continued: "We are grateful for our law enforcement and public safety partners who provided medical assistance."

Police surrounded a black Chevy Suburban outside Terminal C at Philadelphia International Airport amid ongoing security disruptions with some checkpoints closed and passengers rerouted through other terminals.

Good news: airport operations continued smoothly. And by that we mean likely with 12 hour waits at security due to lack of TSA agents.

Because nothing says “government has it all under control” in an airport nowadays like an armed professional shooting himself and everyone else just carrying on with their flights.

* * * COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE

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Tyler Durden Sat, 03/28/2026 - 18:05

Secret Service Agent Assigned To Jill Biden Shoots Himself In The Leg At Philadelphia Airport

Zero Hedge - March 28, 2026 - 6:05pm

Secret Service Agent Assigned To Jill Biden Shoots Himself In The Leg At Philadelphia Airport

Perhaps incompetence is contagious...

Thankfully, Biden wasn’t anywhere nearby, presumably because the universe decided one crisis at a time was enough.

Photos: Daily Mail

Good news: airport operations continued smoothly. And by that we mean likely with 12 hour waits at security due to lack of TSA agents.

Because nothing says “government has it all under control” in an airport nowadays like an armed professional shooting himself and everyone else just carrying on with their flights.

* * * COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE

Speaking of meat that's been shot, order the Grass-Fed Steak Lover's Bundle!

Tyler Durden Sat, 03/28/2026 - 18:05

Middle-Schoolers' "Let's Go Brandon" Sweatshirt Case Goes To Supreme Court

Zero Hedge - March 28, 2026 - 5:30pm

Middle-Schoolers' "Let's Go Brandon" Sweatshirt Case Goes To Supreme Court

Authored by Dave Huber via The College Fix,

Lower courts have ruled school can ban wearing such apparel as ‘can reasonably be interpreted as profane’

The case of two Michigan middle-school brothers who were told to remove their hoodies emblazoned with the phrase “Let’s Go Brandon” is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The siblings are represented by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression which says the boys’ school violated their First Amendment rights.

The phrase was popularized during a 2021 NASCAR event when a crowd was shouting “F*** Joe Biden!” but the NBC interviewer told racer Brandon Brown they were yelling “Let’s go Brandon!”

A judge in 2024 ruled the phrase could “reasonably be interpreted” as profane.

Last October, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling in a 2-1 decision, confirming the case was about “the vulgarity exception.”

Referencing the landmark Tinker free speech case, Judge John Nalbandian (a Trump appointee) wrote “The Constitution doesn’t hamstring school administrators when they are trying to limit profanity and vulgarity in the classroom during school hours [… they’re not] powerless to prevent student speech that the administrators reasonably understand to be profane or vulgar.”

(Ironically, the brothers’ principal, Joseph Williams, had said he “was not aware that the school had experienced any disruption from students wearing ‘Let’s Go Brandon’” sweatshirts.)

FIRE’s petition to the SCOTUS notes the previous rulings allow individual teachers and administrators to “create and enforce their own test for ‘vulgarity’ [–] a political shirt could have First Amendment protection in second-period algebra but not third-period biology.”

“Let’s Go Brandon” is no different than using words “heck” or “shoot” in place of their obvious profane counterparts.

FIRE Supervising Senior Attorney Conor Fitzpatrick said “The school district’s censorship assumes that students cannot handle seeing even sanitized expressions. But America’s next generation is not so fragile, and the First Amendment is not so brittle.”

Tyler Durden Sat, 03/28/2026 - 17:30