Authored by Ellen Chang, Kerri Anne Renzulli, and Chris Taylor via Kiplinger’s Personal Finance,

Financial advice is everywhere these days. In the digital age, you can find insights and tips about how best to save, invest, and manage your money from adviser and financial services websites; YouTube, TikTok, and other social media platforms; podcasts, newsletters, and Substacks; and your 401(k) provider, among other outlets.

Then there are all the traditional sources, such as your financial planner, newspapers and magazines, and even your dear Uncle Lou, who always has a money tip or two to dispense. (Yes, despite all the new founts of financial wisdom, Americans are still more likely to turn to family and friends for money advice than any other resource, a recent Gallup survey found.)

The challenge, of course, is figuring out whether any of the many financial recommendations you come across are actually the very best advice you could get for your circumstances. This is guidance that will not only help you manage your money wisely, but also provide perspective to keep you grounded, whatever opportunities, obstacles or challenges life throws your way.

That’s why we asked a diverse group of 35 top financial experts—acclaimed investors, advisers, money managers, economists, influencers and more—to share their very best advice. The essential question we put to them: Of all the many recommendations or insights about money you’ve given or received, what are the best, most meaningful or most impactful tips you want to pass along?

The Nuclear Co. (TNC), a startup that emerged from stealth in 2024 as America’s full-stack nuclear project integrator, is preparing to propose one of the first large-scale conventional reactor builds in the United States in more than a decade. 

According to Bloomberg, the company could unveil plans as soon as this week for an AP1000 reactor at one of three potential sites in South Carolina. The move comes as surging electricity demand, fueled largely by AI data centers, forces utilities and developers to confront the limits of today’s grid.

TNC showed up with a design-once, build-many methodology and fresh Series A funding in hand as the firm opened its primary engineering and construction office in Columbia, SC, last year.

Governor Henry McMaster welcomed the move, which is expected to create more than 100 jobs while supporting a targeted 6-gigawatt fleet rollout. South Carolina already generates over half its electricity from nuclear power, boasts established infrastructure, a skilled workforce, and a state leadership clearly committed to expansion.

The timing feels both promising and painfully familiar:

• -Just days ago we asked whether America sits on the verge of a nuclear renaissance

• -We have chronicled the historic first federal approval for novel reactor technology

• -The Washington facility is slated to host 12 Amazon-funded small modular reactors

• -Nano Nuclear’s construction permit was submitted for its Kronos unit in Illinois

• -We tracked the steady drumbeat of SMR licensing approvals 

• -President Trump’s executive orders to fast-track small modular reactor development drew widespread applause

• -We even reported on the national emergency declaration that positioned the U.S. government to purchase 10 large new reactors

Yet for all that…

Four months later, China has added 9 more reactors and is now building a total of 39 nuclear power plants. Meanwhile the US has added 0 and is still building 0 https://t.co/TJ6BoMghNk pic.twitter.com/O4idOANNUr

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) April 15, 2026

China continues to lead with dozens of units under construction. Russia and India press forward while America’s own expertise has atrophied after a generation of near-total inactivity. Even Iran is building more nuclear plants than the US…

At least the US will have some really cool microreactors to play with, and they’ll only need 999 more of them to even come close to a single AP1000. 

The frustration deepens when one considers the $80 billion strategic partnership struck last October between Cameco, Brookfield, and the U.S. government to deploy Westinghouse reactors across the country.

Six months later, that headline figure has produced zero visible shovels in the dirt.

If the times really are changing and nuclear steel is about to get put into the ground, investors would do themselves some good to consider where the upside is in the construction of a new plant. Uranium prices are going to be more directly driven by the wider global supply-demand gap, not necessarily the reactor build itself, where fuel only accounts for roughly 5% of the cost of a new reactor. 

The most likely investment opportunity for a new nuclear facility rests in the construction companies, heavy equipment manufacturers, and service providers for the facility. Companies like Fluor, Amentum, Curtiss-Wright, Mirion Technologies, ATI, Flowserve, and Crane Company are just a few examples.
 

Over the weekend it was confirmed by Pentagon statements that the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier strike group has belatedly redeployed to the Middle East after a month in port for repairs following a fire aboard the ship.

The world’s largest aircraft carrier returned to operations after what’s been officially described as a blaze in its laundry area, which headlines have presented as accidental. The incident injured sailors and forced significant maintenance work, and ever since it happened on March 12, there’s been an avalanche of public speculation that Iranian forces my have hit it in a missile or drone attack.

However, US and military officials have repeatedly rejected that the Ford was damaged as a result of Iranian attack, as Tehran has claimed.

The carrier is rejoining an expanding US military buildup in the region – with the USS Abraham Lincoln strike group already deployed, and the USS George H.W. Bush expected to soon join, which would bring the number of US carriers in the Middle East to three.

By comparison, the 2003 US invasion of Iraq was supported by a total of five US Navy aircraft carriers, with some in the Persian Gulf and some in the Mediterranean.

The Ford had been operating in the eastern Mediterranean when the US and Israel launched military operations against Iran. While transiting the Red Sea last month, a fire allegedly broke out in the ship’s main laundry facility, triggering a major damage-control response and forcing the vessel to divert for repairs.

After completing maintenance, the bulk of which was done at the Croatian port town and Split, the carrier has returned to active duty.

Before earlier this year returning to the Middle East, the Ford operated in the Caribbean, including missions targeting suspected drug trafficking, and it was heavily involved in the controversial US operation against Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

As a reminder on the Bush carrier’s route:

🇺🇸 🇮🇷 USS GEORGE HW BUSH CARRIER GROUP TAKES LONG ROUTE TO MIDDLE EAST TO AVOID BAB AL MANDAB STRAIT AND HOUTHIS

Source: USNI pic.twitter.com/opTeCA6Nut

— Maine (@TheMaineWonk) April 13, 2026

During its extended deployment, the carrier has also been subjecting of widespread reports of technical problems, including plumbing failures that caused sewage system backups, adding to the overall strain of its lengthy, extended deployment.

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

The legendary baseball player and manager Ted Williams once wrote a letter to the Angels outfielder Jay Johnstone on improving his hitting. Among his pieces of advice was that “with two strikes, you simply have to protect the plate.”

Williams’s advice on not striking out came to mind this week when another leak of confidential information rocked the Supreme Court. (The prior leak of the Dobbs decision went unsolved).

For Chief Justice John Roberts, the message is clear: it is a time like this when you have to protect the plate.

Roberts, of course, is famous for his own baseball analogies. In his confirmation, he declared that “judges are like umpires. Umpires don’t make the rules. They apply them…Nobody ever went to a ballgame to see the umpire.”

Yet, justices do make rules not only in new precedent, but in the operation of the court system. Those rules are being broken.

In the same week as the new leak, Justice Sonia Sotomayor attacked her colleague Brett Kavanaugh as essentially an out-of-touch prig who had never even met an hourly wage worker.

It was an unfair insult and a departure from the Court’s long-standing rules of civility.

(Sotomayor later apologized).

Additionally, a forthcoming book by Mollie Hemingway on Justice Samuel Alito contains an embarrassing account of how Justice Elena Kagan allegedly screamed at Justice Stephen Breyer so loudly before the Dobbs opinion that the “wall was shaking.”

(The book suggests that Kagan was upset with Breyer agreeing to spur along the dissents to get out the final opinions in light of rising threats against conservative colleagues after the leak).

For an institution that prides itself on its confidentiality and insularity, the Court is looking increasingly porous and partisan in these leaks. 

Worse yet, people are indeed coming to the Court “to see the umpires.”

The most recent leak was published by the New York Times, which was given internal memos from various Supreme Court justices on the use of what is known as the “shadow docket” to issue rulings without oral arguments.

Notably, the leaks occurred after a controversial speech by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson at Yale Law School in which she denounced the use of the shadow docket by her conservative colleagues to release decisions that were sometimes “utterly irrational.”

The memos reveal the concern of the justices that the Environmental Protection Agency was effectively gaming the system, imposing unlawful regulatory burdens on electric utilities despite a countervailing earlier ruling in Michigan v. EPA.

Chief Justice Roberts noted that the EPA was using the ongoing litigation to force utilities to spend billions of dollars to comply with the new regulations: “In other words the absence of stay allowed the agency to effectively implement an important program we held to be contrary to law.”

The controversy over the use of the shadow docket is immaterial to this story. The most immediate concern for Roberts should be that this is strike two: another leak from within the Court that was clearly designed to wound some of its members.

Unlike the Dobbs leak (which appeared to be an effort to influence the final opinion), this is a leak about a decade-old case. It had a purely malicious purpose to embarrass or disrupt the Court.

The question, again, is the identity of the culprit. There is no reason to assume that the same person was involved in both leaks. Rather, the leaks appear to reflect a deteriorating culture at the Court.

After the Dobbs leak, Chief Justice Roberts launched a fruitless investigation through the federal marshals to find the responsible person. The use of the marshals as the lead investigators (rather than the FBI) was criticized at the time. Roberts may have been sensitive to an executive-branch agency rooting around in the highest court of a sister branch.

The result was the worst possible outcome. The culprit succeeded in both leaking the opinion and evading any accountability.

The fact is that the Court’s culture and institutional identity have always been its greatest protection of confidentiality. In a city that floats on a rolling sea of leaks, the Court was an island of integrity and civility. The “umpires” could call balls and strikes without playing the leak game.

That culture is fast becoming nothing but a relic in the wake of yet another major leak. For the future of the Court and the faith of the public, Roberts has to set his reservations aside and bring in the FBI to find the culprit. Most importantly, he has to guarantee total transparency in allowing the public to see the results wherever they may lead. In other words, with two strikes, Roberts needs to protect the plate.

Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution

By Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com

Kuwait has declared force majeure on shipments of crude oil and refined products after disruptions at the Strait of Hormuz prevented some vessels from entering the Persian Gulf.

The move comes as tensions in the Strait escalated again following the U.S. seizure of an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel in the waterway.

According to Reuters, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation has notified customers that it is invoking contractual clauses allowing it to withhold certain scheduled deliveries after the blockade hindered access to the Gulf. The measure is not expected to result in a complete halt to supply. 

The latest escalation follows a volatile weekend in which the Strait briefly reopened before closing again after Iran linked the reopening of the shipping lane to the lifting of the U.S. naval blockade targeting its oil exports.

Iran’s foreign ministry said it has no plans for a new round of talks following the U.S. seizure of the vessel. U.S. President Donald Trump said a delegation led by Vice President JD Vance is heading to Islamabad for talks. Pakistan has tightened security in the capital ahead of the potential negotiations.

Iran has warned that it cannot guarantee safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz if its oil exports continue to be restricted, saying that security for shipping in the waterway cannot be separated from pressure on its own crude flows.

Shipping activity in and around the Strait has been disrupted again, with vessels altering routes and operators reassessing transit risks through one of the world’s most important oil shipping lanes.

After plunging late last week, oil prices rebounded in early trading as markets reacted to the renewed disruption and the risk of further constraints on flows through the Strait of Hormuz.

The renewed pressure also comes as Iran-aligned Houthis have threatened to target the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, raising concerns about additional risks to alternative export routes for Middle East crude.

The Department of Justice appears to be gaining fresh momentum in its criminal investigation into the 2016 Trump-Russia collusion narrative, with a significant overhaul of the team handling the case in southern Florida.

According to investigative journalist Julie Kelly’s reporting at Declassified.live, longtime Trump legal advisor Joe diGenova – a former U.S. Attorney and prominent commentator – will be sworn in Monday as counsel to the attorney general. He will assume leadership of the ongoing grand jury probe based in Fort Pierce, the district overseen by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon. That same courthouse was the site of Cannon’s landmark July 2024 ruling dismissing Special Counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents case against President Trump after she found Smith’s appointment unconstitutional. The grand jury has been active in Fort Pierce since January, Kelly reports.

DiGenova’s wife, Victoria Toensing, has also served as a key Trump legal counselor for years. In a notable earlier move, the Biden Justice Department seized Toensing’s cellphone in April 2021 during a separate inquiry tied to Rudy Giuliani’s efforts to examine the Biden family’s overseas dealings.

But wait, there’s more…

The addition of DiGenova isn’t the only retooling. Earlier this week, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche removed the career prosecutor previously in charge of the investigation into former CIA Director John Brennan, who played a key role in concocting the Trump-Russia collusion scheme in 2016. According to CNN, assistant U.S. Attorney Maria Medetis Long was ousted “after she resisted pressure to quickly bring charges against the former CIA director and prominent critic of President Donald Trump.” Meditis Long notified lawyers representing several individuals who have received subpoenas or interview requests related to the investigation that she was off the case, the New York Times reported on Friday. -Declassified Live

Blanche has also sent one of his senior aides, Christopher-James DeLorenz – who clerked for Judge Cannon during the documents litigation – to the Fort Pierce team.

These changes come shortly after President Trump dismissed former Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier this month, citing dissatisfaction with the pace of the Russiagate accountability effort. In a pointed press conference days later, Blanche—whom Trump immediately named acting attorney general—made clear the department’s direction. “The president has said time and time again that he wants justice,” Blanche told reporters. “If you look at what happened to him, his family, his administration, the agents who protected him, people who just happened to walk by him on a given day, they got subjected to…massive investigations by this department.”

Blanche speaks from direct experience: he defended Trump in both the Florida documents case and the Manhattan hush-money prosecution brought by District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Earlier this year the Justice Department did secure indictments against a small number of figures tied to the lawfare campaign, including former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Those cases were later dismissed, however, after a judge ruled that the appointment of the acting U.S. Attorney who filed them, Lindsey Halligan, was improper. That decision is now under appeal in the Fourth Circuit.

Still, many Trump supporters are demanding deeper accountability. While the initial charges brought some satisfaction, the expectation is for more significant action. A potential indictment of Brennan – who many view as a top target – now looks increasingly likely. He was recently subpoenaed in connection with his 2023 congressional testimony, in which he denied that the discredited Steele dossier influenced his 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment alleging Russian election interference on Trump’s behalf.

Brennan’s legal team has reacted with alarm. In a highly unusual letter sent last December to the chief judge of the 11th Circuit, his attorneys urged the court to block the probe from proceeding in Fort Pierce—viewed as a more conservative venue than Miami—and to bar Judge Cannon from any involvement. The letter claimed that Cannon’s prior rulings created the appearance of favoritism toward Trump and accused prosecutors of deliberately steering the case to her courtroom in line with what they called the president’s political retribution agenda.

If diGenova’s role expands beyond Brennan to encompass a wider “grand conspiracy” review – potentially covering everything from the roots of Russiagate through January 6, the Mar-a-Lago raid, and the conduct of the now-disqualified special counsel – additional high-profile targets could come into focus. Among them are individuals already the subject of criminal referrals sitting with the DOJ, including Thomas Windom (referred by House Judiciary Chairman James Jordan for alleged obstruction during congressional depositions) and January 6 committee witness Cassidy Hutchinson, accused of fabricating testimony about an incident in the presidential vehicle. This week, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard also referred two former officials—Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson and analyst Eric Ciaramella – for their roles in advancing the 2019 Ukraine-related impeachment allegations against Trump. Both men have documented connections to the original Russiagate players.

Even Jack Smith may not be fully in the clear. Recent reporting from CBS News indicates that Florida prosecutors are examining documents linked to Smith’s prior investigation of the president. Smith could additionally face scrutiny for allegedly continuing to hold himself out as special counsel in court filings long after Cannon disqualified him, raising questions of contempt and potential false statements to Congress.

As Julie Kelly observed in her Declassified.live piece, diGenova—still energetic and far from retirement age—may be exactly the experienced, no-nonsense figure needed to bring decisive momentum to the Florida investigation and deliver the accountability many have long awaited.

Authored by Jesse Coghlan via CoinTelegraph.com,

Traditional finance giants Charles Schwab and Citadel Securities are both considering entering prediction markets, with each separately weighing up how they wish to get involved in the fast-growing sector.

“I think at some point we likely will have prediction markets,” Rick Wurster, the CEO of the banking and investing titan Schwab, told investors during a call on Thursday.

He added that prediction markets weren’t “of tremendous interest” when he recently asked a group of Schwab clients about them, but it was an area the company would “take a hard look at, and it would be quite straightforward for us to offer.”

Charles Schwab CEO Rick Wurster speaking to CNBC after the company launched Bitcoin and Ether trading on Thursday. Source: CNBC

Prediction markets such as the popular Kalshi and Polymarket have exploded in use over the past few months, with both platforms seeing a record combined total monthly trading volume of $23.6 billion in March, according to Token Terminal.

However, Kalshi, Polymarket and other prediction market platforms have also caught the ire of some US state regulators, who have accused them in court of offering unlicensed sports betting.

Some federal lawmakers have also vowed to crack down on prediction markets, claiming the platforms weren’t doing enough to stamp out insider trading.

Wurster said Schwab’s potential offering would steer away from allowing bets on areas such as sports, politics and pop culture as it looks to position itself as a partner for building long-term wealth.

“Prediction markets that are not aligned to that are not something that we want to pursue,” he said.

“If you look at the stats on the success of gamblers, they’re not strong, and people generally lose money.”

Citadel “keeping an eye” on prediction markets

Meanwhile, Citadel Securities president Jim Esposito said at a Semafor conference in Washington, DC, on Thursday that the company is “absolutely keeping an eye on developments” in prediction markets. 

Citadel Securities president Jim Esposito speaking at the Semafor World Economy conference on Thursday. Source: YouTube

“We’re not there yet, there’s not that much liquidity,” he added, but said that the market is likely to “ramp and scale,” and it was “certainly possible” that the market-making firm would potentially look to get involved.

Esposito said Citadel was “not looking at sports at the moment at all, I don’t see us entering that market,” but did signal an interest in some event contracts.

He added that Citadel could see its retail and institutional clients use some event contracts as a hedge for risks to their investments, such as contracts for elections, which have been known to move markets.

“That’s going to be some of the biggest risks to investors’ portfolios that they’re going to have to grapple with,” Esposito said. “Having a clean and distinct way to hedge certain risks, I think there’s a good use case and industrial logic to it.”

Local Mexican outlet Milenio reports an “armed attack” at the Teotihuacan archaeological site, located in central Mexico about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northeast of Mexico City, in the State of Mexico.

Details are scant, but preliminary reports say the attacker climbed the Pyramid of the Moon and fired at tourists.

“Confirmed that the fatality from the armed attack at the Teotihuacan Archaeological Zone is of Canadian nationality,” Milenio wrote on X around 1513 local time.

🔴 #ÚLTIMAHORA | Confirman que víctima mortal por ataque armado en Zona Arqueológica de Teotihuacan es de nacionalidad canadiense

📺 La información con @taniadiazs pic.twitter.com/g1FXmGdpvG

— Milenio (@Milenio) April 20, 2026

Live feed from the outlet:

Ahora | #MILENIONoticias con @taniadiazs

https://t.co/dVNwbKoBYj

— Milenio (@Milenio) April 20, 2026

Preliminary reports provided no further information on whether the attack was linked to drug cartels.

If you’re traveling to Mexico, it’s probably smart to get K&R insurance.

*Developing… 

Confirming the Schrodinger nature of the notorious waterway, the Strait of Hormuz is now just closed even more than before Iran and the US said the vital oil channel had been reopened.

Traffic through the strait on Sunday and Monday was reduced to a trickle following a Saturday surge, after Tehran rejected a continuing US naval blockade and moved to seal the waterway again. The reduced movement underscores just how quickly hopes unraveled that cargoes could once again resume.

On Friday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the strait was “completely open” for commercial shipping, while US President Donald Trump said Iran was removing sea mines from the waterway. That prompted oil prices to plunge and dozens of tankers to race toward the strait at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. But Iran quickly declared that the passage was closed again as it emerged that the US operation in place since April 13 would not be lifted.

And rejected: the two tankers taking the neutral route, Minerva Evropi and Nissos Keros, have turned around; the Sanmar Herald which appears to be taking the Iran-sanctioned Larak island route is proceeding. https://t.co/aceBI7ki0B pic.twitter.com/gmkM37iA1U

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) April 18, 2026

The Hormuz crisis flared again over the weekend after the US Navy seized an Iranian vessel, during a turbulent period marked by Iranian forces firing at ships and reimposing controls across the strait. The developments pushed oil and natural gas prices higher after Friday’s big declines, reflecting fears of prolonged supply constraints.

The chaotic, start-stop nature of ship traffic through the strait underscores just how difficult it will be to fully restore oil and gas flows that are vital to the global economy, where energy producers need to have visibility months in advance before restarting production.

According to Bloomberg, just two liquefied petroleum gas carriers and two oil product tankers moved through the strait in both directions on Monday. The previous day, two LPG vessels and a cruise liner sailed out of the gulf, while no inbound transits were seen.

The Gas Harmony, an LPG carrier, went dark inside the gulf on Saturday morning but reappeared off the coast of Oman on Monday, indicating that the vessel transited the strait in the interim. The Liberia-flagged ship is owned and managed by Athens-based Gas Harmony Shipping Ltd., according to maritime database Equasis.

Greek and Iranian LPG ships departed the gulf on Sunday along with the European passenger liner, not listed in the charts. Subsequent observations until Monday afternoon, London time, identified further outbound movement by an Iranian product tanker and a second LPG ship.

At least three Mediterranean Shipping Co. containerships and a MSC cruise liner, along with a handful of other passenger vessels, appeared to have exited the gulf on Saturday, hugging the Omani coastline. That was a deviation from the corridor approved by Iran during the short-lived opening of the waterway. Another MSC containership remains off-grid after it stopped signaling inside the gulf. The company didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Six cruise ships clear Strait of Hormuz during brief reopening

A flotilla of cruise ships stranded in Gulf ports since late February has now cleared the Strait of Hormuz, taking advantage of a brief reopening of the waterway before tighter controls returned.

According to… pic.twitter.com/nvnhG4JrkW

— MarineTraffic (@MarineTraffic) April 20, 2026

Diplomatic momentum has wavered after Tehran signaled hesitation regarding a second round of talks in Pakistan, amid the ongoing American blockade of Iranian traffic and the vessel seizure.

The commercial vessels entering Hormuz with active AIS signals during the past day were confined to a narrow northern lane near the Iranian islands of Larak and Qeshm, the route approved by Tehran.

The inbound transits on Monday included an Iranian LPG ship and a fuel tanker.

Pain at the pump might not ease up for American consumers until 2027, according to Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who said on April 19 that the price of a regular gallon of gas could stay above $3 for the rest of the year.

Wright said a price of $3 per gallon of gas “could happen later this ​year, [but] that might not happen until next year” in an interview that aired on CNN’s ”State of the Union” ​program Sunday.

“But prices have ⁠likely peaked, and they’ll start going down certainly with a resolution of this conflict [in Iran],” Wright predicted while speaking about how the war has impacted energy prices.

As of April 19, the average price for a gallon of regular gas in the U.S. was $4.04, according to data from the American Automobile Association (AAA).

States on the West Coast and the Northeast have the highest prices, according to AAA.

Before the United States and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury against the Iranian regime on Feb. 28, the price for a regular gallon of gas in the U.S. was $2.98.

The Energy Information Administration’s short-term energy outlook, published on April 7, predicted the average retail price for a gallon of gasoline would be $4.30 per gallon in April.

The Energy Information Administration – designed as a nonpartisan agency within Wright’s Department of Energy – estimated the retail price for an average gallon of gasoline will be $3.46 in 2027, above the $3 level he predicted on CNN.

As the chart above shows, for pump prices to fall back to $3 a gallon, we would need to see crude oil prices back around $60 a barrel – a long way down given the disruptions from the Iran War are likely to ripple through the supply chain for months.

Finally, The Hill’s White House correspondent, Julia Manchester, reports that President Trump just told her over the phone that he disagrees with Energy Secretary Wright’s assessment that gas prices may not drop until next year. 

“No, I think he’s wrong on that. Totally wrong,” Trump said, adding that gas prices will drop “as soon as this ends.”

With the Midterms looming ever closer, Trump better hope he’s right and Wright is wrong.