The national media has begun to take note this week that the Iran War is expected to dominate the midterm conversation. This is especially after Republican Sen. Rand Paul’s recent warnings. As we reported, he said days ago midterm elections could be “disastrous” if the Iran war persists into a quagmire. 

“Already, we are behind the eight ball as far as the electoral process,” Paul had told Fox Business. “I think if you add in high gas prices, high oil prices, and if we are still bombing Iran with kinetic action — people don’t want to call it war — if there’s still kinetic action that causes oil to be over $100, I think you’re going to see a disastrous election,” the libertarian senator added. 

If the war continues into the summer and even the fall, this would further raise real concern for US Vice President JD Vance as he eyes the 2028 presidential election. The longer it goes, the more likely that Republican voters would turn on the White House.

Since Trump’s Operation Epic Fury started, there are reports that Vance has canceled some public appearances.

But there were some instances Friday and this week of him being in front of the camera, fielding some difficult questions from reporters. Importantly, he avoided a particular question over his personal views of the Iran war. Here’s how it went:

US Vice President JD Vance is pressed several times by reporters today to respond to comments made by President Donald Trump earlier this week that he was less enthusiastic about launching a war with Iran.

“The president and I and the entire senior team are talking about the options” in the Situation Room, Vance responds.

“It’s important for the president of the United States to talk to his advisers without” those advisers “running their mouths,” he adds, without directly answering the question or denying the premise.

Reports have mounted of Vance expressing concern about the US finding itself in a protracted conflict with Iran.

One thing is for sure: just like Trump, Vance had while on the campaign trail eloquently articulated the need to stay out of foreign quagmires which don’t ultimately serve Washington’s interest or which can be deemed America First. 

Vance smiles as a reporter points out that Trump said he was relatively unenthusiastic about striking Iran pic.twitter.com/YPJ8633KIw

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 13, 2026

Like Trump, he has critiqued America’s ‘forever wars’ in places like Iraq or Afghanistan. And of course, recent history shows that Bush’s 2003 Iraq invasion and long bloody occupation was a big reputational black eye for the Republican Party for many years after, paving the way for an Obama presidency from 2009 to 2017.

In the case of the Iran war, which Trump has called an “excursion” – if the US can’t find a way to extricate itself soon while giving off perceptions of ‘victory’ – then it could prove politically very costly not just for Republicans in the midterms but even for the future presidency in 2028 and beyond.

Vice President JD Vance on what he told President Trump before the Iran War began:

“It’s the most classified space anywhere in the world. I hate to disappoint you, but I’m not gonna tell you what I said in that classified room.” pic.twitter.com/F8pzKDdhNe

— The American Conservative (@amconmag) March 13, 2026

This would especially be the case if US action in Persia morphed into a ground war. With such foreign interventions and ‘wars of choice’ – the pattern is the longer the conflict goes, the more unpopular it becomes among voters at home.

In 2009, Gen. Anthony Zinni (US Marine and retired head of US Central Command) warned about getting into war with Iran:

“If you follow this all the way down, eventually I’m putting boots on the ground somewhere. And like I tell my friends, if you like Iraq and Afghanistan, you’ll love Iran.”

Remembering Gen. Anthony Zinni’s 2009 warning about a war with Iran:

“If you follow this all the way down, eventually I’m putting boots on the ground somewhere. And like I tell my friends, if you like Iraq and Afghanistan, you’ll love Iran.” pic.twitter.com/2ObGZg4cdU

— Matt Duss (@mattduss) March 13, 2026

There have been several reports this week, and as Operation Epic Fury is about to enter week three, that Trump’s advisers are looking for a politically expedient offramp, even though the Commander-in-Chief himself hasn’t shown signs the US will back off its military campaign.

With Vance, if he can give off public signs that he is indeed “skeptical” over the Iran war, then this might actually help him among many MAGA voters.

In the meantime, probably moments like the below won’t help things…

TRUMP: “When (the war) is over the economy will bounce right back.”

KILMEADE: “When are you gonna know when it’s over?”

TRUMP: “When I feel it in my bones.” 🤔 🤷🏼 pic.twitter.com/vAmKZ0Pgrj

— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) March 13, 2026

New Mexico’s $70 billion sovereign wealth fund is making a major push to attract advanced technology industries to the state, betting that sectors such as nuclear fusion, defense systems, and advanced manufacturing can generate both financial returns and local economic growth, according to Bloomberg.

A centerpiece of the effort is a proposed $1 billion research and manufacturing campus by startup Pacific Fusion near Albuquerque. The company is working to commercialize nuclear fusion, the reaction that powers the sun and stars, though practical power generation remains years away. To help support the effort, the New Mexico State Investment Council has committed hundreds of millions of dollars to venture capital funds that invest in fusion companies, signaling that capital will be available if firms choose to build and expand in the state.

The strategy reflects a broader overhaul of New Mexico’s in-state investment program. Over the past three years, the fund has allocated about $1.8 billion to dozens of venture capital managers willing to invest in local opportunities, with roughly one out of every five private-equity dollars directed toward the initiative since 2022.

Officials say the goal is to back industries where New Mexico has structural advantages, including aerospace, national security technology, and energy innovation. The state hosts major federal research hubs such as Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories, as well as Spaceport America, where Virgin Galactic conducts commercial spaceflight operations. These facilities, combined with large tracts of sparsely populated desert land, have made the state attractive to startups developing capital-intensive technologies that require testing space and specialized infrastructure.

Bloomberg writes that defense technology is emerging as another pillar of the investment strategy. Startup Castelion, founded by former engineers from SpaceX, is building a large manufacturing campus in Sandoval County aimed at scaling production of hypersonic strike weapons. Such systems, capable of traveling at extremely high speeds and maneuvering in flight, are becoming a priority for the U.S. military as rival powers develop similar capabilities. The project is expected to generate hundreds of jobs and significant economic activity in the region, illustrating how venture-backed defense startups are increasingly tied to national industrial policy.

The initiative also aligns with a broader shift in venture capital toward sectors tied to national security, supply chains, and heavy industry. As the U.S. government emphasizes competition with China and the rebuilding of domestic manufacturing capacity, investors are channeling more money into energy infrastructure, aerospace systems, and defense technologies rather than purely software companies. For states with abundant land and research institutions, this shift may create new opportunities to host large-scale technology projects.

Still, the approach carries risks. Earlier versions of New Mexico’s local investment program struggled to deliver returns and lost more than $500 million on past deals, raising concerns about mixing economic development goals with investment decisions. State officials say the redesigned program is intended to avoid those pitfalls by prioritizing financial performance while still encouraging venture firms to consider opportunities within New Mexico. Early results show modest returns so far, though most of the investments remain too young to fully evaluate.

Ultimately, the state is betting that attracting companies at the frontier of emerging technologies could reshape its economic landscape. Projects such as Pacific Fusion’s proposed campus and Castelion’s weapons facility illustrate the ambition behind the strategy: using the state’s oil wealth to seed industries that could define the next generation of energy and defense technology, while positioning New Mexico as a hub for advanced innovation.

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

When a 7-year-old’s heartfelt sketch promoting equality gets twisted into “racism” by leftist school officials, it’s a chilling sign of how far indoctrination has gone—now finally overturned in a resounding First Amendment victory.

This case exposes the hypocrisy at the heart of progressive education: punishing a child for daring to change “Black Lives Matter” into a message of universal value, all while claiming to champion inclusion.

In 2021, at Viejo Elementary School in California, a first grader identified as BB created a simple drawing after her class learned about Martin Luther King Jr. and “Black Lives Matter.” The artwork showed four oval shapes in shades from orange to brown, representing friends holding hands, with the words “Black Lives Mater” above and “any life” below.

A 7-year-old California girl drew four oval figures in colors ranging from orange to brown — her friends holding hands — and wrote “any life” above them. Her school principal called it racist. Now a federal appeals court has ruled she had a First… https://t.co/Bo88Q46X9U

— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) March 11, 2026

BB gifted it to a black classmate in a show of friendship. The child thanked her and showed no signs of offense. But the child’s mother complained to Principal Jesus Becerra, writing, “My husband and I will not tolerate any more messages given to our daughter because of her skin color. As the administrator we trust you know the actions that need to be taken to address this issue.”

Becerra confronted BB, telling her the drawing was “not appropriate” and “racist,” according to her account. He allegedly forced an apology, banned her from recess for two weeks, and prohibited her from giving drawings to classmates—without notifying her parents.

BB didn’t even fully understand “Black Lives Matter,” but added “any life” because she believed “all lives matter.” This innocent twist on the slogan clashed with the school’s apparent BLM doctrine, turning a gesture of friendship into a so called ‘microaggression’.

The family eventually sued the Capistrano Unified School District in 2023, but a lower court dismissed the case, with U.S. District Judge David O. Carter ruling that BB’s drawing “trampled on her classmate’s right to be left alone in school” and, remarkably, that First Amendment protections didn’t apply to such young students.

2/ B.B. was in first grade when she drew this picture after a classroom lesson on MLK. The principal called it “racist” and “inappropriate,” banned her from giving out drawings, and made her sit out of recess for two weeks. The family challenged these unfair punishments. pic.twitter.com/H3uyNgwyr9

— Pacific Legal 🗡⚖️ (@PacificLegal) March 10, 2026

More about the 9th circuit decision: https://t.co/5pnd0v9kCL

— Pacific Legal 🗡⚖️ (@PacificLegal) March 10, 2026

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that nonsense on March 10 of this year, affirming that constitutional rights don’t vanish at the school door—even for first graders. “In sum, elementary students’ speech is protected by the First Amendment,” the three-judge panel stated in an unsigned opinion.

The court referenced the 1969 Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines, emphasizing that schools must prove actions are necessary to prevent disruption. 

“Age is relevant as younger students are more vulnerable than students who are approaching adulthood. But, as all students, including elementary school students, have First Amendment rights, the school has the burden, under the Tinker balancing test, of showing that its actions were reasonably undertaken to protect the safety and well-being of its students,” the judges ruled.

This sends the case back to the lower court to examine if Becerra’s response was justified. He denies calling the drawing inappropriate or racist and claims no punishment occurred, but the appeals decision puts the onus on the school to back that up.

Pacific Legal Foundation, representing BB pro bono, celebrated the win. “The First Amendment requires schools to meet a demanding standard before punishing student speech,” said PLF attorney Caleb Trotter.

“The court made clear that schools cannot simply label a child’s message inappropriate and impose discipline without showing that punishment was necessary to prevent disruption,” Trotter added.

The drawing itself—a colorful symbol of unity—has become an icon in the fight against overreach.

This incident highlights how leftist dogma infiltrates classrooms, where straying from approved narratives like BLM invites backlash. Schools plastered with BLM posters and lessons pushed one viewpoint, then branded a child’s attempt at broader equality as offensive—exposing the intolerance beneath the surface.

Becerra’s actions smack of ideological enforcement, prioritizing political correctness over a 7-year-old’s pure intentions. It’s a reminder that radical leftist influences in education aim to stifle free thought early, molding kids into compliant echo chambers.

Yet this ruling pushes back, reinforcing that individual liberty trumps bureaucratic control. Parents now have stronger ground to challenge such abuses, ensuring schools teach facts, not force-fed propaganda.

BB’s story is a triumph of innocence over indoctrination. Her drawing wasn’t racist—it was the opposite, a child’s vision of true equality. The court victory safeguards that spirit, proving the Constitution protects even the youngest voices.

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

The second week of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran is coming to a close, with no visible off-ramp yet emerging, even as the White House continues to project victory. Goldman now expects the disruption in the Strait of Hormuz to persist for three weeks, a timeline that suggests further intensification of what the IEA has already described as an unprecedented global energy shock.

Focusing on the Strait of Hormuz chokepoint, data from UBS and Goldman desks show that flows through the critical waterway remain muted by the end of the week.

Current situation in the Hormuz and Gulf area:

Oil & gas tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz, in number of ships, entering and exiting the Gulf

Crude loadings by ports in the Middle East (Mb/d)

Iran’s crude loadings by port (Mb/d)

Map of oil & gas infrastructure in the Persian Gulf

Iranian attacks on vessels (direct & attempted)

Map of ships’ locations when struck in the Gulf region since early March

Summary of attacks on energy infrastructure

In addition to UBS, Goldman’s tracking of Persian Gulf exports also shows limited activity through the strait.

The estimated total hit to oil flows from the Persian Gulf stands at 16 mb/d (16 times larger than the peak April 2022 hit to Russian oil production).

According to S&P Global, only 22 tankers crossed the Strait of Hormuz since March 1, with most tankers operating with AIS signals off.

With an incoming energy shock, the analysts show which countries have the largest buffers, as well as the countries with the least.

Details on the 32-nation IEA SPR dump.

Both notes only suggest that paralysis in the critical waterway is set to persist into next week. Even if the IRGC’s conventional military capabilities have been severely degraded, the more immediate threat to commercial vessel traffic in the waterway is the IRGC’s asymmetric warfare, which includes low-cost kamikaze drones and naval mines.

More in the full notes available to pro subs.

Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

Don’t lose your shit over mines in the Strait of Hormuz and the oil price shooting up. Iran has many thousands of mines. But something has to lay them out in the water. Iran has no more naval ships. They have small boats. The US can see everything moving on the surface, or sitting at docks. We are blowing them up methodically. The news outlets who want the US to fail in this operation (because: Trump) want you to think that we had no plan for dealing with this problem. That’s not so.

There are very few mines actually laid so far. Tankers are not going through the Strait of Hormuz because their captains are nervous. Their ships and their cargos are worth millions and the insurance costs millions. So, they’re waiting in place, hanging back. The US still has work to do destroying Iran’s shoreline defenses of missile and drone launch sites. Iran is firing all they’ve got left. Whenever they launch something, we see the geo-location on our satellites and radars. The mobile launchers are a little trickier because, obviously, they shoot and move. But they don’t always move fast enough, and there isn’t an endless supply of them.

The US Navy decommissioned its four Avenger-class minesweeper ships in the Persian Gulf in September, 2025, but replaced them with more agile Littoral Combat Ships (LCSs) capable of countering submarines and clearing mines. Two LCS ships — USS Santa Barbara and USS Canberra — quietly deployed in March 2025.

An LCS uses an Airborne Laser Mine Detection System and an Airborne Mine Neutralization System via helicopter. In the water, it uses mine-hunting sonar and the Unmanned Influence Sweep System — all operated from unmanned surface vessels. The unmanned sweep vehicle triggers magnetic, acoustic, or combination mines, with the LCS at a safe distance.

The LCS vessels are armed with an 11-cell SeaRAM launcher for point defense that fires Rolling Airframe Missiles — fast, radar-guided missiles designed to knock down incoming anti-ship missiles and drones at short range. They also carry Longbow Hellfire missiles with updated software and hardware specifically to counter drones. The Longbow Hellfire uses radar-guided technology enabling it to engage targets through battlefield clutter, with a range of up to eight kilometers — giving the LCS the ability to engage drones before they get close. The LCS ships will be accompanied by Arleigh Burke-class destroyers equipped with Aegis and full missile defense suites for protection against the full spectrum of Iranian threats.

The oil markets are extremely sensitive to any changes in the oil environment, and war induces the most extreme changes.

Even outside of war, weird things happen.

April 20, 2020, was the apex of Covid-19 paranoia when everyday life was shutting down all over Western Civ.

The price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures — specifically the May 2020 contract, which was expiring the very next day — crashed to an historic low of negative $37.63 per barrel.

That is, sellers were literally paying buyers to take oil off their hands. By the following day, April 21, prices had rebounded back into positive territory, though still at very depressed levels around $10–$15 per barrel.

The current situation with oil in the $100 range is not going to be a one-day event, but it won’t last forever, either, so do your deep-breathing exercises and calm down.

Of course, in America right now, a seditious news media will take every opportunity to induce exquisite anxiety in the public-at-large to deflect from the order-of-battle that President DJT is carrying out to 1) improve America’s geopolitical position and relations, and 2) to defeat the forces both external and domestic that seek to wreck the country.

Which is why you might see that the next move in the order of battle will be against the wrecking crew in our own country, including the political figures behind the decade-long conspiracy to undermine the president, the administrative rogues running the “resistance” in government agencies, the Lawfare ninjas queering the justice system, and the big money that funds the hundreds of NGOs attempting to instigate a color revolution here.

I have visions of perp walks and indictments coming in on the zephyrs of spring.

It looks just now like Majority Leader John Thune and his RINO herd will trample the SAVE Act (election reform) into failure. But consider that Mr. Trump’s FBI has had more than a month to analyze the Fulton County, Georgia, ballot evidence from the 2020 election (while only last week it seized the Maricopa County, AZ, records, and for all we know the agency also has 2020 ballot evidence from Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nevada, too).

So, prepare for the public to be shocked and amazed at what has been discovered, and expect to see a sharp attitude change among embarrassed US Senators who will be compelled to come on-board for election reform.

Somewhere in all that, you might expect Cuba to fall — a momentous event, actually, considering the cumulative mischief Cuba’s government has provoked all over the western hemisphere since 1958. We don’t even have to do anything to make it happen, just respond in the aftermath with emergency food and fuel relief, and perhaps some help averting the vengeful slaughter of the old Castro governing network. We don’t want a bloodbath there.

The AI bubble and data center buildout have helped catapult equity markets to new highs (pre-Middle East conflict), minting a record number of 401(k) millionaires. However, beneath the surface, hardship withdrawals from 401(k) plans have also climbed to a record, reinforcing the view that the K-shaped economy is becoming more entrenched.

Vanguard’s How America Saves 2025 report shows that hardship withdrawal activity “increased to a new high” of 6% in 2025, up from 4.8% in 2024 and about 2% before the pandemic.

The increase marks the sixth straight annual rise since Congress eased the rules in 2018 by removing the requirement that participants first take a 401(k) loan. Vanguard said the median hardship withdrawal was about $1,900 for avoiding foreclosure or eviction (36%), paying medical expenses (31%), and covering tuition (13%).

“Given that it’s now easier to request a hardship withdrawal and that automatic enrollment is helping more workers save for retirement, especially lower-income workers, a modest increase isn’t surprising,” the Vanguard report said.

The report noted, “For a small subset of workers facing financial stress, hardship withdrawals may serve as a safety net that may not otherwise have been available without plan-implemented automatic solutions.”

The report shows the K-shaped economy is continuing with no end in sight as the cost-of-living crisis rages on, forcing those with the weakest financial profiles to tap into 401(k)s and retirement accounts just to stay afloat.

“Withdrawing from your 401(k) has become one of the easiest ways to access excess capital,” Shelby Rothman, founder of EnJoy Financial, told CNBC Select.

Rothman said, “Nearly half of Americans don’t have $1,000 for unexpected expenses — no emergency fund, no available credit. Nothing.”

Another day, another activist judge deciding they’re the president… 

On Friday, chief Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has blocked subpoenas issued by the Trump Justice Department to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and the Fed Board of Governor

Boasberg claims that the subpoenas were served for an improper, pretextual purpose, and that “a mountain of evidence suggests that the Government served these subpoenas on the Board to pressure its Chair into voting for lower interest rates or resigning,” and that the government produced “essentially zero evidence to suspect Chair Powell of a crime; indeed, its justifications are so thin and unsubstantiated that the Court can only conclude that they are pretextual.” The order explicitly quashes the subpoenas.

The subpoenas were issued as part of a DOJ probe into the Fed’s management of its headquarters renovation project – an investigation that Powell and others have called a pretext. Powell himself issued an unprecedented video statement in January 2026 saying the threatened indictment stemmed from his Senate testimony and the Fed’s independent interest-rate decisions rather than any actual crime. He described it as part of broader administration pressure to politicize monetary policy.

White House officials have criticized the Federal Reserve over its handling of renovations to two historic buildings in Washington: the Marriner S. Eccles Building, the Fed’s headquarters, and the 1951 Constitution Avenue building.

Renovation costs for the Fed’s headquarters have risen to $2.5 billion, $700 million over budget, according to Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought.

Last July, Trump indicated that Powell’s handling of the renovation project could be grounds to fire him, saying, “I think it sort of is.”

“When you spend $2.5 billion on, really, a renovation, I think it’s really disgraceful,” he said.

The Fed responded to the criticism, stating on its website that major systems in both buildings, whose construction dates back to the 1930s, are “obsolete and in need of replacement for health and safety reasons.”

The decision has drawn praise from those defending Fed independence and sharp criticism from Trump allies who view it as judicial interference. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) has already said he will block confirmation of Trump’s nominee to replace Powell until the probe is dropped.

Warsh’s nomination by President Donald Trump is bogged down because of an effective blockade imposed by Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who sits on the Banking Committee. That panel is the first hurdle for would-be Fed board members such as Warsh.

Tillis has vowed to vote against passing along Warsh’s nomination or any other Fed nominee to the full Senate for a confirmation vote as long as a criminal investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell remains in progress.

Now Tillis says that if the Trump admin appeals Boasberg’s ruling, Warsh’s confirmation will be delayed even further. Moments later, DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro said that the decision will be appealed. 

Boasberg’s Record of Interventions in Trump-Related Matters

This just the latest instance where Judge Boasberg has stepped in to block, quash, or otherwise limit actions or probes tied to Trump – including:

• 2017 — Trump Tax Returns FOIA Lawsuit: Boasberg dismissed a Freedom of Information Act suit seeking President Trump’s personal tax returns, ruling they remained confidential without Trump’s consent or congressional approval. This effectively quashed public access efforts.
• 2022–2023 — January 6 Committee & Jack Smith Grand Jury Subpoenas: As chief judge overseeing the D.C. grand jury in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump’s post-2020 election conduct, Boasberg denied a Trump spokesperson’s attempt to claw back financial records subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 Committee. He also ordered former Vice President Mike Pence to testify before the grand jury (partially rejecting executive-privilege claims) and approved nondisclosure orders on phone records of Republican senators — actions Trump allies strongly opposed as advancing the probe against him.
• March 2025–2026 — J.G.G. v. Trump (Alien Enemies Act Deportations): In the highest-profile clash, Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order halting the Trump administration’s use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to summarily deport Venezuelan migrants (alleged gang members) to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. He ordered in-flight deportation planes to turn around. When flights proceeded anyway, he found “probable cause” of criminal contempt due to the administration’s “willful disregard” of his order and initiated contempt proceedings (repeatedly revived despite appeals-court stays). He later ordered the government to facilitate the return of over 100 deported individuals to allow due-process hearings. Appeals courts (often Trump-appointed panels) repeatedly limited or paused his contempt efforts, but the core blocking and remedial orders stood as major interventions against the policy.
• 2025 — American Oversight v. Hegseth (“Signalgate”): Assigned to the lawsuit alleging Trump administration officials (including Cabinet members) violated record-keeping laws by using the Signal app for sensitive military discussions, Boasberg issued preservation orders and described aspects of the conduct as concerning, while stopping short of ordering full message recovery.

Bukele was right…

Bukele: “We had to remove corrupt judges and corrupt attorneys and prosecutors.”

Activist judges must be impeached and removed. pic.twitter.com/pg5NdQwjJe

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) February 26, 2025

Mark Zuckerberg bet the farm on AI supremacy, and this year’s crop is infested with bugs.

According to a new report, Meta has quietly pushed back the launch of its next-generation foundational AI model, internally code-named Avocado, from this month until at least May. The reason? Internal tests showed it underperforming on key benchmarks for reasoning, coding, and writing – trailing rivals like Google’s Gemini 3.0, even as it beat Meta’s own prior efforts and older Google models.

The model, code-named Avocado, outperformed Meta’s previous A.I. model and did better than Google’s Gemini 2.5 model from March, two of the people said. But it has not performed as strongly as Gemini 3.0 from November, they said. -NYT

This delay arrives after Zuckerberg has poured unprecedented resources into the race. Meta is guiding for $115–135 billion in capital expenditures this year alone – nearly double last year’s spend – with the overwhelming majority earmarked for AI data centers, compute clusters, and infrastructure. The company has also signaled longer-term commitments approaching $600 billion in U.S. investments, plus a $14.3 billion stake in Scale AI that installed its CEO, Alexandr Wang, as Meta’s chief AI officer. The new “TBD Lab” was tasked with fruit-themed breakthroughs: Avocado as the core model, Mango for images/video, and a bigger “Watermelon” on the horizon, the NY Times reports.

Zuckerberg once promised these efforts would “push the frontier” toward superintelligence. Now, insiders say Meta is even weighing temporarily licensing superior models from competitors like Google to keep its products competitive. 

As a result, Meta has delayed Avocado’s release to at least May from this month, the people said. They added that the leaders of Meta’s A.I. division had instead discussed temporarily licensing Gemini to power the company’s A.I. products, though no decisions have been reached.

Not great… 

Musk Reboots xAI…

While Zuck licks his wounds, Elon Musk is reorganizing xAI – ordering another round of job cuts at the two-year-old startup over poor performance of its coding product, FT reports. Grok’s coding capabilities have lagged behind rivals like Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex – however Musk on Thursday revealed the company’s ‘Macrohard’ or “Digital Optimus” which can ‘basically automate entire companies’ by observing and intelligently simulating their functions. 

Musk has brought in managers from SpaceX and Tesla as “fixers” to audit employee work, focusing on data quality issues in model training and firing those deemed inadequate. This has forced out several more co-founders – including Zihang Dai (a senior technical leader who admitted xAI was behind on coding) and Guodong Zhang (who ran pre-training for Grok models and was blamed for coding shortfalls, departing Thursday). Only two of the original 11 co-founders remain: Manuel Kroiss (“Makro”) and Ross Nordeen. Previous exits include Greg Yang, Tony Wu, Jimmy Ba, and even Toby Pohlen, who briefly led the “Macrohard” digital agents project before leaving after 16 days.

Posting on X Thursday, Musk said “Same thing happened with Tesla.”

xAI was not built right first time around, so is being rebuilt from the foundations up.

Same thing happened with Tesla.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 12, 2026

The upheaval follows the $1.25 billion merger of SpaceX with xAI, amid pressure to meet ambitious goals – including space-based AI data centers, Moon factories, and Mars colonization – and a potential blockbuster stock market listing by June. According to FT, xAI staff have been wilting under “extremely hardcore” demands, though a company memo denied mass layoffs. 

Yet Musk is aggressively course-correcting: redeploying Tesla’s Ashok Elluswamy to reboot Macrohard and develop the “digital Optimus” – blending real-world AI with Grok models. He’s also been reviewing past interview rejections, apologizing publicly – “Many talented people over the past few years were declined an offer or even an interview at xAI. My apologies” – and reaching back out to promising candidates. This week, xAI poached Andrew Milich and Jason Ginsberg from the hot AI coding app Cursor to supercharge “Grok Code Fast.”

Many talented people over the past few years were declined an offer or even an interview @xAI. My apologies.@BarisAkis and I are going through the company interview history and reaching back out to promising candidates. https://t.co/tvhipa1lu1

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 13, 2026

Meanwhile, the massive Memphis supercluster – already with over 200,000 GPUs and expanding toward 1 million – benefits from X data integration, giving xAI unique advantages in scale and real-time training.

* * * Please consider supporting ZeroHedge with the purchase of a hat, t-shirt, or multitool. Thank you.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel stated on state television that his government has entered talks with the Trump administration, aimed at “finding solutions through dialogue” to longstanding bilateral differences between the two neighboring countries. This admission comes as the Caribbean island faces crude oil and diesel stockpiles running dry by the end of the month, after Trump’s multi-month crude shipment blockade sharply tightened pressure on the communist regime in Havana.

In a speech broadcast on Cuban state TV, Díaz-Canel said that discussions with the Trump administration were intended to “determine the willingness of both sides to take concrete actions for the benefit of the people of both countries.”

“Agendas are being built, negotiations are underway, conversations are taking place and agreements are being reached, things from which we are still far away because we are in the initial phases,” Díaz-Canel said.

🇺🇸🇨🇺 El momento histórico en donde el dictador de Cuba, Miguel Díaz Canel, anuncia en cadena nacional que han cedido a la presión y están oficialmente en negociaciones con los Estados Unidos.

El régimen cubano completamente rendido, al borde de la muerte.pic.twitter.com/lDAjV4cwh9

— Agustín Antonetti (@agusantonetti) March 13, 2026

This is the first time the communist regime in Havana has publicly acknowledged that talks between the US and Cuba exist, despite leaked US media reports.

It appears that Trump’s oil blockade of the Caribbean island is working as part of the administration’s broader regime-change campaign across the Western Hemisphere, beginning with the removal of socialist leader Nicolás Maduro from power in Venezuela.

The Trump administration has launched a political campaign to rid the West of socialists and communists. The balance of power in the Americas has been shifting from left-wing to right-wing in the Trump era.

Díaz-Canel warned in a separate press conference with state media that the island has not received fuel shipments in three months. He said crude oil and diesel stockpiles are being depleted rapidly, resulting in instability across the national power grid.

“Cuban officials recently held talks with representatives of the United States government to seek, through dialogue, a possible solution to the bilateral differences between our nations. These exchanges have been facilitated by international actors,” Diaz-Canel said. 

Late last week, at the White House, President Trump said a deal with Havana was nearing. “As we achieve a historic transformation in Venezuela, we also look forward to the great change that will soon come to Cuba,” Trump stated.

“Cuba is at the end of the line,” the president added. “They have no money. They have no oil.”

On Thursday, Havana announced it planned to release 51 prisoners. This comes about two weeks after Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez met with Pope Leo at the Vatican.

Regime change in Venezuela and Cuba appears less complicated than Trump’s Operation Epic Fury in Iran.

* * * Please consider supporting ZeroHedge with the purchase of a hat, t-shirt, or multitool. Thank you.

Authored by Nicolas Hulscher, MPH,

Public opinion is shifting… and they want action.

A new Rasmussen survey of 1,158 likely U.S. voters – conducted September 7–9, 2025, with a ±3% margin of error – reveals that 56% believe side effects from the COVID-19 shots have likely caused a significant number of unexplained deaths. Nearly one-third (32%) say it’s very likely. Only 35% still dismiss the idea.

This shows that what was once called a “conspiracy theory” has become the mainstream view. The majority of Americans now believe vaccine harms are real and widespread.

Support for HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reflects this shift. Half of voters (50%) say government health officials deserve criticism for their handling of the pandemic, while 42% even think CDC employees should be fired for their role in misleading the public.

Among those who strongly believe the shots caused deaths, over 70% want CDC firings.

Partisan divides remain—70% of Republicans, 46% of Democrats, and 54% of independents think the vaccines likely caused deaths—but the skepticism crosses party lines and racial groups.

In fact, black (64%) and Hispanic (57%) voters are even more likely than white voters (54%) to suspect deadly vaccine effects.

According to the survey, RFK Jr. is viewed favorably by 45% of voters, with strong support among Republicans and independents, even as Democrats turn sharply against him.

The takeaway: A credible, nationally representative poll now confirms most Americans believe COVID-19 shots have killed many people, and they want accountability from the CDC and government health leaders.