“Mamdani Mart” Exposes The Inefficiency Of Socialism In One Chart
Andreessen Horowitz’s a16z New Media published the most popular charts of the week on financial markets, but the most revealing one came at the end of the note: a comparison suggesting that New York City’s first grocery store, which will soon be run by unhinged socialists, will be structurally less efficient than private-sector supermarkets.
But who cares when it’s not taxpayer monies?
According to the New York Post, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s proposed city-owned grocery store in East Harlem would require roughly $30 million in taxpayer funding.
At just 9,000 square feet, the project implies a construction cost of about $3,000 per square foot – an exceptionally and alarmingly high number by grocery industry standards.
From an economic standpoint, the “Mamdani Mart” underscores a familiar pattern: state-directed supermarkets often fail to achieve the cost discipline, operational efficiency, and scale seen in private-sector chains.
This story has played out time and again in the U.S., as unhinged left-wingers have experimented with socialism:
Socialism is inherently parasitic, abusing productive taxpayers to subsidize left-wing experiments. It always tend to fail. Let’s not forget CNBC’s Sara Eisen blasted the far-left mayor after he filmed a promotional video touting a proposed new tax on luxury properties.
President Donald Trump announced April 17 that he expects his administration to begin releasing documents “very soon” related to extraterrestrial life and unexplained phenomena.
“As you remember, I recently directed the Secretary of War … to begin releasing government files relating to UFOs and unexplained aerial phenomena,” Trump told an audience in Phoenix, Arizona. “I’m pleased to report today … that this process is well underway and we’ve found many very interesting documents, I must say. And, the first releases will begin very, very soon.”
Trump made the remarks at an event with Turning Point Action, an affiliate of Turning Point USA.
The president ordered government agencies to release information about UFOs and related phenomena in a Feb. 19 Truth Social post. Tremendous interest in the files prompted Trump to issue the directive to release files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, he said.
The U.S. government holds thousands of documents related to historical reports about the subjects of unidentified flying objects and alien phenomenon, including more than 12,600 reports from Project Blue Book, which took place from 1947 to 1969. The public can already access some of the public records, photos, and sounds at the National Archives.
The buzz over revealing more evidence comes days after Artemis II made its historic voyage around the moon, stirring the public’s interest in space discovery.
Trump’s announcement, however, fell flat with UFO investigator Donald Schmitt, who said he had “very little hope” the documents would prove anything more than what has already been released to the public.
“They’re just documents,” Schmitt told The Epoch Times. “They don’t prove anything. We need to stop dancing around the idea that we want to see the files or documents. … I want to hold a piece of the hardware. I want to see a tissue sample. Take me to where you’re preserving the bodies after all these years.”
“That’s what this should come down to,” Schmitt said. “Otherwise this is just song and dance.”
Schmitt, a seven-time best-selling author whose first book was made into the made-for-TV movie “Roswell,” serves as lead investigator for the International UFO Museum in Roswell, New Mexico. He has spent decades researching the alleged crash of a UFO about 75 miles north of the rural southeastern town in 1947.
At the peak of the independent investigations into the Roswell incident, Schmitt said they had 150 eyewitnesses for government officials to interview, but no one was interested in talking with them, he said.
“We have 30 deathbed confessions. They’re not interested,” Schmitt said about the government investigators.
He said he hoped he was wrong about the upcoming release of information, but it seemed to be generating a lot of confusion.
“I’m always cautious of people who speak as though they have any answers or they refer to themselves as experts, especially on this topic,” he added. “I can’t emphasize enough, there is no such thing as an expert on UFOs.
“The mystery continues.”
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth told reporters Feb. 23 he was already working on getting the documents in order.
“We’ve got our people working on it right now,” Hegseth said. “We’re digging in. We’re going to be in full compliance to be able to provide that for the president.”
Hegseth didn’t have a time frame for when he would be able to provide the documents. He didn’t say whether he believed aliens existed, but Vice President JD Vance weighed in on his thoughts about the unknown beings in an interview with conservative political commentator Benny Johnson on March 27.
“When I came in, I was obsessed with the UFO files,” Vance said. “I have not been able to spend enough time on this to fully understand it. I’m going to get to the bottom of it.”
Vance elaborated on his beliefs about extraterrestrial beings.
“I don’t think they’re aliens,” Vance said. “I think they’re demons anyway, but that’s a long discussion.”
Senate Bill Wants Commercial Reactors On Federal Land
Senators Mike Lee (R-UT) and Dave McCormick (R-PA) introduced the Nuclear Energy Innovation and Deployment Act (NEIDA) on April 14th, presenting what could be one of the most significant regulatory shifts for U.S. nuclear power in decades.
The legislation would expand the DOE’s authority to license and regulate commercial reactors and fuel-cycle facilities when sited on federal land or built for federal purposes, including electricity supplied to federal power marketing agencies.
The United States should lead the nuclear energy renaissance, not watch it from the sidelines.
It would also create a permanent Nuclear Energy Launch Pad program to streamline demonstration projects on DOE and National Lab sites, with a built-in path to commercial operations under DOE oversight rather than the traditional NRC bottleneck.
Under current rules, even projects on federal property like Idaho National Laboratory (INL) typically require full NRC licensing if they want to be used for commercial purposes. NEIDA flips that script. Commercial reactors and related fuel facilities on qualifying federal sites could operate under DOE authority, complete with Price-Anderson liability protections.
The bill also repurposessurplus plutonium as reactor fuel through a milestone-driven program, turning a liability into domestic supply while federal power marketing administrations gain explicit authority to purchase and transmit nuclear-generated electricity.
The centerpiece is the Nuclear Energy Launch Pad, which would designate secure federal zones (primarily on DOE and National Lab land) for private companies to test and demonstrate advanced nuclear technologies. Private entities pay the bill, but gain infrastructure support and regulatory certainty. After demonstration, projects could transition seamlessly to commercial operation under DOE licensing.
As we have covered in recent reporting on surging nuclear interest, this framework directly addresses the “valley of death” between pilot and full deployment that has stalled U.S. progress while China and Russia build out capacity at pace.
Take Oklo’s Aurora powerhouse already under construction at INL. The company received DOE approval for its Nuclear Safety Design Agreement (NSDA) in March 2026 under the existing Reactor Pilot Program. If NEIDA made that pathway permanent and explicit, Oklo could complete testing and iteration under DOE oversight, then secure a commercial operations license directly from the agency without restarting with the NRC. The shift would provide exactly the certainty developers have long sought.
The bill could also create a natural bridge to the Genesis Mission, DOE’s flagship AI and energy-dominance initiative. Genesis is already pushing co-location of data centers on federal land with advanced nuclear power to meet exploding AI-driven power demand. Under NEIDA, reactors licensed and operated by DOE on those same sites could enter straightforward commercial offtake agreements to supply Genesis-linked data centers.
The Launch Pad’s streamlined DOE process, combined with existing experience, could compress timelines dramatically. Consider an AP1000 reactor announced for a federal site: from initial filing to full commercial license, the bill’s framework suggests a matter of months rather than the multi-year NRC odyssey that has become standard.
If enacted, NEIDA does not overhaul the entire NRC system. It would simply carve out a fast lane on federal real estate. In an era of record electricity demand from AI and manufacturing, that lane may prove decisive.
The Trump administration confirmed on April 17 that it was working with the FBI to investigate the mysterious deaths and disappearances of ten U.S. scientists and government employees who had access to nuclear or aerospace material.
“In light of the recent and legitimate questions about these troubling cases, and President [Donald] Trump’s commitment to the truth, the White House is actively working with all relevant agencies and the FBI to holistically review all of the cases together and identify any potential commonalities that may exist,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote in a post on X Friday afternoon.
The scientists and employees who worked on highly classified projects started vanishing or dying in recent years.
“No stone will be unturned in this effort, and the White House will provide updates when we have them,” Leavitt said.
The confirmation from Leavitt happened one day after Trump said the White House would look into whether the cases are connected.
“I hope it’s random, but we’re going to know in the next week and a half,” Trump told reporters on April 16, adding “I just left a meeting on that subject.”
One of the missing people included retired Air Force Maj. Gen. William “Neil” McCasland, who vanished on Feb. 27, according to the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office in New Mexico.
The 68-year-old previously served as the head of research at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, which conspiracy theories allege was tied to Roswell’s UFO incident in 1947.
He also worked at the Pentagon as the director, space acquisition in the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force and then as director of special programs, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics.
McCasland’s wife reported that she saw him interacting with a repairman around 10:00 a.m., she went to a medical appointment at 11:10, and he was gone when she returned just after noon.
The Albuquerque-area resident did not take his phone, prescription glasses, and wearable devices, but investigators did discover that the household was missing his hiking boots, wallet, and a .38 caliber revolver with a leather holster.
Another missing person included Monica Reza Jacinto, a rocket scientist who had worked with McCasland.
Jacinto was last seen hiking on June 22, 2025, in the Angeles National Forest.
Another one of the cases that is being questioned was the shooting of California Institute of Technology astrophysicist Carl Grillmair.
The astrophysicist, who worked on missions related to the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, was shot and killed outside of his home on Feb. 16, 2026.
The Trump administration renewed a key sanctions waiver on April 17, allowing countries to purchase Russian oil stranded at sea, responding to urgent pressure from Asian nations battered by skyrocketing energy costs.
The move also reverses a position Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had stated two days earlier.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued General License 134B on Friday, authorizing transactions tied to Russian crude and petroleum products loaded onto vessels as of that date.
The waiver runs through May 16 and replaces a previous license that expired on April 11.
The move comes after Bessent told reporters on Wednesday the administration would not extend the earlier waiver, signaling what appeared to be a firmer stance on Russian energy exports.
“As negotiations [with Iran] accelerate, Treasury wants to ensure oil is available to those who need it,” a Treasury spokesperson said.
The Russia-related license waiver excludes transactions to Iran, Cuba, and North Korea.
Global oil prices tumbled 9 percent on Friday to about $90 a barrel after Iran temporarily reopened the Strait of Hormuz, an oil choke point in the Gulf.
Trump also discussed oil on a call on Tuesday with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a major purchaser of Russian crude.
The ongoing war in Iran has cost New Delhi access to approximately 3 million barrels per day that previously transited the Strait of Hormuz.
The war, which enters its eighth week on Saturday, has damaged more than 80 oil and gas facilities in the Middle East, and Tehran has warned it could close the strait again if the recent U.S. Navy blockade of Iranian ports continues.
Just before Friday’s reversal, the Treasury had declared it was moving aggressively to maintain “maximum pressure” on Iran under its “Economic Fury” campaign, and would not renew a separate waiver on Iranian oil sales.
The juxtaposition of tightening Iranian sanctions while loosening Russian oil relief underscores the competing pressures bearing on the administration’s energy policy.
Friday’s decision follows a series of energy-related policy adjustments Washington has made since U.S.–Israeli military operations against Iran began in late February.
On March 6, Bessent said the United States may consider easing sanctions on more Russian oil after granting India a 30-day waiver to purchase Russian crude.
Days later, on March 9, Trump said Washington would waive oil-related sanctions on some countries.
“We’re looking to keep the oil prices down,” he said during a press conference in Miami, adding that prices had risen artificially due to the conflict.
On March 18, the Treasury eased sanctions on Venezuela’s state-owned oil and gas company, allowing U.S. companies to do business with the firm amid tightening oil supplies during the Iran war. The following day, Bessent said the United States may lift sanctions on Iranian oil currently in transit to bolster supply and stabilize energy prices. An Iranian oil waiver, issued March 20, ultimately allowed some 140 million barrels to reach global markets.
Dramatic Audio: Indian Tanker Was Given Permission Before Being Fired On By IRGC, Delhi Summons Ambassador
India has summoned the Iranian ambassador in New Delhi in a rare moment of inter-BRICS discord after its tanker was attacked earlier Saturday while trying to traverse the Strait of Hormuz, which has been closed once again.
“During the meeting, the Foreign Secretary conveyed India’s deep concern at the shooting incident earlier today involving two Indian-flagged ships in the Strait of Hormuz,” the statement from India said. The full statement, which is still somewhat tame in its rhetoric in light of the fact that what the Indian vessel thought was an “approved” transit came under direct attack:
The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reports that a tanker was “approached by 2 IRGC gunboats, with no VHF challenge, and then fired upon.”
The official Indian government statement continues: “He noted the importance that India attached to the safety of merchant shipping and mariners and recalled that Iran had earlier facilitated the safe passage of several ships bound for India.”
It adds, “Reiterating his concern at this serious incident of firing on merchant ships, the Foreign Secretary urged the Ambassador to convey India’s views to the authorities in Iran and resume at the earliest the process of facilitating India-bound ships across the Strait.”
The ship has since been identified as the SANMAR HERALD:
It is likely that the tanker in involved is the Indian-flagged VLCC Sanmar Herald (IMO 9330563) which as changed its name to INDIANSHIPINDIANCREW on AIS. In a recording of a purported VHF radio message circulating in the industry a crew member says it is the Sanmar Herald and “you gave me clearance to go, you are firing now, let me turn back”.
An AIS track for the tanker from Pole Star Global also matches the timing and location given in the UKMTO warning.
Clearly the audio, released by TankerTrackers, strongly suggests the captain and crew had prior permission from Tehran/IRGC authorities, which the dramatic exchange demonstrates:
Audio of the Indian oil tanker Sanmar Herald pleading with Iranian forces to stop shooting at it in the Strait of Hormuz this morning. pic.twitter.com/7Y5n7Jb7o0
According to two Channel 16 audio recordings captured today, two Indian vessels were forced back west out of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran’s Sepah (IRGC) Navy. Firing was involved. One of the vessels is an Indian-flagged VLCC supertanker carrying 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil.… pic.twitter.com/c1uOvmKDNO
— TankerTrackers.com, Inc. (@TankerTrackers) April 18, 2026
A second Indian-flagged vessel seems to have been subject to inbound projectiles. More from the first Indian tanker’s audio exchange with the Iranian side:
Captain in dramatic audio: “You gave me clearance to go… you are firing now!”
Meanwhile, President Trump reacted at the White House on Saturday: “We’re talking to them. They wanted to close up the strait again — you know, as they’ve been doing for years — and they can’t blackmail us.”
Subsequently there are reports that the US Navy could begin intercepting and boarding Iran-linked vessels anywhere in the world, as Washington tries to reassert leverage over the dicey Hormuz Strait situation.
Congratulations, you made it through the panic…and now the market has decided none of it ever mattered and things are 5% better than they’ve ever been in history. Prices have not only recovered from the Iran war scare, they’ve pushed comfortably beyond where they were before it even started.
The NASDAQ is logging a batshit insane 13-day winning streak, marking its longest consecutive green run since July 2009.
That’s impressive, if your definition of impressive includes a complete disregard for unresolved risk and/or any type of valuation or fundamentals. Because despite what price action is implying, nothing has really been definitively fixed, guaranteed, or even clarified. Only time will solidify that, in my opinion.
Yet here we are, higher anyway.
What’s driving this move isn’t exactly a groundswell of improving fundamentals. It’s positioning. It’s call buying forcing dealers to chase the market higher. It’s short squeezes lighting a fire under anyone who dared to hedge. It’s CTAs and systematic strategies piling in as momentum signals flip. This is a feedback loop, not a sober reassessment of long-term value. These loops can run longer than expected, but they are not stable by nature. They are self-reinforcing until they are suddenly not.
Don’t get it twisted. Valuations are stretched to the point where even the usually forgiving models are starting to sound like skeptics. The Shiller P/E is back near 40, a level that has historically been less a launchpad and more a warning sign.
Price-to-sales, mean reversion frameworks, and all that happy horseshit that used to matter back when the market was a closed loop system without an injection valve for Fed liquidity at any moment’s notice are all flashing the same message. At this point, you’re not paying for growth, you’re paying for a very optimistic version of the future where almost nothing goes wrong. Can you blame SpaceX for trying to get a valuation at 125x sales for its IPO.
But that’s the problem with markets at these levels. They don’t need a disaster to fall. They just need reality to be slightly less perfect than what’s currently priced in. Forget a private credit black swan. Just a mild earnings disappointment, a shift in liquidity, or even a rate cut (yes, cut) that signals underlying weakness instead of strength could be enough. The idea that rate cuts are automatically bullish tends to hold right up until the moment they aren’t, which is usually when they arrive for the wrong reasons. That “crash on rate cut” scenario people like to wave off doesn’t require imagination…it just requires a change in interpretation.
🔥 50% OFF FOR LIFE: Using this coupon entitles you to 50% off an annual subscription to Fringe Finance for life: Get 50% off forever
If you bought the dip over the last month, you did the “hard” part. You took risk when it was uncomfortable, when headlines were messy, and when positioning was cleaner. That’s where money is typically made. But confusing that trade with a long-term hold at these levels could be how gains quietly evaporate. Markets that rip higher on positioning tend to offer very little warning when they reverse, and they don’t pause to let everyone exit in an orderly fashion.
Could this keep going? Absolutely. Markets can stay elevated, irrational, and frustratingly strong longer than seems reasonable. But I don’t think that makes it wise to press your luck here. At these valuations, with this kind of flow-driven backdrop, you are just not being particularly well compensated for the risk you’re taking, if you ask me. You’re relying on momentum to continue, and momentum is not a contract.
This is, in my opinion, could be a great place to take some profits, especially if you participated in the recent move. Not because the market must immediately collapse, but because the balance of risk and reward has shifted in a way that should at least make you think twice. There’s a difference between letting winners run and refusing to acknowledge when the easy part is over.
Proceed with caution. Because markets like this don’t send polite warnings when they turn and rip lower again. They just do it, and ask questions later.
QTR’s Disclaimer:Please read my full legal disclaimer on my About page here. This post represents my opinions only.In addition, please understand I am an idiot and often get things wrong and lose money. I may own or transact in any names mentioned in this piece at any time without warning. Contributor posts and aggregated posts have been hand selected by me, have not been fact checked and are the opinions of their authors. They are either submitted to QTR by their author, reprinted under a Creative Commons license with my best effort to uphold what the license asks, or with the permission of the author.
This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any stocks or securities, just my opinions. I often lose money on positions I trade/invest in. I may add any name mentioned in this article and sell any name mentioned in this piece at any time, without further warning. None of this is a solicitation to buy or sell securities. I may or may not own names I write about and are watching. Sometimes I’m bullish without owning things, sometimes I’m bearish and do own things. Just assume my positions could be exactly the opposite of what you think they are just in case. If I’m long I could quickly be short and vice versa. I won’t update my positions. All positions can change immediately as soon as I publish this, with or without notice and at any point I can be long, short or neutral on any position. You are on your own. Do not make decisions based on my blog. I exist on the fringe. If you see numbers and calculations of any sort, assume they are wrong and double check them. I failed Algebra in 8th grade and topped off my high school math accolades by getting a D- in remedial Calculus my senior year, before becoming an English major in college so I could bullshit my way through things easier.
The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I did my best to be honest about my disclosures but can’t guarantee I am right; I write these posts after a couple beers sometimes. I edit after my posts are published because I’m impatient and lazy, so if you see a typo, check back in a half hour. Also, I just straight up get shit wrong a lot. I mention it twice because it’s that important.
American Airlines Shuts Down United Merger Talk As Wells Fargo Signals Another Possible Tie-Up
Certainly this past week saw several key stories in the aviation world.
First came the story that Spirit Airlines could be liquidated at any moment, only to be followed later in the week by reports that the budget carrier had asked the Trump administration for an emergency bailout.
Then, of course, came the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz late in the week, which sent jet fuel prices in New York sharply lower and airline stocks soaring…
It now appears that American Airlines has rejected United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby’s idea to merge the two carriers. Kirby recently pitched President Trump on the tie-up.
American told The New York Times in a statement that it was “not engaged with or interested” in the merger idea pitched by CEO Kirby.
“While changes in the broader airline marketplace may be necessary, a combination with United would be negative for competition and for consumers, and therefore inconsistent with our understanding of the administration’s philosophy toward the industry and principles of antitrust law,” American said, adding, “Our focus will remain on executing on our strategic objectives and positioning American to win for the long term.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters earlier this week that the merger was “not something the president or the White House has an opinion on or is weighing in on at this time.”
Wells Fargo analyst Christian Wetherbee told clients that the American-United merger was unlikely, but on his radar was “an opportunity for United and Delta.”
“This idea furthers our belief that the fuel shock presents an opportunity for United and Delta to emerge better positioned, potentially suggesting upside to out-year estimates,” Wetherbee said.
He noted a potential merger between United and American could be too large, as the combined carrier would control around 40% of domestic capacity without divestitures.
As an alternative, Wetherbee suggested JetBlue could emerge as a smaller, more realistic target if American rejected United, giving United valuable assets in New York and Florida with less regulatory fallout.
Some analysts have already described the airline industry as highly consolidated and a classic oligopoly.
On our radar next week: Spirit’s meeting with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, along with the carrier’s uncertain fate as creditors could pull the plug at any moment. Attention will also shift to United and whether, after being rejected by American, it makes a move toward Delta. Meanwhile, jet fuel prices in New York are plunging, a welcome development for airlines after four weeks of soaring prices that led some carriers to hike bag fees and ticket prices to offset fuel costs.
New ultra-precise measurements have confirmed the cosmos is expanding faster than models based on the early universe predict, while a separate study has dramatically shortened estimates of how long the universe itself will last.
Astronomers have long observed a mismatch in the universe’s expansion rate depending on how it is measured. Local observations of nearby galaxies point to a faster rate, while data from the early universe, such as the cosmic microwave background, suggest a slower pace. This longstanding puzzle is known as the Hubble tension.
A major international collaboration, the H0 Distance Network (H0DN), has now produced one of the most accurate local measurements yet. The team combined decades of independent distance measurements—including observations of red giant stars, Type Ia supernovae, and different galaxy types—into a unified “Local Distance Network.” Their result: the Hubble constant stands at 73.50 ± 0.81 kilometers per second per megaparsec, with precision just over 1 percent.
James Webb just uncovered a serious problem with our understanding of the universe.
New data from the James Webb Space Telescope confirms a major discrepancy in the universe’s expansion rate, suggesting our current understanding of physics may be fundamentally incomplete.
“This isn’t just a new value of the Hubble constant,” the collaboration notes, “it’s a community-built framework that brings decades of independent distance measurements together, transparently and accessibly.”
The findings, published April 10, 2026, in Astronomy & Astrophysics, strengthen the case that the discrepancy is not due to a simple measurement error.
“This work effectively rules out explanations of the Hubble tension that rely on a single overlooked error in local distance measurements,” the authors conclude. “If the tension is real, as the growing body of evidence suggests, it may point to new physics beyond the standard cosmological model.”
Dr Kathy Romer of the Dark Energy Survey commented, “The universe is not only expanding, but it is expanding faster and faster as time goes by.” She added, “What we’d expect is that the expansion would get slower and slower as time goes by, because it has been nearly 14 billion years since the Big Bang.”
Dark Energy May Be Weakening
Separate research using the largest-ever 3D map of the universe from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) has produced hints that dark energy—the force accelerating cosmic expansion—might not be constant but could be weakening over time.
The DESI team mapped nearly 15 million galaxies and quasars. When combined with cosmic microwave background data and supernova observations, the results fit better with an evolving dark energy model than the standard assumption of a fixed force.
Dr Willem Elbers, a researcher from the Institute for Computational Cosmology at Durham University, said: “For decades, we have relied on a standard model of the universe, but our new data suggests that dark energy might be evolving over time. If this is true, it will change everything we thought we knew about the cosmos.”
Professor Will Percival, co-spokesperson for DESI and an astronomer from the University of Waterloo, added: “We’re guided by Occam’s razor, and the simplest explanation for what we see is shifting. It’s looking more and more like we may need to modify our standard model of cosmology to make these different datasets make sense together—and evolving dark energy seems promising.”
Dr Andrei Cuceu, a researcher at Berkeley Lab who worked on the study, noted: “We’re in the business of letting the universe tell us how it works, and maybe the universe is telling us it’s more complicated than we thought it was.”
Paul Steinhardt, Director of the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science, observed that if dark energy becomes weak enough, scientists say the universe could be pulled together into a Big Crunch “remarkably quickly.”
UNIVERSE MAY END IN BIG CRUNCH
New data suggests dark energy is weakening, letting gravity eventually collapse the universe.
Expansion will reverse billions of years from now, ending everything in a single point.
A related theoretical model led by physicist Henry Tye from Cornell University and collaborators from China and Spain explores one possible scenario. Their calculations suggest the universe has a total lifespan of about 33.3 billion years. With 13.8 billion years already passed, roughly 19.5 billion years would remain. In this model, expansion continues for another 11 billion years before slowing, stopping, and reversing into collapse.
New research suggests our universe might not expand forever as we once thought. Instead, it could eventually collapse in on itself in a “reverse Big Bang,” a scenario scientists call the Big Crunch.
For years, astronomers believed the universe would keep growing, driven by a… pic.twitter.com/Fk8wx9Nvbw
These independent lines of inquiry highlight ongoing gaps in our understanding of the universe’s expansion rate and the behavior of dark energy. Future observations from next-generation telescopes are expected to test whether new physics is required to reconcile the data.
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.
According to the latest headlines there was a second tanker incident: a Container ship reportedly hit by ‘unknown projectile’ in second incident while other traffic stalls.
Meanwhile on Saturday the Pentagon is signaling yet another major escalation in the latest effort to reassert US leverage over the Hormuz crisis. It is preparing to expand the fight not just to the Hormuz/Persian Gulf regions, but broadly to the high seas.
“The U.S. military is preparing in coming days to board Iran-linked oil tankers and seize commercial ships in international waters, according to U.S. officials, expanding its naval crackdown beyond the Middle East,” WSJ reports. This means the American military will pursue vessels around the world that are helping Iran, as it steps up ‘Economic Fury’ as an extension of ‘Epic Furty’. WSJ comments further:
The planning comes as the Iranian military continues to tighten its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, attacking several commercial vessels on Saturday as it declared the waterway was being “strictly controlled” by Iran. The developments sent shipping companies scrambling a day after Iran’s foreign minister said the strait was fully open to commercial traffic—an announcement that was welcomed by President Trump.
Audio of the Indian oil tanker Sanmar Herald pleading with Iranian forces to stop shooting at it in the Strait of Hormuz this morning. pic.twitter.com/7Y5n7Jb7o0
The past days have seen both sides try and declare and assert control over the vital waterway and their own blockade based on rival ‘conditions’ for ship passage. But all of this has meant a continued effective closure. US Central Command (CENTCOM) has cited that the US Navy has already turned back at least 23 ships after they were at Iranian ports. In the meantime Trump is still claiming Iran agreed to hand over its enriched uranium – or nuclear ‘dust’ – but Tehran has made clear it will never do so, dismissing this as a made-up fantasy.
Meanwhile…
Iranian Forces Open Fire On Tanker
The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reports that a tanker was “approached by 2 IRGC gunboats, with no VHF challenge, and then fired upon.”
UKMTO did not provide any further details about the two Iranian vessels that fired on the tanker or the type of weapons used in the maritime incident, which was reported to have occurred 20 nautical miles northeast of Oman.
Assume that President Trump is about to become absolutely furious on Truth Social. One can also assume that backchanneling and behind-the-scenes talks are not going well if an incident like this occurred ahead of the U.S.-Iran weekend negotiations.
Hormuz Closed (Again)
The Trump administration’s “baffle ’em with bullshit” methodology has been on full display, as the reopening of the Hormuz chokepoint on Friday drove a broad risk-on in markets: US equities soared, crude collapsed, and Treasury yields declined, based on the assumption that disruption to global energy flows had eased. However, as of early Saturday morning, those moves may prove premature.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the world’s most important maritime chokepoint is once again closed to commercial transit.
About 20 ships waiting to enter the Persian Gulf through the maritime chokepoint have turned back toward Oman after Iran’s military declared the waterway closed again, amid a U.S. blockade of Iranian ports.
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/aceBI7ki0Bpic.twitter.com/gmkM37iA1U
The OSINT community on X is reporting a Hormuz closure as well…
A bit of chaos in Hormuz this morning as nearly all of the outbound tankers have abruptly turned around.
Follows an announcement by Iranian military leadership that the Strait has “reverted to its previous state of strict military control.” pic.twitter.com/XSc6lvxwJo
MERCHANT VESSELS RECEIVE RADIO MESSAGE FROM IRANIAN NAVY SAYING STRAIT OF HORMUZ SHUT AGAIN, NO SHIPS ARE ALLOWED TO PASS THROUGH, SHIPPING SOURCES SAY
The vessels had reportedly been prepared to pay $2 million in tolls to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to pass through, but radio warnings indicated the strait was closed.
WSJ notes:
They are now turning back because the Revolutionary Guards are sending radio messages that the strait is closed, according to one Hong Kong owner with a container ship waiting to transit the strait.
Overnight, Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, wrote on X that President Trump’s “false” claims won’t help in US-Iran negotiations…
The President of the United States made seven claims in one hour, all seven of which were false.
They did not win the war with these lies, and they will certainly not get anywhere in negotiations either.
With the continuation of the blockade, the Strait of Hormuz will not remain open.
Passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be conducted based on the “designated route” and with “Iranian authorization.”
Whether the Strait is open or closed and the regulations governing it will be determined by the field, not by social media.
Media warfare and engineering public opinion are an important part of war, and the Iranian nation is not affected by these tricks. Read the real and accurate news of the negotiations in the recent interview of the Foreign Ministry spokesman.
Earlier, President Trump said peace talks with Iran are making progress and will continue over the weekend.
“We had some pretty good news 20 minutes ago, but it seems to be going very well in the Middle East with Iran,” Trump told reporters traveling to Washington on Air Force One, according to MS Now. “We’ll know over a little period of time. We’re negotiating over the weekend.”
Trump said one main issue is recovering material from Iran’s nuclear program, which he said the U.S. would remove after any agreement is signed.
“Maybe I won’t extend it, but the blockade is going to remain. But maybe I won’t extend it, so you have a blockade, and unfortunately, we’ll have to start dropping bombs again,” Trump said.
Polymarket odds of the Hormuz chokepoint returning to normal status by the end of April have been on a rollercoaster ride over the last 24 hours, peaking at 64% on Friday morning after Iran announced the waterway was open, but dropping to 32% following Iran’s announcement that the maritime chokepoint was closed early Saturday.
Here are the latest headlines from the Middle East:
Strait of Hormuz Status
Iran reopened the Strait of Hormuz on Friday for commercial shipping during a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon (BN) (BN)
Iran swiftly reversed course on Saturday morning, reimposing restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz after the US said it would not end its blockade of Iran-linked shipping (AP) (SMP) (WSJ)
Iranian forces announced control over the Strait of Hormuz has returned to its previous status under strict Iranian administration and supervision (NS8) (AFP)
Some 20 ships lining up to cross the Strait of Hormuz were turning back toward Oman after Iran’s military said the waterway was closed again (WSJ)
Shipping Activity
A convoy of eight tankers was crossing the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, comprising one very large crude oil carrier, several oil product and chemical tankers and LPG carriers (NS8)
Four tankers loaded with Qatari LNG within the Persian Gulf moved toward Hormuz in the last 12 hours, with no loaded LNG shipment having exited the Gulf since late February (BN)
More crude oil and gas carriers began testing the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday despite mixed messages from Iranian authorities (BN)
US-Iran Negotiations
Iran has not yet agreed to a next round of negotiations with the US due to Trump’s announcement of a naval blockade and excessive US demands (BV)
Trump said a deal with Iran to end the seven-week war may be imminent, claiming most main points are finalized (BN) (BN)
Trump claimed Iran has agreed to suspend its nuclear program indefinitely, though Iran’s Foreign Ministry said enriched uranium won’t be transferred anywhere under any circumstances (BN) (BN)
