Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

Nobody is going to be able to save the spring planting season in the northern hemisphere now, and that is really bad news because according to the UN the number of people in the world experiencing acute hunger was already at an all-time high even before the war began. A historic global food crisis has been escalating for years, and now farmers all over the northern hemisphere either can’t get the nitrogen fertilizer that they desperately need or they are paying much more for it. As a result, global food prices will start rising dramatically once harvest season rolls around, and in many impoverished nations there simply won’t be enough food for everyone.

During normal times, approximately one-third of all globally-traded nitrogen fertilizer travels through the Strait of Hormuz, but right now it can’t get out of the Persian Gulf thanks to the Iranians. Unfortunately, if that nitrogen fertilizer doesn’t get into the hands of farmers in the northern hemisphere within a certain period of time they will completely miss the application window…

The Hormuz Strait carries roughly one-third of global fertilizer trade. If farmers miss the application window, no amount of catch-up planting can recover the loss. The International Grains Council estimates cumulative global wheat and coarse grain output could fall 53 million tons below last season, a shortfall larger than Ukraine’s entire annual grain export volume in a typical year.

According to a former co-chair of the White House’s Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force, the spring fertilizer application window in the northern hemisphere ends next month…

Spring fertilizer application in the Northern Hemisphere runs through June. Parts of Africa are entering the primary planting season now — a critical window for the continent’s most food-insecure populations. A missed window doesn’t delay a harvest — it eliminates it. The shortfall will be invisible until it materializes in spiking prices and empty shelves next fall.

This is the story the Hormuz blockade coverage is missing. The crisis isn’t just raising energy prices — it is breaking food supply chains. The world is facing a slow-motion catastrophe that will not announce itself until it is too late.

That last sentence is so true.

We really are facing a slow-motion catastrophe.

For example, we are being told that fertilizer shortages and high fuel costs have created a “critical threat” to global rice supplies…

Global rice supplies are facing a critical threat this year as farmers across Asia have been forced to reduce planting due to fertilizer shortages and soaring fuel costs, issues exacerbated by the ongoing Iran war. This situation is compounded by the emerging El Nino effect, which is anticipated to further tighten global rice output.

Rice is central to global food security, and even slight disruptions in supply can have wide-ranging effects. Experts warn that rising prices could pressure household budgets, especially in price-sensitive regions like Asia and Africa.

A lot less rice is going to be grown this year.

Meanwhile, the global population continues to grow.

So who is going to have enough rice to eat?

It won’t be the poor.

The wealthy will buy up whatever is available, and it will be at significantly higher prices.

There are close to 1.6 billion people living in Africa, and we are being warned that they will soon be facing soaring prices and food shortages…

The Iran war could have “dramatic consequences”, causing food shortages and price rises in some of Africa’s poorest and most vulnerable communities, the head of the world’s largest fertiliser company has said.

Svein Tore Holsether, the chief executive of Yara International, said world leaders needed to guard against soaring prices and shortages of fertiliser causing a de facto global auction that would leave the poorest countries, particularly in Africa, scrambling for supplies they could ill afford.

Here in the United States, food will still be available.

But it will cost a lot more than it once did, because farmers will be forced to pass along much higher costs for fertilizer and fuel…

Farmers have already begun to feel the effects, with rising fertilizer costs and shortages in supply.

The effects of the global conflict are being felt all over Ohio, Bales said. They have taken a large toll on areas such as north central Ohio and western Ohio, where a large amount of row cropping occurs.

“(Between the) double whammy of fertilizer and fuel, that is definitely going to make some tough decisions going forward,” said Bales.

This crisis is going to hit us a lot harder than most people realize.

One recent survey discovered that a whopping 70 percent of all U.S. farmers are unable to afford all the fertilizer that they need this year…

The result is wreaking havoc on farmers. An agricultural lobbying group, the American Farm Bureau Federation, ran a survey and found that 70% of farmers couldn’t afford all the fertilizer they needed.

“Fertilizer pre-booking rates varied significantly by region, with just 19% of Southern producers reporting fertilizer purchases secured ahead of the season, compared to 30% in the Northeast, 31% in the West and 67% in the Midwest, reflecting differences in planting decision timelines and exposure to recent price increases,” the AFBF wrote. Farm diesel prices, which fuel the heavy machinery used in the industry (other than small-scale farms that don’t produce the majority of food crops in the country) are up 46% since the end of February, according to the organizations.

We have never been through anything like this.

Some farmers have decided to switch to crops that require less fertilizer, and some farmers have decided not to plant at all this season.

In fact, the number of acres of wheat that U.S. farmers are planting this spring will be the fewest that we have seen “since record keeping began in 1919”.

If the Strait of Hormuz reopened tomorrow, and there is no way that is going to happen, it would take weeks for cargo vessels to reach their destinations.

And once the Strait does finally reopen, we are being told that “it could be months before supply chains normalize”…

“Even if the strait reopens, it will take weeks to bring the plants back online and get them running efficiently … it could be months before supply chains normalize,” the United States House Agriculture Committee wrote in a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

At this point, there is no saving the spring planting season in the northern hemisphere.

It is going to be a disaster.

Meanwhile, 60 different nations have implemented emergency energy policies within the past two months…

We desperately need the Strait of Hormuz to be reopened.

But the Iranians are telling us that this is going to be how it is from now on.

They are in full control of the Strait, and it appears that they just attacked yet another cargo ship…

A cargo ship was struck by multiple small craft while sailing near the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, UK military officials said.

The ship, which was not immediately identified, was hit right off the coast of Sirik, Iran, just east of the strait, according to the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre.

We are still in the very early stages of this nightmare.

If Iran holds the global economy hostage for an extended period of time, we will see economic chaos that is unlike anything we have ever seen before.

But for now most people in the western world are not taking this crisis seriously enough, because they are convinced that it is just a temporary bump in the road.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

Authored by Deborah Palma via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Economics is not a zero-sum game in which one person’s gain comes at another’s expense; nor is it just about numbers or purposeless statistical aggregates, but conscious human action.

Ludwig von Mises, in his work “Human Action,” explains that individuals act to replace a less satisfactory state of affairs with a more satisfactory one. This process is inherently subjective and teleological, meaning that the values guiding economic activity are rooted in individual choices, and not in physical objects themselves.

Economic calculation serves as the bridge between the subjectivity of human desires and the objective reality of scarce resources. Consider a quantity of steel that could be used to build either a hospital or a factory. Without a system of prices reflecting society’s preferences and the relative scarcity of resources, there would be no way to determine which of these projects creates greater value. Economic calculation, expressed through prices, allows for the comparison of alternatives, whilst directing resources toward their most-valued uses.

Similarly, consider an entrepreneur evaluating whether they should open a bakery. They must decide how much to invest in equipment, rent, labor, and so on. By comparing the costs of these factors with the expected revenue from sales, our entrepreneur can estimate whether the business will create value. If revenues are expected to exceed total costs and taxes, there will be profit.

Profit, therefore, is not merely a financial gain, but evidence that scarce resources have been allocated in ways that better satisfy societal needs, because society has, in an undirected way, decided its needs are satisfied this way. Conversely, losses would indicate that those resources should have been allocated to more valuable uses. Without prices, profits, and losses, the entrepreneur would have no way of knowing whether resources are being used efficiently.

In a complex economy with an advanced division of labor, individuals cannot rely solely on their own direct knowledge to decide how to allocate resources among many possible combinations. They require a common denominator that allows for the comparison of costs and benefits. This denominator is the price, which emerges from voluntary exchanges in the market.

Prices are not arbitrary numbers; they are determined by exchange values arising from the competitive interaction between consumers and producers. Price reflects the relative scarcity of a good in relation to all other possible uses of the same factors of production.

When an entrepreneur invests in new technology or capital infrastructure, they rely on monetary calculation to assess whether the value of the final product will exceed the total value of the inputs consumed. This “surplus” is profit, an unmistakable signal that value has been created by, and for, society. The opposite—loss—signals the waste of scarce resources.

The importance of prices becomes even more evident when we examine historical attempts to artificially control them. Throughout history, governments have sought to replace the market price system with centrally-directed mechanisms, and the results have been consistently disastrous.

One of the earliest examples dates back to the reign of Diocletian in the Roman Empire. In 301 AD, the emperor issued the Edict on Maximum Prices, imposing price ceilings on thousands of goods and services, including basic items such as wheat, meat, and clothing, as well as wages for various professions such as farmers, bakers, craftsmen, and teachers. By fixing prices below their market-clearing levels, the policy reduced the incentive for producers to supply these goods, since many could no longer cover their costs or earn a profit. At the same time, artificially low prices increased consumer demand. This imbalance between reduced supply and increased demand led to widespread shortages. As a result, many goods disappeared from official markets and were instead traded illegally at higher prices, contributing to the expansion of black markets and the disruption of normal productive activity. The policy ultimately proved unsustainable and was abandoned due to its failure.

More recently, similar policies were implemented in Brazil under the government of José Sarney, particularly during the Cruzado Plan of 1986. The freezing of prices, initially celebrated as a solution to inflation, quickly resulted in widespread shortages, empty shelves, and the emergence of parallel markets. Unable to adjust prices, producers reduced supply, exposing the inability of such measures to coordinate a complex economy.

More recent cases reinforce this pattern. In Venezuela, strict price controls implemented over the past decades have contributed to chronic shortages, the collapse of domestic production, and increasing dependence on imports. Basic goods disappeared from store shelves, while informal markets became central to the population’s survival.

These episodes produce the same outcome: scarcity. Prices emerge from decentralized interactions between individuals, reflecting their preferences and the relative scarcity of goods. Once formed, however, they also serve to coordinate economic activity by conveying information that guides producers and consumers in their decisions. When prices cease to reflect the relationship between supply and demand, they lose this informational and coordinating function. Instead of promoting order, price controls generate disorganization, shortages, and waste.

Mises’s thesis was challenged by economists such as Oskar Lange, who proposed a form of “market socialism.” Lange argued that a planning board could simulate the market through a process of trial and error, adjusting prices as surpluses or shortages emerged. However, Mises and his student Friedrich Hayek refuted this view, emphasizing that the problem is not merely one of data processing. The crucial point is that the data required for economic calculation, such as subjective preferences and local knowledge, only come into existence through real market exchanges.

Attempts to treat the economy as a system of simultaneous equations, in which equilibrium can be mathematically determined, ignore the dynamic nature of reality. The market is a continuous process of discovery, not a static state of rest. The economy cannot be managed like a problem of engineering or mechanical physics, because it involves constant change, subjective expectations, and genuine uncertainty, elements that no fixed equation can fully capture.

Under socialism, the abolition of private property in the means of production destroys the very concept of capital as a calculable value. When the state owns all higher-order goods (machines, land, and raw materials), there are no exchanges between private owners for these items. Consequently, there are no market prices for capital goods. Without these prices, the central planner, no matter how well-intentioned, lacks the necessary information to determine whether they are creating wealth or merely consuming the nation’s capital.

From the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)

Utah-based defense tech firm Hypercraft has unveiled a 300 hp diesel-hybrid-electric unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) that can power directed-energy weapons, charge drones, and sustain a forward command post, all autonomously.

Defense Blog’s Dylan Malyasov reports that Hypercraft’s Razorback UGV can travel 280 miles on a single charge, reach speeds of 60 mph, and export 38 kilowatts of power, which is enough to power laser weapons and recharge drones.

Razorback is being positioned as a critical energy source for forward operating units that need power for drones, electronic warfare, ISR, counter-UAS systems, and communications. The UGV is also designed to move supplies and support infrastructure on the modern battlefield.

The role of UGVs on the battlefield is still being shaped in real time by the Russia-Ukraine war, where robots, whether ground bots or drones, are increasingly removing infantrymen from harm’s way as the grinding fight evolves into a war of attrition fought by machines.

The wars across Eurasia, from Ukraine-Russia to the U.S.-Iran conflict, have validated a new style of warfare in which cheap ground robots and drones increasingly operate in ‘no man’s land’ (front lines). The next phase is already coming: humanoid systems entering the battlespace as militaries look to push more machines, not infantrymen, into the kill zone.

Authored by Aaron Gifford via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

New organized labor reforms signed into law by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last week require a majority of members to be present for teachers union certification or recertification votes, increase fines for illegal strikes, and establish merit-based pay for educators.

In Idaho, after July 1, teachers unions will be prohibited from collecting dues directly from members’ paychecks, using paid time off for union activities, or recruiting new members during school hours.

A similar law in Arizona, which also bans teacher strikes and prohibits organized labor members from using any school property—even email addresses—for union activities, will be decided on by voters in the November election.

“They can’t consume taxpayer-funded resources during the school day,” said Rusty Brown, special projects director for the Freedom Foundation policy organization, which assisted state legislators with those measures and helps teachers opt out of union membership.

These ideas are expected to gain ground throughout the nation in the months and years ahead, Brown told The Epoch Times.

Individually, the Freedom Foundation’s Teacher Freedom Alliance has so far helped more than 272,535 teachers opt out of union membership, including more than 50,000 in 2025 alone, according to data provided to The Epoch Times. This includes educators in red and blue states.

At the state level, Oklahoma lawmakers have advanced legislation that would allow teachers to withdraw from a union at any time and would terminate “closed shop” provisions that prevent teachers from accessing alternative labor or professional organizations, such as the Teacher Freedom Alliance.

Brown calls this an “equal access and an end to a monopoly and captive audience bill.” Alternative organizations can offer teacher liability insurance and other benefits at a fraction of the price that traditional unions charge, he said.

Brown said he believes that the legislation could pass before Oklahoma’s session ends later this month, but the member withdrawal proposal probably won’t go through this session.

Alabama state lawmakers will consider legislation similar to Oklahoma’s next session, he said.

Maxford Nelsen, Freedom Foundation’s director of research and government affairs, said several factors prompted growing interest in pushing back against teachers unions. Members do not like that dues are automatically deducted from their paychecks. There is increasing animosity toward “zombie unions,” in which a limited number of members are informed or allowed to vote on matters. Labor organizations also engage in practices that create very narrow windows and bureaucratic hurdles for terminating membership.

“That’s the last thing they want to think about during their summer vacation,” Nelsen told The Epoch Times, citing one union’s requirement in which opt-outs were limited to the last 10 days of July.

Perhaps the most contentious issue, Nelson said, is how teachers union dues are spent. A review of the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers unions’ websites shows that both heavily favor Democrats and promote transgender ideology; diversity, equity, and inclusion practices; special protections for illegal immigrants; anti-school choice measures; and other left-leaning policies.

“Hundreds of millions of dollars are flowing into this progressive apparatus,” Nelson said.

A recent report from Defending Education, a conservative policy center, states that teachers unions at the local, state, and national levels have spent more than $1 billion on “far-left political causes” unrelated to collective bargaining since 2015. This includes school board races, political action committees, and campaigns against school choice.

“Given the outsized role that unions have played in the education system over the past 50 years, greater transparency on union spending is absolutely critical so that policymakers and teachers themselves can make informed decisions about the role that these entities should—or should not—play in the future,” Defending Education President Nicole Neily said in an April 27 statement.

The Epoch Times reached out to the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers unions for comment.

In response to prior Florida legislation that prohibited teachers unions from deducting dues directly from paychecks, the Florida Education Association contracted with a company to withdraw dues from members’ bank accounts after their paychecks are deposited.

“This type of ‘paycheck deception’ legislation is nothing new and has been wielded across the country to weaken unions and roll back working conditions,” the Florida Education Association stated on its website. “It’s no secret that this legislation is designed to diminish our collective voice.”

The Idaho Education Association teachers union implemented a similar system. It also denounced Idaho Gov. Brad Little for refusing to veto the legislation.

“Idaho’s students and the dedicated professionals who teach them will be worse off because of his choice,” the union’s president, Layne McInelly, said in an April 10 statement. “They deserve better.”

The Freedom Foundation is scrutinizing public organized labor groups across the nation, not just teachers unions. In Oregon, it recently submitted a complaint to the state employment relations board on behalf of a union member who said dues were deducted from his paycheck without his authorization. He asked for a refund and requested to opt out of the union, only to be told that the window to do so is Aug. 8 through Sept. 9, according to documentation provided to The Epoch Times.

Nelsen did not work on that case but said this type of practice by unions is common in an era of direct deposits and withdrawals and digital forms.

“There are no mechanisms in place to verify that the individual workers have authorized the form, let alone understand it,” he said.

While the digital US economy, if proxied through the earnings growth and stock prices of AI companies and their “picks and shovels” support ecosystem, has never been stronger, the traditional US consumer, responsible for 70% of US GDP, has rarely been more depressed than right now (and according to the latest University of Michigan sentiment survey, Americans have literally never been more pessimistic). 

That was the take home message from the latest earnings week, when various executives across retail, restaurants and packaged goods indicated they are increasingly worried about US shoppers – especially those from the” lower half” of the K-shaped economy – with tighter budgets amid surging gas prices caused by the Iran war, and consumer electronics prices through the roof thanks to record memory chip prices.

“They’re literally running out of money at the end of the month,” Kraft Heinz CEO Steve Cahillane said in an interview with the WSJ . “We’re seeing negative cash flows in the lower-income brackets where they’re dipping into savings.” Sure enough, last week we showed that as a result of personal spending growth far outpacing personal income…

… the personal savings rate has collapsed to a 3 year low.

This underscores a remarkable trend: since the pandemic, Americans have continued to spend at surprising levels despite high inflation, keeping the US economy growing and thwarting recession fears, with much of the spending growth fueled by credit card debt, with February’s $10BN+ increase in credit card debt the highest since February 2024.

But soaring fuel costs might be the straw that breaks the overlevered camel’s back: “The war in Iran amplified consumer concerns about the cost of living,” Whirlpool. CEO Marc Bitzer said Thursday on a call with analysts. The maker of washers and dryers said it’s counting on purchases picking up after a harsh US winter slowed shopping, but the war caused a collapse in consumer sentiment. The company described the resulting 15% hit to industry demand as similar to the global financial crisis in the aughts. In other words a depression.

In fast food, McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said confidence among shoppers isn’t improving and may be getting worse. The company cited “heightened anxiety” and gas prices that disproportionately impact low-income consumers.

Sit-down dining is also taking a hit. “Our price-sensitive, more value-oriented guests seem to be staying home a bit more,” Dine Brands CEO John Peyton said on an earnings call this week. The company, which owns the Applebee’s and IHOP chains, said it hasn’t seen a similar pullback in other income levels.

Meanwhile, eyewear retailer Warby Parker  said younger shoppers are feeling the pinch from higher-than-usual unemployment and student debt bills.

Gas prices, now at $4.56 a gallon on average, are at their highest levels since July 2022, according to data from the American Automobile Association. As shoppers put more of their income toward fuel, they have less money for discretionary spending like eating out. Enlarged tax refunds helped blunt some of the impact, but sentiment has still soured to a record low.

Americans are putting less away as they try to keep up, with the savings rate dropping in March to the lowest in three years. Meanwhile, economists warn the disruptions from the war in Iran could lead to higher prices for a range of goods over time, including groceries, putting even more pressure on low-income households and draining what little savings are left. 

Low-income consumers have already cut back on real gasoline consumption to try to limit costs, according to recent research published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

In the near term, Americans can draw down savings or tap credit cards, but the longer gas prices stay high, the more consumers will change their spending patterns to balance their budgets, said Bill Adams, chief economist at Comerica Bank.

Planet Fitness on Thursday fell the most on record after cutting its full-year outlook on weaker-than-expected member signups during the typically busy New Year period.

The gym chain also said it paused the national rollout of a price increase to its top-tier membership, with CEO Colleen Keating making it clear why that decision was made. “The consumer and economic backdrop have shifted,” she said.

Authored by Jonathan Turley via jonathanturley.org,

“Eff around and find out”: That taunt from Hakeem Jeffries celebrating Virginia’s gerrymander did not age well.

On Friday, the House minority leader found out that Virginia’s Supreme Court was not quite as gleeful as he about Democrats’ attempt to virtually eliminate Republican representation in the purple state.

The court just cooked the party’s infamous lobster, a district over 100 miles long that was designed to help devour the GOP’s slender majority in the House of Representatives.

It also cooked the ambitions of Gov. Abigail Spanberger and the Democratic establishment, which tossed aside any pretense of principle in a raw political gambit.

The resulting faceplant is nothing short of legendary: Spanberger’s Democrats have succeeded in alienating half of the state.

For the governor, the court’s decision was particularly embarrassing.

Before assuming power, Spanberger denounced gerrymandering as “detrimental to our democracy and weakens the individual voices that form our electorates.”

She ran as a moderate, but Spanberger immediately turned sharply left once in office and called for the most extreme gerrymander in the nation.

The court found that effort was not only unconstitutional, but “wholly unprecedented in Virginia’s history.”

It characterized the state’s position as “a story of the tail wagging the dog that has no tail.”

While some of us had previously expressed skepticism over the rushed effort to circumvent the state constitution, the media almost exclusively relied on liberal experts who predicted the new districts would be upheld.

It was a calculated risk for Democrats, who have now burned their bridges with Virginia conservative and Republican voters.

As Winston Churchill said, “Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.”

Exhilarating and unforgettable: In a purple state where politicians often require crossover votes to prevail, the redistricting push was not just partisan but personal for voters.

National Democrats will soon “find out” whether Jeffries was right to prematurely celebrate a victory that seemed to secure his anticipated elevation to Speaker of the House.

The party is facing a potentially catastrophic reversal of fortune.

When Democrats declared a gerrymandering war, some of us warned that the party, with its already heavily gerrymandered blue states, had far more to lose than the GOP did.

It was particularly comical when Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey pledged to join the redistricting fray, even though her state is so badly gerrymandered that it’s elected zero Republicans to the House since the 1990s.

Virginia, a state long opposed to gerrymandering, has been considered the fairest state in the country, with a distribution of congressional seats that closely matches its partisan divide.

Once Spanberger sought to eradicate Republican representation, total war broke out — and now red states like Florida and Tennessee have moved forward with their own redistricting.

On top of the fact that GOP states have more room for partisan gerrymandering, the Virginia Supreme Court decision comes on the heels of the US Supreme Court’s ban on racial gerrymandering.

That means a dozen or more Democratic districts could now be deemed unconstitutional — and Louisiana and Mississippi are moving to redistrict in line with the Supreme Court’s decision.

The result could be a dramatic shift in districts favoring the GOP.

To make matters worse for the Democratic Party, a new census in 2030 will correct the mistakes that erroneously awarded them multiple districts after the 2020 census.

Those corrections, and the ongoing exodus from high-tax blue states to booming red ones, could translate into even more congressional gains for the GOP.

That prospect of a political apocalypse has Democratic strategists pushing for radical changes in Washington before it’s too late.

Top priority: packing the Supreme Court as soon as they retake power.

As Virginia has shown, an independent court can unravel the best-laid plans.

Democratic politicians, pundits and professors have been openly pushing for expanding the high court to 13 members with four new liberal additions, in order to rubber-stamp the radical changes needed to keep the party in power.

James Carville recently told Democratic politicians that they have no choice but to pack the court, declaring “F–k it . . . Just do it.”

He suggested, however, that they might not want to tell the voters.

“Don’t run on it. Don’t talk about it,” he said. “Just do it.”

Last week, Jeffries declared the Supreme Court “illegitimate” as he blasted its ban on racial gerrymandering.

After the Virginia court’s ruling, the frustrated Democratic establishment is ever more likely to echo him — and to go beyond.

Many Democrats are now “all in” with this radical agenda.

With the courts declaring their redistricting efforts unconstitutional, it is the constitutional system itself that will now have to go.

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

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

The Southern Poverty Law Center’s leader entered a not guilty plea in federal court this week, desperately fighting charges that the organization defrauded its donors by secretly funneling more than $3 million to the very white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups it claimed to oppose.

The SPLC was forced to respond to an 11-count indictment from the Trump DOJ, including six counts of wire fraud, four counts of bank fraud and false statements, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. 

Commentators are labelling the case one of the biggest scams ever to be exposed.

🚨 UPDATE: The Southern Poverty Law Center leader frantically pleads NOT GUILTY after they were exposed funding millions to white supremacists and neo-nazis

SHUT IT DOWN!

– 6 counts of wire fraud
– 4 counts of bank fraud and false statements
– 1 count of conspiracy to commit… pic.twitter.com/bfHORfLgTG

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) May 9, 2026

The SPLC is accused of making payments amounting to over $1 million to a National Alliance affiliate, more than $300,000 to an Aryan Nations affiliate, $270,000 to a “Unite the Right” member, $140,000 to a former National Alliance chairman, $73,000 to former KKK members, and $19,000 to an American Front president and felon.

The court appearance comes just weeks after the Trump DOJ’s indictment exposed the scheme. 

The DOJ alleges the SPLC used a now-defunct informant program as cover. Donors were never told their money was going to actual extremists through shell companies, sham accounts, and prepaid cards between 2014 and 2023. 

Instead of dismantling hate groups, the organization allegedly propped them up—manufacturing the very threats it used to justify its existence and fundraising.

SPLC interim president and CEO Bryan Fair issued a statement after the arraignment: “The charges against the SPLC are provably wrong; they are based on inaccurate facts and a misapplication of law. Our informant program was successful in accomplishing its purposes: Threats and attacks were prevented, criminal activity was stopped, and information was gathered to dismantle the efforts of hate and extremist groups.”

The statement continued, “There is no question that the information the SPLC shared with law enforcement saved lives. The SPLC will continue to fight white supremacy and various forms of injustice in our mission to build a democracy where we can all live and thrive. We will continue that mission no matter what.”20

Fair’s team also filed court documents claiming the indictment “seeks to criminalize some of the very investigative tools and programs that the SPLC has used for decades.”

Yet the numbers don’t lie. Over $3 million allegedly flowed directly to leaders and organizers of the racist groups the SPLC publicly condemned. Trial is set to begin in October.

This plea comes as no surprise to those who have watched the SPLC’s pattern. Long accused of inflating “hate group” lists to smear mainstream conservatives, the organization now stands accused in federal court of the very extremism it claims to fight. The Trump administration’s Justice Department has made clear it will not tolerate the scam.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche previously stated at the indictment announcement: “The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence. Using donor money to allegedly profit off Klansmen cannot go unchecked. This Department of Justice will hold the SPLC and every other fraudulent organization operating with the same deceptive playbook accountable. No entity is above the law.”

FBI Director Kash Patel added: “The SPLC allegedly engaged in a massive fraud operation to deceive their donors, enrich themselves, and hide their deceptive operations from the public. They lied to their donors, vowing to dismantle violent extremist groups, and actually turned around and paid the leaders of these very extremist groups—even utilizing the funds to have these groups facilitate the commission of state and federal crimes. That is illegal—and this is an ongoing investigation against all individuals involved.”

GOP representative Andy Ogles has also declared the SPLC “absolutely culpable” in the assassination of Charlie Kirk, linking the group’s inflammatory labeling of conservatives to real-world violence:

The SPLC’s frantic not-guilty plea changes nothing. The evidence is in the indictment, the payment records, and now the courtroom itself. While the organization vows to fight on and continue its “mission,” Americans can see the truth: a so-called watchdog that funded the wolves it claimed to hunt.

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.

North Korea just casually revised its constitution to automatically launch a nuclear strike if leader Kim Jong Un is assassinated, or if the country’s nuclear command-and-control system is placed in danger by hostile forces’ attacks. 

The change was adopted during the first session of the 15th Supreme People’s Assembly in Pyongyang on March 22 and was disclosed this week by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, which briefed senior officials on the details.

The updated Article 3 of North Korea’s nuclear policy law states: “If the command-and-control system over the state’s nuclear forces is placed in danger by hostile forces’ attacks … a nuclear strike shall be launched automatically and immediately.”

South Korean intelligence officials said the revision codifies procedures for retaliatory nuclear attacks in the event that Kim is killed or incapacitated during an attack, Reuters reports.

The policy update comes months after the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior Iranian officials in U.S.-backed Israeli strikes in February 2026. Analysts have described those operations as a “wake-up call” for Pyongyang, highlighting the effectiveness of leadership-targeted strikes.

Professor Andrei Lankov of Kookmin University in Seoul told The Telegraph that the constitutional emphasis gives added weight to what may have been existing policy: “This may have been policy before, but it has added emphasis now it has been enshrined in the constitution. Iran was the wake-up call.”

The nuclear policy revision was adopted alongside broader changes to North Korea’s constitution, also passed in March and revealed earlier this week. Those amendments remove all references to unification with South Korea, add an explicit territorial clause defining the country’s borders (including with the Republic of Korea to the south), and formally state that command authority over nuclear forces rests with Kim Jong Un as chairman of the State Affairs Commission.

North Korea has not issued an official response to the reports. South Korea’s government has said it remains committed to its policy of peaceful coexistence on the Korean Peninsula and will review the implications of the changes.

The moves come as North Korea continues to expand its nuclear and missile capabilities, including plans to deploy new long-range artillery systems near the border with South Korea.

Authored by J.B. Shurk via American Thinker,

Freedom exists in the absence of government control.  We are free when we are able to worship, speak, write, make a living, and protect our families and property without fear that government agents will punish us for our actions.  America’s Founding Fathers embraced an expansive view of personal liberty that recognizes the inherent right of each person to do as he sees fit, so long as that person refrains from infringing upon the liberties of another.

Right away, then, freedom comes with some restraint.  If we each lived alone on our own island, no-one’s liberty but our own would matter.  When we live within a society, our freedom comes with certain encumbrances – namely, an obligation not to poach the freedom of others.  There is, in other words, a moral consideration that necessarily accompanies the exercise of freedom.  Do my actions cause someone else harm?  Does the expression of my will unfairly restrict the expression of another?  Do my decisions unjustly deny someone else’s liberty?

Harm…fairness…justice – these are words essential to every person’s moral reasoning.  They are subjects that are dissected and analyzed throughout the Bible.  Because our common law has evolved from a Biblical worldview, our legal system is rooted in Judeo-Christian morality.  Therefore, an American who tries earnestly to be a good Christian is also likely acting within the boundaries of American law.  

Taken together, freedom, moral restraint, and legal punishment operate in concert within any society.  To the extent that a member of society can reasonably govern himself, State-implemented punishment becomes unnecessary.  When members of society abandon self-control and pursue personal liberty recklessly or in ways that threaten the liberty of others, State-implemented punishment steps in to provide legal constraints where moral restraint proved ineffective.

Thus, there is a natural relationship among personal freedom, moral conscience, and State force.  The more that people pursue their freedom in moral and just ways, the more irrelevant the State becomes.  A society whose people are individually capable of governing themselves has no need for the machinery of government.  The policing of a population’s legal obligations and the application of State-enforced punishments become not only redundant but also unjust infringements upon personal liberty.

It is no coincidence that free societies exist where there is a high degree of mutual trust among people.  If a shop owner trusts that customers will not steal, then businesses can thrive without a government police force monitoring private transactions.  If customers trust that manufacturers will refrain from making harmful products, then commerce can thrive without the need for government regulatory agencies.  If members of society recognize that the fruits of an individual’s labor belong to that person, then property rights are respected without the need for courts and lawsuits.  If public debate, dissent, and personal expression are highly valued, then there is no need for government agents to police words and ideas as “hate speech,” “harmful speech,” or “disinformation.”

High-trust societies are natural incubators of freedom.  Accordingly, fostering trust among members of society maximizes personal liberty.  How do societies cultivate trust?  In a word: culture.  

Culture is that collection of customs, mores, attitudes, traditions, beliefs, habits, language, and ways of life that bind a people together.  Culture is an unwritten code of conduct passed from one generation to the next.  Culture is the essential glue that allows common members of society to move in the same direction without any obvious director.  Societies with strong cultures do not need external police forces because members of society “police” themselves.  

When that culture includes a profound respect for personal freedom, private property, religious liberty, free expression, and self-defense, the mutual trust that exists among citizens naturally secures the blessings of liberty.  It is no accident that an American, Thomas Jefferson, wrote the Declaration of Independence two hundred and fifty years ago.  It is no accident that representatives from America’s original thirteen colonies devised together a Constitution that both greatly limits the powers of government and explicitly protects the inalienable rights of Americans.  It is no accident that Americans’ respect for private property transformed an unsettled continent into the wealthiest, most innovative, and most influential country in the world.  A moral people committed to personal freedom can build, do, and accomplish anything.  A moral people committed to self-government can remake the entire world.

It is not difficult to see why the New World’s values have always threatened the Old World’s grip on global power.  In a world where intelligence, hard work, and dedication matter more than titles of nobility and unearned inheritance, the common man is capable of generating wealth without a feudal lord’s permission.  In a world where free speech and freedom of assembly are cherished political virtues, the common man is capable of forming opinions without the help of so-called “elites.”  In a world where self-defense and private ownership of firearms go hand in glove with self-expression and private property, the common man is master of his castle and servant to none.  

Globalism’s “elites” have been pushing the idea of a “New World Order” for decades.  But it is important to remember that when Americans declared their independence from the British Empire, they established a “New World” order that has continued to the present day.  Two hundred and fifty years after the Declaration of Independence, the United States is the wealthiest, strongest, and most robust nation that has ever existed.  It has 4% of the world’s population but influences every part of the globe.  When Old Europe pushes for a “New World Order,” old aristocrats are desperate to return to the social conditions that existed prior to 1776.  Globalists want the “Old World Order” rebranded as something new.

Ask yourself how you might go about destroying America’s “New World” order, so that the Old World’s feudal system can return.  If you want to dismantle Americans’ economic and political freedoms, then you need to wreck Americans’ mutual trust.  If you want to turn Americans against each other, then you need to ruin the foundations of their shared culture.  In order to weaken the bonds of culture, you must first discourage self-restraint.  By discouraging self-restraint, you encourage demands for government control.  By empowering the State, you diminish the sphere of personal freedom.  When the people have been denied freedom for long enough, they forget what it means to be free.  Eventually, when the government offers “free” welfare in exchange for obedience, the descendants of free people accept their new chains.  They accept total government control.  They accept slavery.

Flooding Western countries with foreign immigrants has never been about compassion.  Globalists use mass migration to destroy any semblance of social trust.  “Multiculturalism” has nothing to do with fostering civic peace.  Globalists “divide and conquer” populations in order to more easily rule over the dismembered parts.  Anti-Christian programs do not exist to protect “diverse” points of view.  Globalists attack Christians because Christian virtue cultivates the moral restraint necessary for freedom to thrive.  

For globalists, freedom is the enemy.  Government control is their greatest friend.  You cannot destroy the former and promote the latter until the natural bonds of society are first broken.  Totalitarianism never arrives by decree.  It comes by request.  In the two hundred and fiftieth year of America’s “New World” order, remember this: Our freedom is always under attack.  Be vigilant and defend it.

Summary

• Trump calls Iran’s peace proposal response “totally unacceptable”

• Iran warns of ‘decisive, immediate’ response to British or French warships approaching Hormuz Strait.

• Iran responds Sunday to US peace proposal, finally submitting something official to Pakistan. Details not initially disclosed. Trump TS: Iran “playing games with the United States.”

• IRGC new warning: will unleash “heavy attack” on US bases in region if more Hormuz aggression persists.

*  *  *

Trump Says Iran Response “Totally Unacceptable”

President Trump has just issued a statement on his TruthSocial feed rejecting ‘unacceptable’ Iranian proposal for ending war.

“I have just read the response from Iran’s so-called “Representatives.”

I don’t like it — TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!

Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

Iran offered to transfer some of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium to a third country, but rejected the idea of dismantling its nuclear facilities, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Iran disputed the report, according to Iran’s semi-official news agency Tasnim.

And with the fragile ceasefire still holding for now, the odds of a peace deal by the end of May have plummeted.

Iran: We’ll Immediately Strike French & British if they Approach Strait

Iran has newly warned of “a decisive and immediate response” to any deployment of European military vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, and has further declared that the Islamic Republic alone controls security in the strategic waterway. Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi issued the warning Sunday in a post on X after France and Britain announced plans to deploy warships to the region.

“Whether in times of war or peace, only the Islamic Republic of Iran can establish security in this strait and will not allow any country to interfere in such matters,” he said.

Gharibabadi said France plans to deploy its flagship aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, to the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, while Britain plans to send a warship to the area under the stated goal of protecting freedom of navigation. Already these Western allied assets are moving through the Suez Canal as of days ago.

“Any deployment and stationing of extra-regional destroyers around the Strait of Hormuz, under the pretext of protecting shipping, is nothing but an escalation of the crisis, the militarization of a vital waterway, and an attempt to cover up the true root of insecurity in the region,” he stated.

Iranian lawmaker Ebrahim Rezaei says Tehran’s “restraint is over” and any aggression against Iranian vessels will be met with a heavy and decisive Iranian response against American vessels and bases.

🔴LIVE updates: https://t.co/4wl9kYw8g4 pic.twitter.com/QckEP0allp

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) May 10, 2026

But France and Britain have previously sought to clarify that their warships will remain largely in a background support role when compared to the US naval blockade in the Gulf of Oman region. Their ships would only directly join Persian Gulf operations only once the war ended, according to reports. 

Trump: Iran is Playing Games With the United States

New Sunday Truth Social statement soon on the heels of Tehran submitting its response to the US peace proposal, via Pakistan:

Trump said Iran had been “playing games with the United States, and the rest of the world, for 47 years,” adding that it had been “laughing at our new GREAT AGAIN country,” but stressed that “they will be laughing no longer!”

Iran Finally Responds To US

After days of waiting, Iran has submitted its response to the latest US peace proposal to mediator Pakistan, despite the recent flare-up in renewed exchanges of fire in the contested Strait of Hormuz this past week.

“Iran has submitted its response to the latest US proposal to end 10 weeks of war, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported on Sunday, without providing any further details,” Bloomberg confirms in a fresh headline. “Tehran hasn’t yet given any public indication it would accept President Donald Trump’s plan that stipulates Iran permits passage through the Strait of Hormuz and Washington ends its blockade on Iranian ports in the next month.”

IRAN REPLY TO US PROPOSAL INCLUDES ENDING WAR ON ALL FRONTS: TV

This comes as Qatar’s PM has warned Iran that using the Strait of Hormuz as a pressure card, to choke the global economy, “would only lead to deepening the crisis” – and amid reports there could still be sporadic attacks on Gulf countries like the UAE. According to more of the limited details:

Sources in both camps have told Reuters the latest peace efforts are aimed at a temporary memorandum of understanding to halt the war and allow traffic through the Strait of Hormuz while they discuss a fuller deal, which would have to address intractable disputes such as Iran’s nuclear program.

The latest from Iran’s president:

President Trump told Fox News days ago, “They want to make a deal. We’ve had very good talks over the last 24 hours, and it’s very possible that we’ll make a deal.” He had said if this happens “it’ll be over quickly” and oil prices will plummet.

IRGC Fresh Warning on US Bases

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has warned any attack on Iranian oil tankers and commercial ships will be met with assaults on US bases and “enemy ships” in the region, Al Jazeera reports.

“Warning! Any aggression against the oil tankers and commercial vessels of the Islamic Republic of Iran will be met with a heavy attack on one of the American centers in the region and the enemy’s ships,” the IRGC Navy said in the statement.

“Iran will no longer allow passages that are harmful to its interests”

Brigadier General Akrami Nia, the spokesman of the Iranian army, says countries that comply with US sanctions against Iran will surely have problems crossing the Strait of Hormuz. pic.twitter.com/6EZ6NWsZse

— Press TV 🔻 (@PressTV) May 10, 2026

Tehran is accusing the US side of severely violating the ceasefire earlier this week, by firing on and disabling two Iranian-flagged tankers trying to reach Iranian ports. State media reviewed of these hostile incidents:

In a statement, the spokesman for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said the “aggressive, terrorist and marauding US military” had targeted an Iranian oil tanker sailing from Iran’s coastal waters near Jask toward the Strait of Hormuz, as well as another vessel entering the strategic waterway near the UAE port of Fujairah.

The spokesman also said civilian areas along the coasts of Bandar Khamir, Sirik and Qeshm Island came under aerial attacks carried out “with the cooperation of some regional countries.”

The IRGC further said it will respond “powerfully and without the slightest hesitation” to any aggression or attack. Indeed there are reports that during the past week’s skirmishes Iran fired on three US warships seeking to exit waters of Iran’s coast.

Ayatollah Meets With Military Commander

We reported earlier that in an official update Iran said that Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei had been ‘moderately injured’ but is recovering, and he had met with the president of the Islamic Republic. On Sunday he also met with a top military commader, per state Mehr, which writes: “In a meeting with Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei, Commander of Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters Major General Ali Abdollahi presented a comprehensive report on the preparedness of the powerful Armed Forces of the country to confront enemies’ strategic mistake.”

According to more of the state readout:

Abdollahi said “all fighters of Islam” possess high readiness in terms of morale, defensive and offensive preparedness, strategic plans, and the equipment and weaponry required to confront hostile actions by the “American-Zionist enemies.”

He warned that if the enemies commit any “strategic mistake, aggression, or invasion,” Iranian forces would respond “swiftly, intensely, and powerfully.”

The commander also assured the Leader that the armed forces would, “with full obedience” to his orders, defend “the ideals of the Islamic Revolution, our beloved land Iran, sovereignty, national interests, and the brave Iranian nation until the last breath and to the death.”

During the meeting, Ayatollah Khamenei praised the country’s armed forces and issued new directives for continuing action and confronting enemies decisively following the 40-day US-Israeli war against the country.

The Wall Street Journal wrote Saturday of the Ayatollah, “A government official claimed Khamenei, who hasn’t been seen in public since that attack, is now in good health.” However, there’s still a lot of speculation on his role in national decision-making, and over whether he will ever make a public appearance.