Google, the owners of YouTube, has removed a channel on the platform belonging to a pro-Iran group producing Lego-themed videos mocking Donald Trump.
“Upon review, we’ve terminated the channel for violating our Spam, deceptive practices and scams policies,” a YouTube spokesperson told Middle East Eye. “YouTube doesn’t allow spam, scams, or other deceptive practices that take advantage of the YouTube community.”
Explosive Media’s content largely consists of animations ridiculing the US war effort against Iran and poking fun at the US president.
YouTube did not specify how the channel had violated its policies, but the company has previously been described as being “aligned with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps”.
One of the group’s videos depicts Trump hurling a chair at US military figures, while Iranian generals press a red button with the label “Back to the Stone Age,” referencing a threat made by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. Another depicts Trump with a flaming bottom, holding a sign that reads: “VICTORY! I am a loser.”
A number of videos reference Shia Islamic mythology, including depictions of Hussein ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, who is a key symbol of resistance and spiritual leadership for Shia Muslims.
Writing on X, Explosive Media hit out at Google for suspending its channel, saying it had been done because its content was “violent”. It wrote: “Seriously! Are our LEGO-style animations actually violent?”
Explosive Media, known in Persian as Akhbar Enfejari, has denied it is backed by the Iranian government and its videos have reached millions of viewers across a range of social media platforms.
Its most recent video prior to being suspended appeared to show Trump carrying out the war in Iran to distract from the Epstein files and at Israel’s behest.
It also implied that Epstein and his associates had engaged in cannibalism, for which there is no evidence. An earlier video referenced other victims of US violence through history, including Native Americans, the Vietnamese and the children of Gaza, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It also quoted Malcolm X.
Content war
Social media has increasingly become a major platform for the war of words between the US, Israel, Iran and their various supporters and opponents.
Trump’s White House has also put out largely AI-generated imagery and videos that aggrandize the president and project American power. Earlier on Monday, Trump posted an image on his Truth Social network that appeared to present him as Jesus Christ.
Much of it will be lost on Iranians, however, as they are currently under the longest internet blackout in history, according to monitoring group NetBlocks.
The Islamic Republic regularly blocks internet access in Iran during periods of unrest. The government says the move is aimed at countering misinformation, but critics say it provides cover for violent state crackdowns. Some have been able to circumvent the block using alternative methods such as the Starlink satellite, while government allies have been granted exceptions.
Speaking to the BBC, the head of Explosive Media, who referred to himself as “Mr Explosive”, said his team consisted of fewer than 10 people and that the Iranian government was a “customer” of his company.
“They’re holed up in a bank demanding three large pizzas, a helicopter, and a personal phone call from Sydney Sweeney…”
– Greg Gutfeld on Iran’s negotiating position
The Russians have a phrase for it: negotiation-incapable (ne peregovorosposobny).
That is what the Iran delegation demonstrated during a long day of talks with the US team over the weekend in Islamabad. What part of “no nukes” didn’t they understand? All of it, apparently. The corollary question on the table — arguably more pressing for Iran — was: how much more punishment are you willing to suffer to sustain your dream of atomic bombs? You have no defenses left, no control of your air-space. Do you just want to sit in the dark for the next hundred years?
Such is the obduracy of the Shia death cult. They have no friends left in the world. Russia, you think? Not really. That relationship was pegged to geopolitical dynamics that are dead and gone. Russia is much better off normalizing relations with the USA so we can both be safe and secure in our spheres of influence. Europe is busy committing suicide. In this situation, China is little more than Iran’s very unhappy customer. Maybe Uncle Xi Pooh Bear can try talking some sense to whoever is left in-charge at the IRGC. . . give up your lunatic bomb dreams and just re-open the dingdang gas station! Pretty Please!
Anyway, why interfere with US operations in Hormuz? The USA is wresting control of the Persian Gulf from these maniacs who can’t be trusted to just stay open for business. Japan, the two Koreas, Indochina, India, also have to stand by with mounting frustration as these jihad-happy idiots starve Asia’s economies. A change in Iran’s attitude can’t happen soon enough and Mr. Trump is on the case. The blockade starts at 10a.m. today, Monday. Whatever’s left of Iran’s revenue stream goes out the window. Maybe they lob some rockets and drones at our ships. Maybe they hit something, maybe not. We’ll see where they launch from and that will be the end of X-number of remaining launch sites. Then there are the bridges, the power plants. FAFO mofos.
About those 1000 pounds of 60-percent enriched uranium (their precious bomb fixings)… You must imagine that it is either buried deeply under the rubble of Fordoz and Isfahan, or maybe distributed in many secret hidey-holes all over the place… or perhaps sitting booby-trapped somewhere.
In short, there are many reasons to think that no special forces operation will be able to get at it.
So, the only other conclusion is that Iran must be driven to a place where they will surrender the stuff willingly themselves.
That could be a harsh place.
While you stay tuned to events there, plenty more developments break elsewhere in this raucous world.
Viktor Orban was voted out in Hungary. How did that happen? Maybe genuine public sentiment (sixteen years of Viktor O enough?). Maybe a whole lot of Soros money involved, plus EU backstage ballot shenanigans. Mr. Orban conceded graciously in any case, patriot that he is. Expect a blizzard of narratives to follow.
The truth will be hard to sort out. And it remains to be seen whether the new president, Peter Magyar, will throw open Hungary’s borders, hoist the pride flags, and give up importing Russian oil and natgas — all per the EU’s policy regime.
Here in the homieland, the fabulously loathsome Rep. Eric Swalwell, lover of Fang-Fang and accused multiple rapist of his office girls, shameless serial liar, and all-around uber jerk-off, has lost his shot at bringing additional ruin as governor to the forlorn state of California.
Might even be ejected from his seat in Congress. Oh, happy day!
Rumored to be released this week by the House Intelligence Committee: the transcript of former Intel Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson’s testimony about events that led to Impeachment #1 of Donald Trump in 2019.
The transcript has been locked away in a vault since October, 2019. Tulsi Gabbard rooted it out. The shadowy Atkinson played a crucial role in positioning “whistleblower” Eric Ciaramella to spark off charges of the “Ukraine quid pro quo” phone call against the president. Ciaramella was then a CIA agent planted in the National Security Council. He may have been involved earlier in co-authoring the fake Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) that kicked off the RussiaGate hoax in 2017. For Impeachment #1 Atkinson reportedly changed the whistleblower rules to allow Ciaramella to convey second-hand hearsay from sketchy NSC member Col. Alexander Vindman to Rep. Adam Schiff, then chairman of the House Intel Committee. The chain of actions suggests the impeachment was a CIA setup.
The CIA director at the time was Avril Haines.
Ms. Haines ran the London CIA field office during the period when former MI6 agent Christopher Steele was concocting the notorious Steele Dossier at the center of RussiaGate.
It has long been suspected that RussiaGate was a joint CIA / MI6 operation.
Isn’t it about time that Avril Haines sat for a deposition in these various matters?
It might be nice to know if our main Intel Agency was involved in serial schemes to overthrow the US government.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.
Even a 4–5% loss in global energy supply could translate into a comparable drop in economic activity due to energy’s central role in all production.
Disruptions in oil and LNG flows through the Strait of Hormuz are already removing a significant share of global energy, with cascading impacts across industries.
Rising energy costs trigger widespread knock-on effects—from food and travel to semiconductors—potentially leading to a severe global recession.
A priest, an engineer, and an economist are stranded on a desert island. The first order of business is to get some food. The priest suggests that they all pray. The practical-minded engineer suggests that the three men make a net to catch some fish. But where will they find the necessary materials? The priest and the engineer turn to the economist and ask him if he has any ideas. The economist replies, “Assume a fish.”
This well-worn economist joke summarizes one of the chief flaws in contemporary economic theory.
That theory almost completely ignores the role of physical resources, assuming they will always be available in the quantities we need at prices we can afford at the time we need them. When those resources aren’t available, that theory begrudgingly accepts that there will be some damage to economic activity, but tends to greatly underestimate the impact.
This conceptual flaw explains why economists in most financial institutions and governments, and thus investors, are not especially alarmed at the loss of energy resources, as stock market indices remain not too far from their recent highs.
For a good summary of how contemporary economic theory goes off the rails, Australian economist Steve Keen offers a mercifully brief and comprehensible explanation. Here I will relate one critical part of that explanation. About 5.7 percent of U.S. GDP is devoted to procuring and distributing energy. Most economists will tell you that a 10 percent decline in energy availability would have a small effect on the U.S. economy. They would take the percentage of the economy devoted to energy, in this case 5.7 percent, and multiply it by 10 percent to arrive at a 0.57 percent reduction in economic activity.
This conclusion is utter nonsense and not even close to what the effects would be.
The reason is that energy is the master resource. It cannot be treated like other resources. Energy is the resource that makes all other resources available. Nothing gets done without energy.The correlation between economic activity and energy use is 0.9 (where 1.0 represents a perfect correlation). This should come as no surprise. When the economy is growing, energy use grows with it as energy fuels the economic activity that pushes growth.
What this implies is that a 10 percent reduction in energy availability is much more likely to result in a decline in economic activity closer to 10 percent than to one-half percent. For comparison, the real GDP of the United States fell 4.3 percent during the Great Recession, which lasted from December 2007 through June 2009.
So, how much energy is currently being denied to the global economy by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz? No one knows for certain. We do know that liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports from Qatar were previously transiting through the strait. And, close to 20 percent of the world’s oil supply was also passing through the strait on a daily basis.
None of Qatar’s LNG exports are currently passing through the strait. Some estimates say 12 percent of the world’s oil is now prevented from leaving the Persian Gulf (though a key pipeline in Saudi Arabia that sends oil to the Red Sea has now been damaged and may add to the total outage). Some oil cargoes from Iran have left the Persian Gulf, and Iraq may soon also send cargoes. Some oil is now being diverted via pipeline to ports other than those on the Persian Gulf. Those pipelines may be attacked as the war continues, so the amount of oil previously exported via the Strait of Hormuz that is being diverted through them could decline.
Okay, here’s some math to help you sort out what this all means:
1. Natural gas exports coming from Qatar are no longer being shipped. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, in 2024, Qatar provided 3 percent of the world’s natural gas, primarily in the form of LNG. Since natural gas provides about 23.5 percent of the world’s energy, by multiplying 3 percent by 23.5 percent, we arrive at a loss of 0.7 percent of the world’s total energy. It doesn’t seem like much, except the effects are quite uneven. In the United States, we fuel our economy with pipeline natural gas and send the extra abroad both via pipeline and LNG freighters. But 42 percent of Taiwan’s electricity is generated using LNG imported primarily from the Persian Gulf. That’s a huge hit. And, lack of electricity spells trouble for industry, including the Taiwanese semiconductor industry, which supplies much of the world. Of course, Taiwan will seek out other sources of LNG. But will the country be able to find LNG in sufficient quantities? LNG is usually delivered under long-term contracts, and only a small fraction of it is available in what is called the spot market, which isn’t committed under long-term arrangements.
2. The situation with oil is much worse. Oil provides about 31.5 percent of total world energy. Losing 12 percent of it means that the world has lost about 3.8 percent of its energy supply. Again, it may not seem like much, but it is a commodity that has very broad and critical energy and non-energy uses in the economy, for example, as the basis for gasoline, diesel, heating oil, and jet fuel; as a feedstock for many petrochemicals, including plastics; and as a lubricant for countless machines and vehicles worldwide. That loss of oil availability has already had huge impacts—and has sent prices soaring because people and companies feel they cannot do without these oil products.
We must also keep in mind that the 12 percent estimate may be too small and that the loss is cumulative. Less oil is being delivered into the global economy every day the Strait is closed. As stored oil is depleted, the situation will get desperate, and prices will move much higher. Again, effects are uneven. Countries that rely on imports and aren’t wealthy will suffer the most.
3. So let’s put the loss of oil and natural gas together to arrive at a total loss of 4.5 percent of the world’s energy supply. Since economic activity and energy are closely correlated at 0.9, we can multiply 4.5 percent by 0.9 to get about 4 percent of economic activity potentially subtracted from the world economy every day that the Strait of Hormuz remains closed. As mentioned above, the Great Recession caused a 4.3 percent drop in economic activity in the United States. So, it would appear that we are on track for consequences almost as severe as those of the Great Recession if this energy loss continues for much longer.
But this seriously understates the case. The Great Recession was primarily a financial crash. Though oil prices were high, there was no abrupt cutoff of supply to the market. Now, however, loss of energy and related chemical feedstocks is having many knock-on effects on the world economy. For example, rising costs for plastics will tend to curtail the consumption of such products. Rising fuel costs will lead to more expensive air travel as airlines pass fuel costs on to passengers. That means there are likely to be fewer passengers as some choose to fly less often and others are simply priced out of the market altogether. And that means further knock-on effects as fewer hotel rooms are booked and fewer rental cars are rented. Rising diesel and fertilizer prices (nitrogen fertilizer is made primarily from natural gas) will mean higher crop production costs, which are passed on to food processors and ultimately to consumers.
In addition to the squeeze on energy and non-energy products derived from oil and natural gas, about one-third of the world’s helium (a co-product of natural gas reservoirs) is now unavailable. Helium is essential for the production of semiconductors. Manufacturers of semiconductors will have to pay much more for helium or curtail semiconductor production. If those manufacturers successfully purchase what they need, then other users such as hospitals (in MRI machines), university researchers, and welders (who use it as shielding gas to make strong welds) will have to go without.
In general, as consumers and businesses pull back on spending due to rising costs and economic uncertainty, demand for many products will fall and companies will be forced to cut back on production and ultimately on workers. As workers are laid off, this reduces overall demand further, which can lead to a cascade of shrinking economic activity.
Even more danger lies ahead. If the war continues and threats on both sides to destroy oil and natural gas infrastructure are carried out in part or in whole, the world could be denied even more oil and natural gas – not just for the duration of the war, but for years afterward, since it would take years to rebuild this infrastructure. Some losses might be permanent, for when underground reservoirs of oil and gas are closed in, they can be damaged for various reasons I won’t go into here.
It is not easy for the economy to adjust to such a shock, and the most likely outcome is a severe recession.
Widespread destruction of oil and natural gas infrastructure in the Persian Gulf could quickly lead to a worldwide depression from which it would be difficult to emerge.
We cannot, as the joke above states, just “assume a fish” or, in this case, assume that oil and natural gas deliveries will resume soon at the levels we require at the time we need them to at prices we can afford.
Rather, we are now obliged to take seriously the possibility that our energy-drenched lives will have to be curtailed in ways previously unthinkable.
The risks of a fossil-fuel dependent economy that runs on a just-in-time basis have now become manifest, and we have no choice but to adapt.
The American Bankers Association is warning that the White House’s latest stablecoin study is asking the wrong question and underestimating the threat to community banks.
On April 8, the Council of Economic Advisers released a 21‑page paper modeling what happens if payment stablecoin issuers are barred from paying yield. The analysis, tied to the 2025 GENIUS Act’s prohibition on interest for payment stablecoins, finds that banning yield would raise bank lending by only about 2.1 billion dollars, or roughly 0.02% of a 12 trillion dollar loan book.
The report also estimates that consumers would forgo around 800 million dollars in returns, producing a cost‑benefit ratio of 6.6 in which lost yield outweighs gains from slightly lower borrowing costs.
In short, White House economists concluded that stablecoin yield, under current conditions, is unlikely to trigger the sweeping deposit flight some academic studies had projected.
ABA: the real risk is yield‑paying coins at scale
The American Bankers Association fired back today, arguing the CEA framed “the wrong question” by focusing on the effect of a prohibition rather than the impact of allowing yield as the market grows.
ABA chief economist Sayee Srinivasan and banking research VP Yikai Wang warned that yield‑paying payment stablecoins could accelerate deposit migration out of insured accounts, especially at community banks.
Their analysis points to a future market of 1 to 2 trillion dollars in payment stablecoins, where competitive yields on tokens backed by Treasuries and other safe assets become a direct rival to local deposits. In that scenario, they say, even single states could see multi‑billion‑dollar contractions in bank lending as cheap funding drains away.
Deposit stablecoin reshuffling vs. community bank pressure
The White House paper stresses that when consumers move cash into stablecoins, issuers reinvest reserves into Treasury bills, repos, and money‑market funds, sending most of the money back into the banking system.
That “reshuffling” means aggregate deposits stay largely flat, and, with banks currently holding over 1.1 trillion dollars in excess liquidity, the model finds little system‑wide constraint on lending.
The ABA response counters that this misses what happens at individual institutions when deposits walk out the door, forcing community banks to replace funding with higher‑cost wholesale borrowing or by raising deposit rates.
Those higher funding costs, they argue, translate into less local credit and higher loan rates for households, farmers, and small businesses that rely on relationship lenders.
The debate lands on top of the GENIUS Act, the 2025 law that created the first federal regime for payment stablecoins and hard‑coded a ban on issuers paying yield to holders.
That ban does not extend to third‑party platforms, leaving room for arrangements such as Coinbase’s USDC rewards, which share reserve income with users at rates similar to high‑yield savings accounts.
Some versions of the proposed CLARITY Act would close this channel by barring intermediaries from passing yield through, a move the CEA notes but does not fully evaluate. ABA’s authors say policymakers should treat a prohibition on yield as a “prudent safeguard” that keeps stablecoins in a payments role instead of letting them evolve into a high‑yield substitute for insured deposits.
Both sides touch on a deeper question: whether yield‑bearing stablecoins effectively create a form of narrow banking that siphons funds out of traditional credit intermediation. The CEA frames narrow‑bank‑like structures as potentially safer for payments, assuming reserves stay in Treasuries and other ultra‑safe assets, while downplaying near‑term lending losses.
The ABA warns that pushing activity into such models without a plan to preserve community‑bank lending ignores Congress’s reluctance to endorse central bank digital currencies for similar reasons.
With more than 80% of stablecoin activity already offshore and issuers holding Treasury portfolios larger than some sovereigns, the White House also flags global demand and U.S. borrowing costs as an underexplored part of the yield debate.
As US Initiates Blockade Of Hormuz, Trump Warns Any Iranian Ships Coming Near Will Be ‘Eliminated’
Summary
Iran’s military says the US blockade on Gulf ports, now in effect, is an “illegal” act tantamount to “piracy” as Trump is also weighing limited strikes on Iran. Trump warns Iranian fast boats to be ‘eliminated’.
US military says it is enforcing the blockade in the Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea, Reuters reports. No major incidents or acts of aggression reported, hours into US operation.
Pundits review breakdown of Pakistan talks, where the “gaps were enormous” – and yet Iran’s FM says the sides were “inches away”from an “Islamabad MoU”.
Israel-Hezbollah fighting persists on eve of planned Tuesday talks in Washington between Israeli and Lebanese officials.
The Wall Street Journal has newly detailed that more 15 American warships are now in place to support the operation, in the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. The report further specified that “An advisory to mariners from U.K. Maritime Trade Operations, which is affiliated with Britain’s Royal Navy, said maritime-access restrictions were being enforced for Iranian ports and coastal areas along the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman and parts of the Arabian Sea.
“Any vessel entering or departing the blockaded area without authorization is subject to interception, diversion, and capture,” a notification from US Central Command (CENTCOM) has said. And UKMTO has warned maritime traffic, “These access restrictions apply without distinction to vessels of any flag engaging with Iranian ports, oil terminals, or coastal facilities.” Trump boasts the following on Monday:
Trump: Iranian Ships Coming Near Blockade Will Be Eliminated
The Trump-ordered US military blockade of the Hormuz Strait has gone into effect as of early evening local time (and 10am in the US), and Trump soon after issued the below Truth Social message warning that if any of Iran’s ships – which he says at this point are merely small ‘fast attack ships’ – come “anywhere close to our blockade, they will be immediately eliminated.” He described this will be “the same system of kill that we use against the drug dealers” – in reference to the Caribbean and prior Venezuela operations.
The US Navy is said to be operating from the Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea while enforcing it. Within the first couple hours of it being in place, there have been no initial reported hostile incidents. In effect a standoff is ensuing.
As a reminder, after the earlier CENTCOM announcement of the blockade plans, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf on Sunday had declared, “enjoy the current pump figures,” adding that “with the so-called ‘blockade,’ Soon you’ll be nostalgic for $4–5 gas.”
Gaps Were Enormous
In terms of airstrikes and rockets being lobbed across the Middle East, things have been relatively quiet since US-Iranian talks in Pakistan broke down over the weekend. As we reported earlier President Trump is mulling possible limited strikes on the Islamic Republic from here on out. The previously agreed-upon two week ceasefire is still holding despite the Pakistan talks having collapsed with no plans for any future round.
The only area that continues to see significant exchanges of fire is the Israel-Lebanon situation, where on Monday regional outlets are reporting a flurry of new Hezbollah attacks on northern Israel, alongside heavy IDF strikes on southern Lebanon from Sunday evening into Monday.
Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi had summarized the situation from Tehran’s point of view, writing on X Sunday that Iran and the US were “inches away” from an “Islamabad MoU” following “intensive talks at highest level in 47 years.” He continued, “We encountered maximalism, shifting goalposts and blockade,” before concluding: “Zero lessons earned. Good will begets good will. Enmity begets enmity.” Some of the latest:
IRANIAN OFFICIALS ARE STUDYING ABANDONING URANIUM ENRICHMENT AS A U.S. CONDITION FOR ENDING THE WAR – NEW YORK POST
NEW YORK POST: IRANIAN OFFICIALS ARE STUDYING ABANDONING URANIUM ENRICHMENT AS A U.S. CONDITION FOR ENDING THE WAR
Oil dumped on the headline once it hit Reuters:
Meanwhile Israeli Channel 12 journalist Amit Segal in an Islamabad post mortem has affirmed that the “gaps were enormous” between the two sides prior to Vice President JD Vance and his team calling it quits and flying back to Washington by early Sunday. “The Americans agreed to release a certain portion of the frozen funds and to end the war in the negotiations in Islamabad,” writes Segal. “In return, they demanded a 20‑year freeze on enrichment, the removal of enriched material from Iran, and free navigation in Hormuz without tax payments.” The nuclear front, he notes: “The Iranians discussed the nuclear issue contrary to instructions from Tehran, but the gaps were enormous.”
Iran’s Parliament Speaker Ghalibaf had impressed the American team as a “refined and professional bargainer, and potential leader of a new Iran.”
But after President Trump has begun his own blockade of the Strait of Hormuz (or is imminently about to begin), warning that the US military will “finish up the little that is left of Iran” – two oil tankers linked to Iran have exited the Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz, shipping data from Kpler and LSEG show. Reuters identified one as the tanker Auroura, laden with Iranian oil products, and the other is the diesel-carrying New Future loaded from the Hamriyah port in the UAE.
The ongoing standoff has resulted in a fresh Monday warning out of Iran’s armed forces. It said according to state-run IRIB News, also cited in Bloomberg: “If the security of Iran’s ports in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman is threatened, no port in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman will be safe.” The statement added that “security in the ports of the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman is either for everyone or for no one.” US restrictions on the movement of vessels in international waters are “illegal and constitute an act of piracy” and thus Iran stands ready to “firmly implement a permanent mechanism to control the Strait of Hormuz.” Reuters reports Monday:
The U.S. military will enforce a blockade in the Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea east of the Strait of Hormuz and it will apply to all vessel traffic regardless of flag, the U.S. Central Command said in a note to seafarers seen by Reuters on Monday.
The note said the blockade would come into effect at 1400 GMT on Monday.
Meanwhile the Europeans continue to pay lip service joining some kind of coalition to reopen the strait. France and the United Kingdom have said they are busy organizing a conference for the coming days for countries seeking to establish a “strictly defensive” and “peaceful” mission aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz. French President Emmanuel Macron stated on X Monday that “France stands ready to play its full part, as it has consistently sought to do since the very first day of the conflict.”
No effort must be spared to swiftly reach, through diplomatic means, a strong and lasting settlement to the conflict in the Middle East.
Such a settlement must provide the region with a robust framework enabling all to live in peace and security.…
He also made clear France’s position that the “core issues” of Iran’s nuclear program as well as ballistic missile arsenal must still be addressed. According to Bloomberg, the UK continues to resist calls from Washington for a proposed Hormuz blockade. This ensures another point of contention between Trump and PM Keir Starmer.
Lingering Fighting in Lebanon on Eve of Washington Talks
Tit-for-tat attacks across the Israel-Lebanon border have not ceased, while certainly becoming less severe compared to the last Wednesday massive surprise Israeli attacks on Beirut and the south. However, Al Jazeera reports Monday that “Israeli attacks have not let up in southern Lebanon, hitting many villages and towns, with the latest attacks on Nabatieh al-Fawqa, al-Abbassieh and Bint Jbeil.”
Hezbollah in turn declared it targeted Israeli soldiers in the Shlomi settlement “with a swarm of attack drones.” Warning sirens have continued to blare across Northern Israel and the Galilee area as a result, with Israeli media reporting that four rockets were fired by Hezbollah, but Israeli defenses were able to intercept two, with the other pair falling in an open area and no reports of casualties.
Lebanon’s National News Agency has said that Israeli forces struck at least 30 locations across southern Lebanon on Sunday, along with areas of the western Beqaa Valley. From Sunday into Monday at least five people were killed and nine injured in strikes on Bazouriyeh, amid an ongoing rescue effort. One strike hit the town’s main school and damaged the structure, and elsewhere one person was killed in Nabatieh al-Fawqa, another in Sir al-Gharbiya, and two residents of Shoukin were killed early Monday morning.
Planned peace talks involving Israel and Lebanon are still set to go forward for Tuesday in Washington. Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, is spearheading the Israeli side.
“In the conversation earlier today in Washington between the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to Washington, together with the US ambassador to Lebanon, and under the auspices of the US State Department, Israel agreed to begin formal peace negotiations this coming Tuesday,” Leiter said in a statement. “Israel refused to discuss a ceasefire with the Hezbollah terrorist organization, which continues to attack Israel and is the main obstacle to peace between the two countries.” Hezbollah too has said it would not talk to the Israelis, and so all of this means that Lebanese government officials will be doing the negotiating in Washington D.C. – setting up for only limited results if any.
Netanyahu Warns Iran Ceasefire Could End ‘Quickly’
Bigger war returning imminently? Fresh Monday words from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a government meeting that the ceasefire with Iran could end quickly. He said, “I spoke yesterday with U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance. He called me from his plane on the way back from Islamabad. He reported to me in detail, as members of this administration do every day, on the developments in the negotiations. In this case, the explosion in the negotiations.”
Netanyahu asserted that the breakdown came from the American side, which would not tolerate what he described as Iran’s violation of the agreement to enter negotiations. He said the understanding required halting fire and reopening the straits immediately, which Iran did not do.
He said the Americans rejected that outcome and added that Vance made clear the central issue for President Trump and the United States is the removal of all enriched material and ensuring there will be no further enrichment in the coming years, potentially for decades, within Iran. He reminded officials that objective is also important to Israel.
More Geopolitical Latest
Via Newsquawk…
A U.S. delegation led by Vice President JD Vance left talks with Iran in Pakistan after 21 hours without an agreement. Vance said the U.S. sought a firm commitment that Iran would not pursue a nuclear weapon or the capability to rapidly obtain one, leaving behind a “final and best offer.” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani Baqaei said progress depends on the U.S. avoiding excessive and unlawful demands and negotiating in good faith, while Iranian reporting cited disagreements and said the U.S. demanded through talks what it failed to achieve through war.
U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. Navy will begin blockading ships entering or leaving the Strait of Hormuz. He said talks went well and most issues were agreed except the nuclear issue, which he called the only one that matters. He added the goal is to reach an “ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO IN, ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO OUT” framework, accused Iran of obstructing that by claiming possible mines, called it “world extortion,” and warned that any Iranian attack on U.S. forces or vessels would be met with overwhelming force.
United States Central Command said it will implement a blockade on maritime traffic entering and leaving Iranian ports on April 13 at 17:00 Israeli time (15:00 BST / 10:00 EDT), while not impeding vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to or from non-Iranian ports. Trump later confirmed the timing publicly.
Trump and his advisers are considering resuming limited strikes inside Iran alongside the blockade to break the stalemate, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal, while remaining open to a diplomatic resolution.
Mediators from Pakistan, Egypt, and Turkey will continue efforts in the coming days to bridge gaps between the U.S. and Iran, according to Axios. All parties assess that a deal remains possible, and earlier reports said talks occurred in a positive atmosphere with continued engagement expected.
The White House outlined red lines Iran refused, including ending all uranium enrichment, dismantling major nuclear facilities, recovering over 400 kilograms of highly enriched uranium believed buried underground, accepting a broader regional de-escalation framework, ending support for groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthis, fully reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and eliminating transit tolls.
Iran’s Foreign Minister stated: “In intensive talks at highest level in 47 years, Iran engaged with U.S in good faith to end war. But when just inches away from “Islamabad MoU”, we encountered maximalism, shifting goalposts, and blockade”.
Iranian armed forces warned that if Iran’s ports are threatened, no port in the Persian Gulf or Oman Sea will remain safe, according to IRIB News.
An Iranian National Security Commission spokesperson called the U.S. blockade claim a bluff, according to ISNA.
Israel Defense Forces said troops are expanding targeted ground operations against Hezbollah infrastructure in the Bint Jbeil area of southern Lebanon, killing over 100 fighters, dismantling dozens of sites, and seizing hundreds of weapons.
Tasnim News Agency reported that the U.S. risks losing access to the Bab al-Mandab Strait if it escalates actions around the Strait of Hormuz.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned that the approach of military vessels toward the Strait of Hormuz violates the ceasefire, according to IRNA.
Israeli forces carried out two airstrikes near Choukine in southern Lebanon.
The IDF defined Lebanon as the primary operational arena, while Iran is classified as an “arena of readiness” with heightened alert.
Israel approved plans to establish 15 permanent camps along front-line Lebanese villages, according to Al Jazeera citing Channel 12.
Israeli forces reportedly conducted a raid targeting Beyout Al-Siyad in southern Lebanon.
Sirens sounded in Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel, while reports indicated Hezbollah launched missile attacks on Israeli towns.
Emmanuel Macron said France and the United Kingdom will organize a conference in the coming days to restore freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, emphasizing a defensive approach and the need for a lasting diplomatic resolution and renewed peace efforts in Lebanon.
The $15 billion USS Ford was forced to cut short its deployment due to a 30-hour laundry fire that did millions of dollars in damage. And it has been revealed that even while it remained on station in the Gulf, Ford could not generate combat sorties for two days due to the raging 30-hour laundry fire that drove some 600 sailors out of their sleeping quarters. Thirty hours to get a laundry fire under control raises a couple of questions. Why would a laundry catch on fire, and why did it take the firefighters and damage-control personnel of the USS Ford so long to put out the laundry fire? Sadly, the answers can be found in some wrongheaded decisions the Navy made in its effort to be viewed as being “green.”
Design for the Ford-class carrier began in March 1996, and finally, more than $15 billion later, the USS Ford was fully certified for combat in April 2023. Due to a misguided green initiative, instead of installing inherently super energy-efficient steam-based laundries, the Ford-class carriers have standardized on more expensive, more complex, inherently fire-prone, ozone-based systems.
The green reason for these systems is that they supposedly save energy and water by being able to operate with cold water only, while also needing 30 percent less water than the steam-based systems the U.S. Navy has historically relied on. A Jan. 12, 2012, Navy memo made this revealing statement:
“Ozone technology is increasing the earth-friendly aspect of shipboard laundering and moving navy laundries towards a ‘greener’ process. Good for the sailor… good for the ship… good for the earth!”
This sure sounds wonderful, but just a bit of analysis shows that the ozone-based laundries, like so many of the U.S. military’s so-called green initiatives, actually weaken our military while costing more than the mechanically robust, battle-tested systems they replace.
First, it must be pointed out that when you look at the energy budget of a typical warship, including propulsion, less than 1 percent of the warship’s total energy budget is expended on freshwater production and laundry services, with the vast majority of energy being used for the ship’s propulsion and the rest of the systems described by the Expanded Ship Work Breakdown Structure for Navy ships.
What’s more, the annual cost for producing fresh water on our entire fleet of Navy ships is just $22 million, and the water for the laundry is a fraction of this. Further, every Navy ship can produce far more fresh water than it needs for its average daily use. For example, both Ford- and Nimitz-class carriers can produce double the average amount of water needed daily. Getting more specific, installing an ozone-based laundry on an Arleigh Burke destroyer, which uses gas turbines instead of steam turbines, does result in a 30 percent reduction in energy used by its laundry system, including the energy savings from reduced freshwater desalination. But with laundries consuming less than 1 percent of ships’ overall energy consumption (including propulsion), this would result in less than 0.3 percent energy savings. All other things equal, that might make sense, especially if the systems were built into the ship from the outset. But the ozone-based systems cost more, require more ongoing maintenance, are more dependent on expensive shore-based vendor support to keep them operational, and are built around a potent oxidizer—ozone.
Finally, the ozone-related laundries end up creating a much drier environment than the moist atmosphere created by steam-reliant systems. It was the drier environment that helped create the extremely dry lint that caused the Ford laundry room fire. And these high-tech laundries require very expensive, corrosion-resistant piping, fittings, and seals, along with 24/7 monitoring to ensure the highly corrosive, lung-irritating, fire-accelerating ozone does not find its way past the specialized, very expensive seals. So, even for ships that rely on gas turbines or marine diesels, such as our Navy’s destroyers and some of our larger warships, the case for ozone-based systems is highly debatable, to say the least.
But when it comes to ships like our carriers, submarines, and about 10 other large warships and support vessels whose prime movers are steam turbines, the ozone-based systems are a big, expensive step backward in pretty much every area, including the environment. This is the case because our ships’ high-pressure steam turbines naturally produce relatively low-pressure waste steam that can either be recondensed by using cold ocean water or used to heat water for a ship’s laundry and provide heat for the ship’s clothes dryers. In other words, this is nearly free energy. In contrast, the ozone-based laundry is 100 percent reliant on electricity from the ship’s generators. Thus, steam-reliant laundries are much more energy efficient or “green” than ozone-reliant ones. And while the gray water discharge from ozone-based systems is technically superior to that from steam-reliant systems, the sun and natural mechanisms in the ocean rapidly remediate all gray water discharges. Hence, from a practical environmental perspective, the gray water discharges are identical.
Sadly, not only does it seem as if the Navy wants to make ozone-based systems standard, but it has spent countless millions ripping out robust fire-resistant steam-based laundry systems on Nimitz-class carriers in order to install the expensive, high-tech, less reliable, more vendor-dependent ozone-based systems.
And there are still Nimitz-class carriers scheduled to undergo the “upgrade,” for which it would not at all be surprising to find costs of more than $10 million each to rip out the highly integrated steam-reliant laundries and replace them with ozone-reliant laundries.
Hopefully, the USS Ford fire will get the Navy, and maybe even Congress, to put a stop to the needless and arguably harmful green tech that provides no practical environmental benefits.
Hopefully, the U.S. military, under pressure from the Trump administration, will permanently move away from green virtue signaling and get back to investing in systems that provide the best possible lethality for the dollar, while maximizing the chances that our sailors, soldiers, airmen, and Marines return home safely.
Property taxes are rising across the United States and, on average, have outpaced inflation.
Homeowners in 2025 paid a total of $396.8 billion in property taxes on more than 89.6 million single-family homes, a 3.7 percent increase from 2024, an April 9 report by real estate property data provider ATTOM states.
The average single-family home paid $4,427 in taxes, up by 3 percent from 2024, driven by a higher effective tax rate, according to the report.
The ATTOM report analyzed tax data collected from assessment offices, combined with estimated market values of single-family homes. The estimated home value of $494,231 for 2025 was down by 1.7 percent year-over-year, ATTOM noted, following a significant spike in 2024.
Nationally, the effective tax rate on single-family residences in 2025 was 0.9 percent, up slightly from the prior year and the highest since 2020, when it stood at 1.1 percent, ATTOM’s researchers wrote.
The tax growth rate is higher than the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) inflation rate, which stayed below 3 percent for most of 2025. Inflation rose to 3.3 percent in March, up by nearly a full percentage point from the start of the year, driven by higher energy and fuel costs.
Property taxes—a primary source of revenue for local governments and municipalities—have spiked largely because of a run-up in housing prices over the past five years, the nonprofit Tax Foundation stated.
In the final quarter of 2019, the median sales price of homes sold in the United States was $327,100, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis reported. By the end of 2025, that figure had jumped by 24 percent to $405,300.
Homeowners can pay significantly more in property taxes as their home values increase due to higher assessed values, the Tax Foundation noted.
However, ATTOM CEO Rob Barber said property taxes in 2025 demonstrate that tax bills reflect more than just home values.
“Even with a slight dip in prices, higher tax bills combined with declining home values led to an increase in effective tax rates, underscoring the role of local government costs and shifting tax policies. Regional disparities persist, with the Northeast and Midwest continuing to see the highest burdens,” Barber said.
More than 50 percent of metropolitan areas with populations of more than 1 million residents saw their property tax bills for single-family homes rise more than 3 percent in 2025, ATTOM stated.
In the Northwest, the combination of high property tax rates and escalating home values led to some of the highest average tax bills in the country. Average tax bills in New Jersey were $10,499, followed by Connecticut at $8,901 and New Hampshire at $8,174.
Conversely, average tax bills were lowest in West Virginia at $1,081. Residents of Alabama paid an average of $1,284 in property taxes, while residents of Arkansas paid $1,387, ATTOM researchers wrote.
At the county level, Westchester County, New York, had the highest average property tax in 2025 at $18,386, followed by Marin County, California, at $16,745 and Bergen County, New Jersey, at $14,443.
Average tax calculations were derived by dividing the total amount of property taxes paid by residents of a particular county by the number of single-family residences in that area, ATTOM noted.
Buried For 7 Years: Declassified Transcripts Blow Up Trump Impeachment Story
In a long-awaited release that sent ripples through Washington on Monday, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) has declassified closed-door 2019 transcripts from briefings with then-Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) Michael Atkinson. The documents, withheld from the public for over seven years, reveal critical details about the anonymous “whistleblower” whose complaint about President Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky triggered Trump’s first impeachment – details that directly contradict the narrative of a neutral, non-partisan civil servant acting in good faith.
The revelations come via investigative reporter Catherine Herridge, who broke the story on X with direct screenshots from the transcripts and statements from key officials involved in the declassification.
What the Transcripts Reveal
According to the newly public records:
The whistleblower was a registered Democrat who disclosed having a “prior professional relationship with one of the Democratic Presidential candidates” for the 2020 election (widely understood in context to reference then-former Vice President Joe Biden, given the whistleblower’s known Ukraine policy background).
Despite this, ICIG Atkinson told Congress in a 2019 briefing: “I did not find the complainant (whistleblower) was biased.” He relied almost exclusively on the whistleblower’s own self-disclosure.
The whistleblower had met with staff from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI)– then chaired by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) – before filing the official complaint with the ICIG on August 12, 2019.
Timeline: Trump’s July 25, 2019, phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy occurred just 18 days before the complaint was filed. During that window, the whistleblower had undisclosed contacts with Schiff’s committee.
On the official “urgent concern” disclosure form, the whistleblower did not check the box acknowledging contact with congressional intelligence committees. When pressed by then-Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX, now CIA Director), Atkinson confirmed: “The whistleblower did not disclose to you that he or she had contact with HPSCI?” Atkinson replied: “The answer to that is yes. The answer to that is yes.”
These details are laid out verbatim in the declassified pages Herridge posted, complete with highlighted exchanges from the October 2019 closed-door session.
Whistleblower met with Democrats on House Intelligence Committee (then led by Adam Schiff) BEFORE reporting his allegations to the Intelligence Community… pic.twitter.com/x7A1IxHLLO
The complaint alleged that Trump pressured Zelenskyy during the July 25 call to investigate the Bidens in exchange for military aid – a claim that became the cornerstone of the House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry launched in September 2019. Trump was impeached by the House in December 2019 on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, only to be acquitted by the Senate in February 2020.
🚨 HOLY SMOKES. DNI Tulsi Gabbard just declassified bombshell files that prove the nexus of Donald Trump’s impeachment scam in 2019 came from an ADMITTED leftist and liar
These files were HIDDEN from the public until now.
At the time, the whistleblower was portrayed across much of the mainstream media and by Democratic leaders as an impartial career intelligence official. The new transcripts show that key questions about political affiliation, potential conflicts of interest, and coordination with Congress were raised behind closed doors – but never fully disclosed to the public.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Rick Crawford (R-AR) stated upon the release:
“There have been many questions and concerns about these Atkinson transcripts, which have been withheld from the American public for far too long. I hope that the release of these transcripts allows the American people to make their own determinations about their content. Thank you to Director Gabbard and her team for moving these so quickly through the declassification process.”
The process began with a HPSCI vote in late March 2026 to unseal the transcripts, followed by rapid declassification under Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
In short, we now have official, on-the-record confirmation of long-standing Republican concerns that the impeachment process was politicized from the outset. They show an ICIG who accepted the whistleblower’s self-assessment of impartiality at face value, even after learning of partisan ties and unreported congressional contacts – facts that were blacked out or minimized in earlier public handling of the case.
Mapping The Hormuz Blockade: At Least 15 US Navy Ships Are In Place
President Trump is once again engaged in a high risk bet in hopes that Iran will buckle to US demands after failed initial truce talks in Pakistan. The blockade now in effect as of Monday seeks to starve Iran of $200 million in daily oil revenues.
The Wall Street Journal has newly detailed that more 15 American warships are now in place to support the operation, in the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. The report further specified that “An advisory to mariners from U.K. Maritime Trade Operations, which is affiliated with Britain’s Royal Navy, said maritime-access restrictions were being enforced for Iranian ports and coastal areas along the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman and parts of the Arabian Sea.”
Fox News has at the same time issued a map which purports to identify 17 total naval ships deployed in the blockade area as a Monday morning. They are listed in the map and infographic below: The location of US ships around Iran as of Monday.
“Any vessel entering or departing the blockaded area without authorization is subject to interception, diversion, and capture,” a notification from US Central Command (CENTCOM) has said.
As for the advisory from the UK Maritime Trade Operations, it has warned that ships should be prepared to encounter the US blockade, and any vessels in the area must “maintain heightened situational awareness” pending more specific guidance is to follow.
It lays out that additional guidance for mariners regarding “how these measures will be applied in practice, including routing, verification and authorized transit producers, are in development”.
“These access restrictions apply without distinction to vessels of any flag engaging with Iranian ports, oil terminals, or coastal facilities,” UKMTO said of the threatened blockade.
It added: “Further clarification is expected to be provided through subsequent advisories as information becomes available.”
In the meantime Gulf states are still calling on Iran to stop using the Strait of Hormuz as leverage and as a bargaining chip. The latest Gulf leader to speak out is Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassmin Al-Thani.
He announced that he said he spoke with his Iranian counterpart on the issue on Monday. “Sheikh Mohammed emphasized the need for all parties to respond positively to ongoing mediation efforts, calling for dialogue and peaceful means to address the root causes of the crisis and reach a sustainable agreement that prevents renewed escalation,” the Qatari PM’s office said in a statement.
“He also underlined the importance of keeping maritime routes open and ensuring freedom of navigation, warning against using them as a bargaining chip,” the statement continued.
“His Excellency further cautioned that any disruption to shipping lanes could have serious consequences for countries in the region, as well as for global energy and food supplies, with wider implications for international peace and security,” it added.
USS Abraham Lincoln SPOTTED near Gulf of Oman — BBC
Satellite images from Saturday show aircraft carrier positioned about 200km south of the Iranian coast
Earlier, Reuters reported that US blockade would be enforced in Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea, east of the Strait of Hormuz pic.twitter.com/2CxCzQku53
Soon after the blockade having taken effect, Trump issued a Truth Social message warning that if any of Iran’s ships – which he says at this point are merely small ‘fast attack ships’ – come “anywhere close to our blockade, they will be immediately eliminated.” He described this will be “the same system of kill that we use against the drug dealers” – in reference to the Caribbean and prior Venezuela operations.
Existing US Home Sales Plunged In March, Despite Falling Mortgage Rates
Affordability-aiding lower mortgage rates battled a sentiment-sapping surge in geopolitical panic in March, with analysts expecting the latter to outweigh the former with a modest 0.7% MoM decline (after January’s plunged – weather? – and February’s modest rebound).
The analysts under-estimated the fear from war-mongering as existing home sales plunged 3.6% MoM (down bigly from an upwardly revised 2.7% MoM jump in Feb). That is the second biggest drop in existing home sales since Nov 2022…
Source: Bloomberg
That dragged Existing Home Sale SAAR back below 4 million homes (3.98m to be exact), near the lowest level since Lehman…
Source: Bloomberg
The NAR report showed the median selling price rose 1.4% from a year earlier in March, to $408,800.
Source: Bloomberg
Pushing Existing (Used) House prices back above New House Prices…
The inventory of previously owned homes edged up to a four-month high but remains historically depressed.
Source: Bloomberg
Contract signings declined across all regions, according to the NAR.
Sales in the Northeast slid to the lowest on record in data going back to 1999, while those in the Midwest matched the weakest pace since 2011.
The NAR also slashed its 2026 existing-home sales forecast to 4%, from 14% previously.
“Mortgage rates have been rising, and that has led us to trim our home sales outlook for the year,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement.
It appears home sales front-ran the rise in mortgage rates since the war began.
