Authored by Troy Myers via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The Department of Education announced April 6 that it rescinded agreements between previous administrations and multiple school districts that aimed to enforce civil rights laws with regard to students who identify as transgender.

Previous administrations had distorted the law to police discrimination based on gender identity, instead of sex, for which it was intended, saddling schools with potential violations of Title IX for not using students’ preferred pronouns or questioning a student’s preferred gender, the department said in a news release.

“Today, the Trump Administration is removing the unnecessary and unlawful burdens that prior Administrations imposed on schools in [their] relentless pursuit of a radical transgender agenda,” Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said in the news release.

Resolution agreements are used by the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights to require schools to enforce compliance with federal civil rights laws such as Title IX, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any school, program, or activity that receives federal funding.

With the termination of the agreements—made with the Cape Henlopen School District in Delaware; Delaware Valley School District in Pennsylvania; Fife School District in Washington state; and La Mesa-Spring Valley School District, Sacramento City Unified, and Taft College in California—the Education Department will no longer play a role in policing discrimination on gender identity.

The resolutions with those schools were based on ideologically driven, illegal, and heavy-handed manipulations of Title IX under previous administrations, the news release stated.

“While prior Admins distorted Title IX to pander to political ideology and police ‘misgendering,’ we’re investigating allegations of girls injured by men on their sports team or feeling violated by men in their intimate spaces,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon wrote in a post on X.

Monday’s decision to terminate the agreements is another step in protecting students and restoring common sense, Richey added in the news release.

In 2024, the Biden administration expanded the scope of Title IX to enforce discrimination based on gender identity. A federal court in January 2025 found that change to be illegal.

Once President Donald Trump took office for his second term in January 2025, he returned to enforcing his first administration’s enforcement of Title IX on the basis of sex.

The Trump administration has filed lawsuits against California, Oregon, and Minnesota over the states’ policies on transgender students, including those allowing transgender-identifying male students to participate in women’s sports and to access women’s locker rooms.

Investigations were also opened against other states, such as New Jersey, over concerns that boys are being allowed to use girls’ restrooms and locker rooms.

“Young women should not have to sacrifice their rights to compete for scholarships, opportunities, and awards on the altar of woke gender ideology,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon previously said.

In combination with the downed F-15 weapons systems officer, known publicly only as “Dude 44 Bravo,” activating Boeing’s Combat Survivor Evader Locator, or CSEL, U.S. forces were reportedly able to narrow the search area and then locate the second crew member shot down over southern Iran using a secret CIA reconnaissance tool known as “Ghost Murmur.”

The New York Post reports that the long-range quantum magnetometry surveillance tool, powered by AI, was used in the U.S. search-and-rescue operation for the second crew member from the downed F-15 fighter jet.

Sources described Ghost Murmur as able to detect something as faint as a human heartbeat’s magnetic signal at long distances in complex environments using AI to filter through the noise.

President Trump and CIA Director John Ratcliffe hinted at the new super-surveillance tool at a White House press conference on Monday afternoon. This was Ghost Murmur’s first operational field use, or at least the first publicly known one.

“It’s like hearing a voice in a stadium, except the stadium is a thousand square miles of desert,” a source briefed on Ghost Murmur told the NYPost. “In the right conditions, if your heart is beating, we will find you.”

Ghost Murmur was reportedly developed by Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works and has been tested on Black Hawk helicopters, with possible future use on F-35 stealth fighter jets.

“The name is deliberate. ‘Murmur’ is a clinical term for a heart rhythm. ‘Ghost’ refers to finding someone who, for all practical purposes, has disappeared,” another source said.

The source continued:

It was “about as clean an environment as you could ask for” because of low electromagnetic interference, “almost no competing human signatures, and at night the thermal contrast between a living body and the desert floor,” which “gave operators a secondary confirmation layer.”

“Normally this signal is so weak that it can only be measured in a hospital setting with sensors pressed nearly against the chest.”

“But advances in a field known as quantum magnetometry — specifically sensors built around microscopic defects in synthetic diamonds — have apparently made it possible to detect these signals at dramatically greater distances.”

“The capability is not omniscient. It works best in remote, low-clutter environments and requires significant processing time.” 

Before Ghost Murmur went operational, Dude 44 Bravo activated Boeing’s Combat Survivor Evader Locator, or CSEL, a secure communications device that can transmit encrypted location and status bursts without exposing his position to enemy forces.

“It’s like finding a needle in a haystack, finding this pilot, and the CIA was unbelievable,” Trump said Monday, referring to Ghost Murmur. 

Trump: I’m going to introduce the head of the CIA and he is a man who is central casting. If we cast a movie, he’s gonna play the head of the CIA. The CIA was very responsible for finding this little speck. They use an expression. It’s like finding a needle in a haystack pic.twitter.com/LZg22AJgSv

— Headquarters (@HQNewsNow) April 6, 2026

“The CIA was very responsible for finding this little speck,” the president said, adding that the CIA spotted the missing American from “40 miles away.”

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

The FBI released its 2025 Internet Crime Report, revealing that Americans were being defrauded to the tune of nearly $21 billion, with artificial intelligence (AI) and cryptocurrency crimes behind some of the massive losses.

“Americans who submitted complaints involving cryptocurrency reported the highest losses, with 181,565 complaints totaling more than $11 billion,” the agency said in an April 6 statement.

Roughly 70 million American adults, around 30 percent of the country’s adult population, own a cryptocurrency, with one in three owners being between the ages of 30 and 44, according to Security.org.

The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) said that total losses of $20.87 billion in 2025 are more than 20 times higher than the $1 billion loss reported in 2015. The number of complaints has also surged during this period, rising from 288,012 complaints to more than a million.

“For the first time in its nearly 25-year history, the IC3 report features a section on artificial intelligence, which accounts for 22,364 complaints, costing Americans nearly $893 million,” the report said.

The losses reported in 2025 were 26 percent higher than in the previous year, with the average loss at $20,699.

The FBI noted that scammers rely on pressure techniques to defraud Americans. The agency advised people to assess the situation carefully before turning over money or personal information.

“IC3 receives nearly 3,000 complaints per day. If you believe you or someone you know may have been a victim of a fraud or scam, contact your local FBI office or submit a complaint at ic3.gov as soon as possible,” the FBI advised.

“You should document the name of the scammer/company, methods of contact, dates of contact, methods of payment, where funds have been sent, and a thorough description of the interactions.”

Artificial Intelligence

The FBI report said that AI-enabled synthetic content is now becoming more difficult to detect and easier to make.

This allows criminal actors to “potentially conduct successful fraud schemes against individuals, businesses, and financial institutions,” it said.

In business email scams, malicious actors use AI chat generators to create official-sounding emails mimicking a company’s CEO or other officials. These emails may contain phishing links or directions to wire funds.

The technology can also be used in romance or investment scams to dupe people into transferring their money.

Crypto Fraud

Complaints involving cryptocurrency were up 21 percent from 2024, with the average loss being $62,604. People may be targeted by scammers who direct them to make payments via crypto ATMs. In some cases, fictitious law firms target cryptocurrency scam victims and exploit them with fake offers of recovering funds.

In January 2024, the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service initiated Operation Level Up to identify victims of cryptocurrency investment fraud and notify them about the scam.

As of December 2025, the FBI has notified 8,103 victims of cryptocurrency investment fraud, with 77 percent of them unaware that they were being scammed.

The timely notification by the FBI is estimated to have resulted in more than $511 million in savings to victims, the agency said.

Elder Fraud

The IC3 report also highlighted the issue of elder fraud, listing 201,266 complaints from individuals aged over 60 last year, which is the highest number of complaints filed by any age group.

This age group suffered more than $7.7 billion in losses, up 59 percent from 2024. The average loss was $38,500, with nearly 12,500 individuals losing more than $100,000 in funds each.

In November 2025, the Department of Justice reported charging 608 defendants between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025, for allegedly stealing more than $2.36 billion from more than 1 million elderly American victims.

Some of the top schemes targeting elders involved investment fraud, government impersonations, and romance scams, the department said.

To avoid being a victim of elder fraud schemes, the U.S. Secret Service advises people to be wary of unsolicited communications from unknown people or businesses.

The agency warned against handing over personally identifiable information, online passwords, or bank access codes to individuals or businesses they have not verified as legitimate.

Regarding scams involving impersonation of government agencies, the Secret Service said: “Note that government agencies will never call you on the phone to threaten you or your loved ones with arrest or legal action if you do not agree to remit payment for things like debt collections, release from jail, or immigration status issues.

“Official notification from U.S. government agencies will almost always initially involve an official letter sent via regular mail.”

Authored by Maria Mocerino via Interesting Engineering (emphasis ours),

A Chinese-Uzbek archaeological team has discovered a remarkable 3,000-year-old city along the Silk Road that is rich with artifacts, providing new insights into urban development during the early Iron Age in Central Asia.

Originally discovered in 1969, the expansive Bandikhan II site, covering 107,639 square feet, is located in the Bandikhan oasis. The Surxondaryo region in southern Uzbekistan is known as an archaeological treasure trove, containing multiple ancient settlement mounds. It was only recently, in 2023, that a team began excavations at Bandikhan II, which served as a crucial hub on the legendary Silk Road.

During the excavation, archaeologists uncovered remnants of an eastern wall, numerous structures, and interconnected rooms, along with a wealth of artifacts. These findings enabled researchers to identify the city as belonging to the Yaz culture, further enhancing our understanding of their role within ancient Bactria, according to TV Brics.

Though a section of this major urban center of the ancient Bactrian kingdom has been excavated thus far, the findings are providing key evidence “for understanding the form of early Iron Age city-states in southern Central Asia and the evolution of urban layouts from Bronze Age to the early Iron Age,” as per Global Times.

A Silk Road city

So far, archaeologists have explored only 3,229 square feet of the 107,639-square-foot site in the eastern section of the ancient city. However, they have confirmed that it is the largest and best-preserved settlement in the Bandikhan oasis, with foundations dating back to the early Iron Age. Researchers have begun to understand the city’s layout and how it was constructed and used during that time.

The well-preserved eastern wall features a trapezoidal cross-section, demonstrating the construction techniques employed. Inside the city, they found a detailed snapshot of daily life, including five interconnected rooms. One of these rooms was used for sleeping and contained a niche where a lamp was placed, as reported by Heritage Daily. This conclusion was drawn from the hardened interior, which indicated repeated burning and revealed the niche’s function.

Among the recovered artifacts were pottery pieces, including carinated jars, bowls, and flat-bottomed dishes. The forms and decorations of these items matched those found at other Yaz sites, such as Kuchuktepa and Yaztepa, clarifying who built this advanced urban center. While Bandikhan II shares structural similarities with these sites, it also displays notable differences, particularly in the absence of semicircular defense towers along its exterior walls.

An assortment of stone tools, including grinding slabs, mullers, pestles, and mortars, suggested that grain was processed on-site. Additionally, bronze knives and arrowheads were identified, along with seashells.

What will they find next?

The initial excavations at this Silk Road city have yielded impressive findings, generating excitement for future digs as researchers plan to expand their work in upcoming seasons. This flourishing city, with its enduring legacy, continues to be uncovered.

In response to these discoveries, a two-week training program on Silk Road archaeology has been established, aimed at promoting the protection and transmission of Silk Road cultural heritage, as concluded by The Global Times.

The AP, AFP, and others have cited Iranian state media to say that US-Israeli strikes have “completely destroyed” a synagogue in Tehran, as attacks have intensified overnight and into Tuesday.

“According to preliminary information, the Rafi-Nia Synagogue … was completely destroyed in this morning’s attacks,” the Shargh newspaper reported. Mehr news agency describes the synagogue was destroyed when an adjacent residential building in central Tehran was bombed in an aerial attacks.

Footage from the scene showed Hebrew-language books scattered on the ground and amid the rubble. Rescue efforts searching for bystanders ensued in the area. There have been no initial reports of casualties.

Israeli media, specifically the Jerusalem Post, has actually confirmed the destruction, noting that both Iran’s Jewish parliament representative as well as the synagogue’s Persian Jewish rabbi have condemned the attack in visits to the scene:

The report said that due to the narrowness of the streets surrounding the building attacked, the exterior and interior of the nearby buildings were also “severely damaged”. There was no immediate report on casualties.

In a video published on Telegram by Iran’s official IRIB News outlet, Homayoun Sameh, a Jewish representative in the country’s Islamic Consultative Assembly, said “the Zionist regime showed no mercy to this community during the Jewish holidays and targeted one of our ancient and holy synagogues.

“Unfortunately, during this attack, the synagogue building was completely destroyed and our Torah scrolls were left under the rubble,” he said.

According to more confirmation from JPost, “Footage and reports circulated by Iranian outlets and social media accounts identified the site as the Rafi Niya Synagogue, located near Palestine Square in central Tehran, an area that has seen repeated strikes in recent days.”

A US-Israel strike has caused extensive damage to a synagogue in Tehran, according to a video published by Iran’s semi-official Mehr News Agency.

Footage shows civil defence workers amid the rubble, with Hebrew-language books scattered on the ground. pic.twitter.com/Vpvn2dfjw9

— Al Jazeera Breaking News (@AJENews) April 7, 2026

“This was confirmed to The Jerusalem Post by independent sources, who told the Post that a member of the Tehran Beit Din, Rabbi David Sasani, had been seen at the site, evaluating the damage,” it adds.

Judaism, alongside Christianity, is a minority in Iran but has protected status and even enjoys representation in Iranian parliament. There are over 30 synagogues in Tehran alone, and some 100 throughout the country, with estimates of around 10,000 Iranian Jews. The Rafi-Nia synagogue was built in the 20^th century.

A few hours ago, the Jewish synagogue near Palestine Street in Tehran was targeted by Israeli fighter jets.

This synagogue, located near Palestine Square, is known as “Rafi Niya Synagogue,” and a significant part of it has been destroyed as a result of the Israeli attack. pic.twitter.com/dBXApQ3omi

— IRNA News Agency ☫ (@IrnaEnglish) April 7, 2026

IRNA English, Iran’s official state news agency, has accused Israel of actually targeting it: “a few hours ago, the Jewish synagogue near Palestine Street in Tehran was targeted by Israeli fighter jets,” it said.

Summary: 

• President Trump agrees to a two-week ceasefire with Iran, conditional on them “agreeing to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz”

• Iran accepts Pakistan’s two-week ceasefire proposal, with the deal approved by the New Supreme Leader; Iran also says safe passage via Hormuz “Possible” for two weeks

• Israel has reportedly agreed to suspend bombing while talks are ongoing.

*  *  *

President Trump, Iran Agree To 2-Week Ceasefire

Building on the conversations leaked all day, it appears President Trump has withdrawn his threat to end Iranian civilization as they know it…

Based on conversations with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir, of Pakistan, and wherein they requested that I hold off the destructive force being sent tonight to Iran, and subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz, I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks.

This will be a double sided CEASEFIRE!

The reason for doing so is that we have already met and exceeded all Military objectives, and are very far along with a definitive Agreement concerning Long-term PEACE with Iran, and PEACE in the Middle East.

We received a 10 point proposal from Iran, and believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate.

Almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran, but a two week period will allow the Agreement to be finalized and consummated.

On behalf of the United States of America, as President, and also representing the Countries of the Middle East, it is an Honor to have this Long-term problem close to resolution.

Thank you for your attention to this matter!

President DONALD J. TRUMP

Additionally, CNN reports that Israel has agree to suspend bombing while talks are ongoing.

Alayna Treene (@alaynatreene)

Israel is a part of the two-week ceasefire Trump agreed to just an hour and a half before his deadline, a senior White House official tells CNN.

Israel has agreed to also suspend its bombing campaign while negotiations continue, the official said.

And the most important variable, Iran, is also on the same page, and accepts Pakistan’s two-week ceasefire proposal with the deal approved by the New Supreme Leaders, according to the NYT.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council has confirmed that a ceasefire has been agreed based on Iran’s 10-point proposal.

It says Iran has achieved a “significant victory” against the US and Israel, adding that that Tehran will continue to “control the Strait of Hormuz”. pic.twitter.com/6LyeKPd6Bh

— Shayan Sardarizadeh (@Shayan86) April 7, 2026

More importantly, Iran has said that Safe Passage via Hormuz “Possible” for Two Weeks.

Talks between the US and Iran will start on Friday, although Iran was quick to note that it will engage in talks with complete distrust.  

* * * 

The reaction is as you would expect.

Oil plunged…

Stocks spiked…

Gold and Bitcoin are soaring.

Treasury yields and the dollar are tumbling.

…well it wouldn’t be Tuesday without TACOs…

Just one thing though – Iran haven’t formally agreed to open the Strait (yet) and as a reminder, it takes two to tango ceasefire.

Last Ditch Peace Effort by Pakistan Prime Minister

With just hours until Trump’s self declared deadline wherein he said a “whole civilization will die tonight” – Pakistan’s leader and host of mediation efforts, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, has tried to introduce a last minute olive branch, hoping that the US will avoid its decimation campaign:

I earnestly request President Trump to extend the deadline for two weeks. Pakistan, in all sincerity, requests the Iranian brothers to open Strait of Hormuz for a corresponding period of two weeks as a goodwill gesture. We also urge all warring parties to observe a ceasefire everywhere for two weeks to allow diplomacy to achieve conclusive termination of war, in the interest of long-term peace and stability in the region.

Will Trump latch on to this plea and last minute effort of good will? The sides are aware of the proposal:

TEHRAN IS POSITIVELY REVIEWING PAKISTAN’S REQUEST FOR A TWO-WEEK CEASEFIRE: SENIOR IRANIAN OFFICIAL

TRUMP IS AWARE OF PAKISTAN’S PROPOSAL: AXIOS CITING LEAVITT

Diplomatic efforts for peaceful settlement of the ongoing war in the Middle East are progressing steadily, strongly and powerfully with the potential to lead to substantive results in near future. To allow diplomacy to run its course, I earnestly request President Trump to extend…

— Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) April 7, 2026

In the meantime, some fresh statements via state Tasnim:

• “If Trump wants to fall into a hole with his madness, we have prepared a black hole for him from which it will be  impossible for him to get out”, Tasnim reports citing an Iranian military source
• “Have prepared good surprises for Trump’s possible madness; One of them is the addition of Aramco oil facilities, Yanba oil facilities and the Fujairah pipeline to Iran’s goals, and in case of Trump’s crime, Iran will not hesitate to impose heavy costs on America and its partners.”
• “Trump thinks that with these threats the strait will be opened and the price of oil will go down! He doesn’t know that if he carries out his threat, he will have to wait for the oil price of $200 in the coming days.”

Axios Cites ‘Glimmer’ of Progress as Trump Deadline Looms

More from Axios’ Barak Ravid, though we should note that it’s increasingly difficult to know what has legitimacy:

Progress has been made in the past 24 hours in the negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, though reaching a ceasefire deal by President Trump’s 8pm ET deadline still looks like a long shot, according to a U.S. official, an Israeli official and two other sources with knowledge of the talks.

• A U.S. official said the thinking in the White House has shifted from “can we get there?” to “can we get there by 8 o’clock tonight?”

These wild headline swings (and in markets) concerning positive or negative signs on the status of indirect negotiations have been going for weeks at this point. 

WH Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt thinks it’s assuring to inform the public that only Trump knows “where things stand and what he will do,” adding: “The Iranian regime has until 8PM Eastern Time to meet the moment and make a deal with the United States.”

Russia, China Veto Hormuz Strait Resolution at UNSC

On Tuesday a UN Security Council resolution on opening the Strait of Hormuz failed due to Russia and China vetoing it. It was drafted by Bahrain and authorized countries to use military force if necessary to open the strait for the free flow of shipping and commerce.

The resolution garnered 11 votes in favor, but permanent veto-wielding members China and Russia blocked it by registering no votes. This comes after days of pressure from Gulf countries to restore free passage in the strait, amid Trump’s Operation Epic Fury. Russia complained that the UN res would damage “very fragile truce negotiations” by given broad allowance to use military force to reopen the waterway.

Tehran Times Reverses in Astounding Correction, Now Says Talks Are Not Closed

The NY Times had also said it only within the last hour, based on the initial headline out of Tehran, that all backchannel talks were suspended.

Tehran Times deleted this post from 2 hours ago saying all communication with US has closed.

Trump Hints at Possible Deadline Extension

In a call with FOX’s Bret Baier, Trump says 8 PM deadline today “could change if negotiations move forward, but sticking to deadline for now.” And yet Tehran has said it has suspended all back channel negotiations. TACO Tuesday? 

TRUMP TELLS FOX NEWS IF NEGOTIATIONS ADVANCE AND THERE IS SOMETHING TANGIBLE WE MIGHT EXTEND THE DEADLINE: AL ARABIYA

Meanwhile, per news wires and CNN:

The Israeli military is on standby and ready to launch strikes on Iran ahead of US President Trump’s deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, an Israeli security source tells CNN. The Israeli security source said plans have been prepared for a combined US-lsraeli operation with full military coordination pending a green light from Trump.

Iran: All Diplomatic Channels With US Have Ceased

“Iran has closed all diplomatic and indirect channels of communication with the US,” Tehran Times has reported. The publication says that “Any and all message exchanges have also been suspended.”

The Tehran Times is seen as tied to the hardline factions of the government, and calls itself the “voice of the Islamic Revolution” – but is not directly state-owned per se.

The NY Times also confirms “Iran has stopped negotiating with the US and it told Pakistan that it will not continue ceasefire talks.”

Meanwhile President Masoud Pezeshkian has praised the willingness of “14 million” Iranian citizens to “sacrifice” by taking to the streets, seeking to protect power plants and other sensitive vital infrastructure, as the US-Israeli bombs rain down. US conservative MSM publications have decried this as a form of “human shields”. 

‘Human chains’ seen on some bridges…

Iranians form human shield at Kazeroun power plant ahead of Trump’s threatened strikes. pic.twitter.com/Le2VcEpPQv

— Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) April 7, 2026

And apparently at nuclear sites…

JUST IN:

Iranians are gathering on bridges and around power plants, forming human chains after threats of US and Israeli strikes on Iran’s civilian infrastructure. pic.twitter.com/DrGFZlfP0E

— Current Report (@Currentreport1) April 7, 2026

WH Trying to Manufacture ‘Mission Accomplished’? Vance Says Objectives Completed

Vice President JD Vance has said that “very shortly” this war will be “completed” in a Tuesday morning statement. He stated specifically that the military objectives have been accomplished, adding there are “two pathways” – and that optimistically this will involve “lots of negotiations” – but with a deadline of 8pm ET. The US is “confident it will get an Iran response.”

The below is from Hala Jaber, a longtime Sunday Times journalist and veteran Middle East war correspondent:

Trump is scrambling behind the scenes for a ceasefire with Iran, according to claims emerging via Fars News Agency. Allegations point to urgent outreach through multiple governments & intelligence channels. Citing what it describes as an “informed source,” the report claims the U.S. has been pushing for a ceasefire via backchannels, using countries it believes have credibility with Tehran.

According to the same account, Iran received calls from five heads of government & eight intelligence agencies, all seeking to open a path toward a ceasefire. It further claims Washington is considering reshaping its negotiation team, including removing Witkoff due to his ties to Netanyahu’s circle & replacing him with Vance to lead a more serious track. The urgency, the source says, is driven by mounting military & economic pressure, including fears of surging fuel prices. If true, it would mark a stark contrast to the public posture.

“I hope they make the right response,” says @VP on Iran.

“They’ve got to know, we’ve got tools in our toolkit that we so far haven’t decided to use. @POTUS can decide to use them, and he will decide to use them if the Iranians don’t change their course of conduct.” pic.twitter.com/UUiQ5SdEO5

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 7, 2026

Trump: A Whole Civilization Will Die Tonight

Trump seems to be openly announcing plans for genocide – saying he’s going to annihilate an entire civilization. What else do you call this? “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” he threatened in a Tuesday Truth Social Post. “However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS?” – he continued.

Meanwhile, according to The Associated Press:

Airstrikes pounded Tehran on Tuesday, and Iranian officials urged young people to form human chains to protect power plants, hours before the expiration of U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest deadline for the Islamic Republic to reopen the crucial Strait of Hormuz or face punishing strikes on its infrastructure.

Kharg Island Bombed (Again)

Kharg Island is being bombed again on Tuesday, with a senior US officials telling Fox’s Jennifer Griffin that the “U.S. hit dozens of military targets on Kharg Island overnight.” Per the fresh reporting the targets included bunkers, a radar station, and ammunition storage.

However, the same officials described that landing docks were not intentionally targeted – that they only would have been struck if Iranians fired something from next to them. This development has led to speculation that this could be another round of softening operations to prepare for some kind of US Marine or special forces seizure.

This send oil back to the highs…

This would without doubt be very high risk, with the potential for significant US casualties. More from Griffin:

The strikes on Kharg Island were carried out solely by the US, not  Israel, I am told. “This is a message to the Iranians,” a senior US official told me.

Axios cites a US official to say the strikes on Kharg island were not directed at oil infrastructure, but were “re-strikes” on military targets that were hit previously.

NOW: U.S. airstrikes targeting shelters and defensive facilities on Iran’s Kharg Island. pic.twitter.com/k1pauNpb6A

— Clash Report (@clashreport) April 7, 2026

Bridges, Power Plants, Tit-For-Tat Warning

President Trump has been warning of the “complete demolition” of Iran’s power plants and bridges in a matter of hours – so by Tuesday’s end – if the Strait of Hormuz is not fully reopened by his deadline. Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Majed al-Ansari, is urging some last minute diplomatic action, warning, “We are close to the point where the situation in the region could spiral out of control.” There have meanwhile been reports of more Iranian attacks on Qatar. “There are no winners if this war continues,” he said.

But Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is not backing down, having on Tuesday claimed responsibility for attacks on petrochemical facilities in Saudi Arabia’s Jubail region, stating the strikes were retaliation for earlier Israeli attacks on its Shiraz petrochemical facility.

Iranian officials have repeatedly warned that any strikes on Iranian power plants and bridges would trigger reciprocal attacks on regional infrastructure. The IRGC stated it targeted American companies in Jubail with missiles and drones, including Sadra, ExxonMobil, and Dark Chemical.

Images posted online show damage to a highway bridge between the northwestern Iranian cities of Hashtroud and Tabriz, following apparent Israeli strikes.

It also stated that a petrochemical complex in Juaymah belonging to the US company Shourdan Phillips was struck with medium-range missiles and drones.

Israeli Attacks on Iran Rail, Infrastructure Have Already Begun

Iran’s Mehr News Agency is reporting attacks on Iran’s rail system, including an Israeli strike hit the Yahya Abad railway bridge in the city of Kashan, in central Iran. The Deputy Governor of Isfahan has said that the strike killed two people.

The attack came after the IDF issued a warning telling Iranians against using trains for their “safety” until 9pm local time (17:30 GMT).

The governor of Mashhad has already announced the immediate suspension of all rail services departing the city amid the Israeli threat. It’s being reported as a precautionary measure that will remain in effect “until further notice”. Apparently this rail operation is being done only by the Israeli side of the bombing campaign.

More on Iran’s 10-Point Response to US Ceasefire Plan

Iran has delivered its highly anticipated “10-point” response to the US’ “15-point peace plan.” Iran’s 10-point plan includes, according to a paraphrase:

1. Guarantee that Iran will not be attacked again

2. Permanent end to the war, not just a ceasefire

3. End to Israeli strikes in Lebanon

4. Lifting of all US sanctions on Iran

5. End to all regional fighting against Iranian allies

6. In return, Iran would open the Strait of Hormuz

7. Iran would impose a Hormuz fee of $2 million per ship

8. Iran would split these fees with Oman

9. Iran to provide rules for safe passage through Hormuz

10. Iran to use Hormuz fees for reconstruction instead of reparations

Importantly, Tehran has dropped its demand for full war reconstruction reparations to be paid directly by the United States, providing a potential window to reach actual compromise with Washington.

75 Gulf Energy Assets Damaged In U.S.-Iran War As Supply Shock Intensifies

International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Fatih Birol was interviewed by the French newspaper Le Figaro earlier on Tuesday and warned that the Gulf energy shock “is more severe than those of 1973, 1979, and 2022 combined” because it is affecting oil, gas, food, fertilizers, petrochemicals, helium, and global trade all at once.

Birol said in the interview that more than 75 energy sites across the Gulf region have been attacked, with about a third severely damaged, suggesting tens of billions of dollars in repairs and a prolonged disruption of some energy flows, further tightening global supplies and compounding the disruption at the Strait of Hormuz chokepoint.

The newspaper asked Birol, “How quickly can Gulf production recover?”

He responded:

“We are monitoring energy infrastructure in real time—fields, refineries, terminals. Seventy-five facilities have been attacked and damaged, more than a third severely. Repairs will take a long time. Countries like Saudi Arabia may recover faster due to strong engineering capabilities and financial resources, but elsewhere, such as Iraq, the situation is far worse. About 15 million people depend on oil and gas revenues there, and the country has lost two-thirds of its oil income, approaching economic paralysis. It will take a long time for the Middle East—previously a reliable energy hub—to recover.”

Cherry-picking the most important parts of the interview:

Le Figaro asked: Who will suffer the most?

Birol responded: The global economy will suffer. Of course, European countries will struggle, as will Japan, Australia, and others. But developing countries will be the most affected due to high oil, gas, and food prices, and accelerating inflation. Their economic growth will be heavily impacted. I fear many developing countries will see their external debt rise significantly. That is why I am pessimistic—this crisis stems not from energy itself, but from geopolitics.

Le Figaro asked: Which countries are most exposed to shortages?

Birol responded: Import-dependent countries are most exposed: in Asia—South Korea, Japan, but especially Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. African countries will also be heavily affected, as developing nations have limited financial flexibility.

Le Figaro asked: How quickly can Gulf production recover?

Birol responded: We are monitoring energy infrastructure in real time—fields, refineries, terminals. Seventy-five facilities have been attacked and damaged, more than a third severely. Repairs will take a long time. Countries like Saudi Arabia may recover faster due to strong engineering capabilities and financial resources, but elsewhere, such as Iraq, the situation is far worse. About 15 million people depend on oil and gas revenues there, and the country has lost two-thirds of its oil income, approaching economic paralysis. It will take a long time for the Middle East—previously a reliable energy hub—to recover.

Le Figaro asked: How significant is the drop in Gulf oil production?

Birol responded: Enormous. These countries are producing just over half of pre-war levels. As for natural gas, exports have stopped entirely. March was already difficult, but April will be worse. If the Strait remains closed throughout April, we will lose twice as much crude and refined products as in March. We are entering a “black April.” In the Northern Hemisphere, April usually marks spring—but now it may feel like the beginning of winter.

Birol has painted a bleak outlook for energy markets and the global economy for weeks in various interviews. 

However, emerging through the fog of war, the U.S. appears poised to be a net beneficiary of the chaos across the Gulf, with energy flows expected to remain disrupted for some time.

• Qatar Dethroned As ‘LNG King’ As U.S. Seizes Throne, Reshaping Future Of Gas

• Wyoming’s Helium Empire Ascends As Qatar Gas Goes Flat

A reminder to readers of JPMorgan’s note last week, mapping how the energy shock dominoes begin to fall. Read it here.

* * *

Authored by Anthony Esolen via American Greatness,

No kings? But millions of little queens of both sexes, tyrants in both public and private life, who would make sure, if they were in the position to do so, that I would pay dearly for the very sentence I am writing right now; who police both what you say and what you would very much like to be left alone not to say; who use exceptional cases to justify surveillance over people who teach their children at home, and who agitate to make that choice more difficult if not illegal; who have in fact made it illegal, by the agency of the national government, for people to refrain, without suffering a stiff financial penalty, from buying health insurance which they may not need or want.

No kings, but millions of people dancing with glee at the assassination of Charlie Kirk and hoping that that’ll teach those rednecks from getting uppity; headsmen glad to lop off inconvenient lives at their beginning, exercising total and tyrannical power against the most vulnerable, whose very existence is owing to the voluntary actions of those who would slay them; shedding crocodilian tears of sympathy if someone who is sad and lonely at any age decides to end his life, corralling a doctor or nurse to assist in suicide, and thus corrupting the profession; eager to embroil the nation in a war with Russia, yet crying out in rage at the prospect that Cuba and Venezuela might now have the chance to pick themselves up out of their socialist miseries; no kings but Moloch and Marx.

No kings, but fantasy queens, all the touchier and more vindictive if anyone should laugh at the fantasy, or even say, hat in hand, scraping and ducking, that maybe, well, maybe, the fantasy isn’t real; wrenching the very definition of marriage away from common law and common sense; glad to compel girls to compete against mentally ill boys in sports, and even gladder to have them invade their locker rooms; continuing, with all the might and weight of schools, colleges, and the media, to thrust upon a still-hesitating populace one experiment after another against sexual reality and against the most reliable means for climbing out of poverty, the family; no king and queen but Baal and Astarte.

No kings, but people with the souls, though not the courage, of tyrants, who, if someone in a favored group is murdered or is alleged to have been murdered by a policeman, will organize en masse to shut down your city, vandalize businesses that get in their way, and block traffic on major highways, stranding ambulances and the desperate people they are carrying, and who will in general carry on so as to make a fair trial impossible; people, including some who hold political office, who issue open threats to judges, demanding the judgment they approve and saying that they will pay for it if they judge otherwise; no kings, but wannabe dictators everywhere, armed with organizational money and power, going after an ordinary fellow with a bakery, making a federal case of it if he declines politely to contribute his efforts toward the celebration of perversion.

No kings, no kings, but people eager to suppress the native population by conniving at the non-enforcement of immigration laws, laws duly passed by the people’s own representatives in Congress; no kings, but people content to make it trivially easy to cast a vote by mail, which you are not authorized to cast; no kings, but people who hate the less populous states and would overwhelm them with the might of numbers, by eliminating one of their few frail signs and guardians of autonomy, the Electoral College.

No kings, whose appetites for wealth were kept in check in old times by the charters they gave to townsmen and their merchants and who could only take what actually existed, but grubby politicians ready to tax notional wealth, which does not even exist but only might exist, wealth not even on paper but floating in the air of suppositions; no kings, but despisers of intergenerational family wealth, ready to soak up all your assets when you die, on the grounds that every generation should begin from scratch, that it is not “fair” for your children to inherit what you have worked so hard to give them after you are gone; no kings, but Jabba the State.

No kings, but NGOs everywhere, with vast resources in wealth and no legal directives or oversight as to how it is spent, and spent not in charity but in political action, orchestrating demonstrations; no kings, but a million verminous thought-controllers in high technology, invisibly promoting or suppressing what they wish, via the algorithms that would govern our collective thoughts; no kings, but Google, and its court jester Disney.

No kings, but schoolteachers and principals who think it is all right to do with a large classroom of boys and girls what would get the creepy man down the street arrested if he did exactly the same thing with but one; no kings, but people who bar the door against parents who want to find out what is going on in school behind them; no kings, but Kinsey set free from all restraint.

No kings, but a tangle of human resource personnel, lawyers, judges, and political interest groups ranged against you if you attempted to hire a Thomas Edison without formal schooling, thus driving up the costs of higher schooling and higher indoctrination, saddling families with exorbitant debt while providing, in return, very little in the way of a truly human education.

No kings, but haters of religion and people of religious faith, the main obstacle to their power, as the family is the fundamental social unit of possible opposition to the ambitions of the non-religious and their aims to mold the minds of other people’s children, especially since they have rather few of their own; no kings but the murderous and atheistical Mao Zedong and his even crueler wife Jiang Qing; Charlemagne, no, Confucius, hell no, but Mao, yes; Washington, no, but Castro, yes.

No kings, no one to join with the middle class in a flanking action against innumerable rapacious aristocrats; insulation for the exercisers of real political and economic power, whatever they happen to call themselves, but exposure of everyone else; no kings from one horizon to the other, but you will hit a duke or duchess wherever you spit, and God help you when you do.

No kings, but politicians and their wealthy or addle-pated enablers, who would, to “save the planet,” compel everyone to draw their power from centralized electrical grids, even the power to travel by car from Mayfield to Springfield; no kings, then, but controllers of artificially established turnpikes, bottlenecks, and checkpoints, with the power to bring an entire nation to its knees; no kings, but a new kind of Andrew Carnegie with ten thousand times the power and none of the bracing experiences of hard manual labor.

No kings, but censors in everyone’s hair, like lice, not to police public morals and keep obscenity from the eyes of children, but to police people who object to the obscenity; Cato everywhere, on the lookout for demands for decency, to punish those who dare to demand it.

No kings, not even God Almighty, but everyone to be a king or a queen only in those matters that enervate and corrupt; free to be weaklings, slaves, louts, and harlots, all true self-reliance lost, along with the nobility of the divine image; “Non serviam,” cries the slave as he submits his hands to the state, ready to clap them in irons; no king but the Self, and the driver of the Self without God, a driver sometimes called Satan.

No kings indeed.

Nepal’s Central Investigation Bureau investigates a large-scale insurance fraud operation in the Himalayan trekking sector. Authorities charge 32 individuals – including trekking company operators, guides, helicopter rescue coordinators, hospital owners, and doctors – with organized crime and fraud. The scheme allegedly triggers unnecessary and expensive helicopter evacuations that insurers foot the bill for.

According to The Independent, the probe focuses on activities between 2022 and 2025 across popular routes that include the path to Everest Base Camp, Annapurna, Manaslu, and Langtang. Investigators examine more than 4,700 international patient cases at implicated Kathmandu hospitals and review thousands of helicopter flights. They identify hundreds of rescues as fraudulent or exaggerated, with operators allegedly inflating symptoms, forging medical records, and billing single flights as multiple separate emergencies to multiply payouts.

Between 2022 and 2025, investigators identified 4,782 foreign patients treated across the implicated hospitals. Of these, 171 cases were confirmed as fake rescues. Over that period, Era International Hospital received deposits of more than $15.87 million linked to these activities. Shreedhi International Hospital received over $1.22 million.

Among rescue operators, Mountain Rescue Service conducted 171 fraudulent rescues out of 1,248 total charter flights, claiming approximately $10.31 million from insurers. Nepal Charter Service carried out 75 fake rescues from 471 flights, claiming $8.2 million. Everest Experience and Assistance was linked to 71 suspicious rescues from 601 flights, with insurance claims totalling $11.04 million.

In one instance that illustrates the brazenness of the scheme, police documented a case in which four tourists were rescued on a single helicopter flight, on the same date, using the same helicopter and manifest. Insurance claims were nonetheless submitted as multiple separate rescues, with the total rescue bill reaching $31,100, plus a separate hospital bill of $11,890. –Kathmandu Post

According to the report, the rescue companies “managed to extract nearly $20m in payouts from international insurance companies for rescues that were unnecessary or, in some cases, completely fabricated.”

The fraud centers on paperwork manipulation and kickback arrangements among trekking firms, hospitals, and helicopter companies. A common tactic involves claiming routine ailments – mild fatigue, stomach issues, or early signs of altitude discomfort – as acute emergencies that require immediate airlift. One documented pattern shows four trekkers on a single charter flight billed as four distinct rescue missions, turning a modest private flight cost into a $30,000-plus insurance claim. Hospitals submit charges for treatments that never occur or prove unnecessary. The scheme primarily targets travelers from countries with straightforward insurance policies, such as the UK, Australia, and Canada.

Some witness statements mention guides adding baking powder to food or giving clients excessive medication and water to induce nausea and symptoms that mimic altitude sickness. Media reports highlight these details and fuel speculation about deliberate poisoning on Everest routes. Nepal police, however, state clearly that the official investigation uncovers no evidence of actual poisoning. In their April 2026 public statement, the Central Investigation Bureau declares: “To date, the official investigation has not found any evidence of ‘poisoning.’ No facts have been found to suggest that poisonous substances were mixed into food.”

The distinction matters. The scam primarily affects trekkers on lower-altitude trails rather than the roughly 500 technical climbers who attempt the Everest summit each year. High-altitude summit expeditions operate under stricter medical protocols, oxygen support, and professional oversight that make staged emergencies far more difficult to execute undetected. The Everest name draws global attention, but the bulk of the documented fraud occurs on approach hikes and other regional circuits where helicopter access remains relatively straightforward.

The investigation highlights systemic weaknesses in Nepal’s rapidly growing adventure tourism industry. Helicopter services, essential for genuine high-altitude emergencies, expand quickly but operate with limited oversight. Earlier government attempts to require tourism authority approval for rescues fail to curb the practice. Insurers now face pressure to tighten verification, while legitimate rescues risk greater scrutiny and delays.

Antares Nuclear reached the most significant regulatory milestone to date for a microreactor. The company announced that its Mark-0 reactor became the first advanced reactor to receive Department of Energy approval for a Documented Safety Analysis under the new DOE-STD-1271. 

DSA approved. ✅

Antares is the first advanced reactor to receive DOE approval of a Documented Safety Analysis under DOE-STD-1271.

Our Mark-0 reactor now moves to Readiness Review.

Onward. pic.twitter.com/DovqJsVVwz

— Antares (@AntaresNuclear) April 6, 2026

The company will now proceed with preparations for taking the reactor critical for the first time. This includes forming a joint test group to oversee the startup planning and execution. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright holds permission for starting up the reactor as the Startup Approval Authority. 

Bob Boston, manager of the DOE Idaho Operations Office, granted the approval of the DSA on Monday afternoon and clarified “The Department of Energy DSA is equivalent to an NRC license”.

We have closely tracked Antares and other reactor developers in the rapidly advancing microreactor race. The company’s R1 design is a sodium heat pipe cooled microreactor engineered to provide up to one megawatt of flexible, carbon-free power. It targets applications including remote communities and military installations where conventional power infrastructure is limited. BWXT is completing TRISO fuel fabrication for the pilot with a planned criticality date before July 4th.

The company stands out as an early leader in securing formal safety analysis approval ahead of other contenders such as Radiant, Valar, Aalo Atomics, and Oklo.

This development occurs just after we highlighted the Department of Energy’s requested $45 billion in nuclear funding for fiscal year 2027, and recent discussions from Jay Yu of Nano Nuclear pointing out nuclear energy’s new spotlight in light of the Iran conflict. 

Today, India takes a defining step in its civil nuclear journey, advancing the second stage of its nuclear programme.

The indigenously designed and built Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor at Kalpakkam has attained criticality.

This advanced reactor, capable of producing more fuel…

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 6, 2026

In related international news, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that India’s 500 megawatt Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor at Kalpakkam has attained criticality. The sodium-cooled fast reactor designed by BHAVINI advances the second stage of India’s three-stage nuclear program and brings the country closer to utilizing its large thorium reserves in the final phase.

These advancements in both advanced microreactors and large-scale fast breeder technology reflect growing worldwide interest in expanding reliable clean baseload nuclear capacity.
 

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

It’s not the price of oil per se that triggers recession, it’s the underlying vulnerabilities that have been cloaked with happy story narratives to keep the game going.

Recessions don’t require a spike in the price of oil/gasoline, but spikes in energy prices trigger recessions. This makes sense, as hydrocarbons are the foundation of every industry, from the so-called “green” industries to all the high-tech industries (SpaceX, AI data centers etc.) to transport, plastics and everything else.

Recessions have other causes, of course: the business cycle of over-indebtedness and speculative excesses leading to defaults and the contraction of credit and spending, the collapse of speculative asset bubbles, the inflationary spiral of overborrowing to fund “guns and butter,” and disruptive events such as plagues and wars.

Inflation reduces discretionary income as a larger share of earnings must be devoted to essentials. In a consumer economy, this reduction of discretionary income leads to households borrowing more to fill the widening gap between what they reckon is their rightful lifestyle and the purchasing power of their earnings.

This increase in debt leads to a higher percentage of net earnings being devoted to interest and principal, further reducing discretionary income. The eventual retrenchment–reducing debt by reducing spending and default–leads to a contraction in consumption, i.e. recession.

Recessions occur when a happy story about the economy that doesn’t reflect reality encounters reality. Before recessions, the happy story is always the same: corporate profits are solid and rising, consumer spending is rock-solid, employment is strong, unemployment is low, the household balance sheet is healthy, technology is increasing productivity, and so on.

According to the happy story, a recession is impossible, so borrow and buy, buy, buy–stocks, houses, experiences, cruises, buy it all because the good times are permanent.

The vulnerabilities generated by over-reliance on borrowing to fund spending and the corrosive effects of inflation are buried beneath statistical trickery: add all the wealthy households to the mix and then take the average, and voila: look how rich the average household is. All is well, borrow and buy to your heart’s content. Mix in hedonic adjustments and pixie-dust and voila, 8% inflation is magically reduced to 2.5%.

The suspension of disbelief / confidence is the magic of the happy story narrative. As long as people are complacent and confident, they act on the belief that their income and wealth will continue rising, enabling more borrowing and spending.

That this is not necessarily in their best interests in the long term is what must be hidden, lest they curtail borrowing and spending because the whole point of the economy is to maximize profits and this is only possible if people who don’t earn enough money to spend freely borrow to spend freely.

This is where the other magic in the happy story becomes essential: the wealth effect generated by credit-asset bubbles. If people see their house and stock portfolios rising in value, they feel wealthier and are more confident in borrowing and spending because they have this wealth piling up in the background.

It’s like a savings account that increases without the sacrifice of deferring consumption: in credit-asset bubbles, we get to have our cake and eat it, too.

The problem that must be hidden by the happy story is that excessive debt and speculation are self-liquidating: the machinery that makes them work self-destructs by its very nature. Debt accrues interest which reduces discretionary income which sets up contraction of credit and consumption, and all credit-asset bubbles pop, regardless of the intensity of the propaganda / happy story that this isn’t a bubble, it’s “capitalism” or “technology” or “animal spirits.”

It’s not a specific price point or metric that causes recession: it’s the decay of confidence and discretionary income that leads to recession. Confidence is fragile by its very nature. We’ve been selected to be wary of surplus suddenly becoming scarcity, and rising prices of energy cascading through the entire economy activates a reappraisal of our complacent confidence.

Every business is hammered by rising costs for literally everything they buy to operate, and since the discretionary income of the bottom 80% is already under pressure, they can’t raise prices much without losing sales.

Households feel the pinch of rising utilities and fuel immediately, and for both enterprises and households, confidence in the future is at risk of eroding like a sand castle in a rising tide.

Here is a chart of the average price of gasoline in the US from 1976 to February 2026. I’ve added the recent spike to the current average price of $4.11 / gallon. Interestingly, this is pretty close to the inflation-adjusted price of gasoline in the 1973-74 Gas Crisis, and the nominal price in July 2008. Adjusted for inflation, $4.11 in July 2008 is $6.11 in today’s dollars.

The point I want to make here is that there is no price trigger for recession, as it depends on the underlying fragilities and vulnerabilities of the economy. Put another way, it depends on the width of the gap between the happy story narrative intended to keep confidence and complacency high and the realities of higher costs and rising debt service reducing discretionary income.

Credit-asset bubbles pop for many reasons, but what we experience is a collapse of confidence that the bubble will continue inflating, making us richer every day, in every way. The core fragility of today’s economy is the expansion of consumption now depends on the spending of the top 10%, who just so happen to own the lion’s share of income-producing assets such as real estate, stocks, corporate bonds and enterprises.

Once the Everything Bubble pops, the confidence of the top earners and spenders will collapse, leading to a decline in their borrowing and spending.

Oil doesn’t need to hit $147/barrel and gasoline doesn’t need to reach $6/gallon to trigger a recession. (Gasoline is over $6/gallon in California and over $5/gallon in states with high fuel taxes.) There is no specific price-point, any more than there is some specific metric that enables us to predict an avalanche. It all depends on the underlying vulnerabilities and excesses of the economy at that moment in time.

When he’s confident, Wile can walk on air. It’s when he suddenly discerns reality that his confidence vanishes. Recessions always catch conventional economists by surprise because the collapse of confidence triggers a sudden rise in unemployment and defaults and a sharp decline of credit and spending.

It’s not the price of oil per se that causes a recession, it’s the underlying vulnerabilities that have been cloaked with happy story narratives to keep the game going.

*  *  *

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