My mid-morning Plane reads:

• The Era of Free Seas Is Unraveling—and Now Everyone’s Going to Pay: Three centuries of open maritime commerce are buckling under geopolitical pressure. Iran’s toll booth at the Strait of Hormuz is just the beginning of a much more expensive world. (Wall Street Journal)

• The country that can’t say no to Trump: The FT on a U.S. ally trapped between economic dependence and political humiliation. Trump’s foreign policy is a stress test for everyone’s sovereignty. Tokyo is in need of a plan B to dependence on the US. There may not be one. (Financial Times) see also The Iran War Is Hitting California Harder Than Any Other State: California imports roughly 75% of its crude oil, almost one-third of which comes from the Middle East. (Wall Street Journal)

• These Retirees Are Thriving. What Are Their Secrets? How to handle your money, spend your time and get the most out of post-work life. (Bloomberg)

• Trump wants you to invest your 401(k) in crypto and private equity. Should you bite? Trump is opening the door to risky ‘alternative investments’ such as crypto and private equity in 401(k) plans. But employers have had good reasons to keep them out of their plans. (Los Angeles Times)

• What Are Stablecoins Used for Today? Estimating the Distribution of Stablecoins: Uncovering where stablecoins are held and how they are used in the financial ecosystem provides three key insights: stablecoins are rarely used for payments, stablecoin infrastructure lacks interoperability, and the stablecoin ecosystem is still predominantly tied to crypto finance. (Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City)

• Private credit has calmed the credit cycle: The reason the IMF, BIS, and various major central banks have been focusing on private credit is because they see it as new and untested, opaque, with the potential to amplify monetary transmission and contribute to financial stability risks. Private credit is absorbing what banks used to handle — which sounds calming until you realize the stress is just hidden, not gone. (Financial Times)

• How the Internet Broke Everyone’s Bullshit Detectors: Our cognitive defenses evolved for face-to-face lies, not algorithmic deception at scale. From AI-generated images to restricted satellite data, the systems used to verify what’s real online are struggling to keep up.  Wired on why even smart people are falling for dumb things in 2026. (Wired)

• Meet Peter Magyar, the Man Who Ended Trump Ally Viktor Orbán’s 16-Year Rule: “We won not small but big—very, very big,” Magyar told a crowd of cheering supporters, celebrating the fact he toppled Orbán’s Fidesz Party by gaining 138 of 199 seats. “Together we changed the Orbán regime, together we liberated Hungary, we took our homeland back.” He pledged to spend the next four years striving for a “free, European, functioning, and humane Hungary.” The playbook for defeating entrenched autocrats might be more replicable than we thought. (TIME) see also Hungary Just Ousted the Unoustable: Viktor Orbán had support from Moscow and Washington, but not from his own people. His defeat proves autocrats aren’t invincible — they’re just good at gaming the margins until they’re not. Lessons here for every country watching its own democratic backsliding. (The Atlantic) see also New data suggests Trump’s assault on democracy may be stalling out: Three new reports give some surprising reasons for optimism. Democracy indexes show the damage may have plateaued. Not recovered, but plateaued — which is more than most analysts expected at this point. (Vox)

• ‘This Was the Real Thing’: Meet the Woman Who Alerts the World When an Asteroid Could Hit: A profile of the UN official responsible for warning humanity about asteroid impacts. The most important job nobody’s heard of. (The Guardian)

• The US small town coffee shop that created a viral drink: ‘I still don’t understand how it went so far’ A palate cleanser: a small-town coffee shop accidentally invents a TikTok-famous drink. The modern economy in miniature — scale, virality, and the limits of local. The raspberry danish latte is making its way around the world after its inventors decided to share the recipe. (The Guardian)

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Mike Pyle, Deputy Head of BlackRock’s Portfolio Management Group (PMG) and member of the Global Executive Committee. He helps oversee $5 trillion in client assets across systematic & discretionary strategies as well as directly overseeing PMG’s hedge funds platform. He also heads the  BlackRock Investment Institute.

 

Which states have the highest and lowest income tax?

Source: USA Facts

 

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The post 10 Tuesday AM Reads appeared first on The Big Picture.

New York Versus The Nuns: The Dominican Sisters Face Penalties For Refusing To Yield On Religious Values

Authored by Jonathan Turley via jonathanturley.org,

New York has been a godsend for gun rights in passing a series of unconstitutional limits on Second Amendment rights only to result in major adverse rulings. It may soon do the same for the free exercise of religion. New York is now going head-to-head with a group of Dominican nuns over a law challenged as unconstitutional. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state are being sued over a law that forces religious organizations to adhere to LGBTQ policies.  

Mother Marie Edward, O.P., explained to Fox News Digital that they will not set their faith aside under the threat of fines, loss of licensing and even jail time. She noted that they ask nothing from the state and ask to be allowed to offer charity without abandoning their religious principles:

“We are consecrated religious Sisters and have one mission. It is to provide comfort and skilled care to persons dying of cancer who cannot afford nursing care. We do not take insurance or government funds or money from our patients or families. The care is totally free…

We are supported by the goodness of our benefactors. We do this without discriminating on the basis of race, religion, or sex. We do it because Jesus taught us that, when the least among us are sick, we should care for them, as if they were Christ himself.”

The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, who run Rosary Hill Home in Hawthorne, New York, objected that the law requires them to assign rooms by gender identity, not biological sex; allow access to opposite-sex bathrooms and coerce speech recognizing identities and relationships that violate Catholic values. It would also require staff training on gender ideology and the posting a public notice stating compliance with these demands.

According to a press release from the Catholic Benefits Association, the  New York State Department of Health sent the first in a series of “Dear Administrator” letters to the Hawthorne Dominicans’ Rosary Hill Home demanding compliance despite their religious objections. The nuns note that they have never had a single complaint filed over the treatment of its residents.

If they do not comply, the nuns face fines up to $2,000 per violation that increase up to $10,000 as well as the loss of licensing and up to one year in prison.

Hochul remains committed to compelling the nuns to comply — a position that may prove costly with Catholic voters in the upcoming election.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly struck down anti-discrimination laws compelling speech or conduct in violation of religious values.

For example, in Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter and Paul Home v. Pennsylvania (2020), the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in favor of the Little Sisters of the Poor, allowing the Catholic nuns to refuse to provide contraceptive coverage in their health plans.

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/13/2026 - 20:55

Masters Prize Money Soars To Record High: Here's What Golfers Actually Earned

The 2026 Masters delivered golf’s richest payday yet, with a record-shattering $22.5 million purse at Augusta National. This year’s champion, Rory McIlroy, scored a career-highlight $4.5 million, the largest winner’s share in tournament history, as the total prize fund rose $1.5 million from last year and a remarkable $7.5 million since 2022, according to Fox Business.

Rory Mcllroy

Runner-up Scottie Scheffler took home $2.43 million. Even deeper in the field, players who made the cut but finished outside the top 50 earned at least $55,250, with payouts tapering from there. Those who missed the cut still walked away with a guaranteed $25,000 each, Fox Business reported.

McIlroy finished at 12 under par for a one-stroke triumph at Augusta National, adding another major title to his growing legacy and cementing his place among the game's elite. President Donald Trump quickly offered high praise, posting on Truth Social: “Congratulations to Rory McIlroy on another Great Championship, The Masters! He performed tremendously under intense pressure, something which few people would be able to even think about doing. With each year, Rory is becoming more and more a LEGEND!”

pic.twitter.com/ArUiUMoVj1

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 12, 2026

Trump then pointed to McIlroy’s next stop, saying he’s eager to see him compete at Doral in Florida.

“I look forward to watching him compete in two weeks at Doral. The quality of Professional Golfers today has become extraordinary, each and every one of them. They should all be proud of the way they played at The Masters this weekend!”

Trump and McIlroy's relationship goes back over a decade. The president was on hand when the Irshman appeared at the 2016 World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship at Trump National Doral Blue Monster Course in Doral.

 

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/13/2026 - 20:30

Hong Kong And The Quiet Rewiring Of The Dollar System

Authored by Peter C. Earle, Ph.D,

Hong Kong’s decision to move forward with its first stablecoin issuer licenses may prove to be about far more than digital payments. With HSBC and a Standard Chartered-led venture among the first approved issuers under the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s new framework, the city is placing major regulated banks at the center of the next phase of monetary technology. Stablecoins remain overwhelmingly USD- and US Treasury-denominated, with more than 90 percent of the market’s roughly $300 billion capitalization tied to the US Treasury by one or the other, but the more important long-term story may be Asia’s role in transforming stablecoins from simple crypto settlement tools into the foundation of a real-time, on-chain foreign exchange and collateral ecosystem. In monetary terms, this is one more step in the migration of fiat liabilities from legacy banking rails onto programmable bearer-like instruments, a development with potentially profound implications for currency competition, reserve demand, and the future topology of the international monetary order.

The immediate effect of Hong Kong dollar stablecoins is easy to see: faster, cheaper, and programmable movement of HKD liquidity across exchanges, wallets, and cross-border commercial networks. The more consequential implication is that Asia may become the proving ground for blockchain-native FX and eurocurrency-style offshore liquidity markets, but in tokenized form. The region already hosts the world’s densest trade, remittance, and supply chain corridors, making it the natural venue for the next generation of synthetic money markets. Once local currency stablecoins begin operating under credible legal frameworks - HKD today, possibly Singapore dollars, offshore yuan proxies, and other regional currencies tomorrow - firms could increasingly swap tokenized fiat claims instantly on shared rails instead of relying on correspondent banks, delayed settlement windows, and multiple layers of intermediary fees. Economically, this reduces transaction frictions, compresses spreads, and lowers the velocity drag traditionally imposed by cross-border settlement risk.

Yet this is what makes Hong Kong’s move strategically significant: Hong Kong’s currency board peg to the US dollar gives an HKD stablecoin an unusual dual identity. It remains a local currency instrument that borrows much of its credibility from its dollar link. That makes it a natural bridge between the existing dollarized stablecoin universe and a more plural currency architecture. Hong Kong is not really challenging dollar stablecoin dominance so much as creating a regulated side door into it, while also building optionality should regional trade blocs increasingly seek invoicing diversity. Because the HKD already trades in a tightly managed band against the greenback, an HKD token can function akin to a dollar settlement instrument – a quasi-dollar - for Asian commerce while preserving local currency denomination. In the larger dedollarization trend, it’s less about displacing the dollar as reserve money than about disaggregating the mechanisms through which dollar liquidity is accessed, transferred, and rehypothecated.

A more interesting take is that Asia may not be driving dedollarization so much as a competitive fiat pluralization under “shadow dollar” pricing. Dollar stablecoins such as Tether and USD Coin succeeded because users in emerging markets wanted a portable, digitally native dollar substitute - effectively a market response to weak domestic monetary institutions. What Hong Kong now points toward is the next evolutionary step: using the same blockchain infrastructure not merely to store dollars, but to exchange among currencies continuously, cheaply, and at near-instant speed. That could make foreign exchange itself – paradoxically, one of the world’s largest and most liquid but still infrastructure-heavy markets - more programmable, accessible, and dramatically faster. In that sense, stablecoins increasingly resemble a privately intermediated digital version of the classical gold exchange standard’s layered settlement logic: local claims circulating atop a trusted reserve anchor, except the anchor today is fiat credibility rather than specie.

There are, as always, risks. HKD stablecoins inherit not only the strengths but also the vulnerabilities of their native Hong Kong peg. Any future reassessment of the linked exchange rate system, however unlikely in the near term, would immediately raise questions about reserve composition, redemption certainty, duration mismatch, and collateral quality/sufficiency. That is precisely why Hong Kong’s emphasis on high-quality liquid reserves, segregated accounts, and bank-led issuance matters so much. The intent is clearly to make stablecoins an extension of trusted monetary plumbing rather than an exogenous, arguably speculative, parallel system. For sound money observers, the key issue is whether these instruments remain genuinely redeemable claims on short-duration, high-quality assets, or whether they gradually become another layer of maturity transformation disguised as digital certainty.

The larger point is that Asia’s real comparative advantage in stablecoins may not lie in issuing yet another dollar token. It may lie in building the first credible internet-native foreign exchange market, where local currencies, dollar proxies, and trade settlement instruments move across the same interoperable rails. Viewed this way, Hong Kong’s recent action is less a crypto story than a primal blueprint for how Asia could modernize the foreign exchange architecture of global commerce while subtly reshaping the channels through which dollar dominance is exercised. This is one important piece of the broader reserve currency puzzle: not the end of dollar primacy, but the emergence of new transactional layers beneath it.

A more provocative angle is that the future of stablecoins in Asia may not be about replacing the dollar, but about forcing a competition between fiat systems, gold-linked alternatives, and dollar proxies on rails where settlement quality, collateral transparency, and convertibility matter more than empty rhetoric or hopeful economic projections. In that sense, Hong Kong’s move is only the latest in an ongoing global search for a post-Bretton Woods III monetary architecture; one in which trust is increasingly measured not by sovereign declaration alone, but by the quality, liquidity, and auditability of the assets standing behind digital claims.

Peter C. Earle, Ph.D is Director of Economics, AIER

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/13/2026 - 20:05

Federal Judge Dismisses Trump's Defamation Lawsuit Against The Wall Street Journal Over Epstein Birthday Letter Report

A federal judge in Miami dismissed President Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal (and related defendants including its parent company Dow Jones and Rupert Murdoch) on April 13, 2026, ruling that the complaint failed to adequately plead the “actual malice” standard required for public figures.

President Donald Trump departs the White House on March 11, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles issued a 17-page order dismissing the case without prejudice, meaning Trump’s legal team can file an amended complaint by April 27, 2026. The judge emphasized that the original filing relied on “conclusory” and “formulaic” allegations of malice and fell short of the high legal bar established by New York Times v. Sullivan.

Trump’s Response on Truth Social In a post on Truth Social shortly after the ruling, President Trump stated:

“Our powerful case against The Wall Street Journal, and other defendants, was asked to be re-filed by the Judge. It is not a termination, it is a suggested re-filing, and we will be, as per the Order, re-filing an updated lawsuit on or before April 27th.”

A spokesman for Trump’s legal team echoed this, saying:

“President Trump will follow Judge Gayles’s ruling and guidance to refile this powerhouse lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and all of the other Defendants. The President will continue to hold accountable those who traffic in Fake News to mislead the American People.”

Background on the Lawsuit Trump filed the roughly $10 billion lawsuit in July 2025, shortly after The Wall Street Journal published its July 17, 2025, article. The story reported on a leather-bound birthday album compiled by Ghislaine Maxwell for Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003. It included a sexually suggestive letter - allegedly bearing Trump’s signature and featuring a drawing of a naked woman - that reportedly contained typewritten text ending with “Happy Birthday - and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

Trump has consistently denied authoring or signing the letter, calling it fake. White House officials, including press secretary Karoline Leavitt and deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich, publicly rejected the story in September 2025 after additional materials surfaced.

Judge’s Reasoning Judge Gayles noted that The Wall Street Journal had sought comment from Trump (who denied involvement), the Justice Department (no response), and the FBI (declined to comment) before publication. The article itself included Trump’s denial. The judge wrote that these facts undermined claims that the newspaper ignored contradictory evidence or acted with reckless disregard for the truth—the core elements of actual malice.

The court declined at this stage to rule on whether the statements in the article were actually true or false, calling those factual disputes better suited for later proceedings if an amended complaint is filed.

A Dow Jones spokesperson told multiple outlets: “We are pleased with the judge’s decision to dismiss this complaint. We stand behind the reliability, rigor and accuracy of The Wall Street Journal’s reporting.”

The case remains ongoing pending any amended filing. This dismissal is procedural and does not resolve the underlying factual dispute over the authenticity of the 2003 letter.

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/13/2026 - 19:40

Biden FDA Knew About COVID Vaccine Stroke Risk And Kept Americans In The Dark

Senate investigators spent months reviewing roughly 2,000 pages of federal records. What they found is damning. FDA and CDC officials under the Biden administration identified a significant stroke risk tied to Pfizer's COVID-19 bivalent booster in seniors - and never breathed a word to the public.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), chairman of the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, sent a formal letter to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. laying out the evidence. He wasn't speculating. He was citing the government's own files.

"HHS records show that as early as October 2022, federal health officials identified a potential connection between the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 bivalent booster and ischemic stroke for individuals over the age of 65," Johnson wrote.

An ischemic stroke means a blockage of blood to the brain. Between November 2022 and March 2023, seven separate analyses of incoming data flagged the same stroke signal — specifically in adults over 65. CDC data cited by Johnson shows 226 stroke cases reported between August 2022 and February 2023, with additional cases surfacing throughout 2023 and 2024.

Despite the risk, the Biden administration issued no formal warnings. No Health Alert Network message. No changes to booster recommendations for seniors. Nothing.

Instead, in February 2023, HHS quietly hired a private contractor, Lukos LLC, to conduct a deeper internal investigation, dubbed "The Stroke Project." Publicly, officials kept insisting the vaccines were safe.

"From the initial detection of the safety signal in late 2022 … health officials continued to say the vaccine was safe while simultaneously searching for evidence to support that assertion,” Johnson said.

It gets worse. Federal officials drafted a communications plan about the stroke risk that included a "Tough Questions and Answers" section prepared for President-ish Biden and his White House team. During final edits, the description of the stroke signal was quietly changed from "moderately elevated" to "slightly elevated." Who made that change? Nobody knows. The language softened, the edit went unattributed, and the public remained in the dark.

The pattern is consistent. Senate investigators previously established that Biden officials also downplayed the risk of vaccine-induced myocarditis and kept that from the public. This wasn't a one-time failure. It was a system.

Here's what makes this cover-up even more infuriating. The Biden administration showed it was more than willing to pull the plug on a vaccine when it wanted to. 

In April 2021, officials paused the Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) vaccine due to blood clot concerns. The controversial move was pitched as proof of the administration’s commitment to safety. At the time of the pause, six cases of severe blood clots had been reported out of nearly 7 million doses administered. So when 226 stroke cases surfaced tied to Pfizer's bivalent booster in the most vulnerable seniors, the same administration did nothing. That double standard wasn't accidental; it was deliberate.

The fallout from that kind of institutional betrayal is hard to overstate. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, fewer than half of all Americans now trust the CDC and FDA to operate free from political or special-interest influence. 

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/13/2026 - 18:50

The Case Against Public-Sector Unions

Authored by Aaron White via RealClearPolicy,

America’s public-sector unions have a problem they can’t explain away: Workers are leaving.

Ask a public employee when they joined their union and most couldn’t tell you. Because they didn’t join. The dues just started coming out of their check.

That’s not a membership, and for decades nobody told workers they could opt out.

That changed in 2018, when the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed in Janus v. AFSCME that no government employee can be forced to join or pay dues to a labor union.

Hundreds of thousands opted out the moment they found out— the Freedom Foundation alone has helped more than 265,000 workers exercise their First Amendment rights since the ruling was issued.

Union leaders don’t talk about that number.

For decades, public-sector unions ran on automatic - automatic dues collection, automatic membership, automatic political spending - whether the worker wanted it or not.

The National Education Association confiscated $390 million in dues revenue during the most recent fiscal year from nearly 2.9 million members - most of it seized directly from taxpayer-funded paychecks before the workers could even see it.

In California alone, public education unions are estimated to collect more than $800 million per year. That money doesn’t come from convincing workers the union is worth it. It comes from a system designed so workers never had to be asked.

When the Supreme Court exposed their scheme in Janus, unions had to find other ways to keep the cash spigot open — including literally criminalizing their opposition.

Oregon, for example, effectively passed a law last year making it illegal to send public employees a mailer explaining their right to opt out. In theory, the law only bans marketing materials whose sender attempts to deceive the recipient into believing it was sent by their union. But in practice, the legislation is written so broadly that a left-leaning judge could easily construe nearly any outreach to union members as such an impersonation, subjecting the sender to potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.

To be clear, the law is specifically intended to thwart the Freedom Foundation, which has helped thousands of public-sector union members in Oregon opt out of their union. And other blue states are following suit.

New York lawmakers are currently considering an identical bill. In Hawaii, a similar measure has already cleared its second legislative committee.

The bills use the same language because the same people are writing them. Union-backed legislators, coordinating across state lines, are abusing their power to impose laws designed to prevent workers from understanding their First Amendment rights.

If you have to pass a law to stop people from finding out they can leave, you've already lost the argument.

This is Big Labor’s playbook. Unions are forging worker signatures on membership applications, signing people up without asking them, then taking dues from their paychecks. When workers try to resign, the union hands them documents they'd never seen, let alone signed.

Chaquan May, a California caregiver and mother, described what happened when she first encountered SEIU 2015 representatives at an orientation for newly hired in-home healthcare providers. “They locked us in a room,” she said. “One of the head union workers hovered over me at the table and stood there and told me, ‘What are you waiting for? Just sign it.’ I honestly felt scared and just went ahead and signed it out of fear.”

The Freedom Foundation has filed a class-action lawsuit against SEIU 2015 on behalf of May and a dozen other workers like her.

Meanwhile, the NEA’s president pulled in more than $514,000 in salary last year — a pay raise of $80,000 since she took office.

The union reported more than $51 million in disbursements for political activities and lobbying in the same period. The NEA and the American Federation of Teachers have together put $43.5 million into political organizations since 2022.

This is what the dues are for. Not the worker, the machine.

The reforms are commonsense:

• make re-enrollment annual and affirmative — if a worker wants to belong, they sign up every year
• end automatic payroll deductions so dues are a visible, conscious transaction
• require unions to disclose political spending the same way corporations have to 

These are exactly the kinds of reforms Oregon, New York and Hawaii are working to prevent — not by defeating them in debate, but by making it illegal to tell workers such options exist.

Unions that fight every one of those reforms are telling you the membership numbers don't hold up if workers get a real vote. The hundreds of thousands of workers who left after Janus proved it.

The fight now is making sure that choice stays real, and that the people trying to take it away don’t succeed one forged signature, one locked room and one state legislature at a time.

Aaron Withe is the CEO of the Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting workers' rights and advancing employee freedom across America.

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/13/2026 - 18:25

YouTube Removes Pro-Iran Channel Producing Anti-Trump Videos

Via Middle East Eye

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.

Wake up babe, Iran just dropped a new Lego movie trolling Trump pic.twitter.com/YErfkJ6dHM

— Not Jerome Powell (@alifarhat79) April 12, 2026

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.

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/13/2026 - 17:40

Pope Leo Says 'I Am Not Afraid Of Trump' - Amid War Of Words Over Iran Conflict

An open public clash between the Pope and President Trump was perhaps bound to happen given the Vatican's increasingly vocal criticism and condemnation of US military action in the Middle East. The Vatican has been consistently anti-war especially going back to the Iraq invasion and US occupation under the Bush administration. 

While recent years and decades have seen successive popes move a bit leftward on general matters of moral theology (particularly the last one, Pope Francis), the irony is that it now happens to be an American pope who is subject of immense criticism in Washington.

Trump had unleashed a tirade against Pope Leo XIV on Sunday night, calling him "WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy" and charging him with "catering to the Radical Left."

The lengthy Truth Social post was issued by Trump one day after the Chicago-born pontiff stated during a prayer vigil for peace what he characterized as a "delusion of omnipotence" during the Iran war.

To review, here are the highlights of what Trump said:

• Trump criticized the pope on matters including the Catholic Church's stance during the COVID pandemic and said he likes Leo's elder brother Louis Prevost "much better" than him because, he claimed, he's "all MAGA."

• "I don't want a Pope who thinks it's terrible that America attacked Venezuela," Trump wrote in an apparent reference to Leo's January expression of concern for Venezuelans following the U.S. raid and ensuing capture of leader Nicolás Maduro in the South American country.

• Trump doubled down in his criticism in comments to reporters late Wednesday, saying: "I'm not a big fan of Pope Leo. He's a very liberal person."

After this, Pope Leo XIV addressed reporters Monday aboard the papal plane en route to Algeria, and somewhat surprisingly decided to respond directly to the latest from Trump.

He made clear he does not view himself as a political actor and will not engage in a dispute with the US President, stating, "I think that the people who read will be able to draw their own conclusions." He added, "I am not a politician, I have no intention of entering into a debate with him" - while emphasizing that his focus is on matters of faith and the Gospel, rather than politics.

"I do not think the message of the Gospel should be abused in the way some people are doing," Leo said. This was clearly a veiled reference to Trump.

He reaffirmed his position on global conflict, declaring, "I will continue to speak out loudly against war," and called for "multilateral dialogue between states" as the path to resolving crises. And then came one of the more interesting lines: "I am not afraid of the Trump administration," the pope said.

Reaffirming his position, the pope said further, "The message of the Church is the message of the Gospel, blessed are the peacemakers."

He concluded by highlighting human cost of ongoing conflicts, including the Iran war which was started by a US and Israeli surprise attack, stating, "Too many people are suffering in the world." As for Trump, this probably won't be the last time he goes after Leo XIV in public.

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/13/2026 - 17:20

'Door Is Not Closed': Mediators Still Press For Iran Deal After US Demanded 20-Year Halt To Nuclear Program

There's currently some consensus among international reports that the weekend US-Iran peace talks in Pakistan fundamentally broke down over the nuclear issue. The question of Iran's enriched uranium has at times over the course of the war taken a front seat and at other times a back seat when it comes to Washington's evolving justifications and war aims in launching Operation Epic Fury.

On Monday a US official has been cited in Axios as saying Iran must halt its nuclear enrichment program for 20 years to end the war, scaling back from an earlier White House demand for a permanent end to enrichment. And that's when sources say the Iranians countered with a shorter "single digit" period.

via Al Jazeera

The unnamed sources explained that during talks in Islamabad the Iranian mediators countered with a proposal to halt enrichment for less than ten years.

Multiple Middle Eastern countries are still working to mediate a resolution, as both Washington and Tehran moved away from maximalist positions on enrichment. Before the talks, Trump demanded a permanent halt, while Iran pushed for a deal allowing a civilian nuclear program without additional restrictions.

Al Jazeera reports of where things stand in the following:

Pakistan, which spent weeks positioning itself as a mediator and succeeded in bringing both sides into the same room, emerged with its role intact. But officials acknowledge the harder phase now begins — getting American and Iranian negotiators back into talks before their differences explode into full-fledged war again.

“Pakistan has been and will continue to play its role to facilitate engagements and dialogue between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America in the days to come,” Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said in a statement after the conclusion of the talks.

And Axios in a separate follow-up report also confirms:

Pakistani, Egyptian and Turkish mediators will continue talks with the U.S. and Iran in the coming days in an effort to bridge the remaining gaps and reach a deal to end the war, according to a regional source and a U.S. official.

All parties still believe a deal is possible. The mediators hope that narrowing the gaps could enable another round of negotiations before the ceasefire expires on April 21.

The two sides remain divided over Iran’s stockpile of 60% enriched uranium, with Tehran having offered to dilute the stockpile if US sanctions are lifted, while the US apparently required that Iran export all the material.

President Trump has even openly talked about possibly ordering a military raid to seize the stockpile - much of it believed buried deep underground - in what would be an extremely risky and daunting mission.

Tehran has meanwhile accused Washington of making "excessive demands" - with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi having alleged negotiations collapsed because the US changed its position late in the process.

"In intensive talks at the highest level in 47 years, Iran engaged with the US in good faith to end war," he earlier wrote on X. He added: “But when just inches away from ‘Islamabad [Memorandum of Understanding],’ we encountered maximalism, shifting goalposts, and blockade. Zero lessons earned."

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/13/2026 - 16:40

As The Worms Turn...

Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

"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.

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/13/2026 - 16:20

As US Initiates Blockade Of Hormuz, Trump Warns Any Iranian Ships Coming Near Will Be 'Eliminated' Summary

• US pressed Iran to stop all Iranian enrichment for 20 years, after which Iran countered less than ten years, at which point the weekend negotiations broke down (Axios). Still, mediators say 'door not closed' on pursuit of an agreement.

• 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.

//--> //--> //--> Strait of Hormuz traffic returns to normal by end of April?
Yes 13% · No 88%
View full market & trade on Polymarket

*  *  * You can support us by picking up a Rugged Multitool

Mediators Still Press For Iran Deal After US Demanded 20-Year Halt To Nuclear Program

On Monday a US official has been cited in Axios as saying Iran must halt its nuclear enrichment program for 20 years to end the war, scaling back from an earlier White House demand for a permanent end to enrichment. And that's when sources say the Iranians countered with a shorter "single digit" period, or less than ten years.

Multiple Middle Eastern countries are still working to mediate a resolution, as both Washington and Tehran moved away from maximalist positions on enrichment. Before the talks, Trump demanded a permanent halt, while Iran pushed for a deal allowing a civilian nuclear program without additional restrictions. Axios has further said the "door is not closed" on a deal, but certainly the two sides' are still far apart, with Tehran accusing Washington of inexplicably reverting to intolerable "maximalist demands."

At Least 15 US Navy Ships Enforce Blockade

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.”

Source: David Ignatius, WaPo pic.twitter.com/HyEa7RnsIo

— Clash Report (@clashreport) April 13, 2026

Hormuz Strait Latest Threats

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.…

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) April 13, 2026

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. 

⚡️Latge scale drone attack in the north now pic.twitter.com/UNLia6ipkv

— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) April 13, 2026

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."

Destruction in Beirut, Getty Images

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.

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/13/2026 - 15:59

The Strait Of Hormuz Crisis Exposes A Fatal Flaw In Economic Thinking

Authored by Kurt Cobb via Resource Insights,

• 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.

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/13/2026 - 15:40

Bank Lobby Fires Back At White House, Saying Stablecoin Study Ignores Community Bank Threat

Authored by Micah Zimmerman via BitcoinMagazine.com,

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.

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/13/2026 - 15:00

Navy's Green Laundry Initiative Weakened A $15 Billion Carrier

Authored by Mike Fredenburg via The Epoch Times,

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.

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/13/2026 - 14:20

Oil Tanker Going To China Forced To Reverse Course Before Crossing Hormuz Under US Blockade

One day after a burst of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, when according to Bloomberg 19 ships crossed in either direction while Trump said that as many as 34 ships crossed the waterway on Sunday, shipping through Hormuz slumped back down again Monday, reversing Sunday's jump, as caution mounted ahead of a US naval blockade.

After 19 ships went through the Strait in either direction on Sunday - the most since the early stages of the war - the momentum reversed by Monday morning. Only four were observed passing on Monday: a single liquefied petroleum gas carrier was sighted entering the Gulf, and three small fuel tankers were raced to exit just hours before the blockade took effect at 10 a.m. New York time. 

Earlier in the day, the WSJ reported that the US has deployed more than 15 ships - including an aircraft carrier, multiple guided-missile destroyers, an amphibious assault ship and several other warships in the Middle East - in place to support the blockade. These ships have the ability to launch helicopters that support boarding operations, and some are capable of marshalling commercial vessels to specific areas to hold them in place.

The warships would likely operate outside the Strait of Hormuz to avoid threats fired by Iran, according to retired Navy Vice Adm. Kevin Donegan. “There are lots of ways you can construct this, and there are a lot of boarding forces in the region now,” Donegan said. “Don’t expect it all to be started at once, this will build. Blockades take time to have an impact.”

The UK Maritime Trade Operations also confirmed that the U.S. Navy is actively conducting enforcement operations as part of its blockade on Iranian ports and coastal areas.

Meanwhile, Marine Traffic reported that at least two tankers reversed course near the Strait of Hormuz shortly after the start of the US blockade, highlighting the immediate impact on vessel movements. They flag the 188-metre tanker Rich Starry, which turned back within minutes of approaching the chokepoint. The vessel had departed Sharjah Anchorage on 13 April and was sailing laden, with a reported draught of 11.3 metres, while signalling China as its destination. A second tanker, the 175-metre tanker Ostria, also reversed course after approaching the Strait.

Two tankers turn away from Strait of Hormuz after US blockade begins

At least two tankers reversed course near the Strait of Hormuz shortly after the start of the US blockade, highlighting the immediate impact on vessel movements. According to #MarineTraffic data, the 188-metre… pic.twitter.com/dRNi7yEgJI

— MarineTraffic (@MarineTraffic) April 13, 2026

The tanker U-turns follows unconfirmed reports that China has warned the US not to block/intercept Chinese ships/tankers, or face consequences that could potentially include military provocations.

China’s Defense Minister Dong Jun reportedly sent a message to the Trump administration and the U.S. Navy emphasizing Beijing’s intent to continue operating in the Strait of Hormuz and uphold its agreements with Iran. “Our ships are moving in and out of the waters of the Strait of Hormuz. We have trade and energy agreements with Iran. We will respect and honor those agreements and expect others not to interfere in our affairs" adding that “Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz and it is open for us.”

As of 2pm ET, this threat remains unconfirmed by official medial. 

According to Bloomberg, the US blockade may prompt more ships to cut their tracking signals to avoid detection in high-risk shipping lanes, making it even harder to get an accurate picture of what’s going through.  Sunday’s outbound movements included three containerships and three bulkers primarily tied to Tehran, as well as a China-linked fuel tanker, according to vessel-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.

On Monday, departures so far included a US-sanctioned oil products tanker and a fuel tanker involved in recent Iranian loading operations. A small LPG carrier also left the Iranian island corridor Monday morning, following an inbound transit on Sunday and an overnight stop.

Meanwhile, two sanctioned supertankers loaded with Iranian crude have anchored off Indian ports, marking what could be the first such cargoes to arrive in the country in nearly seven years.

It’s unclear how the US blockade will affect waivers and existing purchases. It is also unclear if the US will extend or undo the waiver it granted for Iran oil sanctions, now that strategy has reversed to contain Iranian oil. 

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/13/2026 - 14:00

Bernstein Says Bitcoin Market Already Priced In Quantum Risk

Authored by Zoltan Vardai via CoinTelegraph.com,

Bernstein said Monday that Bitcoin’s selloff has already priced in much of the market’s fear around quantum computing, arguing that the threat is real but still manageable rather than an immediate existential risk.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) near 50% drawdown from its $126,198 all-time high in October 2025 is proof that the market has “priced in” several risks tied to a quantum breakthrough, partly thanks to technological progress on zero-knowledge privacy and quantum-proof cryptography that “counterbalance” the AI and quantum acceleration, Bernstein said in a Monday note shared with Cointelegraph.

The note lands two weeks after Google researchers said future quantum computers could break the elliptic-curve cryptography used across many blockchains with fewer than 500,000 physical qubits in some architectures, reviving debate over how quickly Bitcoin needs a post-quantum upgrade path. This research suggested a quantum computer could crack a Bitcoin private key in nine minutes, in a theoretical scenario, which is less than Bitcoin’s 10-minute block production time.

However, Bernstein said Bitcoin core developers have “adequate time” to determine a post-quantum path. Last week, Bernstein predicted that Bitcoin has about three to five years to prepare for a post-quantum security upgrade, Cointelegraph reported on Wednesday.

Graph showing the risk that an on-spend quantum attack that takes 9 minutes to derive a private key succeeds against Bitcoin. Source: Google Quantum AI

Institutions will play constructive role in quantum-proofing Bitcoin

Bernstein said large institutional holders, including exchange-traded fund (ETF) issuers and corporate treasury buyers such as Strategy, are likely to play a constructive role in any eventual consensus on a post-quantum upgrade.

“We expect institutional partners with now billions at stake to play a constructive role in building consensus on the post-quantum path.”

The note also highlighted the recently introduced BIP-360 proposal and added that slower consensus from Bitcoin developers is seen as responsible behavior when it comes to a $1.5 trillion asset.

BIP-360 is a draft Bitcoin Improvement Proposal that proposes a Pay-to-Merkle-Root output type designed to reduce long-exposure quantum risk by removing Taproot’s key-path vulnerability, though it does not itself add post-quantum digital signatures.

Bernstein said BIP-360 could be implemented as a soft fork for exposed Bitcoin addresses, but added that this would still leave around 8% of the BTC supply in inactive addresses vulnerable to future quantum breakthroughs.

Quantum-proofing Bitcoin is a social issue, not technical

The real challenge of quantum-proofing Bitcoin lies in the societal adoption element of the new standards, not the technical development, according to Arthur Breitman, co-founder of Tezos blockchain.

“The coding work could be done this afternoon,” but Bitcoin holders would still need to migrate to this new standard, Breitman told Cointelegraph during an interview at EthCC 2026.

“If Bitcoin needed to migrate in the next month, they could do it from a technical perspective [...] but they can’t get everyone to migrate their key in a month, Breitman said. “It’s going to take years for people to properly migrate their keys,” he added.

Arthur Breitman, co-founder of Tezos, interview at EthCC 2026. Source: Cointelegraph

Asset manager Grayscale’s head of research, Zach Pandl, shared a similar view in a research report last Monday. He said Bitcoin’s quantum-proofing challenges are “more social than technical,” provided that its UTXO model does not have native smart contracts and that some address types are not quantum vulnerable.

However, he warned that the community needs to find consensus on how to quantum-proof wallets where the private key has been lost or is otherwise inaccessible.

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/13/2026 - 13:40

US Property Taxes Rose 3 Percent On Average In 2025, Outpacing Inflation

Authored by Rob Sabo via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

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.

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/13/2026 - 13:00

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.

via Fox News

"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.

*  *  * You can support us by picking up a Rugged Multitool

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

— RT (@RT_com) April 13, 2026

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.

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/13/2026 - 12:20

Federal Court Strikes Down 158-Year-Old Home Distilling Ban

Authored by Kimberly Hayek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A federal appeals court on April 10 declared a nearly 158-year-old ban on home distilling to be unconstitutional, ruling that the ban was an unnecessary and improper means for Congress to exercise its power to tax.

A judge's gavel rests on top of a desk in a courtroom in Miami on Feb. 3, 2009. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Writing for a three-judge panel in McNutt v. U.S. Department of Justice, Judge Edith Hollan Jones of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found that the ban actually reduced tax revenue by preventing distilling in the first place, the opposite of its stated intent.

The court ruled in favor of the nonprofit Hobby Distillers Association and four of its 1,300 members, who argued that people should be free to distill spirits at home, whether as a hobby or for personal consumption—including, for instance, to create an apple pie vodka recipe one of the plaintiffs created.

The ban was part of a law passed during Reconstruction in July 1868. It imposed excise taxes on distilled spirits but also made it illegal for a person to use “any still, boiler, or other vessel for purpose of distilling” when the still was located, among other places, “in any dwelling-house” or “in any shed, yard, or enclosure connected with any dwelling-house.”

The case began in December 2023 when the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian think tank, filed suit on behalf of the Hobby Distillers Association and four individuals against the Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau and the Department of Justice.

The hobby group argued that the government’s regulatory reach could not extend to activities within a person’s home.

The face of the case was Scott McNutt, a New Jersey resident and former U.S. Coast Guard engineer.

McNutt received an unsolicited letter from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau warning him of potential civil and criminal liability after the agency learned that he may have purchased materials that could be used to distill spirits.

Under federal law, distilling in one’s home or backyard could result in a $10,000 fine and five years in prison. By contrast, home brewing of beer for personal use has been federally legal since 1978.

In July 2024, Judge Mark T. Pittman of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas sided with the plaintiffs, issuing a permanent injunction and declaring the relevant provisions of the Internal Revenue Code unconstitutional.

Competitive Enterprise Institute attorney Dan Greenberg called it “a victory for personal freedoms and for federalism,” adding in a statement at the time that the decision “reminds us that, as Americans, we live under a government of limited powers.”

The government appealed in August 2024.

The Buckeye Institute in Ohio pursued a similar challenge on behalf of John Ream, a former Boeing engineer and home-brewing hobbyist who wanted to try distilling small quantities of alcohol at home for his own personal consumption.

Buckeye attorney Andrew Grossman warned that under the government’s broad theory of federal power, “Congress could regulate or even ban the most mundane domestic activities—including home cooking, baking, gardening, and occasionally babysitting neighbor kids.”

West Virginia has already passed a law allowing households of two or more people to produce up to 10 gallons of spirits a year for personal consumption, independent of the federal ban. Most other states maintain their own restrictions.

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/13/2026 - 11:40