Murder And Mayhem: A Look At ICE's 'Worst Of The Worst' Arrests

Authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez and Savannah Hulsey Pointer via The Epoch Times,

The Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts this term have focused on illegal immigrants with criminal histories.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) made about 379,000 arrests from Jan. 20, 2025, through Jan. 20, 2026, and the administration has maintained that the majority involved those with criminal arrests or convictions.

Tricia McLaughlin, former assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said last year that 70 percent of ICE arrests were of criminal illegal aliens who had been charged or convicted of a crime in the United States. According to acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, last year’s arrests included more than 7,300 suspected gang members and 1,400 known or suspected terrorists.

In December, DHS launched its Worst of the Worst searchable database of criminal illegal immigrants taken off the streets. The database, which currently lists more than 30,800 entries, allows visitors to search for those arrested across all 50 states with criminal histories that include homicide, assault, rape, drug trafficking, crimes against children, assault, armed robbery, and others.

President Donald Trump signs the Laken Riley Act in the East Room of the White House on Jan. 29, 2025. The Laken Riley Act, which mandates the detention of illegal immigrants charged with theft-related crimes, is named for a 22-year-old student murdered by a Venezuelan national with no legal papers who was wanted for shoplifting. Pedro Ugarte/AFP via Getty Images

Here is a sampling of 10 violent criminal illegal immigrant arrests in 2025 and early 2026.

Indecency With a Child

On Feb. 18, 2025, ICE arrested Guatemalan national Sostenes Pérez-López in Brighton, Massachusetts.

According to a Boston Police report, a mother and her daughter encountered Pérez-López at a laundromat on Nov. 23, 2024.

The young girl was drawing at a table near the laundromat’s entrance when Pérez-López approached her. Later, the mother noticed her daughter with an unknown man and went to her, at which point Pérez-López spoke to her in Spanish.

“Your daughter is very pretty,” he said. “They are going to steal her.”

When asked who was going to steal her daughter, Pérez-López responded, “The dogs,” and left the laundromat.

The girl later told her mother that Pérez-López had inappropriately touched her.

Local human trafficking and sexual assault investigators obtained a photo of the man from the surveillance video inside the laundromat and identified Pérez-López as the suspect on Nov. 27.

Pérez-López went to a police station after he was identified and asked to speak with investigators, according to the police report. He told detectives he was at the laundromat that day and saw a girl he believed to be about 5 years old standing by herself.

He instructed the girl to come to him, then told police that he put his left arm around her waist, “pulled her closer to him,” and said, “Hola.”

Pérez-López told police the girl “just looked up at the brim of his white cowboy hat” without speaking to him. He denied speaking to the girl’s mother.

ICE officers arrest Guatemalan national Sostenes Perez-Lopez during an enforcement operation in Brighton, Mass., on Feb. 18, 2025. Perez-Lopez was charged with two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, according to ICE. Department of Homeland Security

Pérez-López was arrested and charged with two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 on Nov. 28, 2024, according to ICE, which lodged an immigration detainer against him following his arrest.

​The Boston Municipal Court, Brighton Division, arraigned Pérez-López on Nov. 29, 2024, but ignored the ICE detainer and released him on bail on Dec. 12, 2024.

Pérez-López was served with a notice to appear before a Department of Justice immigration judge following his February arrest, and he remains in ICE custody.

20 Sex Crimes

On April 1, 2025, ICE and federal partners operating in Lawrence, Massachusetts, arrested Ecuadoran national Gilberto Avila-Jara, whose criminal history includes more than 20 sex crimes against a minor.

Avila-Jara allegedly illegally entered the United States near San Ysidro, California, on Feb. 10, 1996, and was arrested on March 2, 1996, at Los Angeles International Airport, according to ICE.

ICE officers arrest Ecuadoran national Gilberto Avila-Jara in Lawrence, Mass., on April 1, 2025. Avila-Jara faces more than 20 sex crime charges involving a minor. Department of Homeland Security

​​Avila-Jara was removed from the country in July 1996, but later illegally reentered on an unknown date.

​On Dec. 18, 2020, Avila-Jara was arraigned in Lawrence District Court for more than 20 offenses, including indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, rape of a child with force, and aggravated statutory rape of a child, according to ICE.

* * * Sale ends Friday

​On that same day in December, ICE Boston lodged an immigration detainer against Avila-Jara with the Lawrence Police Department. However, the court refused to honor the detainer and released Avila-Jara on bail on March 17, 2021.

On April 22, 2021, the Essex County Superior Court arraigned Avila-Jara for six counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, eight counts of rape of a child with force, and eight counts of aggravated statutory rape of a child.​

Murder and Assault

ICE arrested René Pop-Chub, a Guatemalan national who had pending charges for murder, second-degree assault, and reckless endangerment, in Hyattsville, Maryland, on April 12, 2025.

Pop-Chub was captured and subsequently removed by Border Patrol twice—once on June 13, 2013, in Falfurrias, Texas, and again on Dec. 11, 2017, in Cowlic, Arizona.

After illegally entering the United States for a third time, he was arrested on Aug. 19, 2024, by police in Maryland and charged with first-degree assault.

ICE officers arrest Guatemalan national Rene Pop-Chub in Hyattsville, Md., on April 12, 2025. Pop-Chub has pending charges for murder, second-degree assault, and reckless endangerment. Department of Homeland Security

ICE lodged a detainer with the Prince George’s County Department of Corrections on Oct. 9, 2024, but it was ignored, DHS said.

On Oct. 31 of that year, the District Court for Prince George’s County forwarded the case to the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County for the currently pending charges.

However, the district court refused to honor ICE’s immigration detainer and released Pop-Chub on April 8, 2025. He was arrested by ICE four days later.

Sex Offender Drags Officer

Mexican national Roberto Carlos Muñoz-Guatemala had a history of run-ins with the law dating back to 2010 before ICE agents caught up with him in Bloomington, Minnesota, during a traffic stop.

Muñoz-Guatemala had multiple driving offenses on his record and was previously convicted of domestic assault and a felony sex crime against an underage teenager, according to DHS.

Mexican national Roberto Carlos Munoz-Guatemala. Department of Homeland Security

In October 2022, Muñoz-Guatemala’s 16-year-old stepdaughter accused him of sexually abusing her for several months after her mother left to live with her new boyfriend, according to Minnesota court records.

The teen got proof of the abuse by propping her cell phone up on some schoolbooks and recording an incident, state court records show.

At the time of his 2022 arrest for sexual abuse, ICE issued a detainer, which was not honored by local authorities, and Muñoz-Guatemala was released from custody.

He was convicted of a felony sex crime and sentenced to 18 months in prison in October 2023, but was later released on supervised probation, according to state court records.

Three years later, when he was stopped by ICE, he refused to get out of the vehicle and allegedly tried to flee, dragging one of the officers some 50 yards.

Muñoz-Guatemala called Bloomington Police after fleeing, “claiming he was just assaulted” by ICE, court records read.

The officer recovered but was later involved in the Renee Good shooting. Good was protesting ICE and drove her vehicle toward the officer, striking him as he opened fire.

Federal immigration agents stand guard after one of their vehicles was involved in a crash while making an apprehension in St. Paul, Minn., on Jan. 31, 2026. Scott Olson/Getty Images

ICE first lodged a detainer on Muñoz-Guatemala in 2013.

Tren de Aragua Attack

Gabriel ​Hurtado-Cariaco, identified as a member of Venezuelan terrorist gang Tren de Aragua, first crossed the U.S. southern border illegally in 2023 and was removed. He tried again in 2024 and was released into the country under the Biden administration.

An ICE officer and FBI agent caught up with Hurtado-Cariaco outside an apartment complex in Bellevue, Nebraska, after authorities issued an arrest warrant for the man, who claims he was a first sergeant in the Venezuelan military from 2013 to 2018 before deserting.

Initially, Hurtado-Cariaco “signaled non-verbally” to the agents that he would comply as they approached to take him into custody. But the officers realized too late that it was a ruse.

With no warning, the alleged Venezuelan gang member crashed into one of the ICE officers, sending her flying. The pair hit the ground, and the ICE officer smacked her head and injured her elbow. She would later tell investigators that Hurtado Cariaco lured her in with his relaxed body language.

Federal officers arrest Gabriel Hurtado-Cariaco, an alleged member of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang, in Nebraska on June 18, 2025. Hurtado-Cariaco was charged with attempted murder of a federal officer and assault on a federal officer. Department of Homeland Security

The alleged gang member then ripped off the officer’s body armor and continued the assault, according to DHS. He managed to get her in a chokehold and began to squeeze her neck.

The FBI officer was able to get Hurtado-Caiaco in a chokehold and applied “deadly force” to get him to release his grip on the officer. He turned the fight on the FBI agent but eventually fled.

The ICE officer and FBI agent gave chase, called for backup, and eventually made the arrest.

The ICE officer was hospitalized and treated for serious injuries to her head and arm. Hurtado-Cariaco was charged with attempted murder of a federal officer and assault of a federal officer.

10 Arrests, 19 charges

A Salvadorian national with a long rap sheet who was repeatedly released into local communities was taken off the streets by ICE in Fairfax County, Virginia, on Oct. 24, 2025.

Salvadoran national Jorge Armando Melendez-Gonzalez in Fairfax County, Va., on Oct. 24, 2025. Department of Homeland Security

Border Patrol arrested Jorge Armando Meléndez-González after he illegally entered the country on June 22, 2015, and refused to comply with a judicial removal order in October 2016, according to ICE.

Between March 19, 2018, and July 18, 2025, Meléndez-González was arrested 10 times and charged with 19 different crimes, including felony malicious wounding, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, assault and battery, grand larceny, trespassing, possessing a false identification, and public intoxication.

Just before 2 a.m. on Aug. 26, 2023, Fairfax County Police officers were called to a Merrifield, Virginia, parking lot, where they found two men suffering from gunshot wounds. One was shot in the arm and the other in the abdomen, according to a Fairfax County press release. Both were treated at a local hospital.

Almost two hours later, police received a 911 call from the hospital that a man had walked in with a gunshot wound to the arm.

As it turned out, Meléndez-González, who was living in Falls Church, Virginia, had approached a group of men who were standing in front of a business that night. One of the men assaulted Meléndez-González , who then opened fire into the crowd and fled, according to police.

​ICE in the District of Columbia said it lodged two immigration detainers against Meléndez-González with the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center. One was issued on Aug. 28, 2023, and another on July 18, 2025.

Fairfax County officials refused to honor the detainers and released him, according to ICE.

Manager Protects Sex Offender​

A Minneapolis apartment manager tried to protect a 57-year-old Somali sex offender from arrest by blocking federal enforcement agents from entering the building on Jan. 7, 2026, according to ICE.

Mahad Abdulkadir Yusuf was eventually arrested at his Lake Street apartment after ICE launched a targeted enforcement operation to apprehend the longtime Minneapolis resident.

ICE officers conduct a targeted enforcement operation to arrest Somali national Mahad Abdulkadir Yusuf, a convicted sex offender, in Minneapolis on Dec. 31, 2025. Department of Homeland Security

Minnesota District Court records show that in June 2020, the Richfield Police Department was called to a long-term care facility in Hennepin County, where a 69-year-old woman accused Yusef of forcing her to perform sexual acts.

She told police that he had entered her room that night several times and had tried to force her to perform sexual acts in the past.

He was arrested on felony criminal sexual conduct charges but was convicted of misdemeanor nonconsensual sexual contact in 2023.

Yusuf was also arrested in 2016 for assault in the first degree and has an active warrant from 2024 for obstructing police.

He originally entered the United States in 1996 and was a lawful permanent resident, but “threw away his shot at the American dream by repaying our country’s generosity with these vicious crimes,” according to ICE.

​Stabbed in the Back

Honduran national Rafael Aguilar, who was charged with attempted murder and convicted of second-degree assault after stabbing a victim in the back on April 19, 2025, was picked up by ICE agents in Baltimore on Jan. 13, 2026.

Prince George’s County failed to honor an immigration detainer and instead released Aguilar back into the community on Jan. 6, according to ICE.

​He was initially charged with attempted second-degree murder. The county court system reduced the charge and sentenced him to 10 years in prison, but he served only 141 days before being released on probation.

Tren de Aragua Homicide

On Jan. 7, 2026, ICE officers in Dallas arrested Venezuelan national Alberth José Simancas-García, an alleged member of Tren de Aragua who was wanted in Peru.

In August last year, an immigration judge with the Dallas Executive Office for Immigration Review issued a final order of removal for Simancas-García. ​

In December, a Homeland Security Investigations task force in Dallas received information from its Houston office that Simancas-García was wanted in Peru for questioning relating to a homicide. Peruvian officials alleged he had committed additional violent crimes, including armed robbery, assault, and firearms violations.

(Left) ICE officers arrested Venezuelan national and alleged gang member Alberth Jose Simancas-Garcia in Dallas on Jan. 7, 2026. (Center) ICE agents in Baltimore arrested Honduran national Rafael Aguilar on Jan. 13, 2026. (Right) ICE arrested Guatemalan national Oscar Vasquez Lopez in Savannah, Ga., on Feb. 16, 2026. Department of Homeland Security

Deadly U-Turn

ICE attempted to arrest Oscar Vásquez López, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, under a final order of removal issued by a federal judge in 2024. ​During a Feb. 16, 2026, operation in Savannah, Georgia, officers saw López enter a vehicle and tried to detain him.

He initially stopped, but then allegedly fled the scene. He made an illegal U-turn, running a red light and colliding with a vehicle, killing the special education teacher driving. She was pronounced dead at the scene, ICE said.

López, who suffered only minor injuries, was charged by the Chatham County Police Department with vehicular homicide, according to ICE.

​“This vehicular homicide is an absolute tragedy and deadly consequence of politicians and the media constantly demonizing ICE officers and encouraging those here illegally to resist arrest—a felony,” McLaughlin said. “Now, an innocent bystander has lost their life.”

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/06/2026 - 21:45

North Korea Keeping Iran At Arm's Length, Hoping To Improve Ties With Trump

When the Ukraine war began over four years ago, North Korea only deepened its relations and defense cooperation with Moscow. Later into the conflict, it even sent thousands of troops to assist Russian military and security forces - and an undisclosed number of DPRK troops died or suffered wounds while fighting Ukraine.

When it comes to Iran, many pundits assumed Pyongyang might also do something similar in defense of Tehran, give the Middle East nation and fellow 'rogue' ally is under US and Israeli bombs; however, there are signs North Korea is actually distancing itself in this case.

via Reuters

Seoul’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) sees no evidence that North Korea has sent weapons or supplies to Tehran since since Trump's Operation Epic Fury began, and is even remaining far away from such a move.

Lawmaker Park Sun-won, who attended a closed-door briefing held by the NIS, described Sunday that North Korea is not at all rushing to the Islamic Republic's aid.

This is also consistent with the Kim Jong Un government's public statements on the crisis, which have by and large been mute:

While Iran’s other allies China and Russia have frequently issued statements on the US-Israel war on Iran, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry has only issued two toned-down statements so far, said the NIS.

While Pyongyang did condemn the US and Israeli attacks on Iran as illegal, it did not issue public condolences after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s death or send a congratulatory message when Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, succeeded him.

The spy agency said Pyongyang is likely adopting this cautious approach to position it for a new diplomatic chapter with the US once the Middle East conflict subsides, said Park.

Trump actually mentioned North Korea several times in Monday remarks from the White House on the Iran situation. He charged that a certain past president failed to act properly to prevent Pyongyang from going nuclear - and that the last several presided did as well.

He concluded that Kim Jong Un would not have nuclear weapons if that job was done right. The said that they are afraid to take "strong action".

Trump:

If a certain president did his job, North Korea would not have nuclear weapons right now. pic.twitter.com/Ib7jVqw9pt

— Clash Report (@clashreport) April 6, 2026

It could be that Pyongyang is staying on the sidelines, and not offering direct support to its ally the Islamic Republic, given the obvious mismatch in military strength as the Iranians get pummeled by superior US aerial firepower.

In the case of Russa-Ukraine it is the opposite - where North Korea is on the side of the militarily stronger power and so perhaps feels more at east supporting its ally Moscow in such a context.

* * *

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/06/2026 - 21:20

What Would Robert Louis Stevenson Say About Ozempic?

Authored by Ann Bauer via Brownstone Institute,

I have loved many addicts in my life.

I have been exasperated, impoverished, and terrified by them. But also amused, warmed, enraptured, elevated…That’s the thing about addicts. They contain multitudes, all drama and extremes. They’re charismatic until they’re repugnant, joyful until they’re suicidal. Everything is in vivid, dangerous color. It’s part of the ride and the reason they exert such a pull on cautious, ascetic people like me.

Some of my addicts are gone. My closest friend and “Damn Good Food” co-author, Mitch Omer, died at 61. Others have found God and turned their lives around (they’re now exciting and dramatic people of faith). I love people who are addicted to alcohol, drugs, gambling, and food. Many surf between the four.

Recently, another category of people formed: the ones injecting themselves with GLP-1s, mostly to lose weight but also to control other impulses. It’s clearly great for the handful whose life and health were being destroyed by obesity. But for the others? I’m dubious.

Ozempic and its cousins (Mounjaro, Wegovy, Zepbound, et al.) modify the pleasure centers of the brain, making everything people crave—food, sex, smoking, alcohol, shopping, gambling, cocaine—less appealing. It doesn’t address the underlying problems of addiction, such as depression or dishonesty. It just eliminates the part of the person that enjoys and revels, the colorful, joyous side.

It’s a version of the drug in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, that the doctor ginned up to divide himself, creating a respectable man bound by reserve and a separate murderous, pleasure-seeking monster.

From Dr. Jekyll’s own account:

Hence it came about that I concealed my pleasures; and that when I reached years of reflection, and began to look round me and take stock of my progress and position in the world, I stood already committed to a profound duplicity of life. Many a man would have even blazoned such irregularities as I was guilty of; but from the high views that I had set before me, I regarded and hid them with an almost morbid sense of shame. It was thus rather the exacting nature of my aspirations than any particular degradation in my faults, that made me what I was and, with even a deeper trench than in the majority of men, severed in me those provinces of good and ill which divide and compound man’s dual nature. In this case, I was driven to reflect deeply and inveterately on that hard law of life, which lies at the root of religion and is one of the most plentiful springs of distress. Though so profound a double-dealer, I was in no sense a hypocrite; both sides of me were in dead earnest; I was no more myself when I laid aside restraint and plunged in shame, than when I laboured, in the eye of day, at the furtherance of knowledge or the relief of sorrow and suffering. And it chanced that the direction of my scientific studies, which led wholly toward the mystic and the transcendental, re-acted and shed a strong light on this consciousness of the perennial war among my members. With every day, and from both sides of my intelligence, the moral and the intellectual, I thus drew steadily nearer to that truth, by whose partial discovery I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but truly two.

Of course, the doctor’s desire to split off his hedonistic self will have devastating consequences. The lesson of Jekyll and Hyde is that decoupling morality from desire is unnatural. It disrupts the natural order. My question for RLS, were he still with us to answer: Do GLP-1s pose similarly catastrophic risks?

I think they may. One reason is my Uncle Joe.

Joe was a quiet, careful religious man. He and his wife, Darla, had desperately wanted children but it just never happened. They raised boxer dogs that they treated like babies. Joe worked as a photographer in North Minneapolis in this little tufted studio from the 1930s that smelled like rose cologne and dust.

Some time in the late 1970s, Joe started shaking uncontrollably. Terrible thing for a photographer. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s and put on a whopping dose of Levodopa, which flooded his brain with dopamine. This got the tremors under control. He and Darla were hugely grateful. They needed Joe’s income and now he could go back to work.

But over the next half-decade, my uncle changed. He became furtive and untrustworthy. Around the time Darla discovered she had cancer, she also discovered that her husband had nearly bankrupted them. This tidy man had developed a rabid gambling habit—cards, horses, sports—and he was a terrible bettor. I was just a kid, but I remember my father talking about what a dumb bastard Joe was, how he lied to his wife and spent the money she needed for her treatments.

Darla died a few years later, and Joe kept right on gambling. He sold his business and used the money for trips to Las Vegas. By this time, the Levodopa was having diminishing returns and his Parkinsonian shaking was back. Joe’s doctors kept ratcheting up the dose, believing they were doing so with impunity. But the drug only made him step up his gambling. And spending. And drinking. And God knows what else.

Shortly after Joe died, penniless, news started to eke out that Levodopa was causing previously straight-laced people to do all sorts of out-of-character things. They were visiting prostitutes and buying fancy clothes, snorting blow and placing bets. Joe was part of the first wave of Parkinson’s patients that were treated with this new ‘miracle’ drug and went off the rails. He died alone, having borrowed money from everyone he knew and burned all the bridges he’d spent a lifetime building.

What does this have to do with Robert Louis Stevenson’s story about chemical medicine? Not a lot—directly. In Jekyll and Hyde, the main character sets out to create a potion that will free him from his rutting, profane, dissolute self (and vice versa). In the case of my uncle, chemists were simply trying to control the symptoms of his disease, and it had the awful, unintended consequence of turning a once-refined man into – basically – Mr. Hyde.

But Joe’s story is information about what happens when you mess with brain chemicals and try to spark or dampen certain behaviors. He wasn’t an addict they were trying to control. In fact, he was the kind of orderly person who shined his shoes and set them out every night. Levodopa MADE people like my Uncle Joe into addicts. Collaterally. And scientists missed it for years.

GLP-1 drugs center around the very same brain chemical: Dopamine. Instead of raising patients’ levels as neurologists did with Parkinson’s patients, Ozempic and the rest ‘modulate’ (which simply means adjust) Dopamine levels, suppressing them [typically] to a point where the pleasure-seeking cravings for food, alcohol, nicotine, and on and on are weak enough for people to overcome.

The Free Press ran an article recently on a little-talked-about downstream effect of GLP-1s: apathy. “They Went on Ozempic—and Gave Up on Life” by Evan Gardner reports on people who lost weight on the injectable, along with their libido, ambition, and desire to participate in the world. One woman finally had the boyfriend of her dreams, thanks (in her mind) to her slender new body, but no desire to have sex.

This is the opposite of what happened to Parkinson’s patients in the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. The danger is that doctors are oblivious to (or ignoring) what’s happening because GLP-1s are easy, people want them, and they’re having the desired effect.

But what if the sum of becoming apathetic isn’t just laziness or low sex drive? What if it leads to something more sinister, such as a lack of empathy, the need for ever-more disruptive or violent entertainment, errors in high-risk high-stakes jobs, a dearth of parental love for a child….The list of potential ills goes on and on.

I ran this theory by a friend who works in the sober community, for a 12-step program, and he told me there are some professionals working in recovery who won’t accept people on GLP-1s into their programs. “A lot of us believe it’s an addiction if you’re relying on a drug that removes the need for spiritual work,” he said.

Robert Louis Stevenson warned about this very thing back in 1886. His story is about a drug made of phosphorus and salt and “some volatile ether” that allowed the addict, the rogue and criminal, to split off and wander free.

Today, we have a drug made of “salt forms of a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist,” being pushed by physicians and television campaigns and sports heroes and celebrities nationwide that allows people to silence the addict within—the self that once “laid aside restraint and plunged in shame”—stuff them in a crawl space, slam the door shut, and trap them there.

Don’t tell me that a Hyde-like creature isn’t going to get out eventually. There will be consequences.

“Prepare for a dreadful shipwreck,” I imagine Stevenson would say.

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/06/2026 - 20:55

Tech Bros Sound Alarm As AI Data Centers Poll Worse Than ICE Agents

The tech bros are only now waking up to what we pointed out 1 year and 8 months ago: the early stages of public backlash against AI data center expansion. Since then, this resistance has spread nationwide as working-class people grow increasingly angry about hyperscalers erecting massive AI data centers in their backyards, with one of the most immediate consequences being surging power bills.

"If tech leaders don't organize and get America on their side, the situation on the ground - as seen in the three charts below - will get worse before it gets better," Chamath Palihapitiya, founder of Social Capital and co-host of the All-In Podcast, wrote on X.

Palihapitiya warned, "That, in turn, will tank the US economy since AI is responsible for much of our incremental GDP. Someone needs to step up." 

Palihapitiya posted what appears to be several slides from a Social Capital deck showing alarming trends in public sentiment toward AI data centers, clearly moving deeply negative. 

Charts

AI has a perception problem - and it's getting a lot more political:

• The first chart shows net favorability of AI is negative (-20), worse than ICE (-18) and close to politically toxic categories.

• That's a big signal: AI is no longer viewed as neutral "innovation" - it's drifting into polarized, politically charged territory.

• Translation: regulatory risk is rising, not falling.

Surging power bills are the core at public backlash against AI 

• Power prices were relatively stable from 2014-19, then erupted post-2020.

• The narrative forming (rightly or wrongly): AI plus data centers = massive energy demand = higher bills

• Whether AI is the main driver doesn't matter - perception is locking in causality.

Local backlash is now measurable - and accelerating

• Data center projects facing opposition are soaring fast

• Roughly 40% of contested data centers get canceled

• That's a real constraint on future supply growth

The warnings about public backlash against data centers were well known by our readership for nearly two years. We noted this again last year.

Something we warned about a year ago... https://t.co/xECu4mNEGj pic.twitter.com/dcpcO7Uc78

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) April 6, 2026

Even with AI at their fingertips, the tech crowd's messaging on data centers remains awful.

The same tech bros who spent years backing Democrats and supporting de-growth climate policies, before suddenly pivoting to Trump, are now running into a disaster of their own making. The public is already angry, and the political damage will be far from easy to unwind. Next time, they might want to fund politicians who prioritize grid security over a fake climate crisis. 

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/06/2026 - 20:30

US Tests Mach-5 Hypersonic Missile In Joint Army-Navy Launch

Authored by Georgina Jedikovska via Interesting Engineering,

The U.S. has carried out a successful launch of a hypersonic missile made to travel at speeds exceeding Mach 5, meaning over five times the speed of sound, which allows it to cover vas distances in a matter of minutes.

A common hypersonic missile launches from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, on March 26, 2026. via DoW

The launch of the common hypersonic missile, which is capable of covering more than 3,836 miles per hour (mph), was conducted as part of a joint test by the US Army and Navy.

According to the U.S. Department of War, the event took place at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in the state of Florida. The push is part of the U.S.’ ongoing efforts to develop advanced strike capabilities.

“The U.S. Army’s Portfolio Acquisition Executive Fires, in partnership with the US Navy’s Portfolio Acquisition Executive Strategic Systems Programs, conducted a successful launch of a common hypersonic missile from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, on March 26, 2026,” the U.S. Department of War stated.

A joint military test

Designed to travel faster than Mach 5, hypersonic weapons are considered a key part of future warfare and a military technology breakthrough. Their high speed makes them difficult to detect and intercept with existing defense systems.

The latest test by the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy marks another step toward deploying a shared hypersonic missile system. It is developed for both land- and sea-based platforms, and aims to help accelerate deployment and reduce costs.

Officials noted that the missile is being designed to strike time-sensitive, heavily defended, and high-value targets with minimal warning. What’s more, its extreme speed significantly reduces enemy reaction time.

“The Army and Navy partnership to field a common hypersonic missile across land- and sea-based platforms supports the National Defense Strategy by accelerating timelines, reducing costs, and delivering a highly survivable capability to defeat time-sensitive, heavily defended, and high-value targets at speeds exceeding Mach 5,” the U.S. Department of War continued in a statement shared on April 2.

Hypersonic push continues

According to reports, the test is part of a larger Pentagon plan to quickly roll out advanced technologies for combat use. On November 17, the US Department of War said that hypersonic weapons are one of six Critical Technology Areas (CTAs) seen as essential for battlefield advantage.

“Our adversaries are moving fast, but we will move faster,” Emil Michael, under secretary of war for research and engineering, revealed in a press release. “The warfighter is not asking for results tomorrow; they need them today.”

The six areas include Applied Artificial Intelligence (AAI), biomanufacturing (BIO), Contested Logistics Technologies (LOG), Quantum and Battlefield Information Dominance (Q-BID), Scaled Directed Energy (SCADE), and Scaled Hypersonics (SHY). All are aimed at strengthening battlefield performance.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said at the time that the nation’s military has long been at the forefront of military power. “Under Secretary Emil Michael’s six Critical Technology Areas will ensure that our warriors never enter a fair fight and have the best systems in their hands for maximum lethality.”

According to the U.S. Department of Defense, turning innovation into battlefield advantage will secure future dominance. “The War Department is committed to remaining the most deadly fighting force on planet Earth,” Hegseth concluded.

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/06/2026 - 19:15

US Secretly Repositions Bulk Of Stealth Cruise Missiles For Iran War

President Trump has set a Tuesday evening deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, with Tehran facing severe consequences if it refuses. Trump’s messaging suggests the next phase of the conflict could shift toward strikes on power plants, bridges, and other critical infrastructure nationwide.

New reporting from Bloomberg suggests that the Department of War shifted a large share of its JASSM-ERs, formerly the AGM-158B Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile-Extended Range, a long-range, conventional, air-launched stealth cruise missile fired from bomber aircraft and fighter jets, from Pacific theater stockpiles and U.S. warehouses to bases supporting the Gulf theater.

Sources told the outlet that the JASSM-ERs shifted out of U.S. warehouses in late March were being delivered to Central Command bases or to Fairford in the UK.

Neither the report nor its sources disclosed all the CENTCOM bases to which the stealth cruise missiles were being sent.

In recent days, large waves of U.S. transport planes have been observed flying from the U.S. into Europe, suggesting the DoW may already be laying the groundwork for resupplying munitions to the Gulf theater.

Bloomberg noted, "After the moves, only about 425 JASSM-ERs out of a prewar inventory of 2,300 will remain available for the rest of the globe. That would be roughly enough for 17 B-1B bombers on a single mission. Another 75 or so are 'unserviceable' because of damage or technical faults."

The Air Force has described the JASSM-ER as having a range of more than 500 nautical miles, compared to about 200 nautical miles for the earlier JASSM.

The JASSM-ER allows U.S. forces to strike Iranian targets from farther away and with lower risk to aircrews - and comes after multiple U.S. military aircraft have been shot down, resulting in daring rescues of the crewmen.

The Air Force noted the JASSM-ER is already integrated into the B-1, B-2, B-52H, F-15E, and F-16, allowing many air-delivered launch options.

The movement of these stealth cruise missile stockpiles may suggest that if Iran does not agree to reopen the Strait by Tuesday evening, and also agree to some form of ceasefire, the next phase of the conflict will begin with a barrage of these missiles.

 

 

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/06/2026 - 18:50

What The Hell Is Wrong With Modern Parents?

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

A 17-month-old toddler had his hand instinctively grabbed by a wolf at ZooAmerica inside Hersheypark, Pennsylvania, while his parents sat glued to their phones just 25 to 30 feet away on a bench.

Reports note that the parents didn’t even notice until bystanders rushed in amid the commotion.

Chaos at Hersheypark zoo when toddler is injured by wolf while parents were 'distracted by their phones' https://t.co/dRAhaW1bsB

— Daily Mail (@DailyMail) April 6, 2026

This isn’t some freak accident in the wild. It’s the predictable result of a society where doomscrolling trumps basic parental vigilance – even feet from a wolf enclosure.

The parents have now been charged, but the bigger story is the mentality that lets this happen in the first place.

The incident took place Saturday at the 11-acre North American wildlife park. The toddler squeezed through a small opening in a wooden barrier into a restricted area, then reached a hand through the metal fencing of the wolf habitat. One of the three gray wolves then made contact.

Derry Township Police described it plainly: one of the wolves in the enclosure “instinctively and naturally grabbed” onto the toddler’s hand. They stopped short of calling it a bite. Bystanders pulled the child free. Injuries were mercifully minor.

The parents, Carrie B. Sortor, 43, and Stephen J. B. Wilson, 61, both of Lititz, Pennsylvania, only learned what happened when chaos erupted. On Sunday they were each charged with one count of misdemeanor endangering the welfare of children, a decision made in consultation with the Dauphin County District Attorney’s Office.

ZooAmerica confirmed the child never entered the actual enclosure. In a statement, officials stressed visitor expectations: “Visitors were expected to ‘remain within designated areas and closely supervise children at all times.’”

They added: “Our habitats are designed with multiple layers of protection, and clear signage and barriers are in place to help ensure safe viewing.” On the wolf’s reaction, the zoo noted: “This type of response is consistent with natural animal behavior, and was not a sign of aggression.” They also reminded visitors that “Our wolves are well-camouflaged and you might mistake a wolf for a rock.”

The charges send a clear message: supervision isn’t optional when you bring a toddler to see wild carnivores. Yet the parents’ decision to step away and focus on screens reflects something deeper and uglier in modern life.

Letting a small child wander near wolves while you check notifications isn’t just careless. It’s the logical endpoint of a culture that treats real-world responsibility as secondary to digital distraction.

Where were the parents?? Should be charges brought against them for not supervising their child.

Toddler injured by wolf at Zoo America after crawling under a fence to enclosure https://t.co/C6nzDzAdAn

— Paul (@PaulGYoung) April 6, 2026

I hope they remove that child from their care since they suck at it.

— G (@BeholdYah) April 6, 2026

Toddler Injured by Wolf After Crawling Under Pennsylvania Zoo's Exterior Metal Fence https://t.co/NHjzw8cNOV Typical Democrat parent of today, we are not responsible for the safety and future of the kids God gives us.

— bitcap (@BarbaraFain16) April 6, 2026

“…distracted by their phones” a good reason to lose custody of your child.
I see it all the time.

— Linda Klase (@LindaKlase) April 6, 2026

Keeping your eyes on your kids near wild animals should be common sense – not something police have to enforce after the fact.

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/06/2026 - 18:25

Top University Dubbed 'MIT Of Iran' Bombed Along With Several Airports

US-Israeli strikes have been on a noticeable uptick against Iranian institutions of higher learning over the last days. This has included a large-scale aerial assault on Tehran’s Sharif University, which is often dubbed the "MIT of Iran".

After this attack, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi threatened Iranian retaliation, warning "aggressors will see our might." He said several other universities have also been struck over the last days:

Israeli-U.S. aggressors have bombed the MIT of Iran. This follows attacks on other universities.

1,400 years ago, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said that even if knowledge was situated in the distant Pleiades, Iranians would be capable of attaining it.

Aggressors will see our might. pic.twitter.com/Dn3hSCaBNv

— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) April 6, 2026

These recent attacks have had a high rate of casualties, at a moment the Trump administration is vowing to go harder, imposing a Tuesday midnight deadline for Tehran to agree to ceasefire - or else it will face an unprecedented bombing campaign against bridges and power plants.

Al Jazeera writes, "At least 34 people have been killed, including six children, as the United States and Israel carried out massive attacks across Iran, targeting a top university as well as residential areas, after US President Donald Trump set a Tuesday deadline for Tehran to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face strikes on its power plants and bridges."

The report continues, "The Fars news agency reported on Monday that an air attack killed 23 people, including four girls and two boys aged below 10 years, in Tehran province’s Baharestan County."

Neither the US nor Israel divulged the reasons behind attacking university campuses. Many of the students at these very campuses were involved in the January protests. The US claims to be "helping" the protesters through the Trump-ordered massive bombing campaign.

One regional report says that at least 30 Iranian colleges and universities have suffered damage amid the ongoing attacks.

Shahid Beheshti University in northern Tehran was attacked last Friday. It issued a statement saying: "This hostile act not only targets the security of academics and the country’s scientific environment, but is also a clear attack on reason, research, and freedom of thought."

Damage at Sharif University, WANA News

Trump has threatened to bomb Iran "back to the Stone Age" - and that is precisely what appears to be in progress. An advanced Iranian civilization, with scientific know-how, is seen as a threat in Israel, which believes Tehran has long sought to achieve nuclear weapons status.

Airports have also been frequently targeted, with Israeli officials saying at the start of this week that dozens of aircraft and helicopters have been taken out - including "Bahram Airport, Mehrabad Airport and Azmayesh Airport" - according to regional media.

* * * Sale ends Friday

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/06/2026 - 18:00

Supreme Court Clears Way For Dismissal Of Contempt Case Against Steve Bannon

Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The U.S. Supreme Court on April 6 cleared the way for the Trump administration to dismiss the criminal contempt case against Steve Bannon over his failure to honor congressional subpoenas.

Steve Bannon attends a court hearing at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City on Nov. 12, 2024. Adam Gray/AFP via Getty Images

The high court granted Bannon’s petition in an unsigned order. The court did not explain its order. No justices dissented.

The Supreme Court sent the case back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for further consideration, as that court considers a pending motion to dismiss the indictment.

Bannon, an ally of President Donald Trump who served in the first Trump White House, was already convicted and imprisoned for four months in 2024 in the contempt case, but both Bannon and the Trump administration now want the case to be thrown out.

Bannon had been convicted by a federal jury in the nation’s capital on two counts of contempt of Congress for not providing documents or testimony to a Democratic-led House committee that was investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, security breach at the U.S. Capitol. At that time of the breach, Congress was in the process of certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election. Joe Biden was inaugurated as president on Jan. 20, 2021.

Bannon had said the committee’s investigation and the charges later brought against him by the Biden administration were politically motivated.

At the sentencing hearing, prosecutor J.P. Cooney said Bannon opted to “thumb his nose at Congress,” adding that Bannon was “not above the law, and that’s what makes this case important.”

The Supreme Court turned away Bannon’s request to delay his imprisonment while the appeal played out. He served the sentence and was released a week before Trump beat then-Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, in November 2024.

Bannon filed a petition with the Supreme Court in October 2025, asking the justices to throw out his convictions that were made under 2 U.S.C. Section 192, the criminal contempt-of-Congress statute.

The petition said the law is the only federal criminal statute in which “willful” mens rea—a legal term meaning criminal intent—requires merely “intentional” conduct. In that law, Congress criminalized “willfully ... [defaulting]” on a legally authorized congressional subpoena, the petition said.

The D.C. Circuit found that “willfully” required only intentional conduct, which meant the government did not have to prove the subpoena recipient understood his conduct was unlawful.

Three circuit court judges dissented from that court’s May 2025 ruling, finding that interpretation was inconsistent with 150 years of caselaw, violated basic rules of legal interpretation, and would seriously harm the separation of powers.

The separation of powers is a constitutional doctrine that divides the government into three branches to prevent any single branch from accumulating too much power.

The Supreme Court’s longtime position is that in the criminal context, “to prove willfulness, the Government must demonstrate that an individual knew that his conduct was unlawful,” the petition said.

“Congress conspicuously omitted ‘willfully’ when criminalizing a different set of actions. The use of two different mens rea requirements demonstrates that ‘willfully’ was meant to impose a heightened standard,” the petition added.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a brief in February supporting Bannon’s petition.

“The government has determined in its prosecutorial discretion that dismissal of this criminal case is in the interests of justice,” the brief said.

The government has filed a motion with the federal district court in which Bannon was convicted asking for the indictment to be dismissed with prejudice, the brief said. A dismissal with prejudice means the same charges cannot be refiled.

Bannon has had other legal challenges. In February 2025, he entered a guilty plea in New York state court to charges of deceiving donors in a private fundraising effort to complement Trump’s proposal to build a wall at the U.S.–Mexico border. Bannon was not sentenced to incarceration.

At the end of his first term, Trump pardoned Bannon after he and three others were involved in a campaign to build barriers along the southern border but were accused of keeping some of the money they raised.

Bannon had entered a not guilty plea and said the charges were a “political hit job.”

Approached by The Epoch Times, Bannon declined to comment on the Supreme Court’s new ruling.

The Epoch Times reached out to the DOJ for comment. No reply was received by publication time.

Reuters and Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/06/2026 - 17:40

Federal Appeals Court Reinstates $656 Million Judgment Against Palestinian Authorities

Authored by Joseph Lord via The Epoch Times,

A federal appellate court has agreed to reinstate a $656 million judgment against Palestinian authorities for Americans killed or wounded in attacks by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority while in Israel.

The ruling from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was issued in the wake of a Supreme Court decision authorizing such suits for victims of international terrorism in a legal saga that’s been ongoing since the mid-2010s.

“We conclude that the original judgment for the plaintiffs should be reinstated. That conclusion is consistent with the plain import of the Supreme Court’s decision,” the judges said in a decision dated March 30.

The Supreme Court’s decision directly overturned a prior ruling made by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals on the matter.

The case has its earliest origins in a law passed by Congress in 1992, the Anti-Terrorism Act, which permitted victims of international terror to sue the offender.

In 2014, in the case Sokolow v. PLO, the PLO was successfully sued under that law in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. In the case, victims were awarded $218.5 million in damages by a jury—tripled to $655.5 million under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

The victims and their families have stated that Palestinian agents were either directly involved in the attacks or helped incite them.

The Palestinians have consistently argued that the cases shouldn’t be allowed in American courts.

In 2016, the case was brought before the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. In their decision, circuit judges tossed out the verdict from the lower court, and ruled that U.S. courts had no jurisdiction over international actors in non-U.S. countries.

Frustrated by the ruling, Congress in 2019 passed the Promoting Security and Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act (PSJVTA), which sought to create a legislative carve-out to ensure that lawsuits against the PLO and Palestinian Authority could move forward.

The legislation stated that the PLO and Palestinian Authority had “consented” to the jurisdiction of U.S. courts if they either paid martyr benefits to terrorists or their families or if they maintained any non-United Nations offices in the United States.

In 2023, the matter came again before the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, and the court held that the PSJVTA was unconstitutional. Its ruling stated that Congress could not simply “deem” an action to constitute consent to U.S. jurisdiction without running afoul of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.

In a unanimous decision in June 2025, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of victims, overturning the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeal’s ruling that the Fifth Amendment was violated by the PSJVTA.

With the vacation overturned, the courts will now move toward enforcement of the lower court ruling in favor of the plaintiffs, although collecting the funds from the PLO may meet with practical obstacles.

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/06/2026 - 17:00

Wyoming's Helium Empire Ascends As Qatar Gas Goes Flat

Readers have already been well briefed, see here and here, that roughly one-third of global helium supply has been disrupted, setting the perfect storm of chaos to spread across high-tech industries, particularly semiconductors. The shock is being driven by shipping restrictions through the Gulf and the shutdown of output from top producer Qatar, where damage to the Ras Laffan complex could keep supplies constrained for years. 

As the U.S.-Iran conflict enters its second month, one of the clearest second-order effects of the widening Gulf energy shock is the rewiring of global energy flows.

Buyers are already being forced to reassess the risks of concentrated energy exposure to the Gulf region, whether in crude and refined products or in LNG and helium, as war damage to major LNG export facilities in Qatar and Hormuz-related shipping constraints suggest energy flows could remain impaired for a prolonged period. Some of the countries most exposed to Gulf disruptions are in Asia, Africa, and Europe, as well as California in the U.S.

The good news for global buyers seeking more reliable alternatives to Gulf energy products is a theme we pointed out last month: American LNG exporters in the Gulf of America stand to be major beneficiaries of the disruption.

Adding to that theme, UBS analysts led by Manav Gupta said ExxonMobil stands out as a major beneficiary of the helium shock.

"Qatar was expected to increase its share of global capacity to 34% over the next five years; however, damage to the Ras Laffan facility could delay this expansion," Gupta noted. But as it has turned out, the head-to-head race with the U.S. in LNG export capacity has paused for now, as the U.S. pulls ahead.

2025 Helium production by country

Gupta continued, noting that XOM is set to dominate the global helium market through its facilities in Wyoming:

XOM's LaBarge facility in Wyoming, provides 20% of the world's supply, which has not been impacted by recent events in the Middle East. With an estimated eight decades worth of helium left to produce there, LaBarge is poised to play a significant role through the end of this century.

This facility, is capable of producing ~1.4 billion cubic feet per year of Grade A helium. With over 30% of global capacity disrupted, this location will play a key role in meeting global needs for Helium which is a critical element for many advanced technologies, like MRIs for healthcare, rockets for space exploration, and microchips for advanced computing.

Extracting helium was not part of LaBarge's original design when the facility began producing natural gas in the mid-1980s. After large quantities of helium were discovered underground, it soon became central to the facility's operation.

The two wars now stretching across Eurasia - the Russia-Ukraine conflict and, now, the U.S.-Iran conflict - are accelerating a rewiring of global energy flows toward suppliers seen as more stable and secure, above all the U.S.

Professional subscribers can read the full note on why UBS says XOM is a "net beneficiary of the current helium market tightness" at our new Marketdesk.ai portal.

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/06/2026 - 16:40

Ex-CIA Analyst: What The Hell Happened With The Pilot Rescue Op In Iran?

Authored by former CIA officer Larry Johnson

Iran's air defense system succeeded on Friday, April 3, in downing a US F-15E over Iran. There is some dispute and confusion about the exact location (more about that later). The pilot and the WSO (i.e., Weapons System Officer) both successfully ejected but were separated. The pilot was quickly rescued by the Combat Search and Rescue (i.e., CSAR) and the two Pave Hawk helicopters ferrying him back to safety were hit, but managed to make it to Kuwait — despite trailing visible black smoke.

The WSO was not so lucky. He reportedly landed 5 miles northwest of where he was ultimately rescued. I do not deny that he was recovered by US Special Operations forces on a ridge on a mountain — The red circle on the left hand side of the photo is the reported location of the pilot, the red circle on the right hand side of the photo is the airfield where the US Special Forces landed.

There are some real oddities about this story. The WSO is normally a Lieutenant or a Captain… This WSO is a Colonel who is the Vice Wing Commander at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base (MSAB) in Jordan. This helps explain the large number of assets devoted to finding and rescuing him. A variety of press reports claim he suffered a broken leg or a broken ankle. This raises a legitimate question… How did a man with a broken leg walk five miles and then climb a mountain? I’m not suggesting it is an impossible task, but it does raise some questions about the accuracy of the US military’s account of events.

Now here is the kicker… The geolocated wreckage of the C-130s which were apparently using a local “agricultural airstrip” (see the photo above) just happens to be right over a mountain, about 35km (21 miles) away, from Isfahan’s nuclear facility, where Iran’s ‘near-weapons grade’ enriched uranium is alleged to be stored. Was this whole affair a botched raid by US Special Operations forces to seize Iranian uranium for the Isfahan facility?

Before giving you my opinion, I want you to consider some other accounts that are circulating. The first up is Simplicius’ Substack article: It’s Official: US Boots-On-Ground Deep Inside Iran Amidst Another Day of Humiliating Losses. Simplicius claims that a large-scale US rescue operation for the second crew member (weapons systems officer) of a downed F-15E Strike Eagle has effectively confirmed the first official U.S. “boots on the ground” inside Iran. What the US presented as a straightforward combat search-and-rescue (CSAR) mission involved significant special operations forces penetrating deep into Iranian territory, resulting in heavy US losses of aircraft according to Iranian reports and open-source evidence.

Simplicius argues the “rescue” narrative may have served as cover or coincided with a broader objective: the operation was centered precisely in the area where Iran stores significant enriched uranium and nuclear-related materials. He suggests this marks a dangerous escalation, with US special operations forces now operating deep inside Iran — the first acknowledged “boots on the ground” in the current conflict.

Anthony Aguilar, a retired Special Operations officer, has a slightly different take. He offers the following hypothesis:

The rescue operation expanded to become the desired Delta Force, JSOC, SOF, ST-6 high-risk operation to ALSO seize the uranium in Iran; hence the need for so many operators, support, aircraft, etc. This WAS intended to be that operation. It failed. So what happened to the aircraft. I do not believe that they were “stuck”. I have seen MC-130Js plow through dirt, mud, snow, gravel, etc. I doubt they were stuck. It is more likely that the aircraft took hits upon entry and also likely took hits and damage while on the ground at the hasty FARP at the old airfield in Isfahan, “conveniently” close to where the suspected uranium may have been stored.

The there is Greg Bagwell, who is currently President UK Air & Space Power Association, a Podcaster, a RUSI Distinguished Fellow and a former RAF Senior Commander. He wrote the following on X:

Some may be wondering why the US flew 2 x MC-130 into a landing zone in Iran rather than use other types available. The clue is in the use of the Night Stalker AH-6 Little Bird Helicopters, which were also destroyed at the forward landing site. The WSO was located a few hundred kms inside Iran and it was probably considered too risky to fly Helos all the way in and out after so much prior warning had been given, and after the hits sustained when extracting the pilot on Day 1. But, the location of the WSO high up in the mountains and with what sounds like an injury, still needed the sort of assistance that only a Helicopter could provide. Step up the Night Stalker AH-6 Little Bird.

It’s transportable by C-130 and can be readied for flight in minutes from off loading. So all that was needed was somewhere to land a C-130 far enough away from trouble, but close enough to the downed airman. Meanwhile the AH-6 Little Bird Helicopters would have picked up the downed airman and brought him back to the airstrip. Unfortunately, the surface of the runway appears to have been unable to support a C-130. As a result, some De Havilland Canada Dash 8s (yes the irony!) were sent in to extract personnel, but these could not have carried the AH-6 Little Birds. So the only option was to destroy both the MC-130 and the AH-6 helicopters, rather than risk flying the latter out. So that’s why we didn’t see a V-22 Osprey or a Sikorsky MH-60/HH-60 Pave Hawk be involved – it was a calculation based on risk and utility. Some will see parallels with the Desert One strip disaster on Operation Eagle Claw in 1980, but this was a calculated risk that worked.

AH-6 Little Bird

Now let me tell you what I think happened. The shoot down of the F-15E was not a ruse to disguise a planned Special Ops raid on the nuclear site in Isfahan. It was an unlucky event for the pilot and the WSO. Given the rank of the WSO — and the highly classified knowledge he has about US operations in the Gulf and in Iran — recovering him became a top priority. The urgency of the situation resulted in the JSOC unit (I’m assuming they are based in Kuwait) being alerted to join the CSAR effort. The two C-130Js probably were already loaded with two AH-6 Little Birds. I think it was pure serendipity that the missing WSO was located northwest of the rudimentary air strip that the JSOC unit had been planning to use to stage its raid on Isfahan. Their familiarity with the area, based on their prior planning for the Isfahan raid, resulted in them being tasked to recover the WSO in lieu of the designated CSAR unit, which is manned by Pararescue Jumpers aka PJs (who, in my opinion, are the baddest asses in Special Ops).

We still do not know why the C-130s were not able to take off and that two planes from the 427th Special Operations Squadron flying C295s were summoned to carryout the extraction of the US forces, including the WSO.

This whole fiasco may be a blessing in disguise. The loss of a number of key air assets and the exposure of the remote airfield within shouting distance of Isfahan may compel the US commanders to cancel the planned raid to capture nuclear material from Iran.

A lot of skepticism has emerged surrounding the downed pilots narrative...

As i wrote yesterday, the Americans were trying to create FARP (Forward Arming & Refueling Point) near that mountain which happens to be 25 Kms south of Iran’s Isafahan Nuclear Facility Tunnels at 32.585522° N, 51.814933° E.

In an article just last month, Rafael Grossi stated… https://t.co/7uiHaqHKqW pic.twitter.com/b6rqbxTD0P

— Navroop Singh (@TheNavroopSingh) April 6, 2026

While the US forces, like chess pieces, had been assembled and were in place on Friday, April 3rd, to carry out the mission against Isfahan, the Commanding Admiral at CENTCOM may be having second thoughts and is communicating his concerns about the Op-Sec compromise to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

I only know one thing for certain — we are not yet getting the truthful story about the rescue of the WSO on Saturday.

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/06/2026 - 16:20

UBS: Trump's Historic Military Budget Request Could Boost Beaten-Down Defense Stocks

U.S. defense stocks showed signs of stabilizing in April after tumbling since Operation Epic Fury began in late February and sustaining a Mach bloodbath. The improvement followed Friday's White House proposal to lift military spending sharply, to roughly $1.5 trillion in 2027. 

UBS analyst Allyson Gordon said Monday morning that the White House budget request "should help sentiment," which has deteriorated since the U.S.-Iran conflict began. Last week, Gordon asked, "Why is U.S. defense performance lackluster?"

Earlier, the analyst said:

Defense stocks are in focus after Trump requested a $1.5 trn FY2027 defense budget on Friday. The headline is positive for the group, though market reaction remains to be determined.

On the supportive side, defense stocks have underperformed expectations since the Iran conflict began for several reasons, and the size of the budget request should help sentiment. However, investors remain skeptical that Congress will ultimately pass a $1.5 trn budget, raising the question of whether this is "as good as it gets."

Analyst Gavin Parsons outlined the key elements of the proposal and the relative winners and losers. Missiles appear to be a major beneficiary, reinforcing the bullish narrative for RTX. Shipbuilding also stands out as a positive (GD, HII), while the proposed B‑21 reduction was a surprise negative for NOC. That said, investor positioning is likely to reflect continued uncertainty around what ultimately makes it through Congress.

From here, the proposal moves to Congress, which must pass a budget by September 30 to avoid a shutdown or continuing resolution at the start of FY2027 (October 1).

The iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF, or ITA, a basket of major U.S. defense firms, initially ramped in the early days of the U.S.-Iran conflict but then dumped into a deep 16% correction from the early March high. By the end of the month, and into late last week, ITA began to stabilize, up 6.5% from the low.

Last week, in a separate note, Melius analyst Scott Mikus upgraded RTX to a "Buy" from "Hold," citing "Epic Fury tailwinds."

Mikus said, "Given the need to replace missiles, missile interceptors, damaged radars, aircraft, and other equipment used in Operation Epic Fury, we are raising our estimates and price targets for the large defense primes."

"We see margin tailwinds for defense contractors as they move past stale-priced contracts and receive awards for mature production programs that are margin accretive," added Mikus.

Now the question is: How will defense stocks respond to President Trump's Tuesday evening deadline for Iran to reopen the Hormuz chokepoint?

*IRAN REJECTS A CEAESFIRE IN REPLY TO US VIA PAKISTAN: IRNA https://t.co/yrWftZNKvI

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) April 6, 2026

IRNA's foreign policy correspondent says that its response, which consists of ten paragraphs, Iran has emphasized the need for a permanent end to the war, taking into account Iran's considerations, while rejecting a ceasefire.

This answer includes a set of demands from Iran,… https://t.co/anVYR1uZVm

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) April 6, 2026

Any rejection of a ceasefire could result in the next phase of the conflict, one in which the U.S. begins targeting critical infrastructure nodes and continues to drain key stockpiles of missiles and bombs that will clearly need to be replaced at some point, hence Mikus's note on "Epic Fury tailwinds."

Professional subscribers can read the latest defense stocks notes at our new Marketdesk.ai portal

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/06/2026 - 15:40

The Debt Spiral Ends In Dollar Destruction: 6 Hard Truths America Can No Longer Ignore

Authored by Nick Giambruno via Doug Casey's International Man,

“Whenever governments are granted power to purchase their own debt, they never fail to do so, eventually destroying the value of the currency.” – Ron Paul

Let’s take a step back and look at the big picture so we can assess the US government’s financial situation, where it’s likely headed, and what these trends could mean.

Observation #1: It’s Politically Impossible To Cut Spending

Among the biggest expenditures for the US government are so-called entitlements like Social Security and Medicare.

It’s unlikely any politician will cut entitlements. On the contrary, I expect them to continue growing.

That’s because tens of millions of Baby Boomers - about 22% of the population - will enter retirement in the coming years. Cutting Social Security and Medicare is a sure way to lose an election.

The interest on the federal debt is already the second-largest federal expenditure. In a matter of months, it’s set to exceed Social Security and become the biggest expenditure.

With the most precarious geopolitical situation since World War 2, National Defense—another large expenditure—is unlikely to be cut. Instead, defense spending is all but certain to increase. President Trump has proposed increasing it from $917 billion to $1.5 trillion. The ongoing war with Iran guarantees military spending has nowhere to go but up, way up. The Pentagon has requested an additional $200 billion for starters for the Iran war.

Different types of healthcare and welfare programs also make up a considerable part of the federal budget and are unlikely to be cut.

In short, efforts to reduce expenditures will be meaningless unless it becomes politically acceptable to make chainsaw-like cuts to entitlements, national defense, and welfare while reducing the national debt to lower the interest cost.

In other words, the US would need a leader who—at a minimum—returns the federal government to a limited Constitutional Republic, closes the 128 military bases abroad, ends entitlements, kills the welfare state, and repays a large portion of the national debt.

However, that’s a completely unrealistic fantasy. It would be foolish to bet on that happening.

Here’s the bottom line.

The government cannot even slow the spending growth rate, let alone cut it.

Expenditures have nowhere to go but up—way up.

Observation #2: Ever-Increasing Debt Is the Only Way To Finance Deficits

When faced with a choice, politicians always choose the most expedient option.

In this case, that means issuing more debt rather than making tough budget decisions or explicitly defaulting.

Consider the recurring debt ceiling farce in the US Congress, which has been raised over 100 times since 1944.

In any case, don’t count on increased tax revenue to offset these increases in federal expenditures.

Even if tax rates went to 100%, it still wouldn’t be enough to stop the debt from growing.

According to Forbes, there are around 902 billionaires in the US with a combined net worth of about $6.8 trillion.

The US federal government spent around $7 trillion in FY 2025, and will almost certainly spend a lot more in FY 2026 and beyond.

Even if the US government confiscated 100% of billionaire assets through a wealth tax, it wouldn’t cover even a single year of current federal spending.

And even after confiscating all billionaire wealth, the US government would still have to borrow more than $200 billion to cover FY 2025 spending.

Here’s the bottom line: increasing taxes, even to extreme levels, isn’t going to change the trajectory of this unstoppable trend—even slightly.

The truth is, no matter what happens, the deficits will not stop growing, nor will the debt needed to finance them.

The growth rate is not even going to slow down. It’s going to increase.

That means interest expense on the federal debt will continue exploding higher.

Observation #3: Over Half of US Treasury Debt Matures by 2028

This year, nearly $10 trillion of US Treasuries will mature.

And every bond that comes due has to be refinanced at today’s much higher rates—locking in substantially larger interest costs for years. What used to roll over quietly can now only be rolled over at roughly double the interest cost seen in 2022.

That’s what the chart below is really showing: the easy-money era is over. The “free money” party ended, and now the bill for the last round of stimulus has to be carried—and paid.

More than half of America’s debt will mature by 2028.

Every time US debt is refinanced at higher rates, it adds interest costs to the deficit—costs that have to be financed with even more debt issuance, compounding the problem.

It’s worth noting that about $6.6 trillion of the $9.6 trillion maturing this year—roughly 69%—are short-term T-bills.

That’s typical in a debt crisis. As demand for long-term bonds weakens, investors gravitate to short-term instruments like T-bills instead of 10-year notes and 30-year bonds.

It’s the same pattern you see in emerging-market crises. The market shortens maturities as conditions deteriorate. Only a fool would want to lend a bankrupt government money for the long term.

Observation #4: An Ever-Growing Interest Expense Fuels the Debt Spiral

Annualized interest on the federal debt exceeds $1.2 trillion and is surging higher. That means more than 23% of federal tax revenue is going just to service interest on the existing debt.

Ray Dalio is one of the world’s most successful hedge fund managers.

His success is due to his consistent ability to get the Big Picture right.

He recently said this (emphasis mine):

“We are at a point in which we are borrowing money to pay debt service.

When you keep having debt growth faster than income growth, that means you have debt service encroaching on your spending, and you want to keep spending at the same time.

As that happens, there is a need to get more and more into debt. It accelerates.

We are at the point of that acceleration. We are near that inflection point.”

The financial position of the US government has been gradually deteriorating for decades, so it’s not surprising that many people are complacent. They’ve long heard about the debt problem, and nothing has happened.

However, it is now reaching the tipping point.

That’s because the US government is now borrowing money to pay the interest on the money it has already borrowed, as Dalio noted. Politicians are adding more debt to solve the problems of prior debt. It’s creating a self-perpetuating doom loop.

The federal debt’s interest cost is already higher than the defense budget. It’s on track to exceed Social Security in the coming months and become the biggest in the federal budget.

In short, the skyrocketing interest expense has become an urgent threat to the US government’s solvency.

Observation #5: Surging Interest Expense Forces Fed To Ease Monetary Policy

The soaring interest expense threatens the solvency of the US government and forces the Fed to cut interest rates, buy Treasuries, and implement other monetary easing measures to try to control interest costs.

In the bond market, when demand for a bond falls, the interest rate rises to entice buyers.

However, the federal debt is so extreme that allowing interest rates to rise high enough to entice more natural buyers could bankrupt the US government because of the higher interest costs.

For context, when Paul Volcker raised interest rates above 17% in the early 1980s the US debt-to-GDP ratio was around 30%. Today, it’s north of 123% and rising rapidly.

Today’s higher debt load and accompanying interest expense are why meaningfully higher interest rates are not on the table; the growing interest expense could lead to the US government’s bankruptcy.

That’s a big reason President Trump has stacked the Fed with loyalists who will push for lower interest rates and pursue easy-money policies.

Further, the world isn’t hungry for more US debt right now. It’s an inopportune moment for lackluster demand because supply is exploding higher.

If higher interest rates are off the table and cannot entice more natural buyers, and foreigners aren’t going to step up to the plate, who will finance these growing multi-trillion dollar budget deficits?

The only entity capable is the Federal Reserve, which buys Treasuries with dollars it creates out of thin air.

Observation #6: Ever-Increasing Currency Debasement Is Inevitable

The skyrocketing interest expense forces the Fed to implement interest cost control policies, which inflate the money supply and debase the currency.

As that happens, prices rise.

That causes the US government to spend even more on Social Security and welfare to keep up with the cost-of-living increases. The same is true of defense and other government spending, which adjusts upward for rising prices.

Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently said, “Barely staying even with inflation or worse is wholly inadequate. Significant additional resources for defense are necessary and urgent.”

This compounds the problem because, as government spending rises to account for rising prices, that increased spending can only be financed with more currency debasement.

That’s why ever-increasing currency debasement is the inevitable outcome of the US government’s debt spiral.

It’s a self-perpetuating doom loop from which they cannot escape.

In short, the only way the US government can continue to finance itself is for the Fed to create ever-increasing amounts of fake money.

It brings to mind the phrase: “You can’t taper a Ponzi scheme.”

Financial commentator Max Keiser originally said these simple yet profound words.

A Ponzi scheme is an unsustainable scam that relies on a continuous influx of new money to keep it going.

The scheme collapses if the flow of new money slows down or tapers.

Many believe the Federal Reserve is running what amounts to a giant Ponzi scheme.

That’s because the US government’s obscene spending and skyrocketing debt have reached an inflection point.

The whole system will collapse unless the Fed pumps an ever-increasing amount of new fake money into the system.

It’s like being on a runaway train with no brakes.

Ludwig von Mises, the godfather of free-market Austrian economics, summed up the Fed’s dilemma:

“There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion.

The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.”

The US government will not voluntarily “abandon credit expansion,” as Mises puts it, because Washington is dependent on issuing increasing amounts of debt to pay for the ever-growing costs of Social Security, national defense, welfare, and interest on the federal debt.

That means their only choice is to debase the US dollar by ever-increasing amounts until, as Mises puts it, the “final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.”

It’s like a drug addict who needs to keep raising his dose to get the same effect… until he dies of an overdose.

If this trend continues, the damage to your savings, purchasing power, and personal freedom could be far greater than most people imagine. And by the time the crisis is obvious to everyone, taking effective action may be much harder.

That’s why preparing now is so important.

ZH: We agree. Stock up here.

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/06/2026 - 15:20

Iran Conflict Spotlights Nuclear Energy As Key To Global Energy Security

The ongoing disruptions tied to Iran’s energy infrastructure and the Strait of Hormuz, have once again exposed the fragility of global oil supplies. As oil prices swing on geopolitical headlines, the founder and executive chairman of Nano Nuclear Energy, Jay Yu, underscored the critical alternative during a recent Fox Business appearance: nuclear power offers “consistent baseload energy”, while oil remains “a finite commodity” vulnerable to conflict.

Jay Yu emphasized that the current spotlight on nuclear is drawing “institutional investors, and venture capital money is pouring in”. This renewed focus extends beyond immediate headlines to next-generation technologies.

On what he described as a historic day for the company, Nano submitted its construction permit application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the KRONOS MMR microreactor, which is the first commercial-ready micro reactor to reach this milestone in the nation and one of only a handful of Generation IV designs to do so.

Energy security has emerged as a pressing concern amid the Iran conflict, complementing the well-documented power demands from the AI-driven data center boom. Yet nuclear’s case is broader. The technology’s resurgence began years ago with the push for climate-friendly, low-carbon baseload power. That foundation was strengthened by surging electricity needs from artificial intelligence infrastructure, as we’ve detailed in multiple reports on the nuclear renaissance.

The current geopolitical risks with oil market volatility and supply chain threats from the Middle East add another layer, reinforcing the long-term investment thesis that nuclear provides reliable, domestic energy independent of fossil fuels or unstable regions.

*BRENT OIL SURGES 13% TO $82 A BARREL AT OPEN AFTER IRAN STRIKES https://t.co/yD07qFkNk4

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 1, 2026

Nano’s partnership with the University of Illinois further illustrates the practical appeal of these new designs. The company is building its first KRONOS MMR on campus, using advanced safety features that eliminate the risk of explosion. “Dorm rooms are going to be across the street” from the reactor site, demonstrating the compact, secure profile of microreactor technology.

As we’ve previously reported on the AI boom powering nuclear revival and the latest Iran-related energy market strains, these developments continue to build the bull case for the sector. With capital inflows rising and regulatory milestones being cleared, nuclear stands out as more essential than ever for long-term energy security.

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/06/2026 - 15:00

Big Pharma Forced To Yank COVID Vaxx Study Due To Lack Of Participants

Authored by Ben Sellers via Headline USA,

Two of the major pharmaceutical companies connected with the controversial COVID vaccines were forced to abandon a new research study after failing to garner enough participants.

Pfizer and German vax maker BioNTech had sought to research an updated version of the vaccine in adults ages 50 to 64, but were unable to generate the data needed due to the low enrollment in the trials, Reuters reported.

The study was needed in order to meet new guidelines imposed by the Food and Drug Administration that require the pharmaceutical companies to provide data on the efficacy of the vaccine in comparison with a placebo.

However, it marks a peculiar coda to the pandemic era, when mass formation psychosis swept the globe forcing individuals to forgo their civil liberties en masse and to inject the experimental, gene-altering serum into their DNA under extreme social duress.

Since then, vaccine injuries including strokes, myocarditis, turbo cancers and miscarriages have all been linked, either clinically or anecdotally, to the drugs, which were fast-tracked by the FDA under the previous Trump and Biden administrations with backing from dubious medical authorities like COVID czar Anthony Fauci.

In addition to the potential harm the caused, others have noted that the vaccines had little benefit since they did not prevent transmission of the COVID virus.

The pandemic ultimately dissipated as the result of natural immunity and evolution, with weaker variants rendering the vaccines unnecessary and redundant.

The stricter FDA guidelines under current Health and Human Services Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stand in stark contrast with the early days of the Biden presidency, when Kennedy’s far-left counterpart, Xavier Becerra, oversaw unconstitutional mandates pressuring government workers and various private industries to submit to the demands of Big Pharma.

Jeffrey Tucker, president of the Brownstone Institute — a nonprofit that sprung up in opposition to vaccine mandates and other COVID-era hysteria — said the recent fizzling of Pfizer offered a long-awaited dose of poetic justice.

Essentially, the market itself is taking the Covid shots off the market. It amounts to a humiliating repudiation of one of history's largest and most destructive inoculation attempts. A fitting end to a hideous story. https://t.co/jsanIQooyC

— Jeffrey A Tucker (@jeffreytucker) April 2, 2026

“Essentially, the market itself is taking the Covid shots off the market,” Tucker wrote in an X post.

“It amounts to a humiliating repudiation of one of history’s largest and most destructive inoculation attempts. A fitting end to a hideous story.”

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/06/2026 - 14:40

Watch Live: Artemis II Breaks Record For Farthest Crewed Flight From Earth

The human race is now flying farther from its home planet than at any other time in history.

At approximately 1:57 p.m. on April 6, NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, as well as the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen, flew their Orion spacecraft Integrity beyond 248,655 statute miles—a record set by Apollo 13 almost exactly 56 years ago.

The pioneering moment came at the beginning of Day 6 of Artemis II’s 10-day test flight, and mere minutes before its four astronauts were scheduled to begin the first flyby around the moon since 1972.

As The Epoch Times' T.J.Muscaro details, for the next several hours, the crew will continue to move closer to the Moon and farther from Earth.

Mission leaders expected Integrity’s uphill trajectory to peak at 252,760 statute miles away and reach its closest point to the moon - a little more than 4,000 statute miles above its surface - just after 7 p.m. ET.

In the farthest distance of deep space reached by a crewed spaceflight, astronauts will gaze upon areas of the moon that have never been seen before by unaided human eyes. 

Watch the events here:

 

As T.J.Muscaro detailed earlier via The Epoch Times, astronauts are back in lunar space for the first time in more than 50 years.

Artemis II’s Orion spacecraft, Integrity, crossed into the Moon’s gravitational influence at approximately 12:41 a.m. ET on April 6, officially making NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, as well as the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen, the first astronauts to enter lunar space in more than half a century.

While they are not parking in lunar orbit or attempting a landing, the point where lunar gravity becomes more powerful than the Earth’s is considered the arrival point to lunar space. It is a threshold that only 24 explorers had crossed—until now.

The crew was scheduled to wake up at 10:50 a.m. ET, when a historic day of firsts, records, and opportunities for discoveries lay before them.

They will be the largest crew yet to fly around the moon, and they are expected to set a new distance record for the farthest human beings have ever traveled from the surface of the Earth. They are also expected to observe areas of the lunar surface that have never been seen firsthand by human eyes, and a complete solar eclipse, before lunar gravity essentially throws their spacecraft on a course back home.

NASA’s live coverage is expected to begin at 1 p.m. ET. Here is what to know about the day’s events.

Lunar Observation Timeline

1:30 p.m.—The crew will have a conversation with the science officer in Mission Control for final review and solidification of the surface targets for observation and other objectives.

2:45 p.m. ET—Artemis II’s seven-hour lunar flyby will officially begin.

Integrity’s course will send the crew behind the moon, passing on looker’s left, and swinging around to reemerge on looker’s right.

From their vantage point, the crew will be able to see elements of both the near and far sides, with about 20 percent of the far side illuminated, with plenty of opportunities to see things for the first time with human eyes.

The crew will work in pairs, observing the moon in 55-to-85-minute shifts due to Integrity’s limited window space.

Juliane Gross, Artemis sample curation lead who was tasked with helping choose sites targeted for observation, praised in-person human observation as being best for being able to provide immediate descriptions compared to robotic spacecraft.

Jacob Richardson, Artemis II’s deputy lunar science lead, indicates roughly how much of the moon’s far side will be illuminated on April 5, 2026, ahead of Artemis II’s flyby. (T.J. Muscaro/The Epoch Times).

“The human brain is so good at looking at a surface and immediately picking out ... those changes in the blink of an eye,” she told The Epoch Times. “Orbiters and spacecraft, they will take months and years to get their data.”

Lunar scientists told The Epoch Times that there are spots on both the far and near sides that they are excited to observe.

On the far side, those targets include Orientale Basin and an older basin called Hertzsprung.

On the near side, Gross said she was most excited to observe the Aristarchus Plateau.

Kelsey Young, Artemis II science lead, said that the crew will also be able to see the Apollo 12 and Apollo 14 landing sites.

Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen were also instructed to break free of the scientists’ wishlist and take observations of what they found interesting on the surface.

“The whole purpose of all the Artemis missions is discovery,” Jacob Richardson, Artemis II’s deputy lunar science lead, told The Epoch Times. “We want them to discover, and when I train crews, I say that the whole purpose is to make the scientists today look like fools, because if we rewrite the textbook about the moon with Artemis missions, then we’ve done our job.”

Gross said that both pairs will be observing the same features at different points in the flyby, and they will be tasked later with discussing the differences in their reports. She said observations and images already taken by the crew were proof they were fully trained and ready to undertake their mission.

“Every human is different with what they can notice and describe,” she said. “And so we’re really excited about these discussion periods that we gave them.”

Richardson also shared his excitement about the astronauts’ observations of the view shared with those looking up from Earth, and the contrasting descriptions a difference of more than 240,000 miles provides.

6:45 p.m.—Artemis II will witness an “Earthset” and experience a loss of communication with Mission Control as the moon’s position moves directly between Integrity and the Earth, like the Apollo missions that came before it.

7:02 p.m.—Artemis II is expected to make its closest pass to the lunar surface at an altitude of approximately just more than 4,000 miles. At that distance, mission leaders said that the moon will appear the size of a basketball held at arm’s length. That distance will give Integrity’s astronauts a unique perspective compared to those of Apollo, who flew much closer.

7:25 p.m.—Communication is supposed to be reacquired, and an “Earthrise” will be observed.

9:20 p.m.—Lunar observations are expected to be complete.

A screenshot of the application the Artemis II crew sees on their PCDs that guides them in the execution of the lunar science observation plan. This custom software was built by the Crew Lunar Observations Team, a subset of the Artemis II lunar science team. In this screenshot you can see Orientale basin, target number 12 circled on the bottom right of the Moon, and to its left, target number 13, Hertzsprung basin.
(Courtesy of NASA).

Record Distance, Solar Eclipse

Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen will make most of their lunar observations while flying where no one has gone before.

Approximately 1:56 p.m.—Artemis II will travel beyond the furthest point from Earth humans have ever reached: 248,655 statute miles by Apollo 13 in 1970. Remarks are expected to be given by the crew commemorating the trailblazing moment shortly after.

7:07 p.m.—The foursome will reach their maximum distance from Earth: 252,760 statute miles.

It will take Integrity more than five hours to cover the additional more than 4,000 statute miles. While its starting speed toward the Moon was nearing 25,000 miles per hour, the spacecraft’s forward motion has slowed to just a fraction of that speed over the past several days due to Earth’s gravity trying to pull it back.

8:35 p.m.—The moon will begin eclipsing the Sun, allowing the astronauts to observe the Sun’s corona and look to confirm Apollo reports about the Sun’s ability to disperse moon dust. The eclipse will also allow the crew to collect data on how their solar-powered spacecraft handles being taken out of direct sunlight and other stresses that would be experienced on future Artemis II missions.

9:32 p.m.—Solar eclipse concludes.

Upon completion of their objectives, the Artemis II crew will begin sending some of the imagery they collected to science teams on the ground. NASA’s scientists will review the material overnight and then have a conversation with the crew about their findings on April 7.

1:25 p.m. on April 7— Artemis II will begin its journey home immediately after its pass around the moon. It will leave the moon’s gravitational pull and begin falling back to Earth.

Artemis II is scheduled to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego at 8:07 p.m. on April 10.

* * *

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/06/2026 - 14:25

"Evictions Are An Act Of Policy Violence": Pressley & Dems Introduce Renter Reform Legislation

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D., Mass.) joined fellow Democrats last week in calling for the passage of the Housing Emergencies Lifeline Program (HELP) Act to “crack down” on some evictions while barring the use of evictions on credit reports.

Pressley declared that “evictions are an act of policy violence.”

Promoting the act, Pressley said:

“Eviction is an act of violence, and we have to do everything to prevent it. It is devastating for the families. It degrades the health of communities. There is great stigma associated with it. It affects your credit score. Housing is a human right. It is a predictor of health outcomes. It’s essential for social and economic mobility…”

The HELP Act would prohibit the credit reporting of evictions and utility debt. That is a major indicator for credit companies and would deny access to the information for those reviewing the financial history of people seeking loans and other benefits.

It would also fund legal counsel for people contesting evictions. It is co-sponsored by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D., Conn.) and Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D., Cal.)

Critics ripped into Pressley over her family’s reported millions held in rental properties.

The true concern, however, should be in Congress dictating the removal of key financial history from debt reports. It is one thing to provide assistance to renters. However, these companies play a key role in allowing a wide array of businesses to judge the risk of individuals seeking contracts, leases, or loans. Forcing the non-reporting of such records undermines the faith and utility of such reports.

The manipulation of financial reports is a dangerous precedent in politics. Not long ago, some states, like New York, mandated the expungement or sealing of criminal justice records to help people secure jobs.

Yet this is an effort by Democrats to artificially improve credit reports by removing evidence of past evictions or lease defaults.

At the same time, landlords and others are dealing with a squatting crisis where people use existing evictions laws to delay their removal from properties.

In New York, socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s previously called to seize unoccupied luxury condos in New York and give them to the homeless. After this election, he then appointed Cea Weaver as the new director of the Office to Protect Tenants. Weaver previously stated a need to ‘impoverish the white middle-class’ and called homeownership “racist” while demanding the seizure of private property.

The videos Weaver echoed thread-worn socialist mantras:

“I think the reality is, that for centuries we’ve really treated property as an individualized good and not a collective good…And transitioning to treating it as a collective good and towards a model of shared equity will require that we think about it differently and it will mean that families – especially white families, but some POC families who are homeowners as well – are going to have a different relationship to property than the one that we currently have.”

Weaver and others in the Mamdani administration view “private property, including and kind of ESPECIALLY homeownership is a weapon of White supremacy masquerading as ‘wealth building’ public policy.”

Pressley’s view of evictions as an act of violence adds to this rising rhetoric at a time when more young people are embracing socialism. In my book, “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.” I discuss this trend in Western countries.

Recent polls show sixty-five percent of Democratic voters have a favorable view of socialism. An even greater percentage of young Britons want to live under socialism, and 72 percent favor nationalization of industries.

As my book discusses, the work of Adam Smith was immediately embraced by the founders as the perfect economic theory to advance their political theory. Smith’s idea of the “invisible hand” offered an idea of individual economic freedom where whole economies were driven by the individual tastes and choices of citizens.

The free market was viewed not as “violence” but liberation for individual citizens in achieving true independence.

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/06/2026 - 14:00

As France Yanks Last US-Based Gold Reserves, UBS Expects Demand From China To Persist

When France repatriates its gold, it has historically been worth paying attention to (think De Gaulle's demands culminating in the 'Nixon Shock').

However, then (as now), there was no cliff-like event, it was a slow-building crisis and perhaps the news that Gold has officially emptied its US-stored gold reserves (held in New York) is another straw on the back of the fiat standard to keep an eye on.

RFI reports that The Banque de France (BdF) announced last week that it generated a capital gain of €12.8 billion after upgrading 129 tonnes of gold – about 5% of France's total reserves – between July 2025 and January 2026.

The gold was the last of the French reserves held in New York. It was replaced with the equivalent amount bought in Europe and held in Paris. 

The BdF has been gradually replacing older, non‑standard gold with bars that meet ​modern international standards since 2005.

It moved the majority of its gold reserves out of the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England between 1963 and 1966.

Rather than refining and transporting the gold that remained in the US, the bank opted to sell it and purchase new, compliant bullion on the European market.

BdF governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau insisted that the decision to move France’s gold out of the US was not politically motivated.

Instead, it was based on the fact that higher-standard gold is traded on the European market, and buying new gold was easier than refining the existing stock.

Not everyone is buying what the BdF Governor is selling.

Here's Commodity Discovery Fund founder (and infamous prognosticator), Willem Middelkoop's somewhat more conspiratorial take:

My two cents on the repatriation of French gold bars:

• France asked to return their 12.5 kg gold bars

• US had already sold them

• US offered to wire the money

• France accepted and bought new 12.5 kg gold bars in London

Both countries agreed on the following spin to sell the story: 

• new bars bought to ‘meet current standards’ 

Spin is 100% bullshit

• 12.5 kg 999.9 pure gold bars have always been 999.9 pure gold bars of 12,5 kg

• previous gold repatriations always happened without the ‘ need for ‘current standards’ 

• MSM doesn’t ask questions and prints spin

Another PR disaster avoided for the US/FED 

• The rigging of the dollar system can go on 

• The can can be kicked a bit further down the road

It's hard to disagree too vehemently with the macro guru's take.

However, while France is repatriating, Germany is being urged to repatriate, and Turkey is selling amid war impacts, UBS Precious Metals team, led by Joni Teves, are confident that gold demand from China is likely to persist...

Conversations with various market participants in China revealed acute concerns about the implications of the conflict in the Middle East.

From our vantage point, the overall sentiment was quite negative, with a lot of the negative impact to the global macro outlook seen to have already been done, even if there an offramp from the US/Israel conflict with Iran emerges in the near future.

Many of those we spoke with had a cautious view on what recent events mean for the US, focusing on risks of stagflation and a weaker dollar.

There was scepticism about quickly markets priced in rate hikes across global central banks, with onshore concerns seemingly more skewed towards the impact of higher energy prices and heightened geopolitical uncertainty on growth.

Underlying positive gold outlook intact

Concerns about the outlook on global growth, inflation discussed and geopolitical risks likely plays into the continued positive sentiment towards gold.

Majority, if not all, of our conversations signalled an upside bias to gold price expectations over the medium to long term.

This is not entirely surprising given strong gold demand at the start of 2026 and notable resilience in March.

The outlook for Q2 remains constructive, particularly if gold prices stabilise and onshore premium holds.

There does not seem to be many bottlenecks when it comes to supply and securing import quotas and permits.

Moreover, retail and institutional investment demand is growing considerably amid:

1) changes to tax rules introduced last year (which keep investment gold exempt while raising tax costs for jewellery);

2) banks rolling out accumulation plans that are widely distributed via electronic platforms,

3) insurance companies in the pilot program starting to become more active.

Our understanding is that around half of insurance companies that are part of the pilot program allowed to invest up to 1% of AUM in gold have started to become more active.

Activities should be reflected in Shanghai Gold Exchange trade volumes, as these are the products they are allowed to trade.

SGE turnover has shown an increase over the past few weeks.

Mid-tier and/or insurance companies with higher risk appetite we think are the ones that are likely to be more active.

This is an encouraging development overall and we think the industry is still some distance from being fully allocated.

Long-term upside risks could come from expanding the program to the rest of the industry and/or to other sectors as well as increasing the allowable % to total AUM.

For insurance companies that have so far been more hesitant, the lack of expertise and gold’s lack of yield are likely key hurdles.

Near-term concerns & looking for entry levels

Gold’s sharp retracement at the end of February followed by further weakness in March despite rising geopolitical risks has understandably raised concerns.

Virtually every conversation we had in China covered the various reasons why gold prices came under pressure.

A degree of nervousness was palpable, as market participants stress-tested underlying assumptions and long term outlooks.

Ultimately, the questions were around whether current levels were attractive entry points or if there is room to be patient.

Professional subscribers can read the full UBS Note "From the Ground: Gold demand from China likely to persist" here at our new Marketdesk.ai portal

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/06/2026 - 13:40

Missouri Senate Passes Bill Blocking WHO, UN, WEF Authority

Authored by Jon Fleetwood via substack,

A Missouri bill directly confronting the role of unelected global institutions in domestic governance has passed the state Senate, declaring that organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations (UN), and World Economic Forum (WEF) have “no jurisdiction or power within the state.”

The move represents a win for state sovereignty, constitutional supremacy, and resistance to foreign governance frameworks.

Missouri Senate Bill 977 (SB 977), introduced by State Senator Nick Schroer, passed the Senate on April 2, 2026 by a resounding 31–0 vote and has now moved to the House for further consideration.

The legislation establishes what amounts to a state-level legal firewall, preemptively blocking the enforcement pipeline before international directives can take hold inside Missouri’s government systems.

Bill Declares Global Institutions Have No Authority in Missouri

You can contact Missouri representatives here to encourage them to pass the bill, as SB 977 moves to the House.

You can find your own legislators here to recommend they write and pass similar bills.

The bill’s language is explicit: “The World Health Organization, the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, and any other international organization or body shall have no jurisdiction or power within the state of Missouri.”

It then prohibits any implementation of their directives: “No rule, regulation, fee, tax, policy, or mandate of any kind… shall be enforced or implemented by the state of Missouri or any agency… or any municipality or other political subdivision of the state.”

This means that if global bodies issue policy guidance, frameworks, or mandates, Missouri agencies are barred from carrying them out.

‘No Foreign Laws Act’ Blocks Outside Legal Systems from Overriding Constitutional Rights

The bill formally creates the “No Foreign Laws Act,” defining foreign law broadly as: “any law, legal framework, legal code, or system… derived from a jurisdiction outside of any state or territory of the United States, including international organizations and tribunals.”

It then draws a clear line: “The application of any foreign law that denies the parties fundamental rights shall be prohibited and render… void and unenforceable”

Courts cannot substitute international or foreign legal systems where they conflict with constitutional protections like due process, free speech, or property rights.

Foreign Court Rulings & Contracts Can Be Rejected

The bill blocks enforcement of outside legal decisions: “No court shall enforce or apply… a judgment, decree, or arbitration decision if it relies… on any foreign law that violates the fundamental rights of a party.”

It also targets contracts attempting to route disputes into foreign systems: “A contract… that provides for the choice of any foreign law… [or] grants jurisdiction to a foreign tribunal” may be rendered void.

These protections extend into core areas of life: “marriage, divorce, child custody, adoption, or inheritance”

Courts Barred from Sending Cases Into Foreign Jurisdictions

The bill closes another pathway by restricting case transfers: “No state court… shall transfer any civil action if such transfer would result in the application of… foreign law… that would violate… fundamental rights.”

Missouri courts cannot route cases into systems where constitutional protections may not apply.

What the Bill Actually Changes

• Blocks direct enforcement of WHO, UN, and WEF directives in Missouri

• Prevents foreign legal systems from overriding constitutional rights

• Allows courts to reject foreign rulings and contracts tied to outside jurisdictions

• Stops cases from being transferred into foreign legal environments lacking protections

Bottom Line

Missouri’s SB 977 does not attempt to regulate global institutions themselves.

It blocks their ability to operate through the state.

By declaring that international bodies have “no jurisdiction or power” and prohibiting enforcement of their mandates, the bill establishes a clear precedent:
foreign governance structures cannot be directly implemented at the state level in Missouri.

With unanimous Senate passage and movement into the House, the legislation signals a growing effort to draw firm legal boundaries between domestic authority and international coordination systems.

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/06/2026 - 13:20