Canada's Prime Minister Doubles Down On Militant Anti-US Rhetoric

Well before Mark Carney was elected as Canada's Prime Minister in the wake of numerous scandals surrounding Justin Trudeau, critics noted that the candidate represented a far greater threat to Canada's freedom largely because he is far more devious than Trudeau ever was. 

Carney is a central banker and high level World Economic Forum globalist well acquainted with the liberal "Reset" agenda, and it is no mistake that he has taken control of Canada at a time when European elites are pushing for an economic and geopolitical separation from the US.  The plan is obvious - To isolate the US in an effort to stop the spread of conservative and nationalist movements throughout the west.

In other words, the globalists/leftists are trying to build a new empire in a last-ditched scramble to prevent their liberal order from fading away.  Carney pretends as if they are breaking from the old system and starting something new by "calling out" the US.  In reality, it was the US that broke from the liberal system and refused to "go along to get along". 

It was the US that refused to conform to the multicultural agenda, open borders, ESG and DEI politics, the transgender cult and the indoctrination of children with socialist and LGBT ideology, not to mention the fact that so many foreign nations have been feeding off US taxpayer dollars for decades through institutions like USAID.

Vast numbers of their own citizens are rebelling against liberal governments.  Movements to stop the multicultural agenda and mass immigration are gaining momentum. Right-wing political parties are quickly growing, inspired by conservative success against the woke cult in the US.   

The liberals are circling the wagons, and it would seem that Canada is meant to play a key role in this "new order".  Prime Minister Mark Carney has been escalating his anti-US rhetoric since he entered office while threatening to build closer economic partnerships with hostile foreign entities like the CCP in China. 

As we asked after the Liberal Convention in Montreal, are Canadians being primed for an open conflict with the US?  The rhetoric coming from the nation's liberal government is sounding increasingly aggressive, and not just in terms of economic separation.  In his latest "address to The nation", Carney doubled down on his militant position, citing the history of Canada (including the War of 1812) as an ongoing battle against a "predatory" US.

It's fascinating to see a globalist like Carney try to paint the US defense against European influences as if it this was an act of war against Canada (which did not become a country until 1867).  The war of 1812 was instigated by the British Empire after their Royal Navy interfered with US trade, stopping American merchant vessels on the high seas and kidnapping men they claimed were British subjects.  They then forced these American citizens to fight in their war against the French.

Estimates of kidnapped Americans range from 9,000–15,000 between 1793 and 1812. The 1807 Chesapeake-Leopard affair, where a British warship fired on a U.S. Navy frigate and seized sailors, nearly sparked war at the time and became a major flashpoint.  Finally, the British engaged in arming and instigating an insurgency among the native Indians in the Great Lakes region in order to terrorize US settlements. 

Canada was a controlled region of the elitist empire back then, just as it is today.

There is no US invasion of Canada today, but Carney is painting a narrative as if this is an imminent threat.  US tariffs have shaken Canada to its core.  Over 75% of the country's exports are sold in US markets.  Their trade proximity made Canada one of the wealthiest nations in the world per capita and gave them one of the richest middle class populations in 2014-2015.  However, extreme-left wing policies have ruined Canada's economic advantage. 

This was not the Trump Administration's doing, it was their own doing.  Trump's opposition to Canada is partly economic (Trump wants more trade parity), but it is also predominantly ideological.  They are, essentially, a woke/globalist enclave looming on the US border and it is clear that they intend to act as a foothold for the elites in North America. 

Carney's rhetoric only reinforces the suspicion that there is an agenda afoot to isolate the US.  The problem is that Canada is already suffering from an unprecedented economic crisis, with inflation, high taxes and housing shortages crushing their middle class.  The threat is so great that provinces like Alberta are seriously considering secession.  Furthermore, there is no trade network on Earth that can possibly replace the highly lucrative arrangement Canada has had with the US. 

The Prime Minister's efforts to stoke "national unity" among Canadians by painting the US as the "big bad wolf" is actually setting them up for disaster.   

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

Chief Justice Roberts Faces Two Strikes After New Leak Rocks The Court

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

The legendary baseball player and manager Ted Williams once wrote a letter to the Angels outfielder Jay Johnstone on improving his hitting. Among his pieces of advice was that “with two strikes, you simply have to protect the plate.”

Williams’s advice on not striking out came to mind this week when another leak of confidential information rocked the Supreme Court. (The prior leak of the Dobbs decision went unsolved).

For Chief Justice John Roberts, the message is clear: it is a time like this when you have to protect the plate.

Roberts, of course, is famous for his own baseball analogies. In his confirmation, he declared that “judges are like umpires. Umpires don’t make the rules. They apply them…Nobody ever went to a ballgame to see the umpire.”

Yet, justices do make rules not only in new precedent, but in the operation of the court system. Those rules are being broken.

In the same week as the new leak, Justice Sonia Sotomayor attacked her colleague Brett Kavanaugh as essentially an out-of-touch prig who had never even met an hourly wage worker.

It was an unfair insult and a departure from the Court’s long-standing rules of civility.

(Sotomayor later apologized).

Additionally, a forthcoming book by Mollie Hemingway on Justice Samuel Alito contains an embarrassing account of how Justice Elena Kagan allegedly screamed at Justice Stephen Breyer so loudly before the Dobbs opinion that the “wall was shaking.”

(The book suggests that Kagan was upset with Breyer agreeing to spur along the dissents to get out the final opinions in light of rising threats against conservative colleagues after the leak).

For an institution that prides itself on its confidentiality and insularity, the Court is looking increasingly porous and partisan in these leaks. 

Worse yet, people are indeed coming to the Court “to see the umpires.”

The most recent leak was published by the New York Times, which was given internal memos from various Supreme Court justices on the use of what is known as the “shadow docket” to issue rulings without oral arguments.

Notably, the leaks occurred after a controversial speech by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson at Yale Law School in which she denounced the use of the shadow docket by her conservative colleagues to release decisions that were sometimes “utterly irrational.”

The memos reveal the concern of the justices that the Environmental Protection Agency was effectively gaming the system, imposing unlawful regulatory burdens on electric utilities despite a countervailing earlier ruling in Michigan v. EPA.

Chief Justice Roberts noted that the EPA was using the ongoing litigation to force utilities to spend billions of dollars to comply with the new regulations: “In other words the absence of stay allowed the agency to effectively implement an important program we held to be contrary to law.”

The controversy over the use of the shadow docket is immaterial to this story. The most immediate concern for Roberts should be that this is strike two: another leak from within the Court that was clearly designed to wound some of its members.

Unlike the Dobbs leak (which appeared to be an effort to influence the final opinion), this is a leak about a decade-old case. It had a purely malicious purpose to embarrass or disrupt the Court.

The question, again, is the identity of the culprit. There is no reason to assume that the same person was involved in both leaks. Rather, the leaks appear to reflect a deteriorating culture at the Court.

After the Dobbs leak, Chief Justice Roberts launched a fruitless investigation through the federal marshals to find the responsible person. The use of the marshals as the lead investigators (rather than the FBI) was criticized at the time. Roberts may have been sensitive to an executive-branch agency rooting around in the highest court of a sister branch.

The result was the worst possible outcome. The culprit succeeded in both leaking the opinion and evading any accountability.

The fact is that the Court’s culture and institutional identity have always been its greatest protection of confidentiality. In a city that floats on a rolling sea of leaks, the Court was an island of integrity and civility. The “umpires” could call balls and strikes without playing the leak game.

That culture is fast becoming nothing but a relic in the wake of yet another major leak. For the future of the Court and the faith of the public, Roberts has to set his reservations aside and bring in the FBI to find the culprit. Most importantly, he has to guarantee total transparency in allowing the public to see the results wherever they may lead. In other words, with two strikes, Roberts needs to protect the plate.

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

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/20/2026 - 18:25

Kuwait Declares Force Majeure As US Seizure Of Iranian Ship Escalates Tensions

By Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com

Kuwait has declared force majeure on shipments of crude oil and refined products after disruptions at the Strait of Hormuz prevented some vessels from entering the Persian Gulf.

The move comes as tensions in the Strait escalated again following the U.S. seizure of an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel in the waterway.

According to Reuters, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation has notified customers that it is invoking contractual clauses allowing it to withhold certain scheduled deliveries after the blockade hindered access to the Gulf. The measure is not expected to result in a complete halt to supply. 

The latest escalation follows a volatile weekend in which the Strait briefly reopened before closing again after Iran linked the reopening of the shipping lane to the lifting of the U.S. naval blockade targeting its oil exports.

Iran’s foreign ministry said it has no plans for a new round of talks following the U.S. seizure of the vessel. U.S. President Donald Trump said a delegation led by Vice President JD Vance is heading to Islamabad for talks. Pakistan has tightened security in the capital ahead of the potential negotiations.

Iran has warned that it cannot guarantee safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz if its oil exports continue to be restricted, saying that security for shipping in the waterway cannot be separated from pressure on its own crude flows.

Shipping activity in and around the Strait has been disrupted again, with vessels altering routes and operators reassessing transit risks through one of the world’s most important oil shipping lanes.

After plunging late last week, oil prices rebounded in early trading as markets reacted to the renewed disruption and the risk of further constraints on flows through the Strait of Hormuz.

The renewed pressure also comes as Iran-aligned Houthis have threatened to target the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, raising concerns about additional risks to alternative export routes for Middle East crude.

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/20/2026 - 17:40

DOJ Shakeup In Florida Signals Major Escalation In Russiagate Criminal Probe

The Department of Justice appears to be gaining fresh momentum in its criminal investigation into the 2016 Trump-Russia collusion narrative, with a significant overhaul of the team handling the case in southern Florida.

According to investigative journalist Julie Kelly’s reporting at Declassified.live, longtime Trump legal advisor Joe diGenova - a former U.S. Attorney and prominent commentator - will be sworn in Monday as counsel to the attorney general. He will assume leadership of the ongoing grand jury probe based in Fort Pierce, the district overseen by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon. That same courthouse was the site of Cannon’s landmark July 2024 ruling dismissing Special Counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents case against President Trump after she found Smith’s appointment unconstitutional. The grand jury has been active in Fort Pierce since January, Kelly reports.

DiGenova’s wife, Victoria Toensing, has also served as a key Trump legal counselor for years. In a notable earlier move, the Biden Justice Department seized Toensing’s cellphone in April 2021 during a separate inquiry tied to Rudy Giuliani’s efforts to examine the Biden family’s overseas dealings.

But wait, there's more...

The addition of DiGenova isn’t the only retooling. Earlier this week, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche removed the career prosecutor previously in charge of the investigation into former CIA Director John Brennan, who played a key role in concocting the Trump-Russia collusion scheme in 2016. According to CNN, assistant U.S. Attorney Maria Medetis Long was ousted “after she resisted pressure to quickly bring charges against the former CIA director and prominent critic of President Donald Trump.” Meditis Long notified lawyers representing several individuals who have received subpoenas or interview requests related to the investigation that she was off the case, the New York Times reported on Friday. -Declassified Live

Blanche has also sent one of his senior aides, Christopher-James DeLorenz - who clerked for Judge Cannon during the documents litigation - to the Fort Pierce team.

These changes come shortly after President Trump dismissed former Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier this month, citing dissatisfaction with the pace of the Russiagate accountability effort. In a pointed press conference days later, Blanche—whom Trump immediately named acting attorney general—made clear the department’s direction. “The president has said time and time again that he wants justice,” Blanche told reporters. “If you look at what happened to him, his family, his administration, the agents who protected him, people who just happened to walk by him on a given day, they got subjected to…massive investigations by this department.”

Blanche speaks from direct experience: he defended Trump in both the Florida documents case and the Manhattan hush-money prosecution brought by District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Earlier this year the Justice Department did secure indictments against a small number of figures tied to the lawfare campaign, including former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Those cases were later dismissed, however, after a judge ruled that the appointment of the acting U.S. Attorney who filed them, Lindsey Halligan, was improper. That decision is now under appeal in the Fourth Circuit.

Still, many Trump supporters are demanding deeper accountability. While the initial charges brought some satisfaction, the expectation is for more significant action. A potential indictment of Brennan - who many view as a top target - now looks increasingly likely. He was recently subpoenaed in connection with his 2023 congressional testimony, in which he denied that the discredited Steele dossier influenced his 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment alleging Russian election interference on Trump’s behalf.

Brennan’s legal team has reacted with alarm. In a highly unusual letter sent last December to the chief judge of the 11th Circuit, his attorneys urged the court to block the probe from proceeding in Fort Pierce—viewed as a more conservative venue than Miami—and to bar Judge Cannon from any involvement. The letter claimed that Cannon’s prior rulings created the appearance of favoritism toward Trump and accused prosecutors of deliberately steering the case to her courtroom in line with what they called the president’s political retribution agenda.

If diGenova’s role expands beyond Brennan to encompass a wider “grand conspiracy” review - potentially covering everything from the roots of Russiagate through January 6, the Mar-a-Lago raid, and the conduct of the now-disqualified special counsel - additional high-profile targets could come into focus. Among them are individuals already the subject of criminal referrals sitting with the DOJ, including Thomas Windom (referred by House Judiciary Chairman James Jordan for alleged obstruction during congressional depositions) and January 6 committee witness Cassidy Hutchinson, accused of fabricating testimony about an incident in the presidential vehicle. This week, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard also referred two former officials—Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson and analyst Eric Ciaramella - for their roles in advancing the 2019 Ukraine-related impeachment allegations against Trump. Both men have documented connections to the original Russiagate players.

Even Jack Smith may not be fully in the clear. Recent reporting from CBS News indicates that Florida prosecutors are examining documents linked to Smith’s prior investigation of the president. Smith could additionally face scrutiny for allegedly continuing to hold himself out as special counsel in court filings long after Cannon disqualified him, raising questions of contempt and potential false statements to Congress.

As Julie Kelly observed in her Declassified.live piece, diGenova—still energetic and far from retirement age—may be exactly the experienced, no-nonsense figure needed to bring decisive momentum to the Florida investigation and deliver the accountability many have long awaited.

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

70% Of US Farmers Say That They Won't Be Able To Buy All The Fertilizer They Need In 2026

Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

We might want to listen to what the farmers are telling us, because if they don’t grow our food we do not eat. Coming into this year, we were already facing the worst farming crisis in America in at least 50 years. Farmers all over the nation are drowning in debt, and farm bankruptcies have been soaring. In all my years, I have never seen America’s farmers so angry, and now the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz has made things much worse. Spring planting season is here and there is a global scramble for whatever supplies of nitrogen fertilizer that happen to be available. As a result, prices have skyrocketed and farmers all over the planet are facing some incredibly tough choices.

That is even true here in the United States.

According to a brand new survey that was just conducted by the American Farm Bureau Federation, 70 percent of U.S. farmers say that they will not be able to purchase all of the fertilizer that they need in 2026 because it has become so expensive…

Conducted by the American Farm Bureau Federation April 3-11, the survey shows 70% of respondents say fertilizer is so expensive that they will not be able to buy all the fertilizer they need.

More than 5,700 farmers, both Farm Bureau members and non-members, from every state and Puerto Rico took the survey. Farm Bureau economists analyzed the results in the latest Market Intel.

The analysis reveals that almost 8 in 10 farmers in the southern U.S. say they can’t afford all needed supplies this year, followed by the Northeast and West at 69% and 66%, respectively, compared to 48% of the farmers in the Midwest.

Fertilizer prices were already at frighteningly high levels even before the war with Iran started, and since that time they have surged dramatically…

Nitrogen fertilizer prices have gone up more than 30 percent since the start of the conflict on Feb. 28, according to Market Intel. Combined fuel and fertilizer costs have also risen between 20 and 40 percent, with urea prices jumping 47 percent since late February.

Many people out there don’t seem to understand this yet, but this is going to affect all of us.

If 70 percent of U.S. farmers use less fertilizer this year, those farmers will grow less food.

If there is less food available, prices will go up.

Needless to say, food prices are already at ridiculous levels, but they are going to go even higher.

In impoverished countries, conditions will be even worse.

Due to a historic lack of nitrogen fertilizer, hundreds of millions of families that are currently barely existing “may soon find they are only able to afford little or no food”…

In many parts of the world, vulnerable families who today are currently managing to put some food on the table may soon find they are only able to afford little or no food.

“If this conflict continues, it will send shockwaves across the globe, and families who already cannot afford their next meal will be hit the hardest,” said WFP Deputy Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer Carl Skau.

I wish that I could get people to understand how serious this is.

Goldman Sachs is publicly admitting that the global fertilizer crisis is spreading a lot faster than they were originally projecting.

We desperately need the Strait of Hormuz to be reopened immediately, but that simply isn’t going to happen.

The Iranians continue to strangle commercial traffic through the Strait, and the U.S. has now “completely” cut off traffic to Iranian ports…

The U.S. blockade of Iranian ports is now fully into effect, “completely” cutting off Tehran’s international sea trade that powers about 90% of its economy, the U.S. Central Command said late Tuesday stateside.

The announcement comes at a time when the White House has been signaling a diplomatic solution to the conflict in the Middle East, as discussions around continuing negotiations with Iran are underway.

“A blockade of Iranian ports has been fully implemented as U.S. forces maintain maritime superiority in the Middle East,” said Brad Cooper, Centcom commander, highlighting that it was achieved under 36 hours of President Donald Trump’s order.

The Trump administration is convinced that this blockade will force the Iranians to give in.

According to U.S. Central Command, the first 48 hours of the blockade have been a resounding success…

But the Iranians are showing no signs of backing down.

On Wednesday, an official with the IRGC warned of severe consequences if the U.S. does not end the blockade…

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard announced Wednesday that Tehran would not allow the import or export of goods through the Persian Gulf, the nearby Gulf of Oman and the Red Sea unless the United States lifts the blockade it imposed earlier this week around the Strait of Hormuz.

Ali Abdollahi, commander of Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya emergency headquarters, said the measures would be “firm and decisive” steps to protect Iran’s national interests and sovereignty.

According to Abdollahi, if the U.S. continues the blockade Iran has decided that it “will not allow any exports or imports to continue in the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman, and the Red Sea”…

In his statement broadcast by Iranian state television, Abdollahi said Iran would move to disrupt shipping routes in the Red Sea and elsewhere if the U.S. continued its blockade, initiated by President Donald Trump.

“The powerful armed forces of the Islamic Republic will not allow any exports or imports to continue in the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman, and the Red Sea,” the commander of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said.

If Iran is able to successfully stop commercial traffic from traveling through all of those waterways, it will greatly intensify the economic problems that we are starting to witness all over the globe.

In California, the average price of a gallon of gasoline has already almost reached 6 dollars…

Gas prices are soaring across the country, but especially in California. The Golden State average is now nearly $6 per gallon — 40 percent above the national figure. That gap is likely to widen: UC Davis economists estimate that Californians could soon be paying more than $2.50 a gallon above the national average.

In the United Kingdom, officials are bracing for widespread fuel shortages in “two or three weeks”…

Sources told ITV News that the UK is ‘two or three weeks away’ from shortages of diesel and jet fuel, although petrol supplies are healthier.

The Government is said to be facing ‘difficult decisions’ over how to allot fuel supplies, including how to keep ‘ancillary power’ going for NHS hospitals.

If the war with Iran is not resolved quickly, this will only be the tip of the iceberg.

The Iranians are holding the global economy hostage, and they fully realize that this gives them a tremendous amount of leverage.

But there is no way that the U.S. and Israel will ever agree to their demands.

So for now we seem to have an unsolvable problem on our hands, and meanwhile the damage that is being done to the global economy is getting worse with each passing day.

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

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/20/2026 - 17:00

Tim Cook Stepping Down As Apple CEO; John Ternus, Head Of Hardware, Will Take Over

Confirming long-standing rumors of Tim Cook's replacement, after hours Apple announced that Tim Cook will step down as CEO and become executive chairman of Apple’s board of directorsm while John Ternus, senior vice president of Hardware Engineering whose name has been speculated as the next boss of Apple, will become Apple’s next chief executive officer effective on September 1, 2026. The transition was approved unanimously by the Board of Directors.

Cook will continue in his role as CEO through the summer as he works closely with Ternus on a smooth transition. As executive chairman, Cook will assist with certain aspects of the company, including engaging with policymakers around the world.

“It has been the greatest privilege of my life to be the CEO of Apple and to have been trusted to lead such an extraordinary company. I love Apple with all of my being, and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with a team of such ingenious, innovative, creative, and deeply caring people who have been unwavering in their dedication to enriching the lives of our customers and creating the best products and services in the world,” said Cook.

Tim Cook joined Apple in 1998 and became CEO in 2011, overseeing the introduction of numerous products and services, including new categories like Apple Watch, AirPods, and Apple Vision Pro, and services ranging from iCloud and Apple Pay to Apple TV and Apple Music.

Under Cook, Apple's market cap grew from $350 billion to $4 trillion, more than 1,000% increase; meanwhile revenue quadrupled, from $108 billion in 2011 to $416 billion in 2025. That's a more than 2x Price/Sales expansion under Cook, who showed that you don't need original ideas, you just need cash for buybacks, to be successful as a CEO.

“John Ternus has the mind of an engineer, the soul of an innovator, and the heart to lead with integrity and with honor. He is a visionary whose contributions to Apple over 25 years are already too numerous to count, and he is without question the right person to lead Apple into the future. I could not be more confident in his abilities and his character, and I look forward to working closely with him on this transition and in my new role as executive chairman.”

“I am profoundly grateful for this opportunity to carry Apple’s mission forward,” said Ternus. “Having spent almost my entire career at Apple, I have been lucky to have worked under Steve Jobs and to have had Tim Cook as my mentor. It has been a privilege to help shape the products and experiences that have changed so much of how we interact with the world and with one another. I am filled with optimism about what we can achieve in the years to come, and I am so happy to know that the most talented people on earth are here at Apple, determined to be part of something bigger than any one of us. I am humbled to step into this role, and I promise to lead with the values and vision that have come to define this special place for half a century.”

Additionally, Arthur Levinson, who has been Apple’s non-executive chairman for the past 15 years, will become its lead independent director on September 1, 2026. Ternus will join the board of directors, also effective September 1, 2026.

“Tim’s unprecedented and outstanding leadership has transformed Apple into the world’s best company. He’s introduced groundbreaking products and services time and again, and his integrity and values are infused into everything Apple does,” said Levinson. “On behalf of the entire board of directors, we are incredibly grateful for his countless contributions to Apple and the world, and we are thrilled he will now be executive chairman. We believe John is the best possible leader to succeed Tim and as he transitions to CEO we know his love of Apple, his leadership, deep technical knowledge, and relentless focus on creating great products will help lead Apple to an extraordinary future.”

“I want to thank Art for the incredible work he has done leading the board of directors for the past 15 years,” said Cook. “I have always found his advice to be invaluable and I appreciate his thoughtfulness and his unwavering dedication to the company. I am grateful he will serve as our lead independent director, and I look forward to working with him in my new role.”

Some more from the press release: 

Ternus joined Apple’s product design team in 2001 and became a vice president of Hardware Engineering in 2013. He joined the executive team in 2021 as senior vice president of Hardware Engineering. Throughout his tenure at Apple, Ternus has overseen hardware engineering work on a variety of groundbreaking products across every category. He was instrumental in the introduction of multiple new product lines, including iPad® and AirPods, as well as many generations of products across iPhone®, Mac®, and Apple Watch.

Ternus’s work on Mac has helped the category become more powerful and more popular globally than at any time in its 40-year history. That includes the recent introduction of MacBook Neo™, an all-new laptop that makes the Mac experience even more accessible to more people around the world. This past fall, his team’s efforts were on full display with the introduction of a redefined iPhone lineup, including the incredibly powerful iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max, the radically thin and durable iPhone Air™, and the iPhone 17, which has been an incredible upgrade for users. Under his leadership, his team also drove advancements in AirPods to make them the world’s best in-ear headphones, with unprecedented active noise cancellation, as well as the capability to become an all-in-one hearing health system that can serve as over-the-counter hearing aids.

Ternus led much of the company’s focus in areas like reliability and durability, introducing new techniques that have made Apple products remarkably resilient. He has also driven much of Apple’s innovation in materials and hardware design that have reduced the carbon footprint of its products, including the creation of a new, recycled aluminum compound that has been introduced across multiple product lines, the use of 3-D printed titanium in Apple Watch Ultra® 3, and innovations in repairability that have increased the lifespans of several Apple products. 

Prior to Apple, Ternus worked as a mechanical engineer at Virtual Research Systems. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

Apple stock dumped on the (widely telegraphed) news, then recovered much of the initial drop.

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/20/2026 - 16:46

Half Of Americans Live In States Where Weed Is Legal

In August 2013, the Justice Department stated in a press release that it was not going to enforce federal law prohibiting the cannabis use in states that were launching recreational cannabis programs at the time, clearing the way for state-by-state marijuana legalization in the United States.

Approximately 12 years down the line, half of Americans live in states where marijuana is legal and another 105 million have access to medical marijuana.

As Statista's Katharina Buchholz details below, this means that 80 percent of U.S. residents now live in a state with some sort of legal weed.

In 2013, it was Colorado and Washington which were gearing up to legalize marijuana after successful ballot initiatives as part of the November 2012 elections.

But the federal government's policy statement was also relevant for another 18 states and the District of Columbia, which at the time had already legalized medical marijuana.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Data from the Census Bureau shows that between 2012 and 2014, a substantial number of people continued to gain access to medical marijuana as larger states like Massachusetts and Illinois passed measures.

After those years, shifts to recreational weed legislation dominate the statistic with significant legalizations in California (2016), Michigan (2018), New Jersey (2020) and New York (2021), effectively lowering the number of people under medical marijuana legislation only.

Despite this, a total of 15 states have passed medical marijuana ballots or legislation after 2015, including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, Utah and most recently Nebraska.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Texas last year significantly expanded existing laws and is now counted as a medical marijuana state for the purpose of this chart, significantly pushing up the number of Americans under any kind of legal weed law once more.

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/20/2026 - 16:40

Things Get Interesting-er

Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

“It is one thing for the people (of Iran) to be ruled by globally feared autocrats armed to the teeth, but quite another to be governed by humiliated, now impotent incompetents and buffoons.”

- VDH

Wednesday the US / Iran ceasefire expires. It has been an interesting two weeks. The US used it to negotiate an end to hostilities, resupply our ships in the Arabian Sea, do maintenance on our ships and warplanes, dismantle Iran’s banking conduits, and blockade Hormuz to shut down the regime’s remaining income flow. The Iranians used it to jump up and down and go woo-woo-woo. They also tried to dig out the entrances of their bombed caves and tunnels to unearth whatever’s left of their hidden missile launchers. Our satellites watched everything they did and mapped the coordinates.

Negotiations? So far, not fruitful, if termination of hostilities and surrender of Iran’s uranium is the goal. We’re not even sure the Iranians we’re negotiating with have any real authority to make a deal. Iran’s government at this point is a hash of conflicting factions: the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), which is a large Jihadi mafia that happens to own half of Iran’s economy and controls its advanced missile and drone weaponry; the regular Army (Artesh) which would theoretically defend against a ground invasion, but otherwise just stands by; and the civilian government represented by President Masoud Pezeshkian, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, and Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibef — none of whom seem to hold any real decision-making power.

America’s negotiators, led by Veep Vance along with Messrs. Witkoff and Kushner, will land back in Islamabad, Pakistan, today (Monday, April 20).

Our deal is still on the table.

It’s pretty straightforward:

• the aforementioned uranium plus a twenty-year halt of nuclear activities with no path toward a weapon;

• full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz;

• an end to Iranian support for Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis;

• phased-out sanctions and access to frozen assets;

• and cessation of hostilities.

Events over the weekend argue that Iran is not finished playing stupid games and winning stupid prizes.

They tried to run the Hormuz blockade on Sunday with an incoming cargo ship, the Iranian-flagged M/V Touska. The USS destroyer Spruance, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, blew a hole clean through its engine room and then seized the vessel. Its cargo remains undisclosed for now.

Iran claims that it has closed the Strait of Hormuz. The US said it was already closed via the US blockade (we closed it harder). Iran can’t surreptitiously move any oil out to sell to China or run supplies into the country. Iran will lose about $500-million a day and China will lose the majority of its oil imports. China will jump up and down and go woo-woo-woo over that, while the IRGC will lose its last remaining income stream, meaning no pay for anyone. Let’s see if that prompts an attitude change.

If Iran can’t move its oil, it will soon reach the limit of its oil storage capacity, meaning it will have to shut down its oil wells.

If that happens, the hydrology is such that water invasion of the underground strata will permanently damage the oil fields. Iran is between a rock and a squishy place.

That might be enough to force a deal in the hours ahead.

President Trump has made it clear that the time for Iran jerking-around the US is over.

So then, it’s back to Power Station and Bridge Day (blowing them up).

That would be extremely unfortunate for the ordinary Iranian people.

They are unarmed and helpless to resist the maniacs of the IRGC who would allow Power Station and Bridge Day to happen, who, in effect, don’t really care about the ordinary people of Iran.

However, the regular Iranian army, the Artesh, does have weapons (they are the army and armies are generally armed).

Perhaps they will use them to put the insane jihadi IRGC out of business.

After all, the Artesh’s mission is defense on-the-ground of the Iranian homeland, and just now the biggest threat to Iran is the IRGC.

I guess we’ll have to wait on that and watch.

Meanwhile, interesting developments back on America’s home front: All of a sudden, pieces are moving around the game-board of the ongoing and long-running color revolution that the Trump administration is trying to stop.

By color revolution I mean the Democratic Party and its Deep State cadres’ efforts to transform our country into a matrix of crypto-Marxist racketeering operations — and to evade responsibility for the damage already perpetrated dating back to at least 2016.

The FBI Director, Kash Patel, said explicitly on Maria Bartiromo’s Sunday Morning news show that his agency has amassed hard evidence of fraud in the 2020 elections and to expect arrests presently.

(Hmmmm, maybe not so “baseless” after all.)

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has prepared to move Colorado political prisoner Tina Peters out of the state lockup and under protection in a federal facility.

It is rumored that the move is due to Ms. Peters’ imminent transformation into a witness for a federal case against Colorado election officials.

AG Blanche has also hired Joseph diGenova, former US Attorney for the DC District, as an assisting counsel to US Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones in the Southern District of Florida, who, as you know, is running a grand jury down there.

Mr. diGenova, 81, has mapped the events and time-lines necessary to make a solid “grand conspiracy” case against the well-known posse of color revolutionists who perpetrated a series of hoaxes, frauds, and malicious prosecutions on our country and on thousands of innocent citizens (including the current occupant of the White House and his lawyers and associates). Like I said, things get interesting-er.

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

Charles Schwab, Citadel Securities Weigh Entering Prediction Markets

Authored by Jesse Coghlan via CoinTelegraph.com,

Traditional finance giants Charles Schwab and Citadel Securities are both considering entering prediction markets, with each separately weighing up how they wish to get involved in the fast-growing sector.

“I think at some point we likely will have prediction markets,” Rick Wurster, the CEO of the banking and investing titan Schwab, told investors during a call on Thursday.

He added that prediction markets weren’t “of tremendous interest” when he recently asked a group of Schwab clients about them, but it was an area the company would “take a hard look at, and it would be quite straightforward for us to offer.”

Charles Schwab CEO Rick Wurster speaking to CNBC after the company launched Bitcoin and Ether trading on Thursday. Source: CNBC

Prediction markets such as the popular Kalshi and Polymarket have exploded in use over the past few months, with both platforms seeing a record combined total monthly trading volume of $23.6 billion in March, according to Token Terminal.

However, Kalshi, Polymarket and other prediction market platforms have also caught the ire of some US state regulators, who have accused them in court of offering unlicensed sports betting.

Some federal lawmakers have also vowed to crack down on prediction markets, claiming the platforms weren’t doing enough to stamp out insider trading.

Wurster said Schwab’s potential offering would steer away from allowing bets on areas such as sports, politics and pop culture as it looks to position itself as a partner for building long-term wealth.

“Prediction markets that are not aligned to that are not something that we want to pursue,” he said.

“If you look at the stats on the success of gamblers, they're not strong, and people generally lose money.”

Citadel “keeping an eye” on prediction markets

Meanwhile, Citadel Securities president Jim Esposito said at a Semafor conference in Washington, DC, on Thursday that the company is “absolutely keeping an eye on developments” in prediction markets. 

Citadel Securities president Jim Esposito speaking at the Semafor World Economy conference on Thursday. Source: YouTube

“We're not there yet, there's not that much liquidity,” he added, but said that the market is likely to “ramp and scale,” and it was “certainly possible” that the market-making firm would potentially look to get involved.

Esposito said Citadel was “not looking at sports at the moment at all, I don't see us entering that market,” but did signal an interest in some event contracts.

He added that Citadel could see its retail and institutional clients use some event contracts as a hedge for risks to their investments, such as contracts for elections, which have been known to move markets.

“That's going to be some of the biggest risks to investors' portfolios that they're going to have to grapple with,” Esposito said. “Having a clean and distinct way to hedge certain risks, I think there's a good use case and industrial logic to it.”

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/20/2026 - 15:40

Hormuz Traffic At Standstill After US Ship Seizure

Confirming the Schrodinger nature of the notorious waterway, the Strait of Hormuz is now just closed even more than before Iran and the US said the vital oil channel had been reopened.

Traffic through the strait on Sunday and Monday was reduced to a trickle following a Saturday surge, after Tehran rejected a continuing US naval blockade and moved to seal the waterway again. The reduced movement underscores just how quickly hopes unraveled that cargoes could once again resume.

On Friday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the strait was “completely open” for commercial shipping, while US President Donald Trump said Iran was removing sea mines from the waterway. That prompted oil prices to plunge and dozens of tankers to race toward the strait at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. But Iran quickly declared that the passage was closed again as it emerged that the US operation in place since April 13 would not be lifted.

And rejected: the two tankers taking the neutral route, Minerva Evropi and Nissos Keros, have turned around; the Sanmar Herald which appears to be taking the Iran-sanctioned Larak island route is proceeding. https://t.co/aceBI7ki0B pic.twitter.com/gmkM37iA1U

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) April 18, 2026

The Hormuz crisis flared again over the weekend after the US Navy seized an Iranian vessel, during a turbulent period marked by Iranian forces firing at ships and reimposing controls across the strait. The developments pushed oil and natural gas prices higher after Friday’s big declines, reflecting fears of prolonged supply constraints.

The chaotic, start-stop nature of ship traffic through the strait underscores just how difficult it will be to fully restore oil and gas flows that are vital to the global economy, where energy producers need to have visibility months in advance before restarting production.

According to Bloomberg, just two liquefied petroleum gas carriers and two oil product tankers moved through the strait in both directions on Monday. The previous day, two LPG vessels and a cruise liner sailed out of the gulf, while no inbound transits were seen.

The Gas Harmony, an LPG carrier, went dark inside the gulf on Saturday morning but reappeared off the coast of Oman on Monday, indicating that the vessel transited the strait in the interim. The Liberia-flagged ship is owned and managed by Athens-based Gas Harmony Shipping Ltd., according to maritime database Equasis.

Greek and Iranian LPG ships departed the gulf on Sunday along with the European passenger liner, not listed in the charts. Subsequent observations until Monday afternoon, London time, identified further outbound movement by an Iranian product tanker and a second LPG ship.

At least three Mediterranean Shipping Co. containerships and a MSC cruise liner, along with a handful of other passenger vessels, appeared to have exited the gulf on Saturday, hugging the Omani coastline. That was a deviation from the corridor approved by Iran during the short-lived opening of the waterway. Another MSC containership remains off-grid after it stopped signaling inside the gulf. The company didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Six cruise ships clear Strait of Hormuz during brief reopening

A flotilla of cruise ships stranded in Gulf ports since late February has now cleared the Strait of Hormuz, taking advantage of a brief reopening of the waterway before tighter controls returned.

According to… pic.twitter.com/nvnhG4JrkW

— MarineTraffic (@MarineTraffic) April 20, 2026

Diplomatic momentum has wavered after Tehran signaled hesitation regarding a second round of talks in Pakistan, amid the ongoing American blockade of Iranian traffic and the vessel seizure.

The commercial vessels entering Hormuz with active AIS signals during the past day were confined to a narrow northern lane near the Iranian islands of Larak and Qeshm, the route approved by Tehran.

The inbound transits on Monday included an Iranian LPG ship and a fuel tanker.

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

'Wright Is Wrong': Trump Rejects Energy Secretary's Comment That Gas Prices May Not Drop Under $3 Until 2027

Pain at the pump might not ease up for American consumers until 2027, according to Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who said on April 19 that the price of a regular gallon of gas could stay above $3 for the rest of the year.

Wright said a price of $3 per gallon of gas “could happen later this ​year, [but] that might not happen until next year” in an interview that aired on CNN’s ”State of the Union” ​program Sunday.

“But prices have ⁠likely peaked, and they'll start going down certainly with a resolution of this conflict [in Iran],” Wright predicted while speaking about how the war has impacted energy prices.

As of April 19, the average price for a gallon of regular gas in the U.S. was $4.04, according to data from the American Automobile Association (AAA).

States on the West Coast and the Northeast have the highest prices, according to AAA.

Before the United States and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury against the Iranian regime on Feb. 28, the price for a regular gallon of gas in the U.S. was $2.98.

The Energy Information Administration’s short-term energy outlook, published on April 7, predicted the average retail price for a gallon of gasoline would be $4.30 per gallon in April.

The Energy Information Administration - designed as a nonpartisan agency within Wright’s Department of Energy - estimated the retail price for an average gallon of gasoline will be $3.46 in 2027, above the $3 level he predicted on CNN.

As the chart above shows, for pump prices to fall back to $3 a gallon, we would need to see crude oil prices back around $60 a barrel - a long way down given the disruptions from the Iran War are likely to ripple through the supply chain for months.

Finally, The Hill's White House correspondent, Julia Manchester, reports that President Trump just told her over the phone that he disagrees with Energy Secretary Wright's assessment that gas prices may not drop until next year. 

"No, I think he's wrong on that. Totally wrong," Trump said, adding that gas prices will drop "as soon as this ends."

With the Midterms looming ever closer, Trump better hope he's right and Wright is wrong.

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/20/2026 - 14:40

Market Lesson: Why Panic Is A Costly Mistake

Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

The Iran shock erased 18% from valuations and fully recovered in two weeks. Investors who panicked missed it all. Here’s what the market lesson is about: risk management, behavior, and what to do with your portfolio right now.

The stock market selloff between February 28 and April 14 produced one of the more instructive market lessons in recent memory. It isn’t because of what the market did, but because of what investors did in response. By April 2nd, the AAII Sentiment Survey showed bearish sentiment at 51.4%, the highest reading in years, well above the historical average of 31%. Put option volume surged, and the financial media ran daily coverage of worst-case oil scenarios, recession projections, and S&P 500 targets as low as 3,800.

However, when you have that combination of bearishness, as we discussed in 5-Consecutive Weekly Declines, markets tend to perform better.

What was surprising was that the S&P 500 recovered completely in two weeks and is now setting all-time highs.

That sequence is not a reason to relax, but it is a valuable market lesson. It is also a good reason to examine what happened to investors who panicked, why the pattern repeats with such regularity, and, most importantly, what a well-constructed portfolio actually looks like when the next stock market selloff arrives. Because it will arrive. The only uncertainty is the catalyst.

The Drill & The Failure

Every major market shock is a test, a market lesson to be learned from. Not a test of whether your thesis was right, or whether you picked the right stocks. A test of whether your portfolio was built to hold under pressure, and whether your instincts are an asset or a liability when it counts.

The Iran conflict delivered a real economic shock. U.S. and Israeli forces struck Iran’s nuclear facilities. Tehran retaliated against Gulf energy infrastructure and the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which roughly 20% of the world’s oil supply flows daily, ground to a halt. Brent crude surged from $61 at year-end to over $114 a barrel, and that spike raised inflation expectations, hammered small caps, and sent Asian equity markets into a tailspin as energy costs threatened to consume the profit margins underpinning the region’s AI and manufacturing boom.

Then, at what seemed to be the darkest moment, the market repriced all of that in two weeks. Valuations declined roughly 18% as investors adjusted for the expected impact of higher oil prices on earnings and consumer spending. That repricing was rational, but the panic layered on top of it was not. In the middle of the selloff, predictions of a structural bear market were everywhere, but none of them materialized.

That pattern of maximum fear at the exact moment prices are lowest, followed by regret as they recover, is a market lesson that repeats itself regularly. The investors who liquidated near the recent lows, as sentiment turned negative, locked in losses. But two weeks later, they face an even more difficult decision: do I reenter at prices 10% higher than the ones I sold at? Most don’t. That gap between market returns and the average investor’s actual earnings is the most expensive line item in the typical portfolio.

What Risk Is, And Isn’t

The word “risk” gets used so loosely in financial media that it has lost most of its meaning. A falling stock price isn’t the definition of “risk.” Neither is a scary headline. Volatility isn’t risk either; it’s the price of admission for participating in markets over time.

As I’ve said previously, if you aren’t willing to watch your portfolio decline 10% to 15% without doing something rash, you aren’t really an investor; you are a speculator who happens to be holding stocks.

Risk, defined precisely, is the probability of a permanent impairment of capital. Not temporary losses, or a 10% drawdown that reverses in two weeks. Risk is the permanent impairment of capital, resulting in significantly diminished future outcomes. The distinction is enormous, separating investors who compound wealth over decades from those who don’t.

When the S&P 500 dropped during the Iran shock, the vast majority of that decline reflected a temporary repricing of earnings expectations under elevated oil prices. The underlying companies, their cash flows, their competitive advantages, and their earnings power didn’t change materially. The price changed, but the value didn’t. Investors who sold during that repricing didn’t escape risk; they converted a temporary paper loss into a realized one and then forfeited the recovery.

The market lesson is in the chart. Fear peaked at the moment prices were most attractive. By the time the market had recovered and all-time highs were being printed, fear had nearly returned to historical norms. The investors who acted on that peak in fear did exactly the wrong thing at exactly the wrong moment. The investors who recognized it as a contrarian signal, or who simply had the discipline to do nothing, participated in the full recovery.

The Behavior Gap: The Most Expensive Cost

Dalbar Inc. has published an annual study for over 30 years, measuring the difference between the return delivered by the stock market and the return actually earned by the average equity investor. The gap, which Dalbar calls the “behavior gap,” has consistently shown that the average investor earns two to three percentage points less per year than the indices they’re invested in. That shortfall isn’t explained by fees or bad stock selection. It’s explained entirely by timing decisions: buying after rallies and selling during selloffs.

Over 30 years, a two-percentage-point annual shortfall compounds into a staggering wealth gap. A $500,000 portfolio growing at 8% a year becomes roughly $5 million. The same portfolio growing at 6%, because the investor panicked during selloffs and missed recoveries, becomes roughly $2.9 million. That $2.1 million gap is the price of panic. And the investor who sold near the April 2nd sentiment extreme has already paid a portion of it.

After every major market shock, the “this time is different” argument gains traction. The Iran conflict gave that argument real support. It was a genuine exogenous shock with measurable economic consequences, not a technical correction or manufactured volatility. But the historical record on recovery from sharp, shock-driven selloffs is remarkably consistent, and favors the patient investor over the reactive one.

Since 1950, there have been 20 instances in which the S&P 500 rose more than 10% in a 10-day period, the kind of snapback recovery we saw in April. Over the following 12 months, the index was higher in 17 of those 20 cases, with an average gain of 19%. Nasdaq win streaks of comparable magnitude resolved higher 100% of the time over 12 months, with average gains near 26%. Those numbers don’t guarantee another selloff isn’t coming. That means the investors best positioned to capture those forward returns are the ones who stayed disciplined through the downturn. They rebalanced into weakness, and held enough cash to redeploy rather than liquidate.

Consider 2022. The Fed’s tightening cycle produced a 9-month bear market that erased ~25% from the S&P 500. The investors who sold in October 2022, when sentiment was just as dark as it was in early April 2026, missed a recovery that added nearly 60% over the next two years. The pattern repeats because human psychology repeats. The catalyst changes. The behavior doesn’t.

Build a Shock-Resistant Portfolio

Building a portfolio that survives market selloffs without requiring heroic decision-making isn’t complicated. It’s only unpopular because it involves accepting modest underperformance during the easy, low-volatility periods in exchange for not being the person who liquidates at the bottom during the hard ones.

The UBS analysis of the Iran shock made a point worth internalizing. The assets that acted as refuges during 2025’s tariff-driven selloff, such as gold, the Japanese yen, and Treasuries, provided meaningfully less protection this year. The assets that performed well in 2026, particularly the trade-weighted dollar, did little to offset losses during last year’s episode. In other words, building a portfolio to hedge against the last crisis is a losing strategy. The next one will look different.

The more durable approach focuses not on predicting which hedge will work, but on maintaining portfolio construction that allows you to hold through volatility without being forced to sell. That means genuine diversification across asset classes and geographies. It means a real cash buffer that functions as optionality. It also means rebalancing mechanically rather than emotionally, adding exposure when prices are low and trimming when they’ve run ahead of value.

The Iran conflict reframed a question many investors had avoided asking: Were they genuinely diversified? Investors with heavy commodity-linked exposure looked prescient during the decline. But that quickly fell out of favor as megacap technology stocks took center stage during the recovery. Having diversification means you had positions that performed during both the decline and the rally. Concentrated, one-sided portfolios rarely perform well over the long term.

Here are seven portfolio actions to think about today.

The six weeks between late February and mid-April gave every investor a real-world market lesson. That lesson was in both portfolio construction and behavioral discipline. It wasn’t about Iran, oil prices, or the Strait of Hormuz. The lesson was whether your portfolio was built to withstand a genuine shock. And whether you know the difference between a temporary price decline and a permanent impairment of value.

Those who held, rebalanced, and redeployed cash came out ahead. Those who sold near the lows are now deciding what to do with prices ~10% higher. Most won’t. That’s the behavior gap in real time, and it compounds across every market cycle over an investing lifetime.

After 30 years of watching this pattern repeat, I can tell you with confidence that no amount of market forecasting substitutes for a sound process. The S&P 500 is trading at roughly 20 times forward earnings, the ten-year Treasury yield is near 4.3%, and the geopolitical situation is improving, or at least markets are pricing it that way. What comes next is unknowable. What you do with your portfolio in the meantime is entirely within your control.

That’s always been the real market lesson. The Iran shock just delivered it again, free of charge and clearly labeled.

What you do with it is up to you.

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

Supply Chain What? The NSA Is Using Anthropic's Mythos According To Report

Two months after the Department of War declared Anthropic a "supply chain risk" and moved to several all ties with the AI wunderkind, the National Security Agency (NSA), which falls under DoW, is using it according to Axios. 

According to the report, the nation's top surveillance agency is using Mythos Preview - Anthropic's most powerful model to date. It is unclear how the NSA is currently using Mythos, however other organizations are using it primarily to scan their own environments for exploitable security vulnerabilities. The company has restricted access to Mythos to around 40 organizations - as the company says the model's offensive cyber capabilities are too dangerous for wider release. Axios notes further;

• Anthropic only announced 12 of those organizations. One source said the NSA was among the unnamed agencies with access.
   
• The NSA's counterparts in the U.K. have said they have access to the model through the country's AI Security Institute.

On Friday, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei met White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to discuss deploying Mythos within the government, as well as Anthropic's wider plans and security practices. 

As we noted late last week, the White House has directed federal agencies to begin using Mythos. So the Pentagon, er, Department of War, has egg (or an egg-like substance) on their face - after Anthropic demanded oversight over its use in military operations and domestic surveillance.

From "Supply-Chain Risk" to Strategic Asset

The government’s relationship with Anthropic had been icy for months. As we noted in February, the Pentagon threatened to blacklist the company as a “supply-chain risk” after Anthropic refused to strip certain ethical guardrails from its models for military use. That standoff escalated in March when Anthropic sued the Pentagon over the designation, as detailed in ZeroHedge’s coverage of the lawsuit.

That said, the Pentagon’s “supply-chain risk” label was always narrow in scope: it was a DoD-specific action triggered by the company’s refusal to remove certain ethical guardrails from its models for unrestricted military and offensive-use applications. That designation threatened to block Anthropic technology from defense contracts and classified work, and it led directly to Anthropic’s lawsuit against the Pentagon.

Today’s OMB memo changes almost nothing on paper for that designation. The Pentagon has not withdrawn it, the lawsuit is still active, and DoD contractors remain restricted from using Claude models (including Mythos) in offensive or surveillance contexts.

Just days ago, the U.S. Treasury was rushing to gain access to Mythos after internal warnings that the model could “hack every major system.” Senior Treasury and Federal Reserve officials had summoned CEOs of the nation’s largest banks to Washington, warning them that the financial system’s exposure to AI-powered attacks had become existential. Behind closed doors, federal agencies - including the Commerce Department’s Center for AI Standards and Innovation - had already begun quiet red-teaming of Mythos. Anthropic co-founder and president Daniela Amodei confirmed the company had briefed the administration early, telling reporters simply: “The government has to know about this stuff.”

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/20/2026 - 14:00

CBP To Begin First Phase Of Tariff Refunds Following Supreme Court Ruling

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is set to begin the first phase of its refund process for certain tariffs on April 20, following a ruling by the Supreme Court in February.

CBP will deploy the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) through its Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) system, which would allow businesses to seek refunds for tariffs they paid that were imposed by President Donald Trump under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The Supreme Court ruled on Feb. 20 that the IEEPA does not clearly authorize the president to impose tariffs.

The agency said the CAPE will be implemented in phases, with the first phase starting at 8 a.m. ET on April 20 and covering “certain unliquidated entries and certain entries within 80 days of liquidation.”

The system is designed to “consolidate refunds of IEEPA duties including interest rather than processing refunds on an entry-by-entry basis,” according to CBP.

It stated that importers and licensed customs brokers are required to set up an account on the ACE portal, submit bank account details, and file declarations for imports on which tariffs were paid.

“Importers and authorized brokers should anticipate that valid IEEPA refunds will generally be issued within 60–90 days following acceptance of the CAPE declaration, unless a compliance concern requires further CBP review, ” the agency stated on its website.

“However, certain scenarios, such as entries that are extended, suspended or under review, and warehouse entries, will maintain their liquidation status with validated refunds issued at liquidation.”

In a court filing dated April 14, CBP Executive Director of Trade Programs Brandon Lord said the agency was dealing with “an unprecedented volume of refunds,” with more than 330,000 importers filing about 53 million entries in which they deposited or paid tariffs imposed pursuant to IEEPA as of March 4, which amounted to $166 billion.

“[The CBP’s] existing administrative procedures and technology are not well suited to a task of this scale and will require manual work that will prevent personnel from fully carrying out the agency’s trade enforcement mission,” Lord said, adding that CBP was working to have its ACE functionality ready for use within 45 days.

The Trump administration has been looking at alternative legal avenues after the Supreme Court struck down the reciprocal tariff framework.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Feb. 20 that his office would launch new investigations under Section 301 of the Trade Act, covering most major trading partners.

The probe intends to counter “unjustifiable, unreasonable, discriminatory, and burdensome acts, policies, and practices,” Greer said. Further tariffs may be applied if unfair practices are found, he added.

The new trade investigations will cover various areas, including industrial excess capacity, forced labor, pharmaceutical pricing practices, discrimination against U.S. technology companies and digital goods and services, digital services taxes, and ocean pollution.

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/20/2026 - 13:40

Giant Data Center Developer Fermi Crashes 22% After CEO, CFO Abruptly Quit

Last November, we warned that storms clouds were gathering over the torrid, and in some cases chaotic, rollout of US data centers, after Fermi's massive 11 GW energy and data center project in Texas, called Project Matador, which the company has envisioned to be the world's largest AI data center and energy campus in the Texas Panhandle, near Amarillo, was struggling to close the deal with its first major data center tenant (and since Fermi is set up as REIT that allocates income from tenants to shareholders, the delay may raise doubts about attracting other potential money-generating tenants, in a toxic feedback loop).

Fermi's Project Matador - The President Donald J. Trump Advanced Energy and Intelligence Campus.

Fast forward 6 months, and the Fermi story has gone from bad to catastrophic, after the developer of nuclear power for AI data centers, slumped following the sudden departure of co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Toby Neugebauer and the company’s chief financial officer.

The exit of Neugebauer was the definition of a Friday night bomb: it was disclosed in a filing late Friday after the close of trading. Fermi held a conference call over the weekend for analysts, during which it said the board had been considering the change in management for at least three months, according to a research note from Evercore ISI.

On Monday, Fermi issued a statement revealing that Miles Everson resigned as CFO, and that it’s planning a new corporate headquarters in Dallas. Fermi said it has created a “interim office of the CEO,” comprising Jacobo Ortiz Blanes and Anna Bofa, both company executives who will now serve as co-presidents, while it searches for Neugebauer’s replacement. Neugebauer, a major shareholder in the company, will remain on the board. Everson was elected to the board, Fermi said.

As we reported in late 2025, Fermi - which has been developing a massive AI campus in Texas that it expects to initially power with natural gas and eventually plans to add as many as four nuclear reactors - has been dogged by challenges in recent months, including the loss of a key anchor tenant for the site. 

The change at the top of the company “indicates that there was friction between customers and Neugebauer, and negotiations could be simpler going forward,” Stifel Nicolaus analyst Stephen Gengaro said in a note.

For the company's sake, he better be right: the company has so far failed to line up tenants for its complex; and without tenants there is no company (not to mention, what it means for the broader AI space where euphoria is absolutely oozing everywhere). Fermi said in December that a potential user had terminated a $150 million deal.

FRMI shares fell as much as 22% Monday, the most intraday since March 30 when the company said on an earnings conference call that it still hadn’t signed up customers for the campus, which it’s calling Project Matador. Fermi has slumped 69% since its initial public offering last year, giving it a market value of $4.1 billion.

“Fermi’s ability to ink a contract from hyperscalers who are scrambling to secure scarce available power has been perplexing,” Gengaro wrote in the research note. “Some potential customers could be taking a ‘prove-it-to-me’ approach to Fermi’s power campus.”

Some analysts said the management overhaul, despite triggering a stock drop, may ultimately be a positive for Fermi.

“Overall, we view this transition as changing the ‘tone at the top,’ but maintaining the same tenacity and vigor the industry has seen from an operational perspective,” Evercore analysts led by Nicholas Amicucci wrote in their note.

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

Anti-ICE Protestors Face Trial After Judge Denies Dismissal Of Federal Charges

Authored by  Bryan Hyde via American Greatness,

Three defendants who took part in an anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protest last year are headed to federal trial on May 18 after a judge denied their motions to dismiss the case.

The defendants were part of a June 2025 protest near an ICE facility in Spokane, Washington, where they allegedly tried to block and damage law enforcement vehicles in response to the detainment of two Venezuelan men.

The protest against the Trump administration’s immigration agenda coincided with demonstrations in Seattle, Portland, and other major cities.

Just the News reports that the three defendants are part of a group of nine protestors who were arrested and later indicted by the Trump administration on federal conspiracy charges.

Six of the defendants took plea deals, including former Spokane City Council president Ben Stuckart, but the remaining three protestors, Jac Archer, Justice Forral, and Bajun Malvalwalla, chose to file a motion to dismiss their charges as protected free speech.

Malvawalla, a US Army veteran, has alleged that he was assaulted by federal agents during his arrest.

Attorneys for the defendants argued that their clients’ actions were constitutionally protected and challenged the indictment’s sufficiency.

The Dept. of Justice (DOJ) called the motion “meritless” and argued that the demonstration went beyond a constitutionally protected protest, alleging that the defendants blocked a transport van from leaving the federal facility, deflated its tires, and piled objects in front of the exits to stop the agents.​

According to Just the News, a pretrial conference is scheduled on May 5 and the court will also consider motions that day by acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche seeking to exclude certain defense arguments and evidence at trial.

Blanche specifically wants the court to exclude arguments about whether the demonstration was a constitutionally protected protest, and references to other major immigration-related protests.

He also is asking the court to reject claims of political influence, including former acting US Attorney Richard Baker, who resigned days before the indictment, a well as arguments that two Venezuelan immigrants whose transport sparked the protest were here legally.

Liz Moore with the Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane is calling on residents of Spokane “To make sure that immigrant neighbors and loved ones in our community are not isolated and targeted and they experience support.”

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/20/2026 - 13:00

Chicago Man Sentenced To 25 Years For Conspiring With ISIS

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

Ashraf Al Safoo from Chicago has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for conspiring to provide material support to ISIS, which involved recruiting members into the terror group and encouraging attacks on its enemies.

Al Safoo, 41, was a leader of online organization Khattab Media Foundation, which pledged allegiance to ISIS, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in an April 17 press release. The foundation created and spread threats and ISIS propaganda online, with Al Safoo and other members posting pro-ISIS articles, videos, infographics, and essays in coordination with the terrorist outfit.

Most of the propaganda spread by Khattab promoted violent jihad on behalf of ISIS.

The organization’s posts celebrated mass shootings and terror attacks in the United States and encouraged people to engage in “lone wolf” attacks in Western nations.

In one post, Al Safoo asked Khattab members to “cause confusion and spread terror within the hearts of those who disbelieved,” according to the DOJ press release.

In another post, Al Safoo wrote, “Work hard, brothers, edit the issue into short clips, take the pictures out of it and publish the efforts of your brothers in the pages of the apostates. Participate in the war, and spread terror, the [Islamic] State does not want you to watch it only, rather, it incites you, and if you are unable to, use it to incite others.”

Al Safoo immigrated to the United States in 2008 and was naturalized in 2013. In 2018, he was arrested and has since been in federal custody.

A bench trial was conducted last year, after which U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey found Al Safoo guilty of various charges.

On April 16, Blakey imposed a 25-year prison term for Al Safoo, followed by 10 years of court-supervised release.

The State Department designated ISIS’s predecessor group, al-Qaeda in Iraq, as a foreign terrorist organization in December 2004 under the George W. Bush administration. When ISIS was formed in 2013, the designation carried over.

Over the past several months, multiple individuals have been detained for their support of ISIS.

In December 2025, a Texas man alleged to be an ISIS sympathizer was charged with an international terrorism offense. The man allegedly provided funding and bomb making equipment to people he believed were acting on behalf of ISIS.

Earlier in November, a dual American Albanian national was arrested and charged in New York for allegedly providing support to ISIS and distributing instructions for homemade bombs.

During a testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security on Dec. 11, Michael Glasheen, operations director at the FBI, highlighted how ISIS continues to pose a threat to American interests, both domestically and abroad.

The terror outfit is able to “direct, enable, and inspire attacks through their successful use of social media and messaging applications to attract individuals. ISIS seeks direct confrontation with the United States, and almost certainly would exploit any opportunity to attack the U.S. or Western interests,” Glasheen said.

Like other foreign terrorist organizations, he said, “ISIS advocates for lone-offender attacks in the U.S. and Western countries via videos and other English-language propaganda that have specifically advocated for attacks against civilians, the military, law enforcement, and intelligence community personnel.”

The 2025 Worldwide Threat Assessment report from the Defense Intelligence Agency said that ISIS and al-Qaeda have implemented a decentralized plotting approach toward Western nations.

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Both groups are referencing Israel’s operations in Gaza to generate revenue, hire new members, and inspire attacks against U.S., Jewish, Israeli, and European interests internationally.

“The groups are also seeking to improve their weapons capabilities, including with commercial technologies such as UAVs and artificial intelligence,” the report said, referring to unmanned aerial vehicles.

In December, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said it had initiated Operation Hawkeye Strike in Syria following an attack that killed two Army soldiers and a civilian interpreter.

CENTCOM said in a Feb. 14 update that since the launch of Operation Hawkeye Strike, “more than 50 ISIS terrorists have been killed or captured and over 100 ISIS infrastructure targets have been struck with hundreds of precision munitions during two months of targeted operations.”

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/20/2026 - 12:32

'Highly Unlikely' US Will Extend Iran Ceasefire, 'Lots Of Bombs Will Go Off' If No Deal: Trump Summary

• Trump says 'highly unlikely' will extend ceasefire if deal not signed in Pakistan.

• President Pezeshkian cites "historical distrust" and states on X: "they seek Iran's surrender. Iranians do not submit to force."

• Vance intends to depart Tuesday to Pakistan, though still unclear whether Iranians will join - Pakistanis say yes, but timeline is fluid. Trump warns "nobody's playing games" & "lots of bombs will go off" if no deal (PBS)

• Xi to Saudi crown prince important phone call: "the first time the Chinese leader had called for the reopening of the strategically vital waterway."

//--> //--> Strait of Hormuz traffic returns to normal by end of April?
Yes 28% · No 72%
View full market & trade on Polymarket

*  *  *

NYT: Iranians Making Plans to be in Pakistan 

The NYT now says the Iranians are soon expected in Pakistan, despite that for the past 12-hours they issued denials that they are ready and willing to enter a second round of talks.

"An Iranian delegation is making plans to travel to Islamabad on Tuesday for negotiations with the United States, according to two senior Iranian officials familiar with the plans. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the influential political and military figure leading the talks," the publication writes.

Yet, talk about of Tehran is still firm and tough, signaling the two sides are in reality far away from agreeing on anything, particularly the nuclear issue. While Iranian President Pezeshkian has newly stated that "honoring commitments is the basis of meaningful dialogue" - it remains there is "historical distrust". He has stated on X: "they seek Iran's surrender. Iranians do not submit to force."

An afternoon very long Truth Truth Social, claiming that Trump won't let Democrats rush US into making a deal with Iran. Also says the new deal will be far better than the Obama-era JCPOA.

And he followed soon after with:

Trump: 'Highly Unlikely' He Extends Ceasefire

Lots of contradictory messaging this morning from Washington, Tehran, and Islamabad. Trump has said he will note open the Strait of Hormuz until a deal is signed (as both sides inside they in effect control the waterway).

Trump has also asserted that it remains 'highly unlikely' that he extends the ceasefire with Iran, at a moment Tasnim reports that "Iran's decision not to participate in the negotiations has not changed until this moment."

'Lots of Bombs Will Go Off' If Ceasefire Ends With No Deal: Trump

President Trump says bombs will go off if the ceasefire expires (set to end by Wed April 22), PBS reports. But he also said he doesn't know if Iran is doing the next round of talks but says it is fine if Iran is not at the Pakistan talks. So who does Washington, led by VP Vance's team, plan to talk to... itself? Or it might just plan to keep sending messages to the Pakistanis. The US could also be seeking to 'demonstrate' that the Iranians have simply refused negotiations, and so this will 'justify' bombs away again. Here are the latest Monday statements from Trump given to PBS:

• If no deal "then lots of bombs start going off."
• Nuclear weapons will be discussed with Iran at the talks.
• "No nuclear weapons. Very simple. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Very simple."
• "...we're not negotiating anything other than the fact that they will not have a nuclear weapon"
• On the remarks from Secretary Wright that gas may not go below USD 3 until late-2026 or early-2027, Trump says: "I disagree with him totally. I think it'll come roaring down if it ends. If we end it, if Iran does what they should do, it will come roaring down."

His latest Monday morning Truth Social post, which appears very on the defensive:

Fresh Pentagon data indicates the US blockade has thus far directed 27 vessels to turn back.

Contradictory Reports of Vance Travel

So it seems the second round of talks are actually on, after several recent contradictory headlines concerning Tehran's intent to send a team. As of Monday morning the Iranians have been signaling the cold shoulder, even as Pakistani officials quietly leak that their arrival is expected.

The NY Post freshly reports: "Vice President JD Vance and the US delegation to the peace talks here with Iran are en route to Pakistan and expected to land within hours, President Trump on Monday told The Post — adding that he was willing to meet with senior Iranian leaders if a breakthrough is reached." However, CNN is saying he has not actually departed yet, and may not till Tuesday, as the talks are reportedly being planned for Wednesday.

"We’re supposed to have the talks," Trump said in an interview when asked whether talks or still happening of if they are falling apart. He added: "So I would assume at this point nobody's playing games." According to more:

The president confirmed that a high-level US delegation — including Vice President JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff and adviser Jared Kushner — is already en route to Islamabad for the next round of negotiations.

“They’re heading over now,” Trump said shortly after 9 a.m. EST. “They’ll be there tonight, [Islamabad] time.”

NBC notes that, "Further complicating the picture, different Iranian leaders are sending contradictory messages. The IRGC vowed revenge for the seizing of an Iranian cargo ship yesterday, even as Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian continued to emphasize diplomacy."

Shipping Traffic Halt Latest

Al Jazeera and others have written the strait is at a virtual standstill currently, after the major Sunday incident which saw the US Navy intercept, fire upon, and board an uncooperative ship which was trying to pass the US-imposed blockade. It was an Iranian-flagged ship which was forcibly stopped in the Gulf of Oman, where some dozen US warships have been patrolling.

Just three ships have crossed in the past 12 hours, shipping data indicates. The same publication records that "Oil products tanker Nero, which is under UK sanctions, has left the Gulf and is sailing through the strait, according to satellite analysis from data analytics specialists SynMax and tracking data from the Kpler platform." And: "Two other ships – a chemical tanker and a liquefied natural gas tanker – have also sailed into the Gulf through the critical waterway separately, the data showed."

Reuters: Senior Iranian official says positive efforts have been started by Pakistan to end the US blockade and ensure Iran's participation in talks.

On Monday a spokesman for Iran's military reiterated a threat to "take the necessary action against the US military" after the Sunday US interdiction. He described that that Iran's military exercised restraint over the incident, not taking immediate action, in order to protect the ship's crew, but will act "once it is ensured that the lives of the families and crew of the vessel attacked by the United States are safeguarded." Apparently the crew's family members are accompanying them aboard the vessel, the statement suggests.

⚡️ US military releases footage of “seizure of Iranian ship Touska in Strait of Hormuz” pic.twitter.com/d7qk7G5oeC

— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) April 19, 2026

Important Xi Jinping Statement on Hormuz

China's President Xi Jinping on Monday demanded the uninterrupted passage of vessels through the Strait of Hormuz in a phone call with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, state news agency Xinhua reports. He urged the normalization of shipping traffic after about 50 days of disruption which obviously and significantly impacts Chinese oil imports.

"Normal navigation through the Strait of Hormuz should be maintained, this is in the shared interests of regional countries and the international community," Xi said. He called for an immediate, comprehensive ceasefire and insisted disputes be resolved through political and diplomatic means.

South China Morning Post observes that it was "the first time the Chinese leader had called for the reopening of the strategically vital waterway, which has been repeatedly blockaded since US-Israeli strikes on Iran began on February 28." China imported 5.86 million tons of crude oil from Saudi Arabia, down 10% from February, according to customs data released Monday.

Second Pakistan Talks Imminent? 

After the Sunday dramatic US seizure of the Iranian-flagged ship, Iran's Foreign Ministry has said the country currently no plans regarding a new round of talks, however, it also said it is reviewing the latest Washington proposal related to a second round of Pakistan-hosted talks. With that, by Monday it reasserted that the transfer of enriched uranium out of the country or into US custody has never been on the table. Tehran is insisting that it won't be transferred anywhere.

This firm stance is after President dramatically shifted his tone over the weekend from strangely and surprisingly somewhat praising Iran's leadership (with statements such as the US could work with them and possibly trust them) to once up again ramping up threats, posting "No more Mr. Nice Guy" on social media. 

Currently there are conflicting reports on whether the Iranian side will actually be there for reported possible Tuesday talks. Pakistan officials say the timing of the talks remains fluid. According to the latest via Associated Press Iranian authorities have expressed willingness to send a delegation to Islamabad, citing two Pakistan officials. The officials reports "cautious optimism that delegations from both Iran and the United States could travel to Islamabad."

Some confused and conflicting signaling, likely purposely so...

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei:

We have no plans for the next round of negotiations. pic.twitter.com/CFb16qt8vM

— Clash Report (@clashreport) April 20, 2026

The NY Times has declared that JD Vance will try again:

The vice president is scheduled to lead an American delegation back to Islamabad, Pakistan, this week for another round of in-person negotiations with Iran after failing to secure a deal just over a week ago.

Whether the talks even occur seems in dispute. Hours after President Trump announced the trip on Sunday, Iranian state media said that Tehran had not yet agreed to any such meeting. Later, Mr. Trump announced that a Naval destroyer had attacked an Iranian-flagged cargo ship that tried to skirt the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz.

President Trump has been threatening major escalation should there be no negotiated settlement, at a moment the two sides' position are very distant especially on the nuclear issue.

Zero Sum Positions on Nuclear Issue

The problem, according to University of Chicago Professor Robert Pape is the zero sum logic of it all. "In a matter of a day, the system snapped back to escalation," he wrote over the weekend. "This is not a story about fragile diplomacy or poor sequencing. It is a story about zero-sum conflict, where the core issues cannot be divided, traded, or deferred without forcing one side to accept a strategic loss—a direct contest over relative power."

"At the center of the war is a fact that cannot be negotiated away: Iran either retains a nuclear capability on the threshold of weapons, or it does not," Pape continues. "There is no stable middle ground that satisfies both sides."

POTUS is laying out two courses of action—a negotiated settlement, or a major escalation.

There is a third option, and he should take it: recognize there is no way to force a positive outcome and simply leave.

The region is not ours to fix. President Reagan chose this path in… pic.twitter.com/5ovi05FdwE

— Joe Kent (@joekent16jan19) April 19, 2026

And more from the analysis: "The same zero-sum logic applies—more visibly and more immediately—to the Strait of Hormuz. Before the war, Hormuz functioned as a global commons, carrying roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply. That assumption is now broken. Iran has demonstrated that it can shift from disruption to conditional control, allowing passage under its terms while restricting or denying access when it chooses. The United States, in response, is attempting to preserve open navigation through blockade and interdiction. But these positions cannot be reconciled."

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/20/2026 - 11:48

Aluminum Giant Alcoa To Sell Dormant Smelter To Bitcoin-Miner NYDIG: Report

Authored by Amin Haqshanas via CoinTelegraph.com,

US aluminium giant Alcoa is reportedly nearing a deal to offload its long-idle Massena East smelter in upstate New York to Bitcoin mining firm New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG).

The company is in advanced discussions and expects the transaction to close “in the middle part of this year,” CEO Bill Oplinger told Bloomberg on Friday. The site, located along the St. Lawrence River, has been inactive since 2014 after Alcoa shut it down amid rising energy costs and global competition.

Built for 24/7 heavy industrial operations, aluminum smelters come with pre-existing substations, transmission lines and high-capacity grid connections. That makes them attractive targets for Bitcoin miners and data center operators, who often spend years securing similar infrastructure approvals from scratch.

Massena East also benefits from hydropower supplied by the New York Power Authority, a key draw for energy-intensive computing firms seeking low-cost and lower-carbon power sources.

US smelters reborn as crypto, AI data centers

The potential sale comes amid a broader trend across the US, where retired industrial sites are being repurposed for digital infrastructure. Earlier this year, Century Aluminum sold its Hawesville smelter in Kentucky to TeraWulf for $200 million, with plans to convert it into a high-performance computing and AI facility rather than traditional industrial use.

TeraWulf shares are up 80% YTD. Source Bloomberg 

Meanwhile, NYDIG has been growing its footprint in Bitcoin mining infrastructure. The firm, owned by Stone Ridge, already holds a stake in Coinmint, which operates mining hardware at the same campus under a long-term lease.

Last year, Crusoe Energy also agreed to sell its Bitcoin mining business, including its digital flare mitigation operations, to NYDIG.

Bitcoin miners pivot to AI

NYDIG’s renewed push into Bitcoin mining comes as other miners are increasingly pivoting toward AI and cloud computing as shrinking margins in mining push them to diversify revenue streams.

Earleir this year, MARA Holdings acquired a 64% stake in French infrastructure company Exaion, giving the company a foothold in AI services. Other miners, including Hive, Hut 8, TeraWulf and Iren, are also repurposing mining facilities into data centers, while some, such as CoreWeave, have fully transitioned into AI-focused infrastructure.

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/20/2026 - 11:45

DoJ Opens Criminal Probe Into Meatpacking Cartel As Food Stocks Slide

Shares of Tyson Foods and Smithfield Foods fell in late-morning trading in New York after The Wall Street Journal reported that the Justice Department's antitrust division has opened a criminal probe into major meatpackers.

The report follows President Trump's push for an investigation into meatpackers as supermarket beef prices remain near record highs.

Criminal antitrust cases are typically brought for alleged price-fixing, collusion, or bid-rigging. While the DoJ previously disclosed an investigation into beef companies after Trump called for action, it had not provided details on whether it was criminal.

In early November, Trump publicly stated, "I have asked the DOJ to immediately begin an investigation into the Meat Packing Companies who are driving up the price of Beef through illicit collusion, price fixing, and price manipulation."

"We will always protect our American ranchers, and they are being blamed for what is being done by majority foreign-owned meat packers, who artificially inflate prices and jeopardize the security of our nation's food supply," Trump continued.

Beef prices at supermarkets have soared to record highs after years of drought, and elevated input prices led to the smallest U.S. herd in a generation. Trump's tariffs on Brazil, a major beef exporter, have also curbed imports.

Also, last year, Trump suggested the U.S. would buy Argentine beef to increase domestic supplies and curb higher prices for Americans. This, in turn, angered U.S. cattle ranchers.

Shares of top publicly traded meatpackers, including Tyson Foods and Smithfield Foods, fell after the WSJ report hit.

Tyson Foods

Smithfield Foods

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) has pointed out that "Four meat packers control 85 percent of the meat processed in the U.S."

Meanwhile, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and 12 other senators have proposed legislation that would force the nation's largest meatpackers to break up their operations across beef, pork, and poultry.

Related:

• The Problem Of The Meatpackers

• Drought Engulfs 60% Of U.S. As Farmers Begin Spring Planting

The DOJ's criminal investigation into beef companies comes as the Trump administration attempts to push forward with affordability policies as the K-shaped economy continues hammering the working poor.

Tyler Durden Mon, 04/20/2026 - 11:30