Are both sides misleading us about what they intend to do? U.S. officials have been able to keep the financial markets calm by telling us that Iran is defeated and that the war will end soon, but meanwhile thousands of U.S. troops are being deployed to the Middle East and it appears that preparations are being made for a major ground operation. The Iranians have told us over and over again that they will never produce nuclear weapons, but now we have learned that the regime has come to the conclusion that “it has nothing to gain by holding back from building a bomb”. I am extremely concerned about where all of this is eventually heading if both sides just continue to escalate matters.

According to the Daily Mail, Republican members of Congress “stormed out of a classified briefing on Iran on Wednesday” because of what they were told during that meeting…

Furious Republicans stormed out of a classified briefing on Iran on Wednesday amid fears the US is preparing to invade the country as Tehran refuses Donald Trump’s peace overtures.

With almost 7,000 US ground forces deploying or en route to the Middle East – including from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division and the Marines – speculation is swirling about Trump’s rapidly developing plans for the war.

Nancy Mace walked out early, venting that ‘we were misled,’ while pro-Trump committee chair Mike Rogers warned ‘we’re not getting answers’ as Pentagon chiefs briefed the House Armed Services Committee, sparking fireworks on Capitol Hill.

So why were they so angry?

Well, a lawmaker that was inside the room while the briefing was being held has revealed some absolutely stunning information…

Now, a Daily Mail source inside the room has revealed stark new details, including a new set of objectives which may suggest that America is moving toward boots on the ground as Iran continues to strangle the Strait of Hormuz.

The lawmaker, speaking on condition of anonymity, said members were presented with three military objectives: Kharg Island, Iran’s crucial oil export hub; its nuclear material; and regime change.

It marks a stark shift from the four goals the White House has publicly stated: destroying Iran’s missiles, navy, armed proxies, and nuclear capabilities.

Putting U.S. boots on the ground would be extremely controversial.

But apparently that will be part of the “final blow” that the U.S. military will deliver to Iran if negotiations do not go well…

The US is working on options for a “final blow” to Iran that could see American ground troops deployed on Iranian soil, as well as a major bombing effort, the Axios outlet reported Thursday, citing two US officials and two sources with knowledge of the matter.

There are several islands in the Persian Gulf that U.S. forces could be used to take from the Iranians, and Kharg Island is at the top of the list…

The first would entail seizing or blockading Kharg Island, Iran’s key hub for the export of oil.

A second would be to take Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz, which houses Iranian bases and radars that track ships transiting Hormuz, and hosts small boats that can attack civilian ships. Tehran has largely blocked the passage of oil through the vital strait in retaliation for the US-Israeli attacks, pushing up global energy prices.

A third possibility would be to invade Abu Musa Island in the eastern Persian Gulf, which gives Iran control over ships leaving the Gulf. The island — and the nearby Greater and Lesser Tunb islands — are held by Iran but claimed by the United Arab Emirates, a key US and Israeli ally.

Finally, the US could simply block or take control of ships exporting Iranian oil.

Taking Kharg Island would be very challenging, and it is likely that there would be substantial U.S. casualties. But that would be the easy part.

The hard part would be holding the island as Iranian missiles and drones came raining down day after day.

And if the U.S. wanted to invade the Iranian mainland itself, that would require a very large force, because the Iranians are claiming that they have mobilized over a million troops…

Iranian state media, meanwhile, claims more than one million troops have been mobilized in preparation for a US ground invasion to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

The buildup comes amid growing threats from Trump to seize Kharg Island, a key oil hub that helps control the vital waterway.

Iran has begun reinforcing the island by laying traps such as anti-personnel and anti-armor mines along likely landing zones.

Approximately 93 million people live in Iran. That is an enormous pool of manpower.

We are being told that there has been a “huge influx” of young Iranians that have volunteered to join the military in recent days…

In a report by the Tasnim news agency on Thursday, a “well-informed military source” said that more than a million people had organised to participate in the fighting, in addition to a “huge influx” over the past few days of requests by young Iranians to join the Revolutionary Guards.

In a separate report on Iran’s ISNA news agency, the commander of Iran’s ground forces Brigadier General Ali Jahanshahi warned that “the ground war will be more dangerous and costly for the enemy”, adding that “all the enemy’s movements on the border are monitored, and we are ready for any scenario”.

Fully securing the Strait of Hormuz would likely require boots on the ground on the Iranian side of the waterway, but there is no way that the limited number of troops that we are deploying to the region could cope with a force that size.

So how do we plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz? Do we plan to give the Iranians everything that they want?

There is no way that is going to happen.

So what is the plan?

Before this war ends, the Trump administration also wants to ensure that Iran will never be a nuclear threat.

In order to achieve that goal, U.S. officials are reportedly considering an operation to grab Iran’s enriched uranium…

American military chiefs are considering one of the biggest special forces raids ever-launched in a bid to cripple Iran’s nuclear programme.

The massive helicopter-borne insertion of thousands of assault troops supporting a large number of Delta Force specialists could take at least 24 hours to conduct.

It would try to seize 450kg of 60% enriched uranium believed still to be hidden deep beneath one of Tehran’s nuclear facilities and is an immensely high-risk operation.

Needless to say, this would be a very high risk operation.

But apparently a plan has already been drawn up…

Two British military sources have told the Mirror the operation plan has been drawn up, although both said it has been assessed as “very high-risk, with high probability of casualties and low probability of absolute mission success since the exact location of the uranium is uncertain.”

After fighting their way into the complex, the elite Delta Force soldiers would secure the site for specialist engineers to drill and blast their way into the underground complex.

The immensely complex operation would involve scores of spy planes and fighter jets helping to secure the approach to the mission targets.

If the Trump administration is going to actually do this, time is of the essence, because it is being reported that the regime in Iran has decided that “it has nothing to gain by holding back from building a bomb”…

Tehran’s leaders are now considering quitting the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and scrapping their posturing on nuclear weapons altogether.

Sources told Reuters the relentless US-Israeli strikes have persuaded the regime it has nothing to gain by holding back from building a bomb.

That is extremely alarming news.

This war was supposed to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, but now they appear to be more motivated than ever to get their hands on nukes…

Hardline politician Mohammad Javad Larijani, brother of senior official Ali Larijani who was killed in a strike last Tuesday, was quoted by state media this week urging Iran to suspend its membership of the NPT.

‘The NPT should be suspended. We should form a committee to assess whether the NPT is of any use to us at all. If it proves useful, we will return to it. If not, they can keep ​it,’ he said.

Earlier in the month, state television aired a segment with conservative commentator Nasser Torabi in which he said the Iranian public demanded: ‘We need to act in order to ​build a nuclear weapon. Either we build it or we acquire it.’

Could North Korea provide nuclear weapons to Iran?

Could it be possible that this has already happened?

Let’s hope not.

And while the U.S. is trapped in a seemingly endless war in the Middle East, there is concern that the Chinese may see this as a perfect opportunity to “reunite” with Taiwan…

Xi sees Trump as unwilling to come to Taiwan’s defence, the people said — especially if America’s involvement in the Middle East, which has led the US to redirect major military assets away from Asia, continues to distract Washington. The meeting itself had been scheduled for April 1, but was pushed back to May 14-15 after Trump requested a delay because of the war in Iran.

Xi is working under the assumption that, while Washington still supports Taiwan, Trump’s attitude toward the island is so uncertain that he has an opening. Trump has accused Taiwan of stealing America’s chip industry and last year hit the island with high tariffs before reducing them – moves that panicked Taiwanese officials.

As long as Iran is blocking commercial traffic from getting through the Strait of Hormuz, we will continue to be trapped in this war. The Iranians say that they are willing to end the war as long as we give them what they want, and that includes permanent control of the Strait.

That certainly isn’t going to happen. The other option is to end Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz by force, and that won’t be easy at all.

We have a very serious crisis on our hands, and I am entirely convinced that a tremendous amount of death and destruction is ahead.

Lockdown 2.0: The IEA Has Released 10 Guidelines To Help The Public Prepare For The Coming Fuel Shortages And “Energy Lockdowns”

Are we really going to go through this again? It appears that the Iranians are absolutely determined to keep traffic through the Strait of Hormuz paralyzed until they get what they want. In order to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, an absolutely massive military operation would be required, and perhaps we will see such an operation in the days ahead. But for now approximately 2,500 ships continue to be trapped inside the Persian Gulf, and this is already starting to create fuel shortages in some parts of the globe. If the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened for months, the fuel shortages will become extremely serious and it is inevitable that “energy lockdowns” will be imposed.

Don’t think that it can’t happen.  Even now, the term “energy lockdown” is trending on social media all over the world…

A new term has begun trending on social media as the global oil crisis deepens: “energy lockdown.” While the phrase evokes memories of COVID-19 restrictions, experts say it describes something very different—a set of government-enforced or encouraged measures to reduce fuel, gas and electricity consumption in response to severe supply shocks.

The term gained traction following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to the Iran-Israel-US conflict, which has cut off about 20% of global oil supplies. On March 24, the sixth anniversary of India’s first COVID-19 lockdown, the term peaked as public anxiety mixed with historical memory.

As you will see below, so far most of the energy-saving restrictions which have been introduced are voluntary.

But as global energy supplies get tighter and tighter, it is probably just a matter of time before mandatory restrictions become widespread.

The International Energy Agency is giving us some clear indications of what could be ahead.  They have just released a list of 10 emergency guidelines that some users on social media are calling a “playbook” for future energy lockdowns…

The “World’s energy watchdog” has announced a list of emergency measures the public should take to help deal with the ongoing energy crisis triggered by the war in the Middle East.

Many on social media have branded the emergency energy playbook as “lockdown 2”. One critic said: “We’re not doing this again.” The International Energy Agency (IEA) has released the list of guidelines encouraging countries across the globe to reduce fuel usage.

The suggestions given in the report, called “Sheltering from oil shocks”, consists of 10 steps focused on curbing fuel consumption. The IEA has also advised member countries – such as the UK and Australia – to prepare emergency measures to overcome oil demand.

Needless to say, we are not being encouraged to wear masks this time around. But we are being encouraged to avoid driving and to stay home.

The following is the full list of 10 guidelines that the IEA has just released…

• Work from home where possible
• Reduce highway speed limits by at least 10km/h
• Encourage public transport
• Alternate private car access to roads in large cities on different days
• Increase car sharing and adopt efficient driving practices
• Efficient driving for road commercial vehicles and delivery of goods
• Divert LPG (liquified petroleum gas) use from transport
• Avoid air travel where alternative options exist
• Where possible, switch to other modern cooking solutions
• Leverage flexibility with petrochemical feedstocks and implement short term efficiency and maintenace measures

I think that they realize that there simply is not going to be enough fuel for everyone if this war does not end soon.

This is going to be particularly true in Asia, because they buy more than 80 percent of the oil that travels through the Strait of Hormuz…

Countries across Asia are reviving Covid-era playbooks — from work-from-home policies to fuel-saving curbs and subsidies — as they scramble to respond to a deepening energy crisis triggered by the Iran war, Reuters reported.

The region is at the frontline of the disruption, buying more than 80% of the crude that transits the Strait of Hormuz — a vital artery that has been largely blocked since the conflict began on February 28.

This isn’t a crisis that is going to happen in a few weeks or a few months.

This is a crisis that is happening now.

As I write this article, national governments in Asia “are preparing for worst-case energy scenarios”…

Governments across Asia are preparing for worst-case energy scenarios that could include a prolonged and severe disruption to supplies, even as the U.S. draws up a plan to end the war in Iran.

South Korea shifted into crisis mode on Wednesday, setting up an emergency economic task force to urgently prepare for adverse scenarios. The Philippines declared a national emergency, citing an “imminent danger of a critically low energy supply.”

Japan is reviewing its entire supply chain of petroleum-related products as the likelihood builds of shortages and knock-on effects across the economy, while India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned the war could cause unprecedented challenges for the nation.

During a couple of his recent speeches, Modi made some comments that have caused a great deal of concern in India…

In his speeches in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on Monday and Tuesday about the West Asia conflict, Prime Minister Narendra Modi recalled how India faced the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated global supply chain disruptions.

“In the past too, our government did not allow the burden of global crises to fall on the farmers,“ Modi said in his address in Lok Sabha on the West Asia crisis on Monday.

On Tuesday, speaking in the Rajya Sabha, PM Modi almost repeated what he had said the day before in the Lok Sabha. Modi called upon the nation to “remain prepared and united, just as it had stood together during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Following those speeches, Internet searches for “energy lockdown” absolutely skyrocketed.

People in India really are concerned that we could see a repeat of the darkest days of the pandemic.

Even now, the ceramics industry in the state of Gujurat has been “shut down for the best part of a month” due to a lack of fuel…

In the western state of Gujurat, a shortage of gas rather than oil has seen the region’s ceramics industry shut down for the best part of a month.

With no end in sight to the Iran conflict, the 400,000 people employed in the trade have been left in limbo.

“I will have to go hungry if I continue staying here without work,” Sachin Parashar, a migrant worker, told a local news channel.

In the vast metropolis of Mumbai, approximately 20 percent of the hotels and restaurants have already been shuttered…

In Mumbai – a city of more than 22 million people – as many as a fifth of all hotels and restaurants fully or partially shut in the first weeks of March. Items which take longer to cook are absent from menus. Long queues have formed across the nation as people try to get their hands on gas cylinders, even as the government tries to calm fears of a shortage.

“The situation [in restaurants] is dire. Cooking gas simply isn’t available,” Manpreet Singh, of the National Restaurant Association of India, which represents about 500,000 restaurants, told the BBC.

This war hasn’t even been going on for a month yet.

So what will things look like if this war continues for at least several more months?

In Sri Lanka, every Wednesday is now a “public holiday” in a desperate attempt to conserve fuel.

In Pakistan, schools have been closed for two weeks and cricket fans are being urged to stay home…

In Pakistan, authorities have asked cricket fans to stay home and watch matches on television instead of travelling, in an effort to save fuel. At the same time, the government is considering limits on how much fuel vehicles can use, according to sources familiar with the plan.

The situation is also worsening in Bangladesh, where long lines have formed at fuel stations, with some stretching up to a kilometre. Many fertiliser plants have been shut down to conserve energy, while the government is trying to secure about $2 billion in loans to meet rising power demand during the summer months.

Here in the United States, we should be very thankful that we are not as dependent on Middle Eastern oil as we once were. Because just about everyone in Asia is really hurting right now.

Japan is tapping into their strategic reserves, and South Korea is strongly considering it…

The two east Asian nations are being rocked by surging import costs, forcing factories to scale back and governments to tap emergency reserves.

Japan, which imports more than 90% of its oil from the region, has begun tapping strategic reserves. South Korea is weighing reserve releases and emergency support measures.

Just about all of the oil that is used by the Philippines comes from the Middle East, and they have already declared a national energy emergency…

The Philippines just became the first country to declare a national energy emergency, warning of “an imminent danger of a critically low energy supply.” The island imports 98% of its oil from the gulf.

Needless to say, this is just the beginning.

If the war does not end soon, Europe will start to run out of fuel next month…

However, without a return of crude deliveries from the Gulf to global buyers via the crucial Hormuz channel, Europe could face shortages of fossil fuels within weeks, according to Wael Sawan.

The Shell chief executive told an oil industry conference in Texas: “South Asia was first to get that brunt. That’s moved to south-east Asia, north-east Asia and then more so into Europe as we get into April.”

We have never seen anything like this.

If this war stretches into the summer, there will be global panic.

Already, panic buying has caused shortages at hundreds of gas stations in Australia…

Hundreds of service stations across Australia have run out of fuel, with the federal government inking a deal with Singapore, one of the country’s biggest sources of refined petroleum, to keep supplies of diesel and petrol flowing.

Concerns are now broadening to supplies of fertiliser and other chemicals, heaping more pressure on the Albanese government’s leveraging of overseas exports of coal and gas in a bid to handle of the crisis.

The energy minister, Chris Bowen, told federal parliament on Monday that 109 outlets in Victoria had run out of at least one grade of petrol, that there were 47 outlets in Queensland with no diesel and 32 without regular unleaded, and that 37 stations in New South Wales had run out of petrol.

I wish that I could tell you that the war will be over quickly and that conditions will return to normal very soon.

But I can’t do that.

The CEO of BlackRock, Larry Fink, is telling us that he believes that if the price of oil reaches 150 dollars a barrel it will cause a global recession…

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink is warning that a prolonged conflict between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran could drive the price of oil to $150 a barrel and plunge the world into a “stark and steep recession.” The remarks come as U.S. military operations against the Islamist regime enter their twenty-fifth day, and amid weeks of energy and financial market volatility.

“Rising energy prices is a very regressive tax. It affects the poor more than the wealthy,” Fink notes, while further cautioning that Iran could force “years above $100, closer to $150 oil, which has profound implications in the economy.” The $150-a-barrel benchmark, according to the BlackRock CEO, is an important line to avoid crossing, as doing so would result in “a probably stark and steep recession.”

I believe that he is wrong.

I believe that if the price of oil reaches 150 dollars a barrel and stays there, it will cause a global depression.

I wish that I was exaggerating, but I am not.

We really have entered one of the most chaotic chapters in human history, and most of the population still has no idea what is in front of us.

We are locked in a steel cage with Iran and nobody can seem to find the key. But if we don’t find a way out, the global economy is going to collapse, global food production is going to decline precipitously, and it is likely just a matter of time before someone uses weapons that should never be used under any circumstances. President Trump sent Iran a 15 point plan to end the war this week, but the Iranians just laughed at it. The Iranians have no intention of ending this war until “its own conditions are met”…

Iran has rejected a US proposal to end the war and set out conditions for any ceasefire, Press TV reported on Wednesday, citing a senior official.

“Iran will end the war when it decides to do so and when its own conditions are met,” the official said, adding: “No negotiations will be held prior to that.”

“Iran’s defensive operations will continue until its conditions are met,” the official said, describing the US proposal as “excessive.”

So what do the Iranians want?

They are asking for five things to happen before they will even begin negotiating…

• A complete halt to “aggression and assassinations” by the enemy.
• The establishment of concrete mechanisms to ensure that the war is not reimposed on the Islamic Republic.
• Guaranteed and clearly defined payment of war damages and reparations.
• The conclusion of the war across all fronts and for all resistance groups involved throughout the region.
• Iran’s exercise of sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz is and will remain Iran’s natural and legal right, and it constitutes a guarantee for the implementation of the other party’s commitments, and must be recognized.

The U.S. and Israel will never pay for the damage that they have done inside Iran.

And Israel will certainly not stop fighting against Hezbollah.

But that last one is the kicker.  There is no way that the Trump administration will ever agree to Iranian control of the Strait of Hormuz.

So there will be no negotiated settlement no matter how much the Trump administration may want one.

One Iranian spokesperson is mocking us by suggesting that U.S. officials are simply negotiating with themselves…

The Iranians are eagerly anticipating the appearance of the Mahdi, because he is supposed to come during a time of great chaos and war.

So why would they surrender if they think that the Mahdi is about to show up? To them, that wouldn’t make any sense at all. They are trapped in this war by their own ideology.

They are absolutely convinced that they are going to win, and they have just released a video that depicts the Statue of Liberty being blown up by an Iranian missile…

A crazy Iranian AI-generated video shows a missile blowing up the Statue of Liberty — and also references the Epstein scandal and lefty anti-war talking points

The minute-long clip, which ends with the ominous slogan “One vengeance for all,” has been attributed to Iranian state broadcaster IRIB and was later shared by Russian regime outlet RT.

Sequences invoking Native American dispossession, the dropping of the atom bombs on Japan, the Vietnam War, and more recent Middle Eastern conflicts are featured in the video, casting the US as the world’s enemy.

The U.S. is trapped in this war as long as Iran continues to paralyze traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and as long as Iran continues to attack our allies in the region.

On Wednesday, the White House announced that President Trump is ready to “unleash hell” if a negotiated settlement is not possible…

President Donald Trump is prepared to “unleash hell” if negotiations with Iran fail, the White House said Wednesday, after Tehran rejected an initial U.S. proposal and thousands of American troops were enroute to the Middle East.

“Iran should not miscalculate,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a briefing, adding that if Iran refuses to make a deal to end the war, “President Trump will ensure they are hit harder than they have ever been hit before.”

I don’t know if they got the memo yet, but negotiations have already failed.

So what is Trump planning to do that he is not doing already?

Right now, thousands of U.S. troops are on their way to the Middle East…

Donald Trump is massing a 7,000-strong ground invasion force on Iran’s doorstep after the Islamic regime snubbed a 15-point peace plan with a series of ‘ridiculous’ demands.

Pentagon chiefs ordered around 2,000 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East last night to join some 4,500 Marines already en route to the region.

The President is prepared to pull the trigger on a full-scale invasion if Tehran continues to rebuff his diplomatic overtures, according to members of his inner circle.

Needless to say, 7,000 troops would not be nearly enough for a ground invasion of Iran. When you add together the IRGC, the Basij forces, the regular Iranian army and the Iranian reserves, it comes to a grand total of more than a million fighting men.

7,000 U.S. soldiers may be enough to take Kharg island or a couple of smaller islands in the Strait of Hormuz, but then those soldiers would be sitting ducks as the Iranians endlessly bombard them with drones and missiles.

In the end, we would see a lot of dead American service members.

Over the past couple of weeks, Iran has been working hard to reinforce Kharg Island’s defenses…

Iran has been laying traps and moving additional military personnel and air defenses to Kharg Island in recent weeks in preparation for a possible US operation to take control of the island, according to multiple people familiar with US intelligence reporting on the issue.

The Trump administration has been weighing using US troops to seize the tiny island in the northeastern Persian Gulf — an economic lifeline for Iran that handles roughly 90% of the country’s crude exports — as leverage over the Iranians to coerce them to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, CNN has reported.

But US officials and military experts say there would be significant risks involved in such a ground operation, including a large number of US casualties. The island has layered defenses, and the Iranians have moved additional shoulder-fired, surface-to-air guided missile systems known as MANPADs there in recent weeks, the sources said.

I don’t think that taking Kharg Island would be a wise move. It would not reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and it would not force the Iranians to capitulate.

So why do it? It was really easy to start this war, but there is no easy way out. As long as the Iranian regime exists, it is going to continue to threaten traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

They have made that very clear.

So if the U.S. and Israel want to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, either they will have to give the Iranians everything that they are asking for, conduct a full-blown ground invasion to overthrow the regime, or use nuclear weapons (which should be unthinkable).

At this stage, all of those options are completely unacceptable to the Trump administration. The Iranians understand that they are the ones with the leverage now, and they are going to be ruthless. The U.S. and Israel will continue to pummel Iran from the air, but that won’t change the state of play.

Approximately 93 million people live in Iran, and the regime has had 47 years to deeply embed itself in every element of Iranian society. Trying to get rid of it now will be exceedingly tough. But allowing it to block traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is intolerable, because that will crash the global economy.

We are caught between a rock and a hard place, and our choices are only going to get even more difficult in the days ahead.

Is The World Ready For A Global Energy Catastrophe And A Global Food Catastrophe At The Same Time?

We have reached an unprecedented moment in human history. If this war with Iran continues for an extended period of time, we will be facing the greatest energy disruption in human history and the greatest food production disruption in human history simultaneously. Many were hoping that Iran would agree to the Trump administration’s proposal for a 30 day ceasefire, but it was obvious that was never going to happen. The Iranians have completely rejected Trump’s 15 point plan, and they are demanding that the U.S. must agree to permanent Iranian sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz before any negotiations even begin. Needless to say, the U.S. will never agree to that, and so the war will rage on.

For now, Iran is determining which vessels are allowed to travel through the Strait of Hormuz…

Iranian crude tankers continue to pass through the maritime chokepoint — vital to about a third of the world’s seaborne crude oil — along with a few others that Iran has let pass through, said Matt Smith, U.S. head analyst at Kpler.

In a post on X Tuesday, MarineTraffic, which is operated by Kpler, said Iran appears to now be pursuing a strategy in the strait where it allows “selective vessel passage” to provide “strategic signaling,” rather than imposing a full disruption of global crude supply through the waterway.

The post included an animated map of sparse maritime traffic traveling through the waterway. Nine vessels have crossed since Monday, according to MarineTraffic data released early Tuesday.

Several news reports indicate Iran has begun charging vessels up to $2 million to pass through the strait. Smith said Kpler could not confirm reports of such tolls.

Some readers may be tempted to think that it is good news that nine vessels have been able to go through the Strait of Hormuz so far this week.

But approximately 2,500 others remain trapped in the Persian Gulf…

On Tuesday, HormuzTracker, which provides a Strait of Hormuz shipping-disruption dashboard, showed that there are around 2,500 vessels still trapped inside the Persian Gulf, with 400 waiting outside of the strait.

This is truly a nightmare scenario. Desperately needed supplies of oil and natural gas are not going anywhere for the foreseeable future.

And now Iran is threatening to close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait as well…

Iran could open a new front in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait if attacks are carried out on its territory or islands, IRGC-affiliated Tasnim reported, citing an unnamed military source.

“If the Americans intend to take action regarding the Strait of Hormuz, they should be careful not to add another strait to their challenges … Iran is fully prepared to escalate the situation,” Tasnim quoted the source as saying.

Iran is literally trying to paralyze the entire global economy in order to gain as much leverage as possible.

One energy industry economist is openly admitting that we have never “seen anything like this”…

“We’ve not seen anything like this — there’s been no disruption of this scale in the past,” Gareth Ramsay, chief economist at oil and gas giant BP, told the conference. “It’s every oil analyst’s study piece or worst nightmare — one that we never thought would happen.”

He is right.

This is unprecedented. And every single day that traffic through the Strait of Hormuz continues to be disrupted things will get even worse.

Already, the price of diesel has reached all-time record highs in California and Washington…

The announcement, made by GasBuddy Head of Petroleum Analysis Patrick De Haan on Wednesday, comes as gas prices have continued to rise across the U.S. in recent weeks. The national average cost of a gallon of gas was $3.983 on Wednesday, according to AAA, whereas a week ago, it was at $3.842. A month ago, the national average was below $3 per gallon. Diesel prices have also been climbing higher, with two states setting a new all-time record for the price of a gallon of diesel on Wednesday.

“California and Washington have both now set new all-time records for average diesel price,” De Haan posted with an image of a graph that showed diesel prices surging past $7 in California and $6 in Washington.

There are more than 11 million diesel trucks in the United States. That number represents about 75 percent of the entire commercial truck population.

If the price of diesel reaches 10 dollars a gallon, it will be absolutely devastating for the commercial trucking industry in this country Over in Europe, they are facing widespread energy shortages “as soon as next month”…

Europe could face a shortage of energy and fuel as soon as next month without a reopening of the strait of Hormuz, Shell’s chief executive has said.

The boss of Europe’s biggest oil company said it was working with governments to help them address the oil and gas supply crisis, which has already led to energy rationing in Asian countries.

The beginning of next month is just days away.

Will EU politicians start implementing “energy lockdowns” in a desperate attempt to conserve oil and natural gas? Of course this war isn’t just going to cause a global energy catastrophe.

The spring is when farmers in the northern hemisphere plant their crops, and right now vast quantities of fertilizer are locked up in the Persian Gulf region…

Farmers in the Northern Hemisphere are heading into the crucial spring months, during which major fieldwork must begin. Their peers in the south, meanwhile, are busy harvesting crops before the winter sets in.

However, their work now takes place as the Iran war creates serious supply constraints for essential fertilizer products — fueling massive price spikes and warnings of looming food insecurity.

Around one-third of the global seaborne fertilizer trade passes through the Strait of Hormuz, according to the United Nations.

What are we going to do if we can’t get that fertilizer out of the Persian Gulf before planting season is over?

One industry insider is warning that “this could be catastrophic if it lasts long”…

David Delaney, the chief executive officer of phosphate producer Itafos Inc., said he can’t recall a tougher time across his four decades in the industry. After the war broke out, the United Nations warned of record levels of hunger this year. If the conflict continues for even a few more months, tens of millions of people may face severe food insecurity.

“The world is just used to big crop plantings every year and yields and crops getting to where they are needed,” he said. “I don’t want to sound the alarm too much yet, but this could be catastrophic if it lasts long.”

I discussed this in a previous article, but I don’t think that a lot of people out there fully understood that implications of what I shared.

Wheat is an annual crop that is planted every year. Studies have shown that application of nitrogen fertilizer can increase wheat yields by up to 62 percent. If we do not get nitrogen fertilizer into the hands of farmers in the northern hemisphere, we are going to have far less wheat in late 2026 and beyond.

Barley is also an annual crop that is planted every year. Studies have shown that application of nitrogen fertilizer can increase barley yields by up to 25 percent. For corn, the difference is even greater. The amount of corn grown on an acre can more than double if nitrogen fertilizer is applied.

Just think about that. We are talking about a dramatic drop in production. Of course crops that are not planted annually will not be greatly affected by this fertilizer crisis.

Grape vines can go decades without fertilizer and they will just keep producing year after year. And some olive trees that have been alive for more than 1,000 years are still bearing plenty of fruit with no problem at all.

The bottom line is that we could see a historic drop in production for annual crops such as wheat and barley, while there may be very little difference for crops that do not have to be planted annually such as grapes and olives.

This is where we are at.

No matter how much some people may want to deny it, the facts will not change. The only way we can avoid what is ahead is if the war comes to a swift conclusion. But that is not likely to happen any time soon, and so a lot more pain is on the way.

Has A Global Catastrophe Been Averted, Or Is This Just A Very Temporary Reprieve?

For the moment, we have avoided a global economic cataclysm. President Trump was threatening to completely destroy Iran’s power grid if the Iranians did not reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and in response the Iranians were threatening to destroy oil and gas infrastructure all over the Middle East. Once that infrastructure is gone it would have to be replaced, and that would take years. Meanwhile, the entire world would be forced to endure the worst energy crisis in human history and the economic fallout would be intolerable. The good news is that President Trump has announced that he will not be attacking Iran’s power grid for at least five days. I think that once Iran released the list of oil and gas facilities that would be targeted if their power grid got destroyed, Trump decided to reconsider his plans…

Iran’s IRGC-affiliated Mehr news wrote: “In case of the slightest attack on the electricity infrastructure of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the entire region will go dark.” Here’s the target list it shared:

Saudi Arabia

• The Village (near Al-Khobar): gas power plant (4,000+ MW)
• Ras Tanura (Sharqiya Province): major oil and gas facility / power infrastructure

United Arab Emirates

• Barakah (Al Dhafra, Abu Dhabi): nuclear power plant (~5,600 MW)
• Jebel Ali (South Dubai): gas power and desalination complex (multi-GW capacity)
• Mohammed bin Rashid Solar Park (Dubai): large-scale solar power project

Qatar

• Ras Laffan (north Qatar): gas power plant (one of the largest in Qatar)
• Umm Al Houl (south of Doha): gas power + desalination plant (multi-GW capacity)

Kuwait

• Al-Zour South: oil and gas power plant
• Al-Zour North: combined-cycle power plant (multi-GW capacity)
• Shaqaya Energy Park (west Kuwait): solar and wind renewable energy complex

Please note that the Ras Laffan natural gas complex in Qatar is on that list.

It normally produces approximately 20 percent of the world’s entire supply of liquified natural gas. 17 percent of that facility has already been destroyed, but if the rest of it gets wiped out that alone would be enough to plunge the globe into an economic death spiral that would last for years. I am sure that Qatar and the other Gulf countries have been screaming at Trump to pull back before it is too late.

Another reason why Trump could not attack Iranian power plants right now is because pro-regime civilians have started to form “human chains” around some of them…

Civilians in Ahvaz and Mashhad formed human chains around major power plants on Monday, according to footage published by the state‑run Fars news agency on Telegram. The videos show residents standing shoulder‑to‑shoulder outside the Ramin power plant in Ahvaz, many holding Iranian flags, while similar crowds gathered near a facility in Mashhad.

Images of U.S. bombs blowing up women and children would have absolutely horrified people all over the planet.

So there was no way that Trump could make good on his threats.

On Monday morning, Trump told the world that any attacks on the Iranian power grid have been delayed for at least five days…

It would be wonderful if “productive conversations” were taking place.

Let us hope that is the truth.

But the Iranians are completely denying that any conversations are taking place, and they are celebrating that Trump has “backed down”…

Shortly after US President Donald Trump announced that he is deferring “any and all” strikes on Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure on productive resolution talks, Iranian media reports denied any ‘direct’ or ‘intermediary’ communication with him.

“Trump, fearing Iran’s response, backed down from his 48-hour ultimatum,” Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting said in a post on X.

Ebrahim Rezaei, Spokesperson of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission reiterated the claims and said, “Trump and America have backed down again. The field is still charging forward. Another defeat for the devil,” in a post on X.

Each side is telling a completely different story.

So what is the truth?

It is being widely reported in the western media that the individual that the Trump administration is communicating with is Mohammad‑Bagher Ghalibaf, but he is strongly denying this…

Multiple news outlets reported in the past hour that U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner had been engaged in negotiations with Mohammad‑Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament. But an X account attributed to Ghalibaf swiftly rejected those claims, saying no discussions with the United States had taken place.

The post accused unnamed actors of spreading “fake news” to manipulate global oil markets and insisted that the Iranian public “demand complete and remorseful punishment of the aggressors.”

Personally, I don’t know how Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf could have been much clearer.

And Iran’s Foreign Ministry is also telling us that there have been no negotiations…

Iran’s Foreign Ministry denied on Monday any direct negotiations with U.S. officials, but said “friendly countries” had conveyed messages from Washington seeking negotiations.

“In recent days, messages were delivered through certain friendly countries indicating that the U.S. sought negotiations to end the war. These messages were appropriately addressed in line with our country’s principled positions,” Esmail Baqaei, spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, told the country’s state news agency IRNA on Monday. “In our responses, we issued firm warnings about the severe consequences of any attack on Iran’s critical infrastructure, emphasizing that any action against Iran’s energy facilities would be met with a decisive, immediate, and effective response from our armed forces.”

Maybe the Iranians are simply choosing not to tell the truth.

Needless to say, they don’t exactly have a strong track record for veracity. Despite Iran’s denials, Trump continues to insist that there have been “very, very strong talks”…

“Well they’re going to have to get themselves better public relations people,” Mr. Trump said. “We have had very, very strong talks. We’ll see where they lead. We have points, major points of agreement, I would say almost all points of agreement. Perhaps that hasn’t been conveyed. The communication, as you know, has been blown to pieces.”

The president would not say who his administration is speaking to in Iran, only saying it was a “top” person but not the supreme leader. Mr. Trump added that Iran contacted the U.S., saying, “So they called, I didn’t call. They called. They want to make a deal.”

Ultimately, I don’t think that any of this is going anywhere. As I write this article, missiles continue to fly all over the Middle East.

The Iranians just launched more attacks, and the Israelis continue to pummel targets in Iranian territory. And thousands of U.S. Marines continue to sail toward the Middle East…

There has been no change in plans to send thousands more Marines and sailors to the Middle East, military sources told CBS News.

A second Marine Expeditionary Unit of about 2,200 Marines and three warships departed California last week, two U.S. officials previously said. It could take at least three weeks to be in place, although maybe more than that.

The first Marine Expeditionary Unit, coming from the Pacific, is still making its way toward the region.

In addition to the Marine units that are on the way, it is also being reported that elements of the 82nd Airborne Division could soon be sent to the Middle East…

Senior military officials are weighing a possible deployment of a combat brigade from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division and some elements of the division’s headquarters staff to support U.S. military operations in Iran, defense officials said.

I think that Trump is really hoping that Iran will give him the sort of deal that he is seeking.

But that isn’t going to happen.

And Trump can’t pull the U.S. out of the war as long as Iran is preventing commercial ships from traveling through the Strait of Hormuz and as long as Iran is hitting targets all over the Middle East with drones and missiles.

The Iranians feel like they have control over when this war will end, and so they are making all sorts of extremely outrageous demands that the U.S. and Israel can never possibly accept.  They actually want all U.S. forces in the Middle East to be completely removed, they want to continue enriching uranium, and they want the U.S. and Israel to fully pay for all the damage that their bombing has caused.

Needless to say, the U.S. and Israel will never agree to any of that.

So I think that this war is going to continue for quite some time, and I also think that more escalations are inevitable. And that is really bad news for the global economy, because this war has already had “a worse impact on oil than the two oil shocks of the 1970s combined”…

The head of the International Energy Agency said Monday that the global economy faces a “major, major threat” because of the Iran war.

“No country will be immune to the effects of this crisis if it continues to go in this direction,” Fatih Birol said at Australia’s National Press Club in Canberra on Monday.

The ​crisis in ​the Middle ⁠East, he said, has had a worse impact on oil than the two oil shocks of the 1970s combined, and a worse effect on gas than the Russia-Ukraine war.

We should all be thankful that a nightmare scenario has been avoided for the time being. But it appears that this is just a very temporary reprieve.

The Iranians will never give Trump what he wants, and the U.S. and Israel will never give the Iranians what they are seeking. The two sides are not even in the same universe as far as what a peace deal should look like, and that means that a lot more fighting is still ahead.

Why is the mainstream media in the United States being so quiet about this? All over the globe, very serious shortages of oil and gas are starting to occur. The information that I am about to share with you is extremely alarming. Unfortunately, if this war continues for an extended period of time this will only be just the beginning of this crisis. Even if the war were to end tomorrow, and that is not going to happen, it would take time for the tankers that are currently trapped in the Persian Gulf to reach their destinations. And it would take years to fully repair the damage that has already been done to oil and gas infrastructure throughout the Middle East. Whether we like it or not, we are facing a global energy crisis for the foreseeable future, and that is not good news at all.

What would you do if you went to your local gas station and there was no more gasoline?

In Australia, there are dozens of gas stations that have already run out of at least one grade of gasoline…

The energy minister, Chris Bowen, told federal parliament on Monday that 109 outlets in Victoria had run out of at least one grade of petrol, that there were 47 outlets in Queensland with no diesel and 32 without regular unleaded, and that 37 stations in New South Wales had run out of petrol.

The NSW premier, Chris Minns, had said earlier in the day that 105 outlets in his state were without diesel.

Bowen didn’t share statistics for Western Australia, the Northern Territory, South Australia or Tasmania. He also declined to say exactly when the government became aware of six shipments of oil not making its way to Australia, a fact he revealed on Sunday, only saying it was an “iterative process” and they had not all been cancelled on the same day.

The Australian government is desperately trying to secure additional supplies.But many other governments all over the planet are doing the exact same thing. There is going to be a scramble for whatever is available, and prices are going to spike.

In Europe, Slovenia has become the very first member of the EU to impose fuel rationing…

Slovenia has become the first EU member state to implement fuel rationing to tackle disruptions caused by the US-Israeli strikes on Iran and its retaliation on their allies in the Gulf – most major players in world energy markets.

Many countries have been experiencing steep hikes in fuel prices.

In Slovenia, this has resulted in so-called “fuel tourism”, as drivers from neighbouring countries, particularly Austria, take advantage of the lower, regulated prices here.

Under the new measures, private motorists in Slovenia will be restricted to a maximum purchase of 50 litres of fuel per day. Businesses and farmers have a more generous allowance of 200 litres.

Ultimately, a lack of natural gas will be a much bigger problem for Europe. If this war does not come to a conclusion soon, it will be a very, very cold winter across the continent.

In the Philippines, a national energy emergency was declared on Tuesday…

President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. of the Philippines declared a national energy emergency on Tuesday, saying that high oil prices caused by the war in the Middle East were threatening the country’s energy security.

The Philippines imports 90 percent of its oil from the Middle East, making it one of the Asian countries most vulnerable to supply disruptions there. With the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed by Iran, the Philippines has had to turn to Russia and China, and to other Southeast Asian countries, for fuel.

They should have never allowed themselves to become so dependent on oil from the Middle East. But there is one upside to all of this.

Government workers in the Philippines will only have to work four days a week for a while…

Many government offices have switched to a four-day workweek to save energy, and Mr. Marcos has called on the public to car pool. The government has also been handing out 5,000 pesos each to tens of thousands of autorickshaw and jeepney drivers around Manila who are suffering from the higher prices.

Mr. Marcos is under intense pressure to deal with the situation. A coalition of transportation workers has called for mass protests around Manila, the capital, on Thursday and Friday about the price spike and what they consider inadequate measures by the government. On Tuesday, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, a major newspaper, published a column with the headline, “Nation on brink: This oil crisis may destroy everything we built.”

We have never faced a global energy crisis of this magnitude, and there is already talk that we could soon see “lockdowns” all over the world like we witnessed during the last pandemic.

In fact, authorities in one province of Pakistan are already considering “enforcing a smart lockdown” due to a lack of oil…

Sindh authorities are considering enforcing a smart lockdown as part of efforts to reduce fuel consumption, according to Local Government Minister Nasir Hussain Shah. The move comes in response to disruptions in global oil supply linked to tensions in the Middle East.

Speaking in Sukkur, Shah described the current situation as far from ordinary, warning that prolonged conflict could create widespread challenges. He stressed the need for unconventional measures to manage the evolving crisis.

As part of ongoing steps to ease pressure on resources, the provincial government has already cut petrol allocations for official vehicles by 60 percent. The minister added that daily reviews are being conducted to monitor developments and adjust policies accordingly.

This war has only been going on for a few weeks. What will things look like if the war lasts for a few months?

In India, we are starting to see gas lines that are reminiscent of what we experienced in the 1970s…

By late Monday night, the first signs of unease began to surface at a quiet petrol pump along Ramanthapur main road. On most evenings, the station serves a handful of customers at a time. That night, however, the trickle turned into a stream. Within minutes, motorcycles began clustering near the dispensers, autos lined up in a row, and cars spilled out on to the main road.

If you need to fill up your vehicle, I would do it now. Gasoline prices are only going to go higher from here. And supplies of natural gas are only going to get tighter and tighter.

QatarEnergy just sent shockwaves all over the planet when it announced that it was declaring force majeure on long-term natural gas contracts with China, South Korea, Italy and Belgium…

QatarEnergy declared force majeure on long-term LNG supply contracts with South Korea, China, and other countries on the 24th. A force majeure declaration is a notification of circumstances beyond control, such as war or natural disasters, that prevent normal contract fulfillment, allowing the party to avoid legal liabilities like compensation.

According to Reuters on the same day, the countries subject to QatarEnergy’s force majeure declaration included South Korea, along with China, Italy, and Belgium.

This declaration follows massive damage to Qatar’s Ras Laffan LNG production hub during Iranian airstrikes on the 18th–19th.

The global natural gas disruption that we are witnessing is the largest in all of human history by a very wide margin.

Since natural gas is so important to fertilizer production, we are also facing an unprecedented fertilizer disruption. And Russia just made it even worse by temporarily suspending ammonium nitrate exports…

The fertilizer crisis appears to be worsening just as the Northern Hemisphere planting season, in some areas, is about to begin, with top ammonium nitrate supplier Russia announcing on Tuesday via state media that exports of the critical crop nutrient will be halted.

Russia’s state-run news agency TASS said Russia will suspend ammonium nitrate exports from March 21 through April 21. The report cited a statement from the Agriculture Ministry.

The temporary restriction is intended to secure domestic fertilizer supplies during the spring planting season. Exports made under intergovernmental agreements are exempt.

Russia is the world’s largest producer of ammonium nitrate. In 2024, the country produced about 12 million tons, roughly 47% of the global output of the plant nutrient. It was also the largest exporter at about 2.7 million tons, around 37% of global export volume and 40% of export value.

As I have discussed in previous articles, there simply is not going to be enough fertilizer to go around, and global food production will be way down this year as a result.

Right now, we are still eating food that was produced last year. Six to nine months from now, global supplies of food will start getting really tight and prices will soar. So if you need to stock up, now is the time.

Hopefully this war will end soon. But I don’t think that it will, and that means that things will soon get far crazier than they are now.

Have we ever seen crazier weather during the month of March in the United States? Literally dozens of high temperature records have been shattered in the Southwest. Meanwhile, a very alarming series of historic droughts stretches all the way from the beaches of southern Florida to the mountains of northern Colorado. It is not supposed to be so hot and so dry this time of the year, and these brutal conditions are creating an ideal environment for wildfires. Fire season hasn’t even arrived yet, but absolutely horrific wildfires are already running rampant in some areas of the country. If things are this bad now, what will they look like once we reach the middle of the summer?

In recent days, a colossal heat dome has been baking the living daylights out of the Southwest…

After smashing March heat records in 14 states and the U.S. as a whole, the gigantic heat dome that’s baked the Southwest is creeping eastward and may end up being one of the most expansive heat waves in American history, meteorologists and weather historians said.

And it’s not going away for awhile, maybe not till the middle of the next week as April starts, said meteorologist Gregg Gallina of the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center.

“Basically the entire U.S. is going to be hot,” Gallina said Monday. “The area of record temperatures is extremely large. That’s the thing that’s really bizarre.”

Throughout most of the nation, it is going to feel like summer this week, but we are only in the very early days of spring.

What in the world is going on?

According to Accuweather meteorologist Jesse Ferrell, “hundreds of daily record highs” have been getting broken, and this heat wave is far from over…

Many locations from California to parts of Colorado and Texas have tied or broken daily record highs for a long string of days. Some have shattered old records by several degrees. Some have set new early-season high temperature records, wiping out marks set in March and April, even though April is still a week away.

“So far, we have counted 76 individual monthly temperature records being set and hundreds of daily record highs,” AccuWeather Meteorologist and Social Media Producer Jesse Ferrell said. “Multiple monthly state records have likely been set during the heat wave so far, with data still being verified by government sources.”

Cities that have tied or broken daily record highs for multiple consecutive days are too numerous to mention, but some include San Francisco, Sacramento, Fresno and Palm Springs, California; Las Vegas, Reno and Ely, Nevada; Phoenix, Flagstaff and Tucson, Arizona; Salt Lake City, Ogden and Cedar City, Utah; Pocatello and Boise, Idaho; Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Las Cruces, New Mexico; El Paso, Texas; and Durango, Colorado.

It was such a cold winter. But now it suddenly feels like we are in the month of August.

If you can believe it, the high temperature in four locations in Arizona and California actually reached 112 degrees on Friday…

On Friday, four places in Arizona and California hit 112 degrees, according to the Weather Service. Not only did that smash the record for the hottest March day in the continental United States by 4 degrees, but it was only 1 degree shy of the hottest day recorded in the Lower 48 in April.

112 degrees in the month of March.

That is crazy!

In Phoenix, Monday was the sixth day in a row when the high temperature hit at least 100 degrees…

“Phoenix has never experienced more than five days in a row with highs of 100 degrees Fahrenheit or greater during March or April,” DePodwin said. “There are a couple of days with a high near 100 forecast this week, but if temperatures surpass the upper 90s on those days, we could be looking at 10 days in a row of triple-digit heat.”

As of Monday afternoon, that string of days with 100-degree highs reached six in a row. The high on Monday was 100 on the nose.

Okay, I will concede that it is always hot in Phoenix. But how do you explain what is going on in Denver?

On Tuesday, Denver broke a high temperature record that had stood for 130 years…

Denver broke a 130-year-old heat record for March 24. The previous record was 76 degrees, set in 1896. As of 1 p.m. on Tuesday, the National Weather Service had Denver at 78 degrees.

This continues a stretch of unseasonably warm temperatures for Colorado in March.

Last Saturday marked the peak of this early-season heat wave, with Denver International Airport climbing to 86 degrees, setting a record for the warmest temperature ever recorded in March. While the airport fell just short of 90 degrees, many communities across the plains surged into the low 90s — an extraordinary feat for March.

In all my days, I have never seen anything quite like this. But it hasn’t just been hot.

For months, there has been a very alarming lack of precipitation in much of the western half of the nation. As a result, world famous ski resorts in Colorado and Utah have had “shockingly bare slopes”…

At ski resorts across the West this winter, viral images showed chairlifts idling over brown terrain in places normally renowned for their frosty appeal. Iconic mountain towns like Aspen, Colorado, and Park City, Utah, were seen with shockingly bare slopes, as the region endured a historic snow drought that experts warn could bring water shortages and wildfires in the months ahead.

“It’s been a long time since it’s been this bad,” said Russ Schumacher, Colorado’s state climatologist and the director of the Colorado Climate Center, a research initiative at Colorado State University that tracks extreme weather.

He said Colorado hasn’t experienced such a severe snow drought in more than 40 years. Neither has Utah, said Jon Meyer, that state’s assistant climatologist, and newly released federal drought data show similar conditions in New Mexico and Arizona. All four states are contending with record-low snowpack, which is the accumulation of mountain snow that fortifies rivers, reservoirs and drinking water systems once it melts.

Needless to say, it hasn’t just been a few western states that have been experiencing drought.

As you can see from the latest map from the U.S. Drought Monitor, the vast majority of the country is currently experiencing at least some level of drought…

In certain areas, drought has been a major problem for years, and a breaking point is rapidly approaching.

For example, it is being projected that before the end of 2026 “Lake Powell’s water levels could fall so low they won’t be able to spin turbines at the nearby Glen Canyon Dam”…

The consequences are already being felt across the Colorado River Basin, a critical watershed that supports roughly 40 million people and has been strained for decades. The amount of water stored in its snowpack has reached a record low, according to NIDIS. That threatens Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the basin’s largest reservoirs, and could stretch vital lifelines for farmlands in some of the driest parts of Arizona, California and Nevada that have no other dependable water sources.

Federal forecasts show that by the end of the year, Lake Powell’s water levels could fall so low they won’t be able to spin turbines at the nearby Glen Canyon Dam. Those turbines generate electricity to power homes, businesses and irrigation systems across the region. The reservoir is currently about 25% full.

Glen Canyon Dam produces electricity for millions of people living in seven different states. So what are they going to do when the lights suddenly go out and don’t come back on again?

The water level in Lake Mead is also falling, and once it gets low enough Hoover Dam’s turbines will stop functioning…

This video breakdown of federal data shows Lake Mead falling faster than even recent forecasts predicted. The lake is on track to drop low enough to knock out most of Hoover Dam’s turbines within a couple of years: a cascading failure that would cripple power generation across the Southwest while the water managers of seven southwestern states bicker over who cuts back first.

Throwing money at this crisis won’t solve it. What we really need is more precipitation. We are also witnessing historic droughts in the Southeast.

I don’t think that I have ever written about a drought in Florida, but right now over 72 percent of the entire state is experiencing at least a level 3 drought…

More than 72% of Florida is experiencing Level 3 or Level 4 drought, the two most severe categories, according to the United States Drought Monitor. River and stream levels in the northern third of the state are very low.

“The current drought is rivaling that of the period from 1998 to 2002,” AccuWeather Vice President of Forecast Operations Dan DePodwin said. “There are about 8 million more people in Florida now than around the start of the new millennium, putting additional strain on available water supplies.”

Florida normally gets plenty of rain.

But this year has been very different, and as a result there have already been more than 1,400 wildfires in Florida since the start of the year…

Since the start of the year, Orlando has received about 32% of its typical rainfall — just over 2 inches. Gainesville has recorded 34% of average and Jacksonville 41%. Frequent sunshine and dry winter air have left soil moisture very low, while sandy soils dry out quickly, worsening drought conditions.

Dry vegetation has fueled more than 1,400 wildfires that burned over 86,000 acres from Jan. 1 through March 15, according to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

When I lived in Florida many years ago, I never imagined for a single moment that wildfires would be a potential threat. But these days nearly the entire country is suffering from a severe lack of moisture.

Now that winter has ended, wildfires are running rampant in the western half of the country…

By late March, Nebraska was already in the throes of a historic wildfire event that had burned more than a half-million acres. In South Dakota and Wyoming, strong, dry winds are flaring up big blazes. Dozens of residents in two Colorado counties had to evacuate over the weekend as record hot temperatures and extremely low humidity fueled the rapid spread of fires in the parched brush. And until last week, it was still technically winter.

Wildfires are ripping across the Great Plains, and other flare-ups are popping up in Arizona and Colorado remarkably early in the season. Firefighters and experts are watching these giant red splotches of burning forest and grasslands with alarm, warning that the timing, ingredients fueling their startling growth, and what they signal about the fire season ahead is a recipe for concern — perhaps signaling an expanding frontier for fire risk in broader patches of the western half of the United States.

The number of acres that have been burned in the United States so far this year is nearly three times above the 10 year average.

We are being warned that 2026 could be a record-breaking year for fires if conditions do not improve. What we are witnessing is not even close to normal. Of course I have been saying that a lot in recent months.

We really are living in extremely unusual times, and I think that a lot more people out there are starting to realize that.

The Iranians don’t seem to have gotten the memo. President Trump may have decided that it is time to sit down and make a deal, but the Iranians continue to launch missiles at Israeli cities and are threatening to use a new secret weapon. They are not telling us what this new secret weapon is, but Iranian Major General Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi is claiming that it is so powerful that it “will bring an end to the enemy’s operations”…

The taunts came just minutes after Trump claimed the two countries had held ‘productive conversations regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities.’

What kind of weapon could he be talking about?

If it is “secret”, that would seem to imply that it is something that we have never seen the Iranians use before. And apparently this Iranian general is convinced that it is so powerful that it will win the war for Iran.

Is he telling the truth?

Is he bluffing?

Only time will tell.

What we do know is that the Iranians launched a whole bunch of missiles at Israel after they warned that they had “special events” planned that were intended to “completely remove the hope of negotiations from the minds of the aggressors”…

Iran has launched missiles at Israel after it ominously warned Donald Trump that it has ‘special plans’ for him and the US’s allies in the Gulf, following the American president’s threat to attack the nation’s power plants.

A source told the state-run Fars News Agency: ‘Tonight, special events are planned for Tel Aviv and some regional allies of the US and Israel that will completely remove the hope of negotiations from the minds of the aggressors.’

Iran appears to have made good on the threat, firing missiles at Eilat area in southern Israel, as well as the cities of Dimona and Yeruham. Residents in the Jerusalem area tonight reported hearing loud explosions.

Whoever is currently in charge in Iran doesn’t want to talk.

That much should be very clear to everyone.

The Iranians are insisting that the U.S. and Israel must agree to all of their demands, and they are telling us that even after the war ends “the situation in the Strait of Hormuz will not return to the pre-war situation”…

In a message posted on Telegram by Fars News Agency, sources appeared to reject Donald Trump’s claims of ‘major points of agreement’ between the US and Iran.

The message reads: ‘Informed officials in Iran announced that there were no negotiations and emphasized that until the US completely withdrew, evacuated its bases in the region, paid compensation, and received valid guarantees not to repeat the aggression, neither would the war end nor would the Strait of Hormuz be reopened.

‘According to this report, even after the possible end of the war, the situation in the Strait of Hormuz will not return to the pre-war situation.’

The U.S. and Israel will never agree to these demands. And so the fighting will continue, and there will inevitably be a lot more surprises.

Of course there have already been quite a few surprises during this war. Experts all over the world were certainly shocked when Iran showed that it could fire missiles at targets more than 4,000 kilometers away…

Before the war, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that Iran could potentially strike targets in Europe. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said last month that Iran had deliberately limited its missile range to 2,000 kilometers.

A range of 4,000 kilometers would expand the potential reach of Iranian missiles significantly, placing parts of Western Europe, including Germany, Finland and Austria, within range. It could also put parts of North and East Africa, including Kenya and Ethiopia, as well as countries in South Asia such as Bangladesh and India, and even parts of China, within reach.

The Iranians were lying to us about the maximum range of their missiles. And I am convinced that they were lying to us about a lot of other things as well.

If the Iranians choose to use unconventional weapons, the U.S. and Israel will feel absolutely compelled to completely eliminate the regime in Iran. So let us hope that things don’t escalate that far.

We are also being warned that Iran could choose to target Americans outside of the Middle East…

The US Department of State issued a worldwide security alert Sunday, urging Americans across the globe to be wary of threats from Iran-linked groups.

“The Department of State advises Americans worldwide, and especially in the Middle East, to exercise increased caution. Americans abroad should follow the guidance in security alerts issued by the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate,” the State Department said in a statement.

I am particularly concerned about the potential for attacks on U.S. soil. It would be so easy for Iranian agents to unleash biological agents in heavily populated areas.

Yes, this is a very real possibility.

U.S. officials have been admitting that Iran has an offensive biological weapons program since 1996…

The U.S. government has long assessed that Iran enjoys BW-producing capabilities at the very least, and is or may be operating a BW program itself.

For example, in 1996, the CIA concluded that “Iran holds some stocks of biological agents and weapons. Tehran probably has investigated both toxins and live organisms as biological warfare agents. Iran has the technical infrastructure to support a significant biological weapons program with little foreign assistance.”

In 2000, DCI Nonproliferation Center Director John Lauder testified to Congress that “Iran is pursuing both civilian biotech activities and a biological warfare (BW) program,”that its BW program was then “in the late stages of research and development,” and that Iran “already holds some stocks of BW agents and weapons.”

In 2003 and 2005 reports, the State Department stated that, “Iran has an offensive biological weapons program in violation of the BWC. Iran is technically capable of producing at least rudimentary biological warheads for a variety of delivery systems, including missiles.” In 2011, then–Director of National Intelligence James Clapper stated that “Iran probably has the capability to produce some biological warfare (BW) agents for offensive purposes, if it made the decision to do so. We assess that Iran has previously conducted offensive BW agent research and development. Iran continues to seek dual-use technologies that could be used for BW.”

So don’t believe the talking heads that continue to insist that Iran does not pose this kind of a threat. Those talking heads literally do not know what they are talking about.

If some sort of a major national emergency does break out, the federal government has put together a list of 14 things that you should have on hand…

Water (one gallon per person per day for several days, for drinking and sanitation)
Food (at least a several-day supply of non-perishable food)
Battery-powered or hand crank radio and a NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert
Flashlight
First aid kit
Extra batteries
Whistle (to signal for help)
Dust mask (to help filter contaminated air)
Plastic sheeting, scissors and duct tape (to shelter in place)
Moist towelettes, garbage bags and plastic ties (for personal sanitation)
Wrench or pliers (to turn off utilities)
Manual can opener (for food)
Local maps
Cell phone with chargers and a backup battery

The items on that list won’t get you very far, but at least they are better than having nothing. If we end up facing a scenario in which some sort of highly contagious pestilence with a very high death rate has been released, you will want to be prepared to stay home for as long as it takes.

There are some bioweapons that have been designed to have a death rate of well over 50 percent. That is something that you do not want to mess with.

For now, let’s just hope that cooler heads prevail and that the conflict in the Middle East rapidly comes to a conclusion.

If that doesn’t happen, it is inevitable that there will be more escalations, and we could end up seeing weapons get used that should never be used under any circumstances.

Is it just a coincidence that the United States is being hit by a remarkable series of natural disasters at the exact same time that a catastrophic war has erupted in the Middle East? This weekend, I came across an image on social media that someone had created that depicted 7 disasters that America had experienced in just the last 7 days. I tried to determine who originally created it, but nobody seemed to know. At one point Ricky Scaparo had shared it, but he said that he was not the creator. Since I could not find the creator, and since not all of the information on the original image was 100 percent accurate, I decided to create my own version. I have been writing so much about the war in Iran that I have kind of neglected what has been going on inside our own country. When I started digging into what has been happening over the past week, I was absolutely stunned.

Let’s start with the “megastorm” that brought travel chaos and power outages to much of the Midwest…

A rapidly strengthening storm will lift across the Great Lakes region Monday night, bringing high winds to over two dozen states and blizzard conditions to the Midwest, AccuWeather meteorologists warn. This will be the last stop for the storm in the United States.

The potent storm produced three significant weather threats: powerful winds, blizzard conditions and widespread severe thunderstorms. At one point on Monday, more than 500,000 utility customers were without power, just days after a powerful windstorm swept from the Rockies to the Northeast.

This was a really crazy storm.

If you can believe it, one community in Michigan actually received 52 inches of snow from that storm…

As parts of Michigan begin to dig themselves out after a historic blizzard, snow totals have been released.

Parts of the Upper Peninsula received over four feet of snow with the blizzard this week. Round Lake, in the Upper Peninsula, led the state with 52 inches of snow. Mackinaw City and Petoskey saw 27 inches of snow with the event, leading the Lower Peninsula.

I have never seen 52 inches of snow in my entire life. I can’t even imagine that much snow.

At the same time that Michigan was being absolutely buried by snow, Nebraska was experiencing the worst wildfires in state history…

Swaths of Nebraska are engulfed in fire, with some 800,000 acres burned and at least one person killed. The wildfires, which are the “largest wildfires in our history,” according to a post on X by state’s governor Jim Pillen, are being driven by a powerful heat wave across the western U.S.

Temperatures in the 80s Fahrenheit have combined with low humidity, high winds and extreme drought to increase the risk of fire in the state for at least the coming week. Already, the fires have been burning for days.

Entire communities have been wiped off the map.

For quite a while there, firefighters simply could not stop the flames from spreading. In Hawaii, they have been facing a completely different type of disaster.

Two gigantic storms have caused the worst flooding that the state has experienced in 20 years…

Catastrophic flooding keeps hitting Hawaii as two back-to-back storms pummeled the islands with rain and damaging winds.

Authorities say it’s the worst flooding the state has seen in 20 years, as torrents of water wash out homes, damage roads and threaten to bust through a dam.

The threat of the dam failure in northern Oahu prompted an emergency evacuation of thousands on the morning of March 20. The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency later clarified that the 120-year-old dam had not failed but “is at imminent risk of failure.”

Hopefully the dam will not fail.

But even if it doesn’t, we are being told that this flooding has already caused more than a billion dollars in damage…

Hawaii’s historic flooding that forced thousands of people to flee their homes has caused over $1 billion in damage, while crews are searching for an elderly woman swept away in the ferocious waters.

Officials urged people in hard-hit areas across Oahu and Maui to evacuate Saturday due to the state’s worst flooding in more than 20 years, caused by heavy rainfalls on soil already saturated by downpours from a winter storm a week ago.

It comes as crews launched a desperate search for a missing 71-year-old who reportedly fell into an inundated stream on Saturday.

What I have already shared in this article would make last week a truly historic week. But there was more.

In Illinois, a total of 8 tornadoes ripped across the state on March 15th…

8 total tornadoes have now been surveyed from the March 15th severe weather event. Seven tornadoes were preliminarily rated EF1 while another was EF0. Thank you to all of the county officials and members of the public for all of your reports the past couple of days!

In the Southwest, over 40 million Americans were under extreme heat warnings and advisories during the second half of last week…

More than 40 million people across Southern California and the deserts of Nevada and Arizona are under Extreme Heat Warnings and Heat Advisories through Sunday.

We aren’t supposed to see heat like this during the month of March.

This may be hard to believe, but in one community in California the high temperature actually reached 108 degrees on Thursday…

The FOX Forecast Center is tracking the most intense March heat wave ever observed in the U.S., which is currently baking the West as it expands farther into the Plains through the weekend.

Thermal, California, in the Coachella Valley reached 108 degrees Thursday, tying the record for warmest recorded March temperature in U.S. history.

The unprecedented heat is expected to peak Friday and Saturday across California, the Southwest, and parts of the Great Plains, with conditions running as much as 35 degrees above average for this time of year.

What in the world is going on? Weather patterns all over the world have been going nuts in recent months, but this is ridiculous. Of course the ground underneath our feet just continues to rumble as well.

On Thursday morning, a very unusual magnitude 2.1 earthquake hit South Carolina…

While most of South Carolina was sleeping early Thursday morning the latest earthquake to hit the Columbia area was recorded.

A 2.1 magnitude earthquake was confirmed near Lake Murray, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The seismic activity hit at 2:32 a.m. in a part of Lake Murray that’s near the line separating Richland and Lexington counties, the South Carolina Emergency Management Division said.

We sure have been seeing earthquakes in diverse places lately, haven’t we? But I don’t think that South Carolina has too much to be concerned about.

Ultimately, the really big earthquakes will be hitting us along the west coast and along the New Madrid fault zone. Scientists assure us that it is just a matter of time.

Lastly, I wanted to mention the huge asteroid that just broke apart over the state of Ohio…

The event took place around 8 a.m. The American Meteor Society shares it received more than 100 reports from several states including Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Illinois and more.

According to NASA, the 7-ton asteroid was first spotted about 50 miles above Lake Erie, moving east at about 40,000 miles an hour. The fireball was caused by a small asteroid nearly 6 feet in diameter and weighing about 7 tons.

The meteor traveled about 34 miles through the atmosphere before fragmenting 30 miles over Valley City, which is north of Medina.

This huge space rock weighed 7 tons. Aren’t you glad that it didn’t slam into your home?

Following this incident in Ohio, a sizable meteorite did smash through the roof of one woman’s home in Houston…

A meteorite that was barely longer than a standard baseball bat splintered off a meteor blazing over the Houston area on Saturday, scattering smaller chunks all over the city — with one smashing through a woman’s roof.

A fireball tore through the sky over the Houston-area at a staggering 35,000 mph in mere seconds on Saturday afternoon. A 3-foot meteorite broke off just 29 miles above Bammel, Texas, creating “a pressure wave that caused booms heard by some in the area,” NASA confirmed in a post on X.

Why is our planet suddenly encountering so many space rocks? Is all of this activity a sign that something really big is on the way? Those that have been following my work for an extended period of time already know what I think.

We really are living in apocalyptic times, and what we have been through so far is nothing compared to what is eventually coming.

Apocalypse Rising: We Have Reached A Moment In Human History That Could Change Everything

After this week is over, there may be no turning back. President Trump is literally threatening to “obliterate” Iran’s power grid, and the Iranians cannot do a thing to prevent that from happening. But in response, the Iranians are threatening to destroy oil and gas infrastructure all over the Persian Gulf. The Iranians have already destroyed 17 percent of Qatar’s Ras Laffan natural gas complex, and if they destroy the remaining 83 percent of that facility it will immediately plunge us into the greatest natural gas crisis in human history by a very wide margin. There would be widespread natural gas shortages, fertilizer plants all over the world would be forced to shut down, and hunger would run rampant. Approximately 20 percent of the world’s entire supply of liquified natural gas comes from Ras Laffan, and it will take 3 to 5 years to rebuild the portions of the complex that have already been destroyed. If the rest of the complex gets destroyed by Iran, it will be a cataclysmic event. When I say that, I am not exaggerating one bit. We really have reached a moment in human history that could change everything.

It all depends on what Donald Trump does next.

On Saturday, Trump gave the Iranians an ominous ultimatum.

Either they fully open the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours, or the U.S. military will destroy their power grid…

For reasons that I have discussed in previous articles, the Iranians are not going to give Donald Trump what he wants.

It just isn’t going to happen.

Instead of giving in to Trump’s demands, the Iranians are threatening to attack energy infrastructure throughout the Persian Gulf, and they are pledging to completely close the Strait of Hormuz…

In a response to Trump’s statements, the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, which is the central headquarters of the Iranian armed forces, said that it will fully close the Strait of Hormuz if “America’s threats regarding Iran’s power plants are implemented.”

Iran also warned that it would start targeting “all power plants, energy infrastructure, and information technology,” while any company in the region with American shareholders would also become a target.

Finally, Iran threatened to attack the power plants of any country in the region hosting American military bases.

“Everything is ready for a great jihad with the aim of completely destroying all economic interests of America in the Middle East,” the statement said.

So what happens if the Iranians wipe out Qatar’s Ras Laffan natural gas complex and other extremely critical energy production facilities in other Gulf countries?

What would Trump’s next move be then?

Would he send in U.S. ground troops?

CBS News is already reporting that U.S. officials have “made detailed preparations for deploying U.S. ground forces into Iran”…

Pentagon officials have made detailed preparations for deploying U.S. ground forces into Iran, multiple sources briefed on the discussions told CBS News.

Senior military commanders have submitted specific requests aimed at preparing for such an option as President Trump weighs moves in the U.S.-Israel-led conflict with Iran, the sources said.

The most likely target for U.S. ground troops would be Kharg Island, and the Iranians are promising that we will “suffer losses that are unprecedented since World War II” if Trump tries to do that…

An Iranian military source warned that new U.S. strikes or an invasion of Kharg Island, a key Iranian oil export hub, could prompt Tehran to escalate by threatening nearby waterways, including the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait, telling the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-affiliated Tasnim News Agency the United States would face an “unprecedented” response.

On a potential U.S. invasion of the island, the official warned that American troops would struggle to defend it and would “suffer losses that are unprecedented since World War II.”

How far up the escalation ladder are we willing to go?

It sounds like Israel is ready to raise the stakes as well.

The Iranians have been hitting Israeli population centers with cluster munitions, and Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz is warning that if this continues his nation will “hit Iran so hard it will be sent back decades”…

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel would send Iran “back decades” if it continues targeting cities, accusing Tehran of deliberately firing on civilian population centers.

“If this continues, we’ll be sure to hit Iran so hard it will be sent back decades,” Katz said while visiting the site of a missile strike in Arad that injured scores.

If the U.S. and Israel push Iran to the wall, will the Iranians unleash any unconventional weapons that they have been holding in reserve?

In such a scenario, how would the U.S. and Israel react? We are only a couple of steps away from an apocalyptic scenario. Already, the damage that this war has done has set the global economy back for years.

The price of oil is causing major problems all over the globe, and experts are warning that we could eventually see it reach $200 a barrel…

Vandana Hari, founder of oil market analysis firm Vanda Insights, warned: “Benchmark Middle Eastern crudes like Oman and Dubai have already crossed the $150 threshold, so $200 is already within sight, even if not for Brent and West Texas Intermediate.”

Analysts at consultancy Wood Mackenzie have also said Brent could soon hit $150 and that $200 oil is not “outside the realms of possibility” in 2026.

If this war stretches on for an extended period of time, the pain that we will experience is going to be immense.

I am already hearing of diesel shortages in some parts of the world, and United Airlines has already canceled approximately 5 percent of this year’s planned flights…

United Airlines (UAL) CEO Scott ‌Kirby said on ‌Friday the airline will cancel ​about 5% of this year’s planned flights in the short ‌term, as ⁠jet fuel prices surge due to ⁠the Middle East conflict.

“If prices stayed ​at this ​level, ​it would mean ‌an extra $11 billion in annual expense just for jet fuel,” Kirby said in a ‌message to ​employees posted ​on ​its website.

Of course the natural gas crisis that we are facing could potentially be even worse.

If this war lasts for a number of months, we could literally have to deal with “a full-blown economic emergency across Europe, the UK and large parts of Asia”…

Bank of America has warned European gas prices could surge from around €29 to as high as €500 this winter if the strait stays shut for an extended period, far exceeding levels seen after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Such a spike would trigger what analysts describe as a full-blown economic emergency across Europe, the UK and large parts of Asia, with energy costs spiralling and industries forced to cut back, The Telegraph reports

Needless to say, natural gas is also a primary raw material that is used in the production of nitrogen fertilizer.

Normally, close to a third of all fertilizer that is traded globally travels through the Strait of Hormuz…

About a third of all fertilizer shipped globally goes through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow passage between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Now, shipping traffic has been reduced to a trickle because of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, and the prices of goods like oil, natural gas, and fertilizer have been rising.

“Fertilizer prices are way up. They’re up around 30 percent more in some parts of the world, and that’s significant,” says Noah Gordon, fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iran are big global producers of fertilizer, and they export the raw ingredients other countries use to make their own fertilizers, like natural gas and minerals.

But that is only part of the story.

Because they are not able to get liquified natural gas from the Persian Gulf right now, fertilizer plants in other parts of the globe are being forced to close down…

The Carnegie Endowment noted fertilizer production in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan has shut down because those countries cannot get natural gas from Qatar, and Egypt, another producer, has had to turn to the more expensive LNG market because its supplies from Israel have been disrupted.

This is planting season for farmers all over the northern hemisphere. In many poorer countries, there simply won’t be enough fertilizer this year.

In wealthier countries, fertilizer will be available, but it will cost far more than it usually does…

Tennessee farmer Todd Littleton expects to pay $100,000 more for fertilizer this season, a 40% spike from his bill last year thanks to the war in Iran — and he is scrambling to cover that extra cost.

“The problem is, is we’re so strained financially coming into this issue,” said Littleton, a third-generation farmer from Gibson County in the state’s northwest corner. “We have had a couple of record losses the last couple years, so everyone’s kind of grabbing at straws anyway, and then to have input prices increase yet again, it just really couldn’t happen at a worse time.”

Littleton, who grows corn, soybeans and wheat, is among thousands of farmers across the country who will pay far more this spring than they expected for fertilizer that is essential to their crops. Nitrogen-based fertilizer is especially vital for corn, usually the largest crop in the U.S. — and one that feeds the nation’s livestock and is converted into fuel that helps power most U.S. cars and trucks.

The crops that will be primarily affected by this fertilizer crisis will be those that are planted annually. This is such an important point.

For example, nitrogen fertilizer is widely used by wheat farmers to maximize yield, improve grain quality, and promote healthy growth.  A lack of fertilizer will mean that less wheat will be grown around the world in 2026 and prices will soar. Barley is another example of an annual crop that is heavily dependent on nitrogen fertilizer because it promotes leaf and stem development, significantly affecting both yield and crop quality.  By the end of this year, barley prices are likely to be far higher than they are now.

On the other hand, crops that do not have to be planted annually will fare much better. Grape vines can live for 50 to 100 years, and they will just keep producing year after year. Olive trees commonly live for hundreds of years, and some can even survive for more than 1,000 years.  Incredibly, there are examples of olive trees that have been around for more than a millennium that are still bearing fruit.

What I am saying is that annual crops like wheat and barley could be absolutely devastated by this current crisis, while crops that do not have to be planted annually such as grapes and olives will not experience much disruption.

So much is going to depend on what happens this week. Decisions that are being made right now are going to deeply affect every single one of us, and so let us hope that our leaders make their decisions wisely.

Instead of backing down, it appears that both sides are preparing to take the showdown in the Middle East to the next level. Of course we have already witnessed some absolutely stunning escalations during this past week. After Israel bombed the South Pars gas field in Iran, the Iranians responded by pummeling Qatar’s Ras Laffan natural gas complex. The damage that Israel and Iran caused in just 24 hours will set the global economy back for years. But the escalations that are ahead may dwarf anything that we have seen so far.

If the U.S. puts boots on the ground inside Iranian territory, that would be an absolutely massive escalation.

In response, the Iranians would likely totally freak out and there is no telling what they might do.

Ominously, CBS News is reporting that U.S. military officials “have made detailed preparations for deploying U.S. ground forces into Iran”…

Pentagon officials have made detailed preparations for deploying U.S. ground forces into Iran, multiple sources briefed on the discussions told CBS News.

Senior military commanders have submitted specific requests aimed at preparing for such an option as President Trump weighs moves in the U.S.-Israel-led conflict with Iran, the sources said.

Mr. Trump has been deliberating whether to position ground forces in the region, sources said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. It was unclear under what circumstances he would authorize the use of troops on the ground.

Just because “detailed preparations” are being made does not mean that President Trump will pull the trigger.

But we do know that lots of U.S. Marines are being sent to the Middle East.

In fact, ABC News is telling us that it appears that yet another group of Marines is going to be headed for the region…

Three Navy ships carrying 2,200 Marines left San Diego earlier this week for a previously scheduled deployment to the Indo-Pacific, but two U.S. officials tell ABC News their ultimate destination is likely the Middle East.

The 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) is aboard the USS Boxer, the USS Comstock and the USS Portland — along with 2,000 sailors.

If this group of Marines ends up in the Middle East, it will bring the grand total that have been deployed in recent days to about 9,000…

If it receives final orders to the Middle East, joining the 31st MEU, it will be an increase of close to 9,000 additional forces to the region.

The 31st MEU is still on its way to the Middle East from Asia after receiving orders from the Pentagon last Friday. Those Marines and ships are likely to arrive in the region sometime next week.

There are a number of important Iranian islands in the Persian Gulf that the Marines could be used to take.

At the top of that list would be Kharg Island, and we are being told that President Trump is “considering”a ground operation there…

Donald Trump is considering invading Iran’s Kharg Island to pressure Tehran into reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

Three separate marine units, trained for amphibious assaults, have been deployed to the Middle East, with the Pentagon considering sending more to reinforce Operation Epic Fury.

Kharg Island, located 15 miles off Iran’s coast in the Persian Gulf, is the country’s main oil export terminal and critical to its fragile economy.

It could be argued that Kharg Island is the most critical piece of real estate the Iran controls.

Since approximately 90 percent of Iran’s oil exports go through Kharg Island, the goal would be to grab it and use it as leverage…

“Kharg Island, 90% of their oil comes through there. So you’ve got really two choices,” said retired Gen. Frank McKenzie, the former commander of U.S. Central Command. “You can destroy the oil infrastructure, which would give irrevocable damage to the Iranian economy and the global economy, or you could seize it to use as a bargaining chip, which doesn’t then permanently degrade the world economy.”

But I don’t think that we will see an operation to seize Kharg Island just yet, because it is going to take some time to get the Marines that are now being deployed into position.

And an anonymous source has told Axios that the U.S. military will “need about a month to weaken the Iranians more with strikes” before conditions will be right for an invasion of the island…

However, such an operation – which would leave US troops exposed to Iranian missiles and drones – would only be launched once Iran’s coastal military capabilities have been further degraded, sources told Axios.

“We need about a month to weaken the Iranians more with strikes, take the island and then get them by the balls and use it for negotiations,” one source said.

Invading Kharg Island would instantly eliminate about 90 percent of Iranian oil exports. But it would not reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and that is what the world really needs at this point.

I think that U.S. officials are hoping that hitting Iran where it really hurts will force them to end the war on our terms. But instead it could just cause the Iranians to lash out even more wildly.

On Thursday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned that the next time we attack Iran’s energy infrastructure they will show “zero restraint”…

Here’s what Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted to X on Thursday: “Our response to Israel’s attack on our infrastructure employed FRACTION of our power. The ONLY reason for restraint was respect for requested de-escalation. ZERO restraint if our infrastructures are struck again. Any end to this war must address damage to our civilian sites.”

An invasion of Kharg Island would certainly qualify as an attack on Iran’s energy infrastructure.

So what would “zero restraint” look like?

Needless to say, if Iran does even more damage to Qatar’s Ras Laffan natural gas complex it will be catastrophic for the global economy. But could it be possible that Araghchi was referring to something else?

At this stage, Iranian leaders are openly threatening to attack “parks, recreational areas and tourist destinations”all over the world…

Iran’s top military spokesman warned Friday that “parks, recreational areas and tourist destinations” worldwide won’t be safe for Tehran’s enemies.

Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi made the threat as Iran continues to be hit by American and Israeli airstrikes. It renewed concerns that Iran may revert to using militant attacks beyond the Middle East as a pressure tactic in the war.

They would like for us to believe that nowhere is safe. But there is only so much that they could do with conventional weapons.

My concern is that the Iranians could end up using some of the unconventional weapons that they have been holding back. Interestingly, the World Health Organization is publicly admitting that they are extremely concerned about the potential for a “nuclear incident” in the Middle East…

Officials at the World Health Organization have admitted that they are preparing for a “worst-case scenario” nuclear threat if the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran escalates.

Hanan Balkhy, WHO regional director for the eastern Mediterranean, said that staff remain “vigilant” for a nuclear incident following President Donald Trump’s decision to bomb Iran in a joint campaign with Israel.

“The worst-case scenario is a nuclear incident, and that’s something that worries us the most,” Balkhy told Politico. “As much as we prepare, there’s nothing that can prevent the harm that will come … the region’s way — and globally if this eventually happens — and the consequences are going to last for decades.”

If Iran is pushed too far, I think that they will throw everything that they have left at us. And if any unconventional weapons are used against Israel, I am convinced that they won’t show any restraint either.

We have reached such a dangerous moment in human history. Both sides are absolutely determined to win this war, and a “point of no return” could be just around the corner.

We Really Are Facing An “Economic Armageddon” Scenario In The Middle East

When this war with Iran erupted, everyone knew that it would have an impact on the global economy. But very few anticipated that it would be this bad. We are facing the worst oil disruption in history, the worst natural gas disruption in history, the worst helium disruption in history and the worst fertilizer disruption in history simultaneously. The Iranians have control over which ships are allowed through the Strait of Hormuz, and they are determined to keep it that way for as long as possible. But even if the war ended and traffic through the Strait of Hormuz was fully restored tomorrow, it would take years for the global economy to return to normal because of all the energy infrastructure that has been destroyed on both sides.

With no end in sight for the war, oil prices in the western world just continue to move higher. But if you want to see where oil prices are eventually headed if this crisis persists, just check out what has been happening in Dubai.

At one point on Thursday, the price of oil in Dubai briefly hit an all-time record of $166 a barrel…

The extreme spike in oil prices seen in local markets in the Middle East could give investors a glimpse into to where U.S. and Europe prices are headed if the Strait of Hormuz isn’t opened soon.

Dubai crude oil prices surpassed $166 a barrel to a new record high on Thursday, according to market data provider Platts. Dated Brent and West Texas intermediate Cushing’s are trading around the $100 mark after historic runs higher.

Normally, the price of oil in Dubai falls somewhere between West Texas oil and Brent oil. But once the war began, it started selling at an unprecedented premium.

In Saudi Arabia, officials are projecting that the price of oil could eventually surpass $180 a barrel if this war persists until the end of next month…

Saudi Arabia’s oil officials are working frantically to project how high oil prices might go if the Iran war and its disruption of energy supplies doesn’t end soon-and they don’t like what they are seeing.

The base case, several oil officials in the Gulf’s biggest producer said, is that prices could soar past $180 a barrel if the disruptions persist until late April.

While that would sound like a bonanza for a kingdom still heavily leveraged to oil revenue, it is deeply concerning. Prices that high could push consumers into habits that slash their oil use-potentially for the long term-or trigger a recession that also hurts demand. They also would risk casting Saudi Arabia in the role of profiteer in a war it didn’t start.

If the price of oil reaches that level and stays there for an extended period of time, it will crash everything. Our system is simply not designed to be able to handle a shock like that. Of course we are also facing a historic natural gas crisis as well.

Normally, approximately one-fifth of the world’s supply of liquified natural gas is produced by Qatar’s Ras Laffan complex. That complex is nearly three times the size of Paris, and it cost hundreds of billions of dollars to build. So it was a really, really big deal when Iranian missiles started raining down.

The CEO of QatarEnergy is telling us that output at the complex has been reduced by 17 percent, and it will take three to five years to rebuild the capacity that has been lost…

Qatar could face years of reduced natural gas exports after Iranian strikes damaged key energy infrastructure, wiping out a significant share of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) production capacity, QatarEnergy’s chief executive told Reuters.

Saad al-Kaabi said the attacks disabled two LNG production units out of 14 and one gas-to-liquids facility out of two, reducing output by about 17% at a time when Qatar sits at the heart of global gas supply.

He said the affected facilities alone account for roughly 12.8 million tonnes of annual LNG production, and warned repairs could keep them offline for three to five years depending on security conditions and technical recovery timelines.

This is a catastrophic blow for the global economy.

As Jack Prandelli has accurately observed, there is no spare capacity elsewhere on the planet that can replace what has been destroyed…

So what do we do now?

It is going to take years to repair the damage that has already been done. And what is going to happen if Iran attacks Qatar’s Ras Laffan complex again?

Meanwhile, the world is also facing a looming helium shortage. Prior to the war, Qatar’s Ras Laffan complex produced over one-third of the world’s entire supply of helium…

The war in the Middle East could pose a threat to the semiconductor industry and other sectors dependent on a resource produced in the Gulf — helium.

Helium is a little-known but key input in many industries, most notably technology. In semiconductor manufacturing, its cooling properties are used to transfer heat. Helium is also indispensable in photolithography, a technique used to print each chip’s intricate circuitry.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that before the war Qatar produced more than one-third of the world’s helium supply. Lately, however, operations at QatarEnergy’s Ras Laffan Industrial City — the world’s largest liquefied natural gas export facility, which produces helium as a byproduct — were halted after it was struck by an Iranian drone early in the war. On Wednesday, Iranian missiles crippled the plant.

Without that helium, tech companies all over the planet are going to be thrown into a state of chaos.

So that is a huge problem. But personally I am even more concerned about what this war is going to mean for global food production.

Farmers all over the northern hemisphere are preparing to plant their crops, and so if we can’t get the fertilizer that they need through the Strait of Hormuz we are going to be in for a world of hurt…

The Strait of Hormuz is a critical channel for fertilizer, including about 50% of global nitrogen-rich urea fertilizers, according to the Fertilizer Institute, the industry’s trade association. The strait has been effectively impassable since President Donald Trump launched the assault, which is now in its third week with no end in sight.

The closure has spiked fertilizer prices just before planting season, potentially scrambling decision-making for farmers across the U.S. And it comes on top of already low commodity prices that have lingered for years and eaten into farmers’ margins.

There will be a wild scramble for whatever is available, and those with the most money will be victorious.

But since western farmers will be paying much, much more for fertilizer this year, they will be forced to pass those costs along…

“We’re in uncharted territory,” Matt Frostic, a Michigan farmer who sits on the board of the National Corn Growers Association, said in an interview with CNBC. “It’s like a code red.”

Frostic said he purchased nitrogen fertilizer, critical for corn crops, in January for around $350 per ton. That same product, he said, is now closing in on $600 per ton.

Of course large numbers of farmers in poorer nations won’t have access to nitrogen fertilizer at all.

As a result, global food production will be way down and there simply won’t be enough food for everyone.

So we really need traffic to start flowing through the Strait of Hormuz like it normally does. But that is not going to happen any time soon.

I think that we are about to see a lot of chaos erupt in global financial markets. Already, we are witnessing a confluence of developments that we haven’t seen since 2008…

Thursday’s bond-market selloff caused the Treasury yield curve to exhibit what traders describe as a “bear-flattening” pattern. This actually began back in early February. Typically, the pattern emerges when bond traders are bracing for a difficult economic environment ahead.

The confluence of these three developments — oil above $100 a barrel, a 2-year yield above the fed funds rate, and a bear-steepening dynamic in the bond market — is making some investors nervous.

The last time all three things unfolded simultaneously was in the late spring of 2008, according to Bloomberg data. About four or five months later, Lehman Brothers collapsed, ushering in the most acute phase of the 2008 financial crisis. The S&P 500 declined 38.5% that year. Widespread mortgage defaults also resulted in many Americans losing their homes.

Hold on tight, because if this war doesn’t come to a conclusion soon this is only just the beginning.

The Iranians are trying to inflict so much pain on the rest of the world that the U.S. and Israel will be forced to agree to never attack Iran again.

On the other side, the U.S. and Israel are absolutely determined to win this war, and they would love to bring the regime in Iran to an end. So I think that this war is going to go on for a while.

If it lasts into the summer, we really will be facing an economic “Armageddon scenario”, and that is not good news for any of us.

It’s An Energy War Now! Oil And Gas Infrastructure All Over The Middle East Is Being Targeted And This Will Have Devastating Consequences

Prior to the war with Iran, the world had more than enough oil and gas, and as a result it was very inexpensive. Now we have transitioned into a time when that is no longer true at all. Both sides in this war are now specifically targeting oil and gas infrastructure, and that is going to have devastating consequences. Even if the war ended tomorrow and the Strait of Hormuz was immediately reopened, there is no way that conditions would return to how they were just before the war any time soon. Oil and gas facilities that have been damaged could take many months to repair. Oil and gas facilities that have been completely destroyed could take years to rebuild. What this means is that oil and gas prices are going to remain at elevated levels for an extended period of time, and that is really bad news because our entire way of life is based on cheap energy.

On Wednesday, a stunning series of airstrikes absolutely pummeled the South Pars gas field in Iran…

Iran said the US and Israel struck its giant South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf, the latest attack on energy assets in the region-wide conflict.

Oil prices jumped after Iranian state TV reported the airstrike, which raised fears of further risks to global crude and gas supplies. Gulf producers have significantly reduced output during the 19-day war, particularly due to the effective shuttering of the Strait of Hormuz.

If confirmed, the assault would mark the first time the US and Israel have targeted Iran’s upstream oil and gas facilities since starting the war on Feb. 28.

This was an enormous escalation.

Up to this point, the U.S. and Israel had left the South Pars gas field alone. As a result of the airstrikes, production at two of the primary refineries at South Pars came to a screeching halt…

The attack effectively halted production at two of the field’s refineries, which typically put out about 100 million cubic meters of gas a day, according to state media.

It would be difficult for me to overstate how important this is.

South Pars is the home of “the largest known gas reserve in the world”, and it normally produces approximately 70 percent of all natural gas used in Iran…

The South Pars/North Dome mega-field is the largest known gas reserve in the world. The field supplies around 70 percent of Iran’s domestic natural gas. Iran, which shares the massive field with energy giant Qatar, has been developing its side since the late 1990s.

So now Iran will be immediately facing an unprecedented domestic energy crisis.

There simply won’t be enough energy for everyone, and this is going to have a huge impact on Iran’s ability to keep fighting…

The South Pars attack signals a shift in the conduct of the war toward degrading Iran’s economic infrastructure and curbing its ability to continue fighting, according to Hamidreza Azizi, a visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin.

“South Pars is central to Iran’s gas supply and, by extension, to electricity generation and industrial activity,” Azizi said by email. “Even limited or temporary disruptions can translate into power shortages, industrial slowdowns, and broader economic strain.”

Needless to say, the Iranians are extremely angry about what has just happened.

In response, they are threatening to attack oil and gas infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates…

Iranian state media issued a new warning Wednesday urging civilians living near major oil and gas facilities in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to leave immediately, saying the sites will be targeted “in the coming hours.”

In a Telegram post, the semi‑official Tasnim news agency listed several facilities it said were at risk. The sites included the Samref refinery and Jubail petrochemical complex in Saudi Arabia; the Mesaieed petrochemical complex, Mesaieed Holding Company and Ras Laffan refinery in Qatar; and the Al Hosn gas field in the UAE.

Tasnim said the facilities had become “direct and legitimate targets” and urged residents, workers and nearby communities to move to a safe distance without delay.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are apparently taking these threats quite seriously, because it is being reported that oil and gas facilities in those countries are being hastily evacuated…

Energy sites across the Middle East were being evacuated on Wednesday as Iran threatened strikes on facilities “in the coming hours”.

The price of oil surged by more than 5pc to $108 a barrel after ‌Iran urged staff to leave sites in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar ahead of a possible strike, according to state media.

Such an assault would further cripple global oil and gas supplies, with Brent crude reaching the highest level in 10 days amid fears of a growing shortage.

As I write this article, reports are circulating on social media that indicate that targets have been hit in Saudi Arabia.

In the coming hours, we shall see if those reports are confirmed or not. I think that the Saudis are rapidly losing patience with Iran.

In fact, a Saudi analyst just told CBC News that if Saudi Arabia joins the war it “will activate its bilateral defence agreement with Pakistan”…

If Saudi Arabia joins the US-Israeli war on Iran, it will activate its mutual defence pact with Pakistan and potentially lean on the South Asian country’s nuclear arsenal, a Saudi Arabian analyst told Canada’s CBC News.

“If the Saudis were to decide to enter with complete force…Iran is going to be the biggest loser because Saudi Arabia will activate its bilateral defence agreement with Pakistan,” Salman al-Ansari, a Saudi Arabian geopolitical researcher, said in an interview.

“We can say it literally that there is a nuclear umbrella over Saudi Arabia,” he added.

We are in such dangerous territory now. If the Iranians are backed into a corner, there is no telling what they might do.

But there is no turning back now.  A number of Gulf states are actually encouraging the Trump administration to finish the job because they don’t want Iran to ever be in a position to do something like this again…

Battered by Iranian strikes and the disruption of the Strait of Hormuz, the United Arab Emirates and some fellow Persian Gulf states have come to view Iran’s theocracy as an existential enemy. They now want the regime they once courted to be neutered, if not dismantled, when the conflict ends—so the ordeal is never repeated.

The U.A.E. has borne the brunt of Iranian attacks: more than 2,000 drones and missiles have been fired at the country since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28.

Of course it would take quite some time to do what they are asking.

Even a military operation that would be designed to take control of the Strait of Hormuz would extend the duration of this war by months…

A number of sources told The Jerusalem Post that if President Donald Trump decides to launch a military operation to take control of the Strait of Hormuz – an operation intended to ensure freedom of navigation – it could significantly prolong the war “by weeks, if not months.”

“This could extend the war by as much as two months,” one source familiar with the discussions said.

If taking control of the Strait of Hormuz would take “months”, how long would full-blown regime change take?

It is becoming clear that this isn’t going to be a short war. And the longer this war persists, the more damage we will see to oil and gas infrastructure throughout the Middle East.

Energy prices are just going to keep on rising, and the global economy and the global financial system are not going to be able to handle that.

It appears that Iran is quietly getting quite a bit of help from Russia and China. As you will see below, it is being alleged that China is mass producing drones for the Iranians, and one report is claiming that hundreds of Chinese military and technical personnel are “feared dead or slowly suffocating” because they were hiding in underground bunkers that have been destroyed by U.S. and Israeli airstrikes. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal is claiming that Russia has been sharing technology with the Iranians and has been providing targeting information for their drone and missile strikes. It seems that Russia and China are more involved in the war in Iran than most people realize, and that should deeply alarm all of us.

I am about to share some information with you that absolutely shocked me when I first came across it.

Independent journalist Jennifer Zeng claims to have access to intelligence that comes from a former senior Chinese official that still has high level access. According to this source, hundreds of military and technical personnel that had been sent to help the Iranians defeat the U.S. and Israel are “now trapped in underground bunkers with zero communication”. The following is the complete report that Zeng has posted on X…

Fresh intelligence from inside the Chinese Communist regime reveals a far larger disaster than previously known: at least seven technicians from Chinese drone maker DJI were killed in U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on Iran, while 300 to 400 Chinese military and technical personnel are now trapped in underground bunkers with zero communication — many feared dead or slowly suffocating.

The information comes directly from a former senior CCP official, relayed through Canadian writer and dissident Sheng Xue @ShengXue_ca. The bunkers, which Beijing and Tehran had touted as “absolutely safe,” were hit with devastating precision after Iranian insiders leaked their exact coordinates to Israel. What was meant to shield key assets has become a mass grave for Chinese advisors embedded deep in Iranian military sites.

Adding to the confirmed deaths of three elite radar experts from CETC’s 14th Research Institute in Nanjing — whose bodies were completely vaporized in the opening U.S. bombing wave — the scale now points to a catastrophic failure of Xi Jinping’s covert support for Iran. These three specialists, Beijing’s self-proclaimed “best” for countering American F-35 and F-22 stealth fighters, died alongside Iranian personnel with no remains recoverable.

Families of the Nanjing trio have been summoned to the CCP’s Organization Department for “post-incident handling.” Compensation is promised, though the figure is still undisclosed. The regime’s standard playbook — large hush-money payments to buy silence — is already in motion.

No official statement has come from China’s Foreign Ministry, Defense Ministry, or state media. The blackout is total, as Beijing refuses to admit its personnel are dying in a foreign war it publicly denies involvement in.

This unfolding tragedy is a brutal public humiliation for Xi. President Trump’s strikes have exposed China’s reckless proxy role in propping up Iran’s collapsing defenses, while European elites — protecting their vast hidden stakes in Iranian oil — seethe at the disruption to their globalist networks.

Hundreds of Chinese lives hang in the balance, buried alive in foreign bunkers, paid off in silence money, and erased by the world’s most efficient censorship apparatus. Xi’s gamble has turned deadly — and the body count is still rising.

(Solely based on updated, firsthand information from Sheng Xue via her CCP-regime source — a former senior official with current access. No speculation or invention.)

Needless to say, the communist Chinese government will never officially confirm any of this. But Jennifer Zeng has been accurately reporting on what has been happening inside China for years. So I consider her to be a reliable source.

Of course she is not the only one that is talking about the help that China has been providing to the Iranians. The Sun has published an article that discusses shocking new video footage that appears to show a Chinese factory mass producing Iranian suicide drones…

CHINA has been accused of helping Iran build its suicide drone armada after a video appearing to show a Shahed production line emerged.

Footage shared by a factory on Douyin, Beijing‘s domestic TikTok, shows UAVs being assembled at a workshop.

Other clips show multiple drones – resembling Tehran‘s lethal Shaheds – lined up in a warehouse before being shipped out.

I think that China really has some explaining to do.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal is claiming that Russia has been “providing satellite imagery and improved drone technology to aid Tehran’s targeting of U.S. forces in the region”…

Russia has been expanding its intelligence sharing and military cooperation with Iran, providing satellite imagery and improved drone technology to aid Tehran’s targeting of U.S. forces in the region, people familiar with the matter said.

Russia is trying to keep its closest Middle Eastern partner in the fight against U.S. and Israeli military might and prolong a war that is benefiting Russia militarily and economically.

If this is true, this makes Russia a party to the war in Iran just like we are a party to the war in Ukraine because of the assistance that we have been giving to the Ukrainians.

Thanks to the technology that the Russians have shared, the Iranians have reportedly been able to improve the navigation and the targeting of their drones…

The technology provided includes components of modified Shahed drones, which are meant to improve communication, navigation and targeting, the people said. Russia has also been drawing on its experience using drones in Ukraine, offering tactical guidance on how many drones should be used in operations and what altitudes they should strike from, said the people, who included a senior European intelligence officer.

Without a doubt, Iranian drones are being more effective than they have in the past.

How much credit should the Russians get for that?

In addition, the Russians have apparently been “providing satellite imagery directly to Iran” that has allowed the Iranians to hit targets throughout the Middle East with a very high level of precision…

Russia has been providing Iran with the locations of U.S. military forces in the Middle East as well as those of its regional allies, The Wall Street Journal has reported. That cooperation has deepened in early days of the war, with Russia recently providing satellite imagery directly to Iran, said two of the people, the officer and a Middle Eastern diplomat.

The assistance is similar to intelligence the U.S. and European allies have given to Ukraine in recent years, analysts say. In the Gulf, Moscow’s aid is believed to have helped Iran with recent strikes on U.S. radar systems in the region, said the people. Those strikes have included an early warning radar for a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or Thaad, system in Jordan, as well as other targets in Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman.

It appears that we are far closer to war with both Russia and China than most people in the western world ever imagined. But most people in the western world are still convinced that everything is going to work out just fine somehow.

Since Iran has been such a close ally, Russia and China would both love for the regime in Iran to survive. But more regime leaders are being killed with each passing day, and we are being told that “a sense of disorder is starting to take hold”…

With thousands of regime members killed—from top leaders to street-level grunts—Iranians are reporting that a sense of disorder is starting to take hold. Security forces are under stress and on the run as they threaten protesters to stay off the streets and direct strikes at the U.S., Israel and Arab neighbors across the Persian Gulf.

The regime has certainly been weakened, but it is not done yet.

In fact, missiles that were just launched by the regime have hit the largest natural gas facility in the entire world…

Missiles caused ‘extensive damage’ in Qatar tonight hours after Iran threatened to wage a ‘full scale economic war’ by attacking energy facilities across the Middle East.

Video showed huge explosions in Ras Laffan – the world’s biggest natural gas plant – as well as Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh.

Energy sites in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar were evacuated after Tehran warned it would hit them with strikes in ‘the coming hours’.

What we are witnessing is absolutely unprecedented.

This facility in Qatar produces approximately 20 percent of the world’s natural gas. If it is shut down, we will immediately be facing a global natural gas shortage.

In Saudi Arabia, a “bright orange fireball lit up the sky”after the capital city of Riyadh was struck by Iranian missiles…

Striking video shows the moment Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh was targeted by missiles.

A bright orange fireball lit up the sky as huge explosions rocked the city.

It comes just hours after Iran threatened to wage a ‘full scale economic war’ by attacking energy facilities across the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia possesses 17 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves, and before the war started it was producing nearly 10 million barrels of oil per day. This is the type of nightmare scenario that we have been warned about for decades.

Now it is here.

There are no signs that this war is going to end any time soon, and so what we have experienced so far is just the tip of the iceberg. Sadly, most people in the western world are completely oblivious to what is really going on and just continue to party as if the good times will never end.

We just witnessed a very pivotal moment in our war with Iran. When Ayatollah Khameni was still alive, Ali Larijani was essentially running the country. Once Ayatollah Khamenei died and was replaced by his son, Ali Larijani was still essentially running the country. The mass slaughter of protesters during the month of January had his fingerprints all over it, and many believe that he was the primary reason why Iran took such a hard line in negotiations with the United States during the month of February just before the war erupted. A lot of people are absolutely thrilled that he is gone, but who is going to run Iran now? Larijani was a murderer and a radical, but he was at least somewhat rational. Will he be replaced by someone that is a complete lunatic?

We shall see what happens. If Larijani is replaced by a moderate, this could be a very good thing. But if he is replaced by a total nut, there is no telling what Iran might do next.

On Tuesday, the Israelis announced that they had “eliminated” Larijani…

Top Iranian security official Ali Larijani was killed in overnight strikes, Israel said Tuesday, marking a significant moment for the Islamic Republic in the conflict.

Israeli defense minister Israel Katz said in a statement that Larijani was “eliminated.” There was no immediate confirmation out of Iran on his apparent killing.

This is a much bigger deal than most people realize.

When they announced his death, the IDF correctly noted that Larijani was “the de facto leader of the Iranian terror regime”…

The military said that Larijani “served as the de facto leader of the Iranian terror regime,” after the late supreme leader Ali Khamenei was killed at the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran on February 28.

“For years, Larijani was considered one of the most senior and veteran figures in the leadership of the Iranian terror regime,” the IDF said, noting his close relationship with Khamenei.

After the supreme leader’s death, Larijani “established his position as the de facto leader of the Iranian terror regime and led the fighting against the State of Israel and countries in the region,” the IDF added, noting that “as part of his role, Larijani led the political-security coordination of the Iranian terror regime and was involved in directing its international activity.”

Just two months ago, Larijani oversaw the largest slaughter of protesters in Iranian history.

He probably never imagined that he would soon be gone himself.

In addition to eliminating Larijani, the IDF also killed Larijani’s son and a number of other top officials at the same time…

The Israeli airstrike that killed Iran’s top security official Ali Larijani also killed his deputy at the Supreme National Security Council Ali Bateni as well as Larijani’s son, who served as his special assistant, informed sources told Iran International.

Qassem Qoreishi, deputy head of the Basij paramilitary organization, was also killed in the Israeli strike on the Basij meeting, the sources said.

The meeting was held to discuss how to confront potential protests during the Persian festival of Chaharshanbeh Suri (Fireworks Wednesday), which is now underway in Iran.

Larijani’s death has sent shockwaves all over Iran.

In fact, there are reports that some Iranians were actually cheering from their balconies when they learned that he was gone.

Ironically, just a week ago Larijani was threatening President Trump’s life…

Larijani had been a defiant voice since the war began and warned only a week ago, in a message aimed at President Trump, that the Iranian people “do not fear your empty threats; even those greater than you have failed to erase them… so beware lest you be the ones who disappear.”

So many top Iranian officials that have dared to threaten Trump’s life over the years are now dead.

According to Iran International, information that was received from residents of Tehran allowed the IDF to quickly determine Larijani’s location…

“The assassination of Larijani was made possible thanks to valuable intelligence that Israeli intelligence services received from residents of Tehran over the past 24 hours,” an Israeli official told Iran International.

“In recent days, Larijani had behaved arrogantly, appearing frequently in public (including at Quds Day rallies), engaging with both local and international media, and thereby exposing himself to public view, which ultimately led to his identification,” the official said.

Considering the tremendous slaughter that we witnessed in January, nobody can deny that Larijani was truly evil.

But he was also one of the few somewhat rational leaders in Iran that western leaders felt comfortable communicating with…

He was one of the few figures who could shape the messaging, signal intentions and maintain lines of communication externally, even as fighting continued, while remaining fully trusted by the system. While he understood escalation, he also understood where it needed to stop. That made him one of the few figures in Tehran capable of managing both sides of a crisis at once, and without him, that capability shrinks.

Now that Larijani is gone, will the next guy even be willing to communicate with the United States? And will the next guy be so filled with a desire for revenge that he will just decide to escalate the war all the way to the highest level?

There is so much that we don’t know at this stage.

Mojtaba Khamenei is supposed to be operating as Iran’s new supreme leader, but a British news source is reporting that he is in such bad shape that he is being kept alive by a ventilator…

A Sun source with links to the hospital treating 56-year-old Khamenei revealed last week that he was in a coma, had lost at least one leg and suffered possible liver and stomach wounds.

And the same source has today revealed that the fanatical Islamist firebrand’s condition has worsened and he is now being kept alive by machines.

The source said: “His brain is in a very low state of consciousness and his heart and lungs are only functioning because they are connected to a life support machine.”

“He would be dead without the ventilator.”

If Mojtaba Khamenei is incapable of making any decisions and Larijani is gone, who is going to be in charge?

At this point, top Iranian leaders are dropping like flies.

On Tuesday, the IDF also took out the head of Iran’s Basij paramilitary force…

The Israeli military also announced on Tuesday the killing of the Gen. Gholam Reza Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s feared Basij paramilitary force.

“The Israeli Air Force, acting on IDF intelligence, targeted and eliminated Gholamreza Soleimani, who operated as commander of the Basij unit for the past six years,” the IDF said in a statement, accusing the Basij, under Soleimani’s command, of leading “the main repression operations, employing severe violence, widespread arrests, and the use of force against civilian demonstrators” to quash anti-government protests that swept across Iran in January.

The IDF called Soleimani’s assassination “an additional significant blow to the regime’s security command-and-control structures” and it vowed to “continue to operate with determination against commanders of the Iranian terror regime.”

The reason why Israel is eliminating so many Iranian leaders is because they want to create conditions that are ideal for regime change.

According to Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, the goal is to give the Iranian people the best chance possible to overthrow the tyrants that have been oppressing them for decades…

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Tuesday that Israel was working to weaken Iran’s leadership to create conditions for change, saying Tehran had already been significantly weakened.

“We don’t want to be in a new war every year,” Saar told a press conference in Jerusalem. “In order to do that, we need to do what we do today.”

He said Israel’s actions were aimed at enabling Iranians to shape their own future. “It is eventually in the hands of the Iranian people… but this brutal, repressive regime must be weakened to an extent it will be possible,” he said.

Without a doubt, Tuesday was a really bad day for the Iranian regime.

But despite everything that has happened, the Iranians are defiantly pledging to fight for as long as it takes…

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is calling on citizens to flood the streets for mass funerals of sailors killed when the IRIS Dena was sunk off the coast of Sri Lanka. Enemies “should know that in the shadow of the name of each of these high-ranking martyrs, thousands of other brave men will rise,” he said.

Most importantly, he announced that Islamic Republic leadership is rejecting any talk of de-escalation. Iran will exact a steep cost against its aggressors, he vowed. It is not “the right time for peace until the United States and Israel are brought to their knees, accept defeat, and pay compensation,” a senior official was quoted in Al Jazeera as saying, describing the position as “very tough and serious.”

Iran’s messaging here has been consistent. On Monday when President Trump claimed Tehran was “talking” – and later there were reports of text messages between Iran’s FM Araghchi and White House envoy Steve Witkoff, Iran’s government was quick to call this fake news.

“We don’t ask for ceasefire, but this war must end, in a way that our enemies never again think about repeating such attacks,” Araghchi has said.

There will be no easy victory for the United States and Israel.

In fact, a White House official just admitted to Politico that the Iranians “hold the cards now”…

‘We clearly just kicked [Iran’s] a** in the field, but, to a large extent, they hold the cards now,’ a source close to the White House told Politico. ‘They decide how long we’re involved, and they decide if we put boots on the ground. And it doesn’t seem to me that there’s a way around that, if we want to save face.’

The reason why the Iranians hold the cards is because they have been able to paralyze traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.  Within the past 24 hours, yet another tanker was hit…

A fresh wave of attacks on the United Arab Emirates’ energy infrastructure has ramped up concerns over prolonged supply disruptions amid the Iran war.

It comes after the world’s largest ultra-sour gas development was struck by a drone, a fire broke out in the UAE’s Fujairah Oil Industry Zone, and another tanker was hit near the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz.

President Trump can’t walk away as long as the Iranians are stopping commercial traffic from passing through the Strait of Hormuz. But if he wants to get the Strait of Hormuz back open again, it is probably going to require U.S. boots on the ground.

When he was asked about U.S. boots on the ground on Tuesday, Trump told the press that he is “not afraid” of that option…

President Donald Trump said Tuesday he is ‘not afraid’ to deploy US ground troops within Iran, further emphasizing the lengths he is willing to go in his Middle East war.

Speaking from the Oval Office alongside Ireland’s Taoiseach, Micheal Martin, the President fielded many questions about the Iran war.

‘Are you afraid that if you put boots on the ground in Iran, it could be another Vietnam?’ one reporter asked.

‘No,’ Trump shot back, adding, ‘I’m not afraid of anything.’

Putting U.S. boots on the ground would be a major escalation. And it would probably extend the duration of this war by quite a bit. But President Trump is going to feel so much pressure to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and so he might go ahead and do it anyway.

Meanwhile, Israeli boots are already on the ground in southern Lebanon…

Israel’s ground invasion of Lebanon opens a new front in a widening Middle East war, expanding its campaign against Iran by moving against one of its most powerful regional allies, Hezbollah, and stretching its military across an unprecedented number of conflict zones.

Israel said on Monday that it launched a ground operation in a southern swath of Lebanon and was prepared for a prolonged campaign.

It may take many months for Israel to defeat Hezbollah once and for all. But there was no way that this was going to be a quick war.

Anyone that thought that was simply not being realistic. Everything that has happened in the Middle East since 1979 has been building up to this moment.

Now it is here, and the Middle East will never be the same again.

“Fertilizer Shock”: The Closure Of The Strait Of Hormuz Could Cause Widespread Global Food Shortages

If commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains paralyzed for months, we will witness a global food crisis on a scale that many experts would have once considered to be unthinkable. Over the past couple of weeks, there has been much written about how the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has caused the price of oil to rise, has caused the price of natural gas to soar to insane levels and has caused the average price of diesel in the United States to jump above five dollars a gallon. But I think that the bigger story is what the closure of the Strait of Hormuz could mean for global food supplies.

Normally, approximately one-third of all globally-traded nitrogen fertilizer and approximately one-half of all globally-traded sulfur passes through the Strait of Hormuz…

Another world crisis sparked by the war in Iran may also be in the offing. That’s because the region’s oil and gas production has made it one of the world’s leading exporters of nitrogen fertilizers, which are indispensable to the global food system. To produce the chemicals used to grow much of the planet’s crops, natural gas is broken down to extract hydrogen, which is combined with nitrogen to make ammonia, and then mixed with carbon dioxide to make urea. All told, nearly a third of the global trade for nitrogen fertilizer passes through the Strait of Hormuz, while almost half of the world’s sulfur, essential in producing phosphate fertilizers, also travels through the corridor.

Reading that should chill you to the core.

But that is just part of the story.

Fertilizer producers in other countries will also be forced to shut down if they are not able to get the liquified natural gas that normally comes to them through the Strait of Hormuz…

Already, fertiliser plants in India and Pakistan are facing production declines given the disruption to natural gas supplies from the Middle East. Gulf countries targeted in the war supply nearly all of Pakistan’s LNG imports, 72% of Bangladesh’s and 53% of India’s.

Even if deescalation occurs, the conflict has likely locked in a food price hike in the coming months. The longer the war continues, the greater the shock to food security as energy and fertiliser prices remain elevated.

What we are facing is truly a global problem.

A farmer in Virginia named John Boyd recently admitted to NBC News that local dealers are telling him that “we can’t get the fertilizer” that he needs…

John Boyd Jr., a fourth-generation farmer in Virginia who grows soybeans, corn and wheat, said his fertilizer supplier recently warned him that shipments may not arrive as expected.

“The dealers are telling me we can’t get the fertilizer,” Boyd told NBC News in an interview this week. “Due to the war and the bombing through that area, the fertilizer isn’t moving.”

Fertilizer is essential to food production, he said, and it must be applied before crops are planted.

“If I don’t apply fertilizer, that means I won’t have the yields to make my crop,” Boyd explained.

If one U.S. farmer can’t grow enough, that isn’t a big deal. But if hundreds of thousands of U.S. farmers can’t grow enough, that will be a full-blown national crisis.

Stacy Simunek, the president of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau, is warning that we really are facing a worst-case scenario…

The war in Iran has led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping route not only for oil and gas, but also for fertilizers needed to produce the world’s food.

“We cannot grow without it. There is absolutely no way you get around it,” said Stacy Simunek, president, Oklahoma Farm Bureau.

If farmers do not grow our food, we do not eat.

The U.S. is actually in better shape than much of the rest of the world, because we produce much of the fertilizer that we use.

But as Simunek has very aptly observed, if this crisis in the Middle East results in a major global fertilizer shortage, there is no way that we are going to be able to feed the entire world…

“Who’s going to feed us? Where are we going to get the food to eat? Where are we going to feed the world? This is critical,” said Simunek.

Already, hundreds of millions of people around the world go to bed hungry every night.

So a very large disruption to global food production would push us very deep into nightmare territory.

Today, approximately half of the population of the world eats food that is grown using nitrogen fertilizer…

About 4 billion people on the planet eat food grown with synthetic nitrogen fertilizers. Roughly half of the global population, in other words, is alive because of these chemicals converted into nutrients for plants, said Lorenzo Rosa, who researches sustainable energy, water, and food systems at the Carnegie Institution for Science at Stanford University.

Spring planting season in the northern hemisphere is rapidly approaching.

The fertilizer that would normally be traveling through the Strait of Hormuz now would get into the hands of farmers around the middle of April. But that isn’t going to happen, and that means that a lot of farmers around the world are simply not going to have the fertilizer that they need in 2026.

China produces more fertilizer than anyone else, and there was hope that they could help ease the potential global supply shock that we are facing, but instead they have chosen to implement very strict restrictions on fertilizer exports…

China is tightening controls on fertilizer exports as disruptions linked to the conflict in Iran ripple through global crop-nutrient markets and push prices higher. Authorities have asked exporters to halt outbound shipments of nitrogen-potassium fertilizer blends while reiterating existing restrictions on urea exports, according to people familiar with the matter. The steps appear aimed at protecting domestic supply and stabilizing prices as farmers prepare for the spring planting season, a period when demand typically peaks in the country’s vast agricultural sector.

People familiar with the situation said the latest directives have effectively paused overseas shipments of most fertilizer types, including compound varieties that had still been moving abroad after China loosened some urea limits last year. One key exception is ammonium sulfate, which accounted for about half of the country’s fertilizer shipments last year and remains unaffected for now.

The Chinese want to make sure that they have enough fertilizer for themselves.

A global scramble for what is available has begun, and nobody can blame the Chinese for putting themselves first. But what is the rest of the world supposed to do?

White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett is telling us that the Trump administration is “all over the fertilizer problem”…

The Trump administration is seeking alternative fertilizer supplies for U.S. farmers as the war in Iran disrupts a key global trade route just weeks before the spring planting season.

“We’ve been all over the fertilizer problem,” White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said on CNBC Tuesday. “I’m not saying that we can eliminate what disruption there is so far, but we can minimize it for sure.”

Hopefully he is right. But words alone can’t magically get fertilizer into the hands of the farmers that need it.

What we really need is for traffic through the Strait of Hormuz to return to normal.

Unfortunately, the Iranians are telling us that traffic through the Strait of Hormuz “cannot be the same as before and return to its previous conditions”…

In a televised interview Tuesday, Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said the Strait of Hormuz remained under threat because of the American and Israeli presence in the Gulf region.

“The Strait of Hormuz cannot be the same as before and return to its previous conditions,” Qalibaf said, adding that “there is no longer any security.” He also cautioned that US bombs and jets could not destroy Iran’s weapons facilities.

Since the Iranians are not willing to allow commercial traffic to flow through the Strait, it will be up to the United States and Israel to reopen it, because everyone else has decided that they do not want to be involved.  This is something that President Trump just posted about on his Truth Social account…

The United States has been informed by most of our NATO “Allies” that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East, this, despite the fact that almost every Country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot, in any way, shape, or form, be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon. I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend Hundreds of Billions of Dollars per year protecting these same Countries, to be a one way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need. Fortunately, we have decimated Iran’s Military — Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti-Aircraft and Radar is gone and perhaps, most importantly, their Leaders, at virtually every level, are gone, never to threaten us, our Middle Eastern Allies, or the World, again! Because of the fact that we have had such Military Success, we no longer “need,” or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance — WE NEVER DID! Likewise, Japan, Australia, or South Korea. In fact, speaking as President of the United States of America, by far the Most Powerful Country Anywhere in the World, WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP

The Europeans are being hurt by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, but they have announced that they are simply not willing “to put their people in harm’s way”…

“Nobody is ready to put their people in harm’s way in the Strait of Hormuz,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told the Reuters news agency on Tuesday. “We have to find diplomatic ways to keep this open so that we don’t have a food crisis, fertilizers crisis, energy crisis as well.”

I see three ways that the Strait of Hormuz could potentially be reopened soon.

The first option would be for the U.S. and Israel to give the Iranians everything that they are demanding and the war would end.  But that is certainly not going to happen.

The second option would be for the U.S. and Israel to put boots on the ground and secure the Iranian side of the Strait of Hormuz.  But that is not going to happen any time soon.

The third option would be for the U.S. and Israel to completely destroy the Iranian regime using nuclear weapons, but that would be absolutely unthinkable.  The use of nuclear weapons is completely off the table, and I don’t know anyone that would argue with that. So it appears that the Strait of Hormuz will be closed for an extended period of time.

In the western world, that will mean that food prices will likely be going up quite substantially. But in impoverished nations all over the globe, the consequences will be much more serious.

We are potentially facing widespread global food shortages, and most of us don’t even want to think about what that could look like.

Over the past couple of weeks, there have been numerous warnings that terrorist sleeper cells may conduct attacks on U.S. soil in response to the war with Iran. Over the past couple of weeks, there have also been a lot of church fires all over America. Why isn’t anyone making a connection between these two things? We know that Islamic terrorists love to attack houses of worship. Since 2020, there have been hundreds of churches in Europe that have been vandalized or burned down, and in many of those cases radical Islamists were involved. Is a similar trend beginning to occur in the United States?

On Saturday morning, a church in Reese, Michigan that was about 100 years old burned all the way to the ground…

A historic Southeast Michigan church burned to the ground Saturday morning.

Reese Fire Rescue, an all-volunteer crew, responded at 2:45 a.m. March 14 to find Reese Faith Community Church “fully engulfed” in flames, said Jeremy Ross, fire chief.

“It was through the roof, through the walls – it was really fully engulfed when we arrived,” Ross said. “There was no way to make entry.”

This was an absolutely massive fire that erupted very suddenly.

One fire truck parked too close to the fire, and as a result “some of the plastic items on the outside of the truck were warped and melted from the heat”…

He said a Reese fire truck was parked a little too close to the fire and some of the plastic items on the outside of the truck were warped and melted from the heat. He said everything affected still functions, including some emergency lights, but will need to be replaced.

In so many cases, these church fires are happening in the middle of the night when no witnesses are around. So even if authorities are able to determine that it is arson, it will be very difficult to catch whoever did this.

Today, more than 240,000 Muslims live in the state of Michigan. The city of Dearborn is 55 percent Muslim, and it is not too far from Reese. That certainly doesn’t prove anything. But we do know that Michigan has experienced a lot of church burnings in recent years.

Last August, someone purposely firebombed St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church in Flint…

On August 30, 2025, an arsonist firebombed St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church in Flint, Michigan, causing extensive damage. Flint Councilwoman Tonya Burns said an individual “purposely brought three gasoline cans, used a metal object and fire bombed the church.” The fire burned several classrooms, and the church also had smoke damage and several broken windows. The church has an outreach center that hosts community events and food drives.

Flint is even closer to Dearborn than Reese is. But that could just be a coincidence.

Arsonists tend to like to work at night, because that greatly increases their chances of getting away with it. Very early on Sunday morning, an enormous fire broke out at The River Church in Post Falls, Idaho…

A Post Falls church was damaged in a fire early Sunday morning.

Kootenai County Fire and Rescue responded to the blaze in the 1600 block of E. Horsehaven Ave. about 4 a.m.

Units arrived to find The River Church burning and requested a second alarm.

“Due to the size of the building and challenges with accessing the fire, crews were on scene through the late morning hours,” KCFR said in a press release.

This is another case where it is going to be difficult to prove that it was arson. But I think that it was.

Thankfully, most of the building was saved, but one portion “was lost and is now unusable”…

A large portion of the church building was saved during the response, but a part of the structure was lost and is now unusable, according to Kootenai County Fire and Rescue interim fire chief Pete Holley.

Another church fire that occurred this past weekend was definitely arson.

Video footage clearly shows “a man intentionally igniting the entrance to the building” at a church in Newark, New Jersey…

An overnight fire outside a Newark church is under investigation after video obtained by RLS Media appears to show a man intentionally igniting the entrance to the building while people were inside.

According to a statement released by Newark Public Safety Director Emanuel Miranda, firefighters responded at approximately 12:06 a.m. Saturday, March 14, to a report of a fire at a church located at 136 Mt. Pleasant Avenue.

I hope that the police are able to find this guy.

He just walked right up to the entrance of the church and started pouring gasoline around…

However, video obtained by RLS Media shows a man carrying what appears to be a gasoline can approaching the entrance of the church, identified as Centro Familiar Casa de Dios.

In the footage, the individual appears to pour a liquid near the doorway before spending several seconds striking a match.

The video then shows the suspect tossing the lit match toward the entrance area, igniting flames near one of the church doors.

Another clear case of church arson just happened at an abandoned church in Peoria, Illinois…

The Peoria Fire Department responded to a fire at an abandoned church near North East Madison and Park Avenues on Friday.

Fire crews saw moderate smoke and fire on the second floor of the church when they arrived on the scene at 6:56 p.m, said Battalion Chief Matthew Smith.

Fire crews used a hand line to quickly put out the fire and also went to the roof to check for additional damage.

Authorities have determined that the cause of the fire was definitely arson. But in most of these cases the perpetrators are never apprehended.

Earlier this month, there was a large fire at the First Baptist Church of Little Rock that local residents believe “may have been intentionally set”…

A vacant church building in Little Rock was heavily damaged by a fire some neighbors believe may have been intentionally set.

The blaze broke out at the First Baptist Church of Little Rock, also known as Ernie’s Museum of Black Arkansas, late Monday evening. The building, long closed and in a state of disrepair, hadn’t been used in several years. According to a man who was looking to buy the property, the structure had previously served multiple purposes before falling vacant.

The Little Rock Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the cause of the fire, though some neighbors believe it may have been arson.

I cannot prove that any of the examples that I have shared in this article have anything to do with the war in Iran. But I think that it is quite noteworthy that so many U.S. churches are suddenly burning now that the war in Iran has begun.

And without a doubt there have been some incidents of violence in recent weeks that do have a direct link to what is going on in the Middle East.  For instance, it turns out that the man that recently attacked a synagogue in Michigan had brothers in Lebanon that “were members of a Hezbollah rocket unit”…

Ghazali, born in Lebanon, entered the U.S. legally in 2011 on a spousal visa and gained citizenship in 2016. He lived in Dearborn Heights, working at a local restaurant—seemingly integrated, but harboring connections that proved deadly.

Sources confirmed his brothers in Lebanon were members of a Hezbollah rocket unit, the Iranian-backed group notorious for targeting civilians. Those same brothers, along with Ghazali’s niece and nephew, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on March 5, potentially fueling his rage.

There are more than 200 million Shiite Muslims living in our world today. Approximately 2.5 million of them are living on U.S. soil.

There will be more terror attacks. It is inevitable. So please be very careful out there, because things are starting to get really crazy.