'An Epic Madness Burns In The Minds of Californians...'

The Wrath Of Kharg By Ben Picton, Senior Market Startegist at Rabobank Brent crude is bid again this morning as markets digest the dump of news over the weekend relating to the Iran war. On the bullish side for crude was the US decision to bomb Iranian military assets on Kharg Island – the Persian Gulf port where up to 90% of Iranian oil exports are typically loaded onto tankers. Announcing the strikes via Truth Social, President Trump was at pains to be clear that oil infrastructure was not targeted, but...

Container Ship Sinks In Hormuz After Iranian Strike Last Month; UBS Gives Latest Strait Update The Egyptian-owned, Maltese-flagged container ship Safeen Prestige (IMO: 9593517), which was damaged in the first week of the U.S.-Iran conflict following an Iranian strike, has reportedly sunk in the Strait of Hormuz. According to Bloomberg, Pakistan's hydrographic service said the container ship sank last week, leaving only an oil slick on the surface of the water in the Hormuz chokepoint. The IRGC torched the SAFEEN PRESTIGE in the Strait of Hormuz and continues to reignite the fire. Now...

New Bill Opens Door For Killer AI Weapons Authored by Jon Fleetwood, A newly introduced U.S. Senate bill would allow the military to deploy autonomous lethal artificial intelligence systems by granting the Secretary of Defense the authority to override its own restrictions. Senate Bill S.4113—the “AI Guardrails Act of 2026,” introduced March 17, 2026 by U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI)—is being presented as a framework to limit how the Department of Defense uses AI. But the actual text includes a built-in waiver mechanism that enables those same systems to be approved and used...