When A Toll Isn't A Toll

Iran Oil Exports Through Hormuz Hit Wartime High While other countries line up on either side of Hormuz, hoping for clarity whether they actually can cross this time, Iran isn’t wasting any time moving its oil out of the Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz after the US lifted the naval blockade outside the chokepoint and the U.S. and Iran discuss a framework on a lasting peace deal. Even as Western shippers and insurers remain wary of the conflicting signals about how open the Strait of Hormuz really is - after...

Australia's Qantas To Cut Domestic Flights Amid Fuel Price Surge Authored by Monica O'Shea via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), Australia’s flag carrier Qantas will cut domestic flights and redeploy capacity from the United States towards Europe as fuel prices double. Qantas Airways ground staff are seen on the tarmac near planes at the domestic terminal of Sydney International Airport in Sydney, Australia on Jan. 14, 2026. David Gray/ AFP via Getty Images Qantas revealed fuel costs remained turbulent amid the Iran War in an update on its 2026 financial outlook, which noted...

Americans' Average Monthly Mortgage Payment Tops $2000 For The First Time Ever Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog, U.S. households are being financially squeezed at a level that we have never seen before. I have often said that we are in a long-term cost of living crisis that never seems to end, and that is not an exaggeration at all. Just about everything has been getting more expensive in recent years, and as a result our standard of living has been going down. In many areas of the...