Most people out there still seem to believe that the war in the Middle East will rapidly come to a conclusion and economic conditions will return to normal soon. Meanwhile, the price of physical oil is going absolutely nuts, the price of fertilizer is going absolutely nuts, and we are being warned that a “summer of shortages” is looming on the horizon if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed. What we are going to be facing in the months ahead very much depends upon the duration of the war. Unfortunately, as you will see below, it does not appear that a peace deal with Iran is going to happen any time soon.

According to the Daily Mail, citizens of the UK are being warned to brace themselves for a “summer of shortages”…

Brits are being braced for a summer of shortages with warnings that chicken and pork are among a swathe of products at risk from the Iran war.

We have never seen a “summer of shortages” in the western world.

So most of us have no idea what that would look like.

According to the BBC, in a “worst case scenario” there could actually be shortages of chicken and pork in the months ahead…

The UK could face food shortages, including chicken and pork, by the summer if the Iran war continues, in a worst case scenario drawn up by government officials.

A government source told the BBC it was planning for a scenario which would involve the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz and breakdowns in the supply of carbon dioxide (CO2), which is used in the slaughter of some animals and in food preservation.

A spokesperson from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs said it would continue to work closely with businesses to tackle the impact of the war.

Hopefully a worst case scenario will not materialize.

But right now the Iranians seem to be in no mood to release the stranglehold that they have on the Strait of Hormuz.

As a result, there could be widespread shortages of jet fuel in Europe in just six weeks…

Europe may have just six weeks left of jet fuel, with serious consequences for the continent’s economy, the International Energy Agency warned on Thursday.

“Several European countries may start to face shortages of jet fuel in the next 6 weeks, depending how much they are able to import from international markets to replace the lost supply from the Middle East, which accounted for 75% of Europe’s net imports of jet fuel previously,” the IEA told CNBC in an emailed statement.

Earlier, IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said the Strait of Hormuz blockade will result in “the largest energy crisis we have ever faced,” in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday.

If you need to fly somewhere, I wouldn’t wait too much longer.

During the months ahead we could also see rationing of fuel and electricity.

In fact, it is being reported that Pakistan is already shutting down electricity generation “for about two hours during the evenings”…

Pakistan will suspend electricity supply for about two hours during the evenings, an effort to manage the cost of power as the Iran war further shakes the energy-poor country, reported Bloomberg on Wednesday.

Demand raises significantly between 5 p.m. and 1 a.m., due in part to reduced hydropower generation, the Pakistani government said in a statement on Wednesday. Potential gaps would have to be met through fossil fuels that have become more expensive after the Iran war disrupted flows plunging the region into an energy crisis.

Some people in Pakistan are claiming that electricity generation is down for much more than just two hours a day.

But those are just anecdotal reports at this point.

Sadly, things will get so much worse if the Strait of Hormuz does not get reopened soon.

Earlier this week, HSBC Group CEO Georges Elhedery made headlines when he discussed the historic crisis that is now upon us.

He is claiming that the highest price that he has seen so far for a barrel of physical oil is 286 dollars…

“What worries me is not the headlines. I mean, oil headline is above $100, $110. Realistically, if you are now trying to get oil from the Middle East, you may be paying $140, $150.

Realistically, if you try to get oil from the Red Sea, you are paying more than $30, $40 for shipping. Insurance costs, which used to be 25 basis points, is more like 5%, and war insurance has been scrapped — you’re paying 5% without even the war insurance component.

So the barrel of oil door to door or the barrel of refined oil door to door is way above the headline price of oil. The highest I’ve seen, and I’m hoping we don’t see more of that, but the highest I’ve seen is $286 for a barrel of oil that reached Sri Lanka. This is not a country and an economy that can easily afford these kind of prices sustainably.”

I was absolutely stunned when I read that.

I knew that the price of physical oil for immediate delivery had become completely disconnected from oil futures, but I didn’t realize that things were already this bad.

And the price of fertilizer has been rising at an exponential rate in recent weeks…

If you have been keeping up with my recent articles, you already know why that chart is such a big deal.

Needless to say, we desperately need a diplomatic breakthrough.

It would be so wonderful if Iran would just allow traffic to flow through the Strait of Hormuz like it did before.

But the Iranians are insisting that they are in charge of the Strait from now on, and they are demanding that any commercial vessels that they allow to pass through the waterway must pay a very large toll that is to be paid using Iranian banks…

An Iranian parliament official has been cited in newswires as saying the country’s planned Strait of Hormuz toll for ships seeking to pass is to be paid through Iranian banks. Previously it was said to be through cryptocurrency, and could be as a high as $2 million Oil rose higher, given this is another indicator this game of chicken in the narrow waterway could soon lead to fresh hostilities, despite the 2-week ceasefire still being in place, soon to expire.

The Trump administration is hoping to break Iran’s resolve by blockading all Iranian ports.

So far, 13 vessels that attempted to travel to or from Iranian ports have been turned back…

The U.S. Navy has turned back 13 ships since its blockade of Iranian ports in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman began more than 24 hours earlier, the Pentagon said Thursday.

President Donald Trump announced the blockade on Sunday after complaining that Tehran has not appeared to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, one of his conditions for agreeing to the fragile two-week ceasefire that is currently in effect.

The attempt to ratchet pressure on Iran began after an initial round of U.S.-Iran peace talks failed over the weekend.

I don’t think that this blockade is going to force the Iranians to give in.

If that doesn’t work, U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is warning that the U.S. military is ready to bomb them into oblivion…

Secretary Hegseth sends a DIRECT MESSAGE to Iran from the Pentagon

“To IRGC leadership, we’re watching you.

Our capabilities are NOT the same, our military and yours.

Remember, this is NOT a fair fight, and we know what military assets you are moving and where you are moving them to.

You are digging out, which is exactly what you’re doing— digging out of bombed out and devastated facilities, and we are only getting stronger.”

“We are locked and loaded on your critical dual-use infrastructure, on your remaining power generation, and your energy industry.

We’d rather not have to do it, we are ready to go at command of our president and the push of a button.”

Unfortunately, Iranian leaders have not been swayed by such threats.

In fact, they do not plan to meet with U.S. negotiators again until the U.S. quits making “excessive demands”…

Right now, the U.S. and Iran are not even in the same universe as far as what a reasonable conclusion to this war would look like.

During the recent peace talks in Pakistan, Vice-President JD Vance delivered the Trump administration’s “final offer” to the Iranians.

Sadly, the Iranians were not interested at all, and they are making all sorts of threats. Here is just one example…

Iran’s Seyed Mohammad Marandi:

“Because of Netanyahu and Trump, Iran is preparing to destroy everything in the Persian Gulf – including all critical infrastructure in the UAE, Saudi, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait. Temperatures will rise, the Peninsula will become uninhabitable, and the global economy will crash.”

It appears that a lot more fighting is still ahead.

Of course that means that the Strait of Hormuz will likely be closed for an extended period of time.

So I would encourage you to prepare yourself for a “summer of shortages”, because a “worst case scenario” appears to be the most likely scenario at this stage.

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

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The post Prices For Physical Oil And Fertilizer Go Absolutely Nuts As A “Summer Of Shortages” Looms On The Horizon appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth gave an update on his war on Iran’s economy Thursday, pressuring its leaders to negotiate with Americans or suffer kinetic strikes in addition to the current blockade on Iran-linked ships.

“For as long as it takes, we will maintain this blockade. … But if Iran chooses poorly, then they will have a blockade and bombs dropping on infrastructure, power, and energy,” Hegseth said.

Since April 13, the United States has shifted from a strategy of military destruction to one of economic pressure in order to encourage an outcome in negotiations with Iran intermediated by Pakistan.

“The war department will ensure that Iran never has a nuclear weapon,” said Hegseth. “We prefer to do it the nice way through a deal led by our great vice president and negotiating team, or we can do it the hard way.”

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine joined Hegseth, and stressed that the United States was not blocking the Strait of Hormuz with a literal cordon of ships across, but rather targeting ships connected to Iranian commerce.

“This blockade applies to all ships regardless of nationality heading into or from Iranian ports. The U.S. action is a blockade of Iran’s ports and coastline, not a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.”

He added that the U.S. “will actively pursue any Iranian-flagged vessel” in regions such as the Pacific.

Caine told reporters that the military is “ready to resume major combat operations at literally a moment’s notice.”

Hegseth also mentioned Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent’s sanctions campaign against Iran, known as “Operation Economic Fury,” saying it is “maximizing economic pressure.”

The post Hegseth: Blockade Will Force Iran to Negotiate or Perish appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Gallup discovered on Thursday that young men in the United States increasingly believe that religion is "very important" in their lives, surpassing the level of young women who believe the same.

The post Survey: Young Men Surpass Young Women on Importance of Religion in U.S. appeared first on Breitbart.

'Devastating'

'I do not know the Tate brothers nor do I support them'

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who pointed a gun at two people in a vehicle in Minneapolis has been charged with felony assault. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said Thursday...

American colleges and universities have played a significant role in declining public trust in higher education, a Yale University committee said in a report released Wednesday.

DOJ Surrenders its Appeal in Fight Over ATF “Engaged in the Business” Rule

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

April 16, 2026 

Springfield, VA — Gun Owners of America (GOA) and Gun Owners Foundation (GOF) are proud to announce a major win in our ongoing legal battle against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosive’s (ATF) Biden-era “Engaged in the Business” rule. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked the Fifth Circuit to dismiss its appeal of the preliminary injunction GOA, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, Utah Attorney General Derek Brown, and Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch obtained against ATF’s unconstitutional Biden-era “Engaged in the Business” rule.

This rule was just a backdoor scheme by President Biden “to move the U.S. as close to universal background checks as possible without additional legislation.” Under the rule, even a single private firearm sale could suddenly become a federal crime. And ATF inverted the ordinary judicial process, presuming gun owners guilty until proven innocent.

After the enormous pressure brought to bear by gun owners, DOJ is seeking a dismissal allowing the case to return to district court. Our preliminary injunction blocking the rule remains in effect, and GOA will pursue a final order permanently striking down Biden’s unconstitutional and unlawful regulation.

Erich Pratt, Senior Vice President of Gun Owners of America, issued the following statement:  

“This move by DOJ is a massive step towards fulfilling President Trump’s campaign promise to gun owners to end this Biden rule. Biden’s criminalization of private gun sales was a naked attempt to infringe on the Second Amendment rights of millions of gun owners. GOA and GOF once gain have triumphed over ATF overreach.”

John Velleco, Executive Vice President of Gun Owners Foundation, issued the following statement:  

“We are grateful that the Trump administration has abandon this Biden-era appeal. This sets the stage to protect the rights of millions against Biden’s anti-gun overreach. Future administrations should think twice before they reinterpret federal law to criminalize the Second Amendment like President Biden.”

GOA spokesmen are available for interviews. Gun Owners of America is a nonprofit grassroots lobbying organization dedicated to protecting the right to keep and bear arms without compromise. GOA represents over two million members and activists. For more information, visit GOA’s Press Center.

-GOA- 

The death of a California high school football star whose body was found earlier this month has been ruled a suicide.

The post Cause of Death for California High School Football Star Revealed appeared first on Breitbart.

Ten GOP House members voted in favor of extending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians ahead of a potential Supreme Court ruling on the matter. The Thursday vote to effectively grant amnesty and block deportation of roughly 350,000 Haitian migrants passed the House 220-207. Notably, the final vote was preceded by the adoption of a resolution […]

Thursday on CNN's "News Central," chief media analyst Brian Stelter said Secretary of War Pete Hegseth insinuated at his press conference on the Iran military operation that doubting President Donald Trump or his actions in Iran was like "doubting Christ."

The post CNN’s Stelter: Hegseth Insinuated Doubting Trump or War Is ‘Doubting Christ’ appeared first on Breitbart.

Chilean conservative President José Antonio Kast announced that Chile will begin deportation flights of illegal migrants on Thursday.

The post Chile’s José Antonio Kast Begins Mass Deportation Flights of Illegal Migrants appeared first on Breitbart.

“It seems that you eventually need a socialist to clean up the mess.”

That’s what the self-avowed socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani thought was a clever answer to Margaret Thatcher’s famous line about the problem with socialism being that you run out of other people’s money.

He said it at his “first 100 days” bash on Sunday.

Maybe the quip makes sense to the young, woke voters in Mamdani’s base who think that they transcend history (or more likely don’t know anything about it). Perhaps they believe just as many previous generations of leftists did that True Socialism hasn’t been tried.

But it’s become clear after Mamdani’s first 100 days in office that the “New Era” he’s promised doesn’t look much different than the old era, and his ambitious agenda is quickly running into the hard reality that even in New York, wealth is finite.

The city didn’t instantly implode the moment Mamdani walked into office, though that’s a low bar for success. New York is much bigger than one man, even a very powerful one.

Yet, there are warning signs that not only will Mamdani’s leadership produce poor results, but that Gotham is looking at long-term deterioration if he governs as promised.

If there is one thing socialists have truly perfected over the years, it’s exploiting voter dissatisfaction—whatever the cause—and creating a mess of historic proportions.

No Free Bus

One of the signature promises of Mamdani’s campaign was that he would bring free buses to all residents in the city. That clearly isn’t happening this year and may never happen at all.

“Mamdani’s highly-touted demands for free buses has fallen to the wayside in both state and city budget proposals,” the New York Post reported in early April.

New York City Comptroller Mark Levine has warned that New York faces an over $7 billion deficit between this year and next and it looks like the bus was a casualty of that budget gap. It didn’t help that the state relies on the revenue.

The best Mamdani could come up with was a limited, pilot program. Hardly a revolution.

And that’s almost certainly a good thing.

Kansas City, Missouri tried a free bus program with federal COVID-19 relief money. What a scam that whole “pandemic relief” thing turned out to be, right? Once the federal money ran out, the local funding also quickly dried up. According to local residents, the New York Post reported, the buses became “unreliable, filthy, rolling homeless shelters.”

$30 Million Grocery Store … By 2029

Another one of Mamdani’s big promises was that he would open a government-run grocery store in each of New York City’s five boroughs, because you can’t truly experience the warmth of collectivism without a good old-fashioned bread line, right?

Mamdani announced during his first 100 days speech that the city would move forward with this awful idea by building a single store in East Harlem for $30 million and would finish all the stores by 2029 despite planning to burn through nearly half of the $70 million budget on this single location.

It’s a staggering amount of money to pay for a single store that will surely cost more to operate than it could ever make in profit.

But it makes total sense if you understand that Mamdani’s revolution is just to put the Democrat governing model on steroids.

I’ll make a few predictions here.

That dollar amount is just the beginning of the money that will be dumped into this project that is unlikely to even finish by 2029.

The money isn’t just being used to build the store, it’s to pay for all the union jobs and officials working on it. This will be New York City’s Grocery Store to Nowhere. Like the California “ghost” bullet train, the whole project is a cover to make sure the right people get paid rather than a serious project to create a functioning supermarket.

Disorder Increasing, Crime on Subway

While crime has generally been falling in New York and around the nation, there are worrying signs that urban disorder will drastically increase under Mamdani.

Mamdani blew his first serious test of governing when a big snowstorm pummeled New York shortly after he took office. Initially Mamdani insisted that the homeless encampments wouldn’t be torn down and that the city’s homeless population wouldn’t be forced to go into shelters.

The mayor eventually backtracked on the city’s homeless sweeps but at least a dozen people died of exposure in the brutally cold temperatures.

Perhaps more worrying is the potential for crime to spike back up again. There was a major surge in violent crime on public transit in the first few months of the year. Robberies are up by 21% compared to last year, according to NYPD data.

There have also been a few high-profile violent crimes that highlight all that’s wrong with the Left’s governing philosophy. In March, an illegal alien shoved 83-year-old Air Force vet Richard Williams and another man onto the subway tracks. Williams later died of his injuries.

In April, a machete-wielding manic calling himself “Lucifer” stabbed three people before being shot and killed by police.

It seemed that at least a few of Mamdani’s diehard supporters were more upset with the NYPD than the man taking a hatchet to fellow New Yorkers.

If you wonder why it is that American cities have a crime problem, look no further than the mentality of that X post.

Springtime for Radicals

One final note about Mamdani’s early returns must be made.

On top of the poor policy decisions thus far, the new mayor has additionally surrounded himself with a collection of extremists and other sordid people.

Some of these radicals are serving in an official capacity, like his Marxist housing czar Cea Weaver who publicly dreamed about impoverishing white, middle-class homeowners. The city’s new racial equity plan hardly dispels the notion that this is Mamdani’s goal too.

Mamdani invited anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil to the governor’s mansion for Ramadan. The Syrian-born Khalil faces deportation by the Trump administration that has accused him of being a Hamas supporter.

That’s hardly surprising given that Mamdani’s wife has a growing record of supporting antisemites and pro-Palestinian terrorists on social media. Mamdani insists she is a “private person.”

One way or another it suggests that Mamdani has no desire to moderate or “normalize” in his time as mayor.

There are other nodes of power in New York City that will contain Mamdani, some will encourage him, but it’s increasingly clear that however things shape out in coming years the city will be worsened by his leadership. 

The post Mamdani’s First 100 Days: There’s No Such Thing as a Free Bus appeared first on The Daily Signal.

New York City Comptroller Mark Levine announced a $4 billion initiative Thursday aimed at expanding and preserving affordable housing across New York City, marking one of the largest pension-backed housing commitments in the city's history.

REDWOOD CITY, CA — Older woman Laura Middleson reportedly went to her local wellness spa and had the clinician there inject her with Botox so she could look like an older woman who had been injected with Botox.

ANTI-GUN GROUP ATTACKS GOA!
They’re attacking us because they know we’re winning. And we want to make them even angrier…

The billionaire funded gun-control lobby is once again attacking us at Gun Owners of America because we’re standing up for the Second Amendment.

They’ve called us “extremists” with insane ideas.

Well, if standing up for the Second Amendment seems insane…

Then maybe the real extremists are the ones who’ve strayed far from the Constitution.

Here’s the thing the anti-gun lobby doesn’t understand.

GOA is fully supported by the grassroots.

That means real people.

Our members don’t want a gun lobby that makes backroom deals with politicians.

They don’t want a gun lobby that will compromise with the political establishment, then sell it to their membership as a win.

They want a gun lobby that is No Compromise.

They want Gun Owners of America.

The billionaire funded gun control lobby is going to have to come up with better scare tactics than simply calling us extremists if they think for one second that we’re going to stop overturning gun control.

GOA is working on your behalf to restore the Second Amendment nationwide.

If you aren’t already, please consider becoming a GOA member so that we can fight on your behalf!