(Update 1245ET): House Republicans thwarted Democrats’ attempt to unanimously restrict President Donald Trump’s war powers in Iran, declining to recognize the lawmaker who sought to offer it during a pro forma session Thursday.

As Bloomberg reports, the forced-adoption attempt was destined to fail, but it previewed Democrats’ focus on rebuking the war in Iran when the chamber returns to session next week. Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.) asked for unanimous consent to advance the Iran war powers resolution during a pro forma, or ceremonial, session held during the congressional recess.

Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), who was presiding, didn’t acknowledge Ivey to speak.

Democrats can try to force a full House vote on the resolution next week when lawmakers return to Washington.

At least two of the four members of their party who opposed a similar resolution a month ago have said they plan to support it now.

*  *  *

As Nathan Worcester detailed earlier via The Epoch Times, Congressional Democrats will try to place guardrails on the Iran war when the floor is briefly open during a two-week break for Easter.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) speaks during a press conferece on Capitol Hill in Washington on Feb. 9, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) detailed his intentions in an April 8 letter to colleagues.

During an April 9 session that would normally be a formality, Democrats will seek to advance a War Powers Resolution on Iran through unanimous consent. It’s a maneuver that House Republicans can easily block.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) also announced that the Senate would take a vote on a War Powers Resolution related to Iran.

“The War Powers Act will cease hostilities and require the administration to get an AUMF before going to war after the hostilities cease,” Schumer said of the proposal.

The Democrats’ calls to pursue votes for restricting the president’s war powers come a day after President Donald Trump announced he was suspending attacks in Operation Epic Fury, on the condition that Iran reopens the Hormuz Strait to unimpeded maritime traffic.

Multiple parties have accused one another of violating the two-week ceasefire. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose country helped mediate the brief interruption in fighting, has called on the combatant nations “to exercise restraint and respect the ceasefire for two weeks.”

In his April 8 letter, Jeffries described the present ceasefire as “woefully insufficient.”

“We have demanded that the House come back into session immediately in order to vote on our resolution to permanently end the war in the Middle East,” he wrote.

A War Powers Resolution would mandate congressional authorization of U.S. involvement in the war.

A previous attempt to constrain the president’s actions failed in the House on March 5.

Almost all Republicans opposed that resolution, which drew the support of all but four Democrats in the lower chamber.

The Senate equivalent was shot down on March 4. That vote also mostly fell along party lines. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) broke with his party to support the measure, while Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) crossed the aisle to oppose it.

Ongoing two-week breaks in the House and Senate have been punctuated by pro-forma sessions. Those brief assemblies of only a few members are held as a formality so the chambers technically remain in session.

On the Senate side, the meetings keep the individual breaks short enough that the president cannot make recess appointments.

The sessions are also how lawmakers avoid adjourning for longer than three days. Under Article I of the Constitution, anything longer would take an agreement between the House and Senate.

The Easter break of 2026 has already witnessed some minor drama during sessions where little is typically expected to happen.

Earlier in April, the House did not take up a Senate-passed bill that would partly fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Some Republicans have resisted the DHS deal, which excludes immigration enforcement and border funding.

House and Senate Republican leaders have vowed to fund those areas for multiple years through a separate, party-line budget vote.

Joseph Lord contributed to this report.

Authored by Travis Gillmore via The Epoch Times,

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt addressed the situation in Cuba, where the population of nearly 10 million are impacted by rolling blackouts and instability, during a press briefing April 8.

She further clarified President Donald Trump’s recent statement that “Cuba is next,” after the U.S. military successfully detained former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores Maduro before striking Iran in coordination with Israel.

“I think when President Trump said that and he later clarified after making that statement that he meant the Cuban regime is bound to fall,” Leavitt said in response to a question from The Epoch Times.

“The country is very weak. They’re in a very weak position economically, obviously, and financially.”

Cuba relied on Venezuela for much of its energy resources, but that supply dried up after the United States took control of the region’s oil industry following Maduro’s capture. A fuel crisis is threatening the nation, with scarce resources available, and nationwide power outages affecting homes and businesses.

Outdated energy infrastructure and a failure to maintain electricity grids are contributing to hardships, according to the U.S. State Department.

“The Cuban people are fed up with their government, as they should be,” Leavitt said.

She offered no policy updates but said administration officials are collaborating across departments to identify diplomatic solutions.

“These talks and discussions continue to happen at the highest level of our government,” Leavitt said.

Cuba has faced embargos and economic pressure from the United States since Fidel Castro led a communist revolution in 1959 toppled Fulgencio Batista, who led the island nation with U.S. support after taking power through a coup in 1952.

President Barack Obama eased some sanctions in a normalization process, but Trump began reversing those policies during his first term.

Since taking office for a second time, Trump has ramped up criticism against the Cuban regime.

Trump told an audience at the Future Investment Initiative Institute in Miami on March 27 that his peace through strength approach is built on a “great military,” while economic leverage and tough negotiating strategies can facilitate change without the use of force.

“I said, you’ll never have to use it, but sometimes you have to use it, and Cuba’s next, by the way,” Trump said, while adding the line might be a joke. “But, pretend I didn’t say that please. … Please, please, please media, please disregard that statement. Thank you very much. Cuba’s next.”

In an executive order signed Jan. 29, 2026, the president described the Cuban government’s actions as constituting an “unusual and extraordinary threat.”

The order cites Cuba’s support for and alignment with hostile nations, including China, Iran, and Russia, along with the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah, as evidence of the threat.

“Cuba has long provided defense, intelligence, and security assistance to adversaries in the Western Hemisphere, attempting to thwart United States and international sanctions designed to enforce the stability of the region, uphold the rule of law, and safeguard the national security and foreign policy of the United States,” the order reads.

Furthermore, the executive order states the Cuban government is spreading communist ideology across the Western Hemisphere, “threatening the foreign policy of the United States.”

“The communist regime persecutes and tortures its political opponents; denies the Cuban people free speech and press; corruptly profits from their misery; and commits other human-rights violations,” the order states.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called for regime change in Cuba while reiterating concerns about communism during remarks to the media on March 27.

“The only thing worse than a communist is an incompetent communist,” Rubio said. “So, their system of government has to change, because they will never be able to develop economically without those changes.”

Governor Mikie Sherrill signed legislation that scraps New Jersey’s 40-year de facto moratorium on new nuclear power plants, clearing the way for expanded baseload generation in a state long plagued by some of the nation’s highest utility bills. 

The bill, S3870/A4528, amends the Coastal Area Facility Review Act to remove an outdated permitting roadblock tied to Nuclear Regulatory Commission waste-disposal rules that no modern project could satisfy.

The NJ Department of Environmental Protection can now approve permits based on proven, NRC-compliant storage methods that have maintained a 100% safety record.

Speaking after a tour of the Salem Nuclear Power Plant, Sherrill launched the state’s new Nuclear Task Force by executive order.

The group, which includes officials from PSEG Nuclear, labor unions, business groups, and environmental stakeholders, will focus on five priorities: financing, supply chains and technology, workforce development, regulatory streamlining, and public trust. 

“For costs to come down, we need more energy supply,” Gov Sherrill said.

“By lifting outdated barriers and bringing together leaders across government, industry, and labor, we’re setting the stage for our state to pursue new advanced nuclear power.”

Existing reactors at Salem and Hope Creek already supply more than 40 percent of the state’s electricity and roughly 80 percent of its pollution-free power.

A 2020 Brattle Group analysis found those plants save ratepayers more than $400 million annually while running at 90-95 percent capacity on just 740 combined acres.

Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times,

The FBI arrested a former Fort Bragg civilian contractor April 7 for allegedly providing top secret details about the Delta Force special forces unit to a journalist who later published the information in an article and book.

Courtney Williams, 40, of Wagram, North Carolina, was indicted by a federal grand jury and charged with violating the Espionage Act in connection to the alleged transmission of classified national defense information to the journalist in violation of federal law.

“Let this serve as a message to any would-be leakers: we’re working these cases, and we’re making arrests,” FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X.

“This FBI will not tolerate those who seek to betray our country and put Americans in harm’s way.”

Officials say Williams worked for a Special Military Unit from 2010 to 2016 supporting top-level military warfighters. During that time, she held a top secret, sensitive compartmented information security clearance, according to prosecutors.

Williams allegedly had daily access to a wide range of classified information, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

As a clearance holder, Williams was trained to know about proper handling, safeguarding, and storage of classified information, prosecutors said. She also allegedly signed a nondisclosure agreement that confirmed she understood that disclosing it could constitute a criminal offense.

Investigators allege Williams repeatedly communicated with a journalist by phone and through text messages between 2022 and 2025. The two had over 10 hours of phone calls and exchanged more than 180 messages, according to prosecutors.

In one message, the reporter identified himself as a journalist and said he was seeking information about the unit to support an upcoming article and book, according to prosecutors.

After the communications, the journalist published a book and article that named Williams as a source and attributed specific statements to her, per court documents.

Prosecutors didn’t name the journalist in the complaint, but Seth Harp, an investigative reporter and foreign correspondent, published a Politico article on Williams on Aug. 12, 2025.

The article was an excerpt from his New York Times best-selling book, “The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces.”

Harp didn’t immediately return a request for comment about Williams’s arrest but posted statements about it on X.

“The FBI is incapable of solving real crimes, like all the murders on Fort Bragg involving elite soldiers trafficking drugs, so they settle for retaliating against courageous whistleblowers like Courtney Williams, whose only ‘crime’ was telling the truth about Delta Force,” Harp wrote.

The article names Williams and describes her decision to take a job as a contractor at Fort Bragg after ending a four-year enlistment in the Army, where she had served as an interrogator and Arabic linguist.

Her position in Southern Pines, North Carolina, was in mission support and was run by former members of Delta Force, the Army’s component of Joint Special Operations Command. Williams told Harp the job was to create and maintain fictitious cover identities for Delta Force operators to use on clandestine missions.

She also described her grievances about the unit, claiming she was discriminated against and sexually harassed. She lost her security clearance after a dispute with leadership in 2016, according to the article.

Williams and her husband allegedly burned through their savings defending herself in the dispute before settling with the unit’s lawyers and retiring from the position, she told Harp.

FBI Special Agent in Charge of the North Carolina Field Office Reid Davis said Williams faced serious charges.

“The tradecraft, tactics, and techniques used by the U.S. military unit in this case are classified and should be shared only with those with proper clearances and a need to know in order to protect American lives and safeguard classified National Defense information,” Davis said in a press release.

“These are serious accusations. Anyone divulging information they vowed to protect to a reporter for publication is reckless, self-serving and damages our nation’s security.”

Williams was not reachable for comment.

Israel has on Thursday warned civilians in south Beirut to evacuate their homes and neighborhoods, amid fears of a fresh impending aerial assault, after IDF strikes across Lebanon and the capital the day prior led to at least 250 Lebanese deaths and over 1,400 people wounded. These were the heaviest strikes of the war.

“Just a short while ago, the Israeli military issued new forced evacuation orders, warning of air strikes this time for the southern suburbs, expanding the area where it says strikes may be conducted, including the Jnah neighborhood, which is south of a previously evacuated area,” Al Jazeera reports. Panic and a mass exodus is being reported:

Mass exodus from Beirut’s Jnah area after Israeli threat pic.twitter.com/92uE9CrdmQ

— RT (@RT_com) April 9, 2026

The effected area is densely populated with civilians and lies adjacent to Beirut’s lone international airport. People who fled Wednesday’s strikes on central Beirut in some places came to the Jnah area.

If Israeli bombs on Lebanon start flying again, this could re-trigger Iranian attacks on Israel. The Houthis in Yemen have also threatened to act, and all of this could collapse the fragile US-Iran ceasefire, amid impending talks expected to begin in Pakistan on Saturday.

Hezbollah now says it is engaged in ground clashes with the Israeli military in southern Lebanon’s Bint Jbeil area, per Al Jazeera, which lies a mere 3 miles from the Israeli border. Israel is seeking to de facto annex the area, Lebanon believes.

Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz has meanwhile stated the operations have dealt a “very strong blow to Hezbollah’s face, leaving it stunned and confused by the depth of the penetration and the scope of the blow.” Meanwhile:

TRUMP ASKED NETANYAHU TO REDUCE BOMBING IN LEBANON TO AID SUCCESSFUL IRAN NEGOTIATIONS, ACCORDING TO NBC REPORTS.

Referencing hundreds of ballistic missiles which were sent on Israel in the last weeks, Katz said the IDF is “prepared and ready to act forcefully if Iran fires at Israel.” Hezbollah had also by mid-March joined the fight.

via UPI

Currently, Lebanese hospitals are said to be overwhelmed while treating victims of the latest Israeli air raids, and are said to be in short supply, also seeking blood donations.

Reuters details, “Some of Lebanon’s hospitals could run out of life-saving trauma medical kits within days ​as supplies near depletion following mass casualties from large-scale Israeli strikes over ‌the past day, the World Health Organization said on Thursday.” The WHO outlined that “The life-saving trauma kits include bandages, antibiotics and anaesthetics to treat patients who sustained war-related injuries.”

CoreWeave has expanded its agreement to supply Meta with AI computing capacity, lifting the total value of the deal to $21 billion, as reported by Bloomberg. The updated terms extend AI cloud services through December 2032.

This means that circular financing circle jerk we’ve been tracking since last year continues.

LOL

*COREWEAVE INKS $14 BILLION META DEAL TO SUPPLY COMPUTING POWER

ye daily circle jerk

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 30, 2025

This builds directly on the $14.2 billion pact the companies struck last September, which originally ran through 2031 with an option for extension. The additional capacity will come from multiple data centers equipped in part with Nvidia’s next-generation Rubin AI chip systems.

The move gives Meta more assured access to specialized GPU clusters as it scales training and inference workloads for its expanding lineup of large language models.

It also means that CoreWeave now holds $35 billion in contracts with Meta, a firm that has made SPV private credit financing into an art form, making the tech firm one of Coreweave’s largest customers.

CoreWeave will provide AI cloud capacity to Meta from multiple data centers powered in part by the Rubin systems of chips, through December 2032, the company said in a statement Thursday. 

As billion-dollar commitments have become almost routine, this latest expansion offers another glimpse into the staggering sums being funneled into AI infrastructure. Meta and the rest of the hyperscalers continue to chase AI dominance, committing vast resources even as it pours money into its own massive data center buildout. The numbers keep climbing with seemingly no ceiling in sight.

Goldman’s head of Delta One slams Nvidia’s increasingly grotesque vendor financing circle jerk

“… definitely not old enough to have been around trading during the tech bubble and let’s level set, multiples are now where near that point in time. That said, vendor financing was… https://t.co/Dt6th2Eobt

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 23, 2025

CoreWeave, a cash-incinerating provider of GPU-accelerated cloud computing and a longtime Nvidia investment darling, has carved out a lucrative niche in the frenzy. The company – part of a group of “neoclouds” or  businesses that, among other things, rent out access to leading AI chips – has landed nearly every big ticket name from Microsoft to OpenAI, positioning itself as an alternative to the traditional hyperscalers for the most demanding AI jobs. Its backlog of long-term contracts continues to swell, supporting rapid expansion even as the broader market watches the leverage closely. Nebius and Nscale are some of its smaller rivals.

CoreWeave has dramatically ramped up borrowing in recent years to finance deals in which it rents access to high-end artificial intelligence processors, joining an industrywide debt binge that has unsettled some investors. CoreWeave has turned to multiple financing channels to fund the capital-intensive expansion needed to keep pace with the AI boom.

And just in case its already massive debt load – at last check around $30 billion, triple what it was a year earlier – wasn’t enough, CoreWeave separately said it plans to offer $3 billion in convertible senior notes due 2032 and $1.25 billion in senior notes due 2031 to cover general business including the repayment of outstanding debt.

The company is offering a 1.5% to 2% coupon on the latest $3 billion in bonds that investors can choose to convert into stock later at a premium, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the situation. Coreweave is also tapping the junk-bond market for the $1.25 billion in notes, offering just above 10% on the deal that may be sold as soon as Thursday, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

In February, the company was seeking to raise about $8.5 billion from banks including Morgan Stanley and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. to help finance its buildout of cloud computing capacity for Meta, Bloomberg reported at the time. 

Meanwhile, Meta has emerged as one of the top spenders on AI infrastructure. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is planning to drop hundreds of billions of dollars over the next few years on the energy, computing power and talent needed to build, train and run AI models. In its latest earnings call, Meta raised its 2026 capex projections to $115-$135 billion, nearly doubling its 2025 capex spend. 

Earlier this year we noted Nvidia’s additional $2 billion investment in the firm to speed construction of new AI factories, and the company’s revenue forecast adjustments last fall amid shifting contract timing. CoreWeave also carries roughly $21 billion in debt, a figure that coincidentally matches the scale of its enlarged Meta pact.

Biggest circle-jerk in history https://t.co/JlJrpyH06Y

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) April 1, 2026

The deal underscores a broader truth in the current cycle: hyperscalers are willing to lock in enormous, multi-year contracts to guarantee scarce high-performance computing resources. Nvidia itself has repeatedly highlighted the exponential growth in demand, and contracts of this size keep materializing to feed it. 
 

Despite the positive development of a shaky US-Iran ceasefire holding, the reality is that Tehran still maintains de facto control over the vital Strait of Hormuz waterway. A mere few vessels passed without incident on Wednesday, before Iran’s military closed the strait again, citing Israel’s massive attacks on Lebanon.

The Associated Press has emphasized Thursday, “Iran’s approval system for ships granted safe passage – after vetting by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps – remains unchanged despite US President Donald Trump’s demand for the strait to be reopened.”

“Last week was the busiest week since the start of the war with 72 passages, still 90% below normal volumes, Lloyd’s said,” the AP report continues. “Most of the vessels allowed through are connected to Iran, although some Indian vessels have gotten through with diplomatic intervention by the Indian government.”

There are currently few indicators revealing Iran’s intent for what comes next, and it could be that much gets determined on whether Israel will cease its attacks on Lebanon. Tehran has threatened to renew its ballistic missile attacks of Israel’s anti-Hezbollah actions and massive airstrikes on Beirut persist.

Russia, which is an ally of Iran, has in its media published sources saying that Iran will allow no more than 15 vessels per day through Hormuz.

via abc.net

While this has not been confirmed officially by the Islamic Republic or IRGC, the following comes via TASS on Thursday:

Under the ceasefire agreement, Iran will allow no more than 15 vessels per day to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a senior Iranian source told TASS ahead of talks in Islamabad.

“Under the current ceasefire, fewer than 15 ships per day are permitted to transit the Strait of Hormuz. This movement is strictly contingent upon Iran’s approval and the enforcement of a specific protocol. This new regulatory framework, operating under the supervision of the IRGC, has been officially communicated to regional parties. There will be no return to the pre-war status quo,” the source said.

The same source additionally indicated that “the unfreezing of Iran’s blocked assets is a critical executive guarantee that must be realized within this two-week timeframe.”

Also, Iran is demanding that the end of the war must be formalized in a resolution of the United Nations Security Council: “If the termination of the war is not codified into a UN Security Council resolution based on our stipulated terms, we are fully prepared to resume combat against the US and the Zionist regim —just as we have over the past 40 days, and with even greater intensity,” the source told TASS. Iran is further saying the US cannot build up more forces in the region during the two week ceasefire interim.

As for Iran’s protocol for allowing passage, which reportedly could include up to a $2 million fee per vessel payable in cryptocurrency, Lloyd’s list outlines the following on where things stand:

Vessels transiting the chokepoint must coordinate with the IRGC Navy
Iran’s latest guidance explicitly warns of anti-ship mines in the main traffic zone of the strait
IRGC Navy continues to vet all traffic passing through the strait on the basis of geopolitical affiliation

All of this means that the Iranian delegation in Pakistan will possess real leverage when it meets with the US side led by Vice President JD Vance this weekend. The White House has said talks are set to begin Saturday.

By Molly Schwartz, cross-asset macro strategist of Rabobank

The trouble with ceasefires is that they often require both sides to agree to a set of terms, and then actually cease fire. However, if the set of terms are not comprehensively established and neither side can be held accountable to pause hostilities, then the so-called “ceasefire” loses all meaning.

Yesterday morning, Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth spoke about the Iran war ceasefire in a press conference. According to Hegseth, the US has achieved a “historic and overwhelming victory.” We have previously highlighted that in order for the US to achieve its stated goal of ending Iranian nuclear programs, regime change plays a fundamental role. 

Hegseth has explicitly said that regime change has been achieved, echoing Trump who posted on social media that Iran “has gone through what will be a very productive Regime Change!” However, the rhetoric out of the IRGC and the continued execution of Iranian protestors may indicate otherwise. Hegseth also said that Iran will “never have nuclear weapons” and that the Strait of Hormuz was indeed open for business.

At around 1:00pm ET yesterday, it was announced that the Strait of Hormuz was closed amid dispute over ceasefire terms. When a ceasefire is typically negotiated, this includes some formal written agreement. While that may be the case with the current “ceasefire”, the public has yet to see one. A lack of clearly defined and agreed upon terms leaves room for confusion. 

Just to show how much of a shitshow this whole thing is:

Qalibaf says that restraining Israel from attacks in Lebanon was the “first clause” of the 10-point proposal, but it wasn’t the first clause in versions published by Iran’s state news agency or IRGC-affiliated Tasnim… https://t.co/a3hbA8nNf7

— Gregg Carlstrom (@glcarlstrom) April 8, 2026

Israel conducted what was referred to as the “largest attack yet” on Hezbollah in Lebanon yesterday, with Israeli PM Netanyahu asserting that Lebanon and Hezbollah were not included in the ceasefire agreement. Netanyahu also provided his view on the ceasefire, declaring that this ceasefire is not the end of the war, but rather a “station en route to achieving aims.” 

Lebanon attack, April 8

The war certainly does not seem to be over, given Iran’s decision to close the Strait of Hormuz again, citing Israel’s “breach.” While the ceasefire announcement laid out by Iran does clearly state that the ceasefire extends to “Lebanon and other regions” (which may call into question the Iranian attacks on Israel, Kuwait, and the Saudi Arabia East-West pipeline in the ceasefire aftermath), the statement from the US does not, and Trump backed Netanyahu’s interpretation that Hezbollah was still fair game.

Closing the Strait of Hormuz, of course, also breaches the US stipulations for the ceasefire, including the “COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz.” Crucially, US Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt clarified that this also means Iran must operate the passage free of tolls or other duties.

EU players also released a statement to say that they “welcome the two-week ceasefire” and that their “Governments will contribute to ensuring freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.” The US Administration seemed skeptical of the EU’s commitment with Leavitt saying that over the course of the past few weeks, “they [the EU and NATO] were tested, and they failed.”

But the EU and NATO may have an opportunity to redeem themselves in Trump’s eyes. Iran’s Speaker of the Parliament, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, said on X that three clauses of Iran’s 10-point proposal had been violated, these being the aforementioned “ceasefire everywhere, including Lebanon and other regions,” as well as the “entry of an intruding drone into Iranian airspace,” and finally the “denial of Iran’s right to [uranium] enrichment.” 

As Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abbas Araghchi said on X yesterday, the ball is now in the US’ court. Everyone, but the US right now, is still lobbing missiles. So will the US hold up its commitment to halt offensive measures or put an official end to the ceasefire?

Markets are awaiting a response from the White House as well. Financial markets eagerly digested the ceasefire news from Tuesday in earnest, with the S&P 500 jumping 2.4% yesterday on the open, and trading around the $6,750-6,790 level all day, despite headline fury. 

Global macro markets were a little more sensitive to (war) hawkish headlines. While US Treasury yields gapped lower at the open, 2 year Treasury yields spent the day creeping higher 6bp to 3.79% from open, and 10 year yields up 3bp to 4.29%. But the market that (surprisingly) barely moved yesterday was crude oil. Crude one month futures fell more than $16 to $94/bbl after the news of a ceasefire first broke, but the Strait reclosing and the fragility of the ceasefire exposed resulted in minimal price action, with crude closing at around $96/bbl.

These market moves may provide some insight into the US Administration’s logic in attempting this ceasefire in the first place. While one school of thought suggests that a ceasefire is a way to walk back Trump’s pugnacious rhetoric from Tuesday morning, the Administration may also be banking on the temporary market reprieve. We have suspected that prior so-called “TACO” trades from the Trump Administration were partially driven by negative market reactions, like the stress in US Treasuries after Liberation Day in April of 2025, or last summer when Trump threatened to fire Fed Chair Powell.

A ceasefire announcement that is well-received by the market could soothe markets and inflationary expectations, as well as depress the price of oil—which it has done for the time being. Should the Trump Administration choose to ramp up offensive measures in two weeks (or even today), it’s possible that the jump in prices may be somewhat mitigated, as we’re bouncing off of a “suppressed” crude level of $94/bbl, as opposed to the $110/bbl level we were at earlier in the week. While the moving parts here are extremely complex and there is likely much more at play here than just “because markets,” the markets angle is still something to think about.

In other markets-related news, yesterday the Fed released the Minutes from the March 18 meeting. According to said Minutes, “most” FOMC board members said that a “protracted war could hit jobs” and “warrant rate cuts.” On the other hand, “many” board members said “inflation higher for longer could call for hikes.” These very insightful and directional comments maintained US OIS pricing expectations at no hikes nor cuts this year. 

Fervo Energy and Turboden, part of the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Group, announced a three-year framework agreement to supply Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) turbines for up to 35 of Fervo’s standardized 50 MW GeoBlocks. The deal totals 1.7 gigawatts of carbon-free, dispatchable baseload power, marking a major step toward scaling next-generation geothermal across the United States.

The agreement builds directly on an earlier pact covering three GeoBlocks at Fervo’s Cape Station project in Utah, where Phase I commissioning is now in advanced stages with startup expected later this year. By locking in supply chain capacity and shortening lead times for Turboden’s proprietary ORC technology, the framework strengthens domestic manufacturing resilience and accelerates project timelines at a moment when U.S. power demand is surging from data centers and AI infrastructure.

ORC units efficiently convert geothermal heat into electricity, delivering the firm 24/7 power that intermittent renewables struggle to match. Fervo CEO Tim Latimer called the collaboration with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries a key move to “strengthen the supply chain needed to build geothermal at scale.”

This announcement arrives as interest in geothermal and nuclear power intensifies. With electricity demand exploding from AI and data centers, the market is showing a growing distaste for intermittent renewables that cannot guarantee reliable baseload power when needed most.

We hope nobody has forgotten how (not) helpful renewable energy was during Winter Storm Fern…

There’s a difference between what wind and solar promise, and what they can deliver.

During Winter Storm Fern, these energy sources failed to deliver the reliable power our communities needed. It’s time for Democrats to realize our grid requires coal, natural gas, and nuclear… pic.twitter.com/mZWFpohqW0

— Energy and Commerce Committee (@HouseCommerce) February 10, 2026

We first highlighted Fervo’s potential in the geothermal revolution reshaping America’s energy mix, where enhanced techniques and big-tech backing are turning the Earth’s heat into a practical solution for exploding electricity needs.

This latest supply deal also comes just weeks after we covered the DOE’s $171 million push for next-gen geothermal field tests.

With over 470 Turboden plants operating worldwide, the partnership positions Fervo to deliver reliable megawatts wherever the grid needs them most.

In an era of relentless demand growth, that kind of firm capacity looks increasingly indispensable.
 

Authored by Jacob Burg via The Epoch Times,

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on April 8 threatened to file contempt of Congress charges against former Attorney General Pam Bondi if she doesn’t testify before the House as part of its ongoing investigation into deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The House Oversight Committee confirmed to The Epoch Times on Wednesday that the Justice Department had said Bondi would no longer appear for a congressional deposition on April 14 “since she is no longer Attorney General and was subpoenaed in her capacity as Attorney General.”

“The Committee will contact Pam Bondi’s personal counsel to discuss next steps regarding scheduling her deposition,” the committee said in a statement.

Ranking Member Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) said in a statement that if Bondi “does not come in to testify, we will begin contempt charges in Congress.”

“Our bipartisan subpoena is to Pam Bondi, whether she is the Attorney General or not,” Garcia said.

Committee Chair James Comer (R-K.Y.) issued a subpoena to Bondi on March 17 to order her testimony regarding the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files.

Democrats and several Republicans have accused her of violating the Epstein Files Transparency Act through the Justice Department’s piecemeal release of documents, and for redacting alleged co-conspirator names while leaving some victim names un-redacted.

Enacted late last year with bipartisan support, the Epstein Files Transparency Act mandates that the Justice Department publicly release all non-classified records related to the investigation and prosecution of Epstein and his convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) moved in early March to subpoena Bondi to testify before Congress. Four other Republicans—Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), Michael Cloud (R-Texas), and Scott Perry (R-Pa.)—joined Democrats on the House Oversight Committee to support Mace’s motion.

Bondi has repeatedly defended the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files and denied Democrats’ allegations that she was obstructing congressional oversight.

The Justice Department called the subpoena “completely unnecessary” at the time.

On Wednesday, Mace reacted to the news that Bondi will no longer appear at next week’s deposition and suggested the Oversight Committee may still subpoena her, now that the former attorney general is a private citizen.

“Pam Bondi cannot escape accountability simply because she no longer holds the office of Attorney General. Our motion to subpoena Pam Bondi, which was passed by the Oversight Committee, was for Bondi by name, not by title,” Mace wrote on social media.

“She will still have to appear before the Oversight Committee for a sworn deposition. The American people deserve answers, and we expect her to appear as soon as a new date is set.”

The House Oversight Committee also recently enforced subpoenas ordering former President Bill Clinton and former First Lady Hillary Clinton to testify regarding Congress’s investigation into Epstein.