Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

U.S. forces seized around 2,500 pounds of cocaine and 105 pounds of marijuana in two separate maritime operations involving foreign nations.

In one operation, the Joint Interagency Task Force (JIATF) South and the Drug Enforcement Administration identified a drug runner from Colombia transporting narcotics. Forces from the Dominican Republic interdicted the vessel, while USS Billing secured the jettisoned cargo, JIATF South said in a May 12 post on X. Around 326 kilograms (approx. 718 pounds) of cocaine and 105 pounds of marijuana were prevented from entering American communities.

Earlier, in a May 7 X post, JIATF South said that forces from Panama intercepted a vessel near the city of Colon on May 1 under the guidance of the task force. The Panamanian forces fired warning shots, detained two smugglers, and took custody of 799 kilograms (approx. 1,761 pounds) of cocaine.

JIATF leverages its member nations’ capabilities to identify and monitor drug trafficking activity in maritime and air domains. The task force aims to interdict and seize illicit narcotics to disrupt their shipments, and diminish or destroy the transnational criminal organizations running these activities.

In a May 5 statement, the United States Coast Guard said it had interdicted a drug vessel off the coast of Haiti together with the United States Navy, taking into custody roughly 3,200 pounds of marijuana valued at roughly $3.8 million. One person was taken into custody and transferred to Haitian authorities.

Eighty percent of “interdictions of U.S.-bound drugs occur at sea. This underscores the importance of maritime interdiction in combatting the flow of illegal narcotics and protecting American communities from this deadly threat,” the Coast Guard said.

“Detecting and interdicting illicit drug traffickers on the high seas involves significant interagency and international coordination.”

Health Impacts, Legal Actions

According to a March 2024 post by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the short-term physiological effects of cocaine intake include higher body temperature and heart rate, dilated pupils, constricted blood vessels, and increased blood pressure. People may feel paranoid, irritated, restless, and experience muscle twitches and vertigo.

“Regularly snorting cocaine can lead to loss of sense of smell, nosebleeds, problems with swallowing, hoarseness, and an overall irritation of the nasal septum leading to a chronically inflamed, runny nose. Smoking crack cocaine damages the lungs and can worsen asthma,” the post said.

“Cocaine damages many other organs in the body. It reduces blood flow in the gastrointestinal tract, which can lead to tears and ulcerations. Many people who use cocaine chronically lose their appetite and experience significant weight loss and malnourishment. Cocaine has significant and well-recognized toxic effects on the heart and cardiovascular system. Chest pain that feels like a heart attack is common and sends many people who use cocaine to the emergency room.”

Other risks include stroke, seizure, bleeding in the brain, neurological problems, and Parkinson’s disease.

As for marijuana, short-term effects include anxiety, sleepiness, confusion, and an impaired ability to concentrate and remember. If marijuana is smoked, then blood vessels can be damaged. People may also hallucinate and suffer from paranoia, according to a March 2024 post by Health Canada.

Long-term effects include harm to memory, intelligence, and the ability to think and make decisions. The lungs may suffer from infections, bronchitis, and increased mucus buildup. Effects tend to be worse if marijuana use started during early adolescence.

The Trump administration has taken various legal actions against drug traffickers.

On May 13, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced that two illegal immigrants and two convicted felons were sentenced to prison for being part of an international drug trafficking and money laundering group whose operations stretched from Atlanta to Mexico.

The four accused were sentenced to prison terms ranging from five years and five months to 15 years.

“These defendants forfeited their freedom by choosing to poison our community and enrich narco-terrorists abroad,” U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said.

In March, a 26-year-old Mexican national illegally residing in Houston was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The FBI on Thursday said it is offering a $200,000 reward for information leading to the capture and prosecution of a former U.S. Air Force counterintelligence specialist who defected to Iran in 2013 and was later charged with revealing classified information to the Iranian regime.

A FBI agent at the Department of Justice in Washington on Feb. 12, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

The bureau said in a statement that Monica Witt served in the military from 1997 to 2008, then worked as a government contractor until 2010. She later defected to Iran in 2013.

In 2019, she was indicted by a grand jury in Washington on espionage charges, including transmitting national defense information to the Iranian regime, the FBI said.

After she defected, according to the indictment, she later provided information to Iran and put “sensitive and classified U.S. national defense information and programs” at risk, according to the statement.

The information she provided to the Iranian regime endangered American personnel and their families stationed abroad, the FBI said.

Witt is also accused of performing “research on behalf of the Iranian regime to allow them to target her former colleagues in the U.S. government,” the bureau added.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has launched attacks on U.S. assets in the region and recently attacked commercial shipping vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, has benefited from her defection to Iran, it added.

“Monica Witt allegedly betrayed her oath to the Constitution more than a decade ago by defecting to Iran and providing the Iranian regime National Defense Information and likely continues to support their nefarious activities,” Daniel Wierzbicki, special agent in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office’s Counterintelligence and Cyber Division, said in a May 14 statement.

Even though she defected years ago, the special agent added that the FBI has “not forgotten and believes that during this critical moment in Iran’s history, there is someone who knows something about her whereabouts.”

The FBI’s wanted notice offering a reward of up to $200,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Monica Witt. Courtesy of the FBI

“The FBI wants to hear from you so you can help us apprehend Witt and bring her to justice,” Wierzbicki said.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has said that she defected after being invited to two all-expense-paid conferences in the country that the DOJ says promoted anti-Western propaganda and condemned American moral standards. Before that, Witt had been warned by the FBI about her activities, but she told agents that she would not provide sensitive information about her work if she returned to Iran, prosecutors said.

It wasn’t immediately known why the FBI was bringing attention to Witt’s case on May 14.

The United States and Iran have been at war since Feb. 28. Tehran recently submitted proposals to Washington to end the conflict, which were rejected by the United States. This week, Iran allegedly attacked several ships in the region. A UK maritime agency said a ship was seized near the Strait of Hormuz and moved to Iran on May 14.

The Epaminondas ship during seizure by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran, in this image obtained by Reuters on April 24, 2026. Meysam Mirzadeh/Tasnim/WANA via Reuters

U.S. President Donald Trump on May 14 said that his patience with Tehran is running out and that Chinese leader Xi Jinping had agreed during talks in Beijing that Iran must move to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway through which about a fifth of the world’s oil passes on a normal day.

Anyone with information about Witt or her whereabouts is urged to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI. Tips can also be submitted to local FBI offices, the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate, or sent via tips.fbi.gov, according to the law enforcement bureau.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Chinese President Xi Jinping from May 19 to 20, just days after US President Donald Trump concluded his state visit to Beijing, the Kremlin has announced.

In a Telegram statement, Russia’s Foreign Ministry unveiled that Putin would travel to China “at the invitation” of Xi Jinping, marking the 25th anniversary of the Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation between Russia and China.

RIA Novosti/EPA

The readout indicates the two leaders will discuss expanding their countries’ “comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation” and exchange views on “key international and regional issues.”

“Following the talks, they are expected to sign a Joint Statement at the highest level, as well as a number of bilateral intergovernmental, interdepartmental and other documents,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

Putin is also scheduled to meet Chinese Premier Li Qiang to discuss economic and trade cooperation. While all of this was likely in the planning stages long ago, the timing and symbolism sends a resounding message, at a moment when ironically Trump’s China trip ended notably without any major breakthroughs on trade, or without resolving any aspect of the Iran war or Hormuz Strait crisis.

South China Morning Post notes additionally of the timing:

It will be the first time that China has hosted the leaders of the two powers in the same month outside a multilateral setting, a reflection of Beijing’s efforts to manage ties with both countries and position itself as a pivotal power amid an increasingly fractured world order.

Putin’s visit will also make China the first country to host all four leaders of the other permanent members of the UN Security Council within months of each other. France’s Emmanuel Macron visited Beijing in December followed by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in January.

However, Putin is a more frequent visitor to Beijing in recent years, and per SCMP: “Sources said Putin’s visit would not likely feature that scale of pomp, as Chinese officials had been busy with the Trump trip.”

But it will be a meeting among allies, and not rivals, after President Xi’s “no limits” alliance pledged with Putin just before the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

🇺🇸🇨🇳 Trump wanted to feel important after Xi invited him to Zhongnanhai, so he asked if any other world leaders had been there.

Xi told him it was rare… but that Putin had visited several times. pic.twitter.com/TwEJGwtM1m

— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) May 15, 2026

“Following the talks, they are expected to sign a Joint Statement at the highest level, as well as a number of bilateral intergovernmental, interdepartmental and other documents,” the ministry’s statement said.

Submitted by Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com

Pakistan has negotiated the passage of vessels laden with Qatari LNG out of the Strait of Hormuz in a diplomatic feat that no other energy buyer has managed so far in the Iran war.

Pakistan, which was the mediator of the U.S.-Iran talks and is passing messages from one to the other, appears to have used well its close ties with both Qatar and Iran to negotiate the successful imports of two tankers with Qatari LNG.

Pakistan has relied on Qatar’s term LNG supply for years, but the war in the Middle East has led to the shutdown of Qatari LNG production and exports.

Without Qatar’s LNG, Pakistan has been reeling from an intensifying energy crisis with power outages and fuel rationing.

Thanks to a bilateral Pakistan-Iran agreement, two vessels carrying Qatari LNG arrived in Pakistan in recent days after successfully passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

The first LNG cargo that successfully cleared the chokepoint earlier this month was bound for Pakistan.

“Qatar-linked LNG movement through Hormuz showed a limited but significant restart,” maritime intelligence firm Windward said on Thursday in an analysis on the five weeks of ceasefire.

The Al Kharaitiyat on May 9 became the first Qatar LNG cargo to clear the Strait of Hormuz since Iran closed it on February 28, headed for Pakistan. Another Qatari LNG cargo arrived in Pakistan this week after clearing the chokepoint earlier in the week.

“Pakistan will continue to coordinate closely with Qatar to ensure uninterrupted LNG supplies,” Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Petroleum, Ali Pervaiz Malik, said on Thursday during a meeting with Qatar’s Ambassador to Pakistan, Ali bin Mubarak Al-Khater.

“Pakistan’s preference is to secure supplies from friendly brotherly countries through necessary approvals, without risking any loss of life or property,” the Pakistani minister said, adding that “efforts are underway to secure additional gas supplies in view of national energy requirements.”

Authored by Susan Crabtree via RealClearPolitics,

Seven candidates vying for California’s governorship squared off Thursday in their fifth and final debate, with frontrunner Xavier Becerra facing down an onslaught of attacks from the right and the left over his policy record, a campaign fraud scandal, and what rivals described as a deceptive flip-flop on healthcare policy.

“This is what happens when you take the lead in polls,” remarked the former Biden Health and Human Services secretary after several heated attacks from his rivals.

Becerra’s recent surge to the top of the pack and his record spanning more than three decades in office made him a top target, continuing a theme from the last few debates over the last month.

An Emerson College poll released Wednesday showed Becerra as the top choice of just 19% of voters, compared to 17% each for Republican Steve Hilton and Democrat Tom Steyer – a razor-thin margin that underscores just how volatile and wide open this race remains with just a few weeks of voting left in the primary. Another 12.1% of respondents still remain undecided.

The debate, co-hosted by the San Francisco Examiner and CBS News California, focused largely on affordability as poll after poll shows Californians sounding the alarm and voting with their feet. UC Berkeley researchers recently found that California lost a net 150,000 residents in 2025, concluding that the state’s affordability crisis is likely responsible for the exodus.

Fraud Scandal Clouds Campaign

The debate came on the same day Becerra’s former political adviser, Dana Williamson, pleaded guilty to three felonies tied to a scheme to steal $225,000 from one of his campaign accounts. The connection runs deep in California Democratic circles – Williamson most recently served as Gov. Gavin Newsom’s chief of staff. Two other Becerra associates – former chief of staff Sean McCluskie and Sacramento lobbyist Greg Campbell – pleaded guilty last year.

Republican candidate Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host, did not mince words, pointing to reports that new evidence shows McCluskie informed Williamson that he had told Becerra about the scheme to use funds from a dormant campaign account to pay for his wife’s employment.

“You shouldn’t be in this race; you should be preparing your criminal defense,” Hilton told Becerra as the audience erupted in gasps.

Steve Hilton takes aim at Xavier Becerra (British-ly):

“We learned today that Xavier is implicated in this corruption scandal…that he knew about illegal and improper payments from his campaign account to his former chief of staff…You should be preparing your criminal defense.” pic.twitter.com/Hlgazh86Jd

— Brendan Hartnett (@BrendanHartnett) May 15, 2026

Becerra took issue with Hilton’s assertion that the talk show host lacks a law degree – at which point Rep. Katie Porter interjected that she is a lawyer and backs her GOP rival’s legal analysis. Just because Becerra isn’t implicated in the charging document doesn’t mean he won’t be in the future, she argued.

“You know that does not preclude an indictment from being issued against you,” Porter said. “We do not know what Dana Williamson said about your involvement.”

Katie Porter continued to rail on fellow Democratic candidate Xavier Becerra about a perceived lack of details for using state tax revenue to fund proposed projects at the final California governor’s primary debate. pic.twitter.com/tXkrCtxBnR

— CBS Sacramento (@CBSSacramento) May 15, 2026

Steyer also posted on X.com Thursday that Becerra “likely broke state law, and now he’s at the center of an ongoing criminal investigation.”

Becerra pushed back, insisting he “did nothing wrong” while repeatedly citing a U.S. Department of Justice spokesperson who stated that “no candidate running for governor has been implicated” in the scheme.

Becerra’s Single-Payer Flip-Flop

Becerra, who served as California attorney general after Kamala Harris, also found himself on the defensive over allegations that he privately told California’s largest medical lobbying group that he opposed single-payer healthcare – directly contradicting his public position.

Democratic billionaire Tom Steyer confronted Becerra on stage, noting that the California Medical Association’s president claimed Becerra told doctors in a private meeting he was “very clearly” not supportive of the policy. The group subsequently endorsed Becerra and donated the maximum allowable amount to his campaign.

“So, are they lying?” Steyer pressed, repeatedly questioning whether Becerra was willing to tell one thing to powerful interest groups behind closed doors while publicly endorsing the opposite position.

Housing Crisis Takes Center Stage

California’s housing emergency was a top focus during Thursday’s debate. The state needs roughly 2.5 million more homes to meet current demand, according to a 2025 state housing assessment, while the median home price has topped $800,000 – double the national median – and asking rents are approaching a $2,900 average statewide, the highest in the nation.

The candidates offered sharply different prescriptions. Becerra has campaigned on an insurance rate freeze and said he would declare a state of emergency to cut through the red tape strangling new construction, while Villaraigosa pledged to streamline the permitting and ordinance bottlenecks that have made building in California so costly and slow.

Porter focused on the mental health dimension of the homelessness crisis, calling for stronger care courts to get people off the streets and into treatment. Bianco defended his office’s practice of arresting homeless individuals, arguing that Riverside County pairs enforcement with meaningful mental health services.

And Mahan – whose work on housing and homelessness in San José has been cited by several of his rivals as a model – took the opportunity to turn the tables on Becerra, noting pointedly that the frontrunner still cannot explain how he would actually pay for his housing plan.

Gas Prices and Energy Policy

With California’s average gas price surpassing $6 a gallon Thursday, Hilton made the case for expanding domestic oil production off the state’s coast – a proposal long supported by the Trump administration but rejected by all the California Democrats in the race.

“The price is the highest in the country because instead of getting oil and gas from our own oil production here in California, we are shipping it 7,500 miles in giant supertankers, spewing out carbon emissions,” Hilton said. “In the name of climate, we are increasing carbon emissions. We need some common sense here.”

The candidates were sharply divided on energy policy, with the fault lines falling largely along partisan and ideological lines. Becerra noted that he has sued oil and gas companies in the past as state attorney general. Steyer, meanwhile, focused on accelerating the shift away from fossil fuels and criticized oil companies’ pricing practices, arguing that energy companies are “overcharging us dramatically” and that California should restructure the market and expand alternative fuel sources, including importing refined fuel if necessary.

When asked whether they support reopening California to offshore drilling, all the Democrats said no, while Hilton and Bianco said yes.

Abortion Extradition Becomes Flashpoint

One of the debate’s sharpest exchanges centered on whether a California governor should hand over a state doctor to Louisiana to face criminal prosecution for prescribing abortion medication across state lines.

Extradition would require Newsom’s approval – something he said he won’t do. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul rejected a similar Louisiana extradition request last year, setting up an ongoing interstate clash over abortion enforcement.

Both Hilton and Bianco said they would – a position that puts them squarely at odds with California’s current leadership and its sweeping reproductive health shield laws.

“This is not about abortion rights,” Hilton argued. “This is about one trying to undermine another state’s laws. We have a federal system.”

Becerra Denies Fraud – Despite $267 Million Scheme Exposed Last Month

Perhaps the most jarring moment of the night came when Becerra was asked how he would combat Medicare fraud as governor. Rather than offering a substantive plan, Becerra appeared to deny that fraud in California has been proven – a stunning claim given that just last month, Attorney General Rob Bonta announced charges against 21 suspects and the dismantling of a major hospice fraud scheme that defrauded the state of $267 million.

Becerra’s remarks seemed more focused on deflecting blame onto the Trump administration than addressing the very real fraud happening on California’s watch.

“Trump is now trying to deprive California of another billion dollars in health care for Medi-Cal,” he said. “He doesn’t have the right to do that. You still have to prove the fraud – he’s taking money, even though he hasn’t proven in court what’s been done.”

The Frontrunner Newsom and Others Won’t Endorse

Perhaps more telling than anything said during the debate is what prominent Democrats are refusing to say outside of it. Gov. Gavin Newsom, former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and Rep. Pete Aguilar all awkwardly declined to endorse Becerra this week despite his frontrunner status – and, given that Williamson served as Newsom’s chief of staff, the governor’s silence carries particular weight.

The reluctance of high-profile Democrats to throw their weight behind their own party’s leading candidate suggests either a lack of confidence in Becerra’s ability to close the deal – or, more cynically, a calculated decision to keep their distance until the full scope of the scandal becomes clear.

Becerra Repeats Pledge To Fight Trump

If you closed your eyes Thursday night, you might have thought Donald Trump was on the ballot for California governor. Becerra invoked Trump’s name more than any other candidate on stage – cramming references to Trump into a single 60-second answer six times.

The Trump fixation produced some of the night’s more eyebrow-raising moments. While defending his tenure as HHS secretary, Becerra turned to Hilton and boasted that he had worked to expand healthcare coverage to 300 million Americans – “far beyond what Donald Trump, your daddy, gave us.” Hilton, however, declined to take the bait, coolly noting he had no interest in “silly name-calling.”

When asked whom he would support if he failed to make the November ballot, Becerra – like most of his Democratic rivals – said he would back any Democrat on stage. But he quickly added that he could never support any Trump-endorsed candidate, taking a direct shot at Hilton.

“Because we would have a Donald Trump look-alike in the governor’s office,” he said, “and we can’t afford to do that.”

In California, tarring Republicans with the Trump label is a well-worn and successful path to victory. But Becerra’s over-reliance on it during the debate renewed questions about his ability to think on his feet and whether he has the energy and vision to carry a grueling general election campaign. He came across as notably flat throughout much of the evening, repeatedly falling back on the talking point that he sued the Trump administration more than a hundred times during his tenure as California’s attorney general.

While those lawsuits produced some court victories, repeatedly falling back on them doesn’t suggest someone looking to provide bold and innovative solutions to California’s crises.

It has been a punishing week for Becerra – a gaffe with a reporter that went viral, a guilty plea from a former aide in the campaign money scandal, and now a debate performance that failed to seal the deal. Whether voters ultimately care about any of these individual stumbles remains to be seen, but taken together, they paint a picture of a frontrunner who is treading water rather than pulling away.

Big Promises, Thin Plans

The debate’s sharpest back-and-forth on policy substance may have come when candidates turned their fire on what they characterized as Becerra’s chronically vague economic platform. At one point, Porter held up her notebook on stage and pointedly demanded that Becerra explain how he would actually generate the revenue to pay for his proposals – a theatrical move reminiscent of the whiteboard moments that went viral during her time in Congress.

As previously stated, Mahan piled on, noting that Becerra had not even released a comprehensive housing plan until just one week ago.

Becerra’s response was telling. Rather than laying out a concrete revenue strategy, he pointed to Newsom’s revised May budget, released Thursday, as a model for how he would handle fiscal matters. He then pivoted, as he has done repeatedly throughout the campaign, to his legal battles with the Trump administration.

“We fought, and we won,” he said. “We’re going to do the same thing again.”

It’s a line that plays well with the Democratic base but does nothing to answer the fundamental question Porter was asking: How, specifically, does Becerra plan to pay for anything?

Steyer had a mixed night of his own, making some forceful, clear points and positioning himself as the field’s leading progressive change agent, particularly on energy policy and moving California away from fossil fuels.

But he also delivered several convoluted answers that failed to land, leaving undecided voters with little new to work with. His debate performance, like Becerra’s, was unlikely to dramatically reshape the race – though with just two points separating them in the latest polling, even a slight shift in momentum could prove decisive.

The debate’s most memorable moment may have come during a discussion of California’s struggling public education system. Steyer, perhaps unknowingly, handed Hilton the perfect setup when he invoked a familiar adage: “There’s an old saying: If you keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome, that’s insanity.”

Hilton didn’t hesitate. “Then don’t vote Democrat.”

Final statements from the final California governor’s primary debate.

On the debate stage were Democrats Xavier Becerra, Matt Mahan, Katie Porter, Tom Steyer, and Antonio Villaraigosa, and Republicans Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton. pic.twitter.com/kjeTEdZsnL

— CBS Sacramento (@CBSSacramento) May 15, 2026

Susan Crabtree is RealClearPolitics’ national political correspondent.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned Saturday that the United States would face mounting economic fallout from its “war of choice” against Iran, as both sides appear settled into a long game of waiting to inflict the most severe economic and political damage on the other.

In a post on X, Araghchi said Americans would bear the escalating financial costs of the conflict with Tehran. “Put aside gas price hike and stock market bubble. Real pain begins when U.S. debt and mortgage rates start to jump,” he wrote in English. This isn’t the first time Iranian officials and state media have tried to directly appeal to the American public.

Araghchi also pointed to growing economic strain inside the United States, saying auto loan delinquencies had already climbed to their highest level in more than 30 years. “This was all avoidable,” he added, framing the start of the conflict as Trump’s ‘war of choice’ in the Middle East.

Of course, the Pentagon has a big card to play too, as on Saturday US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that four vessels in the Hormuz area were “disabled to ensure compliance.”

In an official statement it said that that since the imposition of a naval blockade on Iranian ports, 75 commercial vessels have been redirected and four others disabled to “ensure compliance”.

There is no doubt the US naval blockade is putting immense economic pressure on the Iranian government, society, and the energy sectors as crude shit-ins loom, or are in progress…

The internal Iranian regime narrative has shifted markedly in the past 72 hours. Multiple officials have now openly acknowledged Iran’s structural gasoline deficit, war-damaged energy infrastructure, and the urgent need for consumption management.

Fuel shortages and tightened…

— Miad Maleki (@miadmaleki) May 16, 2026

One Saudi-funded source alleges of the tightening hardship situation inside Iran:

Fuel shortages and tighter rationing are pushing drivers across Iran into a growing gasoline black market, with citizens describing long lines at gas stations and sharply inflated prices in messages sent to Iran International.

The accounts describe growing frustration over restricted access to subsidized gasoline and arbitrary limits imposed by operators, leaving many motorists dependent on costly unofficial sales.

…Iran uses a subsidized fuel quota system controlled through electronic fuel cards. Every private vehicle receives a monthly gasoline allocation at discounted prices, while extra consumption is charged at higher rates.

One citizen was cited in the same report as complaining: “One day there’s quota left on your card, the next day it says your quota is finished. They even steal the few drops of gasoline they give people.”

The standoff drags on, amid reports the Trump administration is mulling resumption of the bombing campaign:

“There is no military solution to anything related to Iran”

Iran’s FM Abbas Araghchi emphasizes that the country will resist any aggression or pressure.

Follow Press TV on Telegram: https://t.co/LWoNSpkJSh pic.twitter.com/YecgTUMuon

— Press TV 🔻 (@PressTV) May 15, 2026

However, US and Gulf media reports about the economic and political crisis inside Iran have often been somewhat exaggerated, in ‘hopes’ of anti-regime sentiment being stirred enough for some kind of new anti-government uprising. But that has yet to come, after months of war launched by the US and Israel. It seems Washington is still pinning its hopes on exactly this.

Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

Congratulations to Kevin Warsh on officially becoming the next Federal Reserve chair. Unfortunately for him, he may have just accepted the worst job in global finance at the worst possible moment.

Warsh was narrowly confirmed this week in the most partisan Fed chair vote in modern history, inheriting a central bank that has spent years under political attack while gliding straight into a macroeconomic minefield. Inflation just accelerated to a three-year high. Oil is higher amid Middle East tensions. President Trump is openly demanding lower rates. And now the bond market appears to be losing patience, pushing yields dramatically higher to end the week last week.

Friday was a perfect preview of the mess waiting for him.

On Friday, most investors spent the day staring at falling tech stocks as the S&P 500 dropped 1.24% and the Nasdaq fell 1.54%, but that wasn’t the real story. The real story was happening in Treasuries, where the 30-year yield ripped above 5.1% as investors digested hotter inflation data from earlier in the week and the growing realization that rates may need to stay higher for longer than Wall Street has been pricing in.

That’s where things get dangerous. Stocks can correct 5% and CNBC can fill airtime with “buy the dip” segments. Bond markets are different. When yields rise this fast, they tighten financial conditions everywhere at once. Mortgage rates stay elevated, corporate borrowing costs rise, commercial real estate refinancing gets uglier, and the federal government’s own interest expense starts ballooning.

And this is happening while the consumer is already showing cracks. Auto loan delinquencies are sitting near 2008 levels. Credit card delinquencies are hovering around financial crisis highs. Consumers are increasingly relying on high-interest debt just as inflation continues squeezing real wages.

That inflation problem is exactly what makes Warsh’s situation so miserable. CPI is still running at 3.8%. PPI is at 6%. Oil just moved above $100. This is not an environment where the Fed can casually ride in with emergency rate cuts or restart quantitative easing without risking another inflation wave.

Which is particularly awkward because Kevin Warsh has spent years arguing that the Fed became far too involved in financial markets and should shrink its $6.7 trillion balance sheet faster. He’s repeatedly pushed the idea that the central bank should stop acting like a permanent market backstop and return to more traditional monetary policy tools.

Very noble. Very disciplined. Very “markets need to stand on their own two feet.” And now he may be taking over just as markets are testing whether he actually means any of that.

Because it’s easy to give speeches about moral hazard when stocks are ripping higher, volatility is low, and everyone is pretending the economy is fine. It’s a little harder when the bond market starts throwing furniture around, long-term yields keep climbing, and every corner of the economy begins feeling the pressure at once.

Again, higher Treasury yields don’t just hurt speculative tech names—they ripple through everything. Housing activity slows as mortgage rates remain elevated. Corporate refinancing becomes more expensive. Commercial real estate gets squeezed even harder. Private equity exits dry up. Government interest payments balloon. Suddenly everyone from first-time homebuyers to Treasury officials starts having a very bad week.

And then there’s the stock market, which continues behaving like none of this applies to it. The Shiller P/E ratio is sitting around 42x—deep into “what could possibly go wrong?” territory. That kind of valuation only works if inflation cools quickly, rates fall, earnings remain strong, and liquidity stays abundant. In other words, it requires basically everything to go right at the exact moment a lot of things are going wrong.

That’s what makes this such a brutal setup for Warsh, as I wrote here: This Rally Ends In Panic.

🔥 50% OFF FOR LIFE: Using this coupon entitles you to 50% off an annual subscription to Fringe Finance for life: Get 50% off forever

If he lets yields continue climbing, he risks a broader market repricing, rising defaults, housing weakness, and credit stress that spills into the real economy. If he cuts rates too aggressively or restarts bond purchases, he risks pouring gasoline on inflation that is already running too hot. If he does nothing and tries to wait it out? Markets may decide for him.

That’s the problem with bond markets. They don’t care about academic framework. They don’t care about your carefully worded press conferences. And they definitely do not care about your long-term policy vision when they think inflation, deficits, and fiscal credibility are deteriorating in real time.

Just ask Liz Truss how quickly bond investors can humble policymakers.

So genuinely, good luck, Kevin. No sarcasm there. He’s walking into a non-enviable situation where inflation is sticky, consumers are weakening, stocks look euphoric, geopolitical tensions are driving oil prices higher, and the bond market may be on the verge of becoming the biggest source of instability in the entire financial system.

That’s not a soft landing, it’s a stress test disguised as a promotion. And while everyone else keeps obsessing over whether Nvidia is down 4% on a given day, Warsh should be staring directly at the Treasury marketl, because that’s where his real problems are about to begin.

—

QTR’s Disclaimer: Please read my full legal disclaimer on my About page here. This post represents my opinions only. In addition, please understand I am an idiot and often get things wrong and lose money. I may own or transact in any names mentioned in this piece at any time without warning. Contributor posts and aggregated posts have been hand selected by me, have not been fact checked and are the opinions of their authors. They are either submitted to QTR by their author, reprinted under a Creative Commons license with my best effort to uphold what the license asks, or with the permission of the author.

This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any stocks or securities, just my opinions. I often lose money on positions I trade/invest in. I may add any name mentioned in this article and sell any name mentioned in this piece at any time, without further warning. None of this is a solicitation to buy or sell securities. I may or may not own names I write about and are watching. Sometimes I’m bullish without owning things, sometimes I’m bearish and do own things. Just assume my positions could be exactly the opposite of what you think they are just in case. If I’m long I could quickly be short and vice versa. I won’t update my positions. All positions can change immediately as soon as I publish this, with or without notice and at any point I can be long, short or neutral on any position. You are on your own. Do not make decisions based on my blog. I exist on the fringe. If you see numbers and calculations of any sort, assume they are wrong and double check them. I failed Algebra in 8th grade and topped off my high school math accolades by getting a D- in remedial Calculus my senior year, before becoming an English major in college so I could bullshit my way through things easier.

The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I did my best to be honest about my disclosures but can’t guarantee I am right; I write these posts after a couple beers sometimes. I edit after my posts are published because I’m impatient and lazy, so if you see a typo, check back in a half hour. Also, I just straight up get shit wrong a lot. I mention it twice because it’s that important.

With Waymo robotaxis now operating in 11 major U.S. markets, these fully autonomous Jaguar I-PACE SUVs are becoming increasingly visible to everyday folks. This wider rollout means more public encounters and more viral footage capturing robotaxis in the wild.

One such incident occurred in a northwest Atlanta neighborhood this week, where residents told local media outlet WSB-TV that more than 50 empty Waymo SUVs flooded their tiny street.

“It’s almost every little cul-de-sac in our area, so I think it’s a problem,” one neighbor on Battleview Drive told WSB’s Steve Gehlbach.

The Battleview resident said, “I think yesterday morning we had 50 cars come through between 6 and 7.”

It’s not just Battleview; other residents in the area say empty robotaxis have been repeatedly circling their streets in growing numbers over the past several weeks.

Residents told the local outlet that the robotaxis are not picking up passengers, raising concerns that the activity is excessive and potentially dangerous, especially for families with children nearby.

Expect more stories like this as robotaxi deployment ramps up nationwide. We have provided readers with enough context about robotaxi deployments (see here and here).

Just wait until local resistance movements, similar to data centers, begin …

Via The Cradle

The UAE tried but failed to persuade neighboring states, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, to take part in a coordinated military attack on Iran, Bloomberg reported Friday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed (MbZ) spoke by phone with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) and other regional leaders to propose the coordinated attacks, shortly after the US and Israel launched the war on Iran on February 28, the sources said.

During the calls, MbZ argued that the states that formed the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) must act as a bloc to attack Iran alongside the US and Israel. However, his fellow Gulf leaders told him it was “not their war,” according to the report.

When Saudi Crown Prince MbS refused to go along with the scheme, already shaky ties between the UAE and Saudi Arabia were further strained. The Saudi refusal also contributed to the Emirates’ decision to leave OPEC and OPEC+, the oil-producing cartel, and deepen its existing ties to Israel.

The UAE ultimately carried out several strikes against Iran without support from other Gulf states in early March and in April. Iran targeted US bases and oil facilities in Saudi Arabia with drones in the first days of the war. Yet the kingdom focused its efforts on promoting Pakistani-mediated negotiations between Washington and Tehran.

Qatar considered joining the UAE in an attack after Iranian missile strikes hit Doha’s Ras Laffan Industrial City, the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility, causing extensive damage and major fires, a Gulf official said. However, Doha also ultimately chose to de-escalate and throw its support behind negotiations.

Bahrain, Kuwait, and Oman joined Saudi Arabia and Qatar in rejecting the UAE plan. One source said US officials were aware of the UAE effort and that Washington pushed Saudi Arabia and Qatar to join a coordinated military response.

On Thursday, the Financial Times (FT) reported that Saudi Arabia had “floated” the possibility of reaching a “non-aggression pact” between Iran and neighboring states modeled on the 1975 Helsinki Accords, which eased tensions during the Cold War in Europe.

The Saudi-proposed pact for the day after the US-Israeli war on Iran ends reportedly has support from several European capitals, which view it as “the best way to avoid future conflict” and have urged Arab states to support it.

The British daily cites an unnamed Arab diplomat who says that such a pact would be welcomed “by most Arab and Muslim states, as well as by Iran,” although severe concerns remain about Israel’s continued threats to reignite the war regardless of any deal.

Meanwhile, the two-day meeting of BRICS foreign ministers in New Delhi ended on Friday without a joint statement due to “differing views” on the US-Israeli war against Iran and the current situation in West Asia. The foreign ministers expressed “their respective national positions and shared a range of perspectives,” according to a statement issued by India.

The statement added that one member state had “reservations” about issues related to Gaza, as well as security in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait. 

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said during the meeting that “Iran is a country that cannot be divided. The era of American dominance is over.” He also singled out the UAE for blocking the ministerial BRICS statement, and pointed out its “own special relationship with Israel.”

An early Friday drone strike triggered a major fire at the Ryazan Oil Refinery, one of Russia’s largest fuel production facilities, according to local residents and Russian monitoring channels.

Residents reported multiple loud explosions after drones were seen flying over the city, with videos circulating online showing flames and thick smoke rising from the refinery.

VKontakte/Moscow Times

“An ASTRA OSINT analyst has determined that in addition to two high-rise buildings, an oil refinery in the city was damaged. Photos taken by witnesses were taken near the Olympic Town microdistrict, approximately 4 km from the Ryazan Oil Refinery,” one independent Russian outlet wrote.

Two high-rise buildings in Ryazan were also struck, resulting in significant casualties:

A Ukrainian drone barrage killed at least four people and ignited a huge fire at an oil refinery in the city of Ryazan on Friday, in what appeared to be a direct retaliation for a deadly Russian strike on Kyiv a day earlier.

Ryazan region Governor Pavel Malkov confirmed the deaths in posts on Telegram, adding that dozens of people, including children, were wounded in the attack. He said drones struck two apartment buildings and an industrial site, which he did not identify by name.

There were also reports that “black rain” fell from the sky after the refinery was struck, which adds additional confirmation to serious damage at the fuel facility amid the ongoing emergency response:

The strike sparked a fire at the Ryazan oil refinery, leading to what some locals described as an “oil rain.” Residents complained online of sticky black spots on their cars, windows, and building facades. 

Ukrainian sources have alleged that both the Ryazan refinery and Gazprom’s Astrakhan gas plant are considered critical components of Moscow’s war infrastructure.

Via Meduza

Last week a brief ceasefire held. Soon on the heels of the successful 3-day and US-backed ‘V-Day’ ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, Russian forces went on to unleash several days of drone and missile barrages on Ukrainian cities, especially the capital. Some 1,500 missiles and drones were launched in just 48 hours.

BBC reported Thursday that “At least seven people have been killed, including a 12-year-old girl, in Kyiv after Russia launched a massive wave of drone and missile strikes on the Ukrainian capital and other regions, officials have said.”

Ukraine launched one of its largest drone attacks of recent months, setting Russia’s Ryazan oil refinery ablaze and striking military targets across multiple regions.

The refinery processes 17.1M tons of oil annually and sits just 180 km from Moscow, The Kyiv Independent. 1/ pic.twitter.com/HhArH7sf6f

— Tymofiy Mylovanov (@Mylovanov) May 15, 2026

Sadly, the tit-for-tat ‘revenge’ strikes are only increasing, and more and more apartment blocks and civilian neighborhoods on each side have been coming under devastating attacks.