In a candid interview with Human Events editor Jack Posobiec, former Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) alleged that blackmail and sexual honeypot operations are far more prevalent than the American public is aware of.

Cawthorn, who was elected to represent North Carolina’s 11th congressional district at just 25 years old in 2020, described the typical path these lurrid situations take. It often begins at donor dinners or late-night votes, when members unwind with drinks or head back toward Capitol Hill. While many lawmakers prefer socializing with fellow congressmen to avoid complications with staffers or outside interests, invitations can quickly turn strangely personal.

“Normally, the way I found that these things start getting off the ground is that it starts out—you’re maybe at a donor dinner or getting dinner after a late night of votes,” Cawthorn said. “Then, you know, everyone has friends inside of Congress, so you start hanging out with friends. Maybe you’re grabbing drinks, or on the way back to Capitol Hill, heading back to your homes.”

“Then you start building these relationships, and most congressmen like to hang out with other congressmen, just because there are so many problems when you hang out with staffers or people with different angles in other parts of the Beltway, the former lawmaker continued. “I will tell you, normally, the way I came across this is that people start inviting me and saying, “Hey, why don’t you come back? My wife would love to hang out with you, and we can see what could be going on here. I think we’d have a really good time if we all got together in this way.”

“Then you start piecing it together and say, “Wait a minute, what kind of invitation is this? This sounds really weird. What do you mean leave my phone at the house?” That doesn’t make any sense—these random things they’re saying. It becomes very clear what they’re looking for. That’s the big one—“check your phone at the door,” that kind of thing,” he added.

WATCH: Madison Cawthorn explains how honeytrapping operations work in US Congress

“Once they have you on video they own you”pic.twitter.com/OVGCx4a7s9

— Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) April 15, 2026

Cawthorn told Posobiec that he made it clear he had zero interest in such activities.

“I’ve got a phenomenal life. I was only 25 years old when I was in Congress, so that didn’t interest me whatsoever. I thought the majority of people in the United States were very cognizant of that. So I came out and talked about it, and they tried to destroy me for it,” Cawthorn said.

Cawthorn lost his bid for reelection in the 2022 North Carolina Republican primary, falling to state Sen. Chuck Edwards (R), who later went on to win the general election.

“I’ll tell you, there were 16 people that I really hold responsible – the architects of trying to take down my political career,” Cawthorn explained. “I want you to ask yourselves: out of all the people who came out against me or sent funds to make sure I was pushed out of Congress, where are those people now?”

“I’m very happy that I was able to take the majority of them down, or that the majority of them are now out of office or have terrible personal lives at this point. But I will tell you, there are so many people inside Washington, D.C., that have much worse on them than what’s going on inside of this video,” he concluded.

Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

Showdown

“Everything that’s wrong is staring us right in the face, and half this country simply will not join us in fighting and fixing it. It’s infuriating and depressing and maddening.”

– James Woods on X

The closer this Iran war comes to a favorable resolution, the more garishly negative the puling Lefty-left gets, wishing fervently for the enemy to prevail. Why? Because the Lefty-left is also an enemy of our country. They want the operation to fail so they can reclaim power and resume wrecking and looting the USA.

By the way, what exactly would a favorable outcome of this war look like?

An Iran that doesn’t threaten nuclear jihad and doesn’t sponsor endless terror operations here, there, and everywhere. It looks like we are going to get to that. Iran’s choice is how deep do they want to take their own economic collapse before capitulating? If they’ll just stop now, they’ll still keep the lights on. They can be a normal, modern, developed nation without a death wish.

Anyway, the paradigm Iran was operating in as a rogue state is dead, especially the malign influence of Britain’s banking and MI6 intel matrix. Britain, proven by its actions to be not a friend of America. . . Britain, a wretched little has-been island empire with bad teeth, overrun by wrathful Islamists, and, alas, soon to be a caliphate.

President Donald Trump has rearranged the geopolitical landscape with startling speed and efficacy. Much of Europe, it turns out, are not our friends, either. They would not let us use the NATO bases we pay for to conduct air operations over Iran. Hence, NATO is four dead letters. They can go dangle while they figure out how to live without oil, possibly go back to their centuries-long condition as a nonstop slaughterhouse, besetting each other with stupid, age-old feuds. Not our problem anymore.

China?

Their Belt-and-Road isn’t what it was just six months ago. Mr. Trump has kicked them out of South America. Their oil supply is suddenly sketchy. Notice, they didn’t lend a hand helping to clear the Strait of Hormuz. Turned out that the radars and air defenses they gifted Iran didn’t work too well. Uncle Xi Pooh Bear will have to re-think situation.

Mr. Trump says he might travel to Pakistan this weekend if there are papers to sign with Iran.

Israel and Lebanon announced a ten-day truce to sort out where things stand. Both of them want Hezbollah expelled for good. Anyway, Hezbollah can no longer enjoy financial support from Iran, meaning no more munitions or salaries for Hezbollah warriors, meaning Hezbollah is out of business — a major regional irritant neutralized. Can you dare to imagine a peaceable Middle East?

So, things have changed-up greatly in this long-volatile corner of the world, and that will leave Mr. Trump freer to attend to the discord and animus at home, namely the psychopathic Democratic Party’s non-stop demolition of political norms, with assistance from the bureaucratic Deep State and the NGO underworld.

Just at hand this week, we have Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard sending criminal referrals to the DOJ on two key players (both liars) in Trump Impeachment No. 1: former Intel Inspector General Michael Atkinson and CIA agent “whistleblower” Eric Ciaramella — whose name the news media still fears to speak.

That impeachment, over the so-called “Ukraine phone call,” was from start to finish a complete fake, a criminal conspiracy. It involves a much larger cast-of-characters including then House Intel Committee Chair (now senator) Adam Schiff, then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, CIA Director Gina Haspel, Chief Justice John Roberts, and virtually the whole Kiev US embassy staff at the time. Everybody involved was lying about one thing or another. The case is on Acting AG Todd Blanche’s desk now. Do you suppose it can just sit there?

It’s rumored that in the weeks ahead, Mr. Trump is fixing to conduct a declassification orgy of evidence unearthed by DNI Gabbard in the serial seditions run by US color revolutionists over the past decade. The presidential declass will obviate the usual tedious process of extracting declass permissions from every agency silo with a stake in the documents — meaning the evidence will go straight to US attorneys, including Jason Reding Quiñones, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, now running a grand jury out of Fort Pierce on the RussiaGate hoax.

Many of the players in that treasonous episode were involved in subsequent crimes against the nation: the 2020 election fraud; the Jan. 6 fed-provoked “insurrection” at the US Capitol; the fake House committee set up to pretend to investigate it; the Mar-a-Lago Raid; the multiple Trump prosecutions of 2024, the censorship campaign; and the manifold perfidious turpitudes of the “Joe Biden” administration, including the massive invasion of illegal immigrants.

It’s all going to come out now in one overwhelming puke-stream channeled into actual prosecutions. Only question is: will the massive revelation of truth prompt the millions of successfully brainwashed Americans to finally get their minds right over what has been perpetrated on our country?

Authored by Matt Margolis via PJMedia,com,

The midterm elections are coming up in November, and Democrats are generally favored to win the House, while the Senate is kind of a coin flip. While it would suck for Democrats to win the House because they’ll almost certainly find some bogus pretext to impeach President Donald Trump, there’s potentially more at stake regarding control of the Senate, including implications for confirming judges and potentially filling any potential Supreme Court vacancies.

No retirements have been announced, but speculation is mounting, and I’m starting to wonder if Trump knows vacancies are coming.

In a recent interview with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo, Trump confirmed he has a shortlist of potential nominees ready to go — and he’s prepared to fill as many as three seats if the opportunity arises.

“In theory, it’s two — you just read the statistics — it could be two, could be three, could be one,” Trump said.

“I don’t know. I’m prepared to do it. But when you mention Alito, he is a great justice.”

He added, “He does what’s right for the country. It’s the law, and he goes by it as much as anybody, but he gets to the point.”

High praise from a president who has been, let’s say, less enthusiastic about some of his own past nominees.

According to Fox News Digital, “Trump’s remarks sharpen the stakes around any potential vacancy, as the president has signaled he is ready to seize the opportunity to deepen the court’s conservative majority. With retirement speculation around Alito and Republicans eyeing the window before the 2026 midterms, the prospect of an opening is already putting fresh focus on succession politics.” 

Rumors about Alito, 76, potentially retiring have grown because of his age, his two-decade tenure on the bench and speculation that he may want to make sure a conservative successor is confirmed by the current Republican-led Senate, especially before the upcoming midterm elections in which Republicans are at risk of losing or seeing a diminished majority.

The rumors were further fueled when it was revealed Alito was treated last month for dehydration after becoming ill at a Federalist Society dinner. A Supreme Court spokesperson clarified at the time that the justice was “thoroughly checked” and returned to the bench the following Monday.

A source close to Alito insists he is not stepping down this term and is in the process of hiring the rest of his clerks for the next term. So at least for now, it sounds like he’s not going anywhere.

Yet, Trump is ready with a shortlist of replacements? Is that a tell that he knows something we don’t?

It could be. Or it’s just being prepared.

After watching some of his own nominees drift from his expectations on high-profile rulings, you can be certain he’ll be far more deliberate this time around. Whatever seats open up, expect Trump to treat the selection process with a level of scrutiny he may not have applied before.

The bigger picture here is worth appreciating.

No president since Ronald Reagan has reshaped the Supreme Court the way Trump has. His first three appointments — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett — built the current 6-3 conservative majority. Trump may have an opportunity to secure a conservative majority for decades to come.

The question is, does he know that he will?

Mother Nature across the Mid-Atlantic can only be described by the Katy Perry lyric, “You’re hot, then you’re cold,” as a meteorologist warns that a “tropospheric polar vortex” will sweep across the Lower 48 this weekend into early next week, abruptly ending the summer-like conditions in Washington, D.C.

“A bulging lobe of the tropospheric ‘polar vortex’ will be tracking through the Lower 48, bringing a cold front and much cooler air to the Eastern U.S.,” meteorologist Ryan Maue wrote on X.

He added, “We’ll wave goodbye to the nearly unprecedented mid-April heat wave.”

A bulging lobe of the tropospheric “polar vortex” will be tracking through the Lower 48 bringing a cold front and much cooler air to the Eastern U.S.

We’ll wave goodbye to the nearly unprecedented mid-April heat wave. pic.twitter.com/gcgSX0Xwzo

— Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) April 17, 2026

Folks in the Capitol Beltway will see a 40°F swing in high temperatures from yesterday’s 93°F to Monday’s 52°F, according to Bloomberg data.

Wild swing for DC high temps plus the forecast.

Average temperatures in Washington at this time of year typically run in the mid-50°Fs. Yet, like the Katy Perry lyric above, Mother Nature still cannot seem to settle on a steady rising temperature trend with Northern Hemisphere spring underway.

Related:

Meteorologists Warn About Super El Nino Event

Drought Engulfs 60% Of U.S. As Farmers Begin Spring Planting

Lefty MSM outlets would have us all believe that this schizophrenic weather is somehow because of cow farts and gasoline-powered cars and gas stoves, and we must be taxed to death to solve Al Gore’s global warming.

Authored by Tom Luongo via Gold, Goats, ‘n Guns blog,

This is the only chart that matters right now…not borrowing costs (@lukegromen).

It’s the weekly chart of Brent Crude.

I’ve been telling my patrons for three weeks in the Market Reports that the Brent Crude chart has all the earmarks of a market being manipulated UP to support a narrative…

That narrative is Donald Trump is a madman who broke the world and is losing in Iran.

Look at the chart carefully, you see big gaps between weekly closes and opens. Also, note the tails to the downside versus the wicks to the upside. Tails are much longer than wicks…. telltale signs of a market that has topped but someone is trying to keep reflating it.

Why? Many reasons, from speculations, positions, narrative control, etc. Markets are the sum total of all of these players.

But the reality is that you can only manipulate a market over a short period of time (H/T@armstrongeconomics) unless you control the total pricing system for that market… i.e. central banks and currencies…. and why the gold and silver markets have been manipulated for years.

Oil is a market of immense volatility, with 5-year moving average of its Range/Price topping 7% on a weekly basis, which is in bitcoin territory. It should be the most boring market on the planet, since everyone depends on it. But it isn’t.

It trades like a penny stock on a double espresso. (H/T Dennis Miller).

Someone profits from that volatility. Someone works with others to create that volatility. All Roads don’t lead to DeMoines, FYI.

Oil volatility is the enemy of certainty. It retards investment in some cases and redirects it to other less viable investments in others… c.f. Wind, solar, LED lights, and all this Watermelon (Green on the outside, Commie Red on the inside) nonsense.

If we want a world of predictability, which is the essential purpose of Human Action (H/T Mises, something most Miseseans have forgotten), then we have to accept that sometimes we have to defend our right to a predictable future.

And no amount of asking for it nicely is going to get us there. We were never voting our way out of this.

That’s why I’ve been in full-throated favor of this conflict with Iran. It’s why I allowed myself to see the world differently than I did previously.

The Federal Reserve is just a tool. It can (and has) been a tool for evil, but it can also be a tool for good, like all technology. This is why SOFR was the beginning of this war, and why this morning’s announcement by Iran is end of the current battle in it. It should still be deprecated in importance, removed from duties it was never designed nor been allowed to perform.

The same can be said for the US military, which has been a tool used to enforce the “tyranny of evil men” (H/T Roger Avery & Quentin Tarantino, Pulp Fiction) on Wall St., Bay Street, K Street, and 10 Downing Street. But, like the Fed, it can be used judiciously, to serve humanity with the right set of circumstances and the right mission.

It did so.

We’ve been blackmailed by evil people for generations to accept this lack of investment certainty to indulge our cynicism, or lack of faith in humanity.

We chuckled in “Collapsitarian” for too many years. And I, frankly, just got sick of it.

It’s pathetic and evil and we shouldn’t tolerate it in them or ourselves for another gods-damned minute. Period. It’s anathema to human life, common decency, and civilization itself.

This is the truth. And it all goes back to the intersection of selling narrative while hitting desperate people where they live and breathe… in their pocketbooks.

In the end, oil prices want to fall because the fundamentals are bearish (H/T @DoombergT). There is no Peak Oil. There is no Green New Deal.

There is only Zul…. okay, maybe not Zul. *grin*

This chart is your literal snapshot of a pricing control system being destroyed in real time… by one guy, Donald J. Trump, with support from his Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent, Sec. War Pete Hegseth and his merry band of warfighters, and his Sec. of State Marco Rubio.

He has both exposed and stolen London’s control over oil flows to support its centuries-old evil by the studious application of Gold (dollars), Goats (American Industrial Might) ‘n Guns (Brrrrrt!).

Stew all you want, haters. But, he’s done it. The Hormuz Blackmail is done.

Trump has his hand on the global oil spigot now… and he can turn the volatility up or down. The US is the global price setter now, like it or not.

… Why?

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.

An armada of at least eight oil tankers set off toward the Strait of Hormuz immediately after Iran’s foreign minister said the vital waterway was fully open to shipping.

Five of the carriers, which had been anchored north of Dubai, were moving into the waterway on Friday afternoon, soon after Iran’s foreign minister said it was completely open, vessel tracking data compiled by Bloomberg show. Three more, which were waiting about 70 miles west, have also begun moving in the direction of the strait.

Source: Bloomberg

The tankers moved despite reports in Iranian media that suggested the country was still seeking to impose restrictions. Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported that ships and cargoes linked to “hostile” countries would not be allowed through (in other words, no change from before). Passage via Strait of Hormuz will be closed if US naval blockade continues as it will be considered a violation of the ceasefire, the country’s Fars news agency reported. At the same time, Trump said that Iran-aligned ships would be barred passage as per the recently announced blockade until a ceasefire is finalized. 

The U.S. naval blockade continues… pic.twitter.com/EBvglrf6FA

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) April 17, 2026

Hundreds of tankers have been stuck in the Persian Gulf as a result of the Middle East conflict, and the decision to transit depends on the owners, captains and crews. Several ship owners earlier told Bloomberg they were seeking more information before they would be ready to consider transiting.

Earlier in the day, before the news that the Strait had reopened, we learned that a Greek shipowner whose vessels have repeatedly braved the Strait of Hormuz during the Iran war, sent through its biggest oil supertanker since the start of the conflict. The Atokos, a VLCC with a transport capacity of about 2 million barrels, signaled its location in the Indian Ocean on Friday. That would suggest it navigated Hormuz, with its digital transponder off, over the past several days.

The closure of the strait caused a surge in oil, fuel and natural gas prices as it choked off a swath of shipments and caused the region’s top producers to cut output. 

It’s not just tankers: according to MarineTraffic, today also saw the first cruise ship transit the Strait since conflict began. The cruise ship Celestyal Discovery has become the first passenger vessel to transit the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the conflict. The Malta-flagged vessel departed Dubai on 17 April after remaining docked

First cruise ship transits Strait of Hormuz since conflict began

The cruise ship Celestyal Discovery has become the first passenger vessel to transit the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the conflict. The Malta-flagged vessel departed Dubai on 17 April after remaining docked… pic.twitter.com/3wR1P6Lc6G

— MarineTraffic (@MarineTraffic) April 17, 2026

And merchant ships are also rushing to cross the strait before Iran changes it mind. 

🚢 Several Merchant Vessels that were anchored near the UAE have now decided to cross the strait of Hormuz, right after the recent announcement from Iran. https://t.co/XVDFQim98Y pic.twitter.com/dBXWs8Mgoi

— MenchOsint (@MenchOsint) April 17, 2026

If all the ships ships headed for the strait are able to continue their voyages into the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea beyond, their movements would be among the clearest signs yet that Hormuz might finally be opening up to shipping that isn’t connected to Iran since the war began on Feb. 28.

More importantly, amid the constant headline ping pong, there remains lots of confusion as to the actual state of affairs, although as we reported previously, the only thing that matters in this entire conflict is whether the Strait is reopened: in a few hours we will have the answer. 

Authored by Micah Zimmerman via Bitcoin Magazine,

Charles Schwab announced further details and plans in their attempt to launch direct spot bitcoin trading through its new platform, Schwab Crypto™, signaling a major step by one of the country’s largest brokerage firms into the digital asset market. 

The feature will roll out in phases over the coming weeks and will allow retail clients to buy and sell bitcoin and ethereum through existing Schwab platforms, the bank said. 

The move gives millions of Schwab clients the ability to trade bitcoin alongside traditional holdings such as stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds. Clients will access Schwab Crypto through Charles Schwab Premier Bank, SSB, which will act as custodian for the digital assets. 

Blockchain infrastructure provider Paxos will handle sub-custody and trade execution under a federally regulated trust structure.

“Clients want to conduct more of their financial lives at Schwab,” said Jonathan Craig, Head of Retail Investing.

“With Schwab Crypto, they can trade digital assets within their existing accounts while drawing on the service, research, and tools they rely on.”

At launch, Schwab Crypto will enable direct trading in bitcoin and ethereum, which together represent about three-quarters of global crypto market capitalization. 

Schwab will charge a transaction fee of 75 basis points on the dollar value of each trade, placing its pricing at the low end of the brokerage industry. Over time, the firm plans to add more cryptocurrencies and enable transfer capabilities for deposits and withdrawals.

Schwab said its platform will integrate digital assets across Schwab.com, the Schwab Mobile App, and the thinkorswim® trading suite. Clients will retain access to Schwab’s 24/7 customer service network, digital asset education through Schwab Coaching®, and research from the Schwab Center for Financial Research.

Charles Schwab is jumping into bitcoin

Joe Vietri, Head of Digital Assets at Schwab, described the launch as an extension of the firm’s broader digital strategy.

“Our goal is to be the destination of choice for retail investors who want to integrate digital assets into their portfolios with confidence,” Vietri said.

Paxos, a New York–based blockchain provider overseen by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, will supply the infrastructure that underpins the new trading offering. Its custody platform is already used by several global financial institutions seeking regulated access to digital assets.

Schwab already holds a strong presence in the digital asset ecosystem, with clients owning roughly 20 percent of spot crypto exchange-traded products.

The new feature expands Schwab’s reach beyond indirect crypto exposure through ETFs, mutual funds, and futures tied to cryptocurrency benchmarks.

The company’s entry into spot trading will position it alongside firms such as Coinbase, Robinhood, and Webull, which have long provided retail access to major digital currencies.

A record share of home sellers cut their listing prices in February as competition for homebuyers necessitated steep price reductions, an April 9 report by real estate platform Redfin said.

About 34.2 percent of sellers reduced their listing prices in February, up from 31.5 percent in the same month a year earlier, according to Redfin’s analysis of MLS data.

That was the highest February share since the firm began tracking MLS records in 2012.

The sellers who cut their listing prices reduced them by an average of $40,915, said Redfin.

That amounts to a 7.3 percent cut, the highest for any February since 2023.

Final sales prices could include further reductions due to negotiations on such items as closing costs, contingency fees, and other contractual stipulations.

“Price cuts are on the rise because it’s a buyer’s market,” said Redfin data journalist Lily Katz and senior economist Yingqi Xu.

“There are hundreds of thousands more home sellers in the market than buyers because buyers have been spooked by high mortgage rates, high prices and economic uncertainty. When sellers outnumber buyers, buyers can often negotiate on price because they have a lot of options to choose from.”

As The Epoch Times’ Bill Pan reports, in markets flush with new housing inventory, the number of sellers who slashed their listing prices was far more pronounced.

Nearly 60 percent of sellers in San Antonio, Texas, lowered their listing prices in February, Redfin reported, while slightly more than 55 percent of sellers in Austin, Texas, initiated price cuts, followed by Dallas (47.3 percent), Tampa, Florida (45.9 percent), and Fort Lauderdale, Florida (44.9 percent).

Homebuilding in Texas and Florida has begun to cool after years of growth and cyclical overbuilding, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported earlier this year. In Florida, home prices are being affected by rising insurance costs related to natural disasters, while condominium homeowner’s association fees have skyrocketed due to new safety regulations on older buildings more than three stories tall.

Conversely, sellers were far less likely to reduce prices in markets where housing inventory is limited. Just over 7 percent of sellers in San Francisco reduced their listing prices in February, with 11.1 percent of sellers in San Jose following suit. In Newark, New Jersey, about 13 percent of sellers dropped their listing prices.

Sellers who have been in their homes longer and have higher amounts of equity were less inclined to drop their sales prices, Redfin’s analysts noted.

“Many people bought during the peak of the pandemic market when home prices were soaring,” Katz and Xu wrote.

“In a lot of areas, prices have come down, meaning sellers are at risk of being underwater. Many of these sellers price high initially in an attempt to recoup their investment, only to find they must lower their expectations because the market has adjusted.”

Sales of existing homes rose by 1.7 percent in February from January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.09 million, according to the National Association of Realtors. However, sales were down by 1.4 percent year over year.

Authored by Luis Cornelio via Headline USA,

Leaders behind the 2026 FIFA World Cup rebuked New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill after she launched what appeared to be a social media campaign complaining that the state would be stuck footing the bill for public transportation tied to the event.

The 2026 World Cup is set to span multiple days, including eight matches at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium in June.

Estimates suggest the games could generate over $3 billion in economic impact for the region.

However, the state is expected to expand public transportation services, as has been typical for previous World Cup host sites.

The agreement between FIFA and New Jersey was signed under Sherrill’s predecessor, former Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat who left office in January.

“We inherited an agreement where FIFA is providing $0 for transportation to the World Cup,” Sherrill wrote on X, adding that New Jersey is expected to cover roughly $48 million in transportation costs.

“I’m not going to stick New Jersey commuters with that tab for years to come. FIFA should pay for the rides. But if they don’t – I’m not going to let New Jersey get taken for one,” she added.

FIFA pushed back, saying it was “quite surprised” by Sherrill’s remarks, as quoted by several media outlets.

“FIFA worked for years with host cities on transportation and mobility plans, including advocating for millions of dollars in federal funding to support host cities for transportation,” the organization said.

FIFA also pointed to the lack of precedent for such demands, noting that previous major events at MetLife Stadium did not require organizers to cover fan transportation costs.

FIFA have responded to this – and strongly.

“We are quite surprised by the NJ Governor’s approach today on fan transportation. The original FIFA World Cup 2026 Host City Agreements signed in 2018 required free transportation for fans to all matches. Recognizing the financial… https://t.co/ZHgGIIxo8n

— Adam Crafton (@AdamCrafton_) April 16, 2026

The dispute centers on how to move roughly 40,000 fans expected at MetLife during matches this summer.

The Sherrill administration has reportedly considered charging up to $100 per rider to transport fans from New York City to the stadium, located in East Rutherford, New Jersey, about 10 miles from Manhattan.

The logistics are complicated by the decision to prohibit parking at MetLife Stadium due to public safety concerns, forcing attendees to rely on mass transit, rideshares and chartered buses.

Critical Metals Corp. shares have surged as much as 45% in trading today after the company significantly expanded its position in Greenland’s Tanbreez rare earth project, tightening its grip on a resource it sees as central to a US-friendly supply chain, according to Bloomberg.

It marks the biggest intraday gain in half a year and lifting the company’s valuation to roughly $1.7 billion.

According to documents reviewed by Bloomberg, the firm raised its ownership to 92.5% by purchasing the remaining 50.5% stake it previously didn’t control from Rimbal Pty Ltd. The company confirmed the transaction in a statement released Friday.

With this deal, Critical Metals now holds a dominant share of Tanbreez, a deposit rich in rare earth elements such as terbium and dysprosium—materials essential for electronics and defense systems. The company describes Tanbreez as one of the largest known rare earth resources globally.

“We believe this important catalyst and hurdle now achieved helps to accelerate the approval by the Greenland government for permitting to commence mining,” said Analyst Tim Moore from Clear Street. He has a $20 price target on the name and sees the increased stake as  “positive with funding matching estimates and control change being approved after previous delays”, per Bloomberg. 

The acquisition comes amid a broader push by the US and its partners to lock in supplies of critical minerals and lessen dependence on China, which still leads the world in rare earth processing. Greenland, with its vast untapped reserves, has become an increasingly strategic location—though projects there remain costly and face regulatory hurdles.

Over the past year, Greenland has drawn growing attention from Washington, with renewed political and commercial interest reflecting its rising importance in global resource competition.

The island is no longer just a remote outpost—it’s becoming a focal point in the evolving economic and geopolitical relationship between Greenland and the United States.