MMN Editor

President Donald Trump flagged a pause in strikes targeting Iran and its power generation capabilities on Monday morning, taking to social media to declare his hopes for a peaceful resolution to hostilities sooner rather than later.
The post Trump Says ‘Good and Productive’ Talks with Iran Delivers Pause in Military Strikes appeared first on Breitbart.

The populist National Rally claimed a historic “breakthrough” for the party on Sunday’s French municipal elections, which saw major establishment figures fall by the wayside and the craven political partnerships made with the far-left prove toxic to voters.
The post French Elections: Le Pen’s National Rally Claims Historic ‘Breakthrough’, Establishment Erodes, and Far-Left Alliances Flop appeared first on Breitbart.

Gold’s Biggest Fire-Sale In 43 Years: Perception Vs Opportunity

Authored by Matthew Piepenburg via VonGreyerz.gold,

If you are new to gold, or if you are a speculator in gold (or even worse, a levered speculator in gold), you are likely asking yourselves what in the “H. E. double tooth-picks” just happened to gold?

It lost over 9% in the futures market in a single session and saw its worst week of price declines since February 1983.

What gives? Gold loves chaos, and isn’t the current war, whatever you think of it, pure chaos?

And what about gold-loving oil shocks, as we and others have often written and spoken?

And what about gold as an anti-inflation asset?

Shouldn’t gold be ripping north in a world careening under the weight of oil-driven “everything” and “everywhere” inflation?

All fair questions to say the least.

But if, like us, you hold physical gold (that rising, strategic Tier-1 reserve asset) as a superior store of value over any paper currency system, including King Dollar, then the facts below will seem far less like an “apology” for the metal’s longer-term horizon.

Physical Gold: Accumulating, Not Falling

Instead, a little bit of perspective confirms that PHYSICAL gold is not falling, it’s openly accumulating by bigger players enjoying the mother of all “Fire Sale” signals from the paper gold markets.

The insider whales, of course, are exploiting this opportunity while the headlines are shaking out the retail minnows. This is a classic and inevitable pattern, of which I recently warned.

In short, there is an extraordinary and deliberate perception game in play right now, and many misinformed investors might be falling for it as paper gold currently falls in price.

But this fall is strategic and not random.

It reflects a set-up for rising physical gold rather than a confirmation of some typical blow-off top, as there is nothing typical about gold or its future monetary role in a monetary system in open decline, regardless of the DXY’s recent headlines.

To better understand this, one needs to separate paper gold from physical gold. Their divergence is key.

One must also separate gold’s long-term preservation role (and investors) from gold’s short-term speculation game (and traders). They are not the same.

Most importantly, one needs to separate current headlines (and misperception) from longer-term historical cycles.

As said elsewhere, sophisticated gold investors, like hockey players, play the direction of the golden puck, not where it sits at any given moment (high or low).

And gold’s longer direction north is ironically clearer now than before.

But to better see gold’s secular direction north rather than its present position, we need to first understand how it got to this current price fall.

How We Got Here? The Official Narrative

In fact, for once, the official narrative out of Wall Street is at least partly correct.

It essentially argues that the war and oil-driven inflation is now so obvious that the Fed will have no choice but to once again raise rates to fight it. The ECB has already confessed as much for the Euro.

Rising rates, and hence a high-risk premium (and yields) for USTs, mean the dollar (and DXY) will go higher as institutional and retail money flows toward a higher-yielding bond and a rising dollar rather than a yield-less and falling gold.

This is not altogether untrue.

Until war made the headlines, the Fed was not only expected to pause any further rate hikes, but to, in fact, cut rates into 2026, which would have been a tailwind for gold.

According to the headlines, however, the winds of this war have turned gold’s tailwinds into headwinds.

In fact, this is hardly the end of the story. Not even close.

For those whose memory can stretch as far back as 2022 and 2023 when Powell’s “higher-for-longer” rate hikes were allegedly aimed to fight inflation, we discovered that such “anti-inflationary” tactics were actually, and ironically, just inherently inflationary and ultimately a tailwind for gold’s subsequent move higher into 2024 and 2025.

Then as now, rate hikes to fight inflation just make Uncle Sam’s interest expense on his $39T bar tab all the more expensive and unpayable unless he prints trillions in more synthetic (and inflationary) liquidity, a paradox (and debt trap) the fancy lads call Fiscal Dominance. And even the St. Louis Fed has confessed that the USA is indeed “dominated” by it.

Soon both inflation and rates will spike beyond the control of the Fed, and the only trick left up its tattered sleeves to save its bond markets (which is the only real mandate the Fed truly follows), will be mouse-clicked trillions to the moon.

The currency destruction that follows will send gold north as paper currencies, including the USD, get yet another reckoning of epic debasement.

Right now, of course, few see this reckoning. All they see is the paper gold price falling.

But such headlines (and errors) are only part of a larger story, one which far better explains the realities behind the current position of the golden puck.

How We Got Here? The Real Narrative

Gold, like life, markets and history itself, has a fascinating symmetry to it. And as Mark Twain famously remarked, history has a way of rhyming if not otherwise repeating itself.

Reason 1: The OPEC Selloff

As to last week’s paper gold fall, it rhymes a heck of a lot with its similar fall in 1983.

Then, as now, gold was falling due to a massive OPEC sell-off in the metal. But the trigger for the current OPEC sell-off in gold is being pulled for an entirely different reason than in 1983.

In 1983, for example, oil around the world was at a massive surplus. Its price was thus tanking. As a result, the OPEC nations needed immediate liquidity to meet their dollar pegs. So, what did they do?

They sold a lot of gold, and thus gold’s price fell dramatically.

But in the current chaos of yet another war in a key oil region, oil is not falling, it’s ripping north, with major banks predicting oil prices as potentially high as $180 a barrel.

Clearly, in such a setting, OPEC has no need for cash, right?

Wrong.

The Strait of Hormuz, where 1/5 of global oil moves, is literally clogged.

This means all that expensive oil can’t flow. And if it can’t flow, it can’t be sold. And if it can’t be sold, the OPEC players in that region can’t get paid. And if they can’t get paid, they need to sell assets from their piggy banks.

And that asset is gold. (Saudi’s gold piggy bank is around 300 tons. Qatar’s is over 100 tons.)

This makes our particular war uniquely hard on gold—but only for the near-term.

Regardless of the current headlines (and mis-narrative), the desire by central banks (and a de-dollarizing BRICS+ coalition) to replace USTs and paper currencies with physical gold will not change.

Thanks to Trump and Netanyahu, these bigger players just get to accumulate that gold at a literal fire sale rather than rising price.

Needless to say, those playing the longer direction of the golden puck’s price move (including Asia and China) are more than happy to buy this Tier-1 asset at the current discount, and that’s precisely what the big boys (and U.S. banks) will do.

As usual, however, the little boys (i.e., the uninitiated who saw gold as a get-rich-quick paper trade) are doing just the opposite. They are selling paper gold claims as the insiders are buying the physical metal. Retail investors are reacting to headlines rather than history, flows, pending QE spikes or longer-term investment horizons.

Reason 2: Whales Eating Minnows

As anyone who has spent their career in markets of any sector (from tech stocks to hard assets) already knows, most retail investors buy at price highs and get spooked out of bull cycles by the market whales throughout the ride up.

During 2025’s epic gold moves north, retail investors piled into the metal to speculate in the paper markets rather than hold physical gold as a preservation asset.

This seductive gamble came in the form of over $70B of flows into gold ETFs. And not just ordinary gold ETFs, but the kind that are levered 2X to 3X.

When gold is rising, such get-rich-quick speculators look like geniuses.

But when gold is falling, those levered positions (thanks to daily ETF rebalancing to cover levered margin calls) can be extremely humbling.

In short, those who live by the leverage sword almost always die by it.

The recent unwinding of levered ETF paper claims created the misperception that gold was falling in price, but this was just derivative paper pricing, not a true valuation metric to the price of physical gold, whose longer-term direction and valuation (as well as Shanghai premiums) are only in the first chapters of a much longer book.

The massive sell-off in levered ETF paper claims was just another buy-signal for the bigger banks, sovereigns and longer-term players looking to acquire the physical metal at a conveniently engineered paper price fall.

As we already know from the COMEX games played by the big banks, such engineered opportunities are Wall Street’s rules of engagement.

What we are seeing now is just whales buying discounted gold from terrified retail minnows.

That’s history repeating itself (rather than rhyming).

Shakeouts in bull markets are standard operating procedures. As warned just over a month ago, during gold’s massive bull market from 1971 to 1980, the metal got crushed in 1975-76 midway through its otherwise historical rise.

We Only Play the Long Game

In addition to the forces at play above, there are other short-term signals which explain the current paper gold slide.

This includes the endless array of robots rather than humans who do the bulk of the shadow-banking swing trades to justify short-term profit-taking.

When the robo-traders see a support line piercing, they follow the signals without emotion and sell the metals in concert. We saw this with gold in the spring of 2022 and the summer of 2023.

These endless regiments and brigades of robotic traders at hedge-funds A-Z don’t give a hoot about gold’s longer-term or future role as an evolving global strategic reserve asset any more than they understand gold’s historically undeniable role as a wealth preservation asset.

Algos think in terms of seconds, not years or cycles.

But as informed investors who know that precious metals hold their purchasing power infinitely better than paper currencies and IOUs, we respect gold’s past history as well as future cyclical direction.

For this reason, we were never gloating when gold hit its most recent all-time highs; nor were we wringing our hands when gold saw headline price falls.

For us, measuring physical metals in paper currencies or paper markets entirely misses the point, and critical understanding, of physical gold as real rather than melting (paper) money, and as a preservation rather than speculation asset.

Of course, most will say this is just our bias.

Fair enough.

But watch the BIS, the Fed, the TBTF banks and just about every other central bank in the world who have been stacking physical gold at 5X their pre-2022 levels for one simple reason: Rock beats paper.

What we are seeing in the current gold headlines is a buy signal, not a panic signal.

Tyler Durden
Mon, 03/23/2026 – 08:05

Part 1 of a five-part Fox News Digital series investigation follows the money that created the “Revolutionary Base” for a transnational network of organizations allegedly waging cognitive warfare on U.S. citizens on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party.As far-left American activists flood Cuba to support its flailing communist regime, U.S. officials have opened a sprawling investigation into an anti-America, pro-China nonprofit network forged during a wedding celebration in late February 2017, off Runaway Bay on Jamaica’s northern coast.There, beneath a canopy of palm trees, an elite cadre of activists, intellectuals, celebrities, political organizers and comrades in a global Marxist-Leninist-Maoist movement assembled to celebrate the “Revolutionary Love” of two luminaries, both 62 at the time: Neville Roy Singham, an American-born tech tycoon living in Shanghai, and Jodie Evans, a red-haired veteran activist and co-founder of CodePink Women for Peace.Like the opening scene of “The Godfather,” where powerful families consolidate power, the wedding celebration was about much more than the union of two people. Over four days of dancing, lectures and late-night conversations in venues from the Flavor Beach Bar to Sharkey’s Seafood, celebrating the bond of “Roy and Jodie,” alliances were formed that would shape protests, unrest and political agitation over the next decade, from the fiery 2020 scenes in Minneapolis to demonstrations today supporting the regimes in Cuba and Iran.That weekend, Vijay Prashad, an academic described in the official wedding itinerary as a “Marxist intellectual,” spoke on a panel, “The Future of the Left.” Medea Benjamin, Evans’ friend and CodePink co-founder, danced barefoot at the wedding in a bright Indian outfit.FAR-LEFT ACTIVISTS STAY IN 5-STAR CUBAN HOTEL AS ISLAND SUFFERS TOTAL BLACKOUTAccording to sources, the wedding attendees invoked the teachings of Mao Zedong, the 20th century Chinese Communist Party leader who ruled China with an iron fist, inspired by Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, and they discussed how to mobilize the masses to wage a Maoist “People’s War.” “The revolutionary war is a war of the masses,” Mao said in 1934.Many were themselves relics of the Cold War, growing up before the Soviet Union was dismantled in 1989.A months-long Fox News Digital investigation pinpoints the Jamaica wedding as a starting point for launching a network of organizations that is today waging a new “People’s War” on America, aligned with the Chinese Communist Party’s geopolitical ambitions to eclipse the U.S. as a superpower through economic programs like the “Belt and Road” initiative, realizing the vision of China’s ideological godfather, Mao, through trade partnerships, economic deals and pro-China propaganda.National security experts call it cognitive warfare.Over almost a decade, Fox News Digital has learned, Singham and Evans have activated a global network that now numbers an estimated 2,000 hard-left organizations that parrot anti-U.S. propaganda supporting autocratic regimes leading China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela and Gaza. Within activist circles, far-left critics refer to leftists who align with authoritarian regimes as “tankies.” Many groups and leaders from Singham’s network, including Evans and Benjamin, are part of the pro-communist convoy now in Cuba.Fox News Digital has established a documented $278 million that flowed from Singham into organizations that “sow discord” in the U.S., as House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith put it recently at a hearing on foreign malign influence in the nonprofit industry.According to the data, Singham created a base from which the U.S. is now one of the world’s most prolific exporters of radical pro-China communist ideology. Singham and Evans didn’t respond to requests for comment.CUBAN EXILES IN MIAMI SAY ‘THIS IS THE END’ FOR COMMUNISM AS ISLAND TEETERS ON COLLAPSEXi Van Fleet, a Chinese American who survived Mao’s purge of innocents during the Cultural Revolution, told Fox News Digital that Singham and Evans are following the communist dictator’s playbook.”Neville Roy Singham and his wife, Jody Evans, are bringing into the 21st century Mao’s dream for a People’s War,” Van Fleet said.Mao’s doctrine of the People’s War emphasized long-term struggle through decentralized networks, ideological indoctrination and the mobilization of civilian institutions rather than direct military confrontation. “They are bringing to the streets America’s worst nightmare of a Red Army that is seeking to destroy the United States and make China more competitive on the world stage,” said Van Fleet, the author of “Made in America: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Enabled Communist China and Created Our Greatest Threat.”FAR-LEFT NONPROFITS IN THE HOT SEAT AS LAWMAKER EXPOSES THEM FOR ‘SOWING CHAOS’ IN USSingham grew up familiar with Mao’s dictates.He was born in mid-May 1954 in Middletown, Conn., the son of Archibald Singham, a Marxist-Leninist scholar of Sri Lankan heritage, and Shirley Hume, who also adhered to far-left ideology. By his own account, he joined the League of Revolutionary Black Workers as a teenager and worked at a Chrysler assembly line in Detroit. FBI agents once attempted to interview him at the Chrysler Eldon Avenue Plant, noting in their report that he was “potentially dangerous” because of his “background, emotional instability” or role in groups involved in harmful activities “inimical to U.S.,” according to a copy of the FBI report released by the House Ways and Means Committee.According to the FBI report, Singham told the agents, “I don’t want to talk to you,” and walked away.Singham quietly built his Thoughtworks technology company through the 1990s. Meanwhile, Evans was campaign manager for Democratic politician Jerry Brown’s losing 1992 California governor’s race. After they exchanged vows in Jamaica, Evans called Singham her “adorable troublemaker,” her “darling Roy” and “adorable husband” in Instagram posts. Fox News Digital analyzed 223 transactions that moved $591 million in total across five continents from 2017 through 2025, the latest year available, and found the money flows through five concentric rings of an ideological pipeline that spreads pro-China propaganda:Last November, Singham walked through the doors of the Golden Tulip hotel in Shanghai for one of his rare public appearances, a two-day “Global South Academic Forum” conference blessed by the country’s ruling Chinese Communist Party, which the government officially calls the Communist Party of China, or CPC.Videos and images from the conference provide a rare public window into the messaging, symbolism and participants of a network that otherwise operates opaquely.The opening talk featured Prashad, Singham’s wedding guest, releasing a 172-page treatise written by Singham, chairman of the “International Advisory Board” of Tricontinental, a think tank Singham had funded and one of the conference sponsors. Another co-sponsor was the East China Normal University, which is administered by the Communist Party of China.In the report, “80th Anniversary of the Victory of the World Anti-Fascist War: Acknowledging Who Truly Saved Human History and Restoring Historical Truth,” which Fox News Digital has uncovered, Singham rewrote the history of World War II to elevate the role of China and the “Global South” in defeating Nazi Germany.On page 61, Singham blasted the West but held out hope it could be defeated. “Socialist peoples and leadership can defeat imperialism in any form – fascist then, hyper-imperialist now – despite every material disadvantage,” he argued. “That victory required genius, courage and unimaginable sacrifice. It also proved something imperialism cannot accept: ordinary people, organised and led with brilliance, can defeat any empire.”Singham then quoted Mao, saying that the brutal leader “crystallized this truth” in his book “On Protracted War,” when he wrote, “The richest source of power to wage war lies in the masses of the people.”In the paper, Singham diminishes the deaths of U.S. and British troops and servicemembers, writing that the Soviets and China really won the war with, “59.8% socialists dead, 13.1% colonised peoples dead – only 1% Anglo-Americans dead.”He also condemns British leader Winston Churchill’s “genocidal impulses.”About 23 minutes into his remarks, Prashad welcomed Singham on stage with two other colleagues and Singham took a bow to the applause of the audience members and said, “Thank you, comrades, friends.” In a video of the event, unearthed by Fox News Digital, Singham railed against “the fascist lie” of the West that “there is a battle between fascism, democracy and communism.”Singham articulated a view of global power that challenges the Western understanding of World War II and the postwar international order.”Fascism is actually a face of capitalism and imperialism, as is colonialism. These are the three faces of a system that is quite now becoming very dangerous for us.”He didn’t identify “us.” In the clip, Singham describes a “rules-based international order” that he argues is built on a “lie” about democracy. The excerpt is included for the purpose of reporting and analyzing the content of his remarks.He talked about the Americans and “their” failure to hold fascists accountable from the “anti-fascist” war. “If we want to, therefore, have a new world order that is based on multilateralism that President Xi and CPC and China have proposed, we have to undo the ideological damage that has been done by the narrative of World War II,” he said, using the acronym for the Communist Party of China, called CCP in the West.He ended by recognizing Soviet and Chinese fighters who died during World War II, and he urged the group to “honor” them for their underappreciated sacrifice. “China has a very important role, and we, in this forum, have a very important role,” Singham said, “that to envision a new order, a new multi-polarity order, requires, quite frankly, the deconstruction, a restorationist history of what really happened, who really suffered. Of those who died, almost 70% of the people who died in World War II were in China and the Soviet Union.”The comments reflect a broader ideology that reframes historical events and positions China’s communist system as the better alternative to Western “democracy.”Asked about Singham, Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Washington, D.C., told Fox News Digital, “I am not familiar with the specifics of this particular case.”Pengyu added, “As a matter of principle, however, China consistently upholds the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.”WATCH: HARDCORE SOCIALIST GROUPS STAGE-MANAGE ANTI-ICE PROTEST IN WASHINGTONAs part of this investigation, Fox News Digital tracked street protests from New York City to Berkeley, Calif., and built a database with thousands of pages of IRS tax filings, corporate records, social media posts, website content and other material. The investigation analyzed 1,663 events the People’s Forum hosted from early August 2018 and its most recent gatherings early this year. The events included academics and researchers from at least 225 colleges and universities that are being analyzed separately.The scale of what the couple built goes far beyond anything previously documented, revealing a network that acts like a transnational, asymmetric propaganda machine. It features a central headquarters, substantial war chest, defined command structure, propaganda wing and street-level foot soldiers. Its operations extend beyond the United States into multiple overseas theaters.FOX NEWS DIGITAL ANALYSIS: HOW MINNEAPOLIS AGITATOR NETWORKS USE INSURGENCY TACTICS TO HINDER ICEAt a protest in Lower Manhattan in early January, David Chung, organizing director at the People’s Forum, and Hannah Priscilla Craig, art, culture and communications director at the People’s Forum, walked away from requests for interviews.When approached by Fox News Digital at the People’s Forum offices in Manhattan, Brian Becker, a founder of the Party for Socialism and Liberation and the ANSWER Coalition, with operations at the People’s Forum, called the inquiries “witch hunting” and referred to a reporter as “a terrorist.” Manolo De Los Santos, executive director of the People’s Forum, compared the scrutiny to the era of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, who conducted congressional hearings into communist infiltration in the U.S. in the 1950s.Becker’s son, Ben Becker, editor-in-chief of BreakThrough BT News, a propaganda wing of Singham’s network, watched silently.Soon after, in mid-February, the Global South Academic Forum released a video, “The World Is Small, The South Is Vast,” featuring highlights from last fall’s conference at Shanghai’s Golden Tulip hotel. The video underscores how the Singham network has created a “Revolutionary Base” in which academic discussion blends with historical symbols tied to revolutionary communism.In the last seconds of the video, Singham stands at attention as a global communist anthem, “The Internationale,” plays, his comrades punching the air with their fists in solidarity.Niikolas Lanam, Kiera McDonald, Hannah Brennan, Mitch Picasso and Brooke Curto contributed to this report.

Carly Pearce is opening up about the complicated relationship between faith and identity that shaped her upbringing in the South.During a recent interview with Fox News Digital, the 35-year-old singer, who recently teamed up with fellow country star Riley Green for the sultry duet “If I Don’t Leave, I’m Gonna Stay,” reflected on the meaning behind her previously released song “Church Girl.”In the track, Pearce sings to a young woman who believes in God but wrestles with guilt and criticism from others for living outside the bounds of a traditional Christian lifestyle.CHRIS PRATT WARNS THAT HOLLYWOOD FAME AND SUCCESS ‘WILL KILL YOU’ WITHOUT STRONG FAITH FOUNDATIONPearce, who grew up in a religious household in small-town Kentucky, explained that she immediately resonated with the themes explored in “Church Girl.””I think why I loved it so much is because as a woman of faith, especially in the South, it comes with a lot of things from your childhood — you know, around sex shame or the judgment and guilt that a lot of us feel just trying to navigate living a life that’s Christ-like, if you will,” she said.”And I obviously have had my own share of those struggles, being somebody who’s gone through a lot in the public eye and obviously gone through a divorce and different things like that,” she continued. “And I wanted this song to be an anthem for anybody that’s on a journey to know that they’re seen and cared for,” Pearce added.COUNTRY STAR CARLY PEARCE ISSUES URGENT HEALTH PLEA AFTER BEING IGNORED BY DOCTORS: ‘PLEASE GO GET CHECKED’In October 2019, Pearce married fellow country singer Michael Ray, but she filed for divorce just eight months later in June 2020. The “Every Little Thing” hitmaker has previously described that period as one of the hardest in her life and admitted to feeling shame around her divorce.”I was embarrassed when it happened … and I had shame around that and was heartbroken,” Pearce recalled during an August 2025 appearance on Bunnie XO’s podcast, “Dumb Blonde.”While speaking with People magazine in January, Pearce shared that she also experienced spiritual guilt over the split. She told the outlet that she felt “Church Girl” was a song that she wished that she could have heard while she was growing up, saying that it helped her cope with the divorce.GWEN STEFANI DIDN’T KNOW HOW TO RECEIVE LOVE BEFORE FINDING ‘CHRIST’S LOVE’ WITH BLAKE SHELTON”I [also] needed it when I was going through a very public relationship splitting, and ‘Oh gosh, I feel like I’ve let God down of what marriage is,'” she recalled. “So many different things in my life that I’ve been like, ‘Well, does this mean I’m not a Christian? Does this mean that God hates me?'”Pearce continued, “I think what I have come to find for myself is I wish I could go back and tell her, ‘You’re OK, you’re OK, and we’re all on a journey. We’re all figuring it out, and no matter where you’re at on your journey, Jesus loves you. I know that.'”During her interview with Fox News Digital, Pearce reflected on what she hopes people who are struggling with their identity and faith take away from “Church Girl.”NICK JONAS ‘QUESTIONED FAITH’ AFTER CHURCH FORCED FAMILY OUT OF HOME DURING EARLY FAME”That you’re not alone and that we all have different struggles, and it is certainly not anybody else’s place to judge your struggle,” she said.Looking back on her religious upbringing, Pearce said her faith has remained an anchor through the highs and lows of her career.”I think I rely on my faith a lot,” Pearce said. “I think in a culture and in a business that’s so fleeting and up and down and such a roller coaster ride, I think it’s the thing that keeps me grounded.”CANDACE CAMERON BURE REFUSES TO LET CANCEL CULTURE TAKE HER DOWN DESPITE INDUSTRY BACKLASH”Church Girl,” which was released as a single on Jan. 23, will be featured on Pearce’s upcoming fifth studio album. Pearce has previously said that the album, which follows her 2024 release “Hummingbird,” will be a return to her Kentucky and Appalachian bluegrass roots.While speaking with Fox News Digital, the Grammy Award winner recalled her childhood in Kentucky as the foundation of her love for music.”I loved my childhood,” she said. “I have the best family. I had the best grandparents that really instilled in me the country music — like, the traditional country music and bluegrass side of music. They were the ones that shaped my view of the Grand Ole Opry, my view of wanting to be a singer. I got my start as a very young girl, 10 years old, singing in a bluegrass band traveling around in Kentucky. So those memories, you know, it’s where my love of music started.”COUNTRY STAR TRACY LAWRENCE SURVIVED BEING SHOT FOUR TIMES DURING MUGGING, SAYS ANGER NEARLY WRECKED HIS LIFEPearce explained that her upbringing still shapes the music she makes today, saying, “That girl that was 10-years-old fronting a bluegrass band with men in their 40s and 50s — I think about her.””She is still kind of the same girl wanting to sing music that can stand the test of time, not, you know, hide behind a bunch of help in the studio or different things like that,” she continued. “And I think that rootsy side of me will always be there.”Pearce and Green’s new duet, “If I Don’t Leave, I’m Gonna Stay,” will also appear on her forthcoming album. The sultry track explores the tension between two people who know they shouldn’t be together but can’t seem to walk away.’DUCK DYNASTY’ STAR SADIE ROBERTSON HUFF SAYS PEOPLE ARE ‘TIRED OF FAKING IT’ AND WANT ‘AUTHENTICITY’While speaking with Fox News Digital, Pearce reflected on whether she and Green drew on their own personal experiences to capture the push-and-pull dynamic at the core of the song.  “I think when you’re a storyteller and a songwriter and an artist, you have to kind of tap into different roles,” she said. “Neither of us wrote this song, which is a little different for both of us since we’re primarily both songwriters of our own music. But I think it’s very easy to tap into this feeling. I’m sure that both of us at some point in our lives have stayed in a relationship too long and let that wheel continue to pull us back in at times.”Pearce noted that she and Green didn’t record their vocals together but said she gave the “Worst Way” singer some guidance after laying down her part of the track.RILEY GREEN CHOOSES ALABAMA FARM OVER NASHVILLE FAME DESPITE HAVING ‘EVERY REASON’ TO MAKE THE MOVE”I gave a little bit of a blueprint as to, “‘You sing here, I’ll sing here,’ and he just nailed it,” she said.”If I Don’t Leave, I’m Gonna Stay” was released on March 13 alongside the accompanying music video, which leans into the story of the song and features Pearce and Green as a couple caught in a steamy, on-again/off-again relationship. The music video’s debut prompted fan speculation of a real-life romance between the musicians due to their noticeable chemistry.However, Pearce dismissed the dating rumors, telling Fox News Digital, “I feel like anytime any person is associated with another person in the public eye, people can do that. But you know, it’s make-believe. It’s show business, and we were playing the characters. But I think fans, they like to build up any kind of story that they can in their head.”CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTERGreen is making his acting debut in the new Yellowstone spinoff “Marshals,” in which he plays a former Navy SEAL named Garrett. When asked whether she had also considered embarking on an acting career, Pearce said, “It’s been something that I would love to do.”She continued, “I grew up doing musical theater and things, and I’ve definitely over the last few years read for some parts, and it’s funny — when Riley and I were doing the video, he asked me if I wanted to act. And so yeah, I’m definitely open to it and think it would be something that creatively I’m interested in.”LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLast month, Pearce cleared her Instagram feed, leaving just a single post, before she began teasing her new music. While speaking with Fox News Digital, Pearce shared why she had decided to make a fresh start on social media.”I’ve been doing this a decade, which is crazy, at this level,” she said. “And I think at times, especially in a world where social media is kind of the catalyst for all of us in the public eye, I think I just wanted to be — I think this is my most bold music. It’s the most ‘me’ music, and I think it was just wanting people to see that new is coming and to get ready for it.”Pearce told Fox News Digital that after a challenging last few years, she now feels like she is entering a new chapter in her life. “I think I’ve had to get to a place where I think society tells us to completely forget and, ‘Oh no, I’ve moved on, everything’s wonderful,’ blah blah blah. But I think I’m in this place of saying all of these things have led me to be in a place that I think is my happiest and healthiest and best season of my life. And I’m happy for all of the things I’ve gone through.”

American tennis star Danielle Collins caused a stir over the weekend after she claimed that a French player sent flirty messages to her on social media.Collins’ comments came off the court, as she appeared as a broadcaster for the Tennis Channel on Sunday. French player Corentin Moutet was allegedly shouting at Collins while he was warming up for his Miami Open match.CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM”I said to him, if you’re going to be flirting with me like that, you’re gonna have to get a bigger serve,” she said. “Some people think it comes down to height. Some people think it comes down to personality but really what it comes down to is big forehands and big serves.”It was kind of funny, too, because he unfollowed me after my viral dating profile when I said I wasn’t interested in the short kings. Come on people, you have to understand that I’m 5 (foot) 10 (inches), and for me, it’s fair. It’s just a preference. Nothing against the short kings, but he was upset about that. He messaged me, then unfollowed me. Then, he slid back into the DMs last night, asking me if I saw his match and all the big serves he was hitting yesterday. … He did win, but …”Collins, 32, said she didn’t think he had a “chance” with her, yet adding that Moutet would have to “bring a lot to the table.”TENNIS STAR MIRRA ANDREEVA ERUPTS WITH PROFANITY-LACED TIRADE TOWARD FANS AFTER INDIAN WELLS DEFEATMoutet denied the interaction ever taking place.”How can I unfollow you when I never followed you,” he wrote in response on X. “@TennisChannel how can you let someone say BS like this on tv. You followed me . You asked me for mixed dubs. And I’ve never even followed you.”You ready to say anything so people talks about you. You should learn how to love yourself so you won’t have to do stupid things for people loves. @TennisChannel good sport journalist.”Collins is the No. 99-ranked women’s tennis player in the world after reaching as high as No. 7 in 2022. She didn’t play in the 2026 Australian Open.Moutet, 26, and also listed at 5-foot-11, made his professional debut in 2014. He’s currently ranked No. 33 in the world. He reached the third round of the 2026 Australian Open.Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

The city of Las Vegas is going all in on March Madness as it tries to reignite tourism and reverse a growing slump. Resorts across the Strip are rolling out large-scale watch parties, sportsbook events and themed experiences tied to the NCAA men’s and women’s tournaments — drawing crowds for one of the busiest betting periods of the year, according to reports.It is estimated that Americans will wager $3.3 billion on this year’s tournaments — with Nevada historically seeing hundreds of millions in bets during the event, the American Gaming Association said.LAS VEGAS CASINO OWNER OFFERS UNIQUE DEAL TO ENTICE VISITORS BACK AMID SLUMPTravel advisor J.R. Longstaff, based in Florida, told Fox News Digital that the tournament continues to be a major draw for visitors.”Las Vegas is the ultimate sports fan playground to watch the NCAA tournament,” he said. “The city draws groups of fans to watch the games together on a grand scale, which helps boost tourism and sales around the city.””Las Vegas does everything bigger and bolder than just about anywhere else,” Longstaff added.He pointed to large viewing venues and all-day experiences centered around the games.TOURISTS IN LAS VEGAS PAY $1,000 FOR DINNER ON THE STRIP WHILE SHARKS EAT LIKE ROYALTYMajor venues across the city are leaning into that approach.Resorts World is opening its theater for large-scale viewing, while the Cosmopolitan is hosting its “Hoops and Hops” watch parties with stadium-style screens and games. Fontainebleau is also offering a massive viewing experience with an 80-foot LED screen and on-site betting stations, the website noted.The push comes as Las Vegas faces broader challenges in attracting visitors.CLICK HERE FOR MORE LIFESTYLE STORIESAbout 38.5 million people visited the city in 2025 — down 7.5% from the year prior, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.Gaming revenue on the Strip has also declined, falling more than 11% year over year in early 2026, the Nevada Gaming Control Board said.TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZFox News Digital previously reported that the slowdown has coincided with changing travel and gambling habits.In-person betting has become less common among younger visitors, many of whom now prefer online platforms.Some traditional attractions are also disappearing, as casinos adjust to shifting demand.A Resorts World representative confirmed to Fox News Digital that its poker room is closing at the end of March, leaving just eight poker rooms operating on the Las Vegas Strip.Robby Starbuck, host of “The Robby Starbuck Show,” previously told Fox News Digital that younger generations are moving away from traditional casino experiences.”Now nearly everyone under 40 who bets seems to do it online,” he said. “I don’t know one person under age 40 who goes to Vegas regularly to bet or play slots.”CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTERAshley DiMella of Fox News Digital contributed reporting.

Houthis protest against airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition on Sana’a in September 2015.
Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen are preparing to officially join the war against the United States and Israel as early as Monday.
Security officials cited by Israeli media indicate that Tehran and Hezbollah are actively pressuring the Yemen-based terror group to escalate and join the fight,” KAN reported.
The news outlet reported:
Security sources in the region told Kan News that pressure from Iran and Hezbollah is increasing on the Houthi rebels in Yemen to join the campaign, and that it is not impossible that this will happen in the coming days, with the end of Eid al-Fitr on Monday.
Declaratively, the Houthis continue to emphasize that they stand on Iran’s side and that they will join the campaign when developments require it.
Sources in the ranks of the forces opposing the Houthis in Yemen told Here News that in recent days the Houthis have increased their forces in the area of ​​the port city of Al-Hodeidah, which could indicate that they are preparing to join the campaign soon. 
An Iranian military official briefed local media today on the Houthis’ possible joining of the campaign in the maritime arena – blocking the Bab al-Mandab Strait in the Red Sea – in the event of an American ground invasion of Iran. 
The Houthi Foreign Ministry warned any foreign power against sending forces to the region and expanding the “circle of aggression.” The statement said that the Americans “have put themselves in a major strategic dead end” and are trying to involve others and drag them into the quagmire they have sunk into, but “the free elements among the nation in the region will not allow any foreign intervention.” It also said: “The Republic of Yemen is monitoring the developments and will take the appropriate step regarding them, and will not stand idly by.
Analysts warn that if the Houthis officially enter the war:

Red Sea shipping lanes could be targeted immediately, choking off one of the world’s most critical trade routes
Oil tankers and U.S. naval assets could come under direct attack
Saudi and Gulf energy infrastructure may be hit again, triggering a global energy crisis

Experts have long warned that the Houthis act as a strategic “force multiplier” for Iran, capable of stretching U.S. and Israeli defenses across multiple fronts simultaneously, The Soufan Center reported.
Nearly 30 oil tankers are already sitting vulnerable near key shipping routes, effectively becoming floating targets if the Houthis pull the trigger, according to The Times.
New York Post reported:

The Houthis have missile and drone capabilities which they used to harass shipping after Israel’s war with Hamas following the Oct. 7, 2023 attack inside the Jewish state.
Houthi spokesman Abed al-Thawr told Iran’s state-run Press TV “all options are on the table” and threatened a naval blockade against the US and Israel.
Iran and its allies are “going up the ladder of escalation, quite methodically, whatever is being done to them they’re, in turn, doing to the Gulf states” and other tactics, said Amir Handjani of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.
That is what Iran did in a revenge attack on two Gulf neighbors, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, after Israel struck its main natural gas field last week.
The post Iranian-Backed Houthis Poised to Join War Against U.S. and Israel as Early as Monday appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.