MMN Editor

Federal prosecutors have charged three individuals connected to server manufacturer Super Micro Computer, including the tech giant’s co-founder, with illegally diverting billions of dollars worth of Nvidia-powered AI servers to China in violation of U.S. export controls.
The post Market Shocker: Super Micro Co-Founder Charged with Sending Nvidia AI Chips to China, Shares Plummet 27% appeared first on Breitbart.

Licenses and certifications often get lumped together, but choosing the wrong one can stall your career.

Apple acts as a gatekeeper for big companies like OpenAI, Google and Anthropic.

Afroman did not defame officers when he made songs about a police raid that destroyed his front door but resulted in no charges, an Ohio jury has decided.In 2022, deputies from the Adams County Sheriff’s Office burst into the rapper’s home while he was away by way of search warrant in order to look for evidence of drug trafficking and kidnapping.’I didn’t win, America won.’As reported by WCPO Cincinnati, Afroman — real name Joseph Foreman — faced no subsequent charges, but he allegedly had a different mess on his hands. Afroman said officers tore his house apart, cut the cords of his video cameras, and even took his cash. According to CNN, officials later claimed their deputies had merely miscounted the money.The defamation lawsuit stemmed from multiple Adams County deputies who claimed Afroman used their likeness without permission when he included his security footage in a series of music videos.CBS News reported that Deputy Lisa Phillips said the rapper made a “derogatory” music video that questioned her gender and sexuality, seemingly referring to Afroman’s 2022 song “Why You Disconnecting My Video Camera.”However, just days before the trial, the artist released “Licc’em Low Lisa,” which has over 500,000 views on YouTube at the time of this writing. Footage has since emerged of Phillips crying from the stand as Afroman’s lyrics were played for the courtroom to hear.Furthermore, Sgt. Randy Walters reportedly said his child had been mocked at school over his inclusion in music videos. Afroman ended up releasing the song “Randy Walters Is a Son of a Bitch” on the first day of the trial, which had over one million views on YouTube in just four days.RELATED: Sean Penn and Ben Stiller: 2 Oscar no-shows, 2 VERY different excuses The most popular song of Afroman’s security footage genre was likely “Lemon Pound Cake.” The song has over three million views and pokes fun at a deputy who eyes up a lemon pound cake on the counter as he walks through Afroman’s house with a pistol drawn.After leaving the courthouse on Wednesday, Afroman said his victory was a crucial win for the First Amendment.”I didn’t win. America won. America still has freedom of speech. It’s still for the people, by the people,” the rapper told reporters.”I didn’t go down here and sue the police department,” he continued, pointing at the courthouse. “I fixed up the damages they made, and I sung songs about it to raise money to do it. They were unapologetic.”A small group of fans were seen cheering Afroman on in celebration of his court win, and the artist showed significant gratitude for their support.”I’m glad things went my way, but if they would have took it all from me, I was happy about all the love I was getting from everybody,” Afroman added, fighting off tears. RELATED: ‘I love being your mom’: How Best Actress Jessie Buckley made motherhood Oscars’ biggest winner “Afroman is a modern day civil rights hero and a true and living embodiment of the Hungry Hustling American Dream,” Grace Legal Group attorney Jordan Dixon-Hamilton, who is not representing Afroman, told Blaze News.”His victory in court against the group of thugs from the Adams County Sheriff’s Office in their baseless defamation suit is another testament to the strength of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment,” the lawyer added.Steven Lee Rachel from Baste Records, Afroman’s label, told Blaze News, “We support and stand by Afroman and his First Amendment rights.”Afroman had a final message to Americans as he celebrated with his supporters:”When life give you lemons, you make lemon pound cake.”Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Lin examines the role of the Consensus event in providing founders with structured access to the sector’s most influential decision-makers.

Bond Markets Are Beginning To Panic Over Inflation

By Benjamin Picton, Senior Market Strategist at Rabobank

Look To America

US equity indices closed lower yesterday but were comparative outperformers against European and Asian counterparts, which were roundly brutalized. The relative performance of equity markets reflects what is happening in oil markets, where the law of one price is being strained by a complete dearth of oil in Asia, a shortage of oil in Europe, and relative abundance in North America. The spread between West Texas crude and the more international Brent crude is now at its widest level since the Covid demand shock of 2020.

The oil market has fragmented: Oil is now trading for $150/bbl in Asia (except the occasional sanctioned Iranian tanker) where demand destruction has started. China and India most pressured.
Meanwhile it is still $100 in the US https://t.co/QweAyzEN0a pic.twitter.com/YyvgAMdMwl
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 17, 2026
At the risk of stating the obvious, the oil market is experiencing unprecedented tightness; the Brent prompt spread is current 4.55 sigma from the long-run mean. Dramatic as this is, it probably understates the severity of the situation in Asian markets where the loss of Gulf cargoes is being felt most acutely. The Wall Street Journal is today reporting warnings from Saudi Arabia that oil prices could spike as high as $180/bbl if disruptions persist into late April, and Reuters reported yesterday that Australia – a net energy exporter, but not of oil – is buying record volumes of products from ExxonMobil, BP and Vitol shipped from the United States.

Usually, Australia buys most of its oil products from Asian countries – especially Singapore. There’s a neat historical parallel here because 75 years ago Australian PM Curtin announced that “Australia looks to America” after the fall of Singapore to the Japanese. This time Australia is looking to America after the fall of the Singapore refining industry and confirmation overnight that the US will not be imposing export bans on oil. This will suit Donald Trump’s trade agenda and his efforts to corral tremulous allies just fine.

Speaking of which, it seems we are once again seeing signs that US allies may soon be doing things that only days ago they were indicating they would not do. Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Japan have issued a joint statement condemning Iranian attacks on oil and gas infrastructure and the de factor closure of the Strait of Hormuz, while also saying that they are ready to “contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait”.

It’s not immediately clear what this means. Presumably this is not declaring an intention to surrender and acquiesce to Iranian demands to pay a toll on commercial transits, so the most plausible interpretation seems to be that we are witnessing the formation of an international coalition backing American efforts re-open the Strait to shipping. This as news also emerged yesterday that a second US amphibious assault group is now headed to the Middle East, the Pentagon has asked Congress for $200m to fund the war, and as Benjamin Netanyahu said that “there has to be a ground component” to ensure the fall of the Islamic regime.

This all sounds like escalation, and bond markets are beginning to fret over the outlook for inflation as predictions over the duration and severity of the supply shock slide further towards the severe end. The Australian 10-year yield rose to its highest level since 2011 but the largest moves are happening at the short end of the curve where the two year yield is now up to 4.69%. Overnight index swaps currently imply a further 70bps worth of policy rate tightening in Australia this year, on top of the 50bps already delivered in February and March. UK 10-year gilt yields rose 11bps yesterday to 4.84% and 2-year gilt yields lifted by an astonishing 30bps.

The Bank of England and the European Central Bank both left policy rates unchanged yesterday, but were clearly hawkish in tone. The BoE said that it was “ready to act” if inflation pressures intensify, while also pointing out that existing slack in the economy means that the starting point for this energy shock is different to 2022. The ECB dropped references to being “in a good place” and reiterated its determination to ensure that inflation stabilises at 2% over the medium term, while making stagflationary updates to its economic projections. RaboResearch has now incorporated a rate hike as early as April in our BoE forecast, and a hike in April with the potential for a summer follow-up for the ECB.

In a meeting with Japanese PM Takaichi at the White House yesterday Donald Trump said that Japan had offered “tremendous support” in the war and reportedly indicated that he would be singing Japan’s praises when he meets with Xi Jinping in Beijing later this month. This is likely to be interpreted as a bolstering of the US-Japan partnership, coming as it does in the context of recent tensions between China and Japan over Taiwan.

Indeed, the China subtext behind recent U.S. policy actions is clear to anyone paying attention. Yesterday, the co‑founder of Supermicro and two other employees were indicted in New York for allegedly violating U.S. export controls by smuggling NVIDIA chip servers into China. On the same day, Trump and Takaichi announced a joint action plan on critical minerals aimed at reducing China’s dominance in global supply chains.

Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested that the United States may “un‑sanction” Iranian oil currently on the water that would have otherwise been destined for China, arguing that Beijing has been effectively funding a leading state sponsor of terrorism by purchasing discounted Iranian crude. According to Bessent, removing sanctions would lift Iranian oil prices to market levels and redirect flows away from China and toward other Asian countries who have been “good actors”. That’s as Netanyahu says that oil pipelines from the Arabian Peninsula to Israeli ports should be built in the future to prevent the world from being held hostage by a Hormuz blockade ever again. Needless to say, such a move would be an enormous re-alignment in favour of Washington and its allies. 

So, while markets understandably continue to trade based on the day’s headlines, the bigger picture is that the global order is shifting under our feet and ultimately determining the price action. Oil is scarce, alliances are hardening, and central banks are preparing for a world where supply shocks might be structural rather than temporary. Hard power is being used alongside economic statecraft to achieve strategic aims. As our Global Strategist Michael Every is fond of asking: “if lines on a map can move, how much more can lines on a Bloomberg screen move?”

Tyler Durden
Fri, 03/20/2026 – 10:40

Nearly two-thirds of Americans think that President Donald Trump will send U.S. ground troops into the fighting against Iran, a new national poll indicates.And a Reuters/Ipsos survey, conducted Tuesday through Thursday (March 17–19), also indicates that a majority of Americans, 55%, say they don’t support sending ground troops into the operation against Iran.The poll’s release comes as the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran are about to close out their third week.HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLLING Only 7% of those questioned in the survey said they’d support a large-scale strike by American ground forces, with 34% saying they’d back a more limited-in-scope incursion by U.S. special forces.Fourteen percent of Republicans surveyed said they’d support a large ground force operation, with 63% saying they’d back inserting special forces into a ground action. Twenty-one percent of Republicans gave a thumbs down to sending in American ground troops.CLICK HERE FOR FOX NEWS LIVE UPDATES ON THE ATTACKS ON IRANDefense Secretary Pete Hegseth, at a Pentagon briefing earlier this month, declined to rule out the use of U.S. ground forces.Trump said on Thursday that he was “not putting troops anywhere,” when asked by a reporter about his war plans.”If I were, I certainly wouldn’t tell you,” the president added.The military attacks by the U.S. and Israel have resulted in the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top officials, and the decimation of the country’s military.But Iran has retaliated with attacks against Israel and many of its other neighbors in the volatile Middle East.ONLY ON FOX NEWS: PENCE SAYS TRUMP ‘TURNED A DEAF EAR’ TO ISOLATIONISTS IN GOPIran has also targeted energy facilities with missile and drone attacks in a number of Persian Gulf nations. It has also made the Strait of Hormuz nearly impassable to commercial shipping, bringing to a halt roughly 20% of the world’s oil supply, which has sent fuel prices skyrocketing in the U.S. and across the globe.Most, but not all, national polls conducted since the launch of the strikes at the end of February indicate opposition to the attacks outweighing support, and the Reuters/Ipsos survey is no exception.According to the poll, which questioned 1,545 adults nationwide, 37% of Americans approved of the fighting with Iran, with 59% disapproving.But there’s a wide partisan divide, with 77% of Republicans but just 6% of Democrats and 28% of independents supporting the operation.

March Madness fans took an early hit in this year’s tournament as nearly 36 million brackets were busted on Thursday following a string of early upsets in the first round. The NCAA reported Friday that of the more than 36 million brackets filled out across major online sports platforms, roughly 14,000 perfect brackets remain through the first 16 games of the men’s tournament. At the very least, that’s around 35,986,000 busted brackets. CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COMThe biggest bracket buster was No. 9 seed TCU’s narrow 66-64 victory over No. 8 seed Ohio State, which left just 14.5 million perfect brackets intact. Nebraska’s first-ever NCAA Tournament win over Troy, which was a brutal 76-47 beatdown, eliminated another 2.5 million brackets. But it was the upsets that brought that figure down to over 14,000. High Point’s improbable 83-82 win over No. 5 Wisconsin as the No. 12 seed did the most damage, bringing down the total number of flawless predictions to just 2.3 million, and that figure was cut in half again when Louisville survived USF, 83-79. UNC COLLAPSES LATE, BLOWS 19-POINT LEAD IN SHOCKING OVERTIME LOSS TO VCUAs the day went on, that number dipped below the million mark. But TCU’s historic comeback victory over UNC left a little more than 300,000 perfect brackets. Saint Louis’ dominant win over Georgia and Gonzaga’s expected victory over Kennesaw State rounded out the day for just over 14,000 brackets intact, leaving only 0.039% of the original brackets flawless.According to the NCAA, last year’s figure after the first day was 36,000. The lowest in recent memory was in 2021 when only 121 perfect brackets remained. Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

French Aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle – U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Bela Chambers/ Wiki Commons
Have they learned nothing?
From late 2024-early 2025, we have been reporting here on TGP about the danger of utilizing the fitness app Strava, and how this technology was being used by bad players to unveil sensitive military data by forces in the west.
Strava fitness app has security issues that have long been reported on.
As you can read in: Popular Fitness App Strava, Used by Secret Service Agents, May Expose Location of Trump, Biden and Macron in Glaring Security Breach: Le Monde; and Negligent French Sailors Leaked Position and Patrol Schedule of Nuclear Submarines by Using Fitness App Strava
Now, more than a year later, the reports arise again, as a French sailor is said to have inadvertently revealed the location of an aircraft carrier by simply ‘recording a workout on his smartwatch’.

NEW: The location of the French aircraft carrier, FS Charles de Gaulle, has been given away by a sailor using Strava whilst jogging on the ship deck
[@lemondefr] pic.twitter.com/FuoKMAs06w
— Politics Global (@PolitlcsGlobal) March 19, 2026

The Telegraph reported:
“The sailor was running on the deck of the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier as it headed for the eastern Mediterranean Sea amid the growing conflict between the US and Iran on March 13.
He recorded the 4.3-mile, 35-minute exercise on his smartwatch, which was uploaded to his public account on the fitness app Strava, French newspaper Le Monde reported on Thursday.”
Location of a French nuclear submarine was also compromised back in early 2025.
The Charles de Gaulle is the French navy’s flagship, the only nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in operation outside the US military.
Macron gave a speech aboard the carrier, brought from exercises in the North Atlantic.
“’France is there to protect its own, to be at the side of its allies and friends who are being hit’, he said, explaining why he had asked his navy to carry out the maneuver. ‘Your presence today demonstrates the power of France, a balancing power, one of peace’, he added.
While the presence of the carrier in the region was ‘no secret’, Le Monde noted, the sailor had ‘revealed, almost in real time, [the ship’s] exact location’.”

A French military officer accidentally revealed their aircraft carrier’s hidden location with a morning jog.
The seaman left running app Strava on and went for a jog, tracing the real-time location of the ship. pic.twitter.com/BZr3bq8L88
— Pubity (@pubity) March 19, 2026

Read more:
Strava Security Breach Scandal: NATO Soldiers in Poland Expose Sensitive Data by Negligent Usage of Fitness App

The post Negligent French Sailor’s Usage of Fitness App Gives Away Location of French Aircraft Carrier appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

IEA Chief Warns Gulf Flows May Take Six Months To Restore After Biggest-Ever Energy Shock

The head of the International Energy Agency told the Financial Times on Friday that the world is severely underestimating the scale of the Gulf energy shock, and that it may take at least six months to restore disrupted oil and gas flows.

Fatih Birol described the conflict, now in its third week, as “the greatest global energy security threat in history”, and said it would take time “to have oil and gas rehabilitated”.

“It will be six months for some [sites] to be operational, others much longer,” Birol warned.

Attacks on energy facilities in the Middle East continued this week, with Israel unleashing a firestorm by striking Iran’s South Pars gas facility, which led Iranian forces to launch attacks on Qatar’s LNG facilities that may take three to five years to return to full capacity.

Both attacks signaled that upstream energy assets were no longer off-limits, though Israel has since promised not to hit any more Iranian energy assets.

Goldman commodities expert Daan Struyven said his oil team’s near-term view remains as follows:

1) oil prices will likely continue to trend higher while Hormuz flows very remain low,

2) Brent is likely to exceed its 2008 all time high if depressed flows keep the market focused on the risk of lengthier disruptions, and

3) any rise in market perceived risks of US export restrictions is likely to widen the Brent-WTI price gap further. (denied today… for now)

5 of the 7 Largest Historical Oil Supply Shocks in the Past 50 Years Were Persistent

In a separate note, Goldman analyst Yulia Zhestkova Grigsby estimates that total crude production shut-ins (primarily due to precautionary curtailments and storage management) have reached 9.2 mb/d.

Strait of Hormuz tanker crossings by the end of the week show muted activity.

Commodity chaos has already arrived:

JPMorgan’s New Hormuz Closure Math: Just 3 Days Until Commodity Chaos

The Most Important Number For The Market: “25 Days”

Iran’s Attack On Qatar’s LNG Plant Is Bad; The Math Behind The Global LNG Fleet Is Far Worse

Brent Likely To Exceed 2008 All-Time-High, Goldman Sees ‘Higher Oil Prices For Longer’

The hardest-hit regions from the energy shock are in Asia at the moment because of their heavy reliance on imported Gulf energy. Let’s not forget that diesel prices in the US have jumped above $5/gallon.

“The countries that are exposed to that supply disruption are not so much in Europe, or in the Americas, they’re actually really in the Asia region,” Michael Williamson of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, told AP News.

And now we have three oil markets: Asia (Oman oil at $167), Brent ($113) and US (WTI $97) https://t.co/uHmMD24E9G pic.twitter.com/41a4BhKOIA
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 19, 2026
Asia should prepare for “cascading impacts into all economic activities,” according to Ramnath Iyer of the U.S.-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

Is it only a matter of time before the energy shock in Asia spreads to the region’s financial markets? There are already signs of credit market cracks (read here).

Tyler Durden
Fri, 03/20/2026 – 10:20