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Jet fuel prices in the U.S. have more than doubled in a matter of weeks as Middle East tensions squeeze supply, fueling concerns airlines could run short of fuel.Prices jumped from about $2.17 to $4.57 per gallon by March 27, according to the Argus U.S. Jet Fuel Index. Airlines warn inventories could run dry within weeks, raising the risk of higher airfares and flight cancellations.Airlines are already adjusting. United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said the carrier will cut about 5% of planned flights in the near term as fuel costs surge, warning that if prices persist, jet fuel alone could add $11 billion in annual expenses.MAPPED: WHERE GAS PRICES ARE RISING THE FASTEST FROM THE IRAN CONFLICTUnited is also scaling back service during off-peak periods and suspending select international routes, including Israel and Dubai due to the conflict.Meanwhile, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said the jet fuel spike added as much as $400 million in costs in March alone. He said the airline is moving quickly to pass those higher costs on through fare increases.American Airlines also expects fuel to add about $400 million to its first-quarter expenses. The impact is also spreading beyond U.S. carriers.European airline chiefs, including executives from Lufthansa and Air France-KLM, warned that a prolonged conflict in the Middle East will push fares higher and strain already tight fuel supplies, with some cautioning that jet fuel could run out if disruptions persist.Airlines are already acting on those pressures. Air France-KLM plans to raise long-haul ticket prices, while Cathay Pacific and several Asian carriers are increasing fuel surcharges. SAS said it will cancel about 1,000 flights in April due to rising costs, while Qantas and Thai Airways are also adjusting fares and schedules.THE UNLIKELY TOOL TRUMP IS EYEING TO TACKLE RISING OIL PRICES AMID THE IRAN CONFLICTJet fuel, one of airlines’ largest expenses, is especially volatile due to thin inventories, specialized storage and limited spot trading, which can amplify price swings when supply tightens.The Middle East exports about 1.1 million barrels per day of jet fuel—roughly 15–17% of global consumption—according to Jaime Brito, executive director of refining and oil products at OPIS.Much of that supply moves through the Strait of Hormuz, where tanker traffic has slowed sharply amid rising regional tensions.Just 21 miles wide at its narrowest, the waterway between Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Oman is a critical energy choke point.The waterway carries roughly 20 million barrels of oil per day and about one-fifth of global liquefied natural gas, along with significant volumes of jet fuel.

Heavyweight Tyrell Fortune rose through the professional MMA ranks roughly a decade ago. It took until Saturday for him to secure his first UFC victory, though it did not come without drama.Fourteen years after being pronounced dead during a weight cut, Fortune now also adds a UFC win to his comeback.Fortune initially beat Marcin Tybura by unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night, receiving judges scores of 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28. However, cage announcer Bruce Buffer caused confusion by reading the scores incorrectly, announcing totals that favored Fortune’s opponent.CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COMThe error went unnoticed until Fortune had exited the octagon and headed toward the tunnel. Officials brought him back, where he was officially declared the winner.”I was so upset with myself,” Fortune said as he evaluated his performance. “I felt I didn’t do enough. I was just upset. With two weeks’ notice, I feel like I did a good job, but I also need to come with a better performance next time.”The former NCAA Division II wrestling champion’s path to Saturday’s victory includes a 2012 weight-cut incident that left him pronounced dead before he made a full recovery.He recalled the experience, saying it still doesn’t feel real years later. “I tried to forget about it for so long … because it seemed so far-fetched. Like, “Man. I died. Everything was over for a second, and I came back to life,'” Fortune told ESPN.”And it really changed my perspective of life in general and how I view just living life on a day-to-day basis. When you’re in a situation like that, you really start to look at your values as a person, and you see what’s important to you, because it was all self-inflicted.””It was just after my junior-college season, and I wasn’t a big heavyweight. I averaged around 220, 230 pounds. That’s in the middle of two weight categories. International weight classes are 211 and 265 pounds. I’m at 230. I’m like, ‘I can either give up this 30 to 40 pounds, or I can cut weight and be bigger than everybody at 211.’ So that’s what led to the decision to cut weight.”Fortune stepped in to fight Tybura on Saturday on two weeks’ notice after an injury withdrawal.Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

I’ll let you in on a little secret: In the performing arts, the most annoying people are puppeteers. This is because they make you look at their absurd creation of papier-mâché and then make you pretend it’s the most important thing you have ever seen.This is precisely what the “No Kings” protesters who take to American streets every few months represent. Even the ones holding insulting and crude signs instead of puppets demand to be taken seriously when they are anything but.The very name of these protests is a farcical facade, a false mask of faux outrage, because President Donald Trump is not a king. It is an argument absurd on its face, because, trust me, if Trump were king, the GOP Senate would have broken the filibuster and passed the Save America Act by now.If Trump were king, every Immigration Customs and Enforcement civilian worker would have been paid over the last month, instead of pinching pennies.LATE-NIGHT HOST JIMMY KIMMEL SHOWS UP TO ‘NO KINGS’ PROTEST WITH KIDS, HOLDS ‘ENOUGH ALREADY’ SIGNI also imagine King Donald would have gotten a few more of his judicial appointments approved.The notion that Trump just does whatever he wants is ridiculous. The man can’t use the men’s room without some Obama-appointed federal judge trying to block his access.Let’s take a look at some of the insane bloviations that the nation was treated to during Saturday’s cross-country protests.500 GROUPS WITH $3B IN REVENUES ARE BEHIND THE #NOKINGS PROTESTS AND COMMUNIST CALL FOR ‘REVOLUTION’Here’s what Hollywood legend-turned old man yelling at clouds Robert De Niro had to say at the No Kings Day event in New York: “He can’t do all the f—ed-up things that he’s been doing without the collusion of Congress and the goons in his administration.”That doesn’t sound like much of an almighty king to me.How about the congresswoman from Somalia, I’m sorry, Minneapolis, Ilhan Omar? This was her oddball take: “I could have never imagined the day would come when we were staring down at this kind of creeping authoritarianism.”‘NO KINGS’ MOVEMENT AND WHAT IT WANTS: INSIDE THE MESSAGE DRIVING SATURDAY’S NATIONWIDE PROTESTSOnce again, the nature of this so-called authoritarianism wasn’t explained.And speaking of Somalis, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz chose to center them in his remarks, insisting, for some reason, that “we’ll never leave the side of Somali Minnesotans…your great-grandchildren will be here when that orange clown is in the dustbin of history.”This of course assumes that there is room in the dustbin of history next to Walz’s own political career, which was destroyed when he let his beloved Somali fraudsters steal billions from taxpayers.MICHAEL SHELLENBERGER: THE LEFT IS GETTING PEOPLE KILLEDLet’s get back to this idea of puppets for a moment, because the No Kings protesters no longer just hold puppets, often of Trump doing something disgusting. They have literally now transformed into the puppets themselves.The inflatable frog costume made fashionable in violent Portland anti-ICE riots, and a nod to the furry sexual fetish, have now become ubiquitous at No Kings rallies. The message of the costume is “How can something so silly and fun be dangerous?”The rather obvious answer to that question is that when Democrats and the Left act like petulant children and refuse to fully fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement, innocent Americans like Loyola University student Sheridan Gorman are murdered by illegal immigrants.DAVID MARCUS: DELUSIONAL DEMS ‘ DANCING PET FROGS ARE ANTIFA THUGSYou never see any sad inflatable frogs at the funerals of our fallen.In the end, everything about these No Kings protests is fake. Everything is a mask, everything is a puppet, because the central claim, that we are ruled by King Donald, isn’t just hyperbolic, it is divorced from reality.CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINIONSadly, notwithstanding the fictional nature of the central complaint of the No Kings protests, the Left does understand the value of big, in-person crowds, and they will continue to not just garner biased national media attention, but will also fire up the Democrats’ base.This is why the news that the Republicans are moving closer to a midterm convention, with reports homing in on Dallas as a location, is welcome for conservatives.Though it is not in their nature, conservatives must have a greater footprint on the streets, and a convention is the perfect way to achieve that.In the meantime, expect the inane puppetry of progressive protest to continue unabated, and for the puppets and the protesters to grow more and more angry and unhinged. Because as long as Donald Trump is president, crown, scepter and orb or not, these people will continue losing  their minds.CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM DAVID MARCUS

Playing second base, hitting lefty, throwing righty — it’s just what people who are named Chase Utley do.It is not uncommon for parents to name their kids or pets after an athlete, but it is extremely uncommon to have the exact same first and last name as a professional athlete.Chase Utley was born in Alabama 10 months after Philadelphia Phillies legend Chase Utley, helped lead the team to a World Series title in 2008.CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COMThe older Chase Utley played 16 seasons in the big leagues, hitting lefty, throwing right-handed, and playing second base, and was just named to the Phillies Wall of Fame. The younger Chase Utley hopes his baseball career ends with similar recognition.The younger Chase Utley’s parents, Brian and Amanda, came around to naming their son Chase in different ways.For Brian, he is a big baseball fan and knew who Chase Utley was before naming his son Chase.”I grew up a big baseball fan. Followed the game very closely, and I absolutely knew who Chase Utley was, of course, and have been following his career,” Brian told Fox News Digital in a recent interview. “To date it, our Chase was born in August of 2009, so that would have been (during) the second World Series run for the Phillies, so it was very top of mind. The name just kind of rolls off the tongue when your name’s already Utley. It was something that I wanted. I had to be sensitive to my wife’s desires for sure.”Amanda Utley thought of the name Chase independently of the Phillies great. When she suggested the name to her husband, she was informed of the coincidence and was turned off by the name.”I didn’t know there was a Chase Utley, and I just thought of the name Chase and thought it sounded great. I’ve always liked that name. And so, when I suggested it, (Brian) said, ‘Well, as a matter of fact,’ and he tells me all about Chase Utley. And so, I was like, ‘Oh, never mind then.’ You know, that’s weird. I don’t think we’re going to want to name him after somebody,” Amanda told Fox News Digital in a recent interview.DODGERS PITCHER’S WIFE LIVES THROUGH ‘BITTER SWEET’ OPENING DAY MONTHS AFTER INFANT DAUGHTER’S DEATHHowever, as she went throughout the pregnancy, she vetted Brian about the person Chase Utley is.”The more we kind of went through the pregnancy, I didn’t find another name I liked better. And, so then I kind of was like, ‘Well, is Chase Utley a good guy? Is he a good leader? Is he a jerk in the locker room?’ You know, all the things. He was like, ‘No, he’s an awesome guy and he would he’s a great role model. He’s probably going to be in the Hall of Fame one year.’ I said, ‘Well, then are we going to get made fun of if we do this?’ And he said, ‘No, I don’t think so.’ So, that’s where that’s where that came from for me. I just really liked the name,” Amanda said.So, the couple settled on Chase.The older Chase Utley said he has met a handful of kids named after him, but never someone with his exact same name.”But honestly, the last name at least, I’ve never met another person named the last name Utley other than my family members. So, they put them both together is extremely unique. And the fact that a young baseball player plays the same position as we mentioned, I think it’s very cool and very unique,” the older Chase Utley told Fox News Digital in a recent interview.The elder Chase Utley is no stranger to people naming their kids after him. He has been told families have named their pets after him.”I actually met several kids or parents that mentioned that they named their son or their dog, or their cats, or their bird. There’s I think there was a fish was named after me,” Utley said.GUARDIANS ROOKIE HAS HISTORIC TWO-HOMER PERFORMANCE IN REGULAR-SEASON DEBUT: ‘HE’S NOT FROM THIS PLANET’The younger Chase Utley thinks it is “super cool” to be named after the World Series champion.”Well, obviously I was born kind of at the peak of his career. I was born in 2009 back whenever they were they went on that two World Series run. So it took me a minute to really just kind of understand that,” the younger Chase Utley told Fox News Digital.”But when I kind of realized it and I got to really know and learn about the player that he is and the great leader and great competitor that he was, I mean, it’s super cool to be named after a player like that, especially a player that’s like fun to look up to and model a game, model my game after. It’s awesome to be named after him.”The younger Chase Utley did not choose to bat lefty, throw right-handed and play second base solely because of his name. He also plays shortstop and is listed as a right-handed pitcher on Perfect Game’s website. Perfect Game is the largest and most comprehensive scouting organization in youth baseball.The younger Utley said it all fell into place that way and credited his dad for molding him into the player he is.”Well, from a young age, my dad’s been my coach and my dad’s been a great teacher and coach for me just and he kind of molded me into the player that I am he kind of stuck me on the tee on the left side whenever I started to hit and  obvious like I got a lot of athleticism from him and always have worked on being a great athlete with him,” the younger Chase Utley said.”That sets me up good to be a good middle infielder. So yeah, it just kind of all fell into place to where I was a lefty bat and righty thrower playing both shortstop and second base and yeah, so yeah, it just kind of all fell into place and it’s great to even play the same position that he did.”ROGER CLEMENS REVEALS WHY PRESIDENT BUSH’S ‘PERFECT STRIKE’ AFTER 9/11 MADE HIM PROUD TO BE AN AMERICANPerfect Game’s vice president of scouting, Jered Goodwin, told Fox News Digital that the younger Utley is on the trajectory of being a Division I college baseball player. Goodwin praised his ability to hit and is looking forward to his maturation process.Goodwin said the younger Utley’s athleticism caught his eye.”One thing that that caught my eye and through the conversations I’ve had and what I got to see last summer, he is athletic enough to be versatile, go out and have a role at a four-year school just because he can play multiple spots. He swings from the correct side of the plate, and he does hit,” Goodwin told Fox News Digital in a recent interview.The younger Chase Utley is not just opening eyes with his play at baseball tournaments, but has also caused chaos at baseball tournaments for his name alone.Umpires have approached Brian Utley at baseball tournaments, confusing him for the older Chase Utley.”There was this one instance where I was playing and my dad was coaching and we had two games earlier in the day and then we left on a game break for lunch. We come back and it might have been started by an umpire or a parent but there was a buzz like a rumor going around the ballpark that Chase Utley was there and he was coaching his son while his son was playing as me and my dad is Chase Utley,” the younger Chase Utley said.”And there’s been other instances where umpires have gone up to my dad thinking that he was Chase Utley and he was coaching his son and talking to him about his career and everything.”The younger Chase Utley said he frequently gets asked throughout the baseball season by opponents if he is named after or related to the older Chase Utley.Brian Utley said whenever his son is announced to hit, it causes a stir among the crowd.”We had a game last night and uh as he comes up to bat, you hear it. Hey, now batting number four, Chase Utley. And I always recognize a little bit of a discussion or I always can see it in the stands every time he comes up for the first time usually because the name called out,” Brian said.CUBS WORLD SERIES CHAMPION, BRAVES STAR JASON HEYWARD ANNOUNCES MLB RETIREMENTBrian Utley said he gets asked frequently if he intentionally named Chase after the older Chase Utley, which he affirms. Amanda Utley said she had a friend who had known their Chase for years and one day saw a baseball player on television named Chase Utley, and wondered if Brian and Amanda were aware of the other Chase Utley.”Most of the time when people ask, ‘Do you know?’ the follow-up is, ‘Did you do that on purpose?’ And so it’s kind of, sort of,” Amanda said.While Brian knew who Chase Utley was, he is not a Phillies fan. He grew up a Kansas City Royals fan in the 1980s, and the family’s favorite team is the Royals.The family named their dog Slugger after the Royals mascot.While the Royals are the Utleys favorite team, they do root for the Phillies. The younger Chase Utley called them their second-favorite team.The older Chase Utley said he was at spring training in Clearwater, Florida, when a family came up to him and told him that they named their son after him.The Utley family had not reached out to the older Chase to let him know they named their son after him.”We haven’t had that kind of nerve,” Brian said with a laugh.While they haven’t yet met, there are plans to meet in the future. The elder Chase Utley said they will meet in person over the next several months, maybe after a Zoom for their initial introduction.The ex-ballplayer said he is looking forward to meeting the younger Chase Utley.”I’d love to shake his hand and have a good conversation. I hopefully we can talk a little baseball and second base and hopefully have some great questions that I can. Hopefully I can provide some good answers for him. But yeah, just to meet someone, with your same exact name, that doesn’t happen very often, at least for me. So it’ll be a great experience,” the older Chase Utley said.Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

Former college football star Johnny Manziel was among those in the sports world reacting to Tiger Woods’ crash in Florida, which led to a DUI charge, on Friday.Manziel, who has battled his own relationship with drugs and alcohol in the past, wrote on social media that the golf legend needed to learn about Waymo.CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM”Somebody tell Tiger about Waymo this is insane,” the former Texas A&M Aggies quarterback wrote on X. “Hope he’s alright.”Photos showed Woods’ SUV on its side with the golfer standing on the grass talking on the phone. No one was hurt in the crash, but Woods is facing some consequences.Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek confirmed in a news conference that Woods was traveling at “a high rate of speed” when his vehicle collided with another car, resulting in his vehicle rolling over onto the driver’s side.Authorities said Woods “exemplified signs of impairment.” He blew “triple-zeroes” for alcohol but refused a urine test.SPORTSCASTER JIM GRAY SAYS TIGER WOODS’ DUI ARREST IS ‘ANOTHER CRY FOR HELP'”DUI investigators came to the scene here, and Mr. Woods did exemplify signs of impairment. They did several tests on him. Of course, he did explain the injuries and the surgeries that he had. We did take that into account, but they did do some in-depth roadside tests,” Budensiek added.”We really weren’t suspicious of alcohol being involved in this case, and that proved to be true at the jail.… But when it came time for us to ask for a urinalysis test, he refused. And, so, he’s been charged with DUI, with property damage and refusal to submit to a lawful test.”Woods was charged with DUI, property damage and refusal to submit to a test, all misdemeanor charges.Fox News’ Ryan Morik contributed to this report.Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

Nheyob, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa and Reverend Fr. Francesco Ielpo were denied entry by Israeli Police to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to attend Palm Sunday Mass this morning, sparking condemnation from the Catholic Church and the worldwide community. 
Palm Sunday commemorates Christ’s entry into Jerusalem and marks the start of Holy Week, the most sacred week of the year week for the Christian faith.
The Patriarchate of Jerusalem described the move in a statement as a “hasty and fundamentally flawed decision, tainted by improper considerations,” adding that it “represents an extreme departure from basic principles of reasonableness.”
Israeli Police said they denied Pizzaballa’s request, citing the potential of a “mass casualty incident” and the inability of emergency rescue assets to access the area.
The Prime Minister of Israel’s office, in a statement, said, “Out of special concern for his safety, Jerusalem police prevented the Latin Patriarch Cardinal Pizzaballa from holding mass this morning at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,” adding, “there was no malicious intent whatsoever, only concern for his safety and that of his party.”

The Prime Minister’s Office:
Over the past several days, Iran has repeatedly targeted the holy sites of all three monotheistic religions in Jerusalem with ballistic missiles. In one strike, missile fragments crashed meters from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) March 29, 2026

“This incident is a grave precedent, and disregard the sensibilities of billions of people around the world who, during this week, look to Jerusalem,” the Patriarchate said, noting that “The Heads of the Churches have acted with full responsibility and, since the outset of the war, have complied with all imposed restrictions,” including canceling puiblic gatherings and broadcasting celebrations to Catholics worldwide.
World leaders spoke up to condemn the action and accuse Israel of violating the religious freedom of Catholics.
Per CBS:
Israeli police said that all holy sites in Jerusalem have been closed since the start of the war in Iran. Israeli officials have banned large gatherings, including at religious sites, and limited public gatherings to around 50 people. A traditional Palm Sunday procession had already been cancelled by the Latin Patriarchate. Ceremonies were held in other churches, with limits on how many could attend.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni criticized the police’s actions, calling the incident “an offence not only to the faithful but to any community that respects religious freedom.” Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani said on social media that he had summoned Israel’s ambassador to discuss the incident, which he called “unacceptable.”
French President Emmanuel Macron also condemned the incident and said worship “for all religions” must be guaranteed in Jerusalem. He added that the police action “adds to a worrying series of violations of the status of holy places in Jerusalem.”
The Jordanian foreign ministry said it “strongly condemned” the interaction, calling it a “flagrant violation of international law and international humanitarian law, as well as the prevailing legal and historical status quo, and an infringement on the unrestricted freedom of access to places of worship.”
In a statement, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem strongly condemned the move, writing,
This morning, the Israeli Police prevented the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Head of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, together with the Custos of the Holy Land, the Most Reverend Fr. Francesco Ielpo, OFM, the official Guardian of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, as they made their way to celebrate the Palm Sunday Mass.
The two were stopped en route, while proceeding privately and without any characteristics of a procession or ceremonial act, and were compelled to turn back. As a result, and for the first time in centuries, the Heads of the Church were prevented from celebrating the Palm Sunday Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
This incident is a grave precedent, and disregard the sensibilities of billions of people around the world who, during this week, look to Jerusalem.
The Heads of the Churches have acted with full responsibility and, since the outset of the war, have complied with all imposed restrictions: public gatherings were cancelled, attendance was prohibited, and arrangements were made to broadcast the celebrations to hundreds of millions of faithful worldwide, who, during these days of Easter, turn their eyes to Jerusalem and to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Preventing the entry of the Cardinal and the Custos, who bear the highest ecclesiastical responsibility for the Catholic Church and the Holy Places, constitutes a manifestly unreasonable and grossly disproportionate measure.
This hasty and fundamentally flawed decision, tainted by improper considerations, represents an extreme departure from basic principles of reasonableness, freedom of worship, and respect for the Status Quo.
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Custody of the Holy Land express their profound sorrow to the Christian faithful in the Holy Land and throughout the world that prayer on one of the most sacred days of the Christian calendar has thus been prevented.

Joint Press Release – The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Custody of the Holy Land pic.twitter.com/B3DW37UTqC
— Custodia Terrae Sanctae (@custodiaTS) March 29, 2026

The post JUST IN: Cardinal Pizzaballa Stopped by Israeli Police and Denied Entry to Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem for Palm Sunday Mass appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

President Donald J. Trump boards Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida on Monday, March 23, 2026, en route Memphis, Tennessee. (White House photo by Molly Riley)
PALM BEACH, Florida – With Homeland Security funding still hanging in the balance and chaos continuing at many U.S. airports, President Donald Trump is now blasting “weak and ineffective” U.S. senators in his own Republican Party who oppose ending the filibuster rule in the Senate.
“It is time for the Senate Filibuster to END,” Trump said Saturday evening on Truth Social. “Those weak and ineffective Republicans Senators that stand in the way of this should be exposed to the public. The Democrats are CRAZY!”

The president struck a similar Thursday as he wrote: “When is ‘enough, enough’ for our Republican Senators. There comes a time when you must do what should have been done a long time ago, and something which the Lunatic Democrats will do on day one, if they ever get the chance. TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER, and get our airports, and everything else, moving again. Also, add the complete, all five items, SAVE AMERICA ACT items. Go for the Gold!!!”
Appearing on “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Bartiromo on the Fox News Channel, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., a member of the Homeland Security Committee, agreed with Trump in ending the filibuster, saying the Senate is “broken.”
“How much [more] broken can the United States Senate get? It’s always been described as the saucer beneath the cup of tea to cool the passions,” Johnson said. “It’s more like the plaque in the arteries that are causing a heart attack.”
“How could it be much more broken when we can’t even fund the very agency when we’re at war with Iran, they might possibly have sleeper cells here in this country, we can’t even fund the very agency designed to keep that homeland safe? I don’t see how it could get much worse. I’m for ending the 60-vote threshold and ending the filibuster.”

But Johnson indicated ending the filibuster is no easy task, as some of his GOP colleagues wish to maintain the tool.
“It will require Republican public pressure to force enough Republican senators to do that,” he said. “Unfortunately, I think we’ve got Republican senators who are willing to die on that hill as well.”
“You just might see Democrats being so obnoxious, so obstructionist, maybe enough of my colleagues, we need 50 of ’em, to change that rule and get rid of the filibuster.”
Johnson was also asked about difficulties passing the SAVE America Act requiring proof of citizenship and a photo ID when voting, and again he said Senate rules are standing in the way.
“With that 60-vote threshold, Democrats – this is a hill they will die on, because any kind of election integrity really is existential to their game plan of turning America into a one-party nation. They flooded this country with millions of illegal immigrants, put ’em in sanctuary cities to plus up their numbers.
“But here’s what they [did] even more deviously. They trained activists to obstruct justice, encourage them to put themselves in harm’s way knowing they could get harmed. They got two martyrs and then they’re using those martyrs as their excuse to try and defund law enforcement, to defund the very agencies that are designed to clean up the mess they created. That’s what we’re dealing with. That’s who Democrats are.
“Republicans need to get united and we need to make sure that we blame Democrats because that is where the fault lies. Let’s get as much DHS funded as possible, move to reconciliation, pass a reconciliation bill focused on DHS funding through fiscal year 2029 and then be ready for another reconciliation to fund the rest of the government starting in October.”

.@SenRonJohnson: “It’s not Republicans that are refusing to fund DHS, it’s Democrats. You take a look at their record of opening up our border, flooding this country with sex traffickers, human traffickers, potential terrorists… We need to fund these agencies.” pic.twitter.com/ljHuMsO9kG
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 29, 2026

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I’m Sorry, But The Fed Has Run Out Of Road

 Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

There is a special kind of denial that only financial markets can sustain. It is the quiet insistence that everything is fine because the S&P is only down about 10%, as if that number alone captures the health of an entire financial system. It is the belief that until equities are in full free fall, nothing truly serious can be happening underneath.

But as we know, underneath, things are already starting to break.

That is the part people are not fully appreciating. If a modest correction is enough to expose fragility in private credit that is already spilling over to counterparties and sectors like real estate, what exactly happens when there is a real downturn, the kind that actually forces price discovery instead of delaying it?

It does not stop at private credit. Private credit flows into private equity, which depends on leverage to generate returns. Private equity flows into commercial real estate, which is already dealing with structural problems that have nothing to do with interest rates and everything to do with demand. Commercial real estate flows into regional banks, which hold the debt and rely on valuations that have not fully adjusted.

It is a chain reaction waiting for a trigger. We knew this heading into 2026.

At the same time, inflation has refused to cooperate with the Federal Reserve’s plan. U.S. CPI is holding at 2.4% year over year as of February 2026, and core inflation is at 2.5%. That is not an emergency level, but it is also not the 2% target the Fed has spent years insisting is non negotiable.

Central banking is not about being approximately correct. It is about maintaining credibility, and credibility does not come from saying close enough.

So the Fed is staring at a system where financial stress is building and inflation is still above target, as I’ve been writing they would face for years now. That combination removes the easy answers, and all of a sudden the Fed runs out of road.

The next phase of this cycle is almost certainly deleveraging. Not the slow and orderly kind that policymakers like to describe in speeches, but the forced kind. The kind where lenders pull back, refinancing becomes difficult, and assets that were priced for perfection suddenly have to reflect reality. When that process begins in earnest, it tends to accelerate because falling prices create more pressure, which creates more selling, which creates more falling prices. Then, like we are seeing in private credit, psychology eventually breaks and the blame game starts. Who could have seen this coming?

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Once that process starts, there are only two broad paths. The first path is to let it happen. Credit contracts, defaults rise, asset prices fall, and the system works through its excesses the old fashioned way. The problem is that the amount of leverage in the system today is enormous, and it has been built during a period of unusually low rates. When you combine high debt levels with higher interest costs, the math becomes unforgiving very quickly. That kind of deleveraging does not look like a mild recession. It starts to resemble something much more severe, potentially deflationary, potentially prolonged.

The second path is intervention. The Fed steps in (stop me if you’ve heard this one before), provides liquidity, and expands its balance sheet aggressively. Quantitative easing returns, possibly at a scale that makes previous rounds look restrained. Asset prices stabilize, credit markets function again, and the immediate crisis is contained. This is what my friend Larry Lepard refers to as “the big print”.

But here is where the situation becomes genuinely problematic. The Fed cannot cleanly choose the second option, though I think it’s the way they will head.

They cannot do it with inflation still running above target without major inflationary consequences. Injecting massive liquidity into a system that has not fully extinguished inflationary pressure risks reigniting it. Not gently, not in a controlled way, but in a way that forces a much harsher response later. The entire credibility of the central bank rests on the idea that it will not tolerate persistent inflation above its target. If it abandons that stance in order to stabilize markets, it risks unanchoring expectations in a way that is very difficult to reverse.

Watch the below clip at 50:02 until 52:47 if you want a 2 minute explanation of the direction we will keep heading if we go the inflation route.

It’s a trap, in essence. For years, critics have warned about some version of this outcome. They have argued that excessive debt and repeated interventions would eventually leave policymakers with no good options. Those arguments have been easy to dismiss because, historically, the Fed has always managed to navigate crises. Somehow inflation stayed low. The Fed cut rates, it expanded the balance sheet, it restored stability, and the system moved forward.

But the current setup is different in a way that matters.

We have never had this level of systemic leverage at the same time as a large, opaque private credit market that sits outside traditional banking channels. We have never had an environment where so much of the financial system depends on continued access to cheap or at least predictable financing. And we have never faced the prospect of needing extremely large scale intervention while inflation is still running above target.

Each of those factors on its own would be manageable. Together, they create a situation that does not have a clean historical precedent, so what happens next is unlikely to be neat and orderly, though fucked if I know exactly how the chaos or reset it going to play out.

The Fed is not in control of a stable system that just needs minor adjustments. It is managing a complex, highly leveraged structure where each decision carries significant tradeoffs. What seems increasingly unlikely is a smooth resolution where the Fed threads the needle perfectly and everything stabilizes without meaningful damage. There is no painless option left. There’s no more road.

The more realistic expectation is a policy response that looks inconsistent, reactive, and at times contradictory, because it will be attempting to balance objectives that are no longer fully compatible. And when that happens, it will not feel like a controlled process. It will feel like the system is being managed in real time, with no clear roadmap, and no guarantee that the chosen path leads anywhere good.

Now read:

A Veteran Investor Sees The System Breaking
My Bear Market Stock Shopping List
Private Credit Cracks Reach Real Estate
The Private Credit Snowball Accelerates
Ron Paul: Just Get Out! Now!
The Mistaken Identity of Prediction Markets
Bigger Isn’t Better: A Case for Downsizing the Federal Reserve
I’ve Reached Peak Lobotomized Consumer

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Tyler Durden
Sun, 03/29/2026 – 11:40

The Republic of Somaliland has offered to extradite Rep. Ilhan Omar to face potential justice, saying the U.S. just needs to “say the word” following Vice President JD Vance’s public assertion that the congresswoman committed immigration fraud.
In a post on X, the official account of Somaliland, a self-declared independent republic in the Horn of Africa that broke away from Somalia in 1991, responded directly to discussions of Omar’s possible deportation or extradition.
“Deportation? Please you’re just sending the princess back to her kingdom. Extradition? Say the word,” the post read.

Deportation? Please you’re just sending the princess back to her kingdom.
Extradition? Say the word … https://t.co/nV3uHojqqT
— REPUBLIC OF SOMALILAND (@RepOfSomaliland) March 28, 2026

The statement came hours after Vance confirmed that the White House’s new federal fraud task force is actively investigating Rep. Omar for immigration fraud during an interview with Benny Johnson.
Vance said he had spoken with White House immigration advisor Stephen Miller about potential legal action.
“We actually think that Ilhan Omar definitely committed immigration fraud against the United States of America,” Vance stated. “We’re trying to look at what the remedies are. That’s the thing that we’re trying to figure out is what are the legal remedies now that we know that she’s committed immigration fraud — how do you go after her, how do you investigate her, how do you actually do the thing, how do you build a case necessary to get some justice for the American people?”
WATCH:

BREAKING: Vice President JD Vance Officially CONFIRMS that Rep. Ilhan Omar Committed Immigration Fraud:
“Ilhan Omar definitely committed immigration fraud against the United States of America”
The VP says the White House is going to “go after” Omar for these crimes.
“What… pic.twitter.com/01Kwd3kKMR
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) March 27, 2026

The Gateway Pundit has covered the allegations that Omar entered a sham marriage with her biological brother, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, in 2009 to help him obtain U.S. citizenship extensively since 2019.
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating a nationwide anti-fraud task force and explicitly directed it to examine longstanding allegations against Omar and Somali-linked fraud schemes in Minnesota that have reportedly cost taxpayers billions.
Trump has publicly referred to Omar as one of the “ringleaders” of fraud in the Somali community.
Omar has repeatedly denied the fraud allegations, calling them “bigoted lies.” Her chief of staff, Connor McNutt, issued a statement to Fox News dismissing Vance’s comments as a “ridiculous lie” and a distraction tactic.
Omar has publicly opposed U.S. recognition of Somaliland as an independent state and has defended Somalia’s territorial claims over the region.
Somaliland operates as a self-governing democracy with its own institutions but lacks broad international recognition.
Israel became the first U.N. member state to formally recognize it last year.
The post Somaliland Tells U.S. It’s Ready to Take Ilhan Omar After JD Vance’s Immigration Fraud Claim: ‘Extradition? Say the Word’ appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

A Colorado teenager is sounding the alarm on social media’s impact on young girls after surveying more than 1,000 peers nationwide and finding strong links between platform use and rising rates of anxiety, depression and sleep deprivation.”I saw that social media was just a driving factor of all mental health issues, anxiety, depression,” 17-year-old Hallie Zilberman told Fox News on Sunday.Zilberman surveyed over 1,000 teenage girls nationwide to better understand today’s mental health crisis. The results revealed some common contributors to negative mental health, one being social media, which prompted her to delete her own Snapchat and Instagram.”I decided that I can have agency with my own life, and I can do what I can and make my own life better,” she said.UNDER OATH, META’S ZUCKERBERG SHOWED WHY BIG TECH CAN’T POLICE ITSELFZilberman’s survey results detailed the swath of mental health struggles teen girls face in today’s world.Approximately 60% reported frequently feeling overwhelmed, anxious or under pressure to be perfect. Nearly half reportedly considered self-harm in the past six months, while nearly 45% reported not feeling physically healthy and approximately 32% said they lacked a trusted adult they could consult.”A lot of girls struggle with body image, and I saw that in my results, and I saw the struggles with body images tied to almost every single mental health outcome,” Zilberman shared.BIG TECH’S TOBACCO MOMENT IS HERE — AND THE TRUTH ABOUT HARMING KIDS IS OUTThe data collected also indicated 52% of respondents were sleep-deprived – an issue Zilberman linked to late nights spent scrolling on social media.That issue alone, she added, can contribute to a cascade of other problems.”Sleep deprivation is also linked to higher stress, lower happiness, worse mental health overall,” she told “Fox & Friends Weekend” co-host Charlie Hurt.”And when kids are staying up every night scrolling, that’s also a [negative] function of social media as well.”Zilberman’s findings come as Silicon Valley faces a legal reckoning, after a landmark court decision found Meta and Google liable for designing features that contribute to compulsive use among young users.Both tech giants have disputed the verdict and pledged to appeal.”We respectfully disagree with the verdict and are evaluating our legal options,” a Meta spokesperson said shortly after the verdict.José Castañeda, a spokesperson for Google, told FOX Business the company disagreed with the verdict and planned to appeal. “This case misunderstands YouTube, which is a responsibly built streaming platform, not a social media site,” he said.