Zerohedge

Trump Admin Revamps Steel, Aluminum, Copper Tariffs; Imposes 100% Duties On Patented Drugs The Trump administration on Thursday announced a pair of tariff actions under national-security authority, maintaining core 50% duties on many imported steel, aluminum and copper products while overhauling the rules to exempt goods containing negligible amounts of those metals and imposing 100% tariffs on imported patented pharmaceuticals that do not meet new domestic production or pricing conditions. President Donald Trump pauses as he finishes speaking about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House in Washington on April 1, 2026. Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images The pharmaceutical measure targets branded drugs and active ingredients brought in by companies that have neither struck “most-favored-nation” pricing deals with the U.S. government nor committed to manufacturing in the United States. Exemptions will be honored for firms that reach such agreements or are already building or expanding U.S. plants. The policy gives large drugmakers 120 days and smaller ones 180 days to comply. Generics and certain trade-agreement partners are largely unaffected. Exceptions were also granted, lowering tariffs to 15 percent - for the European Union, Switzerland, Japan, and South Korea, and a 10 percent levy for the United Kingdom. Reduced rates reflect prior commitments with trading partners, according to a senior administration official. The UK was awarded a lower tariff “because they were the first ones who did this deal, and they committed to raise their prices for pharmaceuticals, and they have actually done so,” the official told reporters during a background call on April 2. Trump negotiated deals with 13 pharmaceutical companies over the past year, securing $400 billion in domestic manufacturing investments, the Epoch Times reports. In tandem, the White House released updated fact sheets detailing changes to Section 232 tariffs on steel, aluminum and copper and their derivative products. The administration will keep 50% tariffs in place on many imported steel, aluminum and copper products. However, goods in which the total steel, aluminum or copper content is below 15% will be effectively exempted. Some other derivative goods will face a lower 25% rate if they are deemed “substantially made” of one of the metals. Even so, 50% tariffs will remain on a large number of derivative products—including imported steel pipe—and will be assessed against the full value of the product, not merely its metal content. Aluminum cans are shown during a production run before being filled with craft beer at Black Plague Brewery in Oceanside, California, U.S., March 14, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe the changes before formal announcement, said the revisions were designed “to simplify a complicated policy and provide more fairness to businesses grappling with President Donald Trump’s tariff regime.” The adjustments follow months of lobbying by companies that complained that earlier duties on derivative products unfairly hit items containing only trace amounts of metal, Bloomberg reports. Officials cited consumer products such as dental floss, which contains a small metal cutter but otherwise has negligible steel or aluminum content, and washing machines as examples that will now receive relief. Summary of metals tariffs (via the White House): The Trump administration will maintain 50% tariffs on many imported steel, aluminum, and copper products under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. The policy simplifies duties for goods made with negligible amounts of these metals to provide fairness to businesses and ease compliance. Goods with total steel, aluminum, or copper content below 15% will be effectively exempted from the metals tariffs. Some derivative goods will be subject to a lower 25% rate if they are deemed “substantially made” of steel, aluminum, or copper. 50% tariffs will remain in place on a large number of derivative products - including, for example, imported steel pipe - and will be assessed against the full value of the product, not merely its metal content. The revisions address months of lobbying from companies that said earlier duties unfairly hit items containing only trace amounts of metal. Examples of products receiving relief include consumer goods such as dental floss (small metal cutter with negligible steel/aluminum content) and washing machines. The changes build on the administration’s second-term trade agenda and follow the Supreme Court’s earlier decision striking down certain emergency authorities, allowing the White House to continue using Section 232 national-security tools. Administration officials emphasized that the revisions will not have a significant impact on consumer prices and will help ensure the tariffs function as originally intended. The revised metal tariffs were established under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. They come roughly one year after the launch of the administration’s second-term trade agenda, which initially imposed broad levies using emergency authorities. The Supreme Court earlier this year struck down certain country-by-country tariffs imposed under that emergency law, prompting the administration to rebuild protections through alternative pathways. Administration officials said the changes are intended to support domestic production and American workers while easing compliance burdens. Jon Toomey, president of the Coalition for a Prosperous America, a group representing U.S. manufacturers, welcomed the move. “This action will help ensure these tariffs function as intended to support domestic production and American workers,” he said. The White House downplayed the revised tariff scheme’s likely impact on consumer prices. Officials noted that while some imported steel and aluminum goods could face higher duties under the new full-value assessment, the simplified structure should reduce administrative headaches for importers. Full official proclamations, fact sheets and implementation guidance from the Commerce Department and U.S. Customs and Border Protection are now available on whitehouse.gov. Affected industries have a window to adjust supply chains before the changes take full effect. Trading partners are expected to review the measures in the coming days. Tyler Durden Thu, 04/02/2026 - 16:20

Trump Fires Pam Bondi As Attorney General, Blanche To Be Acting AG Update (1315ET): President Donald Trump has ousted Attorney General Pam Bondi, multiple outlets report. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche is serving as acting AG in the interim. The move comes amid White House frustration with Bondi’s leadership at the Justice Department -  particularly her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and what Trump viewed as insufficient aggression in targeting his political opponents. Trump had privately discussed firing her and floated EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin (or Blanche) as a possible replacement. Bondi met with Trump in the Oval Office Wednesday night ahead of his speech to the nation on the war in Iran, where she reportedly was informed of her ouster, according to two sources familiar with the meeting.  One of those sources said that by the time Trump took his place behind the podium for the address, Bondi already lost her job and was on her way back to Florida. -Fox News And according to the WSJ, Trump weighed firing her in January but was persuaded not to do so.  In a Thursday statement, Trump called Bondi "a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend, who faithfully served as my Attorney General over the past year," adding "she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future, and our Deputy Attorney General, and a very talented and respected Legal Mind, Todd Blanche, will step in to serve as Acting Attorney General." Back to private practice? * * * ReadyWise Spring Sale - ends April 10. Stock up. Earlier: Leaky little sharks are circling in DC - telling the NY Times and CNN that Pam Bondi may soon be out as Attorney General, and replaced with EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.  The frustration, per sources close to the White House cited by The New York Times and CNN, centers squarely on Bondi's catastrophic mishandling of the Jeffrey Epstein files - a saga ZeroHedge has chronicled in excruciating detail as one of the most embarrassing self-inflicted wounds of the second Trump term. Recall Bondi's infamous February 2025 Fox News appearance where she claimed the "client list" was literally "sitting on my desk right now to review." Fast-forward months later: no list, endless redactions for "national security," millions more pages "discovered" at the 11th hour, and zero indictments of any high-profile co-conspirators. Beyond her disastrous testimony in front of the House Judiciary Committee in February - the House Oversight Committee has also subpoenaed her over the "troubling disappearance" of documents, with her deposition still looming on April 14. Even Trump ally and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles admitted Bondi "completely whiffed" the response.  News: The president has informed Pam Bondi that her time as AG is nearing an end, multiple sources tell me. Formal announcement hasn’t yet come aka all the normal caveats that he could change his mind apply; he’s been speaking with advisors on a possible replacement in recent… — Shelby Talcott (@ShelbyTalcott) April 2, 2026 Trump is also reportedly pissed that Bondi has an apparent allergy to actual justice - namely, her failure to deliver on promises to go after his political foes (former FBI Director James Comey or New York AG Letitia James). Bondi's DOJ has also been dragging its feet on broader accountability: no real movement on COVID-era prosecutions despite the obvious targets, a bizarre pivot toward "hate speech" crackdowns that even drew fire from the right, and a general pattern of not prosecuting what many see as a laundry list of potential criminals from the prior regime. Perhaps it was all by design. Either way, looks like Pam's time is short.  A person familiar with the situation tells me that Pam Bondi will be out as AG imminently, confirming scoops from @CNN and @nytimes. When Trump met EPA boss Lee Zeldin on Tuesday to discuss last year’s California wildfires, Trump also discussed the potential of tapping him for… pic.twitter.com/zXj6MInr6B — Dasha Burns (@DashaBurns) April 2, 2026 What's more, Bondi's DOJ has been actively sabotaging the Trump coalition by maintaining Biden-era policies in court - repeatedly mooting litigation on key issues rather than letting judges deliver precedent-setting knockout blows, defending outdated gun control measures like the 1934 National Firearms Act in suppressor cases, and choosing temporary tactical retreats over permanent wins that would prevent future Democrat administrations from simply flipping the switch back on. Bondi’s nightmare before Congress was more or less the crescendo of her implosion. On February 11, she was hauled before the House Judiciary Committee for what was supposed to be a straightforward oversight hearing - and instead delivered one of the most disastrous performances in recent memory. As we reported live, Bondi exploded into a full-blown shouting match with Rep. Thomas Massie and top Democrats, dodging more than a dozen direct questions on why - after months of “reviewing” the files  - the DOJ still had zero indictments of Epstein’s high-profile co-conspirators. 🚨Massie: "This goes over four administrations. You don't have to go back to Biden. Let's go back to Obama. Let's go back to George Bush. This coverup spans decades, and you are responsible for this portion."pic.twitter.com/mZoCGOoEtD — Derrick Evans (@DerrickEvans4WV) February 11, 2026 She hemmed and hawed over the selective redactions (victims’ names left exposed while alleged abusers were blacked out), the sudden “discovery” of a million more pages, and the complete lack of accountability for the powerful men who enabled the operation. At one point she even whipped out what insiders called a “burn book” of lawmakers’ search histories in a desperate whataboutism that backfired spectacularly, drawing jeers from Epstein survivors seated in the gallery. So basically an angry stonewalling with clips that went absolutely viral. The base watched in real time as the woman tasked with draining the swamp instead looked like she was guarding it.  Massie: "Here is an email that was sent by the victims' lawyers to the DOJ. It was a list of names not to release. What did the DOJ do with this email? They released it! Literally the worst thing you could do the survivors you did." pic.twitter.com/oSzA1dV2jj — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 11, 2026 The timing is telling. Rumors of Bondi's exit have swirled for months, but they intensified this week after Trump met with Zeldin (a reliable MAGA foot soldier who ran New York and has been showered with praise by the president for his EPA work). Bondi was still glued to Trump's side yesterday - riding in the motorcade to Supreme Court arguments and sitting in the audience for his primetime Iran address - but the non-denial denial from the White House speaks volumes: "Attorney General Pam Bondi is a wonderful person and she is doing a good job." AKA - "you're on thin ice." Zeldin, for his part, has zero of the Epstein baggage and a track record of hawkish loyalty during Trump's first term. If the move happens, it would mark the second high-profile Cabinet shakeup of the term after Kristi Noem's ouster at DHS - a clear signal that even Trump is no longer willing to tolerate the kind of institutional inertia and base-alienating fumbles that defined too much of his first go-around. For now, Bondi remains in place... but the clock is ticking. As one person familiar with the discussions put it, the Epstein fallout has become a genuine political liability. * * * Click link, stock up. Free shipping over $500 + sale + looming boots on the ground = now's a great time. Tyler Durden Thu, 04/02/2026 - 15:55

US Apartment Rents Post Largest Annual Decline Since 2017 In March: Report Authored by Rob Sabo via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), The national median apartment rent shook off the seasonal winter chill and inched up by 0.4 percent in March from February to $1,363, Apartment List reported. A sign is posted in front of an apartment building with available rentals in San Francisco on June 9, 2023. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images However, the median rent was down by 1.7 percent from March 2025, the largest annual decline since Apartment List began compiling records in 2017. By comparison, year-over-year growth peaked at 18 percent during the winter of 2021. Rents are generally soft or stagnant during the late fall and winter months as renters tend to forgo moving plans when it’s cold outside, but rates trend upward with warmer springtime and summer weather. The slight gain in March was the second consecutive monthly increase following a six-month span of declining rents, the Apartment List report said. “This turn represents the market creeping out of the off-season, and we’ll likely see continued increases in the months ahead as moving activity ramps up, in line with typical seasonal patterns,” researchers at the organization wrote. The national median rent peaked at $1,442 in August 2022 but has since trended downward, excluding seasonal jumps during the past three summers. Despite being 5.5 percent lower than its pandemic-induced peak, the national median monthly rent was still up 15 percent from $1,146 in January 2021. Rents have softened behind a massive buildup of new apartment inventory. According to a February report by the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB), multifamily development starts peaked at 547,000 apartment units in 2022, though apartment starts had dipped by 35 percent from that level by 2024. Multifamily starts were expected to be stronger in 2025 at an estimated 413,000 new units, the NAHB reported. However, new multifamily construction is expected to taper off in 2026 and drop even further over the following two years, the NAHB stated. “The multifamily market has slowed due to tighter financing and elevated construction costs and is moving towards a more constrained development environment,” said Danushka Nanayakkara-Skillington, assistant vice president for forecasting and analysis at the NAHB, in a statement. Multifamily completions, meanwhile, peaked in 2024 with more than 608,000 new units hitting the market, a 38-year high, Nanayakkara-Skillington added. That surge in inventory has led to rising vacancy rates. The vacancy rate among stabilized properties (those with at least 85 percent occupancy) is 7.3 percent, the highest rate since 2017, Apartment List noted. The aggressive delivery of new apartment inventory in Sun Belt states has put downward pressure on rents, CoStar Group said in its latest market report. Year-over-year rent growth was down by 1.3 percent across the South in March, while the Mountain region dipped by 2.2 percent, CoStar Group reported. Multifamily market conditions are expected to remain soft through the year, Apartment List added. “Year-over-year rent growth hit a new low this month, while vacancies and time-on-market are both at peak levels. The wave of construction that has been driving these conditions is waning, but it now appears that weaker rental demand may keep rental conditions soft,” researchers wrote. Tyler Durden Thu, 04/02/2026 - 15:20

OpenAI Snaps Up TBPN, Slashes ChatGPT Pricing As Secondary Market Interest Fades Update (1400ET): In a surprise move, OpenAI has acquired TBPN (Technology Business Programming Network), the influential daily technology talk show and media platform hosted by John Coogan and Jordi Hays. TBPN has become one of Silicon Valley’s most-watched programs for real-time tech news, M&A rumors, high-profile executive interviews, and AI developments - often described as “SportsCenter for the tech industry.” The deal gives OpenAI a powerful owned-media channel to directly reach and engage the tech community while accelerating global conversations around AI. The show will continue unchanged: live weekdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. PT on YouTube and X, with Coogan and Hays retaining full creative control and editorial independence. TBPN has been acquired by OpenAI The world is changing quickly but TBPN will stay the same. Live every weekday just with a lot more resources. Thank you to everyone that has been a part of this journey big or small. We are 17 months in and unironically just getting started. pic.twitter.com/TLvPxxMGVe — Jordi Hays (@jordihays) April 2, 2026 Coogan, who has a long personal history with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (including funding from Altman for his earlier startups), called the acquisition a “full circle moment.” Both hosts emphasized that TBPN “will stay the same” but will now benefit from significantly more resources to scale. TBPN has been acquired by OpenAI! The show is staying the same and we’ll continue to go live at 11am pacific every weekday. This is a full circle moment for me as I’ve worked with @sama for well over a decade. He funded my first company in 2013. Then helped us fix a serious… — John Coogan (@johncoogan) April 2, 2026 At the same time, OpenAI is accelerating its consumer growth push by expanding access to its lower-priced ChatGPT Go subscription tier. Priced at roughly $8 per month in the US (a ~60% discount to the $20 ChatGPT Plus plan), Go delivers expanded access to GPT-5.3, higher message limits, more file uploads, image generation, and longer memory. The tier - first introduced in select markets last year and rolled out globally earlier in 2026 — is now being made available in dozens of additional countries as OpenAI seeks to drive mass adoption and daily usage ahead of intensifying competition. These announcements appear designed to bolster OpenAI’s growth narrative and consumer momentum at a moment when secondary-market demand for its shares has cooled sharply (as detailed in our reporting below).  * * * Interest in OpenAI’s stock on secondary markets has cooled sharply, with some large investors now struggling to find buyers according to Bloomberg. At the same time, capital is rapidly shifting toward its main rival, Anthropic, where demand is surging. In recent weeks, holders of OpenAI shares—including hedge funds and venture firms—have tried to offload roughly $600 million in stock, but unlike before, buyers haven’t stepped in. Platforms that once saw quick turnover now report little to no interest. Meanwhile, investors are actively setting aside billions to gain exposure to Anthropic instead. Much of this shift comes down to valuation and perceived upside. OpenAI’s valuation has climbed to around $852 billion, leaving some investors unsure how much room remains for near-term gains. Anthropic, valued significantly lower, is increasingly viewed as having more growth potential, making it a more attractive bet right now. The Bloomberg report notes that major banks like Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are adjusting—offering OpenAI shares with reduced fees to spark interest, while continuing to charge typical performance fees for Anthropic investments. There are also strategic concerns. OpenAI is spending heavily on infrastructure and has been slower to expand into high-margin enterprise markets. Anthropic, by contrast, has gained stronger traction with those clients, reinforcing expectations of faster growth. That said, Anthropic isn’t without issues, including legal disputes and recent security missteps. Still, investor appetite remains extremely strong, with secondary demand pushing its implied valuation far higher, while OpenAI shares are increasingly trading at a discount. *OPENAI DEMAND SINKS ON SECONDARY MARKET AS ANTHROPIC RUNS HOT OpenAI shares are being sold in the secondary markets per Bloomberg with no buyers, while Anthropic shares are seeing record demand. Ken Smythe, the founder of Next Round Capital, noted that there was a huge drop in… pic.twitter.com/MqygdTbzkn — Negligible Capital (@negligible_cap) April 1, 2026   Tyler Durden Thu, 04/02/2026 - 14:20

Gulf States Considering Network Of New Pipelines To Bypass Strait Of Hormuz One month ago, at the start of the war, we said it was surprising that UAE's oil export terminal of Fujairah was not a bigger terminal as it bypasses the Straits completely, and predicted a "major infrastructure push here after the war." Surprising Fujairah is not a bigger oil terminal: it bypasses the straits completely. Expect major infrastructure push here after the war. https://t.co/Do1gK7KBDQ — zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 3, 2026 Couple that with the latest news that the Saudi East-West pipeline is now running at capacity of roughly 7mmb/d (including non-oil products), and one can see the urgency gripping the Gulf in finding alternatives to the Strait of Hormuz which has emerged as Iran's biggest source of leverage in the war. And that's just the start. Confirming our observation from a month ago, the FT writes today that the threat of open-ended Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz is pushing Gulf countries to revisit costly plans for pipelines to bypass the choke point so they can continue to export oil and gas. According to officials and industry executives, new pipelines may be the only way to reduce Gulf countries’ enduring vulnerability to disruption in the strait, even though such projects would be expensive, politically complex and take years to complete. We have already discussed the 1200km East-West pipeline: the war has underscored the strategic value of this Hormuz bypass. Built in the 1980s after fears that the Iran-Iraq “tanker war” would close the strait, it is now a key lifeline, delivering 7mn barrels of oil a day to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, bypassing Hormuz entirely.  “In hindsight the East-West pipeline looks like a genius masterstroke,” said one senior Gulf energy executive.  Amin Nasser, chief executive of Saudi’s state-run oil giant Aramco, told analysts last month that the pipeline is the “main route that we are capitalizing on right now”.  Now, the kingdom is considering how it can export more of its 10.2mn barrels of daily production by pipeline, rather than through Iranian-controlled waters. This includes examining whether it should expand the capacity of the East-West pipeline further or build new routes. According to the FT. previous plans for pipelines across the region have repeatedly stalled, undone by high costs and complexity. But Maisoon Kafafy, a senior adviser to the Atlantic Council’s Middle East programs, said the mood in the Gulf has now changed.  “I’m sensing a shift from hypotheticals into operational reality,” she said. “Everyone is looking at the same map and they are drawing the same conclusions.” To eliminate the threat of centralized "points of failure", rather than individual projects, the most resilient option “is not a single alternative pipeline but rather a network, a web of corridors”, said Kafafy, although she added that it would also be the hardest to achieve. In the longer term, any new pipelines are likely to form part of trade routes through which a wider range of goods beyond oil and gas can flow. One option is the revival of US-led plans for an ambitious corridor that would run from India through the Gulf and then to Europe, called IMEC, one Gulf official said, although part of this project originally included a politically tricky pipeline that ran to the Israeli port of Haifa.  Yossi Abu, the chief executive of Israeli company NewMed Energy, said he was confident that pipelines to the Mediterranean Sea would be built, whether they terminated at Israeli or Egyptian ports. “People need to control their own destinies, with their friends,” he said. “You need oil pipelines, railway connectivity, throughout the region, onshore, without giving others bottlenecks to choke us.”  A push for more bypasses means bumper revenues for local contruction companies. Christopher Bush, the CEO of Cat Group, the private Lebanese company that was one of the main builders of Saudi’s East-West pipeline, said there was plenty of interest in new projects even before the war began. “We have had inquiries about various different pipelines,” he said. “I have multiple different presentations on my desk.”  But the obstacles remain immense, he added. The cost of replicating the East-West pipeline today, which involved blasting through the hard basalt of the Hijaz mountain on Saudi’s Red Sea coast, would be at least $5bn, Bush estimated. Proposals for more complicated multi-country routes from Iraq through Jordan, Syria or Turkey would cost $15bn to $20bn. “It has been looked at. There are even front-end engineering studies for [such routes from] Iraq. There is an opportunity that has been discussed,” he said. But security risks include “a lot” of unexploded bombs in Iraq and the continuing presence of Isis or other militants. Pipelines running south to ports in Oman would also face the difficulty of passing through both desert and hard-rock mountains, Bush warned. Ports in Oman are not immune from Iranian security threats. Drone attacks on the key port of Salalah in recent days forced it to shut temporarily. Political challenges also include who will operate the pipeline and control the flow. A network of pipelines would require Gulf countries “to abandon their individualist policies and combine. It was always deemed cheaper and safer to bring a ship, load a ship and sail a ship,” Bush added. In the near term, the most viable options may be to expand the East-West pipeline and also Abu Dhabi’s existing route to Fujairah, just as we suggested weeks ago. This would increase capacity without the complications of new cross-border infrastructure. Saudi Arabia could also develop additional export terminals on its Red Sea coast, including at the deepwater port being built for the Neom project. “I am sure they are looking at it as a possibility,” said Bush. “You have a lot of smart minds looking at all of this now. It is a big problem.”  One senior energy executive said Abu Dhabi had “always had a plan B for a second pipeline to Fujairah”. But they added that no decisions are likely to be made until the long-term status of the Strait of Hormuz becomes clear. Kafafy agreed that Gulf states will take a while to assess the situation with the waterway, but said they now recognise that the scale of the current energy crisis demands a new way of thinking. “The conversations have moved further along the chain,” she said. “I do not expect [the status quo] to return to where it was pre-conflict.” * * * Tyler Durden Thu, 04/02/2026 - 13:40

Coinbase Exec Says Senate CLARITY Act Deal On Stablecoin Yield "Very Close" Authored by Amin Haqshanas via CoinTelegraph.com, Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal said the US Digital Asset Market Clarity Act is “moving toward” a markup hearing in the US Senate Banking Committee and could eventually move to a floor vote if senators resolve the stablecoin yield dispute and schedule a markup. Speaking in a Wednesday interview on Fox Business, Grewal said lawmakers are nearing agreement on core elements of the crypto market structure bill, even as debate continues over stablecoin yield. “I think we’re very close to a deal,” he said. The remarks point to possible movement on one of the last major sticking points in Senate talks over crypto market structure legislation: whether stablecoin issuers or platforms should be allowed to offer yield or similar rewards. The dispute has helped delay a Senate Banking Committee markup, leaving the broader effort to set federal rules for digital asset oversight still unresolved. US banks have pushed for restrictions, arguing that such incentives could draw deposits away from traditional institutions and disrupt the banking system. Grewal pushed back on that claim, saying there is no evidence to support fears of deposit flight. The US House of Representatives passed the CLARITY Act on July 17, 2025. In January, Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott delayed a planned markup, which has yet to be rescheduled. Trump blames banks for stalling crypto bill Last month, US President Donald Trump accused banks of undermining efforts to pass crypto market structure legislation, saying they are blocking progress over disagreements on stablecoin yield payments. “The Banks should not be trying to undercut The Genius Act, or hold The Clarity Act hostage,” he wrote. It was later reported that Trump met privately with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong just hours before issuing the statement. Coinbase shares are down 23% YTD. Source: Yahoo! Finance In January, Armstrong said Coinbase could not back the market structure bill “as written,” pointing to draft amendments that would eliminate stablecoin rewards and let banks restrict competition. CLARITY delay could expose crypto to crackdowns Last week, Coin Center executive director Peter Van Valkenburgh warned that failure to pass the CLARITY Act could leave the crypto industry vulnerable to a future US administration taking a tougher stance. He argued that rejecting developer protections in favor of short-term business interests risks creating a system shaped by political shifts rather than clear law. “The point of passing CLARITY is not to trust this administration. It is to bind the next one,” he said. Tyler Durden Thu, 04/02/2026 - 12:55

CEO Of Largest Public Hospital System Says He's Ready To Replace Radiologists With AI By Marty Stempniak of Radiology Business, The chief executive of America’s largest public hospital system says he is prepared to start replacing radiologists with artificial intelligence in some circumstances, once the regulatory landscape catches up.  Mitchell H. Katz, MD, president and CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals, recently spoke during a panel discussion held by Crain’s New York Business. The trained internal medicine specialist noted how AI is increasingly being used to interpret mammograms and X-rays.  This presents an opportunity to save on how much hospitals spend on radiologists, who have become more costly amid rising demand for imaging, Crain’s reported Thursday.  “We could replace a great deal of radiologists with AI at this moment, if we are ready to do the regulatory challenge,” Katz said at the forum, held on March 25.  Katz—who has led the 11-hospital organization since 2018—said he sees great potential for AI to increase access to breast cancer screening. Hospitals could potentially produce “major savings” by letting the technology handle first reads, with radiologists then double-checking any abnormal screenings.  Fellow panelist David Lubarsky, MD, MBA, president and CEO of the Westchester Medical Center Health Network, said his system is already seeing great success in deploying such technology. The AI Westchester uses misses very few breast cancers and is “actually better than human beings,” he told the audience. “For women who aren’t considered high risk, if the test comes back negative, it’s wrong only about 3 times out of 10,000,” Lubarsky said.  Katz asked fellow hospital CEOs if there is any reason why they shouldn’t be pushing for changes to New York state regulations, allowing AI to read images “without a radiologist,” Crain’s reported. In this scenario, rads could then provide second opinions, if AI flags any images as abnormal. Sandra Scott, MD, CEO of the One Brooklyn Health, a small hospital facing tight margins, agreed with this line of thinking, according to Crain’s.  “I mean, I’m in charge of a safety-net institution. It would be a game-changer,” Scott said about AI being used to replace rads.  The discussion comes after Dario Amodei, PhD, CEO of Anthropic, recently made similar statements about artificial intelligence replacing rads. In a podcast interview, he falsely stated that AI has taken over the specialty’s core function, allowing doctors to focus more on the human side of the job. Radiologists roundly criticized Amodei’s remarks. Mohammed Suhail, MD, a San Diego-based rad with North Coast Imaging, said the same about Katz’s comments on Monday.  “Undeniable proof that confidently uninformed hospital administrators are a danger to patients: easily duped by AI companies that are nowhere near capable of providing patient care,” Suhail told Radiology Business. “Any attempt to implement AI-only reads would immediately result in patient harm and death, and only someone with zero understanding of radiology would say something so naive. But in some sense, they’re correct: Hospitals are happy to cut costs even if it means patient harm, as long as it’s legal.” * * *  Tyler Durden Thu, 04/02/2026 - 12:20

Trump Puts State Farm, Other Insurers On Notice Over Treatment Of California Wildfire Victims Authored by Chris Summers via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), President Donald Trump on March 31 told State Farm and other insurers to “get their act together” after meeting with California politicians and hearing about the difficulties facing the victims of last year’s wildfires. A home is engulfed in flames during the Eaton fire in the Altadena area of Los Angeles County, Calif., on Jan. 8, 2025. Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images Two areas outside Los Angeles were devastated by wildfires in January 2025. In the Palisades fire, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection reported that 6,831 structures were lost, 973 were damaged, and 12 people died. When combined with the nearby Eaton fire, which ignited in Altadena, north of Los Angeles, on Jan. 7, 2025, and claimed 18 lives, the two fires destroyed more than 12,000 structures. “I have just met with various Political Representatives of the tragedy that took place in California concerning the burning of thousands of once beautiful homes,” Trump wrote in a March 31 post on Truth Social. “It was brought to my attention that the Insurance Companies, in particular, State Farm, have been absolutely horrible to people that have been paying them large Premiums for years, only to find that when tragedy struck, these horrendous Companies were not there to help!” Trump said he had asked Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin to give him a list of the insurance companies that acted “swiftly, courageously, and bravely” and those that were “particularly bad.” The California Department of Insurance said in a June 2025 statement that Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara had launched a formal investigation into State Farm’s handling of thousands of insurance claims. “Some troubling patterns that my staff will investigate include the frequent reassignment of multiple adjusters with little continuity in communication, inconsistent management of similar claims, and inadequate record-keeping or information-sharing among claims teams,” Lara said at the time. “These issues create unnecessary stress, prolong recovery, and erode trust. I urge any wildfire survivor facing delayed payments, claim disputes, multiple adjusters, smoke damage issues, or any other problems to file a formal complaint with my Department.” On Nov. 13, 2025, Los Angeles County said that it had launched an investigation into State Farm’s handling of insurance claims filed by policyholders affected by the Eaton and Palisades fires, focused on potential violations of California’s Unfair Competition Law. A firefighter battles the Palisades Fire as it burns homes on the Pacific Coast Highway during a powerful windstorm in Los Angeles on Jan. 8, 2025. Apu Gomes/Getty Images “The investigation ... follows growing complaints from residents about delays, underpayments, and denials of legitimate wildfire claims,” the office of the county counsel said in a statement at the time. “The County has heard loud and clear from wildfire survivors that State Farm’s delays are standing in the way of rebuilding,“ Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chair Kathryn Barger said. ”Fair and timely insurance payments aren’t a privilege; they’re a right. State Farm must act quickly so survivors can rebuild their homes and their lives.” In a Sept. 30, 2025, statement about the California fires, State Farm said it had served customers with more than 13,500 claims and issued $5.7 billion in payments “to families whose homes, cars, and property were damaged or destroyed.” “Because many claims, repairs, and rebuilds are still underway, we expect total payments could reach $7 billion,” State Farm said. “Our leadership position in the California homeowners insurance marketplace means State Farm General Insurance Company—the State Farm company that provides homeowners insurance in California—insured more people impacted by this disaster than anyone else.” The Epoch Times reached out to State Farm, and they referred us to the above statement. Allan Stein contributed to this report. Tyler Durden Thu, 04/02/2026 - 11:45

April Fools And The Last Supper By Benjamin Picton, senior market strategist at Rabobank Wednesday saw the unusual occurrence of three Anglosphere heads of government delivering televised addresses to their respective nations within 24 hours of each other. When news broke that Australia’s PM Albanese, Britain’s PM Starmer and US President Trump would all be interrupting regular programming to speak to their people, reactions ranged from jubilant speculation that the war is about to end all the way through to nervousness that Operation Iranian Freedom was about to be announced. Judging by the price action in markets, the latter was certainly seen as the less likely of the two as stocks rose sharply across Asia, EMEA and the Americas, while Brent crude briefly dipped below the $100/bbl mark. Singapore gasoil spot prices fell by 22.7% - it’s largest daily move (up or down) of the war so far. Those moves are now revealed as an April Fool’s rally as Donald Trump’s address to the nation has sent oil bid, bond yields surging, high-beta FX lower and early rallies in Asian stocks have now turned deeply negative. Trump declined to announce that the USA is packing up and going home, instead declaring that “we are going to finish the job.” He said that the US owed it to 13 soldiers who have died in the conflict to complete the mission by ensuring that Iran would not have the capability to obtain a nuclear weapon, that it would no longer have the ability to project power beyond its borders, and by severely degrading its drone and missile stocks and the industrial base used to produce those conventional weapons. Trump says there is still time for Iran to make a deal to end the war but that the US is willing to leave without a deal and will eliminate key targets on their way out, pointing specifically to Iran’s electricity plants. He reiterated his previously expressed timeline of 2-3 weeks to conclude operations in Iran, but markets will be nervous about that as those timelines have a tendency to stretch. Critically, Trump also seemed to confirm rumors that the US is willing to leave without first securing freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, instead leaving that task to other countries (though he says the US will help) on the justification that they are far more reliant on Persian Gulf oil than the US is. Trump said that the Strait will ultimately re-open naturally when the war concludes as Iran will rely on oil sales to rebuild, but in the meantime he advises other countries to buy their oil and gas from the United States. The market optimism of the last 24 hours was always likely to be misplaced. The subtext of Trump’s remarks is that NATO and the GCC states must get involved in the war to re-open the Strait, or else suffer the consequences of US withdrawal for the world economy. Some – like the UAE – have expressed willingness, but most have not. If nobody steps up the war may grind on for longer (bad), escalate (worse), or the US may simply leave with Hormuz unresolved (worst). While the latter is a clear and present danger for world hydrocarbon markets and civilisation in general, it would also be a heavy blow for US hegemony and reserve currency status as American tactical victories sum to strategic defeat and Iran continues to operate the Strait as a toll road settled in CNY. Hours before Trump’s address, Australian viewers were left somewhat nonplussed by their Prime Minister’s primetime appearance. Given that Prime Ministerial addresses to the nation are incredibly rare, Australians were perhaps bracing for some grave Menzian announcement (“My fellow Australians. It is my melancholy duty to inform you...”) but were instead wished a happy Easter holiday period, warned that the months ahead may be hard and told to conserve fuel by taking public transport and resisting the urge to stockpile. Some commentators have cheekily observed that this one could have been an email, but in the aftermath of Trump’s address Albanese’s well wishes for the Easter holidays are feeling a bit more like the last supper as speculation mounts that Australia could be headed for fuel rationing as early as next week. Keir Starmer struck a slightly different tone to his antipodean counterpart by focusing more directly on Britain’s efforts to re-establish freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. Starmer noted that he had convened captains of industry from the shipping, finance and insurance sectors earlier in the week at Downing Street, and that they had told him the issue in Hormuz is not one of insurance, but of safety and security of passage. Starmer says that foreign ministers of 35 nations will meet later this week to explore diplomatic and political avenues to end the war and re-open the Strait, to be followed by a meeting of military leaders. Starmer was at pains to reiterate his message that this was not Britain’s war. The PM is currently between a rock and a hard place because involvement in the war upsets anti-war constituencies at home and draws the ire of the Iranian regime, while not becoming involved draws the ire of the US President. It is becoming very difficult to straddle these two imperatives as Trump tells NATO allies “I broke it, you bought it.” As a consequence of being faced with only bad choices, Britain has had a muddled approach of refusing US access to bases and then granting it, delaying deployment of HMS Dragon to the Eastern Mediterranean and then deploying it, and refusing requests to assist with naval escorts in the Strait - but is surely now forced to consider it. Combining this indecision with Spanish, French and Italian refusals to allow US access to bases, and suggestions that the war runs contrary to international law, the European relationship with the USA suddenly looks more strained than ever. This has severe implications for NATO, which Keir Starmer noted that Britain remains committed to, but Donald Trump and Marco Rubio have recently said the US may consider withdrawing from. This in turn has implications for the flow of US aid to Ukraine, where the United States may tell the EU “your problem now”, and also for the status of Greenland. Denmark and the EU were able to defuse Trump’s assertive stance on controlling Greenland last year by providing assurances that the US would have access to bases as it needs, but now that it has been refused access to bases in Europe for the Iran war, everything is back on the table. There is a reshuffling of strategic dependencies now occurring in real time. Starmer used his address to tell his people that Brexit had done deep damage to the British economy, and that Britain now had to draw closer to the EU to strengthen its economic and security relationships in its immediate geography. The subtext here is that Britain will pivot to the EU from the US, which puts the ‘Special Relationship’ on life support alongside NATO. This has implications elsewhere, especially in Australia where plans to acquire nuclear-propelled submarines rely on cooperation with and between Britain and the United States. As many Australian defence commentators have argued in the recent past, there is no Plan B if AUKUS falls apart, and Australia is already faced with a submarine capability gap as it’s 1990s-era Collins class submarines are looking very long in the tooth. Given its own geography, and the fact that it is so far down the AUKUS road, Australia may have no choice but to stick by the USA while other allies coalesce around Europe or chase Mark Carney’s ‘variable geometry’ system of alliances down the path of incongruent current accounts. Might we see an Australian Hobart class in the vanguard to answer Trump’s call to re-open the Strait? Tyler Durden Thu, 04/02/2026 - 11:15

"A Defining Moment": Nano Nuclear Submits Construction Permit For Kronos Reactor In Illinois Nano Nuclear submitted a Construction Permit Application (CPA) to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for their Kronos microreactor project at the University of Illinois. The filing marks the latest step in a project we’ve tracked since site characterization began last fall. Watch: Modular Energy Pioneer Nano Nuclear Begins Drilling First Reactor In Illinois https://t.co/hUcFvtXfaD — zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 24, 2025 Kronos is a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) engineered for commercial deployment. It delivers 15 megawatts of carbon-free baseload power using meltdown-resistant TRISO fuel and helium coolant. The design emphasizes walk-away safety, autonomous operation during grid outages, and scalability through multiple units. Intended uses include powering artificial intelligence data centers, industrial electrification, military bases, and remote communities.  Nano Nuclear acquired the technology in 2024 from Ultra Safe Nuclear Corp. and positioned it as one of the first commercially ready microreactor platforms. The University of Illinois partnership targets the first full-scale Kronos research reactor deployment. We detailed the October 2025 launch of geotechnical drilling and site characterization work, followed by a ceremonial groundbreaking. Those steps built on state support from Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and positioned the campus project as the lead effort in Nano’s broader commercialization roadmap. The company has since expanded discussions for additional deployments in Texas, South Korea, and at U.S. federal sites. Under the NRC process, staff will first review the application package for completeness and docketing. Once accepted, the agency will conduct a formal technical and environmental evaluation. Nano estimates this formal review phase will take approximately 12 months, after which the NRC could authorize construction. The timeline aligns with recent agency efforts to streamline advanced reactor licensing while maintaining rigorous safety standards. Company executives described the submission as validation of years of engineering and pre-application engagement. Chief Technical Officer Florent Heidet called it “a defining moment” that separates ready projects from those still in early development.  The milestone keeps Nano on track for initial test operations at Illinois by the late 2020s and supports its goal of factory-built, fleet-scale microreactor production. Tyler Durden Thu, 04/02/2026 - 10:10