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Governor Mikie Sherrill signed legislation that scraps New Jersey’s 40-year de facto moratorium on new nuclear power plants, clearing the way for expanded baseload generation in a state long plagued by some of the nation’s highest utility bills. 

The bill, S3870/A4528, amends the Coastal Area Facility Review Act to remove an outdated permitting roadblock tied to Nuclear Regulatory Commission waste-disposal rules that no modern project could satisfy.

The NJ Department of Environmental Protection can now approve permits based on proven, NRC-compliant storage methods that have maintained a 100% safety record.

Speaking after a tour of the Salem Nuclear Power Plant, Sherrill launched the state’s new Nuclear Task Force by executive order.

The group, which includes officials from PSEG Nuclear, labor unions, business groups, and environmental stakeholders, will focus on five priorities: financing, supply chains and technology, workforce development, regulatory streamlining, and public trust. 

“For costs to come down, we need more energy supply,” Gov Sherrill said.

“By lifting outdated barriers and bringing together leaders across government, industry, and labor, we’re setting the stage for our state to pursue new advanced nuclear power.”

Existing reactors at Salem and Hope Creek already supply more than 40 percent of the state’s electricity and roughly 80 percent of its pollution-free power.

A 2020 Brattle Group analysis found those plants save ratepayers more than $400 million annually while running at 90-95 percent capacity on just 740 combined acres.

Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times,

The FBI arrested a former Fort Bragg civilian contractor April 7 for allegedly providing top secret details about the Delta Force special forces unit to a journalist who later published the information in an article and book.

Courtney Williams, 40, of Wagram, North Carolina, was indicted by a federal grand jury and charged with violating the Espionage Act in connection to the alleged transmission of classified national defense information to the journalist in violation of federal law.

“Let this serve as a message to any would-be leakers: we’re working these cases, and we’re making arrests,” FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X.

“This FBI will not tolerate those who seek to betray our country and put Americans in harm’s way.”

Officials say Williams worked for a Special Military Unit from 2010 to 2016 supporting top-level military warfighters. During that time, she held a top secret, sensitive compartmented information security clearance, according to prosecutors.

Williams allegedly had daily access to a wide range of classified information, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

As a clearance holder, Williams was trained to know about proper handling, safeguarding, and storage of classified information, prosecutors said. She also allegedly signed a nondisclosure agreement that confirmed she understood that disclosing it could constitute a criminal offense.

Investigators allege Williams repeatedly communicated with a journalist by phone and through text messages between 2022 and 2025. The two had over 10 hours of phone calls and exchanged more than 180 messages, according to prosecutors.

In one message, the reporter identified himself as a journalist and said he was seeking information about the unit to support an upcoming article and book, according to prosecutors.

After the communications, the journalist published a book and article that named Williams as a source and attributed specific statements to her, per court documents.

Prosecutors didn’t name the journalist in the complaint, but Seth Harp, an investigative reporter and foreign correspondent, published a Politico article on Williams on Aug. 12, 2025.

The article was an excerpt from his New York Times best-selling book, “The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces.”

Harp didn’t immediately return a request for comment about Williams’s arrest but posted statements about it on X.

“The FBI is incapable of solving real crimes, like all the murders on Fort Bragg involving elite soldiers trafficking drugs, so they settle for retaliating against courageous whistleblowers like Courtney Williams, whose only ‘crime’ was telling the truth about Delta Force,” Harp wrote.

The article names Williams and describes her decision to take a job as a contractor at Fort Bragg after ending a four-year enlistment in the Army, where she had served as an interrogator and Arabic linguist.

Her position in Southern Pines, North Carolina, was in mission support and was run by former members of Delta Force, the Army’s component of Joint Special Operations Command. Williams told Harp the job was to create and maintain fictitious cover identities for Delta Force operators to use on clandestine missions.

She also described her grievances about the unit, claiming she was discriminated against and sexually harassed. She lost her security clearance after a dispute with leadership in 2016, according to the article.

Williams and her husband allegedly burned through their savings defending herself in the dispute before settling with the unit’s lawyers and retiring from the position, she told Harp.

FBI Special Agent in Charge of the North Carolina Field Office Reid Davis said Williams faced serious charges.

“The tradecraft, tactics, and techniques used by the U.S. military unit in this case are classified and should be shared only with those with proper clearances and a need to know in order to protect American lives and safeguard classified National Defense information,” Davis said in a press release.

“These are serious accusations. Anyone divulging information they vowed to protect to a reporter for publication is reckless, self-serving and damages our nation’s security.”

Williams was not reachable for comment.

Israel has on Thursday warned civilians in south Beirut to evacuate their homes and neighborhoods, amid fears of a fresh impending aerial assault, after IDF strikes across Lebanon and the capital the day prior led to at least 250 Lebanese deaths and over 1,400 people wounded. These were the heaviest strikes of the war.

"Just a short while ago, the Israeli military issued new forced evacuation orders, warning of air strikes this time for the southern suburbs, expanding the area where it says strikes may be conducted, including the Jnah neighborhood, which is south of a previously evacuated area," Al Jazeera reports. Panic and a mass exodus is being reported:

Mass exodus from Beirut's Jnah area after Israeli threat pic.twitter.com/92uE9CrdmQ

— RT (@RT_com) April 9, 2026

The effected area is densely populated with civilians and lies adjacent to Beirut's lone international airport. People who fled Wednesday's strikes on central Beirut in some places came to the Jnah area.

If Israeli bombs on Lebanon start flying again, this could re-trigger Iranian attacks on Israel. The Houthis in Yemen have also threatened to act, and all of this could collapse the fragile US-Iran ceasefire, amid impending talks expected to begin in Pakistan on Saturday.

Hezbollah now says it is engaged in ground clashes with the Israeli military in southern Lebanon’s Bint Jbeil area, per Al Jazeera, which lies a mere 3 miles from the Israeli border. Israel is seeking to de facto annex the area, Lebanon believes.

Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz has meanwhile stated the operations have dealt a "very strong blow to Hezbollah's face, leaving it stunned and confused by the depth of the penetration and the scope of the blow." Meanwhile:

TRUMP ASKED NETANYAHU TO REDUCE BOMBING IN LEBANON TO AID SUCCESSFUL IRAN NEGOTIATIONS, ACCORDING TO NBC REPORTS.

Referencing hundreds of ballistic missiles which were sent on Israel in the last weeks, Katz said the IDF is "prepared and ready to act forcefully if Iran fires at Israel." Hezbollah had also by mid-March joined the fight.

Currently, Lebanese hospitals are said to be overwhelmed while treating victims of the latest Israeli air raids, and are said to be in short supply, also seeking blood donations.

Reuters details, "Some of Lebanon's hospitals could run out of life-saving trauma medical kits within days ?as supplies near depletion following mass casualties from large-scale Israeli strikes over ?the past day, the World Health Organization said on Thursday." The WHO outlined that "The life-saving trauma kits include bandages, antibiotics and anaesthetics to treat patients who sustained war-related injuries."

CoreWeave has expanded its agreement to supply Meta with AI computing capacity, lifting the total value of the deal to $21 billion, as reported by Bloomberg. The updated terms extend AI cloud services through December 2032.

This means that circular financing circle jerk we've been tracking since last year continues.

LOL

*COREWEAVE INKS $14 BILLION META DEAL TO SUPPLY COMPUTING POWER

ye daily circle jerk

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 30, 2025

This builds directly on the $14.2 billion pact the companies struck last September, which originally ran through 2031 with an option for extension. The additional capacity will come from multiple data centers equipped in part with Nvidia's next-generation Rubin AI chip systems.

The move gives Meta more assured access to specialized GPU clusters as it scales training and inference workloads for its expanding lineup of large language models.

It also means that CoreWeave now holds $35 billion in contracts with Meta, a firm that has made SPV private credit financing into an art form, making the tech firm one of Coreweave's largest customers.

CoreWeave will provide AI cloud capacity to Meta from multiple data centers powered in part by the Rubin systems of chips, through December 2032, the company said in a statement Thursday. 

As billion-dollar commitments have become almost routine, this latest expansion offers another glimpse into the staggering sums being funneled into AI infrastructure. Meta and the rest of the hyperscalers continue to chase AI dominance, committing vast resources even as it pours money into its own massive data center buildout. The numbers keep climbing with seemingly no ceiling in sight.

Goldman's head of Delta One slams Nvidia's increasingly grotesque vendor financing circle jerk

"... definitely not old enough to have been around trading during the tech bubble and let’s level set, multiples are now where near that point in time. That said, vendor financing was… https://t.co/Dt6th2Eobt

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 23, 2025

CoreWeave, a cash-incinerating provider of GPU-accelerated cloud computing and a longtime Nvidia investment darling, has carved out a lucrative niche in the frenzy. The company - part of a group of “neoclouds” or  businesses that, among other things, rent out access to leading AI chips - has landed nearly every big ticket name from Microsoft to OpenAI, positioning itself as an alternative to the traditional hyperscalers for the most demanding AI jobs. Its backlog of long-term contracts continues to swell, supporting rapid expansion even as the broader market watches the leverage closely. Nebius and Nscale are some of its smaller rivals.

CoreWeave has dramatically ramped up borrowing in recent years to finance deals in which it rents access to high-end artificial intelligence processors, joining an industrywide debt binge that has unsettled some investors. CoreWeave has turned to multiple financing channels to fund the capital-intensive expansion needed to keep pace with the AI boom.

And just in case its already massive debt load - at last check around $30 billion, triple what it was a year earlier - wasn't enough, CoreWeave separately said it plans to offer $3 billion in convertible senior notes due 2032 and $1.25 billion in senior notes due 2031 to cover general business including the repayment of outstanding debt.

The company is offering a 1.5% to 2% coupon on the latest $3 billion in bonds that investors can choose to convert into stock later at a premium, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the situation. Coreweave is also tapping the junk-bond market for the $1.25 billion in notes, offering just above 10% on the deal that may be sold as soon as Thursday, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

In February, the company was seeking to raise about $8.5 billion from banks including Morgan Stanley and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. to help finance its buildout of cloud computing capacity for Meta, Bloomberg reported at the time. 

Meanwhile, Meta has emerged as one of the top spenders on AI infrastructure. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is planning to drop hundreds of billions of dollars over the next few years on the energy, computing power and talent needed to build, train and run AI models. In its latest earnings call, Meta raised its 2026 capex projections to $115-$135 billion, nearly doubling its 2025 capex spend. 

Earlier this year we noted Nvidia's additional $2 billion investment in the firm to speed construction of new AI factories, and the company's revenue forecast adjustments last fall amid shifting contract timing. CoreWeave also carries roughly $21 billion in debt, a figure that coincidentally matches the scale of its enlarged Meta pact.

Biggest circle-jerk in history https://t.co/JlJrpyH06Y

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) April 1, 2026

The deal underscores a broader truth in the current cycle: hyperscalers are willing to lock in enormous, multi-year contracts to guarantee scarce high-performance computing resources. Nvidia itself has repeatedly highlighted the exponential growth in demand, and contracts of this size keep materializing to feed it. 
 

Despite the positive development of a shaky US-Iran ceasefire holding, the reality is that Tehran still maintains de facto control over the vital Strait of Hormuz waterway. A mere few vessels passed without incident on Wednesday, before Iran's military closed the strait again, citing Israel's massive attacks on Lebanon.

The Associated Press has emphasized Thursday, "Iran's approval system for ships granted safe passage - after vetting by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps - remains unchanged despite US President Donald Trump’s demand for the strait to be reopened."

"Last week was the busiest week since the start of the war with 72 passages, still 90% below normal volumes, Lloyd’s said," the AP report continues. "Most of the vessels allowed through are connected to Iran, although some Indian vessels have gotten through with diplomatic intervention by the Indian government."

There are currently few indicators revealing Iran's intent for what comes next, and it could be that much gets determined on whether Israel will cease its attacks on Lebanon. Tehran has threatened to renew its ballistic missile attacks of Israel's anti-Hezbollah actions and massive airstrikes on Beirut persist.

Russia, which is an ally of Iran, has in its media published sources saying that Iran will allow no more than 15 vessels per day through Hormuz.

While this has not been confirmed officially by the Islamic Republic or IRGC, the following comes via TASS on Thursday:

Under the ceasefire agreement, Iran will allow no more than 15 vessels per day to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a senior Iranian source told TASS ahead of talks in Islamabad.

"Under the current ceasefire, fewer than 15 ships per day are permitted to transit the Strait of Hormuz. This movement is strictly contingent upon Iran's approval and the enforcement of a specific protocol. This new regulatory framework, operating under the supervision of the IRGC, has been officially communicated to regional parties. There will be no return to the pre-war status quo," the source said.

The same source additionally indicated that "the unfreezing of Iran's blocked assets is a critical executive guarantee that must be realized within this two-week timeframe."

Also, Iran is demanding that the end of the war must be formalized in a resolution of the United Nations Security Council: "If the termination of the war is not codified into a UN Security Council resolution based on our stipulated terms, we are fully prepared to resume combat against the US and the Zionist regim —just as we have over the past 40 days, and with even greater intensity," the source told TASS. Iran is further saying the US cannot build up more forces in the region during the two week ceasefire interim.

As for Iran's protocol for allowing passage, which reportedly could include up to a $2 million fee per vessel payable in cryptocurrency, Lloyd's list outlines the following on where things stand:

• Vessels transiting the chokepoint must coordinate with the IRGC Navy
• Iran's latest guidance explicitly warns of anti-ship mines in the main traffic zone of the strait
• IRGC Navy continues to vet all traffic passing through the strait on the basis of geopolitical affiliation

All of this means that the Iranian delegation in Pakistan will possess real leverage when it meets with the US side led by Vice President JD Vance this weekend. The White House has said talks are set to begin Saturday.

Fervo Energy and Turboden, part of the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Group, announced a three-year framework agreement to supply Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) turbines for up to 35 of Fervo’s standardized 50 MW GeoBlocks. The deal totals 1.7 gigawatts of carbon-free, dispatchable baseload power, marking a major step toward scaling next-generation geothermal across the United States.

The agreement builds directly on an earlier pact covering three GeoBlocks at Fervo’s Cape Station project in Utah, where Phase I commissioning is now in advanced stages with startup expected later this year. By locking in supply chain capacity and shortening lead times for Turboden’s proprietary ORC technology, the framework strengthens domestic manufacturing resilience and accelerates project timelines at a moment when U.S. power demand is surging from data centers and AI infrastructure.

ORC units efficiently convert geothermal heat into electricity, delivering the firm 24/7 power that intermittent renewables struggle to match. Fervo CEO Tim Latimer called the collaboration with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries a key move to “strengthen the supply chain needed to build geothermal at scale.”

This announcement arrives as interest in geothermal and nuclear power intensifies. With electricity demand exploding from AI and data centers, the market is showing a growing distaste for intermittent renewables that cannot guarantee reliable baseload power when needed most.

We hope nobody has forgotten how (not) helpful renewable energy was during Winter Storm Fern…

There’s a difference between what wind and solar promise, and what they can deliver.

During Winter Storm Fern, these energy sources failed to deliver the reliable power our communities needed. It’s time for Democrats to realize our grid requires coal, natural gas, and nuclear… pic.twitter.com/mZWFpohqW0

— Energy and Commerce Committee (@HouseCommerce) February 10, 2026

We first highlighted Fervo’s potential in the geothermal revolution reshaping America’s energy mix, where enhanced techniques and big-tech backing are turning the Earth’s heat into a practical solution for exploding electricity needs.

This latest supply deal also comes just weeks after we covered the DOE’s $171 million push for next-gen geothermal field tests.

With over 470 Turboden plants operating worldwide, the partnership positions Fervo to deliver reliable megawatts wherever the grid needs them most.

In an era of relentless demand growth, that kind of firm capacity looks increasingly indispensable.
 

Authored by Jacob Burg via The Epoch Times,

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on April 8 threatened to file contempt of Congress charges against former Attorney General Pam Bondi if she doesn’t testify before the House as part of its ongoing investigation into deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The House Oversight Committee confirmed to The Epoch Times on Wednesday that the Justice Department had said Bondi would no longer appear for a congressional deposition on April 14 “since she is no longer Attorney General and was subpoenaed in her capacity as Attorney General.”

“The Committee will contact Pam Bondi’s personal counsel to discuss next steps regarding scheduling her deposition,” the committee said in a statement.

Ranking Member Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) said in a statement that if Bondi “does not come in to testify, we will begin contempt charges in Congress.”

“Our bipartisan subpoena is to Pam Bondi, whether she is the Attorney General or not,” Garcia said.

Committee Chair James Comer (R-K.Y.) issued a subpoena to Bondi on March 17 to order her testimony regarding the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files.

Democrats and several Republicans have accused her of violating the Epstein Files Transparency Act through the Justice Department’s piecemeal release of documents, and for redacting alleged co-conspirator names while leaving some victim names un-redacted.

Enacted late last year with bipartisan support, the Epstein Files Transparency Act mandates that the Justice Department publicly release all non-classified records related to the investigation and prosecution of Epstein and his convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) moved in early March to subpoena Bondi to testify before Congress. Four other Republicans—Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), Michael Cloud (R-Texas), and Scott Perry (R-Pa.)—joined Democrats on the House Oversight Committee to support Mace’s motion.

Bondi has repeatedly defended the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files and denied Democrats’ allegations that she was obstructing congressional oversight.

The Justice Department called the subpoena “completely unnecessary” at the time.

On Wednesday, Mace reacted to the news that Bondi will no longer appear at next week’s deposition and suggested the Oversight Committee may still subpoena her, now that the former attorney general is a private citizen.

“Pam Bondi cannot escape accountability simply because she no longer holds the office of Attorney General. Our motion to subpoena Pam Bondi, which was passed by the Oversight Committee, was for Bondi by name, not by title,” Mace wrote on social media.

“She will still have to appear before the Oversight Committee for a sworn deposition. The American people deserve answers, and we expect her to appear as soon as a new date is set.”

The House Oversight Committee also recently enforced subpoenas ordering former President Bill Clinton and former First Lady Hillary Clinton to testify regarding Congress’s investigation into Epstein.

As the dust begins to settle from the latest escalation in the Iran conflict, markets are left to grapple with a more complicated question: what comes next? Is this the beginning of a reset toward stability, another leg up in markets, and lower inflation -or- are the early stages of a broader economic unraveling tied to supply shocks, currency stress, and geopolitical fragmentation? Not to mention... is the Straight of Hormuz even open? Reports are that Iran is only allowing passage after a hefty payment in either cryptocurrency or Chinese Yuan.

Tonight at 7pm ET, longtime market commentator Marc “Dr. Doom” Faber squares off against Brent Johnson, with Adam Taggart of Thoughtful Money moderating. 

Faber is an OG dollar bear while Johnson is critical of the “US Empire is doomed to fail” crowd.

Remember when KSA was going to pivot from the west to the BRICS…? https://t.co/N34E8RiY4S

— Santiago Capital (@SantiagoAuFund) March 28, 2026

Nonetheless Johnson has warned, in a recent post on his research blog, that “rationing hits next. And the downstream effects...energy prices, manufacturing inputs, food prices...follow on a timeline that stretches months, not days.” He says consequences are largely baked in, as most ships take 10 to 45 days to reach their destination and are just leaving now.

“What’s actually happening right now is slower, quieter, and more consequential than anything in the financial press.”

Faber has consistently bashed paper money, in all its forms, as destined to fall to zero against the price of gold:

pic.twitter.com/nbFE21ssKn

— ZeroHedge Debates (@zerohedgeDebate) April 8, 2026

Where he and Johnson might agree is that it is unlikely for the Euro or the Japanese Yen to unseat the dollar. But could the Chinese Yuan or a basket currency put forth by BRICS? Especially if backed by gold (or advertised as such), might other countries begin making the switch?

Iran has long known the risks of dealing in U.S. dollar-denominated assets that may be frozen unilaterally. However, the country has also now learned the consequences of challenging U.S. (or perhaps more accurately in their case, Israel) regional hegemony. So, if more countries announced their intention to de-dollarize, would the American government strike such initiatives down by force a la Libya? And even if the U.S. tries, does it become too many impossible fires to put out? Global market forces could usher in a return to gold whether the Pentagon likes it or not.

Taggart, Faber, and Johnson will answer these questions tonight, here on the ZeroHedge homepage at 7pm ET.