Downed U.S. Drone Appears On TikTok Live As Iraqi Children Try To Sell It As the U.S.-Iran conflict enters its second month, America's Low-Cost Unmanned Combat Attack System, or LUCAS, is becoming increasingly visible across the Middle East theater, a sign that the Department of War has learned one critical lesson from both the Iranian drone playbook and the Ukraine-Russia war: cheap drones are th...
Downed U.S. Drone Appears On TikTok Live As Iraqi Children Try To Sell It As the U.S.-Iran conflict enters its second month, America's Low-Cost Unmanned Combat Attack System, or LUCAS, is becoming increasingly visible across the Middle East theater, a sign that the Department of War has learned one critical lesson from both the Iranian drone playbook and the Ukraine-Russia war: cheap drones are the future of warfare. The latest news on LUCAS comes from an unverifiable TikTok video, amplified on X, which appears to show a downed drone seized by Iraqi children who are reportedly trying to sell it. If authentic, the footage is another reminder that low-cost drones are proliferating so widely across the region that they will likely spread to other parts of the world. Iraqi boys trying to sell crashed drone on TikTok That's a U.S. LUCAS kamikaze drone (Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System), reverse-engineered from Iran's Shahed-136. Dimensions: ~3 meters long, ~2.4 meters wingspan. pic.twitter.com/DPJ9nKFp03 — Eye on Palestine (@EyeonPalestine) April 4, 2026 In a separate video reposted on X, Iranian forces appear to have recovered a LUCAS drone in the Persian Gulf area. 🚨 BREAKING: 🇮🇷🇺🇸 Iranian forces seized a largely intact U.S.-made LUCAS drone, a Shahed-type system, in the Persian Gulf. pic.twitter.com/WjrtvLuadf https://t.co/0n1GC5O4x0 — Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) April 3, 2026 In the first week of the U.S.-Iran conflict, Iraqi civilians reportedly found an entirely intact LUCAS. Locals in Iraq appear to have recovered a crashed and almost entirely intact Low-Cost Unmanned Combat Attack System (LUCAS), an American copy of the Iranian Shahed-136 Attack Drone, which is confirmed to have been used recently by Task Force Scorpion Strike during U.S. attacks on… pic.twitter.com/SEqO6627en — OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) March 2, 2026 Our coverage on LUCAS: US Launched Kamikaze Drones Against Iran, Reflecting Lessons Learned From Ukraine India Unveils AI Kamikaze Drone ...
Storm Dave expected to cause Easter weekend travel disruption, though warm weather could return next week Storm Dave is expected to cause travel disruption this Easter weekend, with warnings for heavy snow and gale-force winds issued across northern parts of the UK, but a reprieve from the cold snap could be on the way, with temperatures forecast to reach the mid-20s next week. The Met Office has ...
Storm Dave expected to cause Easter weekend travel disruption, though warm weather could return next week Storm Dave is expected to cause travel disruption this Easter weekend, with warnings for heavy snow and gale-force winds issued across northern parts of the UK, but a reprieve from the cold snap could be on the way, with temperatures forecast to reach the mid-20s next week. The Met Office has issued a yellow severe weather warning in Scotland for heavy snow and blizzards causing some travel and power disruption. Up to 30 centimetres of snow could fall. An amber weather warning for wind has been issued for parts of northern England, Scotland and Wales on Saturday evening. Continue reading...
When Erling Haaland swept the ball home for a first Manchester City hat-trick since August 2024 it sent swathes of Liverpool fans for the exits. Only 57 minutes were gone yet City were cruising at 4-0 and Arne Slot’s men were being schooled. Haaland’s third, when Jérémy Doku and Nico O’Reilly walked the ball through Liverpool before the No 9 hooked in off the bar, epitomised the patheticalness tha...
When Erling Haaland swept the ball home for a first Manchester City hat-trick since August 2024 it sent swathes of Liverpool fans for the exits. Only 57 minutes were gone yet City were cruising at 4-0 and Arne Slot’s men were being schooled. Haaland’s third, when Jérémy Doku and Nico O’Reilly walked the ball through Liverpool before the No 9 hooked in off the bar, epitomised the patheticalness that set in with the striker’s 39th-minute penalty opener. Continue reading...
The Federal Reserve had the last day of its most recent meeting on March 18. The decision was to leave the federal funds rate unchanged, in a range of 3.5% to 3.75%. Furthermore, the central bank's dot plot, which shows officials' expectations (anonymously) of short-term interest rates, is now pointing to just one rate cut before the end of 2026. The market tends to give the Federal Reserve a lot ...
The Federal Reserve had the last day of its most recent meeting on March 18. The decision was to leave the federal funds rate unchanged, in a range of 3.5% to 3.75%. Furthermore, the central bank's dot plot, which shows officials' expectations (anonymously) of short-term interest rates, is now pointing to just one rate cut before the end of 2026. The market tends to give the Federal Reserve a lot of attention. And this can influence some investors to think they need to make portfolio moves. That thinking is understandable. But here are two reasons why long-term investors might just be better off not doing anything. Continue reading
Laura Stacey #7 of the Montréal Victoire celebrates her goal with teammates during the third period against the Seattle Torrent at Place Bell on March 19, 2026 in Laval, Quebec, Canada. Minas Panagiotakis | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images The 2026 Milan Winter Olympics, which culminated in a U.S.-Canada gold medal game that set viewership records across the U.S., thrust women's hockey into the s...
Laura Stacey #7 of the Montréal Victoire celebrates her goal with teammates during the third period against the Seattle Torrent at Place Bell on March 19, 2026 in Laval, Quebec, Canada. Minas Panagiotakis | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images The 2026 Milan Winter Olympics, which culminated in a U.S.-Canada gold medal game that set viewership records across the U.S., thrust women's hockey into the spotlight like it hasn't been before. The Professional Women's Hockey League has spent much of the last three years positioning itself to capitalize on the momentum to build a sustainable women's hockey league. "Every Olympic year, there would be some boost in excitement and interest around the women's game," said Jayna Hefford, executive vice president of hockey operations for the PWHL, who won five Olympic medals playing for Team Canada. "When I think about where we are now, it's sort of exponential from that." Despite the recent success of women's sports and leagues like the WNBA and NWSL , women's hockey leagues have struggled to find a similar footing, and that is even with the Olympic success of the U.S. and Canadian teams. Since women's ice hockey was introduced as an Olympic sport in 1998, Canada has won five of the eight gold medals, with the U.S. winning the other three, including a 2-1 overtime win at the 2026 Games. Several previous attempts to launch women's hockey leagues in North America have failed, often due to financial difficulties. While the WNBA is partially owned and subsidized by the NBA, the NHL has not historically provided financial support for a women's league, and many of those organizations have struggled to pay players sustainable wages. In 2019, many of the top women's players boycotted the existing professional leagues in a fight for better resources. But that landscape shifted in 2023 with the launch of the PWHL. The league is privately funded by Mark Walter, the billionaire Guggenheim Partners co-founder and CEO, who over the last few years ...
The Senegalese government has banned all but essential foreign trips for government ministers as part of cost-saving measures triggered by the energy crisis linked to the Iran war. Senegal, like many African countries, imports most of the petroleum products it consumes, leaving its economy vulnerable to supply disruptions such as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which has sent the price of cru...
The Senegalese government has banned all but essential foreign trips for government ministers as part of cost-saving measures triggered by the energy crisis linked to the Iran war. Senegal, like many African countries, imports most of the petroleum products it consumes, leaving its economy vulnerable to supply disruptions such as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which has sent the price of crude soaring. For millions in the region, soaring fuel prices have worsened the hardships they already...
According to analysts from Bank of America , we are now entering a nuclear renaissance. "Nuclear energy has, in many ways, been recently 'rediscovered' amid surging electricity demand," a recent report from the bank says. What's causing this surge in electricity demand? One catalyst: artificial intelligence (AI) . In many ways, betting on the two nuclear stocks below is a clever way of exposing yo...
According to analysts from Bank of America , we are now entering a nuclear renaissance. "Nuclear energy has, in many ways, been recently 'rediscovered' amid surging electricity demand," a recent report from the bank says. What's causing this surge in electricity demand? One catalyst: artificial intelligence (AI) . In many ways, betting on the two nuclear stocks below is a clever way of exposing your portfolio to the upside from the world's rapidly growing appetite for AI. Since the year began, shares of NuScale Power (NYSE: SMR) have lost roughly one-third of their value. The company's market cap is now down to just $3.7 billion. The total potential value of the nuclear renaissance, however, is estimated to be somewhere around $10 trillion. Bank of America believes the technology could hold "the answer to the world's power shortages." Continue reading
DedMityay/iStock via Getty Images The central bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE) has added more than 30B dirhams ($8.2B) to the country’s banking system in a bid to counter the effects of the Middle East war, according to analysts at Jefferies Financial Group ( JEF ). Citing a research note from Naresh Bilandani, head of equity research at Jefferies for Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle...
DedMityay/iStock via Getty Images The central bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE) has added more than 30B dirhams ($8.2B) to the country’s banking system in a bid to counter the effects of the Middle East war, according to analysts at Jefferies Financial Group ( JEF ). Citing a research note from Naresh Bilandani, head of equity research at Jefferies for Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, Bloomberg reported that, however, the UAE’s banking liquidity remains comfortable. According to Bilandani, data from the CBUAE indicate that UAE commercial lenders used a tool known as a Contingent Liquidity Insurance Facility (CLIF), which was introduced in 2022 to support institutions that require long-term support from the central bank’s reserves. The central bank “may, on a contingent basis and at its own discretion, activate the CLIF in response to actual or prospective stress of an exceptional nature, which could be market-wide or idiosyncratic,” Bilandani wrote. “CLIF allows banks to draw on CBUAE reserves against different sets of collateral and is designed to be flexible to respond to evolving market conditions for borrowing for a period of one month and above.” The UAE central bank also introduced a resilience package to the country’s banking sector in mid-March to boost liquidity and lending capacity. More on iShares Trust - iShares MSCI UAE ETF, US Dollar / UAE Dirham, etc. What The Iran War Means For Neighboring Markets UAE: Motoring Along Nicely With Some Fine Tailwinds To Support It Gulf states said to weigh new pipelines to bypass Strait of Hormuz UAE eyes helping U.S., allies to open Strait of Hormuz by force - report Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating on iShares Trust - iShares MSCI UAE ETF
OLGA KAZANTSEVA/iStock via Getty Images Overview Business development companies continue to face headwinds related to the higher interest rate environment and it appears that CION Investment Corp ( CION ) is no exception. When I previously covered CION, I issued a hold rating because there were some material improvements within the portfolio. Therefore, I believe that we are getting close to a poi...
OLGA KAZANTSEVA/iStock via Getty Images Overview Business development companies continue to face headwinds related to the higher interest rate environment and it appears that CION Investment Corp ( CION ) is no exception. When I previously covered CION, I issued a hold rating because there were some material improvements within the portfolio. Therefore, I believe that we are getting close to a point where opportunistic investors may take advantage of the deeply discounted share price. However, CION's share price has fallen by more than 30% since my last coverage as it seems that a selloff followed CION's Q4 earnings. Therefore, I wanted to revisit CION and reassess its overall value proposition at this time. Following the pullback in share price, CION now trades at one of its deepest discount to NAV valuations since its inception. Referring to the red line on the graph below, we can see that CION now trades at a discount to NAV of 50.80%. For reference, CION has traded at an average discount to NAV of 31.17% over the last five year period. While entering at this large discount level may be enticing for some, I believe it is a reflection of the challenges that CION is currently facing at this time. CEF Data After reviewing the latest earnings report, it is clear that total investment income is likely to continue declining over the next few quarters. While this has been temporarily offset by lower costs in the most recent quarter, CION will eventually have to make significant improves in the rate of new investment activity so that growth can occur. CION currently offers a starting dividend yield of 17.7% and issues its payouts on a monthly basis. Although net investment income still supports payouts, I am cautious about the possibility of a dividend cut if earnings do not improve over the next few quarters. Q4 Earnings According to the latest portfolio overview , CION now has total investments at a fair value of $1.69B that are spread across a diverse range of debt se...
Sales of Rivian Automotive Inc. fell consecutively for 4 months in the U.S. as the electric automaker gears up to launch the awaited R2 Crossover SUV. Rivian Sales Fall For 4 Months Rivian sales fell during the first quarter by over 26.5% YoY as the company sold 8,141 vehicles in Q1 2026 compared to the 11,070 units it delivered last year, according to a report by Electric Vehicles on Wednesday. D...
Sales of Rivian Automotive Inc. fell consecutively for 4 months in the U.S. as the electric automaker gears up to launch the awaited R2 Crossover SUV. Rivian Sales Fall For 4 Months Rivian sales fell during the first quarter by over 26.5% YoY as the company sold 8,141 vehicles in Q1 2026 compared to the 11,070 units it delivered last year, according to a report by Electric Vehicles on Wednesday. During March, Rivian sold 2,925 units, an almost 1000 unit decline from the 3,910 units it sold in Ma