🇺🇸🚜🛢 Biggest Diesel Shock Since 2022 Deals Another Blow to US Farmers
While US farmers brace for higher fertilizer and chemical bills tied to turmoil in the Middle East, another expense is already taking a bite out of razor-thin margins: diesel fuel.
Prices for the fuel that powers tractors, combines and grain trucks have surged as the war in Iran disrupted global oil flows, catching many producers who expected lower energy costs this year off guard. In Illinois, the top US soybean-producing state, farm diesel averaged a record $5.41 a gallon at the start of May, nearly double the price a year earlier.
Current costs, which have moderated some in recent weeks amid prospects for a US-Iran peace deal, still rival levels last seen in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, adding a fresh burden for farmers already facing weak crop prices and mounting financial pressure.
Marty Richardson, who grows corn and soybeans and raises cattle in Missouri, experienced the sticker shock when he recently ordered diesel after running through supplies he bought in January for spring planting.
“I usually get 8,000 gallons, and I got 4,000 for what I paid for the 8,000 gallons in January,” Richardson said. The fuel cost him about $4.74 a gallon. “That is the killer out here right now.”
The spike in diesel, combined with higher prices for fertilizer and crop-protection chemicals produced at facilities in the Middle East, is expected to further eat away at profit margins that were already running negative for the average corn farmer. Data from the US Department of Agriculture show that fuel, fertilizer and pesticides together typically account for about 15% of total production expenses for farmers annually.
Even if the US and Iran finalize a peace deal, it will take time for the war-related premiums on those input prices to dissipate, said Wesley Davis, chief agriculture economist at Meridian Ag Advisors.
🔗 https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/energy/articles/biggest-diesel-shock-since-2022-110000336.html
Police in Winona Minnesota are stunned after every single one of their Flock cameras were suddenly removed in a single night.
According to the police department, all 8 of the town's cameras were cut down and hauled away.
Police are asking for the public's help to identify the individual, but the public has been responding with comments such as:
"The Flock cameras tore themselves down"
"Whoever did it, was fishing with me"
"Whoever it was, was at Bible study with me"
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Nearly 20,000 people are publicly vouching for a man accused of cutting down Flock cameras in a small West Virginia town.
People commented:
"He was saving my neighbor's dog from a fire all day, couldn't be him."
"This man is innocent. I saw him serving at a soup kitchen."
-"Couldn't be him. He was helping me replace the roof on a homeless shelter."
The man, Wesley Jackson, has pleaded Not Guilty.
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🇮🇷🏆🇺🇸 They Saw It Coming
How American military planners anticipated failure in Iran
In mid-February 2026, before the US military initiated the airstrikes that began Operation “Epic Fury,” the National Intelligence Council (NIC), an agency of the executive branch created to synthesize the analysis of the US’s 18 intelligence agencies, submitted to the president a classified report detailing the prospects of an attack on Iran. This assessment, first reported on in the Washington Post and subsequently confirmed by the Associated Press, painted a grim picture.
It concluded that an offensive operation launched by the US military would be unlikely to dismantle the central pillars of the Iranian government. Assassinating Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei could backfire, resulting in the consolidation of Iranian military and political structures and the activation of emergency protocols the Iranians had been preparing for years. Iran’s domestic opposition was unlikely to be ...
The Shadow Of Jihad And Ethnic Cleansing: The Systematic Persecution Of Christians In Kosovo
200,000 Serbs expelled since 1999. Over 150 Orthodox churches destroyed. Kosovo produced more ISIS foreign fighters per capita than any European country — and Pristina's government continues to enable it.